Chapter 687: The Beast Has Been Released

“There was this one time…”

Astrid began, her voice already heavy with exasperation.

“When she was younger and she decided she wanted to cook. Everyone knew it was a terrible idea. Everyone. But she insisted, and we thought, well, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“She blew up half the family house.” Charlotte finished flatly.

“She blew up—” Maria’s lips twitched. “How? What kind of kitchen has bombs in it?”

“That’s the point!” Charlotte threw her hands up. “There was nothing in that kitchen that could possibly explode! No gas tanks, no volatile ingredients, nothing! And somehow—somehow—she managed to level it without even using her blessing. It’s still a mystery to this day!”

Anya pinched the bridge of her nose.

“There was also the incident with the king of the Furlings. The big, fluffy cat people? Adorable race, all soft fur and twitching ears. She saw the king and immediately announced she wanted to pet him. Before anyone could stop her, she’d walked over and just…started.”

Anya shuddered.

“He was deeply offended and tried to fight back. But she suppressed him with her blessing and petted him anyway, cooing about wanting to keep him as a pet. It became an international incident.”

“I think I heard about that.” Maria said slowly. “It got swept up pretty fast—”

“Because my mother paid an absurd amount of money to bury it.” Charlotte muttered.

“Oh, my birthday.” Astrid said suddenly, rubbing her face. “A few days before my twelfth birthday, I was watching some animal documentary, and I saw a meerkat. I just thought they looked cool and mentioned I’d like to see one in person, once, casually. That’s all.”

She took a deep breath. “On my birthday, she told me my gift was waiting in the garden. Do you know what I saw?”

Maria hesitated. “…Meerkats?”

“MEERKATS!” Astrid’s voice cracked. “Not one! Not two! Not a hundred! Hundreds of thousands of them! The entire estate was absolutely infested with hundreds of thousands of meerkats! I was terrified! I thought they were going to eat me!”

“How is that even possible?” Maria demanded. “How do you even transport that many animals?”

“That’s just her blessing.” Mika supplied helpfully.

The stories kept coming, an avalanche of chaos.

“…she tried to skip a stone on a lake, hit it so hard half the water splashed out…”

“…she rearranged the migration patterns of fish across three continents, and fishermen were finding fish that had no business being in their waters…”

“…a politician spoke badly about her mother, and she arranged for tens of thousands of birds to bombard him everywhere he went—his house, his office, his car until he begged for mercy…”

“The all-you-can-eat buffet.” Charlotte said grimly. “Not a small one. A massive one. Industrial grade. ‘Eat as much as you want, we’ll never run out.’ She took that as a challenge. Three hours later, they were out of food. Completely. Not a crumb left.”

“Her mother had to pay for their entire restocking budget for the month.”

“And then there’s the—”

“Okay. Stop. Stop I get it.” Maria held up her hands. “She’s chaotic. I understand why you were relieved she wasn’t here.”

“She’s not just chaotic.” Astrid said with deep sigh that came from her heart. “She’s entirely unrestrained. She has a thought, and then she acts on it. There’s no filter. No hesitation. No pause to consider consequences.”

“She’s a girl of pure instinct.” Charlotte said.

“She has maybe two brain cells.” Anya corrected.

“Sometimes I wonder how she was born into our family.” Astrid mused. “Everyone else is smart and capable and controlled. And then there’s her—she’s definitely missing a few screws.”

Charlotte had her phone out now. “Just look at the group chat. These are real messages she’s sent over the years.”

She began reading aloud:

“GUYS I FOUND A DOG!”

“IT’S BIGGER THAN A HORSE!”

“IT’S CHASING ME NOW!”

“WAIT I THINK IT’S A S-Class VULCANO BEAR!”

—

“‘WHO PUT THE CAR ON THE ROOF?'”

Charlotte: “You did.”

“OH YEAH. IT WAS REALLY EASY!”

—

She scrolled further.

“I HAVE A QUESTION. IF I ACCIDENTALLY PUNCH A CASTLE DOWN, DOES THAT MEAN I’M ALLOWED TO KEEP THE BRICKS?”

