Roses are red (as are flames...)

The air in front of them was thick, with a violet hue that seemed to vibrate under the moonlight of the night sky.

The twisted Black Iriswood trees rose like cathedral columns, each trunk covered in phosphorescent mushrooms that breathed in pulses, as if the forest had a heart.

Ayato stopped in front of the path's entrance, watching the mist twist.

"Great... This screams 'dungeon with unfair maze mechanics!' Wanna bet if we take the wrong path, we'll appear back at the entrance?"

"Focus! This forest hides a malice denser than any battlefield..." Isolde, serious, moved forward without looking at him.

"It looks... beautiful. As if the flowers were magic lanterns." Vera tilted her head, uneasy after having informed herself beforehand about the foreboding nature of this forest.

Once they entered the area, the fog began to creep around them, and soon the shapes of the trees and the thorn walls seemed to repeat themselves, distorting the sense of space.

***

The first turn brought them back to the same clearing...

The second too...

The third time, Ayato swore he saw the same sign with a vague riddle that read:

"Leave theory and follow practice~"

"...The damn stage itself is trolling me...?", he muttered, gritting his teeth.

Isolde, for her part, held her head with her right hand as if experiencing a migraine.

Through the fog, she saw shadowy figures, former traveling companions on her crusade against her Father, murmuring nonstop as if their words were stabbing her like knives...

One looked directly at her, accusing:

"Why did you kill him!? Why did you let evil win!?"

"If I told you the truth, would you ignore it or interpret it in a convenient way..." Isolde whispered, convincing herself, before those shadows began to dissolve, once again becoming a violet mist.

Vera saw something else.

Little butterfly-shaped fairies danced among the mushrooms, laughing sweetly.

She reached out to touch one, but when the creature turned, its face was an insect mask with multiple eyes, as if they were Beelzebub´s believers.

"No, no, no…!" She stepped back, covering her mouth.

The forest wasn't just confusing them: it was playing with their minds by dredging up their memories, molding their fears into mirages, or simply making them feel insignificant.

***

Vera runs to the beginning of the forest labyrinth, witnessing a very bizarre but logical sight given how the forest works...

It was swords clashing, the result of a fight, implying that Ayato and Isolde are fighting due to the influence of the fog, believing them to be illusions or some aggressive double.

"How do I know you're not the same buffoon as always?!" Isolde says in a rare display of anger, in which she has an advantage over Ayato due to the difference in power and skill with the sword.

"I should also say it, a vampire with a persecution complex!?" Although Ayato was in a vulnerable situation, he wasn't willing to give in, not to die prematurely or in that way.

Vera was about to call their attention to stop the fight, but she knows the risk of them trying to attack her by assuming that she will be another mirage, being the physically weakest of the three.

"Well, well! This is why fools choose to be heroes~"

The three of them shifted their gazes toward a red glow illuminating the fog, with Ayato and Isolde pointing their swords in that direction as Vera readied her spellbook.

At first, it seemed like a false dawn, but soon the crackling of fire filled the air.

Entire trees burned, and the smoke carried incandescent spores with it as the grass burned with their footsteps.

From the flames appeared a youthful silhouette with pale, thin skin, straight black hair, and an exaggerated smile on his seemingly handsome face.

He was wearing a charred black fur coat that seemed to flame with him, white pants with red flame designs, and his red undershirt was also charred.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, your favorite Dark Lord Candidate has arrived on stage!", he declared, spreading his arms.

A flame danced behind him, like a theater curtain.

"You? What the hell...? Why?!", Ayato blinked, recognizing at least his face after reading about him in the news and on the internet.

"You know this other guy who reeks of darkness?!", Isolde said, sensing another Dark Lord candidate in front of her.

"That madman is Tatsuya Homura! Better known as the Yokohama Arsonist!"

In Ayato's original world, Tatsuya Homura is a dangerous serial criminal and arsonist in the Yokohama district, suffering from antisocial personality disorder and pyromania.

He was never caught because his father was the district prosecutor and covered up his crimes, until Tatsuya died in an accident caused by his own obsession with fire two weeks before Ayato ended up in this world.

The last place in his distorted vision of reality is Kasugayama Academy, Ayato's former high school and one of the causes of his external isolation.

And now that same individual has been reincarnated in Luminovia, as an Infernal Pyromancer and another Candidate to succeed Dracula.

"Wow, even in this world, my reputation precedes me~"

Tatsuya said arrogantly, very confident in his fire-type abilities, while Isolde noted that he has the power to back it up, given that Dracula also has fiery powers.

"And you, too, are another candidate for Dark Lord... But unlike you, who don't even reach the Anti-Hero category, I have embraced the power to generate beautiful flames at my fingertips~"

"Fantastic, I'm looking at a walking, talking Flamethrower..." Ayato growled.

Tatsuya snapped his fingers, and a circle of fire surrounded the three as he spoke his next words.

"Welcome to my private show! Free entry, no way out~"

The forest turned into a furnace.

Tatsuya's every movement left a glowing trail, and he threw out columns of fire like brushstrokes on a canvas, a small demonstration of his power.

"This is art! A burning mural of despair! Adorned with the smell of burning objects and spit-roasted meat~" —he shouted while laughing maniacally, burning everything around him without paying attention.

"Art!? It's nonsense! You're destroying an entire ecosystem with your delusions!" Vera staggered, aware of her unusual display of anger, as she began to conjure water to stop the fires, but the smoke was permeated with burning spores, rendering her efforts ineffective.

Isolde tried to flank him and attack him unexpectedly, given that the arsonist uses pyrokinesis and fights barehanded, but the heat forced her back.

Meanwhile, Ayato rolled in the flames, gasping for air as his left arm burned.

"I love this shit!!!" Tatsuya shouts, punching the ground to generate a wave of fire.

Ayato, Vera, and Isolde take a direct hit, knocking them to the ground and leaving them in a disadvantageous position...

Thus, the three of them got off on the wrong foot in their first real boss fight.