Absolute chaos.
It began quietly.
She had been watching the so-called James from outside the church window, her presence erased, her breathing measured. When someone knocked on his door, every nerve in her body snapped taut.
An intrusion.
Her hand drifted toward her blade.
Then the door opened.
Red hair.
A nun.
Sonia.
Nora didn't relax, not completely—but she eased. A false alarm, she thought. Just another visit from the overly friendly sister who seemed to float between the church and the tavern with unsettling ease.
That was when something felt wrong.
James, no, the masked man, lowered his guard.
Nora narrowed her eyes, she was reading his body language.
His posture slackened. His awareness dulled.
Then Sonia reached out.
And removed his mask.
Nora sucked in a sharp breath.
She couldn't see his face from her angle, but the absence of resistance sent a chill through her spine.
I'd rather die than show you my face.
His words echoed in her head.
Something was terribly wrong.
Nora moved.
She slipped inside the room, soundless as a shadow.
"Minya."
The word rang out like a bell tolling death.
Nora twisted instinctively, the air screaming past her cheek. A purple stake of condensed mana tore through the space where her head had been an instant earlier, embedding itself in the bedframe. Pale violet flames licked along its surface as the wood beneath began to crystallize, freezing and fracturing from the inside out.
"My, my~" came a playful voice. "I'm surprised you managed to dodge that."
Nora whirled.
Small horns curved from her temples. Her crimson eyes glowed softly, pupils slit and predatory.
Nora cursed under her breath.
"James!" she shouted. "Snap out of it!"
No response.
He stood motionless, eyes unfocused, body slack, like a puppet with its strings cut.
"It's useless," Sonia said sweetly. "Your friend is dream-walking."
Nora's blood ran cold. "What did you do to him?"
Sonia smiled.
"Don't worry. It's already finished. Once I finish extracting his Od… then it'll be your turn."
"…Extracting his Od?"
"Yes." Sonia lifted her hand, revealing a black crystal pulsing faintly with sickly energy. "He somehow shook off the curse I planted. I was sure that it already reached his soul so I still have no idea how he did it, really. Therefor, I had to improvise."
She rolled the crystal between her fingers. "These are high-density crystallized miasma. Once fed to him, his gate will overload. His existing mana and Od will reject it violently, forcing the core out."
Nora's breath caught.
No living being could survive such an influx of miasma. And if his Od had already begun exiting the gate…
It was already too late.
Her gaze shifted back to him.
For the first time, Nora truly saw his face.
Her pupils shrank.
She knew that face.
It had been plastered across wanted notices. Whispered in back alleys. Feared across Kararagi.
Infamous.
Before she could react...
He spoke.
"What… are you doing here, Hana?"
His voice was distant. Hollow.
His icy blue eyes stared through everything, focused on nothing at all.
The ground trembled.
A deep, violent rumble tore through the church as cracks spiderwebbed along the walls. Frost erupted from his feet, racing across the floor, climbing the walls, sealing windows in jagged ice.
The temperature plummeted in seconds.
Nora staggered, barely keeping her footing.
Sonia's playful smile shattered.
"W-What is this?!"
The room, no... The entire church began to crumble.
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After uttering those words, wearing nothing but a black short-sleeved T-shirt despite the biting winter cold, Tanaka kept his hardened gaze fixed on Hana.
The wind howled around them, yet he didn't shiver.
"I'm here to see you."
Hana answered immediately, as if she'd been waiting for the question.
"I know that," he said flatly. "But why?"
Tanaka's jaw tightened. "You're studying in Kyoto now. Why are you all the way here in Shibuya?"
"I missed you."
The words landed harder than any blow.
"Hana…" His voice dropped. "There's nothing for you here. Go back home."
He looked away, fists clenched. "You have friends. You have a life. Don't waste another second on someone like me."
This was rock bottom.
If she asked him to sink any lower, he simply couldn't.
He rejected it, not because he didn't want her, but because he did. Because loving her meant pushing her away.