—

“‘GOOD NEWS! I WON THE ARM-WRESTLING MATCH AGAINST THE KING OF THE OGRES!”

“BAD NEWS! I WENT TOO HARD AND BROKE HIS ARM! BUT ITS ALRIGHT. I THINK HE LOOKS BETTER WITH BANDAGES ANYWAY!'”

—

Maria stared at the three sisters, who were all slightly breathless from venting. They had clearly been holding this in for years.

“So she’s…” Maria searched for the right word. “A menace?”

“A force of nature.” Astrid added, as she stroked Aster.

“A natural disaster with legs.” Charlotte said before saying with relief, “Luckily, her mother called her away a couple of months ago to help close some rogue portals across the realms.”

Anya pushed up her glasses. “She’s been so busy traveling she hasn’t even been to school. Which means these past three days we actually got peace.”

“Goddess, if she’d been here.” Astrid shuddered. “She would have absolutely wrecked everything!”

“A nightmare.” Charlotte agreed. “Pure nightmare.”

Maria digested all of this. Then she turned to Mika, who was calmly inserting his key into his scooter’s ignition, apparently unbothered by the flood of horror stories.

“So.” Maria said. “What do you think of this so-called chaotic sister?”

Mika paused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm. Let me think.”

Then a snap of his fingers as he said,

“The family mascot!”

Maria frowned. “Mascot?”

“Well, more like a family pet, honestly.” He shrugged. “You see, for all her chaos, she’s basically a puppy. The kind that chases its own tail all day, brings you a stick when you throw one, wagging and slobbering and looking at you with those big innocent eyes. Simply lovable.” He smiled. “I think of her as a very goofy puppy.”

“I see.” Maria tilted her head. “So you don’t have any problems with her, unlike her sisters?”

Anya let out a dry chuckle. “Oh, you’ve got it exactly backwards.”

Astrid nodded. “Mika probably had it the worst with her.”

“He’s the one she gives the most trouble.” Charlotte agreed. “She’d challenge him to fights constantly. She even used to try to kick him out of the family, you know. She was probably his greatest tormentor in the past.”

“She’s given him more trouble than anyone else in the household.” Anya confirmed.

Maria looked at Mika with renewed curiosity. Everything she knew suggested Mika was the most beloved figure in the Battle Angel household.

And yet apparently this one sister, the chaotic one, the puppy had some kind of issue with him? But Mika himself clearly didn’t harbor any resentment.

She was about to ask more when Mika’s phone rang.

Not a normal ring. A stirring, heroic anthem—all trumpets and drums and the kind of melody that made you want to charge into battle.

He pulled it out of his pocket, and his expression flickered with surprise.

“Why is she calling me now?”

Maria asked. “Who?”

Charlotte answered, her voice filled with recognition.

“It’s the one and only Slayer of Billions, Queen of Slaughter, my beloved Auntie…”

“…the one you call the Maiden of War.”

Maria was taken aback for a second and couldn’t help but ask hesitantly,

“How did you know? You didn’t even look at his phone?”

“The ringtone gave it away.” She grimaced. “A few years ago, she made all of us set it to the old war anthem. It’s pretty distinctive.”

Maria felt a jolt of genuine excitement.

The Maiden of War! Of all the Battle Angels, she was the one Maria admired most!

Battle and blood and glory ran through her veins. She had personally slain more of the Eternal Queen’s forces than any other living being.

Her strength was legendary. A single punch could annihilate a country and yet she was said to be the most approachable of the sisters, the most down-to-earth.

During the war, she had eaten the same rations as common soldiers. She had drunk with them in the mess tents. She had laughed with them, cried with them, carried their coffins on her own shoulders.

She was a warrior queen who acted like a cheerful waitress at a neighborhood tavern. And her roguish, tomboyish charm had earned her a devoted following among women across every realm.

Maria counted herself among them.

“Why aren’t you all more tense?” Maria asked the sisters. “When the Maiden of Fate appeared, you were practically trembling. But now…”

Charlotte waved her hand dismissively.

“Auntie is completely chill. Super laid back. You could probably set her hair on fire and she’d just laugh and ruffle your head.”

