"This Mana Crystal is incredible," Sonaya whispered, feeling the energy dissolve into her system. "It's more than double my current capacity. Eldest Sister must have spent ages preparing this."
In this world of technology, "Mystery" was suppressed. Even though Sonaya was incredibly old, she was weak here. Her "puppets" had cost her 30% of her mana just to create.
She had absorbed her insane youngest sister eons ago, making her the sister with the most raw mana, but centuries of sealing had drained her.
"Three sisters in this city alone? This place is a goldmine," Sonaya muttered, twisting her earring. "And the 'Chosen One' is here too. Fate has a sense of humor."
She couldn't move openly yet. Her sisters—especially Georgia and Rhea—were combat-oriented. If she tried to control them now, Rhea would cut her head off in a second. Her specialty was "Control," but that took time against equals.
"Tch. Those three were useless. I gave them top-tier abilities—Psychic Shock, Equalizing Scales, and Object Stasis—and they still got wiped out."
She snapped her fingers. The shadows beneath the three puppet corpses expanded like a swamp, swallowing them whole.
"Shadow Magic is so convenient for cleaning up trash. If they're useless as a trio, I'll just use them as raw materials."
She picked up a flyer from the table. It bore the emblem of the Himegami Cult.
"A cult of beautiful young women? Interesting. I hope Akari Fujito is useful enough to infiltrate their inner circle."
She recalled placing a hypnotic seed in Akari's mind. She had felt a strange resistance—something similar to her own "Control" but different.
She had also found a "Favor Alistair" suggestion in Akari's mind already. She didn't know who put it there, but she used her power to reinforce it.
"Now, we wait. Alistair... let's see what you do next."
Sonaya walked out of the house. The "father" of the house walked over, closed the door, cleaned the room, and then went to bed.
He woke up a few minutes later, looking confused. "Ugh, my head. What time is it? Why was I sleeping?"