episode_0089

If you’re alive, an opportunity will come someday.

Despite Killua-nim’s tearful plea, my resolve to sacrifice my life for this moment did not waver.

No…

To be honest, this wasn’t resolve.

It was merely a desperate, selfish escape, wanting to avoid a world where I survived vaguely, only to lose Killua-nim.

Although it was clear that the end of such an escape was my death…

After she was dragged away by the Hero, the approaching death felt almost welcome, more so than a world where I was forced to live, unable to die alone.

“I won’t die…”

Hesitating for a moment at her plea, I had no choice but to cautiously lie to her.

“H-how?”

“There’s a way. I have my own secret method.”

Killua-nim stared at me, her tear-filled eyes wide, as if she absolutely couldn’t believe my words.

Her expression showed that her mind absolutely couldn’t believe my words…

But her heart desperately wanted to believe me. Unable to face Killua’s sorrowful gaze, where two conflicting emotions intertwined, and feeling the guilt of having to lie, I bit my lower lip and turned my gaze towards the Hero’s corpse, which was now forming into a human shape.

“So… please.”

“Sniff…”

Killua-nim swallowed her tears, leaning her head on my shoulder without a word in response to my plea.

Then, after clearing her throat a couple of times as if to compose her sorrow-choked voice,

she firmly grasped my hand, which was clutching her pendant, and spoke.

“Move your mana as I guide you.”

“Understood.”

Killua-nim, who had ultimately fallen for my lie, seemed to make up her mind. She slowly guided the mana, which was revolving around my heart, towards my right hand, which was holding the pendant, as if coaxing it.

Following the warm and cozy guidance of her mana, which I clearly felt within my chilling body, I calmly drew out the mana swirling around my heart.

“You need to focus. Most of the mana is yours, so I can only assist with a very small part.”

Unlike me, who had drawn mana in almost a straight line to use it as quickly as possible, Killua-nim’s mana flowed through my arm, tracing gentle curves like a fish swimming in water.

I calmly drew out my mana, following the trail of mana she left behind.

Then, mana began to flow through my arm so smoothly and naturally that it couldn’t be compared to when I had drawn it in a straight line.

“Good. Don’t force the flowing mana by pushing or pulling… gently bend its flow to make it hover within your hand.”

Killua-nim’s mana, flowing through my arm and concentrated in my palm, hovered with fresh and light movements on my palm, as if tiny fairies were dancing.

Following Killua-nim’s mana, I cautiously tried to join my mana in that dance of fairies, but…

My mana, with its inferior control ability compared to Killua-nim’s, was creaking like a broken machine rather than dancing like a fairy.

It felt less like a dance and more like a gear with missing teeth spinning uselessly, unable to engage.

“Good… you’re doing well.”

Killua-nim’s mana held onto my gear-like mana, which was creaking, unable to mesh its teeth.

And gently inviting my mana into their dance, they began to harmonize smoothly with each other.

My creaking mana desperately twisted its stiff form this way and that, trying to imitate the soft and fresh appearance of Killua-nim’s mana…

And Killua-nim’s mana also began to adapt its form to my ugly and unsightly creaking appearance, striving to guide my mana and harmonize with it.

One by one, two by two,

Layer by layer, two layers by two layers.

The harmonizing flows of mana began to stack up like layers of an onion.

And the layered mana condensed into a single point.

“Ah…”

When I opened my eyes, which I had closed to concentrate on the flow of mana,

a single point, scattering pure white light, was brilliantly sparkling within my hand.

“It’s ready.”

With this, the preparation for activating the magic was complete.

The mana condensed in my hand was extremely stable… yet also extremely unstable, as if it would explode instantly the moment it was poked with a small needle.

“If you just pull the trigger… the magic will activate, drawing mana from your body, mine, and even the source mana within the pendant.”

Killua-nim paused her explanation, swallowed hard, and looked at me, asking,

“There’s really… really a way, right?”

Killua-nim, having now entrusted everything to my hands and judgment, began to shed the tears she had painstakingly swallowed and hidden.

She, too, must have vaguely intuited it.

That I had no way.

She knew all of it, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop me, who was pushing this method forward even while lying to her.

“Kuaaaah!! You damn bastards!!”

At that moment, the Hero’s corpse, now in human form, opened its mouth and spewed out a cry mixed with curses and hatred towards us.

There was no more time to waste, no more room for hesitation.

The prepared magic had to be activated without even enough time for a proper farewell or to exchange last words.

“Killua-nim.”

A single, brilliant, pure white point condensed in my hand.

Just before unleashing that point, I left one last word for Killua-nim.

“Please don’t forget me.”

“Ah…”

It was a farewell.

Unable to bear looking at Killua-nim’s face, which would clearly break down, I glared at the cursed Hero who had driven us to this state and activated Killua-nim’s magic, condensed in my hand.

