Crying tears of blood, Geuse gritted his teeth and screamed.
At his ghastly appearance,
The black "something" that moments ago had been trying to engulf Geuse's flesh had ceased eroding the outside of his body and was now writhing as though straining to burst out from within.
Beneath the black robes, Geuse's body convulsed grotesquely.
The thick fabric was damp with seeping blood, betraying the nightmarish carnage unfolding inside — a horror beyond imagination.
"Geuse…"
What on earth had Geuse taken into his body?
And that strike — the one that had felled Regulus in a single blow — what had that been? She hadn't been able to see anything at all, yet for Emilia, the sight carried an eerie sense of déjà vu.
As though she had witnessed something just like it only moments ago.
"A magnificent proof of your resolve, Bishop Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti."
But Emilia's thoughts were cut short by a cool, composed girl's voice.
"To one without the资格, how splendid that you have taken in a
"You think I desire such a seat? What I want now is only this — may that mother and child, who resolved to devote this body without a shred of hesitation, find peace!"
Geuse had poured every ounce of his strength — his very life — into the resolve of letting them escape. At his answer, Pandora raised her eyebrows in surprise, then flushed faintly and smiled rapturously.
"Love. How wonderful."
"A feeling you could never, ever understand — desu!"
While Pandora remained supremely detached, Geuse assumed a posture of total resistance.
On his hands and knees, struggling to breathe, he raised trembling arms, forced open blood-reddened eyes, and screamed.
"Authority of 'Sloth' — Unseen Hands!!"
Immediately, an immense pressure erupted from Geuse with devastating force.
Yet to Emilia's eyes, the true nature of that pressure was completely invisible. Geuse had simply extended his arms and screamed — no visible change occurred in the world.
And yet— "The forest is being torn apart…!?"
All around Geuse, destruction spread as though an invisible snake were slithering through the terrain. Trees were mown down, the earth was split open, clods of soil and flowers scattered in every direction.
"Oh… ohhhhhh!!"
The devastation swept randomly around Geuse's surroundings but, responding to his scream, channeled its path straight toward Pandora. Pandora watched the landscape before her being ravaged as if trampled by giants, yet showed no intention of moving an inch.
And so the destruction struck her small body head-on— "Hey there."
"——!?"
"I'm here, and I'm standing right here, and you're just gonna carry on talking while ignoring me? What kind of thinking is that? I think even a patient, humble guy like me has every right to be angry by now."
At the instant the invisible strike was about to reach Pandora, a white figure cut through the impact.
Flicking his bangs — neither long nor short — and catching the shockwave with one raised palm, Regulus stood his ground. A blow that would have been fatal for any ordinary person left him not a trace the worse for wear.
On the contrary, despite being slammed into the ground hard enough to shatter the earth, his body — which should have been buried in the soil — was once again free of so much as a speck of dirt.
"No way…"
Staring at the result, Emilia clapped a hand over her mouth, struck speechless.
She could almost accept that he had walked away unscathed from Fortuna's surprise attack. If his combat ability far exceeded Fortuna's, perhaps it was possible he could have withstood even that desperate barrier completely.
But Geuse's invisible strike was a different matter entirely. Unlike the attack hidden within the white snow-dust, she had clearly seen the moment Regulus was launched and slammed into the ground.
He had been hurled into the ground defenseless.
That he suffered no injuries — she could still accept that, however improbable.
But that his body didn't carry a single mark of dirt was inexplicable.
There had to be some trick that prevented Regulus from taking damage — no, from being affected by others at all.
"
"How unpleasant. You haven't even been chosen by the Factor, yet you're forcibly suppressing your body's collapse without following proper procedures, aren't you? Doesn't that amount to an insult to those of us who took our seats through the correct process? It hurts my tiny, unwavering self-esteem, you know."
Regulus's malicious face was flicked back and forth by the rhythm of Geuse's flailing arms.
His head snapped sideways as though he'd been punched, but when it bounced back, not even a mark of impact remained on Regulus's face. He merely knitted his brow in displeasure and continued receiving the blows defenselessly.
"I don't think there's any point in sticking around here any longer."
Geuse fought with everything he had; Regulus mercilessly swatted each attack aside.
As Emilia watched the life-and-death struggle of someone she knew,
Turning, Emilia glared at the expressionless face of the witch gazing at the battle.
