Blaire stuck much closer to Alex ever since Irene appeared, and she always seemed to be at odds with her. The maid, however, never showed any retaliation nor seemed affected.

Alex developed very intimate feelings towards Blaire during the following months, but Irene always held a special place in his heart.

Unbeknownst to the runaway hero though, Blair was constantly fighting against Irene.

"What the hell are you?" Blair asked with blood trickling from the corner of her mouth as she confronted Irene in a dim back alley.

"I am just a maid serving the young hero."

"Bullshit, you are a monster in the skin of a woman. What evil plans are in your mind?"

Blaire casted a bone shattering curse and tried to break the maid's neck, but her head barely twisted before the spell shattered like the mana itself was unravelled.

"Please mind your manners. I am just here to serve the young hero."

"Do you ever stop lying? Your entire story is rubbish. I swear I will drag Alex away from your venomous grasp."

The wind stirred through the alley and Blaire felt like a truck hit her in the stomach, sending her flying and smashing through a concrete brick wall.

Blaire was a <Lv. 36> Witch, so whilst her class wasn't one with a particularly powerful body constitution, she was still very strong.

Despite this, she suffered severe internal injuries and all her organs groaned in anguish. She crawled out of the rubble while vomiting blood, her body forcefully holding itself together.

Under her robe, Blaire's entire stomach was turning shades of black and purple, signifying how serious the injury was.

"Why are you even so interested in the young hero," Irene asked while tilting her head in confusion, her face no longer smiling but with an ice cold gaze, like looking at an insect. "You have only known him for three months now. That's a bit too quick, isn't it? You have never even had sex."

"What the hell would you know, monster! No, not a monster, you're a witch, aren't you?"

Blair wiped the blood off her mouth as she spat those words in hate, causing her lips to be stained crimson by her own blood.

"A very good guess, it looks like I will need to dispose of you tonight now though."

"Because of you whores, I was ostracized by the party I was in and forced to leave. My class is a Witch whilst you witches had become a taboo throughout the kingdom. Not only did I end up in a party with that bastard, he even took my first time. Now, I found someone who is just like the past me, and you appear with sinister plans."

Blair slammed her staff into the ground with all the strength she could and poured her mana out into her skills.

"Like hell I will let you have your way!"Weakness, shattering and withering curses attacked in an invisible storm of mana waves. Her internal injuries worsened as a result of the exertion and she vominted more blood, collapsing to her knees.

Irene waved her hand and a three foot thick walls of hardened stone rose from the ground before dashing off to the side and up the building as fast as lightning, avoiding the curses and landing behind the fallen Witch.

She picked her up effortlessly by the hair with one hand, the other slapping her face and causing two teeth to fly out of her mouth.

"Not bad for a Second Step, but you are simply too weak."

"It was over this way!" The distant shout of the city guards could be heard alongside the clatter of steel boots on the ground.

Irene sighed and shook her head, dropping Blaire to the ground where she collapsed on the spot.

"How irritating, I want to kill you, but that is just going to make things more annoying. I will just take the young hero away now instead."

"…Like I will let you."

"You can't even stand up, there is nothing you can do."

"How about me?"

A man in crimson armor dropped down from above with his giant spear drawn. His body spewed mana as he thrust the spear down at Irie, creating several sonic booms that destroyed parts of the surrounding buildings in collateral damage.

Dust erupted from the epicenter of the collisions, but when it cleared, Irene was still unharmed.

She held her palm up and stopped the spear with a bubble shaped mana barrier around herself.

Unlike Blair, Jovran the Red was a true Third Step ranker, and a very powerful one too. His party members lined themselves up along the rooves, casting support magic while another vanguard charged at her with an oversized shield.

"Tch," Irene clicked her tongue and slammed her foot into the ground, causing the entire ground to quake and giant slabs to raise from the ground. "There is no point holding back anymore."

Irene deflected the heavy armored Third Step tanker away and summoned a magma whip in her hand, striking at his exposed back and digging deep into his armor, the surrounding metal turning red hot in the process.

His armor was an extremely hard alloy and capable of blocking most attacks of the Third Step. It had cost the party a fortune, but it had been cut through in a single attack. The tanker sweated bullets under his armor as he knew that if he were wearing a cheaper product, he would have been cut in two by that attack.

"Fuck! That hurts!" He shouted and quickly sought help from the party's mage, a woman who cast a water based spell to rapidly cool down the white hot area on the armor.

During this brief interlude, Jovran grabbed onto Blaire and carried her away.

The archer and mage of the party bombarded Irene with attacks, but the maid casually deflected, dodged, or negated each attack.

"What a monster… retreat for now and reform with the guards. Two hands can't stop a hundred attacks.""Are you fleeing like a coward?"

Irene's gaze had become crazed and her smile sinister as she watched the party retreat over the broken buildings. Jovran didn't fall for her taunt and prioritized securing Blaire.

"Are you crazy, fighting a monster like that head on?"

"…She's a witch…" Blaire weakly said as she felt her consciousness fading. "And where do you think your hand is?"

Jovran was carrying his giant spear in one hand while Blair was under the other, but his hand was tightly gripping onto her breast and occasionally squeezing.

"I figured as much, that was really dumb of you."

"Tch, you'll keep grabbing my breasts despite me telling you not to…"

"Don't sweat the small stuff, I did save your ass after all. It's not like it's the first time either."

The party quickly found the approaching guards and reported the situation before Jovran had the other female of his party, a Third Step Radiant Healer, tend to Blaire's wounds.

~~~~~

⠀

Irene didn't chase after them but instead went to grab Alex from the inn and take him away.

"Eh… oops."

Irene widened her eyes in surprise when she found that the destruction from her last attack had levelled even the inn, which was almost a block away. She rapidly threw debris away with her magic, even uncovering several wounded people who were caught in the damage, but Alex wasn't to be found.

Little did she know that Alex had snuck out after the Irene left the inn. A combination of his weak strength, now a <Lv. 17> Compounder, and sheer luck allowed him to slip under her awareness and follow in secret.

He witnessed the confrontation between Irene and Blaire with abject horror.

Blaire had previously approached him secretly to get him to escape from Irene with her, but he had always placed it down to jealousy and did his best to mitigate the conflict between the two women.

Irene had been patient and appeared to try get along with Blaire, but the latter was always against Irene, no matter the quest they were on.

The maid had shocked Alex during their quests when she demonstrated her magic, casting fireballs, flame whips and water blades, but it was nowhere near the scale of power she showed as she crushed Blaire into the ground.

Alex wanted to save her, but her was terrified. His entire world seemed to collapse around him as he fled.

"Please! Please save her!" Alex called out as he ran into a patrolling city guard squadron.

He quickly explained the situation and the guards reported the incident before rushing in the direction Alex directed.

Terrified and feeling vulnerable, Alex hid inside of a dark alley behind several dumpsters while the sounds of battle and destruction only continued to increase in scale.

"What the hell is going on…" Alex hugged his knees and continued to hide even as the sounds of destruction faded. "What is Irene?"