「 episode 12; arc 4.4 」 —dual restitution//blackpink— 「 hyejoo viii 」

Jisoo did not immediately reply to Jungeun’s demand.

Kahei and Chaewon watched the woman of water quietly as her scrutinous eye of azure glanced at the two of them. She took keen notice of the crystal in the globe of Kahei’s staff slowly regaining its mahogany color as brown dust began to collect around it anew.

“Do you sincerely believe that I would simply surrender myself to you?” Jisoo asked with a sigh, feeling disgusted by the blatant disrespect Jungeun treated her with. “Left the family of studied conjurers I so courteously invited you into for a caravan of ignoramuses, have you, Chaewon?”

Jisoo’s eyes shot straight through Jungeun in front of her, her unamused glance landing upon the grounded Chaewon. A confused eyebrow slowly raised itself on Jungeun’s face as she turned halfway to Chaewon behind her. Bewilderment equally settled on Kahei’s face.

“You know her?” Jungeun asked slowly.

“Yes,” Chaewon revealed with a nod, her eyes locked with Jisoo’s. “She was...she was the one who took me in after my parents disowned me. The community I lived with...she fostered it. She was their leader.”

“Was, was, was...do not insult me with the past tense, Chaewon.”

Jisoo tilted her head slightly, a peevish look beginning to take root in her eyes. “Speaking as if I no longer have a family left to lead...your assumptions of the state of what you left behind disappoint me. Do you truly believe I would abandon my fellow conjurers with the intention of never returning?”

“Haseul said that timeline was nearly at its end when she rescued Chaewon with the others,” Kahei thought aloud to herself, rubbing her chin contemplatively. “There couldn’t have been more than a year left, and they brought Chaewon back six months ago...how can you speak as if you know for certain that your home is no longer doomed?”

“I see.”

Jisoo’s curt response and its lack of connection to Kahei’s question only deepened the perplexity set into the three faces looking at her.

“I thought you would have known by now,” the woman of water said with a small shrug. “I suppose this was the first proper clash of our groups, then...thus, in exchange for your comrade saving my life—as foolish as it was of her to do so—I suppose I can inform you of just one thing before I go, Chaewon.”

Jungeun bit her lip in discomposure.

“Our timeline, our home, the family which you wasted no time deserting much like how your parents deserted you...” Jisoo started, peering into the girl of light’s eyes with a serene tranquility set about her face. Eyes widened as she continued, Chaewon’s especially quivering with unhinged disbelief.

“...I have established the resurgence of their halcyon days. The corrupted anima that flows within the conduit of our world is no more, Chaewon. Our reality’s continued existence in the multiverse is no longer in question. It will live on, free from danger and corruption…”

Jisoo’s fingers slowly slid up the length of her blade. Her countenance grew bitter as her eyes narrowed.

“...by a pledge I made to an old sorcerer. So long as I aid him in striking you all down, ensuring that the misinformed troupe of clowns known as LOONA meet their end...my family lives on.”

“An old sorcerer...you can’t possibly mean—”

“Yang Hyun-suk,” Jisoo interrupted Kahei, confirming her fears. “Though I believe most of you have gotten rather comfortable calling him YG.”

“You’re working with YG?!” Jungeun roared, taking a pounding step forward in angered shock. “Are you out of your mind?! Do you even know what he’s done?! Everything is his fault!”

“I am fully aware of what he’s done,” Jisoo remarked instantly, her composure measured and tranquil even in the face of Jungeun’s explosive rage.

“And knowing his history, you still side with him?”

“That’s correct,” Jisoo answered Kahei calmly. “Securing a future of prosperity for my family of conjurers back home is my greatest priority. Truth be told, however, that is only one reason why I am assisting him in his efforts.”

“As if there’s another reason to help a deranged old man wipe entire realities from existence?!” Jungeun fought back, her vehement vexation building at the mere insinuation.

Jisoo leered at Jungeun for a moment. Quietly analyzing her irritated expression, she returned the negativity with a frown. “To ask such a question...it is clear to me now that for all you know of what he’s done, you are clueless as to what he’s doing.”

“What he’s…?”

“Jisoo.”

Before Kahei could finish her quiet thought, Chaewon’s raised voice overpowered it.

