A girl with lengthy golden locks frolicked on a bright green meadow, happily chasing a pair of butterflies. Her deep purple dress fluttered with each step. The contrast between her elaborate gown and childish conduct gave her a youthful and graceful air.

“Look, Papa! So pretty!”

Across the field sat a middle-aged man, his back against a large tree. The dark green fabric of his trousers blended in with the grass. Metal-framed spectacles perched on his sharp nose, perfectly complementing his serene face. A light brown vest over a white shirt completed his simple yet classy look.

He sent the girl a kind smile. “Those are Hell’s Maiden butterflies. They can’t be found anywhere else.”

“They’re extinct beyond the barrier?”

“I believe so.”

The girl showed a melancholic expression. “How unfortunate.”

“Please don’t make that face. The outside world is of no concern to us. ”

She nodded and reversed her frown.

I watched the father and daughter enjoy a nice quiet afternoon from the sky. It was a heartwarming sight.

Wait…

What?

I looked around. Infinite blue stretched out in all directions. Wispy clouds floated around me. I checked my body. The sling on my right arm had disappeared. My ribcage didn’t hurt.

“Huh?”

Why did I think I was injured?

I couldn’t remember what I was doing before I got here. A thick haze shrouded my memory.

Was this a dream?

I fell from the sky like a rock.

“Shiiiitttt!!!”

The blue sky folded into itself and vanished. The falling sensation went away in an instant. I floated in nothingness, suspended in endless black. After a few tense moments, a blinding flash swallowed my body, forcing me to close my eyes. When I opened them, the scenery around me had changed.

I stood on top of a river, as impossible as that sounded. I checked my soles and noticed they were dry. My shoes didn’t touch the water, floating just inches above it.

I found the father and daughter relaxing on the riverbank. A majestic waterfall served as a surreal backdrop to the scene. Colorful birds I’d never seen before flew above our heads.

“This is amazing, Papa!”

“I’m glad you like it.” The father made a soft smile. “I built it all for you.”

She flew into his chest and embraced him with all her might. “Thank you so much!”

“Now, now. You shouldn’t behave like that. It’s not fit for a lady, especially one as special as you.”

She made a cute pout and mumbled, “Sorry.”

He gently stroked her head. “No need for apologies. Once you’re done admiring the view, let’s begin your fishing lesson.”

“Fishing? Is that fun?”

“Of course.”

“Is it more fun than magic lessons?”

“Hmm… That’s a tough one. I guess you’ll have to try it and see.”

“Okay!”

The father patiently taught the girl how to bait the hook, cast the rod, and reel in the catch. The scene looked uncanny, as if it came out of a fairytale. Arthas didn’t have bodies of water large enough to hold wild fish. Fish themselves were extremely rare and treated as a delicacy reserved to the rich. Even I had only tasted it a few times.

After they were done fishing, a young maid in a white dress and apron appeared from the nearby forest. She took the fish they caught and cleaned them. Then she skewered them with damp wooden sticks and grilled them in an open flame. The father lay down on a large blanket spread out on the grass.

The blond girl trotted over to the expressionless maid. “Ein, is it done yet?”

Her eyes faintly shaded by her frilly headdress, Ein glanced at her mistress as she flipped the skewered fish to cook the other side. “Apologies, Milady. The fish is not ready yet. It will be done soon.”

“Don’t bother the help, dear,” said the father. “That won’t make the fish cook faster.” He uncovered a small wicker basket and took out a scone. “Here. We also have some thornberry jam.”

The girl skipped over to the blanket, all smiles.

I tried touching the water flowing beneath me, but my hand passed through without getting wet. Considering everything I had seen so far, I concluded this was a dream. I’d had lucid dreams before, but unlike those, I couldn’t bend reality here to my will. I didn’t even know what I was seeing. Was it a scene from a book I read?

“I can’t remember anything…”

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fill in the gaps in my memory. With nothing else to do, I continued watching them.

After their meal, the girl rested her head on her father’s lap. “Papa.”

“Yes?” He looked down.

“Nothing. I just wanted to see your face.”

“Haven’t you tired of it by now? You’ve seen it every day for decades.”

She slowly closed her eyelids and shook her head. “I’ll never grow tired of it.” Her smile bloomed like an exotic flower.

I sank into the bottom of the river. Sound and light vanished. The sudden change was similar to when the sky disappeared earlier, so I didn’t panic.

The scenery around me transformed again. The new stage held none of the tranquility of its predecessors.

“Where are you going, Papa!?” The girl screamed, tears running down her eyes.

Towering flames danced around them. Two shadows stood in front of her. I couldn’t see them clearly because of the smoke.

“This is goodbye.”

I recognized the father’s voice. It sounded many times colder than before.

“What did I do wrong? I’ll fix it, Papa! I’ll do anything! I swear, I’ll be useful to you! Please don’t leave me! Please!!!”

“I appreciate the thought, but it’s not necessary. You’re not necessary. Not anymore. Let’s go, Violetta.”

The small shadow beside him answered, “Yes, Papa.”

The blond girl froze. “W-What did you call her?”

“He called my name,” said the shorter shadow. “What of it?” The voice resembled the blond girl’s to a confusing degree.

“T-That can’t be. That’s my name! Papa! Tell her! Please! You gave me that name!!! It’s my treasure!”

“How pitiful.” The shadow tilted her head. “You can’t even understand you’ve been replaced. No matter. Names are important. In place of Papa, I shall name you, Sister. Hmm…” She whispered something to the father. “How’s that?”

“A paler violet,” said the father. “Sounds perfect.”

“No… No…” The blond girl shook her head, tears streaming down her face like rain on a window. “I refuse to accept this. Don’t leave, Papa… Please...”

The father turned his back on the blond girl. “We should get going, Violetta.”

“Yes Papa. I guess this is it.” Her sinister smile peeked out through a gap in the smoke. “Farewell, Lilac.”

The two shadows vanished into the darkness.

“Don’t leave me!!!”

The blond girl’s heart-rending scream shattered the world around her. No, the falling fragments belonged to the dream I was seeing. My missing memories took their place, surrounding me like an impenetrable cage. I recalled my adventures and my sins. I remembered everything.

Including the face of a former companion, a blond young lady who looked exactly like the broken girl in the dream.

“Violetta..?” I opened my heavy eyelids.

The figure of a woman with wavy blond hair came into focus.

The immortal witch, Lilac Gromwell, turned to me. “I noticed the strange mana flow around you, but I didn’t think you were using your ability on me. If not for my sensitivity to mana currents, I would’ve been none the wiser. You continue to exceed my expectations, Karius.”

I kept quiet and scanned my surroundings.

We were inside a small stone cave. A single light orb sitting in the corner illuminated the small space. Lilac Gromwell, no, Violetta, sat on a rock between me and the only exit. My left hand was tied to the rope binding my ankles. Escape was impossible.

This was the third time I had woken up from forced slumber since I left my hometown. I almost found the pattern funny. Almost.

Compared to those times, my current condition was surprisingly good. My head felt clear, with no sign of nausea or dizziness. The white powder she had used on me, probably an encantus, hadn’t left any lingering effects.

“Ignoring a lady is ungentlemanly. No point playing dumb. I already know about your ability. What-” She paused and furrowed her eyebrows. “How much did you see?”

I could deny it, but a feeling similar to guilt prevented me from doing so. Even though we were enemies, the times we spent traveling together still resided in the back of my mind. Treading on people’s wounds wasn’t something I could just rationalize away. Based on her words just now, she probably understood the gist of my anima anyway.

“...I apologize. That has never happened before.”

“...I take back what I said. You are a gentleman, Karius Corvider.” Gromwell uncorked a leather pouch and took a few sips of water. “Now that I think about it, you couldn’t have intentionally peeked at my past while fast asleep.” Pressing an index finger on her chin, she made an understanding smile. “The resonance probably happened because we both have powerful cors. It wasn’t your fault.” Her moist lips glistened in the dark cave, giving them an almost magical allure.

I wasn’t sure if she was putting on the charm on purpose, but it was more effective than I‘d care to admit.

“Figures. None of my family are mages, so I didn’t even know I could do something like that.”

“That’s not the only reason. Your anima has probably grown stronger through repeated use during your little adventure. Like any other skill, it gets better with training.”

“Good to know.”

“I have to say, you’re taking this surprisingly well. Most people would rage over being deceived and kidnapped.”

“I’m used to conniving vixens. I think it’s the victim’s fault for falling for it.” I pushed my shoulder onto the wall to prop myself up. I rested my back on the cave interior and cracked my sore neck by tilting my head side to side. “How did you find us after we got separated at Portus?”

“Tracking magic. I snuck an encantus pin in your bag just in case. That was the easy part. The more challenging bit was trying to convince your group to take my version of Elar with you. Fortunately, you invited me yourself.”

I hadn’t expected her to answer so candidly. Maybe she had done so in return for my honesty about seeing her past.

“I’m surprised you managed to get away from Hilde and Felix.”

