Despite having locks of flowing amber hair, eyelashes, and all sorts of features a human would have, something was more ‘off’ about Nona than any bug Zora had met thus far, and it wasn’t because she wore the robes of a mage, walked with the gait of a human, or had skin made out of hard black chitin.

  Appearance wasn’t what made up a human.

  The fact that she was speaking in the local Sterngott tongue, talking to them instead of the other way round—was how he knew the rumours were true.

  A Cicada God.

  That was what ‘Fate Spinner’ Nona, youngest of the Magicicada Witches, was.

  “... Hm,” Nona hummed, tapping her chin as she looked the five of them over one by one, and spines shivered as her vertical irises landed on theirs. “Mister Tadius, experiment of the northeastern plains. Mister Evander, young warrior of the northern lands. Miss Sarius, last daughter of a mage, and… oh?” She paused, gaze lingering on Zora. “A . From household? Darn! I was sure we killed all of you back then! Who’s the real bug now, huh—”

  But when Emilia exhaled shakily behind them, claws digging into Zora’s cloak, the four of them snapped back to reality. They stood firm. Zora and Cecilia shouted “strike”“forward, syringes”“buff” “toughen”

  And that made all the difference as Nona laughed “so noisy”

  Zora gritted his teeth, his wand still held out in front of him as Marcus stumbled, but he that voice: Yanli. Thirteen years old, from the Yammei Region in the far north. The boy she’d mimicked while they were talking through the wall.

  She’d stolen the voices of their children.

  “I don’t wanna fight!” she said, throwing all four hands up as she grinned; a mocking, sardonic smile. “I just wanna know one thing: where’s my wand that’s worth more than a thousand human lives?” Then she thumbed back into the dark and misty observatory, tilting her head. “You guys came at just the right time! I beat the Headmistress, but guess what? She didn’t have my wand! It’s not with her!”

  Cecilia’s breath hitched, but while the Witch prattled on and on, Zora started backtracking, nudging Emilia gently with his elbow.

  he thought.

  “You know, I’m already!” Nona groaned, stretching her arms and waist and making her chitin plates crack as she did. “I’ve spent… what? Three days just fighting all of you class by class, mage by mage! Even get tired sometimes, so let’s get this over with quickly!”

  With that said, she clapped two hands together in front of her chest, two hands over her head, and it was a whisper of a roar that came out her mouth. A spell. “Friends!” “Help me! Hold them down for me! I don’t wanna bother anymore!”

  In an instant, thirty or so children made of physical debris assembled before them. They were featureless. Heartless. Still they charged at the five of them, laughing loudly, arms raised over their heads.

  Even if they weren’t talking, they were still using their voices, and Zora recognised each and every last one of them.

  In a panic, Cecilia “pulled”fell onto them from the top of the stairs. A wall of sound. A distraction.

  Nona must’ve lied about being tired, because she’d already dashed above them, and Zora looked up just in time to see the Cicada God backflipping over their heads with a twisted, nasty scowl.

  “Squish the walls!”

  “Shatter the ground!”

  Fourth floor. They bought themselves a second of reprieve, but not a second longer to even feel like shit about the Headmistress—Nona crashed through the ceiling and landed on the opposite end of the chamber, thirty strides away, on one knee with two hands on the ground. A groaning, cracking rain of debris followed her down, and the entire chamber rumbled. The entire fourth floor could very easily collapse at this rate.

  “... Fun!” she said, laughing giddily as she snapped her head up, ignoring the debris pelting and bouncing off her back. “You guys are fast! Good eyes! Much, better eyes than the other mages! Must be because you’re young and they’re old, right? I younger mages would be funner to fight!”

  The Witch strode forward, taunting, and with a loud shout for “colour”

  It was ‘magic’.

  Only a child could imagine themselves changing the colours of a physical, existing place.

  “Spin and whirl! Have some fun!” “and don’t hold back!”

  While the five of them were still blinking, wincing, trying not to stare at the starkly contrasting colours, Nona summoned half a dozen small cyclones of glittering, razor-sharp dust. They swept across the chamber, slicing through everything in their way—columns, walls, doors, carcasses—and each gust cut deep, sending stone flying. While Marcus cast “toughen” “counterspin”

  If the cyclones were any bigger and stronger, he wouldn’t have been able to imagine himself doing that, but at this point, he’d killed even a giant bug twenty times his size. His subconscious knew he wasn’t weak anymore.

  His senses, though, were another matter altogether.

  The cyclones didn’t dispel. They’d slowed, yes, but as the five of them made a mad dash towards the flight of stairs at the back, none of them heard Nona dashing through the howling winds. Zora certainly heard it eventually, but by the time he whirled around, it was too late. Nona was already right behind them, one fist reared back and aiming at Cecilia’s head.

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  “Expand!”bubbled, expanding her fist to thrice its usual size. Zora’s blood froze. Even the most physically incapable Insect God was far, far stronger than the average Mutant-Class, after all. One physical punch from her and any one of them would lose their heads.

  Zora cast “blockade”

  They all ran an extra ten steps before Nona shouted “whoosh” “Bouncy!”

  Nona caught up with a single bounce forward, and Zora had to whirl to face her again.

  Zora flicked his wand into a sword, casting “strike”“to the walls”“down”

  He tried to chuck the syringes at her anyways, and she countered with a “poof”

  Julius screamed.

  While the physician cried and staggered back into Cecilia’s arms, holding his steaming face in his hands, Marcus roared in what might’ve been anger, what might’ve been pain. The difference was indistinguishable. He picked up an entire beetle carcass and chucked it at Nona. She countered with a “go away”“swerving strikes”

  It was… useless.