"You're telling me to leave? Geuse has gone this far — he's fighting with everything he's got!"
"Whether effort leads to the desired result is a matter open to debate. Personally, I have no interest in debating with you. I don't enjoy bullying the weak, and listening to even one more word from you is the height of unpleasantness."
"Then just stand there and watch quietly. I'm going to—"
She was going to say she would stay and witness Geuse's resolve to the end.
But the words caught in her throat because of her own heart.
Her hand had shot to her chest instinctively and grasped at empty air, and Emilia remembered why she was here. She had come to face the Trial — to overcome the past.
What she was witnessing now was the real past she had forgotten.
The struggle Geuse was putting up here had truly happened, and perhaps she — the grown Emilia — should witness its outcome in place of the young Emilia who had been dragged away by Fortuna.
—But doing so would betray both the feelings of Subaru and the others who had sent her here, and the feelings of Geuse, who had tried to let her and Fortuna escape.
What would become of Fortuna and young Emilia after Geuse let them go?
She had to find the still-sealed, sleeping past and expose the answer.
"It seems even that lacking brain of yours managed to grasp which course is wiser."
"…You're right. Let's go after Mother and me. As for Geuse—"
"Don't worry. It's a battle between Sin Archbishops. It won't tilt decisively toward one side so easily. If another party joined in, that would be another story… but it's extremely unlikely she'll intervene in the fight."
Before Emilia's reluctant eyes, the battle between Geuse and Regulus grew ever more ferocious.
Geuse, who had been shedding tears of blood, now coughed blood from his nostrils and the corners of his mouth. Proportional to the mounting damage ravaging his body, the precision and power of the invisible destruction he wielded skyrocketed.
Yet Regulus's unnatural equanimity was equally conspicuous. Bathed in destruction without lifting a finger to defend, he stared down Geuse's resistance with a bored expression.
It was so one-sided that if he ever went on the offensive, the balance of the battle could tip in an instant.
"Hah…"
And where Echidna's gaze pierced through, Pandora — the beautiful girl — was visibly flushed with excitement.
As Echidna had said, it didn't seem as though she would enter the fray herself. Setting aside the abnormality of a ravishing girl sighing with arousal in the face of such a battle— "Scene change. —To where you and your mother fled into the forest."
"—Ugh."
At Emilia's conclusion, Echidna raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
A crisp sound rang out, and the vision wavered like warped glass. The forest scenery transformed. Emilia felt as though the ground had suddenly been replaced beneath her feet and nearly stumbled.
She looked up. A forest untouched by destruction — and a place she knew well.
"No! No, Mother! Please don't leave me behind!"
A high-pitched child's wail reached her ears, and Emilia's head snapped up.
Before her stood a familiar massive tree — the one whose hollowed interior held just enough space to shelter a single small child, which she and her mother had called the "Princess Room."
At its entrance, young Emilia and Fortuna exchanged words amid tears.
Fortuna gripped the shoulders of the daughter clinging desperately to her chest and, with an anguished expression, said: "Please, you have to listen to me, Emilia. It'll be all right. I'll come back right away — yes, right away, as soon as everything is settled. So just for a little while, please hide in here. Please."
"No! Absolutely not! Fortuna mother, you've got the same look as Geuse! The same look, like you're going to do something! You're going to leave me and… and do something…!"
Young Emilia clung desperately with her small palms, refusing to let go of her mother.
If she wanted to, Fortuna could easily have shaken free of a child's hands. Yet she didn't — and Fortuna's deep violet eyes as she gazed at Emilia proved that better than anything.
She didn't let go because she was Emilia's mother.
"Don't leave me! Let me come with you! I won't lie anymore! I won't break promises anymore! I'll be good, I'll be good, so please… don't leave me…!"
"Emilia… Emilia, Emilia, Emilia…!"
Overwhelmed, Fortuna pulled her daughter into an embrace, pressing the child's face against her chest. If she hadn't done that, Emilia would have seen her expression — the tears she couldn't stop, the tears streaming down her own cheeks.
"Fortuna, mother…"
The crying face that young Emilia could never have seen, the current Emilia witnessed clearly.