Her astonished eyes were still shaking, but her voice was clear. There was a heavy tone to her words as she held the incapacitated Hyejoo close to her, tightly hugging onto her sleeping companion.

“Do you really trust that monster…?”

“You have no business judging whom I place my trust in, Chaewon,” Jisoo commented in opposition, scorn dripping from her voice like venom. “Not when you trust the literal demon in your arms more than you trusted the very person who gave you everything when you had nothing.”

“So you truly intend to stop LOONA? To...to kill us…?”

“To my dying breath.”

“I see.”

Mimicking Jisoo’s own previous brief response, Chaewon’s eyes fell upon the undisturbed serenity of Hyejoo’s sleeping face. Her eyes welled with regret as her hands clutched tighter still onto Hyejoo’s arms.

“Had I only known...perhaps it would have allowed me the strength to see you dead.”

Lifting her head, Chaewon revealed a look of remorseful fury etched into the glare she directed towards Jisoo. Her voice was tempered with the same meticulously inhibited hatred that she carefully regarded Olivia with.

“The last thing I wanted to do was to inflict long-lasting harm upon the person who showed me nothing but kindness, but if you mean to hurt us...I will discard the respect I hold for you, Jisoo. If it keeps my friends safe,...” Chaewon began a promise, inciting Jisoo to glower at her with disdain.

“...I will do whatever it takes to stop you.”

“Whatever it takes…?”

“Yes. Without hesitation.”

Jisoo sneered.

Unconvinced doubt showed itself in her eyes. “What a bold asseveration...I suppose we’ll find out if it’s as false as the claim that your precious little Hyejoo made when she swore she’d stop me from hurting you.”

“Don’t talk as if we’re just letting you walk away.”

Jisoo’s eyes slowly shifted towards an infuriated Jungeun who had taken another step closer. The tip of her halberd not far from her chest now, the swordswoman acknowledged her in full as she spoke. “I said you’re coming with us. You’ve got nowhere to run and plenty more questions to answer.”

Letting Jungeun’s words hang in the air, Jisoo’s vision wandered towards Kahei. The woman of earth wore a serious expression as she held onto her staff lightly. The crystal within its top pulsed with life, shining brightly in its enclosure of mana.

“‘Twould have been wonderful to return to my companions with at least one of your heads, but information is a better prize than nothing,” Jisoo conceded with herself, briefly looking upon the sleeping Hyejoo. “In any case, I will not be returning with you.”

“Do you really think you’re in a position to say that?” Jungeun asked with a small laugh of disbelief. “Your barrier’s history, you’re outnumbered, and there’s no way I’m letting you out of my sight.”

As Jisoo quietly taunted her with a smirk, Jungeun found her eyebrow raising in confusion. Her confidence seemed entirely misplaced, right up until a thin outline of cyan mana suddenly materialized between Jungeun and her quarry.

“Until we meet again, Jungeun,” Jisoo bid Jungeun farewell, the spearwoman’s expression warping with surprise. “Take the demon’s words to heart, for your actions on this night may wind up becoming the catalyst for my team’s eventual success.”

The dust in front of her coalescing with startling speed into a vertically standing runic circle of frost, Jungeun caught a bright flash of light blue from the corner of her eye.

“To your left, Jungeun!”

Her eyes brought to her side in response to Kahei’s call, Jungeun saw a woman as tall as Hyejoo perched upon the remains of a severed pick-up truck. Hair of pastel blonde parted down the middle ran down to her midback, swaying with the raising of her arm as a cold light emanated from her left eye of cyan.

Jungeun swiftly sidestepped as the woman tossed something towards her—it was a heavy diamond-shaped weight attached to the end of an extremely lengthy chain, colored light blue and covered in a thick coat of ice. It crashed into the ground next to Jungeun, but as she saw it break in front of her, Jungeun realized she wasn’t the true target.

With the weight thrown through it, the circle of runes shattered into pieces. As a wall of dust took shape, Jungeun peered through it at the woman of ice atop the car. With a calm disposition, mixed eyes of green and brilliantly bright blue stared back at her. As she took in her features, a distant memory was beginning to resurface in Jungeun’s mind.

Before Jungeun could properly recognize who stood before her, the woman called out to Jisoo in front of her.

“We’re leaving, Jisoo.”