The only girl he had ever loved didn't belong in this place. She didn't belong with someone broken, so unfinished. He had distanced himself so she could live freely, so she wouldn't be dragged down by his unresolved past.
He didn't deserve her then.
He didn't deserve her now.
Even if it meant losing her forever. As long as she was happy.
"Always… always…" Hana whispered.
Her head was lowered, her hair hiding her expression.
Then she lifted her face.
Tears filled her eyes, and something inside his chest cracked.
"Why do you always push everyone away?!" she cried.
"Damn it, you were a child too!"
Her voice shook as it broke free. "It wasn't your fault! No one is blaming you! Not even Mio! It wasn't your fault, it was those awful people's...."
"That's not it!"
Tanaka's voice snapped, finally splintering.
"I… I forgave myself."
The words surprised even him.
He had never thought he could say them.
Before he met her, he hadn't been living, only existing. A tool built to atone, to repay sins without imagining a future beyond them. He never planned for what came after redemption.
He might have even believed his life ended the moment his debt was paid.
She had changed that.
"Then come back," Hana pleaded. "Your parents. Mio. Ishikawa. Yuki. Me, we're all waiting. Just come home."
Her voice broke completely. "I love you, you stupid idiot. Just come back already!"
Because of Takehana Ito, his life had meaning beyond guilt.
But...
"Not yet."
The words tasted like ash.
After he finished paying his debt.After his sister was safe again.After he fixed what he'd broken.
"I miss you," he admitted softly. "I miss everyone."
But he shook his head.
"I can't come back yet."
"Hana..."
"Why?!" she cried. "Why are you always like this?!"
He whispered her name again, helpless, her sobs tearing at him.
But his resolve didn't waver, he was as brittle as iron.
He would break before he could bend.
She fell into his embrace, clutching on his shirt. "You're unbelievably selfish," she said through tears.
"I missed you…"
Her voice collapsed.
"I really missed you…"
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On the other side.
The church was in ruins.
No...
Half of it no longer existed.
Stone walls had been torn apart as if by an invisible claw, frozen rubble scattered across the ground, each fragment encased in jagged frost. Snow spiraled violently through the shattered nave, carried by unstable mana currents that howled like a storm trapped indoors.
At the center of the destruction stood the unmasked man.
Stride Vollachia.
His eyes were vacant, unfocused, yet power poured from him without restraint. Though still trapped within the dream spell, he cast magic indiscriminately, his body standing still, locked in a berserk state.
Ice detonated outward in violent bursts. Pillars collapsed. Entire sections of the church disintegrated under raw, uncontrolled spell work.
"How is he still?!" Sonia hissed.
She barely had time to finish the thought.
A massive greatsword came crashing down toward her.
Clang!
The woman was forced back as a towering figure intercepted her attack, a cat-person clad in battered knightly armor, broad-shouldered and built like a fortress. His fur bristled beneath the plates as he swung his greatsword with brutal precision, the blade carving through her magic mid-flight.
"Tch…!" Sonia clicked her tongue. "Why is a knight here?!"
Earlier, when the room began to collapse, the destruction had spread throughout the entire church. Panic erupted. Congregants fled in all directions, screams echoing as stone fell from above.
This shouldn't have happened.
But her identity had been exposed.
She lunged toward fleeing members, magic forming blades meant to sever limbs and halt their escape.
Only for the knight to crash into her path like a living wall.
His sword roared through the air, forcing her back again and again, each strike buying precious seconds for the church members to flee.
At the same time...
That little girl.
Sonia's gaze snapped to Nora.
The child was everywhere, darting through falling debris, slipping past spells with unnatural agility. Fire, ice, shadow... none of it touched her. Despite the chaos, snow spiraling, rocks flying, magic detonating, Nora moved like a ghost.
Annoying.
Sonia grinned.
Then she staggered deliberately.
Blood spilled from her side as she let her guard drop, her posture sagging.
An opening.
Nora took it.
She rushed in, kunai flashing—and drove the blade straight into Sonia's chest.
The succubus laughed.
"Oh? Didn't I tell you?" she whispered. "I can move my heart."