Her mother — the one she had always believed to be noble, dignified, strong, worthy of respect, without so much as a single flaw — wounded like this, broken by unbearable grief, shedding hot tears. She had never even imagined it.
"………!"
As she watched her mother's tears, Emilia's own cheeks reached their breaking point.
She clapped a hand to her face too late, and tears spilled from the corners of her eyes one after another.
If she had seen her mother's face then, she would have understood clearly.
She had never doubted it, but in this very moment, she was certain of it once more.
"Fortuna mother is… she really is my true mother…"
Who her biological mother was meant nothing to Emilia now.
No matter how many times Fortuna insisted she was merely a stand-in, that Emilia should not forget her real mother — it changed nothing.
Even from the dearest, most respected Fortuna, that was the one thing she refused to accept.
"Fortuna mother… I love you…"
This feeling — no one, no matter what they said, could bend it.
"Fortuna—!"
A man's voice called out behind Fortuna, who couldn't pry young Emilia free.
Fortuna reacted instantly — she wiped her face with her sleeve, roughly hiding her tears, and turned toward the voice. Approaching from the direction of the call was an elf in light travel clothes.
One of the elves who lived in the settlement — someone Emilia knew.
"Archi, how are things in the village?"
She called out to the running man in her usual tone. Archi seemed to have noticed the tears on Fortuna's face, but he didn't mention it and simply shook his head.
"It's the same everywhere. We're fighting back with the Bishop's companions and the men, but…"
"Not well, I see."
At Archi's answer, Fortuna lowered her gaze and clenched her teeth at the grim situation.
Young Emilia looked up at her mother with a worried expression, unable to say a word, clutching the hem of Fortuna's robe and trembling.
Archi looked at her and said: "It's all right. You don't have to be that scared, Emilia. Trust the people in the village, and us adults. And your mother is very strong and very scary."
"O-okay…"
"Archi, 'scary' is unnecessary. Honestly…"
Fortuna folded her arms in irritation at Archi's attempt to reassure the child. But she nodded — it was no time to keep looking down — and glanced back at the Princess Room behind her.
"There's no point hiding Emilia here anymore. It won't fool anyone."
"As much as I hate to say it, staying in this forest means we'll be found soon. Their objective is still…?"
"The seal in the depths of the forest. I don't know how they found out about it… and that woman too…"
About leaving Geuse behind, about Regulus and Pandora of the
Then she shook her head firmly.
"Fine. I'll go out there myself. I'm the strongest fighter in this forest. I can't afford to stand around doing nothing."
"No! Let us fight! Fortuna, please take Emilia and get out of the forest!"
"And what good does running solve? They'll take our sanctuary… No, that's not even the worst of it. It's not our defeat that matters — it's that we cannot let them break the seal!"
Archi shouted, trying to stop her, and Fortuna cut him off with an even sharper tone.
Then, ashamed of having raised her voice, she murmured, "I'm sorry."
"You must hate us. You had no reason to get caught up in something like this. It was Emilia and I who came here and dragged you into our trouble…"
"Nothing of the sort! Who among us would ever think that?!"
"Archi…"
At the anguish in Fortuna's voice, Archi reacted with fierce resistance, as though he absolutely could not let those words stand. His face flushed red, his pointed elf ears stiffened, and he blazed with fury.
"Stop treating us as though we're outside your problems! From our perspective, it may have been a brief time — like the blink of an eye! But we spent those days together, seeing the same things! Have you forgotten that?!"
"………"
"Who among us would ever resent you? You, and your brother — your brother who did so much for Emilia's mother! You would ask us to be shameless enough to forget that?!"
With tears mixing into his voice, Archi's impassioned plea poured out.
The young elf dropped to his knees, gasping for breath, and looked up at Fortuna. Meeting that gaze, Fortuna — who had been silent — squeezed her eyes shut.
"I'm sorry. —I was about to deny the family I live with all over again."
"Fortuna… I spoke out of turn…"
"No. It was important. Archi, I'm sorry. And thank you."
Fortuna extended her hand to the kneeling Archi. He hesitated for just a moment, then took her hand and rose quietly to his feet.
Then Fortuna turned to young Emilia.
"Emilia. Mother has to go protect everyone — I have an important duty. So just for a little while, we'll have to say goodbye."
