Everyone stared at Tike in shock, unable to believe such astonishing words were coming from a child's mouth.
"Hurry up, there's no time!" Tike urged.
"How could I possibly do something like that!" Gray objected emotionally, his voice trembling slightly.
"Don't you want to kill Deliora? If you do, then help me, Senior Brother."
"How is this helping!" Gray practically roared. "I won't do it! I won't kill you!"
"You're mistaken," Tike said nonchalantly. "An ordinary person might not survive a pierced heart, but think about it, don't I have that Healing Magic? So compared to ordinary people, my recovery ability is much stronger. I won't die that easily."
"Even with Healing Magic, you can't do something so foolish!" Ultear grabbed Tike's hand tightly, her fingers trembling slightly. "There's no point in doing this!"
"There is a point," Tike said softly. "To bring death, this is a necessary process."
As he spoke, Deliora's footsteps became clearer and clearer, echoing in their ears like the death knell of the Reaper.
Tike looked up at the colossal beast gradually approaching.
"Actually, it would be better if it did it, but I have a feeling it can't kill me."
Tike didn't know what Deliora intended to do, or who was controlling it, but as time passed, his disgust for this creature grew stronger.
Because of its existence, the air was filled with a scent indistinguishable from the one on Gray—a mix of sorrow and pain that made Tike feel particularly awful.
Seeing that Gray still refused to act, Tike turned his head and looked at Ultear.
"Big Sis, how about you do it? Make sure to be accurate. If you don't succeed in one go, it's going to hurt a lot."
As he spoke, he gestured exaggeratedly over his chest.
Ultear shook her head decisively, objecting vehemently. "Stop joking! What if you really die!"
"I won't. Besides..." Tike blinked, his tone suddenly turning gloomy. "If I don't do this, Mom will use Iced Shell. You don't want to see Mom turn into a block of ice, do you?"
"How could that happen..." Ultear looked at her mother in disbelief. "Mom, you won't leave me, right?"
Ur remained silent.
Even though she had made up her mind, she found it hard to tell her daughter that she was going to leave forever.
But even without her saying it, Ultear had already guessed the answer from her mother's silence.
Faced with the cruel choice before her, Ultear hesitated for a split second, then screamed almost hysterically:
"Why do you have to tangle with Deliora here! Since we found Gray, let's just leave this place!"
Saying that, she pulled Tike with all her might, trying to forcibly drag him away from this suffocating place of trouble.
However, no matter how hard Ultear pulled, Tike didn't budge an inch. Instead, he turned his gaze to Ur.
Ur understood his meaning and immediately raised her hand to freeze Tike just as she had Lyon.
"I'm sorry, but that magic of yours is too dangerous."
Indeed, if Tike used that magic that seemed to come from the abyss, the Deliora before them probably wouldn't stand a chance.
But besides the potential corrosion of his soul, the burden of that magic on him was simply too heavy.
Last time, he slept for a full seven days before waking up. Would he really be able to wake up again this time?
Rather than letting a child sacrifice himself, Ur decided to shoulder everything herself.
"I will do it. I will cast Iced Shell."
Ur turned slowly to face the front, crossing her hands, clearly determined to die.
Seeing her adopt the same stance Lyon had just used, Gray and Ultear understood exactly what she was about to do.
"Mom..."
Ultear stumbled toward her mother, her tear-filled eyes reflecting endless despair and pleading.
Ur looked down at her daughter, her gaze gentle but firm. "If we run away now, Deliora will become a shadow that Gray can never shake off for the rest of his life. As his master, I can't watch him live his life carrying such a shackle."
Ultear shook her head desperately, her voice filled with heartbreaking sobs. "What about me? Have you considered my feelings?"
She had finally returned to her mother from that hell, only for her mother to turn into a block of ice forever for another child. How could she accept that?
Not only Ultear, but even Gray himself opposed Ur doing this.
"Forget about me! Go live happily with the daughter you've missed so much!"
Before Ultear returned, Gray and Lyon had once accidentally witnessed Ur hiding deep in her room, holding her daughter's clothes and weeping silently. They knew how much emotion she poured into her daughter.
If Ur sacrificed her life for him here, wouldn't he become the culprit who destroyed the happiness of this reunited mother and daughter?
In a sense, he would become as hateful as that detestable Deliora.
Besides—
"Anyway," Gray's voice grew lower and lower, "unable to avenge my parents, left all alone... I lost the meaning to live long ago."
"Idiot, how could I abandon you? You are also my important disciple..."
"So, in your heart, is he more important than me?"
Ultear stopped crying and interrupted her mother coldly.
"If you insist on doing this, I will never forgive you!"
"Tear..."
Ur looked guiltily at her daughter's sorrow-filled face. Just as she was about to speak, Tike's slightly childish voice suddenly rang in her mind.
'Don't fight...'
Immediately following that, the crisp sound of ice cracking echoed through the air.
In the next moment, a pitch-black torrent surged from behind Ur, rushing straight toward Deliora.
Mother and daughter turned back in shock, their pupils constricting abruptly. Ultear was frozen on the spot.
Tike had broken Ur's ice seal. His originally clear eyes now flickered with an unusual gloomy light, and dark red blood seeped from the corners of his pale lips.
'I don't want you to disappear to seal it...'
'I hate it...'
'I hate the smell here... this smell of sorrow and pain...'
'If it disappears, will this smell disappear too?'
Following his question, the dark liquid substance wrapped around Deliora's massive body like tentacles, then seeped inside it.
In that instant, Deliora let out a deafening roar of agony.
To vent this unbearable pain, Deliora rapidly gathered the magic power in its body into its hideous maw, condensing it into a laser beam as bright as the blazing sun!
Seeing this, Ur quickly moved to stop it. Roses formed of pure ice crystals materialized instantly, piercing directly through its feet!
Seeing this unexpected scene, Ur was somewhat surprised.
She had originally intended only to slightly deflect its attack trajectory. She hadn't expected to tear through its defenses so easily and cause substantial damage.
Was it Tike's bizarre magic that had weakened Deliora's condition?
Realizing this, a wave of bitterness surged in Ur's heart.
It happened again. Even though she should have been standing at the very front, she had ultimately failed to stop Tike from using that magic.
From the blood constantly seeping from the corner of his mouth, it wasn't hard for Ur to guess what he had done.
That must hurt a lot.
But since things had come to this, she couldn't let the child's sacrifice be in vain.
So, Ur made the gesture for Maker Magic again.
Facing a Deliora weakened to this extent, Ur was confident she could defeat it without using Iced Shell.
'Mom, the person who should defeat it isn't you.'