"By the timing, Lord Arthur’s side should be wrapping up by now."

At the end of an alley thick with clotheslines, a black cat with one lame leg strolled leisurely forward, eerie green light occasionally glimmering in its eyes.

And when the cat turned its head, an almost human sneer appeared on its face.

"Still not planning to surrender, Saintess? The longer you keep this up, the more likely you are to see something dreadful you really would rather not see."

In the darkness, who knew how many cats prowled through the streets and alleys? Some were strays, but most were house pets—usually gentle enough to roll over for a few chicken bones and let people pet their bellies. Yet now, all at once, they had grown vicious.

"Mrrrrow—"

If not for the sealing barrier, those sharp, hissing cries would have been enough to wake the residents of several city blocks. The little cats bared their teeth and snarled, as if they had reclaimed some long-lost wildness.

...Fortunately, that chaos did not last long. The agitated cat pack was soon soothed again.

Soothed by that warm light.

"There is no such thing as a perfect plan in this world."

Inside the still-solid, still-brilliant golden curtain, Liya stood with the sleeping little girl behind her, the corners of her mouth faintly curved like a crescent moon, forming a holy smile that seemed capable of driving away all ferocity.

"Especially when it comes to those few people who can create miracles all on ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) their own—when it comes to them, so-called accidents are the norm. So I don’t think I’m going to see anything terrible. I trust them."

"Heh. Naive. Looks like our calculations weren’t wrong—your feelings for that childhood friend of yours really are unbelievably deep. But... an accident?"

Black Cat Dennis tilted his head in thought, then smiled.

"I think Saintess should pray to that so-called goddess of yours that no so-called accident happens. Being captured alive by Lord Arthur would already be the best possible ending for them."

"Why?" Liya asked, puzzled.

"Because if an accident does happen, then for that Ariel Bugaard you care so much about... that would be the truly terrifying thing."

Black Cat Dennis sprang lightly up onto the top of a courtyard wall and looked down from above.

"Though in my opinion, an accident is impossible. But if—just if—that kind of thing did happen, do you know what kind of horrifying existence a yellow-haired little girl like her would be facing directly?"

"A horrifying existence..."

Liya’s little face turned solemn.

"The Salvation Society’s Third Seat?"

"As expected of the Saintess. Smart."

Black Cat Dennis crouched on the wall, licking one paw, fanaticism surfacing in his eyes.

"The Third Seat, the Witch of Repentance—even within the entire Salvation Society, she stands second only to Lord Holy Lord of Salvation and Lord Black Knight, a top-tier powerhouse standing at the very peak of the continent.

"Though because of that Pink Bear, the former Saintess, and the task she herself must complete, she cannot come personally. But if she is willing to pay a sufficient price, projecting some of her power over here is still entirely possible."

"So your preparations really were thorough. You were willing to take even that kind of risk."

Liya still looked calm. Holy light continued shining in every direction... but her hands were clenched so tightly that the knuckles had turned pale, betraying the anxiety in her heart.

"Will she really act in person?"

"Of course. Do you think I’d lie to you about something like this? Face reality, Saintess. The reason our Salvation Society has been able to carry out so many purification rituals up to now is because of our outstanding wisdom—and because of our rigorous precision that allows not even the slightest mistake!"

Black Cat Dennis raised his head high in pride.

"Before the Third Seat, your friends, your knight—they are all nothing but brats who still smell of milk, bugs that can be crushed to death on a whim!"

...

...

"Brats?"

In the courtyard that had already been nearly flattened to bare ground, "Ariel" stood at the edge of the dust cloud. The aura around her had not changed in the slightest. There was still blood staining her dress from the wounds she had taken earlier.

And yet as her hair stirred, the whole world seemed to freeze behind her.

"Young lady, who exactly are you calling a brat?"

"..."

The atmosphere on the field suddenly sank into an eerie silence. It seemed that even the Salvation Society’s mighty Third Seat, the Witch of Repentance, did not know how to answer that question.

She had been a Crowned one for decades.

It had been a very, very long time since anyone had called her... young lady.

"Holy shit... I almost forgot about that part!"

Only Muen reacted immediately. Realizing Ariel’s teacher had logged in to fight in her place, he sprang to his feet in one smooth motion, scooped up the fallen An, and retreated at once so he would not interfere with the big shot stretching her legs.

"Who are you?"

Though there had been a moment of silence, it lasted no more than two or three seconds. The blood-red lotus spread again, and across that distance of countless miles, the Witch of Repentance spoke in a calm voice.

"You don’t know who I am?"

"Ariel" smiled.

"Then it seems your intelligence isn’t quite as good as you think it is."

"...Our intelligence only covers things that already exist within this world."

The Witch of Repentance no longer sounded as calm and pitying as she had when facing Muen. Her voice now was filled with cold wariness.

"As for some old thing like you, clawing its way back through a borrowed corpse from who knows where, naturally it’s useless."

She had actually seen through Ariel’s current state. She understood that the terrifying one now was not the little bug she had nearly crushed to death moments earlier, but some powerful soul temporarily returned to the world through that little bug’s body.

Yet Peles showed not the slightest trace of panic.

Using Ariel’s body as her vessel, she still wore that same gentle expression, like an elder scolding an unruly child.

