Book 3: Chapter 68: Flowers and Anchor
"Ah, this is my true body, of course. I wouldn't be so insincere as to meet Master Mezro'nan and yourselves via a proxy or clone. Besides, if I was strong enough to own an X-ranked clone, I would be strong enough to force answers from you instead of needing to ask, though I would still be polite about it I'd like to think," Lady Carnation answered with a smile.
Lone couldn't sense that anything was off using either of his skills and that only made him even more certain she was lying to some degree.
Lady Carnation had really dug a hole for herself in Lone's mind. He was deciding if she was a witch by throwing her into a river with stones tied to her ankles. If she drowned, she was innocent, but if she escaped, of course she was a witch. It was a lose-lose for her image either way.
'We're going to kill her. I don't doubt for a second that she doesn't have clones or spores or whatever that can let her regrow, but that doesn't matter right now. It might later but not now. If she gives me no stats or she escapes, use Minor Time Control and tell me if we can kill her cleanly even with your magic sealed or if I should be peaceful. On board?' Lone asked Sophie.
'Of course. We will encapsulate this place in a 100-fold layered barrier and then teleport out, teleport Princessling Seres in, and then finally, we shall go back out once more and use Mana Sensing and barrier magic to assist you in combat should things complicate. We can do little more given she has already drained our MP in her attempts to enter our mind,' Sophie replied. 'Her emotions are near-impossible to read but we do not sense anything overly suspicious in her mana, so she should not be expecting a surprise ambush.'
Lone liked the sound of that. 'Count to five and then start.'
He frowned. "That's certainly true, the clone bit. The last two X-rankers I've met with clones... well, the clones were much weaker than the actual person was. So, flower magic, huh?"
"I'm sorry, what?" Lady Carnation replied, confusion on her face.
Sophie disappeared and at the same time a brilliantly shining jade barrier that looked rather thick sealed the entire space. Lone leapt across the room, his Agility having been applied, and he stabbed all nine of his tails into Lady Carnation.