14

The man’s breathing was ragged, his words barely forming.

He no longer begged for his life.

He did not ask for something so excessive.

All he wanted was the smallest mercy—that she kill him instantly, without pain.

He pleaded with a girl more than twice his junior.

“Did you listen to my pleas!?”

The hand called fear, which had been gripping the man’s heart, tightened.

That grasp changed shape, becoming black flames that wrapped around his heart.

The blood circulating through his body rapidly rose in temperature.

“Aa—aaaAAAAAH!!”

Shiera’s black flames enveloped his heart and boiled the blood flowing from it.

The man clawed at his throat, at his chest, at his entire body.

The inside of his body burned with unbearable heat.

No matter how much he scratched, his hands could not reach the source within.

His nails tore into his skin. Blood seeped out.

Flesh was exposed, blood dripped down, yet he paid it no mind as he continued to claw himself.

In his final moments, his movements grew even more frantic—then abruptly stopped.

The man collapsed backward, limp, and never moved again.

Bloody tears streamed from his eyes, faint steam rising from his entire body.

Only one man remained—the one holding the pendant that had belonged to Shiera’s mother.

But even he had lost all will to fight.

He was nothing more than a corpse awaiting death.

For the first time, the girl stepped forward and approached him.

The man, stunned, noticed Shiera drawing near and tried to retreat—but his legs would not move.

His center of gravity shifted backward, and he collapsed weakly onto the ground.

As Shiera advanced, Sofia snapped back to herself.

She remembered Ains’s words.

If she did not want Shiera to die, the pendant must not fall into her hands.

She did not know why.

But if her lord had said it, then it must not be allowed.

Sofia rushed toward Shiera.

The man raised the pendant above his head and cowered, trembling as if in prayer.

In Shiera’s eyes, nothing existed anymore except the pendant she cherished.

The very presence of the man holding it filled her with disgust.

Black flames burst forth like a gale and swept the man away.

In an instant, he was carbonized, reduced to nothing more than a blackened pedestal for the pendant.

Shiera’s expression slackened slightly as she reached out for it.

“Shiera! Stop! Do not touch that pendant!”

Sofia grabbed Shiera’s shoulder and shouted desperately.

“Sofia? Why would you say that? Now, of all times?”

“That is…”

Sofia could not fully grasp Ains’s intent, and no words came to mind that could persuade Shiera.

“I came here to take this back. I’m grateful to Ains and to you, Sofia, for helping me this far.”

Shiera brushed Sofia’s hand off her shoulder and continued.

“But now, are you going to get in my way? Are you… my enemy?”

Shiera turned to face Sofia, staring at her with her childish eyes.

In that instant, Sofia felt death.

Black flames were not yet burning at Shiera’s chest.

But that could change with a single word or action.

If things went wrong, Sofia herself might be the next to be engulfed in black flames after the charred man.

“It may be selfish of me, but I do not want you to die, Shiera.”

“What do you mean? I won’t die. I burned all my enemies away. No one who would steal what’s mine is left.”

“That is not what I mean.”

“If new enemies appear, I’ll burn them just like before. So I won’t die. Not as long as I have these black flames.”

Sofia understood.

With such overwhelming, one-sided power, even if enemies arose in the future, Shiera would not lose—she would not die—unless they were her equal.

“But Ains-sama said this. I regret to say I do not fully understand his true intent. But Shiera, if you take that into your hands, you will never be able to return. You will die.”

“Ains said that? But he told me himself. After hearing all my resolve, he said he would stay with me until the very end.”

Shiera’s hand, once again, began to move toward the pendant.

Instinctively, Sofia placed her hand on the sword at her waist.

“…Sofia, I don’t want to do this either.”

Black flames burned at Shiera’s chest.

All it would take was for Sofia to be recognized as a threat—for her to become a target.

“Shiera, is there truly no other way? Your life was saved. You still have so much of it ahead of you.”

Shiera laughed at Sofia’s earnest words.

“Sofia, why would I die? I’ll burn away anything that tries to lead me to death.”

Then, glancing sideways at the frozen Sofia with her hand still on her sword, Shiera picked up the pendant from the blackened remains.

“If I die after taking back my mother’s pendant, then that—”

Her words cut off.

With Ains’s help, Shiera had gained the ability to use sorcery.

And with it, her sensitivity to mana had grown sharper than ever before.

A holy relic generated mana on its own.

From the pendant in her right hand, Shiera felt an intense concentration of mana—no, the information flowed directly into her.

“…Ah… Mom—”

A single tear slid down Shiera’s cheek, about to fall from her chin—

And in that moment, the world before her shifted into unreality.

The tear froze in midair, never falling.

All sound vanished.

Sofia beside her was completely motionless, not even breathing.

Shiera recognized this sensation.

It was not the first time.

The air—the space itself—was torn open from another dimension, revealing a pitch-black maw.

From it emerged a translucent right arm.

“O one who has touched the laws of the world.
O one who has violated the Restriction.
Your judgment has been rendered.”

The translucent arm slowly reached toward Shiera.

Though she felt dread, her body would not move.

The black flames that had been burning moments ago were gone.

The arm wrapped around Shiera as if grasping her, then pulled something out of her as it withdrew back into the black fissure.

Shiera felt it.

The sensation of something absolute—something fundamental—being torn from her.

The arm fully returned into the rift.
The maw closed and vanished from the air.

And time began to move once more.

Leaving only Shiera behind.