"No… no, Mother! I… I…"
"Please. Just for a moment — listen to me. I want you to go outside the forest with Archi. This forest is going to become… very, very dangerous."
She spoke to the trembling, tear-faced child, then turned to Archi.
Meeting his gaze — those violet eyes now burning with resolve — Archi froze in place.
"Fu… Fortuna…"
"Archi. You are still young. You have a future. Please take Emilia with you… The world is harsh, but there is hope. I'm sure of it."
"Don't say things that sound like goodbye! I'm going to stay in the forest with everyone until the very end!"
"Emilia — please. She is precious to me, to my brother, and to my sister-in-law. She is our beloved daughter."
"————!"
Fortuna's voice — stripped of all strength and nobility, the voice of nothing more than a weak, desperate woman.
It was the voice of a mother, of a woman, and Archi wept.
Choking back sobs, he covered his tear-streaked face with one palm.
"You're cruel…! You know I can't refuse when you say something like that! I want to fight with everyone too…! And yet…"
"Forgive us — for dumping everything on a child's shoulders."
She placed her hand on the shoulders of the weeping young elf and asked for his forgiveness.
Speechless, Archi accepted Fortuna's request in silence.
And now, the one Fortuna had to convince was young Emilia alone.
"Emilia."
"No! I want to stay with Mother! With Mother! Please! Please let me stay with you! I don't want to be alone — I don't!"
"You are not alone. Listen carefully."
Young Emilia screamed and sobbed, refusing to listen. She clapped her hands over her ears, trying to shut out every word of her mother's farewell. Watching this, present Emilia wanted to reach out and slap her younger self's cheeks.
Not to scold the child's disobedience — but to make sure her younger self heard every single word Fortuna was about to say, missing nothing.
"Emilia."
Fortuna crouched down and held Emilia.
She gently pulled the child's arms away from her ears. As Emilia pressed her head against Fortuna's chest as though biting into it, Fortuna pressed her cheek against the girl's silver hair. Gently — more gently than anyone, as though touching the most precious thing in the world, afraid of breaking it.
"I am always by your side. Close your eyes, and I am there in your memories. Fold your arms, and I am there in the warmth of your chest. Speak aloud, and I am there under the sky where your voice echoes. Always — always and forever, I am with you."
"Liar. Liar, liar, liar… Mother is a liar…"
"Emilia. —A promise."
Fortuna met her eyes and spoke the word. The child who had tried to dismiss her mother's words as mere comfort flinched at the word "promise" and fell silent.
A palm extended. Guided by Fortuna's gaze, young Emilia pressed her small hand against it.
"Mother and Emilia will be together forever. I promise you that now."
"R-really… you'll really stay with me…?"
"Yes, really. Mother loves Emilia… loves Riia more than anyone else in this whole, wide world. So, so much."
"Riia" — spoken in that gentle voice. Young Emilia's dam of tears broke. The dam of the Emilia of the present, too.
Mother and daughter, both Emilias, sobbed and collapsed into each other's arms.
"Fortuna mother… I love you too… I love you so much… so much…"
"I love you. I love Fortuna mother. So much — I love you, and you're precious…!"
Two Emilias — past and present — overlapped, pouring everything into an answer for the love directed at them.
They squeezed every last drop of voice, pressed their bodies together, as though only by doing so could they convey everything they felt inside — as though the torrent of emotion would never be enough to express.
"Riia, I love you."
Fortuna's soft, warm lips pressed to her cheek, her eyelid, her forehead.
She had always been someone who allowed embraces and contact but was shy about this sort of maternal expression — she never, ever did this. That was precisely why this was the moment Fortuna truly, from the bottom of her heart, recognized herself as Emilia's mother for the first time.
"…Archi, please."
"…Yes. Understood."
Having conveyed her deepest love to her beloved daughter, Fortuna stood and called to the young man.
Archi took the sobbing young Emilia from Fortuna's arms, held her firmly, and bowed his head deeply to Fortuna.
"You'll get away safely, right?"
"Yes… Yes! I will never — never let anyone hurt this child!"
At Archi's absolute vow, Fortuna's cheeks softened with relief.
She pointed toward the depths of the forest.
"Go. Please."
"……"
Archi said nothing more and ran in the direction Fortuna pointed.