"What do you mean, old thing? So rude. Call me senior, brat."

"..."

The blood-red lotus said nothing, only deepened in color.

Dong—

A low bell tolled.

The barrier Arthur had set up earlier had long since been shattered completely in the battle. In its place was a far subtler spatial isolation established by the Witch of Repentance at some unknown moment.

So the ducal estate was no longer trapped in total darkness. By the glow of a few scattered fires, the movement of the hands on the great bell tower in the distance could be seen clearly.

Shock, silence, a brief exchange—none of these took much time at all for the two people now confronting each other. And unlike Arthur, who could never stop flapping his mouth whenever something fell outside his calculations, the Witch of Repentance did not waste time talking.

She had not forgotten for even a moment that if she failed to resolve things within the scheduled window, she would face a situation ten times more troublesome than the one before her now.

One mysterious old monster coming from nowhere was already enough. She had no desire to deal at the same time with a stinking bear even more prone to running his mouth than Arthur, plus that irritating former Saintess from the Church.

"I’ve heard that some highly accomplished mages can use special magic to forcibly leave their souls behind in this world after death. I never thought I would one day witness it with my own eyes."

The Witch of Repentance gave a leisurely sigh.

"However... such defiance of the rules by which the world turns means you, too, must repent!"

In an instant, the blood-red lotus bloomed completely open, and the pale, delicate hand at its center aimed at Peles and clenched slightly.

Crack... crack...

A distinct sound of breaking rang out, as if it were the world itself crying in pain.

Across the sky, across the earth, across all things, invisible ripples spread outward, and on the surface of everything, tiny fissures too fine for the eye to see began spreading at a terrifying speed.

"Damn..."

Even from far away, Muen’s face changed. He had thought he was already outside the Witch of Repentance’s attack range, yet the surface of his skin was still beginning to split uncontrollably, and even his black flames could do no more than slow the cracking for a short time.

But Muen did not sense some overwhelming force pressing down on him. This disintegration felt more like...

Wuu...

After the cry of pain came sobbing.

Long, eerie weeping echoed around them, as if everything in the world were grieving, as if everything were repenting.

And the ultimate end of repentance was—

self-destruction.

All things repented, and in that ultimate repentance destroyed themselves.

Thus space itself was effortlessly torn apart through self-destruction.

Thus Ariel’s body, bearing the brunt of it, also began to collapse from the inside out in an act of self-destruction, flesh and blood breaking apart.

"Hm?"

On the far side of the blood-red lotus, the Witch of Repentance frowned slightly.

It hit that easily?

Despite the danger this opponent had projected, was it, in the end... only some fragmented soul after all?

Well, that made sense. A soul separated from the body was never that great a thing to begin with. Even if it had possessed Ariel Bugaard, that was still only the foundation of a young genius.

"Heh. As if I wasn’t once a genius myself."

The Witch of Repentance shook her head with a sneer.

Even so, she did not relax in the slightest because her opponent seemed to be crumbling. She continued pushing her domain forward, allowing everything within it to collapse and disintegrate.

The time remaining was enough for her to turn the entire ducal estate into ruins so complete that not even a trace would remain.

Surely when the Empire’s Empress, the Lion King, or even the Saintess—the original target of this operation—saw such a beautiful scene, they would feel from the depths of their souls—

"Genius?"

"!"

The blood-red lotus suddenly contracted.

In that instant, among Ariel’s scattered flesh, half of her bloody head rotated around. With the one eye she had left, she gave the blood-red lotus a playful wink.

"You—!"

"What, me? There are differences even among geniuses. You’ve been around this long, and you still don’t understand something that simple, brat?"

Another Ariel stepped out from rippling space, her gaze crossing the endless distance as she offered the Witch of Repentance a gentle, mocking smile.

Then she lightly clapped her hands.

"That boy’s illumination spell isn’t bad, but it’s still too dark... Let’s have some light."

Whoosh!

It was like switching on a magic crystal in a pitch-black room, unleashing endless brilliance. The Witch of Repentance came sharply back to herself and found that she had been placed within a world of pure light.

No mansion. No courtyard. No nightscape.

Only light.

Endless light.

"This is... magic?"

Sensing the utterly pure aura of that light, the Witch of Repentance spoke in shock. "No. This is... Divine Favor!"

Divine Favor?

Wasn’t the Divine Favor on that little brat Ariel Bugaard supposed to be flame?

Why was there a second Divine Favor now?

Could one person in this world possess the power of two Divine Favors at the same time?

"This much light won’t do. Where there is light, there is shadow. Let’s have some darkness too."

Peles ignored the witch’s shock and merely clapped her hands again.

Whoosh.

A pure darkness that swallowed all things rose from immeasurable depths, and very quickly divided this world evenly with the light.

"This too is Divine Favor?"

The Witch of Repentance muttered, "Light and darkness... weren’t those two divine faiths banned by the Church five hundred years ago? Then why are they still—"

"Yes, they were banned by the Church. Which is exactly why it’s not convenient to use them openly."

Peles still smiled.

"But luckily, you’re also a lunatic wanted by the Church. So anything you say... the Church definitely won’t believe, right?"

"..."

Clap.

Peles clapped her hands one last time.

"All right, brat. Don’t blink. Now... light and darkness are about to collide completely."