The Great Masquearade: Greed

UNDER A NEVER-ENDING SPELL: A CURSE

"Thank you, goddess." Blythe replied, feeling grateful for her safe place and for the healing of her wounds as well. Now that she is safe, the woman started to feel more calm and composed as she realized that her puppets are also fine. Mizuki was in pure rage, throwing out her puppets, trying to chase Blythe.

"How dare you escape from my infinity spell! I shall grant you eternal suffering!" The woman had no intention of running away from Mizuki, nor did she even want to waste her time with a long-term chase with the lady. Instead, she decided to quickly turn back around and faced the lady herself without losing her calm and collected attitude. Blythe's eyes then turned into the sharp and killer eyes, as she stared at the lady, giving her a rather icy and threatening look.

"I won't allow you to do any more harm to anyone else. So, I'm gonna have to end this little chase right now." Mizuki wielded out her sword made of ocean tears, the two creating a duel.

"You're just a mere human weakling who had no potential to win, Harper."

"If you truly think that a mere human weakling can't win in a fight, then you really underestimate the human potential. Let's just see whose words will be proven to be true in this fight." Blythe replied, staring at the lady as if she was sending her a cold and killer intent.

In sly nature, she summoned Theo's ghost to fight Blythe. Mizuki's eyes glowed in mocking way.

"But could you fight your loved ones, Harper?" The mention of Theo's ghost was enough to leave the woman at a loss for words. She was a bit taken aback by the lady's sly and mocking behavior, as her eyes were widened when she saw an image of Theo's ghost. The woman then let out a sigh in a bit of annoyance, before she finally replied back to her. Though she still has her calm and collected attitude, she was starting to feel infuriated with the lady's mockery of her loved ones.

"You really won't back down even after my warning? So you want to play tough, huh." Theo unconsciously walked towards Blythe, wielding his katana to fight.

"She's using me as her puppet..."

Theo's image suddenly appearing in front of her and wielding his katana against her had made her stop for a moment, and the woman started to realize that Theo's ghost was being controlled in some way. She couldn't think of a way to free his ghost from that control, so she could only come up with one other approach for it.

"So this is your method of attack now? By using my loved one to force me to back down?" Mizuki's heart shape lips curled and formed a sly smile.

"So you finally admit that you're a weakling?" 

The woman replied back to her with the same calm and collected attitude, but it was clear that she was now starting to reach into her limit with the lady's constant mocking and teasing behavior. "I never admitted that I was a weakling. I'm just stating that this is now your new attacking method, using my loved one to fight against me. I'm actually getting angry at you right now, and I won't back down anytime soon."

She effortlessly manipulated Theo to fight Blythe. Like a puppet, Mizuki controlled the  latter's actions.

"So... Easy." The woman couldn't help but feel a sudden sense of hopelessness as she saw that she couldn't really fight back against Theo when the lady was constantly controlling his movements. But for some reason, Blythe could still feel Theo's determination to resist the lady's control from behind her own mind. And suddenly, she started to think of a sudden plan that could maybe help her.

Mizuki observed Blythe's fighting style, while she effortlessly moves her puppet. "Are you feeling down Harper? You look very tired now.." The woman only kept on fighting with her puppets against the lady's attacks, but she couldn't hide the fact that she was feeling exhausted from this confrontation. She only looked back at Mizuki and she proceeded to give her a cold gaze.

"Oh don't you worry about me, I can still fight you to death right now if I want to." A-yeon attacked Mizuki with her wisteria poison, she was one of Blythe's puppets.

"Are we doing good, master?"

"That's perfect, A-yeon! Continue doing what you're doing!" Blythe encouraged A-yeon as she was using the poison wisteria on the lady, and the woman herself proceeded to use her own puppets as well to attack the lady, as well as herself in this fight. The hostess was giving her best to end this conflict in her favor.

In anger, Mizuki let the others face her wrath. "I shall put you under a time loop, Harper."

"Time loop? So that's the way you wanna try to defeat me?" The woman replied back at the lady, feeling a bit amused at that idea. If the lady wanted to use that method, then she's going to have to prove to her that her actions would make the latter feel bad. At the meantime, she was going to continue using her puppets and her own attack to go against the lady.

"Underestimating my power again?"

Mizuki mockingly uttered as she took out her glock and pulled a trigger which made Blythe stuck in a time loop.  The woman was stuck in the time loop, where she kept living the same past moments over and over again. It was a pain and she wanted to get rid of it, as she felt like this would last forever and she wouldn't be able to do anything but to live the same moments repeatedly.

As the curtains opened, she walked slowly through the stage. A hidden fake smile that makes the people adore the latter. It was her weapon to gain attention.

"Harper!" The lady walked with a hidden smile that she has to always maintain for the sake of the others, she walked towards the people, receiving their praise and applause. She had to maintain this mask, a mask as if there's nothing wrong, for the sake of her own sanity. Because the moment she shows who she truly is, who the real her is, everything will fall apart for her.

Akairo walks up to her, he was Blythe's assistant.

"As always, you perform really good, Blythe! I'm so impressed!" Though she was stuck in a time loop, Blythe managed to keep that smile on her face even after repeating the same moments. She even tried to keep the performance as consistent as possible, just to make sure that she can impress the people who were in the show.

"Oh... Well, I try my best to give the people the best performance that I can provide for them!" After the performance, Akairo escorted her to the main lobby.

"Our CEO  wants to talk with you about some matters, so I'll be giving you this folder."

"Oh, alright then. If you don't mind, may I ask what kind of matters my CEO wants to talk to me about?"
Blythe replied, feeling intrigued with what this kind of matter was. And she accepted the folder from her assistant, as she was going to investigate what was the reason for this matter she was mentioned about.