“Hey hey hey hey! Wait a minute! Why are Sin’s numbers going up so fast?!” Naam asked frantically.

“She’s... hurting.” Lilly held her hands close to her heart.

Naam looked at Lilly with surprise. But... she knew it to be true herself. Naam didn’t fully understand what would cause Sin to go on a rampage like that, unless something really bad happened and she lost control. Getting over 100 kills in that small period of time... it was terrifying. And definitely bound to be terrifying for her friends around her.

Kallad yawned from the sofa.

“She’s still getting kills... Maybe she’s completely lost all sense because something went wrong.” Kallad said.

“No way... I knew they would have trouble in the treant forest... but Sin going crazy was not a part of the plan. They had the tools to solve that... unless some of them held back...” Naam responded.

Lilly stared at the board, then turned back at the crystalakrum after a moment.

The feeds that were supposed to come from the treant forest were completely cut off. There was no longer any way for them to know exactly what was happening in that area without going there themselves.

“Dad.” Lilly said.

“Yes dear?”

“Can you go check on them?”

“Eh?! Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of-”

“That’s not the point. You’re the only one who can do so without getting spotted, and we’d always planned for you to be our backup in situations like this.”

Kallad stared at his eldest daughter. He was impressed so far, so this was a favour he didn’t really mind providing.

“I will. But... what do you want me to do if something actually is wrong?”

“...”

Naam answered for Lilly. “You might have to neutralise Sin. Just enough to knock her out and withdraw her from the simulation.”

“Hmm...” Kallad rubbed his head. “Alright. If she’s already unconscious by the time I get there then I’ll just fix the crystal feed, watch over them for a little longer, then come back.”

“Thank you.” Naam said.

“Anything for my amazing daughters!” Kallad said with an animated flourish, which he transitioned rather elegantly into his instant transformation into a raven. After which, he fluttered out of the cave.

Naam and Lilly had set up a small headquarters in a cave along the edge of the island. It was on the east side, which meant that Kallad had to fly for a little while before he’d arrive at the forest of treants.

As much as Kallad wanted to go and spy on Rai and see what he was doing to somehow gain all those leadership points, he thought that maybe his own daughter should take precedence.

But once Kallad had flown up into the massive cavern high enough, the natural lights generated by the massive crystals in the cavern ceiling illuminated what had actually happened.

It was gone.

Completely.

The forest was no longer a forest. In fact, the only thing that was apparently remaining of it was a few patches of land towards the centre. Otherwise, the entire thing had transformed into a crater.

Sin... you did that?! Attagirl! That’s the kind of power you’ll need to stand at the top!

Kallad allowed himself a moment of pride for his daughter’s display of power, then flew down towards the crater as fast as he could.

He abruptly stopped descending and hovered just high enough to see what was left on the small patches of ground.

Sin’s laying on the ground. The twins are healing each other and that blue haired girl.

Where’s...

There. Tullian and that magnet kid are safe too, since they’re moving around. They might still be in a bit of pain from Sin’s power, but they’ll be fine.

Kallad flew a little closer to Sin to confirm his suspicions.

She’s breathing. But... what’s up with her mana? Hmm...

Kallad was correct in thinking that Sin’s mana was different to how it was before... but he didn’t know exactly what would’ve caused it. He assumed that Sin’s weird mana had something to do with the forbidden spell she’d evolved when destroying his precious training area.

Ah whatever, she’ll figure it out herself.

But right now I should really fix those crystal feeds...

Kallad looked around to try and find where the crystals were supposed to be. Fortunately there were only 3 of them in the treant forest that he’d have to reinstall.

He flew around and found all of them, then followed the procedure that Naam taught him for reinstalling them.

Kallad was about to return back to the cave with Naam and Lilly, but then he decided to indulge in his curiosity.

Hehehehehe...

Kallad circled overhead for a few seconds longer, then flew directly south.

Time to check on Rai!

 

---

 

Lina was blown away.

All of the treants were gone. They were crushed into dust under the weight of Sin’s power.

How... how did we survive?!

She whipped her head around to Sin, who was laying on the floor, unconscious.

The runes that once lined her face were gone, and the runes on her wrist were gone, once again replaced by the vine tattoos.

“Amy, are you okay?!...”

“Yeah... cough. I’ll be-owww...” Amy’s rib was cracked, and she was dealing with the sharp pain as best she could.

Lina was healing her, but there was nothing she could do about the pain.

Maya coughed again. Her body recoiled. Then, she puked out a mix of blood and bile, falling into another coughing fit.

Lina hated seeing Maya in this state, but now that they were there... she could only do her best.

Amy maintained her healing spell on Maya’s whole body. It was the strongest healing spell she had, and after creating a barrier as strong as she did, Amy was already past her limit. But she had to hold on until Maya was healed completely.

