“Ugh. It’s intense right from the start.”
Casey hadn’t come alone.
Her faithful assistant Betty had followed her all the way to Bretus.
Casey had tried to dissuade her, insisting she shouldn’t come, but Betty had been stubborn.
“I told you already. This is a battlefield. It’s not a place for you.”
“What do you mean not a place for me? I’m your assistant, Casey. You ditched me back home saying you were going abroad, and {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} now you were planning to come here alone? Did you really think I’d just sit and watch?”
“Ugh, you nag so much. What are you, my mother?”
“I can at least play the nanny who stops Casey from doing something reckless. Because I’m the mature one here.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re just amazing, aren’t you.”
Their usual chatter suddenly stopped.
Casey let out a deep sigh as she gazed at the ruined shoreline with a complicated look.
“Sigh. I’m supposed to be a detective who solves mysteries and catches criminals... so why on earth did I come all the way here?”
“Why else? You’ve completely lost your head over that man.”
“I did not! That’s not what this is about!”
“Isn’t it? You were grinding your teeth every day saying you’d chase him down, so I assumed that’s what it was.”
“Well...”
It wasn’t entirely wrong.
But her reason for chasing Ludger hadn’t been just a matter of justice.
It was something deeply personal.
She had simply wanted to confirm it.
That uneasy thought — that maybe the criminal she’d been pursuing all this time wasn’t truly a bad person.
That maybe she had been wrong.
Her heart already knew, but her head refused to accept it, driving her further into obsession.
Now she had come to realize the truth, becoming more human and mature in the process.
Still, a hardened knot remained deep in Casey’s heart.
That was the reason she had come here.
Not to join the holy war for some noble cause.
After all, she was a detective.
A seeker of the world’s mysteries and chaos, one who defined them into order.
And even within this strange holy war, she had to find that chaos — and subdue it.
And above all—
She had to unravel the tangled knot of everything that had gone wrong.
“Is your family... alright?”
“...Right. There’s that, too.”
Casey closed her eyes and opened them again at Betty’s quiet reminder.
“It would be a lie to say I’m fine. So even if I’m like this, I had no choice but to come here. I need to see the truth with my own eyes.”
“It’ll be dangerous, you know? More than any criminal you’ve ever fought before.”
Of course — this island was home to the Demon King.
The ruler of all heresy, the one who could drag the entire continent into ruin.
“If it weren’t dangerous, who else would do it?”
“Well, then there’s no helping it. Since Casey’s reckless and lacking in many areas, I’ll just have to protect you.”
“Thanks for saying that, at least.”
“Alright! Then let’s go!”
A detective in search of truth and a lost doll-like girl — the two headed toward the battlefield.
* * *
“Advance! Advance!”
“Break through to the citadel! We must slay the Demon King!”
With the Cardinals’ arrival, momentum shifted toward the Holy Crusaders.
The druids tried desperately to resist with their plant magic, but they were already outnumbered — and now, faced with divine power on top of that, they were pushed back helplessly.
“Retreat! Fall back!”
“Pull back, now!”
The elves didn’t resist stubbornly.
Even without Ambella’s direct command, they had already received instructions to prepare for this exact situation.
Things had gone far beyond what they could control now.
All they could do was hope for the miracle promised by the shining citadel.
‘No.’
Even amid the fighting, Violetta could feel the tide turning against them.
The wind that blew past whispered to her what was happening across the battlefield.
Her head felt like it would burst — yet at the same time, there was a strange sense of weightlessness, and she realized she could hear the voice of the wind more clearly than ever before.
‘This can’t go on. I can’t get tied down here.’
Focusing on the sound of the wind, Violetta drew in her mind.
Something was missing. The final piece to complete the puzzle.
But she couldn’t tell what it was, which only deepened her frustration.
The whispering wind.
The holy power of the priests brushing against her skin.
The divine light and storm blinding her vision.
Vierno shouted something urgent, but his voice no longer reached her.
She couldn’t stay bound here.
‘After finally finding a way to be useful, I’m supposed to give up now?’
No. She couldn’t.
What was missing? What was the last piece?
Violetta stopped thinking.
At times like this, she felt, logic only got in the way — it was better to follow instinct.
She didn’t know why.
It was as if something deep inside her mind commanded her to do so.
‘Like the wind.’
Free, unbound, flowing everywhere.
The noise in her head cut off completely.
It felt as if silence and calm had descended upon the world.
It wasn’t truly silent — but she felt as though she’d reached a space beyond all sound.
The constant headache faded, her mind clearer than ever before.
Her vision sharpened, and she could perceive every detail around her vividly.
‘Yes.’
She understood it now.
Pushed to the very limit — in that instant when her mind turned blank —
she had let go of everything she’d been holding onto.
And in that split second — less than a tenth of a second —
the final piece had fallen into place.
“So this is it.”
The wind moved.
The massive golden giant thrust its spear — but before it could touch Violetta, the trajectory twisted violently, stabbing into the ground instead.
“What the—?”
The priestess Anisha muttered unconsciously.
Violetta’s presence had changed. Even before, she’d been dangerous — but at least manageable.
Now, though, she was different.
In that brief moment, it was as if her very essence had transformed.
“Ahahahahaha!”
Violetta laughed aloud.
She reveled in a freedom she had never known before.
Yes.
