"What... what happened to me?"
Perona was startled. She tried to shout, but no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't make a sound.
"Hee-hee... from now on, you have to obey me. Mm-hmm..."
Sugar seemed like a different person. The pitiful little girl who had cried her eyes out was gone, replaced by someone looking down on Perona with smug satisfaction.
She was still just as short, but she radiated the unmistakable air of a queen.
Perona ground her teeth in fury and cursed Sugar over and over in her mind, but it was all in vain.
"Huh?"
Even while fighting Pica, Ye Chen had stayed alert to everything around him. When Perona suddenly turned into a toy, he was stunned and immediately leaped aside. Pica followed close behind, swinging his enormous body around and bringing his fist down again.
His fist howled through the air with an ear-splitting boom. Ye Chen flipped backward, moving like a nimble ape, and landed more than a dozen meters away. Pica's punch missed. With a thunderous crash, another huge crater appeared in the ground. Like a crazed beast, Pica charged after him again.
Ye Chen moved like the wind and darted up to Perona. "Hey, what happened to you?"
"Kill him."
Ye Chen didn't know what had happened to her. He wanted to ask so he could figure out how to help, but Perona couldn't say a word. She had become a toy puppet completely under Sugar's control. She still had her own soul and thoughts, but she had no control over her actions.
Kill him... kill him? Why? Why won't my body obey me?
Sugar's command was like a spell. Though Perona didn't want to, her hands struck out at Ye Chen.
"Hee-hee..."
At some point, a small basket of grapes