“Wasn’t easy.” She shrugged, causing her bountiful breasts to jiggle like fresh pudding. “I had to leave behind an elaborate illusion to fool them into thinking you and Elar were asleep at camp. After gaining a bit of distance, I chased away the horse to fool them into following its trail. Then I covered up our tracks with magic while carrying you on my back. All that because your friends are veritable monsters.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Says the legendary Lamia.”

“Hey, don’t call me that.” She made an odd expression between a smile and a pout. “Do I look like some sort of demon to you?”

“You did keep rising from the dead when you fought Sir Richter.”

“That’s just for show. The real me is a delicate maiden.”

I burst into laughter, holding my stomach as I gasped for breath.

“How mean. I can’t believe this is the same Karius who risked his life to save me in the Nepa Caverns. My heart skipped a beat back then, you know?”

I made a wry smile. “If you say so.”

“Hmph.” She turned away in a huff. “I liked you better when I was pretending to be a child.”

“What a coincidence. I liked you better when you were pretending to be a child too.”

“Eh? You swing that way?”

“That’s not what I meant! Did you forget I’m head over heels for Hilde?”

She laughed wholeheartedly, as if getting revenge for my reaction earlier. I couldn’t understand this woman. How could a devious tactician like her make such a carefree expression?

That was a bad sign. I was getting dragging into her pace, almost forgetting to gather information.

I relaxed my cheeks and looked her in the eye. “Why am I here?”

“Orders from above.”

“Bullshit.”

“What makes you think that?”

“You spent days with us as Violetta. You had plenty of chances to abduct or kill me, but you didn’t. That means you were waiting. Observing. Since I’m the one tied up in this cave, you probably don’t care about Hilde. You went through a lot of effort to keep her from chasing us, so this isn’t a trap for her. Your actions wouldn’t make sense if you’re following orders. She’s the more dangerous target from Arthas’s perspective.”

“Well reasoned. You’re a smart boy. I like that about you.” She crossed her legs, granting a glimpse of porcelain thighs from the slit of her long purple skirt. “As a reward, I’ll skip the mind games and come clean. I need your help, Karius.”

“With what?”

“Gaining my freedom.”

I recalled her spy antics and her full-blown battle against one of Arthas’s best knights. “You seem plenty free to me.”

“Don’t interrupt, please.”

“I didn’t mean to. I thought you stopped.”

“I was just taking a pause for impact. This is the problem with boys, always eager to thrust themselves into small gaps.” She poked her chin with her index finger. “Where was I? Right. I need your magic, Karius. Especially your anima.”

“My anima..?”

“I wasn’t lying about being sent by the higher ups. The church ordered me to retrieve you.”

“You work for the church?”

She rolled her eyes. “I know right? I’ll skip the details, but I got captured by the high priest of Arthas. Oh, I’m not talking about the current one. The high priest two generations ago was much more powerful and intelligent. Anyway, he inflicted a curse on me, preventing me from disobeying those who carry his blood. Basically, anyone from his family can erase my existence with a snap of a finger. You’re smart enough to know why he did that, so I’ll skip that too.”

I nodded to show my understanding. The immortal witch was immensely powerful. Being able to control her meant wielding that power.

“I spent decades searching for a way to dispel the curse. I finally found a solution three years ago, but I need the cooperation of several different mages to create a certain encantus. Emotional bases used for high-level magic need to be genuine. Even with my skill and infinite time, I can only use a few. That’s where you come in. I want you to create that encantus for me.”

“You’re overestimating my abilities.”

“I don’t think so. I didn’t go through all the trouble of abducting you on a hunch. You used somnus to put Ricky and the warden to sleep. You used lightning, fire, and ice magic to defeat the acolytes in combat. From the variety of spells you weaved and circumstances you used them in, I deduced your anima: channeling emotions. But that was just speculation. To prove it, I disguised myself to observe you up close.”

“...That’s when you left that request on Harena’s board.”

She nodded with a smug grin. “I figured out you were staying in Harena as soon as I got there. Sabre drew attention with her annoyed stomps in the stables. I got a little worried when I couldn’t find you in town though.”

“We, uh, got into some trouble.”

“I heard from Hilde. Bandits, right? She told me about it while you were asleep from Felix’s poison. She also mentioned how you used the spells vacuum and ensis in your travels. That information supported my idea about your anima. I also noticed a faint flow of mana from you when you speak to someone, which made sense if you were actively reading their hearts.” Gromwell crossed her arms, pushing up her hefty breasts. “But the strongest evidence was your miscast in the Nepa Caverns. I felt an energy trying to pull something from within me. It didn’t work, as I thought. My emotions in that form were fakes created by my illusion magic. If those could fuel spells, I would’ve broken this curse myself ages ago. Oh, that doesn’t mean I didn’t ‘feel’ those fabricated emotions. I wasn’t lying when I said my heart skipped a beat from your heroics.” She gave me wink.

“Since the whole story about Claude and Jeanne was a sham, you must’ve chosen the Nepa Caverns to test my abilities for a different reason.” I closed my eyes for a moment and organized my thoughts. “You’ve been there before. Before you went with us as Violetta.”

Gromwell fell silent. The smug expression on her face vanished, which meant I was on the right track.

“The Arthas soldiers in the cavern... Did you kill them?”

“No.”

The unexpected answer tempted me to sigh in relief. Maybe Lilac Gromwell wasn’t as bad as rumors said.

The witch shrugged indifferently. “I just led them there by pretending to be a local who knew about your location. The scorpions did all the killing. It’d be a pain if the soldiers got in the way of my investigation, so I got rid of them as soon as they arrived.” She approached me and crouched down to my eye level. “I could lie to you, but you’d be able to tell with your anima, right? I’m not using my illusion magic right now, after all.”

A cold shiver ran up my spine. I scolded myself for lowering my guard against this immortal monster for even a moment. I had actually considered helping her if she’d leave us alone after. However, I now realized that freeing her from the high priest’s control would result in the deaths of many people. I didn’t want any more blood on my hands, assuming they were still attached after she was done with me.

“I’ll let you go unharmed if you cooperate.”

“Can you read minds?”

“You didn’t make it difficult, with that glare and all. I’m telling the truth. I have no reason to harm you if you help me. In fact, I’m quite fond of you, so I’d rather avoid that. I’ll even throw in a bag of gems for your trouble. What do you say?”

“Just one bag?”

“The jewels in it are pretty rare. A bag should be enough to buy you a mansion and a dozen servants in most cities. It’s a great offer considering your exile from Arthas, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Tempting, but the answer is no.”

Gromwell sighed. “Let me guess. Hilde.”

“Making this curse-breaking encantus of yours sounds like a lot of work. I don’t think I can do it while traveling with her.”

“Unfortunately, yes. I’ll have you stay with me to teach you the spells. You will need to lay low the entire time. I can’t have the high priest sniffing out my plans. Don’t worry. It won’t take long. About five years, give or take.”

“Five years!? That’s way too long!”

“Is it? That’s an optimistic estimate. I factored in my unmatched teaching ability and your talent as a mage. Putting aside your unique anima, a normal mage would take five years to master even one of the spells I need.”

“I’m talented?”

“Dissatisfied? Would you prefer to be called a prodigy?”

“No, that’s not… I’ve never been praised like that before.” I suppressed a grin. “It’s a bit hard to believe.”

“You defeated Ricky and escaped Arthas by going through hordes of guards and acolytes. I find your humility harder to believe.”

“Getting put down every single day does that to you.”

Gromwell snorted. “Those people are fools. A sword is no match for a spell. It will never be.”

“Sir Richter fought you just fine.”

“With encantus gear.”

“...Point taken.”

“We’ve wandered from the main topic. Hilde, was it?”

“I can’t leave her side no matter what.”

Gromwell stared at my face, as if studying a complicated incantation. Then she began chuckling. Her snicker escalated to laughter. Confused by that reaction, I checked her emotions. The immortal witch felt genuinely amused by what I said. That ticked me off.

“What’s so damn funny?”

She stroked her chest while recovering from her fit. “You have no idea, do you?”

“About what?”

“About why you can’t leave Hilde’s side no matter what.”

My mind ground to a halt, only to go into overdrive the next moment. What did she mean? What did she know? I tried to ask her, but my paralyzed jaw wouldn’t cooperate.

Gromwell untangled her long legs and crossed them the other way. “It’s not my place to tell you about that girl’s secret. I wouldn’t want anyone gossiping about my past, either. What I can tell you is about yourself. Believe me when I say this. Your feelings for her are fake.”

“No way.”

“An instant reply! How committed! But that only proves what I’m saying. You threw away your old life, betrayed your country, your master, your family, to save a girl you didn’t even know. Even with her harsh treatment and constant rejection, you still push yourself to stay by her side. Have you ever thought about how odd that is? Does that make sense to you?”

No, it didn’t.

My gaze wandered aimlessly in the dim cave. Terrified by my own confusion, I forced my lips to move. “T-That’s because I fell in love with her at first sight.”

