As the white mist spread, Fanil, Sophia, Lily, and Totapara returned to an open clearing. Not far away, a little girl in a white dress sat on the ground, staring at them in shock.
"Are you the Witch who's been pestering her these past few days?" Lily called out. "Where did you come from?"
"I'm not telling you!" The girl shook her head and pointed at the White Wolf before her. "I'll keep pestering her until she agrees to give up Frost-Wolf Forest!"
Lily and Fanil exchanged a glance, then spoke in unison. "You're with Girislav?"
"Huh?" The girl wasn't very old, and she was clearly no match for the likes of Wendy, who had spent years wandering Dragon Tooth City and the Barbarian camp. It took Lily and the others only a few words to see through her.
"You're no Nightmare, either." Fanil raised the five tails of her dream form. "I advise you to tell the truth. Otherwise, whether you're a Witch or even a Mind Mentor, you won't be getting out of here!"
"No! Xia Mei will never give up!" the girl shouted, then turned into a mass of shadow and clung to the ground beneath their feet.
"Watch out!" Lily had recently visited Dragon Tooth City, where she'd found some documents and Magic Potions left behind by her father. From them, she'd learned that the powerful among the Devil Race were often extremely difficult to deal with. They were willing to wait hundreds or even thousands of years, slowly interfering with and eroding the minds of High-Rank powerhouses.
But Xia Mei, beneath their feet, was no powerful member of the Devil Race. At most, she made the ground beneath the girls feel sticky. They didn't feel their magic draining away, either.
"Totapara, if you sign a