Chapter 50: The Mask And The Dread Meister

The landscape was barren except for some jagged rocks and twisted trees that grew from the ground like bone. The air held a stifling energy that made it difficult for regular people to breathe.

Muffet stood alone in the center of this forsaken world. Her long cloak, which had once billowed with elegance was now tattered. Her eyes were hardened, but the exhaustion was heavily in her bones.

Dirt streaked her pale face alongside dried blood. And yet, her body stood unbroken. It was eerie—the way she remained unscathed.

And around her… the Senodokidatsu. They gathered in a shifting circle. Their bodies were between humanoids and nightmarish-looking monsters. Some had limbs that twitched at unnatural angles, fingers too long, or bodies flickering in and out like candlelight.

Yokuni stood opposite her. Her flowing silver dress was caught in the light of the Senodokidatsu realm. The intricate wolf motifs woven into the fabric lit up when she swayed. Her long black hair cascaded down her back looking untouched by the filth of the land around her. The cold gleam of her yellow, lycan-like eyes was unwavering through the unnatural darkness. Above the left breast of her dress, the faint outline of a stylized wolf tattoo was glowing beneath the glowing fabric.

“You chased me all the way here,” Yokuni said with a smirk. “And look where that got you. No way to escape. No backup. Just you against us."

Her smirk widened as surrounding Senodokidatsu edged closer.

"By yourself, you won't last long against an army."

Muffet’s fingers drifted toward her own face.

“I’m no longer on the Divine Blade Society's radar…” she whispered with a strange serenity settled over her features.

Then—her lips curled into a slow, creeping smile.

“I can be as wild as I want… and no one is here to stop me.”

Yokuni's smirk faltered as curiousity flickered in her eyes.

A deep, unnatural chill settled over the battlefield. The Senodokidatsu around them recoiled slightly.

A blue aura began forming around Muffet’s face. Wisps of ice-cold mist curled from her skin to the air like spectral tendrils. The temperature plummeted. Yokuni’s golden eyes narrowed. She took a step forward but then, her breath hitched.

The mist solidified as a chilling glow spread, molding itself into the shape of a mask which formed over Muffet’s face.

Icy blue gemstones glowed where its eyes should. Dark frost patterns wove across the mask like creeping veins and jagged black ice crystals jutted from its edges. A twisted, tainted aura bled from it as tendrils black mist slithered outward.

Muffet breathed in.

The air itself seemed to darken.

Her stance loosened. A suffocating pressure filled the battlefield. Unease slithered through the air.

Yokuni’s eyes widened.

She knew that power.

A whisper left her lips, “…A DokiDatsu Mask.”

Senodokidatsu Throne Room – Trombone’s Domain

Trombone remained atop his throne fused skulls and sinew, Before him, the skeleton soldier remained kneeling after his previous report was delivered.

Trombone scoffed. “Muffet. Hah. What a nuisance.”

He leaned forward slightly. “There were once two sisters.” He lifted two fingers lazily. “Both members of the Divine Blade Society. Muffet and Miffet.”

He spoke with disdain. “Muffet was a Captain then—and somehow, she still is.” He waved a hand. “She only exists because I allowed her to live during my first assault on their pathetic society.”

The skeleton remained still. Trombone’s fingers curled against his armrest.

“She and her sister were infused. Lynx and Arachne. Miffet, as expected, became a true Senodokidatsu. She is a perfect example of my work of art.” He smirked with a hint of satisfaction creeping in. “She embraced her nature. Became something greater.”

Then, Trombone’s face darkened and he scowled. “But Muffet… that woman is a pest.”He leaned back and tapped his temple. “Somehow, she subdued Lynx from within. Dominated it. Bent it to her will.” His fingers twitched slightly before he exhaled sharply.

“She hasn’t used that power since that day.”

His lips curled in amusement. “But now…”

A pulse of icy blue energy exploded outward from Muffet. Her aura swallowed the surrounding area in a frostbitten haze.

The ground shattered beneath her when she moved, which was too quick for her eyes to see.

Before the Lycan leader could react, a clawed hand, coated in black frost slammed into her gut.

A shockwave detonated from the impact.

Yokuni’s body bent inward from the sheer force. She was launched through the air like a ragdoll.

The Senodokidatsu that was moving in froze. Muffet raised a single hand. Fingers splayed.

A whisper left her lips.

“Mystcry Arts #30 – Cutting Light.”

It should have been white. A holy glow meant to pierce through darkness.

But through the lens of the Dokidatsu Mask, it became a black color which consumed the light and twisted it. The usual glow was replaced by a void-like gleam that crackled with corrosive energy.

And then—

FIVE BEAMS FIRED.

The five beams of blackened light screamed through the air, carving destruction into the horde surrounding Muffet.

The first beam pierced a Senodokidatsu’s skull, imploding it in a burst of dark frost. The second and third swept through the ranks and erased bodies before they could even react. The fourth speared through a monstrous figure with elongated limbs, severing it into two twitching halves before it disintegrated into blackened mist.

The fifth tore through three at once.

Silence followed—only for a moment.

And then, the remaining Senodokidatsu lunged.

Muffet’s head barely tilted. She lifted her hand once more—and fired again.

This time, there was no pause between shots.

Rapid-fire destruction.

Beams tore through the charging Senodokidatsu in rapid succession, ripping through torsos, splitting skulls and leaving behind only fading traces of their existence.

One Senodokidatsu barely had time to raise its arms before its body vanished in a blink. Another attempted to flank her—only to be erased mid-motion.

They fell. One by one. Second by second.

The army that once stood as an overwhelming force was reduced to less than ten in mere moments.