Her body twisted grotesquely.
Spikes erupted outward, flesh and crystal impaling Nora in an instant.
"Good," Sonia sighed. "At least we got rid of one nuisance."
"Don't think you can kill me so easily, you crazy demon!"
Sonia's eyes widened.
Nora stood behind her.
The body that had been destroyed dissolved into smoke.
"A clone…?" Sonia clicked her tongue as Nora buried a second kunai deep into her back and leapt away.
Sonia stepped back as well, irritation flashing across her face.
This was supposed to be simple.
Her objective had been clear, infiltrate the church, harvest Od. A congregation full of magic users was the easiest approach. Strong Od, dense mana.
And the masked man had been her priority target.
She had trapped him in a dream illusion.Fed him crystallized miasma, three times the amount required to kill a powerful mage.
His Od should have burst and torn him apart.
Instead...
"How in the world is he even casting magic…?"
Miasma was corrupted mana, poisonous. His gate should have collapsed.
But instead, he was flooding the area with uncontrollable spells.
Half the church was gone.
And getting close was impossible.
Within five feet, everything froze solid.
From a distance, Nora stepped back, muttering underneath her breath, "This isn't going anywhere,"
Her wound regenerated instantly. Even the poison on the kunai had done nothing.
The biggest threat wasn't the women.
It was the man at the center of the storm.
"James! Wake up!" Nora shouted, stepping forward.
"Hey! kid!" The knight grabbed her collar and yanked her back. "If you get any closer, you're dead!"
"E-Excuse me!"
A trembling voice rang out.
"Sister Melty?!" Nora turned. "What are you doing here? It's dangerous!"
"I—I was looking for James," Melty said. "He didn't escape with the others."
"James… huh." The knight grimaced.
"I'm sorry to tell you this but that man isn't who you think he is."
"What do you mean?"
"You've seen the posters, right? That man is the Sin Archbishop of Pride, Stride Vollachia."
Melty froze.
Her face drained of color, but even then, she clenched her fists.
"I don't want him to die like this…"
She didn't want to believe that all his actions were an act to deceive them and to commit evil doings, and at the very least, she wanted to hear his side of the story.
Nora swallowed. "…He's under a spell. He's not conscious. She made him consume crystallized miasma, that's why he's berserk."
This wasn't a scheme.
This wasn't his doing.
"Well," the knight muttered, gripping his sword, "if we don't snap him out of it, we're all doomed."
Easier said than done.
He had tried to approach earlier, in order to cut him down. Only to be crushed by a flying boulder. Even now, blood stained his side.
And freezing meant instant death.
Suddenly...
A soft white light bloomed beside him.
"I will help too," Melty said, magic gathering in her hands.
They also had a demon that was trying kill them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dammit… dammit!"
Sonia cursed under her breath as the situation spiraled out of control.
This was supposed to be easy.
But now, she was struggling.
The moment the nun entered the battlefield, everything shifted. Healing magic wrapped around the knight like a second skin, closing wounds faster than Sonia could open them. Each swing of his greatsword grew heavier, more relentless, forcing her further back with every clash.
Landing a decisive blow had become impossible.
And as if that weren't enough...
That shinobi girl.
Kunai came flying from blind angles, each blade coated in poison. It didn't stop her regeneration completely. But it slowed it. Just enough to be irritating. Just enough to be dangerous.
If this continued, her defeat was inevitable.
"…Tch."
There was only one option left.
Sonia reached into a hidden pouch and pulled out two jagged black crystals, condensed, crystallized miasma.
Without hesitation, she swallowed them.
Miasma was corrupted mana, lethal to ordinary beings. It destroyed gates, warped Od, reduced mages to corpses.
But she wasn't ordinary.
This mana was connected to the witches.
In small doses, it didn't destroy her gate. It restored her fully.
Power surged violently through her veins.
Her back split open.
Wings burst forth, dark and monstrous, scattering corrupted mana as she launched herself skyward.