Cradled in his arms, young Emilia stared past his shoulder — at her mother, growing ever more distant — and let out a soundless cry.
At that sound, Fortuna softened her sharp gaze into something truly gentle.
"—I love you, Emilia."
*** Cradled in Archi's arms, young Emilia stared desperately in the direction where her mother had vanished.
As though wishing that if she kept looking, her mother might suddenly reappear. Hoping she might come chasing after them.
"Emilia…!"
Archi could feel the child's stubborn little heart pressing against his own body.
Having experienced the parting with Fortuna, the young mind didn't know what to say — his face was crumpled with anguish.
"—That was unexpected."
Running alongside Archi, Echidna addressed the present Emilia.
Still shaken by the parting with her mother, unable to stop her sobs, Emilia looked at Echidna with her eyes alone. The silver-haired witch shrugged.
"You chose not to stay in that scene and instead pursued your past self without hesitation. I honestly thought you'd mope over your mother's fate, the way you did with Sloth earlier."
"…I told you, didn't I? I came here to witness my own past! My mother, Geuse — everyone! That's what this is for!"
"Oh, oh. I spoke out of turn, then."
At Emilia's tearful retort, Echidna shook her head with the air of someone who hadn't gotten the answer she wanted.
Even Emilia was irritated by that thoughtless attitude, but before she could address it, young Emilia — still in Archi's arms — covered her face with her palms.
"Wh-why… why did it turn out like this…? Was it because I broke my promise and… left the room…?"
"No. No, Emilia! It's not your fault! Not Fortuna's fault, not anyone's! There's no reason for you to blame yourself!"
"Then why…? Why do we have to say goodbye…? Mother… and Geuse too — why…? Am I hated? By so many things… by everyone… is that why this happened…?"
The suddenness of losing Geuse and Fortuna had pushed young Emilia's heart to the very brink of shattering.
The child reflected on her own actions, searching for the cause of the situation, and sank into an ocean of self-denial.
Breaking the promise. Leaving the room she wasn't supposed to leave. Learning about the seal she wasn't supposed to know. It all seemed to stem from what she had done.
"If I had… stayed in the room by myself… would that have been better? Then nobody would have disappeared… everyone… could have stayed together…?"
"Emilia…"
"I was a bad girl…? That's why everyone in the world hates me… and I end up alone?"
"No… no, Emilia. Nobody — nobody hates you! The world doesn't exist to make you suffer… the world, all of it, exists to celebrate you…!"
Archi desperately tried to convince the child as she wept again.
It was a plea born partly from wanting her to stop crying, but more than that, it was a wish — a desperate need to believe it himself.
His shout struck the present Emilia's heart.
Not only Fortuna and Geuse. Emilia had been protected and loved by Archi and everyone else in the settlement, their hands reaching out so she would never be alone.
She had always known that — yet until this very moment, she had never truly remembered it.
"You — over there!"
A sharp voice cut through the forest as someone burst from between the trees.
A figure in black robes appeared. Archi instinctively stopped, his eyes wary. But the man raised both hands.
"Wait — don't panic! I am one of Bishop Romanee-Conti's followers!"
"From the Bishop…?"
At the mention of Geuse's title, Archi's expression softened with relief. Seeing that the elf had lowered his guard, the man approached and noticed young Emilia in Archi's arms.
"That girl is… then — is Fortuna with you?"
"There's no need to worry. She entrusted Emilia to me and stayed behind. Fortuna is the finest fighter in our settlement. She will surely defeat any enemy that sets foot here—"
"…I'm afraid to say, that is unlikely."
The man's voice dropped, hoarse and strained.
Archi's brow shot up. The man let out a heavy sigh.
"A Sin Archbishop — Greed — has been confirmed, and the Bishop is engaging them. That alone might have been manageable; if we drove back the other fanatical followers, we might have driven them off… but…"
"There's another problem?"
"…A Mabeast — the
"———!?"
Archi's face went blank with shock.
He shook his head, refusing to believe it, and gestured wildly at the surrounding trees.
"That's absurd — impossible! The Black Serpent, one of the Three Great Mabeasts, is supposed to be even more uncontrollable than the
"…Pandora of the Witch Cult is accompanying them. Pandora alone — while she cannot fully control the Black serpent through her Authority — can guide it to a destination."
