“Urgh…” Eris groaned as she suddenly felt her consciousness returning to her.

“Where am I?” Eris muttered to herself as she rubbed her bleary eyes.

As her eyes started to clear, Eris looked around her warily as she tried to ascertain her surroundings.

 

From what Eris can see, she was currently in a plain filled with luscious-looking grass, perfect for feeding cows and goats.

The sky above Eris was jet-black with reddish hues on it, indicating that daybreak is about to come a few minutes from now.

Once Eris had already acclimated herself to her surroundings, she instinctively started to stimulate her muscles through stretching.

“…”

But before Eris could start extending her legs, her eyes suddenly widened as memories of the recent events came crashing back to her mind.

Anya’s dinner date, the ambush by  Duke Goldriver’s men, the start of the Conference, the arrival of The Apprentice, the deal between Anya and The Apprentice, and finally, there was that explosion.

 

Eris visibly winced as she felt her mind spazzing at the memories of that explosion.

It was at that moment that Eris realized the predicament that she was in.

 

“Explosion? Oh no!” The formerly calm Eris started to panic, as she realized that the last memory that she can recall was that of an explosion covering the whole room.

 

“Miss Anya! I need to look for her!” Eris shouted to herself as she struggled to stand up. “She needs my help!”

With that kind of explosion, even Eris was not sure if her master can withstand that.

“Miss Anya should have some kind of injuries now… It won’t be good if I left her alone!” Eris declared as she decided to look for her master now.

 

But before Eris could even take a step, she suddenly paused in her tracks as she realized that there was something wrong with her body right now.

First of all, since she was at the site where the explosion happened earlier, Eris should have been injured heavily right now.

But at the moment that she woke up, Eris felt that her body had no injuries at all.

Not only that, but the scars of her previous fights were now all gone, leaving Eris with an unblemished skin.

“…”

As she inspected her body, Eris was not sure if she should feel happy or not with what happened to her.

 

However, Eris’s feelings drastically changed after she attempted to use her powers.

 

“What the hell? Why can’t I use my powers!” Eris shouted out in panic as she struggled to access her Stellar Essence and her Astral Points.

Right now, Eris was unable to feel her Stellar Essence, and all of her Astral Points could not be found inside her body.  

“F**k! Where did you all go to?”

Sufficed to say, Eris was not that enthused with what was happening to her right now.

“….”

After she attempted to calm herself down for a minute, Eris tried once more to make her power work, but this time she used the rest of her concentration to make it happen.

 

But no matter what Eris tried to do, nothing special happened.

Eris’ can’t feel her Astral Points anymore, and she also cannot sense even just a tiny drop of Stellar Essence inside her body.

There was… nothing inside Eris’ body right now that can be linked to the Celestials.

 
No Stellar Essence, no Astral Points, and especially, no Celestial Constellation Arts for her.

It was as if the current Eris was not a Celestial anymore, and that all the skills that she painstakingly created before were all gone to dust now.

“Wh-what is happening right now?” Eris muttered to herself in despair as she did her best to suppress the terror that she is feeling. “Why is this happening to me?”

How could not Eris be scared?

Her power, which she had used to establish herself among the Celestials, was gone from her body now.

 

The power that she was very proud of has vanished entirely, and she has no clue on how it disappeared and on where it went.

Heck, Eris was not even sure if she can still get back her power!

“Urk…”

With this depressing realization in her mind, Eris started to wobble from where she stood, as she felt overwhelmed with the devastating discovery that she had right now.

But before she was swallowed by her intense despair, Eris forcefully shook her head as a determined expression on her face.

“Why should I worry about myself first? I need to look for Master Anya! She could be in danger right now!”

As Eris thought of these, she started to take a step forward, but before she could even move forward by a pace, she heard the unmistakable sounds of footsteps approaching her.

Eris turned around, and there she saw Anya and Sir Nero, approaching the butler with slow and weary steps.

 

“Miss Anya!” Eris shouted joyfully as she trotted towards Anya. “Are you fine? Were you hurt anywhere?”