Which she did.

Lina did what she could as well, contributing to both Amy’s healing for Maya, and healing for Amy herself who was suffering from her cracked rib.

Lina had healed broken bones before, so it wouldn’t take long for Amy’s rib to heal.

Lina’s thoughts drifted back to what had just happened. She didn’t know exactly what happened, but it was clear that it was Sin’s doing from how she was acting. The whole thing was insane, and it came from Sin’s spell... Lina didn’t even know if she could call it a spell. It was too terrifying to be a spell.

Amy groaned.

“Fuck...” She whispered. “It hurts!”

Lina maintained her spell.

“I know... your rib will be fine once I’m done though. Just a few more minutes.”

“HEY, ARE YOU GUYS ALRIGHT?!” Tullian withdrew his wings as he landed on the platform the rest of them were on.

“Why are you all on the floor?! Do any of you know what that massive pressure was? I could hardly move, and had to use the strongest shell I could think of to survive...”

“Just... be quiet for a second please... is anyone else around here?”

“Just Feris. He’s running around stomping on the ground screaming something about ‘dead trees’ though.”

*Pfft*

Maya stifled a laugh, which caused her to cough in pain again.

Lina giggled as well.

Amy smiled as she laid on her front.

“Then...” Amy wanted to continue but she was in too much pain.

“Just sit with us please.” Lina finished Amy’s sentence.

Tullian sat down with them. He could tell that right now, they were not in the state to talk, but Tullian had to know what happened.

“What happened to the forest and those treants? I was fighting against one of the big ones with Feris, then we got separated in the fight. But... before we could team back up again there was a massive force that shoved me to the ground. Like I said before, I used my strongest shell just to avoid getting crushed completely!”

Amy’s eyes met Lina’s.

Lina let out a long sigh. Her lips trembled as she prepared herself to answer.

“It was... Sindyl. She lost it when she saw Maya laid out on the floor with holes and cuts all over her. Somehow she used a spell that destroyed all of the treants. But we all got caught up in it.”

Tullian’s eyes widened.

“The same power from earlier?”

“... Earlier?” Lina asked.

“She did something like that before, against a big rock monster... but... I never expected...”

That was the kind of power that his mother would show off to scare the creed. Not the kind that you’d find in a Princess.

He rested his hand softly on Amy’s arm.

“I’m just glad that you’re all okay... But Sindyl needs to answer for this! It’s not right... we asked her before and she wouldn’t say, but now you’re all in pain because of her not speaking up! We could’ve made a plan... or-or...”

Amy held Tullian’s hand. She couldn’t speak much without hurting herself, but she still tried to comfort him however she could.

Tullian was on the verge of panicking. Had he known about Sindyl’s abilities, then he could’ve avoided everyone getting hurt like this by coming up with a plan.

More than anything... he was angry that she hid this from them. Trust, as he’d learned in the creed, was not easily earned, but was very easy to lose. His trust in Sindyl had fallen far because of this.

“HEY! YOU LOT!” A voice came from slightly below their platform.

The crater wasn’t that deep, but it was deep enough that Feris’s voice echoed along it.

“HEY! THEY’RE HURT, GET UP HERE!” Tullian called out to him. He clearly sounded frustrated.

They heard Feris grumble, then the sounds of rocks crumbling under his feet and hands.

Feris kept muttering annoyances under his breath as he climbed up the steep-ish wall to the platform top.

His head crested the edge of the platform.

“Hey! What happened? I couldn’t move for a while, but I definitely didn’t take any damage from that shitty pressure either!” He lied.

Tullian explained everything that Lina mentioned earlier.

Feris thought about it for a second, and came to his own conclusion.

“But... if what you’re saying is true then she saved us all, didn’t she? I hate admitting it... but the Princess helped us out here!” Feris said.

“No... she broke our trust Feris! You don’t see that?!”

“I do see it, but I don’t care about people hiding their abilities! I hide mine from you all, but that doesn’t matter, does it? We all did the same at the Evaluation, so why does it matter?!”

“That’s... not the same!”

“It is and you know it! Fucking pissant getting pissed off for nothing!”

“Their pain isn’t just nothing Feris!”

“S-... Stop...” Maya managed to get out.

They both looked at her, then back at each other.

For now, they decided to shelve the issue until they were all healed back up.

Lina stopped splitting her healing spells on Amy once she was healed and focused them all on Maya as well.

Even though Feris spoke the words that he did, he was just as surprised as Tullian at Sindyl’s power. The amount of power that the Princess displayed was way more than anything he’d expected to come out of her.

The one thing that was clear was the division in the group. Whenever Sin woke up, she would have a lot of hell to deal with.

She remained on the floor, unconscious.