"Pandora…? I've never heard of anyone by that name…"
"She is someone whose existence has been kept secret! Even within the Witch Cult — the Bishop's moderates, the other fanatics — she is a forbidden name that neither side dares speak. And she has arrived."
The man's voice came out strangled, and Archi had no words.
Yet Archi did not sink into despair — because he could feel a different heartbeat pulsing against his chest. He knew he could not bow his head here.
"I was ordered by Fortuna to get Emilia out. No matter what happens to the forest — this child, this hope — I will protect her!"
"…Then let me come with you. I don't know how much use I'll be in this weakened state, but—"
At Archi's unbroken resolve, the man's defeated expression stiffened into something sharper.
He flipped back the hem of his robes, revealing legs well-muscled for his age, and took the lead toward the exit of the forest.
"We should avoid the fanatical followers. If we can just cross the great forest, we'll be in sight of—"
The man was about to state their plan when it happened.
The body of the man leading the way was suddenly tripped by something coiling around his ankle. He crashed to the ground. Archi cried out and rushed to him.
But the man threw up a sharp hand toward the approaching elf.
"Get back!"
"——!?"
"I was careless… I didn't expect it this quickly!"
The man who had stopped Archi from running to him pushed himself upright — but only his upper body. His extended legs wouldn't move a muscle.
Under his upturned robes, his bare shins were covered in dense, black burn-like markings.
"The Black Serpent's venomous tongue…! Run!"
"But—!"
"I won't make it…"
As Archi was told to flee, the man's face was transforming rapidly.
The skin visible above his collar was gradually overtaken by dark reddish-black splotches. His eyes — once mild in expression — bulged open, and his face sank inward as though his eyeballs might tumble out.
He clawed at his mottled neck with both hands, then foamed yellow spittle from his mouth.
"Bub… bu… a, bu…"
He groaned in agony, and in the next instant, dark blood poured from every opening of his face — eye sockets, nostrils, earlobes, mouth — his life draining away like water being wrung from a cloth.
At this wretched death, Archi was aghast — and Emilia, forced to witness it, could not keep her composure. Even Echidna's expression twisted with pity.
"The Cauldron of Disease… the Plague Mabeast, the Black Serpent…!"
Having watched the man die, Archi spoke the name of the beast in a voice reduced to a rasp.
Perhaps it hadn't responded to the sound of its name, but in the silent forest — where only Archi and young Emilia's breathing remained — a new sound suddenly joined the stillness.
A sibilant, slithering sound, as though a colossal creature were licking its lips.
Something long and sinuous asserting its presence as it crawled across the ground.
The scale of the sound was so enormous that it was hard to match it to the impression it gave, but it was unmistakably the sound of a snake — tongue flicking, body dragging across the earth — with prey before it.
"…Shit!"
Archi realized the source of the sound and understood that he and young Emilia were inside the Black Serpent's hunting ground.
He knew that raising his voice would only put them at a greater disadvantage, but he had no choice. There was no other way to resist.
Not knowing which direction to run, Archi charged away from the man's corpse. The idea of heading where Fortuna had pointed was gone from his mind. Right now, he had to escape this threat. He had to protect what he had been given to protect.
But the young elf's desperate, frantic resistance— "Aah—"
His right ankle was seized by a writhing black venomous tongue, and his flesh was torn apart.
The bare skin where the tongue had crawled was branded with dark reddish-black burn scars.
The instant he saw it, Archi directed his palm at his right leg.
"…Fula!"
Without a moment's hesitation, a blade of wind sheared off his leg below the calf.
Losing his footing and nearly collapsing, he pressed himself against a tree trunk. Blood sprayed in a torrent. Through searing agony that sent his brain boiling, he clenched his teeth so hard they cracked— "Hyu…ma…!"
A sound of cleaving air — and the wound where Archi's right leg had been cut froze shut. White steam rose. This brutal method of forcibly staunching the wound through freezing drew a scream from Archi.
At his savage act, Emilia was struck speechless. The instant judgment, the response to unbearable pain — and above all, the strength of will that still would not release young Emilia from his arms.
"Archi…?"
Young Emilia, face pressed against his chest, hadn't seen what Archi had done. And Archi had absolutely no intention of letting her see.
