"Zaira, cut off this world."
The words of the mysterious entity were as sudden as his appearance as Stencil was flabbergasted, watching in slow motion as the portal she had condensed by expending a hundred thousand Mental Energy stop growing in response before beginning to shrink, vanishing immediately after.
Through the Secret Refiner and Happy-Go-Lucky Systems, Stencil observed that the Astral Network in the Fantasy World disappeared all of a sudden, preventing her from heading to the System World.
Moreover, it seemed as if the connection with the System World itself was cut off from this world, stranding them. This meant that she couldn't bring her father and escape to the System World.
"Dad!" Stencil screamed in fright, unleashing all her power as she harnessed the Secret Refiner System to unleash a hand-shaped bolt of lightning towards the mysterious entity, intending to stop him for a moment, thereby allowing her father to escape.
The hand-shaped bolt of lightning flew at tremendous speeds, approaching the mysterious entity before stopping all of a sudden, spreading out as it seemed to have slammed into an egg-shaped barrier, one that prevented it from entering.
Based on the dispersion of the lightning bolt, it was apparent that the egg-shaped barrier covered both the mysterious entity and her father as Stencil focused the bolts onto it, trying her best to refine it and turn it hers so that she could break through and save her father.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the egg-shaped barrier separated the outside and inside, as if it manifested another world itself.
The last she saw the grin of the mysterious entity and the pale-faced expression of Compass Carburettor as the egg-shaped barrier vanished, taking the two people within it too.
Time seemed to have returned to normalcy as Stencil's figure fell on the floor, her expression one of disbelief, staring at the part of the ground where her dad had been standing just now, seeing the impression his shoes had made on the ground.
"Dad..." Her disbelief soon turned into worry as she looked around, unable to find any traces of her father, as if he was no more...
'Wait!' She stared at Anthozoa, one given to her by Compass Carburettor, sensing through the connection that her father was still alive. But, she wasn't able to find out where he had been taken away.
"Gehera!" She asked the Novice Cartographer in a hurry, pointing at the location where her father stood just now, "Can you find out where he had been taken away? Cartographers can access the information from the region itself, right?"
"I c-can try." Gehera nodded, still trembling in fear, unable to comprehend just what in the nightmare had happened just now. Upon hearing Stencil, she instinctively tried to use her power but failed to do so, clearly overwhelmed with fear.
She wasn't even strong enough to face a random thug, but now here she was, coming across heavenly beings one after another.
"Dammit!" Stencil groaned in anger as she snapped her finger, causing a choker to appear on Gehera's neck when immediately, her eyes turned dazed as her powers were riled up, causing runes to flash around her as her mana seeped into the ground.
But an instant later, the mana exploded, causing blood to pour out of Gehera's orifices. The level of information she wished to extract was beyond what she was capable of as a Novice Cartographer.
"Shit!" Stencil was pissed, angry at herself as her eyes turned moist, recalling the incident from her childhood when her dad vanished mysteriously. At that time, she wasn't aware of what was happening, living in fear following that.
But now, she was aware of the truth, knowing very well that Compass Carburettor had been taken by the Money-Making System to the System World, beyond his control. At that time, the Money-Making System was a terrifying entity they couldn't go against.
The present her controlled two mighty Systems, capable of killing the Money-Making System with a snap of her finger. Unfortunately for her, the one that took her father away from her this time was even stronger, the difference in strength similar to what it was between the Money-Making System and her eight-year-old self.
Boom!
A majestic curse was completed in the sky as the remainder of the Witches grinned in response, internally relieved that they managed to complete it, happy at whatever caused that troublesome Metal Mage to disappear.
"Now, die!" Granak Burnak grinned in response as he glared at the humans on the ground.
"Shut up!" Stencil bellowed in anger as lightning exploded from her, fully unleashing the powers of the Secret Refiner System as the lightning seeped into the curse, overwriting the control of the Witches over it as in an instant, the majestic curse fell under her control.
"Impossible!" Granak Burnak screamed in shock as his body withered into ash instantly, along with the rest of the Witches in the region, taken out by the very curse they spent all their energy on creating.
'W-What should I do?' Stencil was flustered, unable to think of a means to save her father when she stared at the Anthozoa in her hands, recalling the last statement from her father.
'The fifth Main Character!' Her eyes lit up as a result as she immediately unleashed a stream of Mental Energy, watching it travel somewhere far away.
A second later, a figure appeared before her, shocked as he stared at her, "Where's...Compass Carburettor?"
"I...don't know." Stencil teared up in response as she said, helpless, "Someone...a Demon appeared all of a sudden and kidnapped him."
She then pointed at the location where he last stood, "Do you know of a powerful enough Cartographer that can unearth the details from here, Aronaut?"
"Say no more, I'll do it myself." Aronaut kneeled before the spot, closing his eyes as multiple System Fragments--the powers of which were stored in the Aero Society--were activated, unleashing a power similar to a Cartographer as information flowed out of the place, full of static, looking as if they would vanish.
"This Demon is a lot stronger than me..." Aronaut said, his expression solemn before his eyes widened in realisation as he got up with a start and turned around, looking at Stencil with a serious expression, "Let's get going."
"We need to find Slayer."
