“Help me~…” A quiet voice instantly woke up the snoring woman. She quickly sat upright and examined her surroundings. Carly was still in that hammock, but the little fox was gone. After casually swatting away the six pink pixies that were having an orgy on her head, she summoned her Legacy equipment.

Once she hopped down to the ground, she yelled “Hello~?! Who are you?! What do you need help with?!” The fig tree groaned and creaked as its branches subtly moved. It wasn’t until afterwards, that a huge gust of wind blew past.

“Run… Get away from here… Carly, run~!” She quickly gazed up towards the source of that eerily familiar voice, but was horrified at what she witnessed. One of those brightly glowing colossal fruits was dangling a few hundred meters above her head. As she focused her golden eyes, she was able to see that those relatively ‘small’ bumps on the surface of that plum-like object were actually human faces. There were thousands, yet she only recognized one of them.

Instead of fleeing, she screamed “Mom~?! What happened to you?! Don’t worry, I’m coming right now!” Two angelic dove-like wings erupted from Carly’s shoulder-blades and she immediately soared up into the air. She may have been incredibly weak compared to Minari, but so was practically everyone else in that world.

That silver spear suddenly grew from ten feet, until it was nearly a hundred meters long. It wasn’t just the pole growing, even the head became more like an enormous saber. Her first swing was in an attempt to free her mother, slashing the gigantic glowing fruit from the vibrant flower it was connected to.

There wasn’t much resistance as her blade passed through, but the moment it disconnected from the plant, that colossal fig exploded. Millions of pink, purple, yellow and green pixies burst out of the gooey mess. They were buzzing around like a swarm of wasps, screeching and chirping with their inhumanly high-pitched voices.

Carly screamed “No~! No! Grah~! Give her back to me~!” The tree itself didn’t have any defensive or offensive abilities, so the only way it was able to gather up ‘fertilizer’ was through its little minions.

Those golden irises suddenly fired out blindingly bright beams of dangerous solar radiation. Whether it was the microwaves, gamma rays, ultraviolet or infrared light, it didn’t really matter in the end; it was a total massacre, there was no way for the tiny creatures to defend themselves against the ‘angelic’ woman’s vicious attacks.

Some of the pixies popped, others were charred, some were howling in agony from non-lethal third degree burns, and the rest were simply disintegrated. Of course, there were thousands of giant figs on that absurdly large underground tree, so her genocide continued for quite a while after that.

***

When the ‘battle’ was over, Carly was covered in ‘bug-bites’ and pixie-parts. Her wings were blackened and broken, barely even attached to her back anymore. A three-meter long silver spear was impaling a faceless dryadic woman through the chest.

White ashes were raining from the sky, as that enormous tree was crackling and roaring in agony. Once all of her ‘enemies’ were dead, Carly finally noticed something strange about the whole situation. She glanced around and muttered “Is this all just an illusion? Yeah, it has to be! I can definitely feel it! Someone’s obscuring my senses right now…”

However, right when she felt that the ‘veil’ was being lifted, her grin immediately transformed into an expression of horror. “No! This can’t be happening! Mom! Oh God no!” The first thing that she saw was the face of her mother, staring up at her.

That woman had green bark instead of flesh, but it wasn’t difficult to tell that her true identity was Jane Cinagra. Perhaps if it were only a spear through her chest, then she would have been able to survive. Unfortunately, in Carly’s left hand was a lustrous jade bead, which she plucked from her own mother’s head in order to make sure that she was dead.

“Oh wow, I’m actually kinda surprised you were able to escape… Not like it really makes a difference in the end though. Now, be a good little noob and hand over that pretty crystal!” The moment that she heard that sinister feminine voice, Carly clenched her fist and lifted her head towards the burning fig tree.

Casually sitting upon one of the branches was an adorable cat-girl. The fur on her ears and tail were both jet-black, while her long curly hair was lustrous silver. Those bright-red irises seemed to radiate a terrifying amount of power. As she held out her tiny hand, the gem flew out of the angelic Priestess’ fingers.

“You… It’s your fault! Who are you?!” If she wasn’t so injured and exhausted from fighting her own mother to the death, Carly would have done much more than just scream at that mysterious evil kitten.

Hearing that question, the cat-girl giggled, catching the bead and asking “Do you know what this is? No, don’t answer that, I know you don’t… It certainly looks like a regular mana-core, doesn’t it? Hehehehe~, but what is it really?” After a few moments without any response, the irritated feline grumbled “Fine, be that way~! Hmph~… We used to call these types of mana-crystals ‘Soul-Cages’. You see, a normal mana-core doesn’t really have that feature. The soul itself is free to come and go as it wishes… But~, what about a ‘Soul-Cage’? Yeppers~! It’s exactly like the name suggests… Poor little Jane’s soul is trapped inside of this tiny prison, hahaha~!”

Carly yelled “What is this?! Are you trying to trick me again?! Is this some kind of blackmail?! Are you going to force me into doing something for you or you’ll do something to my mother’s soul?!”

The totally naked cat-girl hopped down from the branch and slowly fell a hundred and fifty meters. Once she gracefully landed before the injured angel, the kitten smirked and revealed “Nah~… Sure~, it wouldn’t really be against the rules, but it just isn’t my style. Besides, I’m not the bad guy here. Your mother was dumb enough to get her soul trapped inside of a fucking bead and I just tricked you into freeing her from that hellish fate. Hmm, as for my name… Ugh, just call me ‘Chao-Chao’, ‘cause that’ll make things less awkward. My real identity isn’t important and it’s probably best if you consider me one of Jasmine Jade’s personalities.”

“Wait, what?! You’re JJ?! Then, isn’t Elly inside of you somewhere?! Elly! How could you let your psycho ex-girlfriend trick me into murdering my own mother?!” The angelic woman was obviously very distressed and upset.

However, Chao-Chao immediately shouted “Hey! Stop yelling, you moron! Listen, quit freaking out okay?!” A green wisp flew out of the tiny gem and was sucked into the kitten’s chest. Then she complained “Are you happy now? I yanked her spirit out of this Soul-Cage, so calm down… Listen to me, okay? This is really important. No, I didn’t eat your mother’s soul, I just sent her to a ‘better place’. Now pay attention! I don’t have much time before one of those seven lunatics surfaces and takes control over this body…

“Okay, this little gem, I need you to take it. Don’t eat it! It would make you really powerful for a while, but it would be extremely detrimental to your future… By that, I mean your life after this one. If you were older, then maybe you would be able to withstand the negative side-effects, but you aren’t and neither was your mother. Fuck, they’re waking up… Argh~, Elina may be a nice kid… She just made some bad choices and now that bastard, no, don’t worry about her. I’m going to send you really far away from here and you need to find somewhere to plant this shitty ‘Seed’. Basically, just pick some scumbag that you don’t like and give it to them as a gift. You’re going to be damning them for eternity, so try to avoid letting anyone you care about use one of these things!”

The moment that Chao-Chao finished speaking, she shoved the ‘Seed’ into Carly’s hands and yelled “Good luck!” In an instant, the busty angel vanished into thin air without even leaving a single trace of mana behind.

“What exactly do you intend to accomplish by doing this?” A translucent elven woman appeared behind the tiny crimson-eyed cat-girl.

There was a smirk on the little kitten’s face, as she grumbled “What the fuck do you care what I do? As long as I keep enforcing your rules, then what difference does it make?” Chao-Chao glared at Arcana and asked “What’s the situation like on your end? Has Sariel made a move yet?”

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