“Kali, bring her back! Bring Kali back! Oh no! Ah! Aaaah!!!”
“······?”
Nicolas, holding the split spider monster and crying, was no longer a cardinal but a necromancer named Luna.
Sola stared blankly, desperately trying to wrap her head around the situation.
The conclusion she came to was simple.
‘I was fooled!’
She felt struck from behind.
Sola quickly turned around, but the cunning man who had been beside her moments ago had vanished.
He was neither one of the Four Heavenly Kings nor anything at all.
He impersonated one of the Four Heavenly Kings, coaxing her to kill another.
In hindsight, he was the enemy.
“Ah······.”
Sola’s vision blurred.
She had been tricked by the enemy, killing her superior in the process.
Realizing this far too late, she knew the pressing matter was something else entirely.
With confidential information about the Four Heavenly Kings, she had to hunt down Mi Jeong, the one who had coerced her into killing one of them.
No, even Mi Jeong was a pseudonym.
The spider monster had recognized another girl by that name.
“I’m sorry, Luna. But this situation is urgent. Before the main squad of the Sacred Knights arrives, I must quickly find the one who deceived me-”
“Shut up!!! I’ll kill you first! You you you you you you you!!! How dare you kill Kali! You killed her! How did I bring her back?! She was so close to perfection! How dare you hurt my Kali! Aaaah!!!”
“······.”
Thud, thud, thud.
Nicolas lost his mind and charged at Sola, throwing punches.
But his untrained fists couldn’t possibly hurt Sola.
She merely stood there, letting him hit her.
She thought time would smooth his anger and restore his reason.
But that was Sola’s mistake.
Luna had long since lost her sanity.
Recently, she had clung to a singular obsession with Kali just to keep her reason intact.
But with Kali’s body utterly mangled, there was no hope for her sanity to return.
Forget about purpose.
Luna was consumed by the singular desire for revenge against the one who killed Kali.
“Die die die die die die die die die die die, die!!!”
“Luna, this isn’t the time! If the main squad arrives and discovers this scene, I’m as good as dead-”
“Yeah! Go die! Death to you! Enough! Kill this betrayer, Zenon!”
“Zenon······?”
Sola’s brow furrowed at the unexpected mention of her brother’s name.
Why was Zenon’s name coming up now?
Before she could ask, Nicolas stepped back, letting out a bizarre laugh.
Sola felt the surge of mana in the air, and her pupils shook.
He was a complete novice, unable to control his mana, scattering most of it into the air.
But the sheer amount was staggering.
If that much was leaking out, how much was actually being used in casting?
It was impossible to gauge.
“Eh?”
Sola’s mouth fell open at the sight of the mage soaring above the buildings.
Her beloved little finger, the one she’d cherished so dearly.
Her brother Zenon was floating there, blank-eyed.
“Why, why? Why are you there?!”
A sinister red light seeped from where his heart should be.
He was using a flight spell he could never have learned before.
His complexion was eerily pale.
Sola felt a deep disturbance, and her lips trembled.
She realized Luna had often drooled, wanting to create him ‘perfectly.’
Could it be, could it really be?
“What have you done to my brother?!”
“I created him in my very own ‘perfect form.’ Consider it an honor to die by the newly ‘perfected’ little brother!”
“No way, that’s not perfect at all… Zenon! Look at my face, Zenon! Snap out of it!”
Even in Sola’s desperate cries, Zenon didn’t glance her way.
He was clearly out of his mind.
He didn’t even seem alive.
At this point, it was undeniable.
Zenon, under Luna’s necromancy, had become ‘perfected.’
A body that would not die, or rather, one that couldn’t.
For all eternity, he would serve Luna as her puppet without ever facing harm or decay.
Before the returned undead form of her brother, Sola collapsed to her knees.
Her life’s purpose had just vanished.
“Huh?”
In that instant.
Zenon’s lifeless eyes turned to Sola.
Their gazes met.
Just as she hoped for even the slightest chance of him returning to sanity.
Zenon raised his hand.
With a storm-like mana swirling around, magic began to gather at his fingertips.
Boom!
An explosion spell engulfed Sola.
Her armor shattered, and Sola’s body flew through the air.
“Ugh!”
Sola coughed up thick blood.
As she barely got herself upright, pieces of her broken armor fell around her.
But another storm of mana struck again.
Sola could only watch in shock as her brother aimed an explosion spell directly at her, rooted in place.
Bang! Boom!
The two consecutive explosions sent Sola flying far away.
By now, her armor was completely shattered, scattered in pieces.
Her long blonde hair was burnt and torn to shreds, now drastically shorter.
“Ah······.”
She found herself devoid of the energy to rise again.
No words to even plead with her brother to come to his senses.
There was no urge to resist.
She no longer wished to live.
Her lifelong devotion to curing her brother’s illness was entirely hollow now, and she longed for death.
More mana began to gather at Zenon’s fingertips.
She couldn’t hold on any longer.
If she took that hit, no matter how tough she was, she instinctively felt it would mean certain death.
“Wait.”
At that moment, Cardinal Nicolas frowned and raised a hand.