“Sight? Was it really sight?”

“I-I sensed her determination… her iron will. That’s-”

“Exactly what I meant. Your anima sensed something within her, something that pulls other people in. Just so you know, that effect isn’t limited to you alone. Hilde has a magnetism that attracts others to her. Didn’t you notice how people gathered around her despite her terrible attitude? Gave her breaks?”

When Hilde went around Harena in search of a job, the townsfolk humored her even though she couldn’t do an ounce of work properly. I had thought that was because of her beauty, but what if Gromwell was telling the truth?

“Did you know that it’s common for female prisoners to be raped in the Arthas dungeons? That warden may look lazy, but he’s a piece of work, just like his uncle. Despite that, a beauty like Hilde got away with just a few cuts. That’s her power at work. For the sake of convenience, let’s call it charisma. The problem is, your ability is too sensitive.”

I already knew where she was going with this, but I didn’t want to hear it. I would’ve ripped my ears off if I could.

“After studying you both during our travels, I came to a conclusion. Your ‘love’ for Hilde is nothing but a side effect of your anima and her unique trait. It’s no more real than my illusions. That’s why you do everything to be with her, including trampling on her own will. That’s not love. That’s an addiction. Your anima is leeching off her soul.”

“T-That… can’t be.”

No matter how many times I read Gromwell’s emotions, my conclusion didn’t change. She was telling the truth.

“I don’t think she’s doing it intentionally, but who knows? You should have a better idea. After all, you can see into her heart.”

Memories of my sins came flooding in my head.

“I killed all those people… I left Annie behind…”

I still clearly remembered seeing Hilde in chains and feeling her heart pierce mine. But that night was an illusion. The people I killed rose up from my shadow and ensnared my limbs. They pulled my consciousness from the dim cave to an infinite darkness. I stood in a wasteland more barren than the surface world, endless sand in all horizons.

I was lost.

Was everything a lie?

I fell to the floor and scooped up the sand by my feet. The fine grains on my palms formed images of my memories with Hilde.

Did none of it have meaning?

The warmth of her back.

The ticklish sensation of her chapped lips.

The sour-sweet scent that I couldn’t get enough of.

Her hilariously bad sense of direction.

Her inability to wake up.

Her strange fondness for dangerous animals.

Her fear of mages.

Her smile when she called me Kari that one time.

Were those all fake?

I squeezed my heart for an answer.

The sand slipped through the cracks between my fingers and vanished in the wind.

Yes.

They were all fake.

If I hadn’t fallen for her in that dungeon, none of those would’ve happened. I wouldn’t have betrayed my master and sister. I wouldn’t have killed all those people.

Like a tower erected on a false foundation, my feelings were destined for collapse. No matter how many floors I build on top, that fate wouldn’t change. On the contrary, the structure would fall apart even faster as the weight of lies piled up.

Once the core crumbled, everything would follow it to the ground. And the core of my feelings for Hilde had been irreparably shaken.

Tiring of its cowardly escape, my consciousness returned to reality. I began laughing, my back still on the wall.

Gromwell frowned. “Don’t go nuts on me now. It’ll be a pain to train an insane person.”

“I’m not going nuts. I was just laughing at myself.”

“That’s called going nuts. Sane people don’t laugh at themselves in front of others, at least not sincerely. If you’re not doing that for show, then you’re pretty broken already.”

“I am shattered.” I lifelessly curled my lips into a wry smile.

“I guess we have a deal. Simia.” Gromwell burned the ropes on my ankles and left wrist and then offered me a hand.

My left hand twitched to life, seeking hers for some sort of redemption.

Then a seething rage overwhelmed me. Like an avalanche of molten lava, it swallowed my entire consciousness, burning me from within, recreating me in an instant.

I stopped my hand before it touched the witch and stared at my palm. “Who cares if it’s fake?” I mumbled.

“Pardon?”

“You know, I lived my entire life as a fake. I’m no Corvider, nor am I a knight. Half of me isn’t Annie’s brother, and I have absolutely no interest in the politics I grew up in. When I began traveling with Hilde, I thought I finally found something genuine.”

“Sorry for breaking the news to you.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I chuckled. “You taught me something important.”

The image of Portus surfaced in my mind. It was a village of people who continued to escape from reality, an abnormal, unnerving haven of weaklings.

But so what?

They were happy.

I shifted my gaze from my hand to Violetta’s eyes. “Truth is meaningless. Authenticity is meaningless. Reality is nothing but perception. You, a mistress of illusion, should know that best.”

Her amiable expression transformed into a hostile scowl. “Be careful with your words.”

I answered her threat with a look of confidence.

My core didn’t crumble.

Felix had mistaken me for deception incarnate, but he still traveled with me and saved my life with his funky concoctions. Hilde peppered with me insults and constantly gave me the cold shoulder, but I still found myself missing her cold, disinterested voice. Violetta was actually an immortal witch who wanted to use me, but that didn’t make our time together less enjoyable.

They were fun times, as short as they were.

More fun than my entire life in Arthas.

More meaningful.

More valuable.

I embraced the lies and decided to seek what lay beyond it. I believed the illusion. That wasn’t the solution heroes chose, neither was it something that would be sung of in legends. It was the choice of weaklings and cowards. Of people. That was enough.

“It’s okay to be a fake, Violetta.”

Explosive anger erupted from the witch, making her voice tremble.

“How dare you use that name and say that to me. You know of my past.”

“I said it because I know your past.”

“Then it’s the teacher’s duty to discipline her foolish student.” She aimed her palm at my right leg. “You don’t need this to weave magic. I’ll burn the end just enough so you don’t bleed out. Should stop you from trying to run away too. I’m out of rope, you see.”

I grinned. “Go ahead.”

The air in front of her palm shimmered.

The seething anger I felt earlier made its way towards me.

It didn’t belong to the immortal witch.

Blood splattered on the cave wall as Gromwell’s severed arm flew through the air.

Hilde stood beside the shocked witch, her bloody sword raised towards the ceiling. Felix materialized behind Gromwell and thrust his dagger at her leg. Gromwell jumped aside to avoid the brunt of the blow, but the poisoned blade still drew blood.

Hilde chased after the witch, but Gromwell’s body melted into the wall.

Hilde’s anger, erupting outside the cave earlier, had saved me from the witch’s temptation. Despite hearing everything the witch had said, including my illusionary feelings for her, Hilde had gotten furious at my betrayal. That reaction meant she cared about our relationship, real or not. Couldn’t the same be said for my feelings towards her?

The night of our escape, I had channeled my own affection for Hilde and cast cura on her.

And it had worked.

According to the witch, fake feelings couldn’t fuel spells.

But I had saved Hilde with my facsimile of love.

Then was it real?

Who cared?

What mattered was if it was valuable.

And it was. To me. And apparently, to Hilde as well.

Then our relationship had meaning, regardless of how it began. Even though rainbows were nothing but a crossing of mist and light, that didn’t make them any less beautiful.

How could I not answer Hilde’s feelings?

I got to my feet. “You guys are right on time.”

“We had to be,” said Felix. “Any later and you’d be one leg short.”

“I had to time my signal when the witch was completely focused on me. It worked, didn’t it? Did she escape?”

“No, I placed wire traps at the entrance,” said Felix. “They haven’t been triggered. She’s still in the cave.”

“How did you find us!?” Gromwell’s voice echoed within the stone walls.

I couldn’t tell where she was coming from, likely another application of her illusion magic. Talk about overpowered.

Felix looked around the small cave. “This is problematic. I can’t sense her at all.”

“We should’ve killed her with the first blow.” Hilde sent me a prickly glance. “This is all because you wanted her alive.”

“Weren’t you the one who wanted to save Violetta?”

“That was before I found out she was a legendary witch.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Again with your thing against mages.”

“Don’t ignore me!” shouted Gromwell.

“I can explain that.” I moved closer to my companions and entrusted my back to them.

“You? You were with me the whole time! What would you know?”

Gromwell was poisoned and losing blood. Every second I chatted with her turned the odds in our favor. She might surrender if we cornered her enough. I didn’t want to kill her if possible.

“I planned the whole thing.”

“What..?”

“I already suspected you, more specifically the smaller version of you, since our visit to the Nepa Caverns. You said it yourself. I miscast, something that hasn’t happened in years. Not only that, it happened consecutively several times.”

“You suspected me since then..?”

“I didn’t know for sure, but yeah.”

“Then why didn’t you do anything about it?”

“Because I wanted to know what you were up to. I knew you didn’t want to kill me. If that was your goal, you could’ve done so easily during the fight against the scorpions. Hilde had her hands full back then, and I was desperate to survive. An assassin wouldn’t have wasted such a chance. That means you want something else.”

“That’s mere speculation.”

