“……Ha.”
I let out a hollow laugh as I stared at Rasel’s corpse.
His body, burned to a horrific state after being devoured by his own magic in an instant, was gruesome beyond words.
That itself was not particularly surprising.
I had never intended to give Rasel a clean death anyway.
The problem was Noise’s reaction to what had happened.
“Noise.”
In the ten years I had known Noise, he had never intervened so actively in anything.
But this time, he had stepped in while displaying intense fury.
It was probably because of that Black Flame.
-■■
Yet now Noise stood motionless in the same spot, as though he had never been angry at all.
He seemed to be looking either at me or at Rasel’s corpse.
I could not make out his form properly, so how was I supposed to tell where he was looking?
‘Well, does it matter?’
There was something else that mattered right now.
Cleaning up the Black Flame.
If I left it alone, it would continue spreading without end.
“Give me a hand, Noise.”
-■■
“I’ll take that as agreement. Ah, it’s fine. I have something pretty similar myself.”
-■■……?!
Ah, I understood that reaction.
Shock and concern.
Even if I could not understand the exact words, I could roughly grasp the mood.
I had the feeling Noise would take care of everything himself even if I did nothing.
But—
‘It’d be a waste to just let him clean it all up.’
Someone else might call these flames blasphemous.
I did not.
“Looks delicious.”
For the past ten years, I had repeatedly experimented with ways to control the Sacred Flame more effectively.
And in the process, I had realized one thing…….
‘Black magic helps.’
The more black magic I subjugated, the greater my control over the Sacred Flame became.
Of course, simple or low-grade black magic would not do.
“This should be more than enough.”
I immediately sat down cross-legged.
FWOOSH.
As I focused my mind, I could clearly feel the heat of the Sacred Flame within my body.
The rate at which my Sacred Flame had been growing lately was already becoming threatening.
And now Rasel had conveniently offered me black magic perfectly suited to my needs.
‘Thanks, Rasel.’
This should make controlling the Sacred Flame a little easier.
FWOOSH.
As I breathed while feeling the Sacred Flame inside me, the Black Flame filling the workshop gradually began to seep into my body.
There was only one way to control the Sacred Flame.
Strengthen my body until it was capable of enduring it.
And black magic strengthened my body.
The foundation for that was none other than one of Ralke’s Secret Arts.
The power once known as the curse.
Black magic and the Sacred Flame.
Was there any state more contradictory than mine?
Regardless, the Black Flame was naturally absorbed into my body.
Thump, thump.
My body began pulsing rapidly after absorbing the Black Flame.
CRACK, CRACK.
My skeletal structure began changing, using the absorbed Black Flame as its foundation.
The bloodline of Messiah was born with the Sacred Flame Physique precisely so their bodies could withstand the immense power of the Sacred Flame.
The first Messiah had divided the Sacred Flame Physique into stages.
Nine stages in total.
And throughout the thousand years that followed, only ten people had ever reached the Ninth Stage.
‘And Father is one of them.’
My Sacred Flame Physique was currently at the Second Stage.
And by absorbing the Black Flame now, I had finished preparing myself to ascend to the next stage.
CRACK! CRACK!
The Sacred Flame blazed and began burning my body.
My wounded flesh recovered, and in the process of recovering, it grew stronger.
Pain, damage, recovery, strengthening…….
My body repeated that cycle endlessly, growing rapidly in a short span of time.
By the time the Sacred Flame that had been blazing for so long finally calmed, I slowly opened my eyes.
My senses had become noticeably sharper…….
‘I reached the Third Stage.’
A smile naturally rose to my lips.
I had been frustrated by being stuck at the Second Stage for some time, so I had never expected to break through like this.
Just as I opened my eyes with that thought, I sensed something strange.
“……Hmm?”
“You have reached the Third Stage.”
Then a familiar voice reached me.
A voice that had no business being here.
I looked up and saw the Grand Duke.
“Ah, damn.”
My great father stood there with his arms crossed, staring at me with interest.
“Well? Have you nothing to say?”
“…….”
You have a point.
***
“Father, why are you here……?”
Naturally, I had not sensed the Grand Duke entering this place at all.
‘When did he get here?’
Had he been here from the beginning?
No, that could not have been it.
As though he had no interest whatsoever in what I was thinking, Father slowly approached.
“Is there something wrong with me setting foot inside my family’s Sanctuary?”
“No.”
Father nodded at my answer and looked around.
“You certainly filled this place with filth in a short amount of time.”
“……You knew?”
“Knew what?”
“That ‘suspicious forces’ had interfered with Sister’s Trial.”
Father stared at me silently before nodding.
“I knew.”
“Then why did you leave it alone?”
“Because it was necessary.”
“……Necessary?”
What was he talking about?
Had the Commander being cursed in my previous life and becoming unable to wield a sword for half a year also been ‘necessary’?
Or had the Grand Duke disappearing and the House of Messiah falling into Schubert’s hands been necessary as well?
I could not understand it.
“You have many questions written on your face.”
“How could I not?”
