“Just what did you do?”
Marias could not understand what she was seeing.
The attack she had launched toward Casey had been threatening enough to sever her breath completely.
It was an attack Casey should never have been able to block. No one knew that better than Marias herself.
Yet Casey had blocked it.
Marias sensed, at this very moment, that some enormous change had come over Casey.
“You... don’t tell me.”
Casey withdrew the hand she had extended and stared at the frozen, halted iceberg with a strange expression.
“So this is what it «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» was.”
For a mage of color magic, realization was not something reached through theory or accumulated experience like ordinary mages.
Their enlightenment was something closer to instinct.
They felt and grasped the essence of the element they commanded—eventually reaching true mastery.
And Casey was now in exactly that state.
Back when she’d been inexperienced, fighting James Moriarty had forced her into one major leap.
Now, in this sacred war, fighting against her sister had pushed her into another rising curve.
“I understood it in my head. That ice or water are ultimately the same. But I guess my heart wasn’t there yet. Deep down, I kept thinking—my sister’s power was superior to mine.”
And the decisive trigger that shattered that misconception was the scent of water that had rolled in from afar.
From the deep reaches of a distant ocean. A pure, clear scent you would only find at the bottom of the sea.
She realized too late that it was the same scent coming from the iceberg Marias had created.
“In the end, it’s all the same.”
Tap.
Casey’s index finger touched the sharp tip of the iceberg.
The iceberg crumbled from the edge, falling apart like sand scattering across the floor.
It was a cluster of ice ground down to the finest grains.
Marias was genuinely startled by the sight.
Casey hadn’t just interfered with her power—she had taken control of it and begun to manipulate it freely.
“Like this.”
Casey flicked her hand, and the ice grains turned to water, then vanished as if dissolving.
But they hadn’t disappeared completely. They had simply become vapor too fine to be seen by the eye.
“It can also do this.”
The vapor gathered again in midair, becoming ice, which softened and melted back into water.
Just by changing the molecular structure, water became ice. And merely by breaking that structure, ice became water.
Casey vibrated the molecules.
The violently trembling water soon bubbled and roiled, turning into boiling heat.
The power Casey had thought was Marias’s superior version was, in truth, the opposite.
Ice was nothing more than one form that water could take.
It was only the weight of “older sister,” and the emotions she had carried since childhood, that had warped her view.
Her own power had never changed. Only the way she looked at it had.
Casey felt like her self from one minute ago was an idiot.
Everyone is like that.
We have moments where we suddenly understand something, grow, and change.
And when we look back at who we were, we say with a bitter sigh, “Why was I like that?”
But that is precisely what makes them human.
People who can grow.
“Sister?”
Casey smiled—a clear, refreshing smile like pure water.
For some reason, Marias felt that her sister’s smile was ominous.
“We’ve got a lot to settle, don’t we?”
“Hm. Little sister? Your older sister is currently being brainwashed, you know.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not like I would actually kill you, Sister.”
Her body should have been under brainwashing and outside her control.
Yet Marias’s entire frame trembled in fear.
* * *
Rine agonized over what she should do.
What must she do? And what could she do?
For someone as young as she was, this battlefield was far too harsh an environment.
But Rine had already been through many things—events that were brutal even compared to others her age.
And she had overcome every one of them.
Perhaps that was why she felt courageous now. Rine thought—no, she believed—that she could do something this time too.
But that confidence did not come from awakening her future sight.
Nor was it the spatial magic that could cross the entire continent if she willed it.
Rine knew very well that she could do nothing alone.
She had been able to get through the difficulties she had faced not because she was exceptional.
It was simply because someone had helped her.
She had merely been lucky.
Rine had kept that truth close to her heart all this time.
And because of that, she could now keep her mind open and consider many options.
“Help me, Julia.”
That was the choice she made—to ask Julia Plumehart for help.
“What are you talking about?”
“We can’t fight among ourselves. You know it too, right? What we really need to be worried about is another future.”
“What are you even asking me to help you do?”
“We’re going to convince them.”
“Convince?”
“Yes. That girl who used to be Teacher’s assistant—Sedina, right? I’m going to convince her and the priestess sisters to stop fighting.”
“You’re completely insane, aren’t you?”
“Can you help me?”
Julia fell silent.
She too was worried about Sedina. If there was a way to avoid fighting, that was better.
She never wanted to experience losing someone precious again.
“The longer we wait, the worse the fighting will get.”
“...But how?”
“Right now, they’re not fighting because of the cryptids. But soon, the number of cryptids will drop.”
“What?”
“I can see it. Over there—a large beastkin man fighting the monster that creates cryptids. When that happens, a chance will appear.”
Julia did not deny Rine’s words.
She had entered Rine’s dream once—she knew Rine had the power to see the future.
“When that moment comes, I’ll try to convince them. This is something for everyone’s sake.”
“...Haah. I don’t know anymore.”
Even as she said that, Julia did not argue with Rine.
Which meant she agreed to help.
Rine gave her a faint smile at that.
“Hey.”
“What.”
“When the war ends... want to go hang out somewhere? You, me, and that girl Sedina. It’d be nice if we could all become friends.”
“Say it after everything ends.”
Her tone was brusque, but it wasn’t a rejection—and Rine knew it.
She nodded.
“It’s time.”
Just as Rine said, the cryptid army surging like waves suddenly thinned dramatically.
Rine immediately grabbed Julia’s hand and activated the power of her magic beast.
Light flared—and the two were transported to another place.
Right into the middle of Sedina and the three priestesses, who were catching their breaths while holding back the cryptid assault.
“You!”
Recognizing Rine and Julia, Sedina and the priestesses jolted in shock.
Before they could ask why they were here—or how they had gotten here—Rine spoke first.