“There were other signs. Violetta decided to wait for my recovery before searching for her companions. That didn’t make sense considering how desperately she wanted to find them. It was as if she, I mean you, didn’t want me out of your sight. That made me suspect you’re after me, not Hilde. Which brings up the question of why. Why would someone sent by Arthas be after me but not a dangerous Valmaz fugitive? Even if my mother specifically requested my retrieval, no authority in Arthas would ignore the opportunity of capturing both targets. I inferred that your objective was a personal one. Of course, I wasn’t sure until you told me just a few moments ago.”

“Wait, wait, wait. If what you’re saying is true, that means you let yourself get kidnapped.”

“I did. I figured out your identity when I saw you fight Sir Richter in Portus. Violetta, whose identity was in question, disappeared right when a witch that specializes in illusions showed up in a tiny village. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. I intentionally left you behind in Portus knowing you were Lilac Gromwell.”

“That’s a bluff! You took me along when I was disguised as Elar! If you knew about my identity before that, you wouldn't've believed the story about Violetta getting captured by the townsfolk.”

“Oh, I didn’t believe a word of that. I let you tag along so I could keep an eye on you. That’s better than worrying about a sneak attack. You already found us once, so I didn’t think we could shake your pursuit. I didn’t realize I was carrying a tracking charm in my bag though.”

“Didn’t you consider the possibility that Elar was also a victim of my illusions?”

“Of course I did. It was unlikely, but I looked into that possibility just to be sure. I treated Elar’s arm wound to check if it matched the one you got from Sir Richter. The location was an exact match. Moreover, Elar’s wounds were all gashes. Heat rays and melting stones don’t do that.” I shrugged exaggeratedly. “I figured if I let you kidnap me, Hilde and Felix can launch a sneak attack when you’re least wary, which is exactly what happened. I’m not crazy enough to fight a monster like you on equal terms.” I made a smug face to annoy her.

“Bastard..!”

“You got me there.”

“...You didn’t answer my first question. I erased our tracks on the way here. How did Hilde and Felix find this cave?”

True to her reputation, she regained her calm in the span of a breath. I continued my story, hoping to end this confrontation without a fight.

“The balm. Sabre tracked the smell to me. Your illusions can mask scents when it’s active, but that only works in a limited area. It can’t erase the trail. Even you don’t have enough mana to maintain a spell that wide. Sabre could probably find me even without it, but better safe than sorry.”

“So that’s why you kept refusing to wash that disgusting thing off. If I remember correctly, the first time you did that was right after Felix applied that crap on your wounds. What a schemer. Just like your mother.”

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. I had handled this incident exactly as Mother would.

“Not everything went according to plan. I honestly panicked when Hilde tried to leave the party after I rejected the idea of saving Violetta from the Portus townsfolk. I was forced to explain the plan to her.”

“That really pissed me off,” said Hilde. “I couldn’t believe he knew about you but let you stay with the group. I would’ve killed you the moment I found out.”

“Which was why I didn’t tell her. In the end, I managed to convince Hilde by saying it was our best chance to gather information and defeat you with a surprise attack. We all saw you fight in Portus. It was the obvious choice, whether she liked it or not.”

“But if you didn’t want to tell Hilde and Felix,” said Gromwell, “how did you plan on letting them find you?”

“Sabre would’ve searched for me no matter what. Hilde and Felix would realize something was up if that happened.”

“Indeed.” Felix held his dagger in a reverse grip in front of him. “Sabre tried to run off as soon as the illusions at the camp disappeared.”

“I see. You asked Hilde to stay away from us while I was disguised as Elar so she wouldn’t accidentally reveal the plan to me.”

“Hilde may have a poker face, but she’s a terrible liar. Do you even know how many times she forgot or denied her alias?” I shook my head with an exasperated look. “Felix is no different.”

“Eh!? Do you mean I have no potential as a thief!?”

“Not the time, Felix.”

Hilde glanced at me while keeping vigilant of her surroundings. “I still think we should kill her.”

Felix carefully watched the surroundings. “I agree with Master, Miss Hilde. Killing Violetta should be our last resort.”

I checked my internal clock. Several minutes had passed. The blood loss and poison should’ve taken their toll on Gromwell by now. Based on my analysis of her abilities, she didn’t have the ability to heal. In fact, that magic was probably the furthest away from her.

Gromwell’s cackle shook the small chamber.

“You got me, Karius! It’s my complete loss!”

I stifled a sigh of relief. We weren’t out of the woods yet. The witch might not be hostile at the moment, but that didn’t mean she was open to peace. I decided to buy a little more time.

“You’re giving me too much credit. More than anything, you lost because of your carelessness. Excluding my miscast, there was one other thing that tipped me off about your identity.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Your dress. You shouldn’t wear the same style and color when in disguise. Long blond hair together with a purple gown isn’t exactly common. You’re too loyal to your fashion sense.”

“...Now that you mention it.”

“Master is amazing!” Felix spread his arms wide. “Even an old witch is no match for you!”

“Immortals don’t grow old, Felix. And Karius, thanks for the lesson in humility. Power dulled my sense of danger. Out of respect for your tactical victory, I shall reveal one of my cards.”

That declaration sent bone-chilling terror through my spine.

I calmed myself by regulating my breathing. “A free lesson from the immortal witch? I’m honored.”

“You should be.” She chuckled. “I know you’re buying time, but unfortunately for you, blood loss and poisons are meaningless to this body. Losing an arm is a big annoyance though, so part of your plan worked. Congratulations.”

Shit. I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.

“Get ready to fight, everyone.” I tapped into my own fear and amplified it. “Even with her illusions, she can’t escape all three of us in a small cave like this.”

“I think you have that the other way around.”

Oh no.

Skip weave.

Execute.

“Glacies!!!”

A dome of ice grew from the ground and enclosed me and my companions before a massive heat wave could burn us alive.

I heaved a sigh of relief. Good thing I remembered how Richter defended against a similar attack. However, we weren’t in the clear yet. The ice dome melted at a rapid rate from outside, so I continued to recast glacies to reinforce it with internal layers. The space inside grew smaller and smaller.

“We need to get out of here,” I said. “I’ll create an opening. Split up when I give you the signal.”

My comrades nodded.

I crafted multiple thin layers of ice within the dome’s inner walls and then covered it with another layer of thick ice. Gromwell’s heat wave reached the thin layers. The thin ice vaporized much faster than a solid ice block, creating a thick mist. The steam shrouded the dome from the witch’s view.

I used my anima to pinpoint her location. She had taken quite a distance from us after melting the cave. I created an ice spike from beneath her feet, hoping the mist would disguise my attack. The distance to the target delayed materialization and guzzled my mana, but there was no other way to stop her continuous casting. The onslaught of heat ceased when all three of us were forced to our knees by the frozen ceiling.

“Now!” I dispelled the ice dome, causing it to shatter.

The small cave had disappeared, melted into lava by the witch’s spell. The stone ground around us sizzled from residual heat. I created a path using ice magic and ran away.

Hilde and Felix had already disappeared in the fog when I checked behind me. Those two could easily jump the distance of the burnt ground, so I wasn’t worried.

Considering how often I used it, I was beginning to think glacies was my favorite spell. That also meant I always ran into terrifying situations. On second thought, I’d rather not use this spell ever again.

Another of those terrifying situations, in the form of a bewitching blonde, stared me in the face.

“Not bad, Karius.” Gromwell licked her bottom lip. “You almost got me. Good thing I can read the flow of mana.”

I had gone for the kill with that attack. My deal with Hilde was to kill Gromwell if she didn’t surrender. Even with my full resolve, the spell didn’t leave a scratch on her.

“Just how overpowered are you? You’re making me wanna give up.”

“A mere difference in experience, boy.” She vanished into thin air as Hilde’s shortsword whipped by.

Hilde flipped backward twice to avoid a heat blast. Gromwell dragged the heat beam like a giant sword to chase after her. Felix tossed two throwing knives at the witch, but the iron blades vaporized to small stubs before bouncing off Gromwell’s plump mounds.

“Futile.” The immortal witch feigned a bored look.

“Not really.” I noticed something in that clash, aside from the amazing jiggle. “Why did you stop attacking, witch?”

She twisted her glossy lips into a sadistic smile. “Your wits are starting to get annoying.”

“Hilde, Felix, she can’t use that heat wave while that heat barrier is up! She won’t be able to counter if we barrage her. The barrier isn’t always active either. Richter hit her with a surprise attack before. She has to turn it off because it drains a lot of mana. We can do this!”

The barrier wasn’t impenetrable. With enough speed and mass, even normal weapons could go through, but hoping for that was too optimistic. We had to prepare ourselves for a drawn out fight to drain the witch of her magical energy. Despite what legends about her said, she didn’t have infinite mana. Her relatively conservative use of spells confirmed that.

“Try it then.” Gromwell floated above the fog. “This mist is a bother.” She dispersed it with a wave of a hand, revealing the full moon in the sky.

The moonlight reflected off the white sand, lending an eerie glow to our battlefield.

“I can’t reach her from here,” said Hilde.

I shook my head. “She’s still on the ground. She can’t use wind magic.”

“Are you blind? She’s flying.” Hilde pointed her sword at the floating witch.

