Chapter 254: Recall (6)
“Are you saying… she already knew we would come?”
“Yes.”
At Berenistella’s question, Talia nodded.
“Anastasia… she knew everything would turn out like this. She knew that the child beside you would return by reversing time together with you, Berenistella. And she even knew that you would lose a great many things in that process.”
“…….”
Berenistella did not answer.
Talia looked at her for a moment, then shrugged and continued.
“Yes, to be precise… she only told the three of us that things would turn out this way. Honestly… even I still can’t believe the situation right now.”
Talia let out a hollow laugh, as if even she herself found it impossible to believe.
“Who could have believed it? To glimpse the future three hundred years ahead with nothing but a human body… who would have thought that was even possible?”
Then she murmured quietly, her voice faintly nostalgic.
“……So she truly saw everything. The fact that she herself would die that way… and even the final destination of our journey… all of it….”
Watching her like that, Berenistella asked indifferently,
“So.”
She spat the words out coldly.
“You said there was no time, yet you seem to have plenty of time to drown in old memories.”
Perhaps irritated that her sentimentality had been interrupted, a faint crease formed between Talia’s brows.
“…You’d understand if you died once like I did. How about it? Want some help?”
“I refuse. I don’t particularly want to understand in the first place.”
Berenistella snorted and replied firmly to Talia’s words.
“Just as it was before… and as it will continue to be in the future.”
“…….”
“So stop stalling and get to the Main Subject. What exactly are you trying to do, and what is your purpose?”
“Alright, alright. You really are heartless.”
Talia let out a small laugh.
She took a moment to steady her breathing before continuing with a serious expression.
“Our purpose… is to die.”
“…….”
“And through that death, to completely extinguish the final spark of disaster that was left behind in this world… the one we failed to finish. That is the reason we returned to life, and the final mission we carry.”
The spark of disaster.
At those words, Berenistella’s eyes narrowed.
“…Don’t tell me.”
She fell silent for a moment in thought, then muttered in a low voice as if she had realized something.
“Yes. Exactly what you’re thinking.”
Talia nodded.
“The last remnant of the Eight Demon Lords. Completely erasing it from this world. That is the final task left for us—the thing we must accomplish.”
“I suspected as much.”
Berenistella spoke calmly, as though unsurprised.
“So now you want my head as well? Even in death you cannot let go of it?”
“Of course not.”
Talia shrugged.
“I told you earlier. A remnant. Not survivors.”
“In that case I understand even less. What nonsense are you spouting now?”
Berenistella scoffed in disbelief.
“Other than myself, not a single Eight Demon Lord remains alive. There isn’t even anyone who inherited their legacy. Weren’t their breaths cut off completely by your own hands? You confirmed it many times, and so did we.”
“Yes, we killed them. We even severed their bloodlines. But unfortunately… they didn’t disappear completely.”
As she spoke, Talia glanced toward Arpentia, who lay collapsed and unconscious.
Then her gaze moved to the Man without a Head, who was kneeling beside Arpentia.
“You don’t have to look far. That one over there is proof enough.”
“…….”
At her words, Berenistella fell silent.
Talia continued as she watched her.
“…Anastasia saw it with her own eyes. The remnant left behind by the Eight Demon Lords would one day plunge the world into chaos again. And that the only ones capable of stopping it… were us.”
“…You waited three hundred years for that?”
“Yes.”
At Berenistella’s question, she chuckled softly.
“It may sound a little arrogant… but what can we do? Even if the future is left to the children of later generations, at least we should clean up the mess we made before leaving. That’s what adults are supposed to do. Even if we can’t leave them an inheritance… we shouldn’t leave them our debts.”
“…….”
“…Anyway, that’s why we planned all of this. To be revived with the help of that child, Arpentia… and personally bring everything to an end with our own hands.”
While Talia continued explaining, Lian simply listened in silence.
His mind was already chaotic enough from the fragments of memories he had forgotten until now, mixed with the new information he had just learned.
‘…No matter how I think about it, this doesn’t feel like a place where I belong.’
While he was thinking that, Berenistella spoke instead.
“…Your unfinished mission means nothing to me. But from what I hear, it seems that both I and the one beside me…”
After a brief silence, she cautiously continued.