Zenon withdrew his mana.
A crow was soaring from afar.
In Nicolas’s eyes, previously full of murderous intent to kill Sola, something shifted.
The crow landed on his shoulder.
Nicolas read the note tied to the crow’s leg, frowning deeply.
“Save her at all costs······?”
A message from the Great Demon.
It was simple.
– Sola must be saved at all costs.
– However, if it seems that Sola will completely turn to the enemy, she must be killed.
A clear, straightforward command.
It seemed that news of problems across the sea in Cologne had reached him.
Nicolas, who had been ruthlessly set on killing Sola, regained some semblance of reason.
“Save her? The one who killed Kali? Grah! Gah! Damn······. Since it’s from Belphegor······.”
Among the Four Heavenly Kings, there was no hierarchy.
But Luna had no choice but to comply with Belphegor’s orders.
It was unavoidable.
Those who fall in love often perish.
As her madness waned, Luna returned to clarity.
With widened eyes, Nicolas addressed the bloodied Sola.
“I want to kill you and send you to Kali’s side, but… My lovely Great Demon forbids it, so I shall let it go. Instead, you will have to obey me for life.”
“Ugh, gag. Guh······.”
With difficulty, Sola forced air through her blood-filled throat.
When she raised her gaze, she found Nicolas gently stroking Zenon’s cheek as he had descended to the ground.
Sola had no energy to spring forth.
She could only kneel, tears mingling with the blood she bled from her mouth.
“Zenon’s heart is moved by my necromancy. Therefore, that means I can withdraw my magic anytime, stopping his heart. Understand?”
“······.”
Nodding twice, Sola barely managed to do so.
“If you behave, I’ll release my necromancy over Zenon’s heart. Of course, if you prefer his current ‘perfect form,’ you can keep him that way.”
“······.”
No, no, no, no!
Sola shook her head vigorously.
She didn’t want this.
Her brother should not live eternally as Luna’s puppet.
“Zenon······. I’m······ sorry······.”
Tears of blood streaming down her face, Sola clenched her trembling fist.
She had been too greedy.
She had reached into a forbidden realm, trying to overcome the fate bestowed upon her brother.
Sola’s wish had come true.
Zenon had escaped his destined demise, unable to experience death.
But this was not the form that Sola desired.
It was one Zenon would not have wished for, either.
“I was, I was······ foolish······.”
Regrets shot through her bones.
Perhaps she had been turning her eyes away from the truth.
Though she considered herself a holy knight, she had believed the Four Heavenly Kings to be the embodiment of justice.
No, she had wanted to believe that.
But that was impossible.
She began to understand where the necromancer had sourced all those bodies for his experiments.
But she hadn’t wanted to know.
She hadn’t inquired why that seemingly noble great demon was called a ‘Great Demon’ in the first place.
She refused to know.
Closing her eyes and ears, she had fixated solely on saving her brother.
Now the price had come.
Paying dearly for her ignorance and for turning away from the truth.
By losing that which she cherished above all—her brother.
“Zenon······. I’ll let you······ die······. Because of me, this happened······. I’ll take responsibility······ and let you rest in peace······.”
Sola gritted her teeth as she pledged.
With her own hands, she would kill her brother.
Until now, she had dedicated herself to saving him.
But from now on, her journey was one of killing him.
Having blindly immersed herself in evil.
From here on, it was the path of complete corruption.
There was no turning back.
Even if Sola hadn’t yet lost her body, she was effectively a puppet.
It seemed she could kill anyone, be they a child or an old person.
If Luna commanded it······.
“Luna! Please, give me orders······.”
“Alright! Alright, alright! The main squad of the Sacred Knights is closing in! I’ll heal you right now, and you’ll wipe them out-”
“Sola.”
Thud.
At that moment, a large hand landed on Sola’s shoulder.
Sola flinched and trembled.
The man named Mi Jeong was standing next to her.
He had looked drained from mana exhaustion just moments ago.
How had he regained his mana?
“If you bow your head here, you’ll never return. Then I’ll have to kill you.”
“Of course······ you weren’t one of the Four Heavenly Kings······.”
“Of course not, you idiot. Being fooled is embarrassing. Now choose. Do you really plan to turn to their side?”
“I have no choice······.”
There were no alternatives.
Only her brother remained the reason for Sola’s life.
More precious than her own life, her brother, had condemned her to a terrible existence.
For her brother’s dignified death, she felt she could commit any atrocity.
“You have a choice. Here’s a hint. All of Luna’s puppets left in Cologne, I shattered them.”
“What are you talking about!!! Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up!!!”
“What I’m saying is that if you kill that cardinal, the medium will disappear, and the necromancy will lose its power.”
“······!”
Sola’s eyes widened.
That meant if she destroyed Cardinal Nicolas’s body, Zenon could finally find death.
The man grinned, knowing Sola understood the implication of his eyes.
“Recover on your own and follow me. I won’t let you run away.”
A high-quality potion poured onto Sola’s head.
Then the man immediately drew a black sword and stepped forward.
Amidst a terrifying explosive spell aimed at him.
He boldly approached the front.
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