“That’s just an illusion. She can manipulate wind using heat and pressure, but that’s not precise enough for flight.”

She wouldn’t need to ride a horse or erase her tracks if she could soar freely.

“Press-what?”

“Pressure.”

Gromwell aimed a palm in my direction. I scrambled away from her heat wave, but the sand slowed me down. I created a smooth ice path on the ground and dove forward to slide away from danger. Running out of momentum, my body soon slid to a stop. The shimmering air continued towards me, melting the ice path as it approached.

In the nick of time, Felix threw a cylindrical metal weight attached to a chain. The projectile hurtled into empty space.

What was he doing!?

Before I could shout out my complaint, the chain looped around an invisible pole. Gromwell’s hand, caught in the chain, materialized along with the rest of her body. Like Richter, Felix had deduced Gromwell’s true position from her angle of attack.

“Good job, Felix.”

“‘Tis my duty to protect you, Master.”

Hilde rushed towards the bound Gromwell. Without losing her arrogant smirk, Gromwell melted the iron chain and aimed her hand at the Valmaz warrior. Hilde used her inhuman physical prowess to leap over the heat beam, but the witch expected that. Gromwell raised her hand to the sky and targeted Hilde in midair. With no way to dodge, Hilde held her sword in front of her and braced herself.

“Use this!” I cast glacies on the ground beneath her.

A pillar of ice rose up along Hilde’s jump trajectory. She kicked off the ice to change direction, avoiding significant damage from the heat blast.

Another metal weight flew towards Gromwell’s head. She swayed to avoid it with no effort. The attached chain passed above her left shoulder without even grazing her blond hair.

“I’m not all about magic, you know.”

“I know that very well, Madam.” Felix pulled his end of the chain with all his might.

Realization flashed on Gromwell’s face. She turned around and saw Hilde flying towards her, pulled along by Felix’s chain. The Valmaz warrior swung her blade at the witch’s neck, but Gromwell ducked down just in time to keep her head. Hilde landed a turning kick on the witch’s back as they crossed.

“You little...” Recovering from her stumble, Gromwell swung her arm towards Hilde and Felix to unleash another heat blast.

I finished my weave first. “Return vengeance tenfold. Punishment for the bold.”

I hadn’t been twiddling my thumbs while my comrades were fighting.

Execute.

“Infernus!”

White flame erupted from nothing, swallowing Gromwell and everything around her. To avoid exhausting my mana, I hadn’t amplified Hilde’s rage. The resulting attack was much weaker than the one I used against the soldiers in Arthas.

The flames vanished without a trace, leaving an unscathed witch standing on the scorched sand. She hadn’t shielded herself or countered the blaze. The witch had merely waved the heat away, as if shooing an obedient dog.

“So this is how you roasted those soldiers in the forest. Impressive, but it was foolish to use a fire spell against me. Your rage isn’t on the same realm as mine.”

“I thought as much. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot in terms of arsenal. You’ll have to forgive me for trying anything.”

“There’s nothing to forgive. If I think of this as your entrance exam to become my disciple, it’s a rather worthwhile activity. Unfortunately, I don’t have all night.”

I rolled my eyes and mumbled just loud enough for her to hear. “I bet now you’re gonna say you’ve been holding back.”

“I’ve been going easy on you because I need your anima, but playtime is…” She blinked a few times and turned red.

“Don’t get mad. Reading is a hobby of mine, and this development is quite standard in stories. It’s not your fault it’s so predictable.”

She shot me with a heat beam, which I blocked with an ice wall.

I did my best to distract her as Hilde and Felix made their way to flank the witch. Every second I bought gave them more time to find a good angle of attack. They launched a pincer attack, skewering the witch from both sides, but the corpse faded into smoke a moment after.

“Master, we can’t tell if it’s a decoy!”

I couldn’t use my anima to pinpoint her location if she used her illusions to full effect. She knew about my power, so she put fake emotions in her clones and masked her own. I could tell them apart given enough time, but that small difference meant life or death in real battle.

However, I still had a few ideas on how to defeat her illusions. Based on what I’d seen so far, her power was limited. If it wasn’t, she’d just produce a dozen copies of herself and overwhelm us. She had never used more than two distinct illusions, even in her fight against Richter. I decided to bet on that number.

“I’ll do something about her position!” I knelt down and placed a hand on the ground. “Peaceful world of white. Be wise and tread light.”

A paper thin layer of ice spread on top of the sand like a swarm of locusts. The sheet reached well beyond Gromwell and my allies. Hilde and Felix quickly changed direction, cracking the ice with each step. They ignored Gromwell’s clone and headed to what seemed like empty space. Cracked ice lay underneath the invisible witch.

The two warriors swung their blades with blinding speed. Gromwell’s figure flickered into existence as the weapons connected. Felix’s dagger disintegrated completely inches away from the witch’s skin, but a sizzling stub remained from Hilde’s shortsword after passing through the barrier. With sheer force, Hilde jammed the molten rod into Gromwell’s waist.

The witch unleashed a blood curdling scream as the metal melted into her flesh. Gritting her teeth, she countered with a heat blast. Hilde let go of her melted sword and rolled to the side, avoiding the attack.

Felix tossed a small black ball at Gromwell’s feet and took three backward leaps. “Get back!”

Hilde followed his advice as green smoke burst from the ball.

“A smokescreen?” Gromwell pulled out the metal stake from her gut with a grunt. “Or is it poison? Didn’t I tell you toxins don’t work on this body?”

“That’s no mere poison!” shouted Felix. “That’s an acidic mist that will burn your skin on contact!”

“Don’t tell her that!” I screamed.

“Uh, thanks, Felix.” Gromwell waved her hand and pushed the mist towards me by manipulating air.

“Tarnation!”

“Dammit, there’s a limit to being honest!” I desperately ran from the green cloud’s path.

Hilde drew her spare sword and sped towards Gromwell. A moment before she reached strike range, Hilde kicked sand towards the witch. Upon hitting the barrier, the sand melted into liquid before disintegrating into sparkling mist. The distracted witch didn’t notice Felix flank her with a fresh dagger. He stabbed her back in a speed I couldn’t follow, but the short blade fizzled away before it touched her skin.

Hilde spun twice and swung her sword at Gromwell’s chest. The heat barrier whittled away the metal, but the speed of the slash allowed about half of the blade to make it through. The witch predicted that and hopped back to dodge it. Felix rolled away from her path to avoid getting incinerated by her heat barrier. Gromwell sent a blast intersecting his escape route.

“Glacies!” I conjured an ice spike to shield Felix.

“A thousand thanks, Master!” He pushed off the ground with his hands and landed on his feet.

“Just doing my job!” I checked behind me and saw the green mist disappear in the desert wind. I loosened my shoulders and breathed a sigh of relief.

I sensed a surge of emotion from the witch. It reminded me of my own amplification skill.

“Get away from her!” I shouted. “Come close to me so I can protect you with magic!”

Hilde and Felix did as ordered. We watched the witch from afar, wary of what was about to come. Several tense moments came and went.

Nothing happened.

“Did you expect me to use a wide area attack like when I melted the cave?” asked Gromwell. “Well, I could, but it takes too long to cast. I’d never hit Hilde and Felix with that, especially with you watching me.”

Shit. She faked a sudden spike in her emotions, knowing I’d sense it with my anima. The immortal witch had tricked me into pulling my two melee fighters away from her.

However, her emotions didn’t settle down. They weren’t fake.

Wait… Emotions? Not one, but two. What was this?

Wrath.

Distrust.

The two emotions mingled together and grew larger. Something was coming, but I couldn’t send Hilde or Felix in without knowing what it was. The witch might be baiting me to do just that, intending to kill them with a short range area spell. She had gotten enough time to prepare one after I called my allies back.

I decided to cancel her weave with magic.

“Glacies!” I created several ice spikes from the ground.

Her body got skewered, but the bloody mass melted into brown goo and seeped into the cold sand.

Gromwell’s voice echoed in the vast desert. “To thee sung of in legend, whose power reigns unquestioned.”

All three of us tried to search for her figure with no success. Even with my anima at maximum potency, I couldn’t see through her masking.

“Over there!” said Felix.

The immortal stood on top of a high sand dune, hand raised to the moonlit sky. “Regal and distant tyrant, lend thy reins for a moment. That I may silence my foes, to end their pitiful throes.”

Hilde and Felix rushed at her, but I stopped them with a shout.

“Don’t go closer! It’s too late!”

The black sky above Gromwell shimmered. Ebony claws tore the empty space. A red reptilian head plunged out of the tear. Golden slit eyes darted around, as if trying to understand the world beyond the floating gate. Black horns protruded from its temples, cheeks, and chin. With a thunderous roar, the terrifying creature burst out of the hole in the night sky. Crimson wings armored by scales larger than tower shields and a body the size of a small castle blocked out the stars. Fire and smoke shot out of its nostrils as it focused its gaze on us.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I mumbled.

“What is that!?” asked Hilde.