“My apologies, I was a little preoccupied catching up with...an old friend,” Jisoo explained in search of forgiveness, her eyes falling upon Chaewon for a final time. “Let us be off, Rosé.”

Hearing the mystery woman’s name gave rise to an exponential explosion of stupefied astonishment within Jungeun’s head. The puzzle of her memory coming to completion, the woman of fire paused as it came back to her. Her disbelief increased as she realized something that simply couldn’t be.

“Rosé…?”

Jungeun’s shock came in a murmur that Kahei and Chaewon barely registered before the screeching cacophony of expanding ice overtook it. With speed equivalent to Kahei’s prowess, the wall of frozen mana instantly coalesced into a massive barrier of sweeping ice that separated LOONA’s sorceresses from their two adversaries.

Quickly regaining herself, Jungeun took a sharp breath as she suddenly reared her body back. A mass of crimson mana began to aggregate on the tip of her halberd. Throwing it forward, she lodged it into the cold blockade from afar. With her forceful exhale, waves of flame came to life as her scarlet eye flashed like lightning.

The fire rippled outwards from the implanted halberd, scorching hot enough to immediately evaporate the water that resulted from the melting of the ice. A thick cloud of growing steam blanketed the street as the frozen barrier was reduced to nothing.

Much to Jungeun’s expectations, when it finally subsided, the two were nowhere to be seen.

Jungeun sighed, her freed halberd falling to the floor with a clatter. She turned to face her allies as it dematerialized itself. “Figured she would have gotten help already if she had any...didn’t expect them to wait so late to step in.”

“Do you know who that woman was, Jungeun?”

Jungeun scratched the back of her head upon hearing Kahei’s question. “I’ve only seen her in a photo before, but yeah. I’m really hoping it’s not who I think it is, though…”

“Why is that?” Chaewon asked.

Kahei and Chaewon remained quiet as Jungeun’s eyes wandered back to the destroyed car the sorceress of ice stood upon. She didn’t answer, finding difficulty in piecing together an answer for Chaewon.

“If you know her, then your universe may have been supposedly spared as well,” Kahei surmised after a moment, thinking aloud to herself. “Which begs the question if she bears a connection to others from your universe…”

“If that really is the Rosé I’m thinking of, she does, and that’s why we need to stay quiet about it for now,” Jungeun revealed, bringing curious eyes of light and earth towards her. Jungeun shook her head as worry clouded her mind. “This would seriously blindside Heejin and Hyunjin in the worst way possible.”

“They knew her as well, then?” Kahei assumed. The spearwoman nodded slowly in response.

“Yeah,” Jungeun answered. She crossed her arms as she closed her eyes, diving into the depths of her memory.

“I don’t remember much about her, honestly. They don’t like talking about her, so I’ve only heard the story once, back when Jiwoo and I first met them. That was several years ago...couldn’t tell you all the details nowadays. There’s only one thing I remember for sure, and it’s why we can’t tell them when we get back.”

Opening her eyes, Jungeun brought her glance back towards her companions. Kahei and Chaewon felt unease as she looked at them with a dark expression of solemn melancholy.

“As much as I wish I could forget it, there’s an image burned into my memory from the night Jiwoo and I met the two of them,” Jungeun dejectedly disclosed. “It was Heejin crying her eyes out as she held a picture of Rosé. She told us Rosé was the closest friend she and Hyunjin had aside from each other. She also told us...”

Jungeun paused as resummoned memories of a bawling Heejin wounded her. Pushing past old scars, she filled Kahei and Chaewon in on the truth.

“...she told us that Rosé had just died that same day.”

The noise of nothing permeated the atmosphere for a moment which felt like eons as Chaewon and Kahei processed the information. Kahei was left with agape as she stared at Jungeun. “She...she passed away? Then surely the woman we saw couldn’t be her…”

“Never went back to look for a body,” Jungeun admitted, “so, for all we know, she made it out alive...”

“...and then ran into YG, being promised salvation for her reality in exchange for her allegiance. At least, if she’s fighting alongside Jisoo, that’s what I’m left to imagine...”

Chaewon’s voice was strained as she finished Jungeun’s thought. “If that’s true, then...people are truly accepting his terms and helping him knowing full well what he’s done…? I don’t know what to think…”

“For all we know of what he’s done, we’re clueless to what he’s doing…?” Kahei inaudibly contemplated Jisoo’s statement to herself. “What did she even mean by that, if anything…?”

