In a state of utter concentration, pouring every ounce of strength into the moment, I barely held onto consciousness when Beatrice’s voice resonated through my mind.
“…Congratulations, Eva. You won.”
With her words declaring my victory, I stared blankly ahead.
What met my eyes was the sight of the sword I had thrust with all my might, embedded in Beatrice’s chest.
“…Ah.”
Only after seeing it did I realize the situation, uttering a small gasp of astonishment.
I did it.
I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow I managed to land a hit on Beatrice.
Yet, despite achieving this near-miraculous feat, I couldn’t fully rejoice.
Having channeled all my strength into that attack, I was now in no condition to continue the fight.
In contrast, although Beatrice had sustained a life-threatening injury, she could still speak, indicating that she was in a far better state than I was.
She had just said I won.
But if she were to change her mind and pull the sword from her chest to attack me right now, I had no way to defend myself, and fear gripped me.
In that moment of dread, I watched as Beatrice slowly reached out her hand toward me, her expression complex and unreadable.
“…Ugh!”
Her hand, a harbinger that seemed to erase everything it touched, was gradually extending toward me.
I struggled to move my body, desperate to avoid her reaching hand.
However, my exhausted body had no strength left to dodge her slow advance.
Thus, I could only helplessly gaze as Beatrice’s hand drew closer to me.
But her hand never made contact with my body.
“…?”
Just before her hand could touch me, it stopped in front of my eyes, leaving me both startled and perplexed.
If she wanted to kill me, she could have done so right then. Why hadn’t she?
As those thoughts flashed in my mind, Beatrice chuckled softly, as if amused.
“…Hide and seek, Eva. You won, so I must keep my promise. What you seek is down there. You’ll find it if you keep searching.”
She pointed downward with her outstretched hand.
…The sacred relic, down there?
In that moment, as I looked where Beatrice gestured—the gaping pit in the floor—I realized something.
“…Hehe, that was fun.”
As her murmuring faded, I felt the weight of something pulling away from the hand gripping the sword.
Before I could raise my head to comprehend that strange sensation, my vision was filled with the sight of Beatrice plummeting downward.
I couldn’t discern why, but her face wore a relieved smile as she fell.
With that soft declaration of fun, Beatrice vanished into the endless abyss below.
“Ah….”
I stood there for a moment, staring blankly at the spot where Beatrice had fallen, before I finally grasped what had happened.
…Did I defeat her…?
I won against Beatrice…?
“Wha…?!”
The moment the realization hit me, the tension in my body released.
I almost fell into the abyss with Beatrice, but thanks to the remaining wings of flames, I barely managed to land on solid ground.
As soon as I safely touched down, the wings of fire on my back gradually dispersed, as if fulfilling their role.
“Aria…!”
In that instant, I feared that the exhausted Aria might vanish, so I desperately reached out toward the scattering flames.
To my relief, the flames gathered on my palm as if to say don’t worry.
The flames that had gathered took the shape of a small egg.
As I stared at the egg in bewilderment, it began to glimmer brightly.
“Ah….”
Seeing that glimmer, I instinctively understood.
Aria hadn’t died.
Ah, she just needed to rest temporarily in this form because she had exhausted her power in such a short time.
“…Thank you, Aria.”
I sighed in relief, tightly clutching the egg that was Aria in my hand, thanking her for lending me her strength and for not leaving me.
However, amidst my relief at Aria’s safety, another thing suddenly caught my eye.
[…How surprising. I truly didn’t think you would succeed.]
The pitch-black sword, Lucy.
Her words suggested she didn’t believe I could achieve this, but upon seeing her, I remembered something I had completely forgotten and rushed to exclaim.
“That’s right, Yoon Si-woo…! Aria, where’s Yoon Si-woo?!”
Before fighting Beatrice, Yoon Si-woo hadn’t been in a good condition at all.
Realizing I needed to confirm his state as quickly as possible, I urged Aria, who had evacuated him, to tell me where he was.