“A fire dragon… I thought they were just creatures of fiction.”

“As far as I know, they are,” said Gromwell. “This isn’t a real one.”

“Are you sure you should be telling us that?” I asked.

“You’ll find out with your anima anyway. No point in hiding it.”

Actually, I had already figured that out as soon as the creature appeared in full. The thing didn’t have any emotions. Even a mage as skilled as Gromwell didn’t have the leeway to fake the creature’s will while maintaining its massive existence.

A combined spell, using illusion and heat magic, had given birth to the legendary creature. I hadn’t even heard about combining magic before, but I didn’t have the leisure of getting surprised. The dragon might be a fake created by magic, but that didn’t make it less dangerous. The stars behind the dragon blurred from the heat its body produced.

“We can’t attack the dragon,” I said. “It’s body is infused with heat magic. It’s scales can probably melt metal. We have to focus on Gromwell. I don’t think she can use her heat blasts while keeping that giant lizard around. If we’re lucky, her barrier might be down too.”

“Sorry, but I’m not nice enough to let you chat during battle.” Gromwell extended a hand towards us.

The fire dragon took a deep breath and undammed a river of fire in our direction.

“Get close to me!” I created a thick horseshoe-shaped ice wall in front of my party, making it as small but thick as possible.

The red flames ate through the ice much faster than the witch’s heat beams. I spent a great deal of mana just surviving the onslaught.

All three of us were covered in sweat and soot by the time the dragon paused for a breath. It’s cheeks and snout glowed bright red like coal embers. The creature didn’t seem to able to spit fire continuously.

I coughed to clear the smoke from my lungs. “I can’t block that attack anymore. I’ll literally burn out in the middle of its next flame breath.”

“Then it’s time for me to take the stage.” Felix glared at Gromwell, who stood behind the dragon. “I shall attack the witch directly.”

“You can get past that thing?”

“I’ve used up my daggers and throwing knives, so I should be able to go faster than before. If you provide footholds for me, there is a very small chance.”

Where the hell did he even keep all those weapons?

“How small?”

“Practically none. But there’s no other way.”

Our chat got interrupted by the dragon. The creature swooped down from the sky and opened its enormous mouth to snap us up. Hilde picked me up like a bride and jumped away. Felix avoided the attack with minimal movement. The dragon’s shimmering scales singed the tip of his long scarf.

“Dammit!” I shouted. “Can’t you let us talk in peace for a moment!?”

Gromwell tilted her head. “Why?”

“...I dunno. To make things more exciting?” I moved my gaze to Hilde’s stoic face. “Please keep carrying me like this.”

Her eyebrows creased ever so slightly. “What are you saying now?” She sprinted away from the dragon with me in her arms.

“I can’t defend myself against that thing without using mana. I need to conserve as much as possible for Felix’s plan.”

“Don’t you have any pride?”

“Not enough to risk my hide.”

“A rhyme? You really have no sense of humor.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny!”

We barely avoided the dragon’s claws by suddenly braking. The pitch black talons dug deep into the sand.

“Master! It’s time! Please create pillars along my path!” Felix bolted towards Gromwell.

“Have I ever told you you’re way too heroic to be thief!?”

“Many times!”

“You should’ve listened to me!” I squeezed mana from my body and crafted dozens of narrow towers of varying heights, each about a square foot wide, between Felix and the witch.

Seeing his approach, Gromwell summoned the dragon to her side. Felix hopped on a growing ice tower and rose up to the sky. The enormous beast bounded towards him and tried to crush him between its teeth. He dove off the tower and threw his chain at another tower in front of him. The metal chain wound around the pillar several times before tangling up, holding it in place. Felix swung across the desert and landed on a lower ice pillar. He untangled the chain with a shake and collected it in his hands.

Having gone past the dragon, Felix focused on reaching Gromwell. He leapt from tower to tower with the agility of a dust cat. The dragon pursued him, mowing down ice pillars along the way, but it couldn’t keep up with his ridiculous speed.

Realizing it couldn’t catch him on foot, the dragon flapped its wings and took flight. After overtaking Felix, the drake twisted around and swung its talons at him. The dragon’s claw was about twice the aspiring thief’s height. He had nowhere to go.

Or so I thought.

Right before the black talons cleaved his flesh, Felix jumped and twisted his body sideways, slipping through the gap between the beast’s talons. The dragon’s claw shaved off the top of the ice tower, leaving a melted stump where Felix once was.

Having lost his platform, Felix fell towards the ground. On the way down, he swung the chain at the ice pillar. The metal weight at the end of the chain went around the tower and returned to him from the other side. Using his beast-like reflexes, he caught the weight with his free hand. The chain ended up looped around the pillar like a climbing rope. He pulled himself towards the pillar and pushed his feet on the ice. His boots and chain scraped the surface of the ice, slowing his descent. Felix landed safely on the sand and recovered his trusty tool with a flick of his arm.

.

The dragon raised its massive foot and tried to squish him. Felix rolled aside and ran through the gap between the dragon’s legs. Gromwell was just beyond it. The behemoth couldn’t turn around fast enough to catch him. Nothing stood between his blade and the witch.

Wait.

His blade?

Didn’t Felix say he had no daggers left?

How did he plan to attack Gromwell?

“Tarnation!!!”

“I knew it!”

Channel.

Hilde’s iron-clad determination.

Target.

Felix’s chain.

“Ferrum.”

The chain shattered to pieces, surprising Felix for a moment, but he quickly realized it was my doing.

Still in Hilde’s arms, I began to weave my spell. “I call upon thee, soul of swords. All shall kneel, be it kings or lords.”

Execute.

“Ensis!”

In a flash of light, the fragmented chains formed a longsword. Felix grabbed the hilt with both hands and swung at the defenseless witch. Gromwell escaped the first blow by leaping backward, but Felix instantly caught up to her for another strike. The shining sword closed in on her neck, as if drawn to it.

Felix’s body flew sideways and bounced on the sand like a tumbleweed. His singed clothes left tendrils of black smoke as he rolled to a stop. He lay motionless on the ground, no different from an abandoned carcass.

““Felix!!!”” Hilde and I screamed at the same time.

An instant away from victory, the tip of the dragon’s tail had swiped Felix from behind.

“Fix my sword,” said Hilde. “Now!”

I reformed her sword with ensis. I held it for her because she had her hands full with me. “What’re you planning to do?”

“Save Felix.”

“Felix is dead!”

“He might not be.”

“Who cares!?”

Hilde’s stoic face turned livid. “Karius!!! How dare-”

I dug my face in her sooty silver hair and whispered, “Trust me.”

“...You better know what you’re doing.”

“He can’t fight!” I shouted, pretending to be angry. “He’s useless to us now!”

“You’re colder than I thought, boy,” said Gromwell.

“Shut up!!!”

The witch could kill Felix at any time. The only reason she hadn’t done so was because she was baiting us to come for him. If I pretended to be indifferent about his survival, his value as a hostage decreases. Normally, that would mean his death, but I knew Gromwell wouldn’t waste time and mana killing a completely incapacitated enemy, not when she still had us to worry about.

“We’re running,” I said to Hilde.

“Where?”

“Around. Just stay away from Felix so he doesn’t get hit. That dragon eats an insane amount of mana. Gromwell can’t keep that up for long. ”

Assuming the legends were wrong and the witch didn’t have a bottomless mana well, of course.

Thinking back, we should’ve focused on running from the start. I had placed the entire burden on Felix’s shoulders, mistaking my naivety for trust. That was my tactical error. Not only that, we could’ve avoided this entire situation if I had let Hilde kill Gromwell from the start. Of course, there was no guarantee she could actually kill the immortal witch with a single surprise attack, but trying wouldn’t have made things any worse.

I bit my lip, using the pain to get me focused. If there was one thing I learned during my stint as a fugitive, it was that regret led nowhere and produced nothing. To atone for my mistakes, I had to move.

I had to get all three of us out of here. Alive.

“I don’t suppose you’ll agree to let my comrades go if I surrender quietly,” I said.

Gromwell chuckled. “No can do. I know they’ll come looking for you. It’s less troublesome to just kill them now. Then I can take my time to educate you.”

“Don’t you mean torture me into submission?”

“You say tomato.” She pointed a finger at us. “Enough of this.”

The dragon swooped down and tried to pluck us from the ground. Despite her unwieldy load, namely me, Hilde managed to dash away from the dragon’s path. Focused on running, she continuously escaped the dragon’s incessant attacks.

“This is getting annoying.” Gromwell furrowed her eyebrows. “Burn.”

The dragon landed and took a deep breath. A glowing orange mass traveled from its chest to its throat. Hilde couldn’t outrun the extensive range of the flame breath, especially while carrying me. I had to do something about it.

“Weren’t you gonna take me alive!?”

“I’ll tone it down just enough for you to survive. Just make sure you use all your mana to shield yourself.”

