Ch.192Salvation – 1

Time had passed.

To say that time had passed also meant that the outcome of the battle had been decided. It meant that Charlotte and Olivia, who had been traversing and twisting the timeline, could no longer do so.

Or perhaps they no longer needed to.

True to those words, in the space where four figures had been entangled in complex combat, now only a single silhouette remained standing.

“Ah, Master. Please wait just a moment. Olivia will return to you soon. You were lonely, weren’t you? Desolate, weren’t you? It’s alright now. Now I can love you forever. I’ll never have to leave you again. So please wait, just a little while, Master.”

The one standing was Olivia.

Olivia whispered words of love while gazing into empty space with an ecstatic voice. Every single word dripped with love and affection.

The ones who had fallen were Serena, Charlotte, and Christine.

Serena was gasping for breath, clutching Wind Shear in her right hand. Her left elbow joint, bent outward rather than inward, made rattling sounds with each exhale.

Christine lay face down on the ground with spears made of black mana piercing her entire body. Life force mixed with blood seeped out from where the spears had impaled her.

Charlotte was trying to recover her shattered left eye with a greatsword embedded in her abdomen. Blood dripped steadily from her pierced abdomen and destroyed eye.

In contrast, Olivia was relatively unscathed. Though her body was covered in soot here and there and her hair was slightly disheveled, compared to the injuries the other three had sustained, it was almost embarrassing to even call them wounds.

It was clear who had won and who had lost.

“When I return home, Master will welcome me warmly, won’t he? He’ll ask where I’ve been, tell me I’ve worked hard, and give me a tight hug, right? Yes, yes, he definitely will. I need to hurry back. I shouldn’t keep Master waiting. He must be lonely waiting for me. What should I do first when I return? A hug? A kiss? Or perhaps both?”

Lost in her delusion, Olivia blushed and let out a squeal.

In truth, Serena could have defeated Olivia. Christine could have defeated Olivia. Charlotte, too, could have defeated Olivia. It would have been difficult, but not impossible.

Yet they had lost. Serena’s arm was shattered, Christine’s body was pierced through, and Charlotte’s left eye was ruptured with a sword in her stomach. It was a complete defeat for all three.

The cause lay in jealousy.

If Serena, Charlotte, and Christine had joined forces, they would have crushed Olivia in an instant. In fact, when the three simultaneously gained power, Olivia’s world had crumbled helplessly.

No matter how slightly each individual’s power fell short, if the three had attacked together, even Olivia couldn’t have held out for long. The battle would have ended quickly, and Olivia would have lost her life.

But the three didn’t do that.

If even two of the three—Serena, Charlotte, and Christine—had joined forces, they could have defeated Olivia. It might have taken a bit longer compared to all three attacking together, but still.

When all three fought together, they could win overwhelmingly. Even with one missing, that didn’t mean they couldn’t win.

They would have needed to exert more power than when all three attacked together, and they might not have been able to dominate Olivia in battle. But regardless, the probability of two of them losing was close to zero.

But the three didn’t do that.

If Serena, Charlotte, and Christine had each confronted Olivia individually, there would still have been a possibility of victory.

The first encounter, where they were toyed with like playthings and thoroughly humiliated, and the second encounter, where they fell a few steps short of catching up to Olivia—things were completely different now.

The three had reached a level where they could establish a proper fight with Olivia, and although there was still a power gap, it was no longer insurmountable as before.

It was a subtle gap that could be overcome depending on how they fought. Even in one-on-one combat, they wouldn’t have been overwhelmingly outmatched.

But the three didn’t do that.

“You all want to kill each other, don’t you? Don’t worry. I’ll make it happen. I can kill you all. No, even if you beg for your lives, I’ll kill you. How should I kill you? Who should I kill first? Who wants to die first? You? You? Or you?”

Yes. Throughout the final battle with Olivia, Serena, Christine, and Charlotte were determined to kill each other. With genuine intent and murderous will.

When one fought Olivia, the other two would waste energy fighting each other or jump in to create a three-way battle. The three-way battle soon escalated into a four-way battle.

There were no alliances, no allies. Everyone in sight was an enemy. As a result, they had to be vigilant in all directions, naturally reducing the concentration they should have directed at Olivia.

If the three had been in separate spaces, facing one Olivia in three different locations, this situation wouldn’t have occurred.

With Olivia as the opponent before them, they would have killed her first and then thought about what to do next.

But Serena, Christine, and Charlotte were all in the same space. All three were so intensely jealous and proud that they never even considered cooperating.

The situation wasn’t 3 vs 1, nor 2 vs 1, not even 1 vs 1, but rather a free-for-all where everyone tried to kill everyone else in sight. In the end, Olivia was bound to win.

This was the result.

“Can’t you… shut that mouth?”

Charlotte painfully drew a magic circle. It was a futile struggle. Before the magic circle could form, Olivia swung her hand. Charlotte’s wrist was severed, spraying blood with a hissing sound.

“What? Still haven’t come to your senses? Want more punishment? Asking to die first? Hm? Hm?”