“In the end, that woman’s connection to Heejin and Hyunjin is one very big ‘if,’” Jungeun said with a sigh. “There’s no way to know yet if it was actually her. We can tell Sunmi and the others about Jisoo, but for now, we’re going to need to pretend we didn’t hear her call that woman Rosé.”

Silence returned momentarily as the sorceresses were left to ponder the development in deep thought. Shortly after, distant footsteps broke the quiet, bringing Jungeun’s and Chaewon’s attention down the road as Kahei spoke up.

“They’ve returned.”

Down the ruined street, five figures were cautiously approaching. They scanned their surroundings with wide, apprehensive eyes and attentively deliberate steps, trying to make sense of the annihilation around them.

“What the hell happened here…?”

Seulgi’s concerned voice rose to prominence amidst the soundlessness as they came to a stop in front of the four sorceresses. Their gazes fell upon the grounded Chaewon embracing an immobile Hyejoo.

“Is she alright?” Joohyun immediately asked, her eyes flittering to the other three.

“She’s perfectly fine,” Chaewon assured, to which the faces of the hunted thaumaturges became awash with relief. “She’s just unconscious.”

“I presume from whatever caused all of this?” Seungwan inquired, looking up at a diagonally severed building held together by an expanse of sharp, splintered obsidian.

“Well, actually…she’s, uh...” Jungeun started before quickly trailing off, unsure of how to explain the situation.

“Hello. Might you be Yeri?”

Stepping forward, Kahei filled the gap of Jungeun’s thoughts with a small smile aimed towards a much younger girl hiding behind Joohyun. Despite the age difference, they met at eye level as she revealed herself from the cover of her older sister.

“Yeah,” the teenager said with a nod. “Is whatever or whoever did this...gone…?”

“Yes, they are,” Kahei confirmed, the warmth radiating from her calming Yeri significantly. “You’re safe now.”

Yeri’s relaxed grin extended to Joohyun. The axewoman gave Kahei an appreciative nod which was returned in full.

“Lucky we aren’t in the residential district,” Joy mused aloud as she surveyed the damage. She was inspecting a nearby vehicle, examining the hardened black steel which filled the gap of its split halves. “This kind of widespread damage would’ve killed a lot of people. Guess everyone’s gonna have a day off work tomorrow...and for the new few weeks, probably...”

“I can’t see our car,” Seulgi lamented from above. Eyes looked up and found her perched on the ruined remains of a nearby building’s fire escape staircase, her nimble athleticism having led her there with ease while they talked. “Washed away by the flood, I’d guess. Oh, maybe over there…?”

“What caused the flood, anyway?”

“A magus,” Chaewon answered Joohyun, her gaze still focused on Hyejoo, “or, more accurately...an enemy. They called forth a tsunami.”

“YG?” Seungwan wondered in surprise. Joohyun’s eyes sharpened at the insinuation.

“In a way,” Jungeun half-answered as she crossed her arms. “He’s got a band of lackeys now, by the looks of it. A sorceress named Jisoo showed up and dueled Chaewon and Hyejoo.”

“Thaumaturgy powerful enough to make a tsunami happen?” a nonplussed Joy remarked. “That’s insane…”

Kahei pushed up her glasses by the bridge. “How quickly did she produce that tidal wave of an effect, Chaewon?”

“Swiftly enough that Hyejoo and I didn’t have time to even think to look behind us,” the girl of light replied. “If you’re wondering about her skill level, suffice it to say she’s an experienced Master. She was always strong, but...I’ve never seen her do something so titanic in scale.”

“Well, hope everyone’s ready to walk, because our ride is long gone.”

Seulgi’s information came with her front flipping off the roof of a small convenience store nearby. Landing cleanly, she raised her arms behind her and held her head in her hands as she approached the group proper. “Don’t see it anywhere. Even if it’s nearby, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was totaled like everything else around us.”

“We can depart from here if you’d like,” Kahei said towards the five women. She was met with grimaces.