She had finally become a magician of the Void Color.
No longer suppressing her talent or pretending to imitate the world.
She had built her own tower brick by brick — effort, determination, and madness.
“Miss Violetta?”
Vierno Dentis immediately sensed the change.
The wind spirit aiding him whispered that Violetta had become one with the wind.
The cocoon that had merely been a shell had now truly split open, and the butterfly had taken flight.
It was astonishing — but in their dire situation, it was the best news possible.
Whooosh!
Violetta’s wind swirled, dominating the surrounding space.
The wind — the flow of the air itself.
And air — the most essential element for all living beings.
When that becomes a weapon—
Her enemies were already inside the tiger’s jaws.
For a moment, the dark clouds filling the sky thinned.
Even the Wind Elemental Lord, watching from high above the clouds, had noticed Violetta’s change.
A magician of the Void Color was one who could commune directly with the air —
closer to the Wind Elemental Lord than most spirit masters or elves could ever hope to be.
The Lord responded instinctively to her awakening — but it did not break the pact and descend onto the battlefield.
Because before it could, a freezing cold powerful enough to pierce to the bone engulfed Violetta.
Cr-cr-crack!
Violetta froze in the exact posture of commanding the wind.
The enormous mass of ice surrounding her seemed to halt time itself — an eerie sight.
“Wh-what is this...?”
Vierno gasped in disbelief.
A magician who had mastered the wind, a Void Color — defeated so easily?
To make that possible, one would have to be at least an equal in title.
“No way—!”
His doubt turned to conviction as an overwhelming wave of cold swept toward him.
He tried to drive it back with his wind spirit, but it was useless.
Even retreating, frost began to spread across his skin.
“I didn’t expect to meet another Color Magician here of all places.”
His breath misted with every word.
Vierno stared at the woman who had appeared.
Marias Selmore.
Head of the famed Selmore family — the Blue Magician, master of ice and frost.
Her sudden entrance onto the battlefield was shocking enough, but even more so was the white halo hovering above her head.
Yes — Marias had been brainwashed by the Church, turned into their obedient puppet.
Her transparent pupils glimmered coldly as she spoke.
“I didn’t think I’d witness the birth of a Color Magician here. If I’d been a moment later, it might have been irreversible.”
Violetta could control the wind — but she had only just awakened.
Marias had struck perfectly during that moment of inexperience.
Had Violetta been more accustomed to her power, she wouldn’t have fallen so easily.
“Don’t worry. She’s not dead. Just before I froze her, she surrounded herself with a barrier of air — it protected her body.”
Thus, all Marias could do was imprison her within the ice.
But that alone was enough.
A Void Color Magician running rampant would have turned the battlefield into chaos.
“Don’t worry. When she wakes up, everything will already be over.”
Vierno realized it then.
The cold had already surrounded him completely, sealing every escape route.
“Damn.”
Cr-cr-crack.
Vierno froze solid, the expression of shock still on his face.
The sight of both Violetta and Vierno encased in ice — those the priests couldn’t subdue — was chilling in every sense.
“Well then.”
The brainwashed Marias turned her gaze toward the priests.
Anisha and Remria both flinched under her look.
They were not easily frightened women — but the power Marias displayed was on another level entirely.
“Shall we go, then? To slay the Demon King.”
Marias smiled sweetly.
It was a smile that sent a shiver down the spine.
* * *
The beasts of illusion Helia had conjured rushed toward Catherine like a raging storm.
From every direction — front, back, ground, and sky.
There was nowhere left to run. Not that Catherine ever planned to.
Holy power burst from her body in radiant waves of golden light.
The massive beasts — the monsters — faltered upon touching that wave.
A two-headed serpent.
A horned, savage wolf.
A grotesque insect with countless chitinous plates.
A venomous spider with claws like scorpion pincers.
It was only the prelude before her sacred art’s full invocation, yet the density of power alone made the monsters recoil.
Catherine stepped forward.
As her foot struck the ground, golden ripples spread outward in concentric circles.
Every creature touched by the wave screamed in agony.
Driven by Helia’s command, the beasts turned their pain into fury and surged forward once more.
A black tide sought to swallow the golden flame.
But astonishingly, the golden flame prevailed.
The moment it touched them, the beasts crumbled to ashes.
Boom!
Catherine clenched her fist and thrust it forward.
The holy power carried in that blow pierced a massive tunnel straight through the army of beasts.
At the tunnel’s end stood Helia — but she wasn’t about to take it head-on.
Clang!
A colossal Gate of Hell materialized before her, blocking Catherine’s strike.
At the same time, the ground beneath Catherine’s feet erupted —
a massive burrowing worm with rows of jagged teeth swallowed her whole.
The worm writhed for a moment before an explosion of fire burst from within.
Catherine emerged unscathed, flames swirling around her as she stomped forward, shooting ahead like a golden arrow.
She shattered the Gate of Hell with a single punch.
And when she reached striking distance, Helia stuck out her tongue.
“Peekaboo.”
Helia’s form dissolved — replaced by a box.
A lever on its side spun rapidly, and the lid burst open.
Out sprang a clown’s face — grotesque, grinning.
Kekekekekekek!
The Jack-in-the-Box’s mouth gathered black energy, then fired a massive pillar of magic straight at Catherine.
The blast struck her squarely — and her body was hurled far away.