The distance closed in an instant. Olivia raised her foot and stomped on the hilt of the sword embedded in Charlotte’s stomach. Blood gushed from the pierced area. Her uniform was dyed a deep color.

As she twisted her foot, the greatsword moved from side to side, widening the already large wound even further. The blood flowing from the penetrated area increased.

A black magic circle appeared in her right hand.

“Where would you like me to start? Arms? Legs? Or should I pluck out those precious eyes and tongue first, turning you into a lump of meat that can only groan?”

Just as Olivia said this and was about to burn Charlotte’s right eye with black flames, a flash of light shot from behind her.

Olivia’s body split precisely in two from the center, then rejoined in less than a second. An irritated face turned around.

It was Serena. Despite her trembling legs drained of strength, despite forcibly realigning her grotesquely bent left arm, her eyes still burned with murderous intent toward Olivia.

“You want to die first? Alright.”

Olivia roughly kicked Charlotte aside. Charlotte flew backward without even screaming, crashing and rolling on the ground some distance away.

Wind Shear was pointed directly forward. However, its tip was far from steady. Serena’s arm holding Wind Shear was trembling painfully.

“The one who will die is you.”

“Really?”

With a chilling smile, her body rushed at Serena, leaving a faint afterimage. The distance closed before Wind Shear could even be swung.

The normal Serena would have reacted naturally, but her physical condition was too poor now. The sword was swung only after Olivia’s fist had already driven into her solar plexus.

Serena gasped at the excruciating pain rising from her chest. The blow was so powerful that her feet lifted off the ground.

Olivia’s attack didn’t stop there. A tentacle made of black mana struck Serena’s back, closing the distance between them again as she was about to be pushed away by the recoil.

The sound of bones breaking was heard exactly four times.

As Serena was about to collapse limply, Olivia grabbed her by the neck. Wind Shear in her right hand transformed into wind and scattered. Her fingers twitched.

Both elbow joints that should have bent inward and both knee joints were twisted in strange directions. The elbow joints bent outward, and the knee joints bent sideways.

“See? What made you think you could challenge me?”

Olivia, gripping Serena’s neck, shook her arm with a sneer. Serena’s body swayed limply in response. Her shattered legs dragged on the ground.

Her blue eyes were still full of fighting spirit, but there was no way to utilize it.

“Since you seem to want to die first, I’ll grant that wish. How should I torture you? Should I pull out all your teeth, cut off your limbs, and start by having monsters rape you? You were useless anyway. While I received so much of Master’s love, your wombs were completely empty. How fortunate. Now you have a use. Right? Isn’t that right?”

The hand gripping her neck tightened.

“Why aren’t you agreeing? After trying to separate me and Master, after trying to take Master from me! Did you think you could die peacefully? Absolutely not, never! I’ll throw you all into the dimensional rift. You can experience what it feels like to have your soul torn apart as you die slowly!”

As Olivia condensed black mana in her hand with a voice bordering on madness, Serena made choking sounds. Her carotid artery was being squeezed, and her consciousness was fading.

“I’ll leave your tongue. It might be useful. First, I’ll pull out your teeth—”

At that moment, without any warning or sign, the dimension between Serena and Olivia was completely severed.

“…Huh?”

Olivia blinked as she realized what had happened. Her eyes were puzzled. Before she could properly express her confusion, Olivia’s wrist was severed, still in the position of gripping the neck.

Serena’s body fell limply to the ground. She raised her head. Serena was just as bewildered. Her blue eyes, full of doubt and questions, examined the space that had just been cut.

The dimension, perfectly split in two, was writhing as it tried to fill the gap. Serena recalled past experiences in her mind. This was definitely a sight she had seen somewhere before.

‘Dimensional… cutting?’

Her blue eyes, having recalled the past, gradually filled with shock.

What had just cut between Serena and Olivia was undoubtedly dimensional cutting. Serena’s experience immediately identified this fact.

A technique created solely to fulfill her lord’s wishes, exclusively for Serena’s lord. A technique she had never used for anyone but her lord, and which no one except her lord and herself knew about.

Only two people in this world knew about it.

Olivia was equally surprised. Christine was so severely injured that she could barely move with her body pierced all over, and Charlotte could do nothing but clutch her abdomen and cough up blood.

Moreover, Serena was struggling with her limbs shattered and her neck in Olivia’s grip, so she was in no position to launch such an attack.

Then who on earth had just attacked? Olivia blinked several times and raised her head to look in the direction from which the attack had come.

“How… is this…”

Those words didn’t continue. Her eyes, staring straight ahead, widened as if seeing something impossible.

“Master…?”

At Olivia’s murmur, the other three also raised their heads.

Serena and Charlotte, and even Christine, who until just now had appeared to be on the brink of death, forced themselves to look in the same direction as Olivia’s gaze.

And they all froze in unison.

“I told you, Olivia.”

A boy holding a sword in his right hand was slowly approaching, one step at a time. With a hardened face, gripping the sword handle as if to crush it.

Blue flames, white flames, pitch-black flames. All blazed from his body at once.

“I would end things between us with my own hands.”