Recalling the magic of the White Mage, who had brought peace between humans and demons by traversing this world with a single streak of pure white light…

And feeling immense honor that this magic was manifesting in my hand…

I pulled the suicide switch that would drive me to death.

*Crack!*

As the mana imbued with my will, filled with hatred and rage towards the Hero, intervened from outside, the extremely stable balance of the condensed mana shattered.

And like a black hole, as if absorbing all surrounding mana, it drew in everything from the source mana in the pendant to the mana swirling around my heart.

“Kh…huh?!”

Along with the sensation of a giant hand tearing out my heart, the surrounding world instantly turned black and white.

Death.

With all the mana, the soul’s power barely supporting my body pushed to its limit, drawn away, my body, now a mere shell, began to collapse.

In a vision that swayed as if my body would crumble and fall like a rotten old tree, I somehow aimed the magic, on the verge of activation, at the Hero.

-Hey.

At that moment.

The world, turned black and white, solidified as if time had stopped, and a repellent purple light began to seep in.

The source of the purple light that intruded into the black and white world, solidified as if time had stopped, was Ermel.

On Ermel’s perpetually expressionless face, a faint, likable smile was subtly forming.

-You… I really like you. Much more than that damn Hero.

Ermel approached me with light steps.

Unable to turn my head in the black and white world, which had solidified, I couldn’t see what Ermel was doing to me.

Next, I felt her right hand, cold as ice, placed on my left shoulder.

-Massive hemorrhage service.

With her straightforward remark, the stopped time began to flow again.

The condensed pure white point ravenously tried to suck out my body’s mana, as if it intended to devour my very soul.

But the deep purple mana seeping from my shoulder was being sucked into the pure white point, in place of my own mana.

Thanks to Ermel’s mana being absorbed by the pure white point instead of mine, color began to seep back into my vision, which had been bleached black and white.

*Humming…*

Soon after, the pure white point seemed to have absorbed enough mana to its satisfaction, stopping its ravenous suction and emitting a quiet, heavy hum, as if demonstrating the overwhelming power it contained.

“Ja… Jazel?”

Killua, who had intuited an eternal farewell with me, looked at me with a messy face, tears streaming down, and even snot dripping.

At her call, I shifted my gaze from the Hero to her, proving to her that I was still alive.

Killua-nim and I, exchanging glances without a word, then fiercely raised our eyes and glared at the Hero rising from the ashes, shouting without waiting for the other.

“Oh, Light!!”

As if responding to my and Killua-nim’s will, hatred, and rage, the pure white point greatly vibrated and shot towards the Hero as a single line.

“Whoa!?”

The newly resurrected Hero couldn’t react to the flashing light aimed at him.

The hum that had boasted its grand power became meaningless as the pure white point, now a single line, cleanly pierced the Hero’s chest and vanished.

“Hah? What’s this?”

As if feeling no pain or impact, the Hero looked at the pinky-finger-sized hole that had pierced his chest, bewildered.

No blood flowed from the Hero’s chest, which had been pierced by light.

Literally, annihilation.

Centered on the chest pierced by light, the Hero’s body began to crumble like dust.

“W-what the!!”

The horrified Hero frantically tried to cover or scratch his crumbling chest with his hands, but he couldn’t stop his body from disintegrating.

“Ermel… Ermel!! What is this!!”

He frantically called for Ermel, who had been his advisor.

But Ermel did not appear at his call.

-Serves you right.

Ermel, whose hand was resting on my left shoulder, merely watched the disintegrating Hero, her brow furrowed as if finding him pathetic.

“No… this doesn’t make sense… I’m the protagonist, there’s no way I could die to some pathetic extra and a heroine candidate…”

The remaining Hero, his body slowly crumbling until his upper and lower halves separated, clawed at the ground, refusing to accept the current reality.

“Looks like you weren’t the protagonist, you fool.”

Unable to merely watch the Hero’s pathetic state, Ermel ultimately revealed her presence, approached him, and uttered a single remark.

“What a…”

The Hero, now only an upper body, mumbled as if unable to comprehend Ermel’s words.

“Shut up, you idiot.”

But Ermel simply stomped on the Hero’s head with her foot, crushing it, as if the very act of speaking to such a Hero was repulsive.

Thus, the Hero, his entire body crumbled, vanished without a trace, as if he had never existed in the first place.

“Ah…”

And then, feeling Ermel’s power, which had been supporting me, on the verge of breaking apart, disappear, my consciousness scattered like cotton candy dissolved in water.

Beyond my darkening vision, shattering into pieces as if breaking apart, I saw Ermel, who had finished off the Hero, looking back at me.

-You’ve been hiding the really delicious stuff, haven’t you?

Ermel, looking at me, licked her lips with a tongue heavy with drool, like someone who had a magnificent feast before their eyes.