“When I wanted to do something my mother wouldn’t allow.” Astrid added. “I always went to her. She’d let me do it and just make sure I didn’t get hurt.”

“She can be a bit…boundary-ignorant.” Anya said, a rare soft smile touching her lips. “And roguish. But she’s probably the easiest of our aunts to be around. You could treat her like a best friend and she’d be perfectly happy.”

Maria felt her admiration deepen. She looked toward Mika with an almost accusatory glare—why are you making her wait? Answer the phone!

Mika, however, was hesitating. The Maiden of Fate had promised to sabotage his plans. Was this call part of that? Some kind of trap?

But nonetheless, he answered.

Before he could even say hello, a voice burst through the speaker—urgent, beautiful, heroic, and deeply apologetic.

“I’m sorry, Mika. I didn’t want this to be the first thing to say to you since it’s been so long but…”

“…the beast has been released.”

“What?” Mika immediately frowned. “I thought she was with you closing portals!”

“She was.” The Maiden of War’s voice was pained. “But her duties officially ended today. And the moment they did and I mean the exact moment—she was already gone. She’s coming to find you right now. She’s probably already—”

“Wait, hold on—”

“I’m sorry. Just deal with her. She’s more excited than usual. Please make sure she doesn’t cause any international incidents. Bye, Mika. Take care, I’ll see you later!”

Click!

The line went dead.

The sisters immediately noticed his expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“What did auntie say?”

Mika looked at them.

“The beast has been released.”

The sisters tensed.

“She’s coming over here right now.”

He paused.

“And she’s even more excited than normal.”

Immediately, the sisters fell into defensive positions. Back to back. Eyes scanning the darkness in every direction.

“Which direction is she coming from?!”

“Is she already here!?”

“I don’t see her!”

“Where is she? Where is she right now?!”

Maria watched this display of utter panic with genuine bafflement.

“What exactly is going on? Why are you acting like the apocalypse is about to occur?”

“It is.” Astrid said, clutching Aster tighter. “The sister I was telling you about — she’s coming. She finished her portal duties, and now she’s on her way here.”

Maria frowned. “Isn’t that…a good thing? Don’t you like each other?”

“We love each other.” Anya corrected, eyes still scanning. “More than anything. But right now, she hasn’t seen us or more importantly, Mika in a very long time. And remember how I said she’s chaotic? Completely unbridled, does whatever pops into her head?”

Maria nodded slowly.

“Well, she’s going to be exponentially more uncontrollable right now, because she’s excited.” Anya’s voice was tight. “And that’s not something the three of us who are already exhausted from three days of being worked to the bone can possibly handle.”

Maria looked at Mika. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”

Mika shook his head, and there was something almost fond in his smile.

“Oh, trust me, it absolutely can. Handling that gremlin is a full-time job.”

The sisters continued their frantic surveillance.

“I don’t see her. She should be here by now.”

“Maybe she got distracted?”

“She doesn’t get distracted when Mika’s involved. She gets focused.”

“Wait.” Charlotte’s face went pale. “We forgot to check one direction.”

All three sisters looked up.

A shadow passed over the stars. Massive. Winged. It blotted out constellations as it moved.

Then, suddenly, it changed—the wings folding inward, the shape compressing, becoming smaller, more human. And it began to fall.

Whoosh!

And just them, a voice, impossibly loud and impossibly cheerful, shattered the night:

“MIKAAAA! I FOUND YOU!!!”

“Shit! She’s coming!” Charlotte whispered. “She’s coming oh gods she’s coming—”

“Brace yourselves!”

“PROTECT THE FOX!”

And before Maria could even process what was happening—

BOOM!

The earth itself bucked. The parking lot cracked in a spiderweb of fractures radiating outward from the impact point, dust and debris shooting into the air like an asteroid had struck. Even Mika’s scooter rattled and nearly tipped.

But Mika had moved placing himself squarely between the impact point and Maria, shielding her from the worst of the blast wave. When the dust began to settle, he straightened, squared his shoulders, and let out a long, resigned breath.

He hadn’t expected her to show up now, of all times.

But the storm had arrived. And somewhere in the settling dust, a figure was already rising to her feet.

“Hehe…I found you, Mika.”

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