“Li, Li… ahem. Gwendil… were also part of the Saintess’s plan.”
“You’re perceptive. You two were part of the future she saw.”
“What a thoroughly unpleasant story.”
Berenistella frowned.
“You dare say you placed me on the palm of your hand to be toyed with?”
She then extended her hand toward Talia.
An enormous energy gathered at her fingertips—so overwhelming that merely looking at it made one’s breath catch.
“Shall I turn you into ashes right now?”
“…….”
Talia simply smiled.
“…Arpentia, our youngest, wanted to save us.”
“…….”
“That child wanted to bring all of us back to life so we could live together again like before. But you and I both know… that’s impossible. The dead cannot return.”
A deep bitterness filled Talia’s voice.
“But that child couldn’t accept such an obvious truth. So she forcibly summoned us back into this world. She created bodies for us… but our souls and minds were incomplete. We are nothing more than puppet dolls made by scraping together fragments of our past memories and power.”
She paused for a moment, then looked at Siren and Rikerka, who still stood motionless.
“In reality, only I can move to some extent. The other two ended up like dolls, as you can see. Even the three of us who managed some treatment through the Room of Memories ended up like this. So what do you think happened to the rest?”
Talia Poas.
The woman once called an Archmage let out a sigh.
“But that child still couldn’t accept even that. She tried to make us complete beings somehow. In the process… well, a great many things happened. There were many unnecessary sacrifices. You probably already know some of it.”
“…I see.”
At last Berenistella lowered her hand.
As if she had realized something, she murmured softly.
“So that’s it. You wanted me to kill you.”
“…….”
Talia did not answer.
That silence was affirmation.
“If our final mission is completed.”
After a moment of silence, she whispered quietly,
“I want to rest now.”
Her voice was incredibly calm.
“We are already the dead. But even if everything ends, even if the Room of Memories is destroyed… we will probably remain trapped in this world in a half-existence because of that child. That’s not what we wanted. And… it certainly won’t be good for her either.”
“So you’re asking to be killed?”
Berenistella asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
Talia nodded without hesitation.
“We cannot kill ourselves. Because of the ritual that child placed on us. That’s why we need your help.”
She looked between Berenistella and Lian as she spoke.
“Kill us with your own hands. And… if possible, please stop that child. So she won’t cling to a futile hope any longer.”
There was earnestness in Talia’s voice.
It was the final compassion toward a former companion, and at the same time a final farewell to family.
And then—
“Don’t spout… don’t spout nonsense…!”
The Man without a Head, who had been guarding Arpentia the whole time, suddenly shouted as if having a seizure.
“How dare… how dare corpses long dead presume to trample upon this person’s noble wish…!”
Shouting like that, he staggered to his feet.
Crack. Crack.
The mask slowly began to fracture, until even fragments started to fall off.
And perhaps it was merely coincidence.
Part of the mask that had looked expressionless—almost smiling—broke away, leaving it appearing as if it were now glaring in rage.
“Do you have any idea… how many years this person waited for this day…! The day to meet you again! And yet you, creatures like you, dare to treat this person’s heart—this person herself—as if she were nothing more than a chess piece…!”
Shouting like that, he suddenly charged toward Talia with ferocious momentum.
Talia did not react at all.
Because someone else had stepped in front of her.
“…….”
It was Siren Everglenn.
His eyes were colder than ice.
Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out toward the man’s neck as he rushed forward.
“You’re nothing but a corpse!”
The man roared savagely.
At that moment, black cloth-like shapes began to bloom all around them.
It was the same thing that had troubled Lancia Jintia and Artemia Russelant.
“I was the one who stitched your body back together!”
With that shout, the man’s body split—
One became two, two became four, four became eight…
It continued dividing endlessly.
Driven by rage, the Man without a Head unleashed an Ultimate Technique while scraping out every ounce of his being—something he would normally never do.
“…….”
“My Iron Needle breathed life into your cold body, and yet you dare rebel against your creator?!”
The man could say no more.
Because the motionless Siren Everglenn suddenly lunged forward and thrust his hand into the air.
“…Ghk—!”
And in his grasp—
was the mask of the Man without a Head.
Crunch!
With a dull shattering sound, the mask was crushed to pieces.
The man collapsed to the ground without even managing a scream.
It had all happened in the blink of an eye.