chapter_0183

“This…… this can’t be happening……!”

Aria looked around the hallway, which was gradually collapsing just from her standing there. If she moved even a little more, the whole area would collapse.

She couldn’t control the overflowing power. The wall she had leaned on to maintain her balance had long since crumbled under the strain. She had to stand there precariously without anything to support herself.

“You…… you released the seal……?!”

It was an appalling situation. How could that have happened? The woman was supposed to be a trigger for Mr. Mira’s trauma, wasn’t she?

If Aria’s guess was correct, Mr. Mira would have been overwhelmed by his trauma as soon as he saw the woman, and the woman would have only needed to push him out from his subconscious to get rid of him.

The simple task had failed, and there were only two possibilities. Either Mr. Mira had overcome his trauma, or the woman had defied Aria’s orders.

“……Could it be that some memory remained……?”

And, in Aria’s opinion, the latter was overwhelmingly more likely.

“Damn it……! I shouldn’t put in free will in her……!”

Aria cursed. Through the fragment of the world, there was a clear limit to the memories that could be read, so she had given the woman a certain amount of free will to fill in the gaps in her memory and act more like the real thing.

But what if the woman had thought about her past with Mr. Mira and remembered? The seal being released made sense. Aria’s orders would be secondary to her relationship with Mr. Mira.

She had been so obsessed with leaving no room for error that she had created a new, extremely critical vulnerability.

“Uuk…… Uek……”

Aria gagged again. Transparent saliva dripped from the corner of her mouth. That wasn’t important right now. If she stayed like this, her body would burst soon. She had to do something.

Aria tried to extract some of her power and scatter it throughout the world, while absorbing as much of the remaining power as she could, but the power flowing in was far greater. It was almost as if it was being deliberately poured into her.

‘Is that what you’re trying to do……!’

Aria knew what Mr. Mira was thinking. He wasn’t trying to regain his power and fight back. He was trying to push more power into her so that she couldn’t withstand it and the connection would break.

Using this simple-minded method, it seemed he hadn’t found a way to break the connection himself, but it wasn’t a good thing at all. Anyway, he would soon achieve his desired outcome.

“What’s going on?! Aria!”

Leona ran towards them from a distance. She was in such a hurry that her clothes were a mess.

Her shirt buttons were not only misaligned but completely undone, and her skirt was halfway down her hips instead of her thighs. She had no time to put on socks, so she was wearing shoes on bare feet.

If it weren’t for the Holy Sword she was holding, she would have been mistaken for an exhibitionist.

Leona, who didn’t care about her appearance, ran towards her and stopped abruptly next to Aria, who was suffering in the half-destroyed hallway.

“What happened? Are you alright?”

Aria slowly raised her head. She saw Leona’s worried face as she fidgeted anxiously.

Aria thought she could use this situation to her advantage.

It was a ridiculously small amount compared to what was needed to stabilize the situation, but if she forced it to the limit, it would temporarily ease the pain and buy her some time to come up with a solution.

Even if her body burst and died, unlike the unique existence of Aria, Leona could be ‘made’ again, so it didn’t matter. She could just finish the job and make a new one afterward.

“Leo…… Leona. Can you lend me your hand for a moment?”

Aria reached out with difficulty. The slightest shift in her center of gravity caused the hallway to creak and crack even more. The students’ screams could be heard from beyond the chaotic hallway.

“Hand? Why do you suddenly need my hand?”

“Just do it, don’t ask why……!”

“But I can’t just……”

Leona hesitated. Aria’s veins popped out as she looked at Leona, who was hesitating. Why was she hesitating when she would just be ‘made’ again if she died?

At the same time, Aria felt annoyed.

“We’re friends! How can you hesitate to lend your hand to a friend?! What are you hesitating about!”

Aria’s shout sent a shockwave through the hallway, shattering the windows. The already shaky walls and floor rippled as if they would collapse at any moment.

If it had been Aria before the power started flowing back, she wouldn’t have cared about Leona’s reaction. She would have prioritized acting like her usual self.

But the current Aria wasn’t that calm.

The power was flowing back uncontrollably, filling her up, causing pain, and the fear that she would burst and die before achieving her goal was overwhelming.

“……”

Leona took a step back, hesitating. Her hand, which had been halfway extended, froze. The golden irises looked at Aria in disbelief. Aria didn’t like that expression.

“……Mr. Mira said something a while ago.”

Leona lowered her hand, which had been halfway extended. The hand holding the Holy Sword began to exert more force.