Yokuni, still recovering from the earlier blow staggered to her feet. Her eyes widened.

Muffet slowly turned toward her, stepping over the crumbling remains of those who once surrounded her. She tilted her head. Her voice emerged in a twisted, distorted tone—monstrous, yet still unmistakably her.

"Sorry, did you say something about numbers?"

She raised a hand and gestured to the nearly empty battlefield. A slow chuckle rumbled from behind the mask.

"Because I don’t see the numbers you’re talking about."

Yokuni’s breath was shallow, her mind racing. ‘That cutting light spell is a technique almost every Divine Blade member is able to learn and is a basic spell. Not only have I seen it from many Divine blade memebers I fought, but even from Muffet herself and yet, this woman reduced an army to nearly nothing with nothing more than that single attack? Impossible!’

Yokuni stood stunned but after a few seconds, A slow, calculated smile returned to her face.

"What a surprise."

Her hand moved and in a flash of light, she summoned a crystalline weapon to her hand.

Muffet’s eyes flickered toward it.

It was a blade of sheer transparency. The edges were impossibly sharp. The core of the blade was infused with an energy that seemed to pull at reality itself.

Muffet’s spoke with amusement. “The Divine Blade of Time…So this time… you're not showing a fake blade to mask it first.”

Yokuni smirked while tilting the weapon slightly.

When Yokuni had first wielded the blade, she admitted she hadn’t known how to use all of its powers yet. This was mere hours ago to Muffet.

Muffet’s spoke with playful malice. “You must think I don’t remember.”

The words had barely left her lips before she vanished.

Yokuni flicked her hand outward and sent out a pulse of dark energy. From the ground, monstrous figures erupted into being.

Senodokidatsu replicas. Their snarling forms surged forward, blocking Muffet’s direct path and formed a shifting wall of monstrous bodies.

But—

Muffet did not stop.

She tore through them with blackened beams of Cutting Light , vaporizing the false creatures. The replicas barely lasted seconds.

Yokuni was already moving.She darted in with the crystalline blade arcing in a precise horizontal slash.

And then—

A flare of black light.

The blackened energy of Cutting Light solidified for a brief moment like an obsidian edge. She swung her arm forward to meet Yokuni’s attack head-on.

Metal clashed against energy.

A shockwave detonated from the impact.

Yokuni’s eyes widened in shock.

"You're wielding it—like a sword?!"

Muffet grinned.

Yokuni stumbled back with her boots skidding against the cracked battlefield.

Muffet tilted her head.

“As long as I wield my Mystcry like this, that blade can’t reach me, can it?”

Her fingers twitched.“So why don’t you put that little toy away and we get started for real?”

Yokuni’s grip on the Divine Blade of Time tightened.

Her heart pounded, but her face remained neutral. ‘She was waiting for this.’

This was why Muffet unleashed that overwhelming power. Why she tore through the Senodokidatsu with nothing but a basic spell. She was forcing her into a state of panic.

Yokuni’s eyes narrowed slightly. ‘She wanted me to bring this blade out.’

Yokuni’s grip loosened, and with a flick of her wrist, the Divine Blade of Time vanished in the air. She let out a small exhale. Then, glass formed around her. They hovered in the air like waiting vipers before they were launched off.

Muffet let out cutting lights to shatter the incoming shards with a resounding burst of force.

But Yokuni had already begun to move. She was pacing around them in a circle. Muffet’s predatory gaze followed her, step for step.

Yokuni’s fingers twitched.

Four new shards formed but this time, they didn’t fly directly. Instead, they twisted into a spiraling beam of glass and launched off at Muffet with ruthless speed.

Muffet didn’t flinch. Her fingers curled, and five beams of blackened Cutting Light erupted from her fingertips to intercept.

Glass met darkness. In a clash with neither side giving an inch, but Muffet’s gaze sharpened in that moment.

.’A Glass beam, but something’s off here…’

And then—she felt it.

A presence behind her.

Muffet’s eyes widened slightly and side eyed what was at her back. She saw that there was not one but two Yokuni’s, the one clashing with her and the one behind her.

But this one was different. A deep, feral energy pulsed from Yokuni’s body which underwent a rapid shift—her limbs grew leaner. A Lycan-like mask fused over her face appeared over her face and fangs glintied beneath the eerie glow of her new aura. Her fingers elongated and became tipped with predatory talons that crackled with dark energy..

The masked Yokuni struck first with a clawed sipe into Muffet’s side. Muffet skidded across the battlefield. Her feet skid across trenches into the ruined ground. Her spell shattered in an instant.

Muffet let out a quiet breath.

'She baited me…She used that first glass attack not just as a distraction… but to create a replication mid-fight. She must’ve concealed it in the energy clash between her glass and my Cutting Light….’

Yokuni’s masked face tilted slightly. Dark energy still pulsed from her body.She exhaled slowly.

“I’m not going to toy with you anymore. You asked for this.”

Muffet, despite the clear dent in her side from the previous attack, grinned. Her fingers twitched slightly as remnants of her Cutting Light spell flickered around her hands.

"That’s what I like to hear."

Both warriors began to move—slow. They circled each other like two beasts waiting for the right moment to pounce.

Yokuni’s clawed fingers flexed. Muffet raised her own fangs.

Then—

The very air shuddered as Muffet and Yokuni launched forward at the same time.

Muffet’s dark blue aura ignited like a storm. Yokuni’s own blackened energy flared to meet it, .

A shockwave detonated from the impact of their claws meeting in the center of the battlefield. The sheer force of their collision sent howling winds blasting in all directions.

Muffet grinned through the pressure. Yokuni’s eyes narrowed with the glow of her mask flaring.