Emi had an innocent and sweet smile as she asked Mia to repent by dying. Perhaps if she was a samurai, that might've made sense, but that age had ended a long time ago. As for Mia herself, she didn't seem to notice anything change, still sniffling and choking out apologies one after another.
"I... I..."
She one hand onto the side of her face, getting it messy from the snot and tears. She swallowed hard before finding a way to get herself up from the ground.
"I'll make it up to you. I swear..."
The Emi smiled radiantly, holding her hands together and up to the side in delight.
"That would be great! All will be forgiven if you just take that big sword and put it into your neck!"
Silently, Mia pulled out her katana with a deadpan expression on her face.
While holding it out, she slowly lifted up her head as a shaky smile gradually formed, one that looked like it took everything she had to maintain.
"Emi... I don't know what you saw in me, but-"
With a flash, her katana pierced through.
But it wasn't through her own neck, but rather through the image of Emi. Mia slowly closed her eyes.
"I will come back. No matter what."
The illusion suddenly broke apart, while the bunny was laying on the ground, bleeding out from Mia's strike. While it was hard to decipher an expression from an animal, it still seemed as though its eyes were widened in disbelief, as though it couldn't have understood how things fell apart.
Mia slowly took a deep breath and exhaled upon returning to the waking world. She still did very much look like a mess, with tears and snot. Yet, there was a sense of determination in her near-expressionless face.
She had known for a while that it was all an illusion, but just because she knew that didn't change how it affected her emotions. After all, despite just being visions, they were still real things that had happened to her.
Only after forming her resolve, was she able to break out of it all.
The bunny had used the time it stalled for to read through Mia's memories and build a place that it believed could break her. What better than the room she spent most of her childhood in?
Unfortunately, it didn't work out, prompting the bunny to desperately try and prey on her insecurities about Emi.
However, they didn't work either. Because while it was true Mia harbored incredible amounts of guilt towards Emi, she also saw Emi as her hope. After all, it was her that saved Mia in the first place.
The man in a suit looked on curiously for a moment but got over it fairly quickly.
"Once again, your team is the winner. From this point on, the order has been determined."
Mia didn't seem to hear him, still standing in place and looking at the sky. As for Jack, he hopped off from Emma's princess carry, finally regenerating most of his foot allowing him to walk forward.
Unlike his usual overexcited self, he walked slowly over to Mia. The only sound was his footsteps crunching against the tall grass that covered his legs. When he did eventually get next to her, Jack got on the tip of his stubs and reached up into the air.
He gently patted Mia on the head a few times before going back down.
Without a word, he hurried back with a bright smile on his face. Mia blinked a few times, slowly turning in his direction, wondering if she was still under an illusion. Though Jack just came and went without any explanation. It was hard to tell if it was just a whim or if he was actually trying to comfort her.
For some reason, Mia couldn't bring herself to ask, almost like it would tear down the walls between a vain relationship.
Regardless, there wasn't too much time to ponder over it, as the man in a suit had already tossed a card over to Jack, who caught it easily. He brought it up to his face and smiled excitedly when he saw it.
It was a 10 of diamonds, one up from his last one which was a 9 of diamonds.
"Wow! I got really lucky!"
Mia wiped her face and calmed herself down. She walked over and blinked a few times before looking at the card Jack had. She felt concerned, even if it wasn't really her place to do so.
"Will you... be ok?"
Jack turned around with a confident smile, barely peeking out from underneath his mask.
"Of course! I'll be great!"
Mia's lips parted slightly, but she shut them soon after. She recognized it wasn't her place to judge his decisions when he was able to take care of a 9 of diamonds. Although the 10 should be harder, it was only one level higher, so it probably wasn't that much worse.
Jack hurried over to Emma while holding onto the card as though it were a prized possession.
"Can you show me where I can find this one?"
He seemed to realize that Emma knew where all the monsters were, and rather than being curious his wishes were as simple as wanting to have a guide. Emma let out a giggle.
"Of course, just follow after me."
Mia was breathing pretty heavily and still in a bit of shock but didn't forget to carry Jessica along with her. Emma was walking casually, like she was taking a stroll so it wasn't too hard for Mia to keep pace.
After a bit of traveling, they did indeed come across a cage with a padlock of a 10 of diamonds. However, unlike what a normal person might expect, the cage itself wasn't all that huge.
Inside, was a tree that wasn't particularly large or small, though it did have a tint of blue. However, the trunk of the tree was quite thin and twisted around smoothly almost like it was trying to imitate a fluid. The branches followed a similar pattern, while there was a distinct lack of leaves on said tree, except for the occasional light blue leaf sticking out of the tips of some branches.
And at the top of the tree, was an owl.
It wasn't a particularly large one, unlike the fusion of fox and coyote. In fact, compared to average owls, it was a bit on the smaller side. It had a large head and beady eyes, nearing the side of being cute more than anything else.
There didn't seem to be anything particularly special about the owl, though it wasn't as though previous monsters didn't have deceiving looks before.
Though naturally, none of those things occurred to Jack. He hadn't even thought of them in the first place. The only thing he saw was something that looked like fun to him. Thinking any further than that was honestly beyond him.
Without any sort of planning, he rushed over with a smile on his face.
The others watched silently as he quickly put the card in, unlocking the padlock. The entire time he was doing so, the owl was staring at him unblinking. The moment the padlock fell to the ground, the owl began flying up into the air.
By the time the bars of the cage had lowered, the ones at the top began bending strangely, giving the owl enough space to fly up out of it.
While it did not look all that intimidating, the fact that it was so high up in the sky presented the challenge of having some kind of ranged attack that would allow you to hit it in the first place.
Which other than throwing weapons at it, Jack didn't realistically have any.
Still, he seemed confident. Though before he could enact any plans, the strange tree in front of him began to distort. The blue leaves shined brightly as the branches began moving as though they were limbs, pointing at Jack.
In a matter of seconds, dozens of high-pressure water beams were shot at him. Strangely enough, only two of them were directly aimed at him, one at his head and the other at his body. As for the others, they covered every single different possible move he could possibly take, whether it was left, right, forward, backward, or even in the air.
Perhaps if Jack had super speed or teleportation, then maybe he could get out unscathed. But unfortunately, that wasn't one of his powers.
Trying to dodge at all in the first place would most likely make Jack get hit by more of the water beams.
And other than tilting his head to the side slightly, he didn't even try to dodge.
Thundering booms resounded all around him from the water crashing, while a cracking sound came from his jaw, as half of his teeth were blown away. And at the same time, a clear hole formed in his stomach, with mashed intestines spilling out. There was one of the intestines hanging out from said hole.
While the battle might have only just started, it was needless to say that this owl was far stronger than the fox and coyote.