“There’s some things we’d like to take back,” Joohyun explained, her arm swept around Yeri in a sideways hug as she gently rubbed her shoulder. “Photos and the like…”

“That’s perfectly fine,” Jungeun permitted. Kahei and Chaewon shared their agreement with simultaneous nods. “Don’t have to leave right this second. We can head back to your place.”

“Do you want me to carry her?”

Looking up to her side, Chaewon was met with the group’s tallest towering over her. A soft smile was present on Joy’s face, her mismatched hues of deep brown and bright jade looking at Hyejoo sleeping in Chaewon’s arms.

“Ah, er...yes, that would be appreciated, thank you,” Chaewon accepted with a smile of her own. The girl of light rose to her feet, assisting in the transfer of Hyejoo’s body onto Joy’s back. As the woman of wind hooked her arms underneath Hyejoo’s knees, Chaewon came to her side and gently grabbed Hyejoo’s hand anew.

As the group departed, Jungeun paused for a moment. The others walking ahead as she turned back to where Rosé had been, a bothered frown spawned on her face while she stared hard at the destruction around it.

“If that really was you, Rosé,” Jungeun muttered to herself, her words laced with anxiety, “then that means I might run into her again, too…”

“Jungeun?”

The gray-haired spearwoman quickly turned around upon hearing her name being called. Met with eyes behind spectacles far closer than she had anticipated, she took a step back as her heart suddenly raced. Kahei looked at her with a curious tilt of her head. “Is everything alright?”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” Jungeun hastily dismissed the inquiry. She did her best to dispel the revival of butterflies in her stomach as she quickly looked away from Kahei. The chaos of the battle with Olivia and the resulting discussion with Jisoo had dispelled them, but with no pressing matters at hand, they were free to torment her once again.

“Let’s, er...let’s get going, Kahei,” Jungeun insisted, swiftly walking past the woman of earth before she could notice her cheeks beginning to flush with red.

Kahei remained still for a moment as she watched Jungeun proceed ahead of her. She tapped her chin with an inquisitive finger before walking forward a few paces behind Jungeun. With Jungeun’s back to her and the other’s backs to Jungeun, no one witnessed it.

The unbound stress that came to life in Jungeun’s tired eyes.

It was the manifestation of several factors that haunted her mind in that moment. The nagging, lingering feeling that she had made a crucial mistake. The worry that Olivia’s assertions weren’t unfounded. Jisoo’s final words to her which uncomfortably bounced within the walls of her dissonant headspace.

Your actions on this night may wind up becoming the catalyst for my team’s eventual success.

The fear that an undesirable fate had just been locked into place.

Jungeun straightened her face as she brought her fingers to her temples, rubbing them gently. She quieted her troubled mind to the best of her ability and pressed on...

“, Lip. The in’ commitment to the grandma gray...well, alright.”

...unaware of prying eyes monitoring her departure.

On the edge of a distant skyscraper that loomed over the city, mixed eyes of brown and vivid gold curiously watched the group of nine vanish into the horizon. With both hands, a woman held a fully copper baseball bat behind her head by its grip and end, resting her neck against it. Her shoulder-length hair of dark brown was moved by a noticeable breeze behind her.

The sounds of feet touching ground didn’t deter her from watching the sorceresses walk away. Her gaze focused on Jungeun’s ant-sized frame until she couldn’t make it out anymore, she smirked with a shake of her head as a coat of electricity briefly surged around her body. “Guess the reunion’s gonna have to wait. Lookin’ forward to it, Lip.”

“Are you alright, Jisoo?”

A concerned yet composed voice rose from behind her as footsteps approached. She sighed, turning around and departing from the edge of the building. She came to a stop next to the woman who spoke.

“Yes, I’m fine. I apologize for the delay, Jennie,” Jisoo sincerely stated towards a blonde-haired woman adorned in a red dress shirt.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jennie dismissed the apology. She stood with an aura of authority about her, a hefty labrys held over her shoulder with a single gloved hand. Colored crimson, the steel of her double-sided axe corresponded with the hue of her vermilion odd eye. “Whatever caused all of this damage...you fought it?”

“I did,” Jisoo confirmed. “It managed to destroy my barrier runes, but I’m in good health otherwise.”

“Pfft.”

A small snicker drew the attention of three gazes forward. It came from the woman with the baseball bat, sneering as she candidly stared down Jisoo with judgmental eyes. “You in’ serious, man?”