“It would not be difficult to answer them. But before that, you will answer my question first.”
Father’s expression became serious.
“How did you come here?”
“I realized someone was plotting something ominous inside the Sanctuary.”
“Even for you, that should not have been easy to notice.”
“It was.”
“…….”
Father looked dissatisfied with my answer.
But the expression did not last long, and he soon relaxed again.
“There was a contract.”
……A contract?
“What do you mean?”
“Were you not wondering why I knowingly allowed ‘Ralke’ to play its tricks?”
“……!”
Father had explicitly brought up Ralke.
Then it was safe to assume he already understood most of what was happening.
“Do you intend to explain exactly what kind of contract it was……?”
“No.”
“Or who you made the contract with……?”
“No.”
He could not have answered more firmly.
When I gave him a sullen look to show my displeasure, Father answered without the slightest shame.
“You have plenty of things you have not told me either.”
“That is true.”
An uncomfortable silence briefly settled between Father and me.
After a m]oment, Father spoke.
“Why do you not come out?”
“……Tsk.”
At that, Deckard awkwardly stepped out from the corner.
When the hell had he arrived?
Deckard bowed toward Father.
“Greetings, Your Gra…….”
“Dispense with the empty formalities.”
Father cut him off and looked at Deckard.
“First, you broke the rules. You are aware of that?”
“Yes, well, that…….”
“Then that is enough.”
“……?”
Having settled the matter in a single sentence, Father turned back toward me.
“I will halt the Trial.”
“What? We already eliminated everything that could cause a problem, and now you want to stop it?”
“It is no longer a proper Trial.”
“…….”
“The ‘target’ Arwin was originally supposed to cut down is gone.”
“The target……?”
“The chimera.”
At that moment, my memories of my previous life and the events of the present clicked together.
‘Rasel, the chimera, the curse…….’
The Trial had been corrupted from the very beginning.
But even so, Messiah’s Trial had created a way forward.
It had designated a new target.
And that target had been—
‘The chimera.’
The chimera, an impurity that did not belong within the Sanctuary, had been designated as the new target.
The same must have happened in my previous life.
The difference was that back then, Arwin had succeeded in subjugating the chimera.
This time was different.
Instead of Arwin, Deckard and I had eliminated that target.
In that case, Father was technically right, but…….
“You were the one who left it alone, Father.”
This was not fair.
Ending the Trial simply because something had gone wrong would invalidate all the effort Arwin had put in until now.
“Sister should not be the one held responsible. The ones who defiled the Trial should be. I cannot accept stopping the Trial for that reason.”
“…….”
Father silently stared at me.
THOOM!
“Ghk……!”
A sudden pressure bore down on my entire body.
‘Just putting a little emotion into his gaze creates this much pressure……!’
But I did not cower.
I met Father’s eyes directly.
“Do you believe you have the right to say that?”
“Is being her family not enough to give me that right?”
“Hmm.”
The pressure crushing me vanished instantly.
Almost as though he had been waiting for those words.
“Then what would you have me do?”
Father asked me instead.
That meant the Trial could be changed according to what I proposed.
Without hesitating, I gave him the solution I had already considered.
“The Trial needs a ‘final target.’ Because I intervened, that target has disappeared.”
“Correct.”
“Then I will become the target.”
“Oh?”
A smile formed on Father’s lips.
***
‘This place…….’
Arwin was passing through an area filled with fog.
The deeper she went, the more strongly she felt that something about this Trial was strange.
It was far too different from what she had been told.
The Trial she had heard about was supposed to be more sacred and orderly.
But this Trial…….
‘It’s sticky and dark.’
There was no other way to describe it.
She could not see her surroundings.
She still had not found the ‘target’ required to pass the Trial.
She did not know what form it would take.
However, the father she respected had told her this.
-You will know it when you see it.
Something that should not exist in that place.
Something she herself could never tolerate.
That would become her target.
Trusting those words, she continued forward.
The dense fog made it difficult to see ahead, but she trusted her instincts and her skill.
How long had she walked?
“Ah.”
The fog gradually began to clear.
At last, her surroundings came into view.
Arwin kept her guard up as she surveyed the area.
It was a clearing.
A completely empty clearing, to the point that it was strange for a place like this to exist inside the Sanctuary.
As she looked around, she suddenly froze.
Because someone who should never have been here was standing before her.
“Ah, Sister.”
Golden hair and green eyes identical to hers.
A boy stood there holding a sword, a mischievous expression on his face.
“……Little brother? No, that can’t be. There’s no way you should be here…….”
“Why are you staring at me like you’ve seen a ghost? And why are you holding a sword?”
“Ah.”
Sigmund slowly approached.
Arwin instinctively stepped backward, widening the distance between them.
Then, after a moment—
“You’re not him.”
Arwin gritted her teeth and glared at Sigmund.
She thought it through carefully, but no matter how she considered it, there was no way her sickly little brother could be here.
And that attitude.
“……My little brother doesn’t act that friendly with me.”
“…….”
At those words, Sigmund’s eyes widened.