She nodded in the direction where Yoon Si-woo was located.
Even in such a battered state, where did she find the strength to do that? I ran frantically toward the direction Aria pointed.
But when I found Yoon Si-woo,
[…Oh no. It seems as expected.]
“…Yoon, Si-woo?”
His condition was already at a point of no return.
“…Eh? W-wait a moment.”
It was evident that he was in such a state that anyone would recognize he was dying.
His body was engulfed in dark, prominent veins, like they were corrupted by magic.
His skin was pale as a corpse.
But what terrified me the most was—
“…No, no! This can’t be! It’s a lie…?”
There was no sign of life, no breath rising and falling in his chest.
“…Hey, hey! What’s going on here? Breathe! Breathe!!”
Suddenly gripped by fear, tears welled up in my eyes.
I screamed like a madman, checking for Yoon Si-woo’s breath and heartbeat.
To be honest, I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing or if his heart was beating.
It felt as if nothing was stirring within him, as if he were already dead.
But I decided to think of it as my own inexperience, my inability to sense it.
Because if I couldn’t feel anything, it meant Yoon Si-woo was already dead, and I couldn’t accept that.
“…He must live, he must survive.”
[…What are you doing?]
So, I pressed both hands onto Yoon Si-woo’s chest to try and revive his heart and breath.
Remembering the CPR technique I learned long ago.
I dug into my memories and pressed his chest with all my might.
“Come on, open your eyes, open them…!”
[…His body is tainted by magic. Do you think performing that will bring him back?]
Quickly. What comes next?
Was it artificial respiration?
“Breathe, please… open your eyes…!”
[Don’t do that. Move aside. I don’t want to use it, but I have a method… Can’t you hear me?]
But even with my chest compressions or artificial respiration, all that came out of Yoon Si-woo’s mouth was black blood, not breath.
It was a blatant sign that my efforts were utterly futile.
But even knowing that, I couldn’t stop.
I couldn’t let Yoon Si-woo die just like this.
“I promised, didn’t I? That we would win, that we would return safely. We made that promise.”
Memories of my time with Yoon Si-woo raced through my mind.
Though it was often difficult, they were invaluable memories to me.
He had saved me countless times; I had received so much from him that I could never repay.
“Keep your promise, you… you have to…”
Remembering that made it impossible for me to let him die like this.
I couldn’t stop my hands.
“So please….”
So I prayed earnestly to the gods.
Please save Yoon Si-woo.
With that desperate wish, I spoke to him.
“Wake up, Yoon Si-woo….”
Tears streamed from my eyes and plopped onto Yoon Si-woo’s face.
And then it happened.
“…What…?!”
The tears that fell ignited into flames.
Before I could even react.
The sudden flame blossomed, enveloping Yoon Si-woo’s entire body.
I panicked, trying to extinguish the flame, but quickly realized something unusual.
“…It doesn’t hurt, does it?”
The blazing flames bore no heat.
Upon closer inspection, Yoon Si-woo’s body wasn’t burning.
Flames that don’t burn anything.
That strange fire I had seen before, why was it here now?
[…What is this?]
Just as I was bewildered, Lucy’s astonished voice filled my ears.
And I immediately understood why Lucy was so surprised.
“…Ah.”
How could I not be surprised?
Within the flames, as if by magic.
I saw the dark veins that had enveloped Yoon Si-woo’s body gradually dissipating.
I witnessed color returning to his pale skin.
And as he coughed a few times, spitting out black blood, Yoon Si-woo began to breathe again.
Finally, the flames that had enveloped Yoon Si-woo began to calm.
As the fire subsided, Yoon Si-woo appeared far more stable than before.
Seeing that, I realized what that fire had consumed.
[Ah, I see. What I felt earlier wasn’t an illusion.]
Lucy mumbled in disbelief.
[Honestly, I never thought something like this was possible. It’s absurd.]
What I witnessed wasn’t merely flames that didn’t burn anything.
[Flames that consume only magic.]
It was simply flames that could burn magic alone.
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