“Excuse me?!”

“Lisa.”

“Oh, don’t look at me like that!” the woman of electricity protested with laughter as her eyes shifted from the offended Jisoo to the defensive Jennie. She smiled widely, her giggling subsiding as she brought her bat to her side and straightened her undone black blazer.

“You don’t realize how funny that is? There were only two of them and she got her shield busted! A ing healer went and got her barrier broken! That’s some comedic gold. I mean, it can’t mean anything good for us if she can’t even repair her own on time, but, well...good laugh, if nothing else.”

“One of them turned out to be a much bigger threat than anyone could have accounted for!” Jisoo countered, her face flushing with rage. “On top of that, she was naturally aligned to my weak point, which means that you—”

“If you’re about to try and tell me that I’d have lost like you did just ‘cause we’re both weak to the same element, do me a favor and just shut the up.”

Jisoo’s eyes widened slightly as she witnessed Lisa undergo a sudden reversal in mood. Her eyes narrowing and her brows furrowing, her voice had deepened into a growl which absolutely boiled with ill-tempered rage.

“Speaking to me like that...just who the do you think you are? Who the do you think you’re talking to?” Lisa snarled in a low pitch, her odd eye flashing with livid indignation as a veritable tempest of crackling thunderbolts fulminated around her frame. A rush of static swept out around her, giving rise to the hairs on the others’ arms.

“You think we’re on even ground just because we’re working together? It’s barely been two months since we picked your sorry up. You don’t think I’m your god damn friend, do you? What, just because we’re all Masters means you’re my equal? You forgetting that you’re the lowest leveled magus here?”

Lisa scoffed in contempt as she watched Jisoo quiver before her. Not receiving a response, she shook her head as her glare intensified. “You pretentious little ...were you honestly trying to save face by dragging me down with you? Oh, it’s okay that you got your pushed in because I share your weak point, so it would’ve happened to me, too? Don’t you ing dare disrespect me like that.”

Taking a step forward, Lisa came face to face with the shorter girl. Lifting her bat, she placed it upon the top of one of Jisoo’s thigh-high boots.

“See that?” the agitated sorceress harshly whispered, looking down upon her lesser experienced junior as she drove the top of her bat into the leather of her boot. Jisoo winced uncomfortably as Lisa leaned in closer still. “No barrier. Far as I’m concerned, you’re already dead. You lost, and that’s not okay. It means you failed. End. Of. ing. Story.”

“Lisa.”

The roused sorceress rolled her eyes as the woman of fire addressed her. Jennie’s eyes were honed with disapproval as she held her extended labrys above them. Forcing Lisa to step away, she brought it down between them and separated the two.

Speaking as if she had jurisdiction over the group, Jennie reprimanded Lisa with an unamused tone. “Stop antagonizing your healer. We’re a team and you’re her senior. Start acting like it.”

Lisa stood still for a second, battling Jennie’s challenging glance with focused eyes of her own. Jennie spoke with her gaze unflinching and her body unmoving. “Don’t make me treat you like a child, Lisa. I’m not putting you in time out. Just back off for a minute. Take a breather. Clear your head.”

Momentarily looking back to the speechless Jisoo, Lisa sighed with another roll of her eyes as she gave in to Jennie’s clear sovereignty. She stepped back further, deftly twirling her bat with one hand. “Whatever, man. Should’ve sent me after them. They’d be down two sorceresses, including whatever the they pulled that managed to cut entire buildings in half.”

As Lisa made way for the far end of the rooftop, the others watched her quietly as she took a silent breath. In the palm of her hand, a sphere of copper instantly took shape from a small cloud of quickly coalesced golden mana. With brushed aluminum engraved into its surface in the form of curved stitchings, it was effectively a metallic baseball.

Tossing it into the air above her, Lisa twisted her torso and bent her knees slightly as she grabbed onto her bat with both hands. With a proper well-practiced stance and a frightening amount of strength behind her swing, a burst of electricity flowed across her body as she made resoundingly forceful contact with the ball on its descent.

Her copper acting as an excellent conductor for her static fury, the bolts of lightning that encompassed her were swiftly directed towards the length of her bat as she swung. With the bat’s impact against the ball, they shifted once more, being transferred to the copper sphere and swallowing it whole before it was launched into the sky.