"At the very least…" she snarled, eyes locking onto the man at the center of the storm,"I'm extracting that man's Od."
Even if she collected nothing else, no priests, no nuns.
Stride Vollachia alone was worth everything.
She tore through the chaos.
Floating boulders smashed into her—she pushed through.
Razor frost cut into her flesh—she endured.
The wind screamed, ice clawed at her limbs—but she reached him.
And pressed her hand flat against his chest.
The world stopped.
All magic, everything, fell silent.
"…!"
___
____
_____
Crack.
"I really hate this…" Hana muttered.
Another fracture spread through the illusion.
"You're extremely selfish."
He hadn't rejected her feelings. He never had.
He had always said he loved her too.
It was mutual.
And yet...
He decided, on his own, that he didn't deserve her.
"Get it done," she said firmly.
Crack.
"Huh?"
"I hate how you decide everything by yourself," Hana continued, her voice trembling but resolute."I hate how you talk about deserving me like I'm some luxury item."
She took a breath.
"But… I'll let you have this."
Crack.
"Whatever it is you're doing," she said softly,"Finish it. I'll be waiting."
"You deserve someone better, ouch!"
Her forehead slammed into his.
"Shut up!" she snapped.
"You don't get to decide everything!" Hana shouted, tears streaking down her face."Whatever hole you're stuck in, whatever mess you're trying to fix. I'll be waiting for you to come back."
She clenched her fists.
"I'd love to help… but I know you're too stubborn to take my hand."
Tanaka exhaled slowly.
Then, despite everything...
He smiled.
"…Yeah," he said quietly."I'll do my best."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sonia froze.
Her eyes widened as disbelief swallowed her composure.
"…There's nothing there."
No Od.
Not even a trace.
The realization struck her like a blade to the throat.
That was impossible.
How was he still alive?How had he unleashed spells powerful enough to tear the church apart. Without any traces of Od left?
Her thoughts shattered when his weight suddenly dragged her downward.
Tanaka collapsed.
His body went limp in her grasp, pulling her with him as he fell unconscious.
"…!"
Did he burn through his Od entirely?
No, that still didn't explain it.
If his Od had been consumed, there should have been remnants. Residue. Something.
Instead, it was gone, vanished before the magic ceased.
Absurd.
Unnatural.
Then she noticed it.
A layer of dull yellow light wrapped around his body as he lay against the fractured stone floor. Cracks spread outward from beneath him, spider-webbing across the ground as if the earth itself couldn't bear his presence.
His body didn't sink.
It pressed.
As though gravity itself had chosen him as its center.
"…So that's it," she muttered, dread creeping into her voice.
His magic hadn't simply stopped.
He had cast one final spell, something so overwhelming that it silenced everything else.
A full stop.
A thunderous thud echoed nearby.
Sonia's head snapped to the side.
The knight.The shinobi.The nun.
All three had collapsed as well—slammed to the ground by the same yellow light that bound them in place.
Unlike Tanaka, they were conscious.
Pinned.
Immobilized.
Breathing, but unable to move.
Her gaze slowly lifted.
Higher.
Toward the space her outstretched fingers were reaching for...
And her breath caught in her throat.
"…What in the world is that…?"
Above her, the world bent.
Space itself caved inward, folding and twisting around a dark, spherical void.
A perfectly round shadow hung in the air. Its edge razor-sharp, its presence devouring light. Around it swirled a distorted halo, a luminous ring of warped energy screaming silently as it was dragged into oblivion.
It wasn't darkness.
It was absence.
A black hole.
Not a natural one, but a hyper-concentrated singularity of gravity, born from magic forced far beyond its limits.
Reality screamed.
And then.
It began to pull.
"No!"
Sonia was yanked forward as the ground beneath her shattered. She dug her claws into the stone, shrieking as her fingers split and blood smeared across the floor.
"Dammit! Stop...STOP!"
Her wings tore against the invisible force, bones cracking as they were dragged backward. The pressure crushed her lungs, stole the air from her throat, compressed her very existence.
"HELP ME PLEASE! D2af-Sama!" she screamed, fury dissolving into terror.