Her goal was to drain me, and she could do just that by keeping the flame breath on us until I ran out of mana. Hilde wouldn’t be able to defeat her alone. I had to think of a way to survive this without exhausting my dwindling energy.

An idea popped into my head.

“Hilde, put me down.”

“Another one of your crazy ideas?”

“You don’t wanna know.” I embraced her tightly.

“Are you giving up?”

“As tempting as dying in this position sounds, no. Hop straight up when I say so. Keep it low.”

“Okay.”

I channeled Gromwell’s noxious rage and constructed a spell.

The dragon released a river of flames. It was now or never.

“Jump!”

Hilde and I jumped about a foot off the ground.

“Simia!”

I condensed heat into a pillar directly beneath us, melting sand into glass and then turning it into nothingness.

I stared at the avalanche of flames rolling in our direction and used that fear.

“Glacies!”

I froze the walls and floor of the hole I created. Hilde and I slipped into the opening like a sheathed sword. Then I created a thick layer of ice above us to weather the storm of hellfire.

Due to the angle of the dragon’s flames, most of the heat traveled horizontally. The ice didn’t melt nearly as fast as the first time I defended against it. I still used up quite a bit of mana, but this way, the dragon couldn’t drain me to zero by continuously spitting fire.

“When did you learn that spell?” asked Hilde.

“I’ve been playing with the theory since I saw it in Portus, but this is the first time I tried it. I didn’t have the right fuel for tests without that scary witch around.”

“You’re plenty scary yourself.”

“Ugh, that kinda hurts.”

“But I’m glad you’re on my side.”

“Eh? W-What did you say?”

“I said I’m glad you’re on my side.”

“C-Could you say that again?”

“I’m glad you’re on my side. What’s up? Did you hurt your ears?”

“N-Nothing. I just felt grateful to your frankness.”

“I don’t get it.”

“I’ll explain later. The dragon’s about to run out of energy. We have to time this perfectly.”

She nodded, her chin poking my shoulder.

As soon as the flames dissipated, I shattered the glass above us and elevated us to ground level by creating an ice pillar beneath our feet.

As expected, the dragon flew towards us, eager to whack us like moles. Hilde grabbed my collar and dragged me to safety.

Hilde turned her back to me. “Get on.”

“Huh?”

“Carrying you on my back frees up my hands.”

“Oh, okay.”

“And you’ll serve as a shield if I get hit from the rear.”

“I knew it!”

“Just kidding.”

“That… was actually pretty funny.”

Before I could wrap my uninjured arm around Hilde, the dragon vanished into thin air. The witch was running out of mana. Finally.

“You’re more dangerous than I thought, Karius.” Gromwell scowled at me with a previously unseen wariness. “I’m beginning to think keeping you alive might be a bad idea. Who knows when you’ll stab me in the back.”

“I’d rather you keep going easy on me, though.”

“I’ll try, but I’m running out of options. I didn’t think you’d weather out a second dragon breath.”

“Me neither. Guess Fortuna was on my side.”

“Drivel. No such thing as gods.”

I didn’t believe in gods either, but I let my mouth babble on while I desperately formed a plan in my head.

“That’s strange coming from an immortal living legend.”

“That’s precisely why I know, boy.”

“Not buying it. You’re not exactly the most trustworthy person I know.”

She chuckled. “True.”

Without turning to Hilde, I whispered, “What’s the highest jump you’ve ever made without serious injury?”

“I once fell from a greywood tree and lightly sprained my ankle.”

“A greywood? That’s downright inhuman.”

That tree was as high as a castle rampart. Considering the angle of descent and the sandy ground, she should be able to make the jump safely. Either way, I couldn’t see another path to survival.

“I tire of this.” The witch held out her hand. “Let’s end our little tryst, Karius.”

“Get ready, Hilde. I’ll use the last of my mana to launch you to Gromwell. The rest is up to you.”

“Okay.”

“Simia!” Gromwell sent a heat blast in our direction.

“Glacies!”

I created an ice wall to block it. The outermost layers consisted of thin sheets, which turned into steam the instant it touched Gromwell’s magic.

Under the cover of mist, I crafted a large hollow tube from solid ice and pointed it to the sky. I plugged the bottom hole with thick ice and placed a platform inside, making sure it fit perfectly with no gaps. I copied the design from an ancient weapon called a cannon I read about in old books.

I hoped Gromwell didn’t notice my construction work. When the fight started, she had detected my ice spike attack because I had conjured it close to her. With a mana-powered heat beam between us, she shouldn’t be able to tell what I was doing, at least not accurately.

“Get inside the tube!”

Hilde jumped in without hesitation.

“Here goes nothing.” I stopped reinforcing the ice wall and focused on a new spell.

Channel.

Gromwell’s fury.

Target.

The cannon.

Execute.

“Simia!”

I let loose a surge of heat beneath the platform inside the tube. The sudden increase in air pressure launched Hilde like a bolt from a ballista. Gromwell shouldn’t be able to see her flight due to the mist.

The heat beam finally went through the ice wall. I ran to the side just in time to avoid getting roasted. With a heat haze on my tail, I searched for Hilde in the night sky.

She touched down a short distance behind the witch and rolled on the sand. Unsheathing her short sword, she flew like an arrow and swung at the space about ten paces from Gromwell.

The heat beam chasing after me fizzled out. The witch’s clone disappeared like smoke. Gromwell’s body flickered into existence just in front of Hilde. The upper half of the witch’s head was missing.

Following Felix’s example, Hilde had pinpointed the witch’s actual position by tracing the heat haze emitted by her attack. The witch had been unable to defend because she hadn’t seen Hilde drop behind her.

Gromwell could only use two illusions at a time. In this case, she had reached the limit with her decoy and invisibility. She had no way to survive. The woman with half a head was definitely the real one.

The dead body fell to its knees.

The battle was over.

I dropped to the ground, exhausted. Hilde swung her sword to flick away the dripping blood and sheathed it. She glanced to check on me. I couldn’t help but smile at the rare show of concern.

Tug.

Tug. Tug.

Something bothered me. Something didn’t make sense about all this. My inner pessimist sounded alarm bells. An odd memory surfaced from the back of my mind.

When I treated Elar’s arm to match his injury with Gromwell’s, I had taken note of how many times I wound the bandage around his bicep. That was my way of checking how the witch’s illusions worked.

One roll of bandage would’ve gone ten rounds around an average man’s arm before running out.

If I counted ten rounds, then Gromwell’s illusions twisted reality, fooling the victim in all aspects. A female arm, especially one of her build, wouldn’t use up that much.

If I counted a lot less or more than that, then her illusions affected perception alone. The victim would believe he wrapped a bandage on a man’s arm, but that didn’t change his memory of how many times he wound the cloth.

The latter was less potent but still dangerous. In fact, her clones left footprints on the sand, while her invisible real body didn’t, demonstrating the effectiveness of perception manipulation. The trick of spreading thin ice on the ground to find her had only worked because she didn’t expect it. She hadn’t accounted for it when she cast the spell to turn invisible.

How many times did I wind that white cloth on Elar’s arm?

Twenty.

A whole twenty.

A woman of Gromwell’s build should use fifteen at most.

“Glacies!”

I conjured a blunt pillar from beside Hilde. The block of ice grew diagonally from the ground and knocked her to the side. Gromwell’s dead body wrapped an arm around the pillar, right where Hilde used to be, and liquified it with her heat barrier.

“She’s still alive!!!” I shouted with all my might. “She’s a lot shorter than she looks, about the same height as Rahf!”

Hilde got up and stabbed her sword into the witch’s chest, but the blade disintegrated into nothing. With no weapon, she had no choice but to back away.

Gromwell’s body flickered in the moonlight. After a few seconds, her true form emerged.

“Violetta,” I mumbled.

She embraced her adolescent body and laughed hysterically. “Unbelievable! You actually figured out my true form! Amazing, Karius! Absolutely amazing!”

“I was a fool for not noticing earlier.”

The clues were all there.

The bandage inconsistency.

The dream where Violetta never aged.

Her youthful appearance the whole time she had been traveling with us.

She couldn’t have used illusion magic the entire time. That would’ve kept her mana reserves low, preventing her from reacting to unforeseen situations, like encountering Richter. Faking an emotion whenever she lied was a lot more efficient in comparison.

I hadn’t realized it earlier because I completely believed that she could only create two illusions at a time. And why shouldn’t I think that? I was right.

When she trapped Richter’s foot in Portus using an illusion, I had assumed she made it look like she took a hit to make him stop at that exact spot. But what if that wasn’t all there was to it? What if she couldn’t make another illusion to take the blow for her while disguising the lava hole on the ground? What if she was already using two illusions back then?

One, the lava trap.

Two, her fake adult self.

I didn’t suspect that because she kept herself invisible while manipulating a decoy. That equaled two illusions. Maintaining a fake adult form meant a third one, which was inconsistent with how she fought the whole time.

What I hadn’t realized was that she disengaged her adult form illusion whenever she went invisible.