Even if Eris was feeling distressed with what had happened to her, the joy of seeing her master had almost reduced the sadness inside Eris.

 

Anya, who seemed to look wistful, gave Eris a sad smile as she said,

“Eris, I’m fine… for now. But I am not sure if we can stay fine for the following days.”

 

“Miss Anya…. Don’t tell me that you lost your power too?” Eris fearfully asked as she looked at Anya with fear. “Miss Anya, that won’t be good!”

 

“Eris, as I told to you earlier, I’m fine. I still have my powers with me.” Anya replied as she started to approach Eris. “Eris, out of all of us, only you and Artos has lost powers. Others still have their powers with them…”

“Miss Anya…” Even though Eris was highly relieved that her master still had her abilities, the revelation that only  she and another person had lost powers was a blow that had her almost crumpling in despair.

 

“….” As Eris started to tremble, Anya swooped in to hug her tightly.

 

“Eris… I’m sorry that this happened to you.” Anya murmured to Eris as she placed her chin on Eris’ shoulder. “I… I was unable to do anything to prevent this from happening…”

“Miss Anya, I don’t blame you.” Eris replied as she hurriedly shook her head. “Whoever was the one who stole my power was at fault!”

 

“…”

“Miss Anya, I may be powerless now, but with you here, I’m sure that whoever did this to me will meet their end in the future!” Eris said as she gave her master a sad smile. “Miss Anya, this may be my last day as your butler, but I will do my best to serve you today. In turn, please avenge me from the thief who stole my power!”

 

“…”

But instead of looking determined or even angry, Anya and Nero started to have awkward looks on their faces, as if there was something wrong with what Eris said.

“Miss Anya…” As Eris started to feel confused with her master’s reaction, she saw Anya letting out a sigh.

 

“Eris, while you were unconscious, we managed to converse with the one… who orchestrated everything that happened with us.” Anya said as she let out another sigh. “Eris, I have to say sorry again, because as of now, avenging you won’t be possible for us.”

 

“Miss Anya… what do you mean by that…”

“Eris, come and sit with me here.” Anya said as she patted the grass beside her feet. “I’m going to tell you everything, but it will take some time.”

“…”
Eris was left with no choice but to follow what her master said, this time with dread inside her heart.

When Eris had fully sat on the ground,  Anya  let out a cough to clear her throat.

Anya then let out her third sigh in front of Eris before saying,

“Do you remember Sir Sigmund? Well, as it turns out…”
*************

While Anya was busy on conversing with Eris, the main perpetrators of what happened to them were currently relaxing on their hideout.

Alex was sitting on his reclining chair as he ate some grapes, while Alina was busy on munching some nuts.

 

“Nom nom nom nom.”

 

Queen Mother, who watched what the two were doing with a blank expression on her face, could not help  but facepalm as she asked them,

“Hey Alex, is it really ok for you to let all your captives go free?”

 

“Queen Mother, don’t worry about them.” Alex replied as he plopped another grape on his mouth. “With your Brain Eaters inside them, I’m sure that they won’t be able to do anything detrimental against us.”

“But-“

“Besides, I already had a plan that requires those people to be free.” Alex said as he interrupted Queen Mother. “I already told those guys what they have to do if they want their Brain Eaters gone, so be assured that they will do their roles on the upcoming days.”

 

“Alex…  you let them free because you wanted them to do something that will bring havoc on the Three Factions.” Queen Mother said in a deadpan tone. “As usual, you strike for the initiative.”

 

“Well, what can I do? I don’t want to just kill them, so I decided to use them as pawns for our Main Mission.” Alex replied as he shrugged his shoulders. “The only one that got hurt here were my former Captives, and they will be free from that hurt if they do their jobs well. All in all, I think I did the best thing here.”

 

“…So all that we have to do now is wait?”

 

“Yes. We will wait until the announcement of the Main Mission.” Alex replied as he let out a laid-back smile. “Once the Main Mission gets announced, we will start to make our serious move… Hehehe… I hope that this time around, it will be us that will make the first move! It will be embarrassing if we’re the ones that moved the last! Don’t you think the same thing too, Queen Mother?”

 

“…”