Even the name she uttered bended, reaching no one.
The ground gave way.
Her body was ripped free.
She was swallowed whole—limbs snapping inward, flesh screaming as gravity collapsed her from every direction at once.
There was no explosion.
No sound.
Just silence.
The black hole shuddered...
Then vanished.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Finally… it was over.
The invisible weight that had crushed them into the ground loosened its grip.
Air rushed back into their lungs.
They could move again.
For several long seconds, none of them spoke.
The ruined remains of the church creaked and groaned around them—collapsed pillars, frozen debris, scorched stone, and lingering frost bearing silent witness to something none of them fully understood.
They were alive.
And none of them knew why.
Tristan was the first to break the stillness.
He lowered his gaze to the man lying motionless at the center of the devastation.
Unconscious.Unmoving.
"…What," Melty whispered, her voice trembling despite herself, "is that?"
Tristan followed her gaze.
The man's skin had darkened unnaturally, as though shadows had seeped into his flesh. Black veins crawled visibly beneath the surface, bulging and pulsing in an erratic rhythm, like a heart struggling to remember how to beat.
"…It must be a side effect of the miasma he consumed," Tristan said grimly.
The words tasted bitter.
After a moment of hesitation, Nora finally spoke, her hand tightening around the hilt of her kunai.
"…What are you planning to do?"
The question hung heavy in the air.
Tristan straightened, his posture rigid, the weight of command settling onto his shoulders.
"This man will be captured," he said. "And handed over to the Lugunican Knights."
He did not look away from the unconscious figure as he continued.
"He will be interrogated. He will answer for the destruction he caused. And for the lives endangered tonight."
Even if...
Even if it had been beyond his control.
No one would overlook the fact that a Sin Archbishop had reduced half a church to rubble.
Stride Vollachia.
The name alone carried terror.
Kazuki Tanaka.
The youth Mycroft had entrusted him to find and save.
According to Crusch Karsten's sealed testament…a potential remnant of the Lugunican royal bloodline.
Capturing Stride Vollachia had never been his mission.
But if Kazuki Tanaka had been taken by the Witch Cult.
Then this outcome, however twisted, could still become a lead.
A path forward.
Suddenly...
The wind howled.
A violent surge of air blasted through every shattered entrance, spiraling inward like a living storm.
"What—?!" Nora cried. "It's not over?!"
Tristan snapped to full alert.
His instincts screamed.
If the man was about to rampage again, even unconscious...
He couldn't allow it.
Steel rang out as Tristan drew his greatsword, planting his feet firmly between the fallen man and the others.
If it came down to it…
Information meant nothing compared to innocent lives.
But the wind intensified.
A crushing force slammed into them, flinging Melty and Nora backward like leaves in a gale.
"...Gah!"
Tristan drove his blade into the ground, stone cracking beneath the impact as he struggled to hold his position. Even then, he was dragged back inch by inch.
Dust and debris filled the air, blinding them.
Visibility vanished.
And then...
Someone stood there.
When the dust settled, an inhumanly beautiful woman emerged from the storm.
An inhumanly beautiful woman with white skin.
Milky-white shaggy hair with a lime strand, white eyebrows, and sharp almond-shaped eyes with a bright yellow color, locking onto the unconscious man with unmistakable intent.
Slowly, she lifted her gaze.
Her eyes met Tristan's.
"What are you staring stupidly for? Can you take your eyes off me?"
She wore a pure white kimono, immaculate and pristine. The right side overlapped the left, burial garb.
A lime-colored sphere rested at her waist.
The hem was shortened scandalously to mid-thigh, leaving her long, slender legs exposed.
"I don't to fight with you moggy, I have to talk with this person."
Tristan's grip tightened.
"I don't know who you are but you must be aware that the person behind you is the sin Archbishop of Pride, so I suggest that you move."
"___Shut up"
Tristan felt an illusionary knife stab him, silencing him.
His body is freezing because of the woman's sharpened tone.
As though death itself had brushed past his throat.