The baseball engulfed in a current of electricity became a streak of lightning that rocketed across the sky with immense speed and force, going well into the horizon. Jennie watched Lisa produce another ball with a shake of her head, settling into displacing her stirred anger with continued batting practice.

“What exactly happened, Jisoo?”

The voice of the fourth sorceress posed a question. From behind Jisoo, a woman in a long-sleeved white crop jacket looked at the swordswoman with a confused eye of frosted blue. She and Jennie stepped forward towards the quiet swordswoman who was beginning to recollect herself again.

“It was the dark haired girl...her name is Hyejoo,” Jisoo shared with the attentive Jennie and Rosé. “She seems to be harboring some type of...malevolent entity within her.”

“A malevolent entity?” Jennie echoed slowly, unsure of what to make of Jisoo’s words. “What do you mean?”

“It’s difficult to describe,” Jisoo said in defeat, bringing a single hand to her hips. Her eyes fell to the ground below her as she tried to craft her thoughts.

“It’s as if a shadow or something of the sort resides within her...with the severance of a purification tether between her and Chaewon, it took over her. They referred to it as Olivia. For all intents and purposes, Olivia and Hyejoo are not one in the same. Olivia’s capabilities were allowing her the potential to perform feats of wonder that were far and away from the realm of possibility for Hyejoo, including the effect that brought catastrophe to the town.”

“I wonder...it almost sounds like—”

“Absolution, maybe...but it doesn’t add up...”

Jisoo’s gaze rose to Jennie as she interrupted Rosé, her own eye of crimson now peering at the ground in heavy contemplation.

“You said there was a purification tether?” Jennie inquired as she brought her sights back to Jisoo. “Hyejoo’s manastream is corrupted?”

“I was lead to believe as much, yes,” Jisoo confirmed. “Going by what Jungeun said, it appears that the act of purification is what keeps Olivia at bay. So long as Chaewon is linked to Hyejoo, the monster that laid waste to this city is kept away. Knowing that, I suppose it wouldn’t be farfetched to claim that its existence is linked to her corruption.

“Jungeun also mentioned that term, however—absolution, or going absolute,” Jisoo commented, confusion clear on her face. “I’ve never heard it before, but if what you speak of harkens back to the spectacle that I saw her perform before she was interrupted…I am, admittedly, rather concerned.”

“, dude. Harkens? For someone who uses words like that, you’re really in’ clueless.”

Coinciding with the loud smack of another electrified baseball into the sky above, Lisa’s jab towards Jisoo’s question dripped with disgusted disbelief. She turned her head towards the other three, scoffing at the swordswoman. “Lying to us about your rank or something? Sounding like a god damn Neophyte over here, not knowing about Absolution...Master sorceress, my .”

“Jungeun was interrupted, you said?” Rosé asked, cutting Lisa’s instigative taunts before Jisoo could even fully acknowledge them. Jennie’s expression darkened as Jisoo affirmed her curiosity with a nod. “So she was about to go Absolute?”

“She declared as much, yes. She summoned runic circles the likes of which I’ve never seen...they encompassed her body in a swarm of her mana. It appeared as if she was about to go unconscious, but then the spectacled woman stopped her.”

“Kahei,” Jennie quickly deduced. “Kahei, Jungeun, Chaewon, Hyejoo...so that’s a full unit, then.”

“Jennie, do you believe Hyejoo’s transformation into Olivia to be the selfsame phenomenon of Absolution?” Jisoo questioned, her eyes glued to the woman of fire. “I’m not sure I see how...they were vastly different by nature. Jungeun’s process required preparation, but Olivia’s appearance was nigh instant and without runic circles of any sort…”

“Yeah, that’s the part that’s throwing me off,” Jennie confessed as she slung her axe over her shoulder once more. “Not sure what’s going on there…”

“Was that bright light Chaewon’s effect, then?”

“Oh, the dome of mirrors,” Jisoo recalled in response to Rosé’s question. “No, that was Kahei.”

“What?” Jennie asked flatly. “That effect lit up the whole city. We saw it all the way out from where we were. That’s what made us run back. Kahei should only have a level two affinity with light...she really did that?”

“It was elemental modification. Chaewon charged Kahei’s staff with light, as well as Jungeun’s polearm.”