“If I had to choose between trusting you and him, and if there was any room for doubt, I should suspect you first.”

‘Did Mr. Mira really say that?’

Aria calculated when he might have said that. It was easy to guess. It was when they were all gathered at the Imperial Palace due to the Succubus Queen’s proposal for a truce. That was definitely it.

“I told him not to say such nonsense when I heard it…… but now I understand why he said it. Aria, you’re acting strange.”

“Ugh…… I, I, I’m not strange, Leona…… I’m just a little tired…… my body hurts……”

“Then why are you tired? Tell me why and where it hurts. I’ll help you.”

Aria’s suspicion grew. She had already concluded that convincing Leona was a lost cause.

If Mr. Mira hadn’t said those words, Leona would have probably thought that Aria was just temporarily losing her sanity due to the pain. But the doubt had taken root, and it seemed that the real Aria wouldn’t have been so strange.

If she had more time, she might have been able to do something, but it was impossible in this situation. Before long, her body would either burst or expel the power.

“……Just say a few words and it’ll be over. It’s fine, it’s nothing…… just say it’s fine, okay? Please, Aria…… I don’t want to lose either you or Mr. Mira……”

Leona pleaded with tears in her eyes, but Aria, consumed by pain and fear, didn’t accept it at all. It only seemed detestable to her.

Aria, who had wandered alone in a world where everyone’s time had stopped for over a thousand years, and had experienced a world that stopped when there were no readers, could no longer see others with the same eyes.

“How dare you…… suspect me……?”

The blue irises flickered. How dare a mere fictional character, who would soon become a real human, suspect her?

“Look at yourself, Aria! You’re acting strange! Why are you doing this?!”

“……Never mind, I don’t need you anyway. I can just make a new one.”

A magic circle appeared next to Aria. Her goal had changed. She had gone from someone to be used to someone to be disposed of. A poison had crept into her once clear blue eyes.

Leona, who saw that look, burst into tears and raised the Holy Sword. She really hated the situation that had become exactly as Mr. Mira had said.

The magic circle turned into a large ball of fire. The fireball flew straight at Leona, aiming for her. The explosion caused by the fireball, which looked like a basic fire spell, was by no means simple. The impact was so great that everything it touched turned to ash.

-Kagagagak!

Leona, protected by the power of the Holy Sword and the blessing of the Hero, barely survived the flames and was blown back a considerable distance, plowing through the grass in the park and coming to a stop.

“Hot……!”

As soon as she stopped, Leona immediately used healing magic. The blessing of the Hero and the healing magic combined to restore her charred skin to its original state.

However, the healing magic couldn’t restore her clothes, so Leona got up with half of her shirt burned off and her skirt hanging off one ankle, with her underwear covered in dirt.

She didn’t have time to worry about her appearance. She looked at the spot where the fireball had landed. The nearby building had almost evaporated.

‘This can’t be.’

It looked like a basic fire spell, but how could a low-level magic spell have such power? It was hard to believe, but she had to believe it.

‘She really has changed.’

In fact, ever since she had seen Aria for the first time today, she had felt something strangely uncomfortable, like walking with mud-filled shoes.

That was why she had hesitated to lend her hand. If it had been the usual Aria, she would have followed her lead without a second thought, but the uncomfortable feeling had made her hesitate.

In the end, following her instincts had been the right choice.

‘Mr. Mira……’

If such a thing were to happen, he had said he would suspect Aria first. Did he know this would happen?

Leona wobbled, trying to steady herself. With her vision enhanced by the blessing of the Hero, she spotted Aria through the shimmering heat haze. Aria was clutching her chest, gasping for breath and writhing in pain.

The sight of her genuinely suffering made Leona’s heart soften again. She had known Aria for 18 years as her childhood friend. It was hard to shake off that affection.

‘No.’

Leona closed her eyes tightly. She couldn’t afford to be weak. That person was no longer Aria. From the moment she attacked, she couldn’t be seen as Aria.

-Quwaaaang!

Leona opened her eyes, as if snapping herself out of a self-hypnosis. She had seen someone walking towards her through the cross-shaped gap in the air.

“Mr. Mira?!”

It was Mr. Mira, with the same stiff expression as Aria.

“Be careful, Mr. Mira! Aria……!”

She didn’t know how it had happened, but Leona warned him first. She needed to let him know that Aria was no longer the Aria he knew. And that she was much stronger than before.

“I know.”

Despite Leona’s warning, Mr. Mira didn’t seem surprised as he aimed Eternity at Aria.

“Who did that belong to?”