“Please stop fighting. There’s no need for us to fight each other.”
“What are you even saying!”
The one who reacted most violently was Sedina.
Her eyes, filled with anger, shot toward Rine.
“You burned the World Tree gate all the way here, and you think you can just say that and we’ll let it go?! If you were going to say that, you shouldn’t have come at all!”
And Sedina wasn’t wrong.
The priestesses knew that too—so tense they didn’t know when Sedina might attack.
But the one who stopped Sedina was Julia.
“Sedina. Stop.”
“Julia...”
“Fighting each other here will leave us with nothing. And those priestesses and the Saintess— they’re not the same as the regular Church. Their faction is different.”
Thanks to Julia’s persuasion, Sedina managed to calm her anger for the moment.
She looked at Rine as if to say, “Fine—talk.”
Like Rine, Sedina had also been through many things.
So she was willing to at least listen.
“Fighting among ourselves here would be a massive loss of strength. Even if we can’t join hands, we should at least avoid fighting.”
“And why should we trust you? That fake Saintess tried to kill Teacher.”
“That’s not true. Sister Catherine just had something she needed to settle with Heathcliff, that’s all. Her real feelings weren’t like that.”
At the phrase “Heathcliff brother,” Sedina’s eyebrow twitched, but she gave no further reaction.
“What about you, Sisters?”
Rine asked the priestesses.
The priestesses exchanged troubled looks.
But they did not have many choices.
And the eyes looking at them—eyes the same color as their elder sister Catherine’s—left them unable to refuse.
“Sedina. Let’s go.”
Julia took Sedina by the arm.
“Julia.”
“You know it too. Even the smallest bit of help is precious to us right now.”
Sedina clenched her lips. Julia wasn’t wrong.
Rine annoyed her, but Sedina had to admit her power was useful in this situation.
“So what do we do now?”
“We need to gather more people.”
Rine said this while looking at the priestesses.
“And we need to save more lives.”
* * *
Alex saw it.
People appearing in the sky—descending with light.
Their images were faint and blurred, but still recognizable.
More than that—the warmth seeping into the wound that had been draining his life in real time—
That warmth proved this was no illusion.
“What is this...?”
Warmth filled his abdomen.
Heat flowed through his body, and his pale lips regained color.
The intense, overwhelming pain in his stomach vanished.
Alex looked down at his abdomen with eyes that finally had focus.
The wound was gone.
All that remained was the torn, bloodstained protective gear and bare skin, proof there had been a wound moments ago.
Enya was just as shocked.
She had been on the verge of despair, believing she could not save him—but now she couldn’t close her mouth, staring at the fully healed Alex.
“A-Alex. You...”
“I... I’m alive?”
The one who spoke to the startled Alex and Enya was a priestess wearing a tiara.
“You will need some rest.”
It was Hapinia, the priestess who had been healing the wounded at the rear.
“The wound was created by divine power, so I’ve finished the treatment, but you lost too much blood and your condition is still bad. You’re a knight, so your body’s strong—there won’t be aftereffects, but fighting right away would be impossible.”
She was not the only priestess present.
Remria, Jenis, Anisha, Ariel, Lucia, Camilla, Sophia...
Every priestess was gathered in one place.
And not just priestesses.
Berom, who had been fighting the priestesses, and Julia and Sedina as well.
The one who gathered all of them in one place was Rine.
And after that, using space magic again to fly to where Alex was, Rine had used the priestess’s power to save him.
“What in the world is going on?”
Even Terrina could not hide her confusion at the sudden group appearing via spatial teleportation.
“Huh? That girl is...”
Aidan’s eyes widened as he recognized Rine.
“What? You know her?”
“She’s a first-year at Seorn who takes the same class as me.”
“What? Then why is she with the priestesses?”
“I don’t know that either.”
What could he even say?
Rine had always stood out in many ways, but now—she felt decidedly different.
Whether it was because of her awakening inside the judgment hall, or all the recent events, no one knew.
But Rine possessed an invisible force that seemed to grip the hearts of everyone present.
Everyone’s eyes focused on her.
No one had told them to—yet it felt natural.
Rine understood why all eyes were on her.
She had always given off a strange presence because of the judgment eye, but something had awakened within her inside the citadel moments ago.
Her mind might not understand it fully, but her heart did.
The source of her power had awakened. The true inheritance of that power had been completed.
And with that, she could now control spatial-attribute mana—which meant that anyone with good instincts could sense she was no ordinary person.
In truth, gathering everyone here had been largely thanks to Rine.
The priestesses, too, were beings whose power came from fragments of the Saintess—and Rine, who possessed the original source, had authority almost equal to a Holy Queen.
“Please listen to me.”
Rine steadied her breathing and began to speak.
At that moment, Alex raised his hand sharply.
“Um, thank you for saving me, and sorry for suddenly interrupting at a time like this, but... we still have a problem we haven’t dealt with, right?”
“...Yes. We did.”
Terrina nodded, agreeing.
The ones who had brainwashed and controlled Enya and the Nightcrawler Knights were still nearby.
That escort group—along with the cardinal.
Aidan and Mandelina’s fusion anti-magic had forcibly broken the brainwashing, so they must have taken heavy damage, but they weren’t completely disabled.
If they stalled here and gave the enemy time to reorganize, who knew what they might do?
But fortunately, the concern turned out to be needless.
“Are you talking about those guys?”
A voice from above drew everyone’s attention.
A flock of black crows wheeled in the air, and standing atop a massive crow was a young boy—no, a black mage in a young boy’s form.
“I cleaned them up on the way here. They weren’t in their right minds—made it easy.”
Thunk.
Krabat proved it by tossing something onto the ground—a sacred relic that appeared to have been used by the cardinal.