“Why light?” Rosé pondered aloud. “Darkness-aligned magi are weak to either water or electricity…”

“That would be the other point of interest,” Jisoo said with a nod as the discrepancy was pointed out. Unseen to her allies, Lisa’s focused face was listening intently to Jisoo as she hit another ball with ferocious might. “It turns out that Olivia has multiple weak points...the ones I happen to be most proficient with, in fact.”

“And you still in’ lost! God damn, you’re a piece of work, aren’t you, woman?”

Jisoo sheepishly grabbed one of her arms by the elbow as Lisa’s words stung her briefly. Jennie shrugged off the irritated woman of electricity, still focused on Jisoo. “That explains that, at least. Modify Kahei’s staff with just about any element and she’ll manage effects like that if she really needs to…”

“In any case, we need to get back,” Jennie dismissed the topic. “YG’s waiting. He’ll want to hear about this. Maybe he’ll be able to make more sense of it than I can. Better for him to be the one to explain the exact details about Absolution for you, anyway.”

Reaching behind her back with her free hand, Jennie retrieved a small crystal from her back pocket. Dark gray in color, she held it between her fingers as she extended it towards Rosé.

Rosé’s sky blue eye gave off a gentle light as the crystal became veiled by a small cloud of cyan. Coalescing into frost, Jennie lobbed the stone into the air and caught it again, feeling its frozen surface.

“Time to go,” she announced as she dropped it to the floor. Raising her boot, she stomped on it with great force. Dark gray mana taking shape as it shattered, the resultant cloud of dust reformed itself in front of her as it spread itself evenly.

A sleek black door materialized. With an eerily featureless front and the edges of its frame slowly seeping an aura of charcoal, its industrial appearance gave off an ominous, unsettling vibe. Turning halfway, Jennie looked towards Lisa at the other end of the rooftop. “We’re heading back, Lisa.”

Mid-swing, Lisa’s answer was delayed as she let loose another one of her baseballs. Satisfied with her spontaneous therapy, the electric sorceress took a deep breath as she tossed her bat over the edge of the building. It dematerialized in an instant, rapidly dissipating before she even turned around.

“Yeah, let’s get the out of here,” Lisa insisted as she walked past her allies and approached the door. “Hope the old man doesn’t keep us long…”

With her hands in her pockets, Lisa brought a flood of dark gray light upon the group as she unceremoniously kicked the door wide open. The loud sound of the impact made Jisoo jump with surprise. Nearly coming off its hinges, the door swung forth with great speed before it was forced to a stop by its frame.

“...in’ starving. Need some god damn food...”

Jennie sighed as Lisa lazily stepped through first, disappearing into the sea of tenebrous light before them. With a bothered huff, Jisoo caught her breath as she spoke. “Why must she always do that, and why am I never prepared for it...? Was the invention of the door knob simply absent from her timeline?”

“You’ll get used to it,” Rose stated quietly, her calm demeanor unbroken. She followed after Lisa, and as Jisoo approached after her, she looked to Jennie behind her.

“I, uh...I apologize once again, Jennie,” the swordswoman said with slightly downcast eyes. “Seeing Olivia...that monster, I...it was unlike anything I’d ever witnessed.”

“It’s alright, Jisoo. I don’t doubt you. The destruction speaks for itself,” Jennie said with a neutral expression, briefly looking over the ruined landscape around them once again. “You’re alive and you got us critical information. That’s a win I’m happy to settle for. Remember, it’s not about the battle—it’s about the war.”

Jisoo nodded slowly, feeling a strange sort of warmth emanating from Jennie that contradicted the utterly serious countenance she always seemed to wear. She found comfort in knowing that Jennie cared for her well-being and even came to her defense, despite the fact that they had only recently met.

Jisoo stepped forward, crossing over into the shadowy illumination that poured forth from the open door. Approaching the portal, Jennie stepped in and grabbed hold of the door knob behind her.

Closing it quietly, her thoughts escaped her lips as she murmured to herself.

“Shame you weren’t here, Sooyoung...”

With the click of the door shutting closed, Jennie considerably tightened her gloved hand’s grip on the shaft of her labrys.

“...maybe the next timeline will be the one in which you finally get to meet the new Blackpink…”