Ch.177Pride in Vanity (4)

Over the past few months.

As if to prove the seasons they had walked through, the children had each embraced their growth.

As protagonists of the story, they had steadily progressed.

The pilot had shaken off his long-held fears, and the fox had reached for the stars.

The drunkard had overcome her trauma, and the little prince had reclaimed his rose.

Each taking steps toward what comes next.

“I must… become more exceptional.”

“Enough to reclaim what I’ve lost.”

The vain one was the same.

No, perhaps she was more urgent than the others.

After all, she didn’t have much time left.

She constantly steeled herself with the determination to become stronger.

“Property transformation… is it?”

The girl worked hard every day.

To break through her evident limitations.

To shatter the wall suddenly blocking her path, Amelia devoted herself even more to magic.

In particular, what she delved into was the field known as [Property Transformation].

Commonly referred to as the pinnacle of elemental magic.

“Father had mastered this as well.”

“Thanks to that, he earned the title of the continent’s greatest ice mage.”

“Honestly, I’m not confident, but…”

The achievements of her predecessor.

The vain one silently followed those honorable footsteps.

Of course, that path was never easy.

She constantly fell and became frustrated.

Perhaps it was inevitable.

“I can’t seem to grasp it at all.”

“Like walking through a foggy dawn, everything remains so unclear…”

“Is this realm truly meant for someone like me?”

Ice transformation.

Breaking free from simply designated properties to cultivate an entirely different dimension.

This concept was a life’s challenge given to mages.

It was a realm that ordinary talent couldn’t reach even after a lifetime, or even beyond death.

Amelia, too, repeated her long anguish.

“What could it be?”

“Learn the sensation… even the explanation is vague.”

“There aren’t even proper textbooks about it.”

“If Father were still alive, I could have asked him directly…”

The girl repeated her failures.

Formulas that kept going wrong.

Her notebooks grew thicker, and spilled ink stained her desk.

The more she faced frustration, the more the villainess was consumed by depression.

Naturally, she found herself missing her predecessor.

“What am I…”

Frost lingering like a stain on her fingertips.

The girl lay on the ice, merely ruminating on her helpless moments.

Just as even her determination was about to give way to resignation.

“Do you need power?”

“I believe I can help you.”

Suddenly.

A spark of inspiration flashed through Amelia’s mind.

It was a memory.

A recollection of a certain day.

“Don’t be alarmed.”

“As long as I’m here… you won’t be overwhelmed, Princess.”

“You just need to take my hand.”

The monster she had encountered in the abandoned laboratory.

The memory of the moment when, with Judas Snakus’s help, she had dealt with it.

“For just a brief moment, I’ll show you a new world.”

“It’s temporary power.”

The villainess had taken his hand as if entranced.

And then, she had cleaved the monster that was vastly stronger than her.

Without even a moment’s hesitation.

With beautiful precision.

She remembered that ecstatic feeling of omnipotence.

It was a realm beyond boundaries that the snake had shown her.

‘Perhaps.’

Could that be the clue?

The shadows that had frosted over the ice.

The shadow that had dyed her mana black and bright.

Based on this lead, Amelia immediately dove into new research.

“Like back then… freely, unbound by mana.”

“As if melting into darkness.”

She retraced that momentary sensation.

It wasn’t particularly difficult.

If it was that memory, even the fluttering snowflakes were vivid.

Having found her direction, the villainess poured all her effort into it.

After repeated failures, the girl finally succeeded.

“I told you.”

Property transformation.

Mana with mixed properties of [Ice] and [Darkness].

The villainess stood with dignified steps.

Whoosh.

Her hair fluttered calmly.

Was it because of the deep shadows?

Her hair, originally blue, was now tinged with a dull light.

That decadence added desolation to winter.

Her lips moved.

“I’ve come to reclaim that name.”

A gleam flashed in her blue pupils.

The atmosphere suddenly reversed.

This would have been impossible before.

The wall of talent hadn’t permitted the girl to approach that realm.

However, a chance encounter, now a destined meeting, had achieved her miracle.

Amelia opened her eyes with a flickering sense of omnipotence.

The world was as serene as a dawn bathed in light.

‘It’s quiet.’

A preceding sensation.

And her own relentless efforts to recreate it.

Her characteristic stubbornness had finally borne fruit.

The villainess’s breath was tinged with shadows.

“Haah…”

The villainess looked down at her hand.

At her arm and snowflakes, completely dyed in pitch black.

At a glance, it resembled a snow-covered field at midnight.

Between the creeping gusts, the air twisted like heat haze.

The atmosphere had completely changed.

‘Is this success?’

Black winter.

Amelia’s ice magic was completely dyed in night.

The transcended property encompassed the other side of the dimension.

Thin frost circled around her.

“…It’s unstable though.”