In her fight against Richter, she had gotten hit on the head because her fake adult form and lava trap used up her two illusion limit. She had disguised the wound with an illusion after disengaging the lava trap illusion. Her quick recovery at that time had fooled me into thinking she hadn’t gotten hurt in the first place.

In retrospect, it was only natural she hadn’t gotten badly hurt. The rock Richter hurled at her head had barely grazed her. After all, she had been one foot shorter than she appeared. Hilde’s slash had failed to kill her just seconds ago for the same reason. If Hilde cut a foot lower, the battle would’ve been truly over.

“Time to change things up a little.” Violetta split into two identical copies of her one-armed self. The twins aimed at me and unleashed their heat waves.

I decided to conserve mana and jump away from the shimmering air.

That was a mistake.

“Ghaaaaaahhh!!!”

The blast caught both my legs, turning them to ashes.

I fell face first to the ground and kept screaming in agony, ignoring the sand entering my mouth.

“Karius!!!” Hilde tried to rush to me.

““Now it’s your turn.”” The two Violetta’s chased Hilde with their heat magic.

Only one of them actually fired anything, but Hilde couldn’t afford to ignore either one. She dashed and flipped across the dunes, dodging each attack. She reached Felix’s location and grabbed the longsword I made with ensis earlier. With a wide blade and her superhuman speed, it might be possible to get past Violetta’s heat barrier.

The biggest problem was which of the two blond maidens was real. Hilde could immediately tell after Violetta fired off an attack, but when she ran towards the real one, Violetta merely erased her former decoy and split into two again. It was like a never ending guessing game.

Hilde did her best to hit both Violetta’s in one slash, but the constant threat of heat blasts prevented her from staying close. Unlike arrows, the wide area of effect of simia made it very hard to dodge at close range, even for Hilde.

She had no chance of defeating the lamia by herself. It was all up to me.

“Shit. That was more painful than I thought.”

I tapped my supposedly burned legs. They felt normal now, but when I created an illusion of burning them off, I had felt as if it actually happened. That was the nature of umbra, the illusion spell I copied from Violetta.

I had channeled the emotion distrust from Violetta when she showed her true form and used it to fake my defeat. There was a risk she’d notice, but I had decided to gamble on her being distracted by Hilde’s presence. Judging from Violetta’s reaction, she was completely fooled.

Now, I had to sneak up behind her and cast a spell at close range. Distance slowed down magic activation, lowered accuracy, and made my attacks more predictable with her ability to sense mana flow. I only had enough mana for one close range spell anyway.

I watched the battle from the corner of my eye as I slowly closed in, careful not to disturb the sand too much. Hilde continued to speed up, not minding her ragged breathing. Two Violettas were no longer enough to fend her off. The little witch began to make three clones constantly. This was the perfect chance because it meant no other illusions were in effect.

The perfect opportunity came quicker than I thought. With one swing, Hilde cleaved two clones in half, forcing the real Violetta to leap back to put some distance between them. I lurked about ten paces behind her when she landed.

I dashed forward and targeted her with ice magic. I imagined a wave of ice stakes spread out like a fan, a precaution in case she multiplied at the last moment.

I heard a loud crack.

Excruciating pain attacked my feet. I tumbled to the ground three paces behind Violetta. I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn’t move. I glanced behind me and saw the sorry state of my lower body.

Large glass shards stuck out from my calves and feet. Blood bubbled out from the lacerations.

“The knight master and squire fell for the same trick.” Violetta split into three clones and stared at me from above. “““What a masterpiece!”””

Was the glass trap hidden by an illusion? Wasn’t she limited to two? Where did the glass come from?

Hilde swung her sword sideways and cleaved two Violettas at the waist, but their figures crumbled into sand. The remaining Violetta spun around and kicked Hilde. Hilde was forced to block the kick with her sword. The impact threw her backward. The little witch’s heat aura melted the blade, rendering it useless.

Violetta, whose martial prowess was as inhuman as her wizardry, pointed her palm at my legs.

My mind ran into overdrive.

I figured out the reason for my defeat.

While we had been busy fighting the dragon earlier, Violetta had melted sand on the surface and formed a wide glass plate. Then she used wind manipulation to cool the thin glass sheet and cover it with a thin layer of sand.

She had probably noticed me channel emotion from her and led me to this trap. I had been dancing in the palm of her hand since I copied umbra.

As a mage, I was nowhere near the level of Lilac Gromwell. Victory was but another illusion she fooled me into believing.

“Your face tells me you understand what I did.” Violetta made a frigid smile and changed her target to my head. “That means you failed the entrance test. You’re too dangerous as a pet. I’d rather wait a few more decades to remove this curse than let a poisonous snake sleep in my bosom.”

I was going to die here. So was Hilde. We had no weapons, no magic, no hope.

I gritted my teeth, enduring the searing pain in my legs. I stared at her and raised an eyebrow. “What bosom?”

Her face twitched in anger. That reaction was definitely genuine. My anima confirmed it.

At least I got one final shot in.

“Die, bastard.”

Determination.

Blinding, unbreakable determination.

True dignity burned me alive. Just like that night.

“Get up, Kari!!!” Hilde leapt towards the witch.

That was the second time she called me Kari.

How could I quit after hearing that?

Hilde closed her eyes and crossed her forearms over her head. “I beseech the holy seven, bless these hands with brands of heaven.”

Violetta casually turned around and aimed her palm at Hilde. “Did you think I didn’t know about your magic?”

At the apex of her jump, Hilde’s eyes snapped open. “Ensis Cor.”

A short sword and a dagger materialized in Hilde’s hands. A massive great sword appeared above her right shoulder, and a falchion to her left. A rapier floated by her right hip, matched by an exotic single-edged blade with a gentle curve on the other side. The weapons, adorned by rare jewels and gold, glittered under the moonlight. Each blade looked like a treasure without equal.

With unmatched ferocity, the silver-maned warrior swung the blades in her hands downward, but the witch was a split-second faster. Trapped in midair, Hilde had no way to dodge the incoming heat blast.

Violetta’s remaining arm fell to the sand.

She looked behind her, pure shock disfiguring her childish face.

“You should learn how to count, witch.” I dropped Hilde’s seventh blade, a bastard sword, unable to support the weight because of the pain feedback from Violetta’s amputation.

A thin layer of ice encased my right elbow and shredded calves. I had numbed and reinforced them with ice to defeat the enemy.

The surprise on the witch’s face turned into a serene smile. Her beautiful head slid from her shoulders. Her torso split into quarters. Her purple dress burst into shreds. Her delicate limbs turned into chunks of meat like those on display in a butcher’s shop.

Hilde continued her brutal yet mystical dance. She changed swords with each strike. The stocked weapons floated around her, slowly rotating at her will. The bastard sword I dropped flew to her hands and delivered the final touch to the Valmaz warrior’s bloody performance.

After she was done, the only thing intact was the witch’s head.

The massacre had happened so quickly I barely felt any pain feedback. The witch had died a quick, painless death.

I fell to my knees and collapsed on my back. “You never told me you were a mage, Hilde.”

Her red-speckled silver hair fluttering in the desert wind, my partner turned to me with her usual indifferent look. “Who’s that?”

I contained a chuckle. “Right.”

Overcome by fatigue, Hilde lay down on the ground beside me. “I thought you couldn’t use a sword.”

“I’m no knight, but chopping off a little girl’s arm isn’t really that hard.”

“...We did it.”

“Yep, we did. Together.”

“Together.”

“Thanks for saving my life.”

“Same here. Who do you think saved the other more times?”

“I wasn’t keeping count.”

“Really? You look like the type who’d do that.”

“...Okay, you’re winning.”

“Liar.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Depends on the situation.” She gifted me with an innocent smile, a stark contrast to the red smears on her cheek and chin.

We quietly basked in the satisfaction of victory and survival. The clear starry sky seemed to congratulate our accomplishment. My frozen right arm and legs would probably never regain full function, but the joy of survival overshadowed that problem. I had magic. I could deal with it.

“Hey, did you guys forget about me?” Felix’s handsome face popped up just above us, blocking the view.

“Weren’t you dead?” I asked with a wry smile.

“I knew you were okay,” said Hilde. “I saw you stirring when I picked up your longsword.”

I had thought as much because Hilde hadn’t bothered checking on him after defeating Violetta.

“I’m not dead, but I’m not okay either. A few broken bones here and there.”

“Nothing that miracle balm wouldn’t fix.” I raised my injured arm a little.

“But I hate the smell of that thing.”

“You’re the one who made it!”

The three of us enjoyed a carefree laugh while resting our weary bodies.

A powerful gust pushed the blond witch’s head off the top of a small sand dune. It rolled all the way to the space between me and Hilde. The sight was a bit morbid, but I couldn’t help but stare at our defeated foe’s adorable face.

Sand clung to her blood soaked hair. Her beautiful violet eyes remained open. Her cute lips moved. “Um, it’s a bit embarrassing if you stare that much.”

Hilde, Felix, and I exchanged looks and scrambled away from the talking head.