With a sheen of cold sweat on his face, he forced an awkward smile.
"It's nothing… I'm fine…! Really… okay…!"
Broken and halting, his answer still tried to hide everything from young Emilia.
But cruel fate mocked the noble young man's resolve to the very last.
The wound he had sealed through the desperate act of severing his own leg and freezing the stump — the remaining intact portion of that frozen right leg began to dry out as though all moisture had been drained from it, cracking like parched earth, the damage spreading.
As though the very ground were drying up, Archi's right leg began to die. And it didn't stop at the leg.
"…Emilia. Can you see the white flowers between those two trees?"
"…Yeah."
Archi sank against the trunk of a great tree. Young Emilia, whose feet had touched the ground, looked in the direction he pointed and found the white flowers he'd described. She nodded.
Archi wiped his sweat-beaded forehead, hiding his pained expression.
"Can you… run toward those flowers? Past the flowers… straight ahead, just keep going straight…"
"I can… I can run. But…"
"Then run—"
Archi spoke to young Emilia, who stared at the white flowers with her voice catching in her throat.
Short words of farewell. Confusion flickered across the child's eyes, but she noticed that something was terribly wrong with him, and her violet pupils trembled.
At the prospect of being alone once more. At losing yet another person before her eyes.
"You'll be all right, Emilia. You won't be alone…"
"Archi…"
"Now go! No matter what you hear — don't look back — run!"
At Archi's sharp command, the child flinched, then ran.
She held back the urge to turn around — because she'd been told not to.
Geuse's words, Fortuna's words, Archi's words echoed in her small head.
If she obeyed everything they said, surely everything would go back to the way it was.
That was the only hope young Emilia had, and she told herself so.
He watched the girl run — leaving him behind — vanishing toward the light of hope.
Archi exhaled a long, slow breath and lifted the hem of his jacket.
The desiccation had already consumed both legs and his waist, reaching up to below his chest.
His legs wouldn't move. Worse, they would crumble at the slightest touch.
What would happen when the drying reached above his chest — his heart?
The sibilant sound of the Mabeast licking its lips before its prey drew closer.
As though the sound wanted to take away the girl who was escaping, the hope of the forest, the last burning embers of Archi's remaining life.
"Like hell I'm letting you…"
The slithering sound paused, as though it had lost interest in its still-living prey — and then was drawn back.
The sound drew closer. Feeling the end approaching, Archi relaxed his cheeks.
His death meant that child's life had been pushed further from danger.
"Fortuna… that child will be all right. I promise you."
The final sound drew near.
Listening to it, facing the gravest danger a life could face, Archi still smiled with pride at what he had accomplished.
"……"
That gentle smile was preserved, still unbroken, even as he dried up completely.
*** The white flowers Archi had pointed to were long, long since behind her.
"Hah… hah… haaah…"
Panting, desperately extending her short stride, young Emilia ran through the forest.
Toward the direction Archi had pointed — because that was the best thing to do, and if she focused on that, she wouldn't have to think about anything else — all while thinking of her mother, of Geuse, of Archi, of everyone.
"Uu… uuuh!"
She shook her head.
Tears streamed. She fought with everything she had to keep the sobs from leaking past the corners of her mouth.
What was happening right now? What did everyone know that she didn't?
What should she do? Was there anything she could do?
Who were the people attacking Fortuna, Geuse, and Archi? How could she make them go away? What were they after— "Oh… right."
Fortuna and Archi had said something. Geuse, too, while talking with Fortuna, had spoken as though it were something important.
If so, then their objective was— "Ah—"
While running lost in thought, young Emilia's foot caught on empty air. She stumbled, not realizing the ground had dropped away — she had entered a hollow in the forest floor.
She tried to catch herself, but the sharply cut depression offered no help for her small body, and with the momentum of her run, she tumbled down the slope.
Any other time, she might have cried out from the scrape and gotten right back up.
But young Emilia was in a state of extreme physical and mental exhaustion. Striking her head hard against the ground, she lost consciousness for a brief moment.
"I… have to…"
She had to do something. She had felt as though she'd found it — the answer, the thing she needed to do.
With that tiny spark of purpose kindled in her chest, consciousness cut out.
—And the story briefly left the child behind, returning to the place of fierce battle.
To witness the end of two fates.