Was it because it was a realm achieved through a shortcut?

Its purity was terribly lacking.

Compared to her predecessor’s footsteps, it was barely a 40% reproduction rate.

Even that was immature, making it difficult to control.

However.

‘It’s enough.’

Enough to surpass the traitor before her.

The girl lightly flicked her finger.

Clang!

Fragments deflected from her fingertips.

Her uncle’s surprise attack was too easily blocked.

The shattered magic scattered.

‘My body feels light.’

It was as if she were fluttering in the wind.

Like a curtain hanging on a window, the blackness fluttered with dignity.

“Ugh, kugh!”

“Uncle.”

“How could someone like you… achieve property transformation…!”

“Were you only this caliber of person?”

Thud!

Her gathered fist landed squarely on the man’s guard.

The impact pushed her uncle backward.

Sliding back a considerable distance, he still wore a look of shock.

He probably never expected his niece to transcend the realm.

Amelia pointed her finger.

“I have many resentful questions for you…”

“How dare you… child of that fool!”

“But I won’t drag this out.”

It wasn’t exactly mercy.

Maintaining this state was difficult even for her.

The world she had forcibly approached was trying to push her away.

It felt like her consciousness could break at any moment.

To that extent, she intended to settle this in one go.

“Winter of bitter cold.”

A softly recited incantation.

Following it, pitch-black snowflakes brushed past the branches.

What fell in the corridor was dawn, or winter.

The intense cold pressed down on the atmosphere.

-Amelia-style Ice Magic Secret Technique-

‘Frost Strike’

The girl gave her all.

Mana concentrating into a point.

Originally, this technique would have unleashed ten thousand ice spears.

But through her research and growth, it had become an entirely different technique.

Before her, only a single spear frosted over.

Swish.

Ice compressed smoothly.

The ten thousand spears that were once dispersed now gathered at a single point.

Moreover, deep shadows made the concentration between snowflakes firmer.

The power suppressed to its limit created heat haze.

It was a beautiful scene.

“…Now, let us go.”

A blue moon floating in the night.

That radiance showed not the slightest tremor.

***

“Now, let us go.”

A voice that rang chillingly.

Deron was not composed.

An unexpected situation, and a cornered position.

He clenched his fist with wavering blue eyes.

‘Damn it…!’

How could it be?

That his inferior niece had surpassed his wall.

The elegantly fluttering snowflakes were beautiful.

Cold sweat ran down his spine.

-Deron, please understand.

-I am always on your side.

The past brushed against his ears.

His foolish brother.

The girl’s flickering silhouette resembled the specter of days gone by.

Deron gritted his teeth, pushing back an eerie premonition.

Trying to shake off the pressure on his shoulders.

‘That’s dangerous.’

His mind rotated quickly.

He assessed the current situation.

After confirming the magic being cast, he immediately moved to counter it.

After all, Deron knew the weakness of that technique.

‘Frost Strike… requires time to cast.’

About a 3-second gap.

Then, now was the opportunity when she was most vulnerable.

He would sever that detestable neck in one breath.

With such calculations, Deron violently stomped the ground.

His launched body appeared before the girl in an instant.

Thwack!

“Die!”

He swung his honed blade.

A flash of light in an instant.

And so, for a moment, their gazes met.

“Heh.”

“…?”

Suddenly, Amelia’s lips curled upward.

Her eyes curved as if to say she’d caught him.

Something was wrong.

His senses rang alarm bells.

Swish.

Her blue eyes were fixed beyond Deron’s shoulder.

It was a subtle gaze, but he didn’t miss it.

Soon, the girl’s lips parted.

As if sending a signal to someone.

“Now, Ruska!”

A shout reached his ears.

Ruska.

A name he hadn’t anticipated at all.

That sudden dissonance penetrated Deron’s mind.

The girl’s reactions up until now, her smile, the awkwardness in her gaze.

The accumulated data instantly derived an answer.

‘A diversion…!’

Slash!

Deron twisted the trajectory of his sword, deploying a defensive stance toward the rear.

Quick judgment, and a defense without excess.

It was a perfect response.

But.

“…?”

There was no one behind him.

Only the pitch-black night, as if mocking him, had fallen.

Deron realized.

“You fell for it, traitor.”

That he had been deceived.

Too late to turn his eyes, Amelia had already completed her casting.

Her clearly shining eyes pierced Deron’s heart.

The aimed spear tip gleamed ecstatically.

That winter reaper declared.

“We’ve been manipulated enough.”

To the one who had lost his pride.

About the end that had stepped on his threshold.

“This is the end.”

The next moment.

A brilliance that dyed his vision.

The heat haze shattered the starlight.

And then.

“…Cough.”

After the light receded.

A large hole had been pierced through Deron’s abdomen.

With all his limbs frozen solid.