  While Emilia had hopped off Zora’s back to tend to Julius on the floor, desperately trying to get him to calm down and cast “heal”

  And as Nona finally strode in front of him, he found he was unable to move.

  Unable to part his lips.

  Her amber, vertical irises were the same as the ones that’d stared him down when he ran away from the Fabre Household ten years ago. Only, he was taller now. and every bit as powerless as he was back then.

  He wasn’t allowed to finish his thought. She smiled softly sweet, almost like she was showing some sort of positive emotion, but then she tried to uppercut him—stopped only by a bloody old lady as she crashed through the ceiling, landed between them, and shouted “sound barrier”

  Nona’s uppercut slammed into the sound wall, making the barrier ripple and shimmer. The chamber rumbled again. Zora was almost knocked off his feet from the sheer impact force that didn’t even hit him, but Marcus caught him with “slow down”

  On the Witch’s end, this was the first time Zora had seen her twitch an eye.

  “... Still alive, Headmistress?” Nona said cheerily, rearing one, two, three more fists behind her before casting “expand”

  “What the hell are you doing here for, Zora?” the Headmistress muttered, glaring daggers back at him as she continued muttering “sound barrier”then evacuate the academy until you reach the closest borough. Have you all forgotten about your children?”

  Zora opened his mouth to answer, but Cecilia staggered forward first. “Mom!” she said. “The… the kids are safe! We’re planning on evacuating them tomorrow morning, so we came to get you! I can’t believe you’re… I thought you… I—”

  “Leave, Cecilia!” the Headmistress snapped, making Cecilia freeze. “You weren’t supposed to look for me! You were supposed to leave right after you got all the kids! Now take Emilia and all of them with you and run! I’ll hold Nona back—”

  Nona punched three more times, shattering the sound barrier with a gust of wind. Marcus immediately cast “toughen”“strengthen”“heal” “strike”far stronger than any spell Zora had ever cast before.

  The spell hit Nona point-blank in the face, and the Witch was sent thundering back to the other end of the chamber where she slammed into a wall, through it, and brought down an entire section of the building alongside her.

  “See?” Marcus shouted, punching his fists together as he tried to amp everyone up, “we fight her! We beat her! Julius, heal yourself and get off your ass already! Cecilia, use what little instruments there are left around here to distract her! Emilia, you stay on stick with skellyman, and I’ll fight head-on with mom so we can—”

  “Fly, big man!”

  A spell shot out from the rubble at the end of the chamber and hit Marcus in the chest. He was immediately flung to the ceiling, no counter at hand. The Headmistress attempted to cast “silence” “fly”

  Ears ringing, head pounding, Zora managed to fling a “slow down” thud behind them. At the same time, the Headmistress cast “burrow”

  Zora, Cecilia, and the Headmistress landed softly with their wings fanned out. Emilia hopped onto Zora’s back. Julius pumped drugs into his legs to turn them into crystal, so he landed fine as well. It was only Marcus who fell from fifth floor to fourth floor to third floor, but the way he groaned as he tried to crawl onto his feet told Zora he’d be fine, if not a bit bruised and battered tomorrow morning.

  “Go,” the Headmistress rasped, choking and panting for breath as she turned to scowl at all of them. “Don’t even bother trying to fight her. Nona, the youngest of the Magicicada Witches, uses only the spells of children, and if a child believes something can be done, it be done. She can manifest true ‘magic’ into reality.”

  “We’re strong, too!” Cecilia said, hands on her knees as she pleaded with the Headmistress, eyes teary. “We can… we can work together! Fight together! We beat the giant stick bug with teamwork, we can do it again! Where’s the wand? T-That wand that can kill an Insect God—”

  “Listen to me, children of Amadeus Academy,” the Headmistress commanded, and all four of them snapped to attention. Even Julius managed to heal his own eyes, though the skin around his eyelids were still hissing with steam. “As the Headmistress, I order all of you to…”

  She trailed off as Nona started screaming overhead, shouting for the whereabouts of her wand.

  “... No,” the Headmistress whispered, shaking her head slowly as she lowered her wand, caressing Cecilia’s cheek. “The fight between the Magicicada Mages and the Magicicada Witches should have been settled long, long ago. It’s our fault we got the next generation tangled up in our mess. That’s why even ants must know when to leave the anthill, and that’s why I’m asking you to leave me here.”

  While Zora, Julius, and Marcus scowled at her, Cecilia actually grabbed the Headmistress’s collar back, growling. “You’re coming with us, mom!” she said. “Just… just give Nona what she wants! If we leave you behind, you’ll die, and it’ll be just as good as hers, anyways! So just give it! Come with us! We can rebuild, set up a new academy, and—”

  “But I’m a cruel old lady,” the Headmistress breathed, smiling softly. “I pity your fates, but when did I say I was going to let you kids refuse to pick up the mess we started?”

  Zora remained silent, and his face was still as a pond on a windless night as he followed the Headmistress’s gaze. She wasn’t looking up at the hole in the ceiling, at Emilia, at him, or even at her own daughter.

  No.

  Her eyes were on the little conductor’s baton hanging off Cecilia’s belt, and now—only —did he understand what the Headmistress was trying to say.

  The wand with the Headmistress.

  The Headmistress dipped her head slowly as Zora’s eyes widened.

  “Now get out of here,”

  The spell was directed at all of them, and a strong gust of wind swept them through the windows on the left, throwing them violently out of the northern building before Cecilia could even manage a final cry.

  They started falling out of the northern research building, leaving the Headmistress behind with the Magicicada Witch.