There was nothing in the room besides the coffin in which a white-haired woman slept.
"So if that's the case, this person sleeping here—is this the mechanism that stops the barrier?"
There were no obvious levers or magic minerals that simply needed to be broken. The transparent magic stone coffin holding the sleeping woman glowed faintly, and she could tell it was absorbing mana.
At the very least, only this coffin was functioning.
"I wonder who she really is... Maybe she's
She recalled the face of the witch who had expressed her displeasure toward Emilia.
Like the woman sleeping in the coffin, she had white hair and wore black clothes, and Emilia's memory was still fresh with how she too was an extremely refined beauty.
The witch from that memory and the sleeping woman shared many similarities—the position of their closed eyes, the structure from the bridge of the nose to the lips.
While Echidna appeared to be in her late teens, the woman in the coffin looked to be in her mid-twenties. Rather than a mother, perhaps she should be suspected as a sister.
"Her name isn't... carved anywhere. But they told me this is Echidna's tomb."
Upon entering, the woman sleeping in the coffin was clearly not Echidna.
Perhaps this was what one might call a misnomer for the tomb—or if not, then— "Could this woman be Echidna, and the girl I saw in my dreams not actually be Echidna?"
Emilia said this to herself and shook her head, recognizing it as an outlandish conclusion.
Setting aside Echidna's own claims, if that were the case, then
"So the conclusion is that even though this is Echidna's tomb, someone else is sleeping here...?"
If that were the case, wouldn't the tomb need to be renamed?
The tombstone read "Here Lies Echidna," yet a different person lay within—there were various problems with that. The offerings would need to be changed as well.
Even as she arrived at this rather absurd answer, Emilia was examining the coffin without touching it.
Tracing the flow of mana lightly, it appeared that the entire coffin was absorbing minute amounts of mana from the tomb and from the earth connected to the tomb, using that mana as fuel to power some sort of formula.
Despite receiving only tiny amounts at a time, the fact that the barrier could operate on such a massive scale was probably due to the vast area over which it collected.
"By the tomb and the earth connected to the tomb"—that was literal.
The forest enclosed by the barrier likely served as the entire mana supply for maintaining the tomb's functions. Of course, only in amounts that wouldn't affect the supply source.
"Incredible... so incredible that I have no idea what any of it is doing..."
A formula that absorbed mana flows and maintained magical functions.
Emilia could write small formulas of her own, but the complexity of the formula acting on the barrier surrounding this
Once shut down, she felt it would never work again.
Of course, there would never be a need to start it up again.
"Found it. If I sever this flow, the supply should stop."
Tracing the mana flow, Emilia found the activation point of the barrier centered on the coffin.
At the center of the coffin, the sleeping woman's hands were clasped over her stomach—right around there was the focal point where mana flowed in. If Emilia interfered with her mana there and disrupted the formula, the tomb's functions would cease entirely.
"————"
For just an instant, she hesitated.
Disabling the tomb's functions would probably also damage the mechanism that initiated the "Trials." That would mean losing the means to reach the Dream Castle.
—And the request to deliver a message to Echidna, the tea party, would also become impossible to fulfill.
The witches—at the very least, Sekhmet—seemed to know about Emilia's mother.
Vaguely, alongside her awe of Sekhmet's overwhelming power, there was also something like a comforting sense of familiarity. She wanted to verify what that meant.
But if the Dream Castle disappeared, the means to verify it would slip away. That— "——Seriously, I'm so stubborn."
With that murmur, the mana flowing through her fingertips touched the coffin and disturbed the faint current at the point of contact.
The power that had maintained the Sanctuary's functions and sustained the barrier began to shift. Interfering with the formula's fundamental layer, the small change cascaded into something enormous.
Eventually, the particles of light dissolved and vanished, and the formula's presence disappeared from the magic stone coffin as well. Light flickered for a single instant before fading, leaving behind nothing but the pure magic stone and the woman sealed within it—exactly as they appeared to the eye.
"...It's over."
Seeing no further visible changes, Emilia looked around cautiously. The mana flow that had permeated the tomb until moments ago was gone, and the tomb should now be nothing more than a massive stone structure.
She let out a small breath and leaned against the coffin.
With this, presumably, the rejection that had kept those without qualification from entering the tomb would cease as well. She should bring Roswaal or Ryuzu—people who seemed to know the situation—and have them confirm who the woman sleeping in the coffin actually was.
"It's over... yeah, it's over..."
By repeating those words, Emilia sought to find a sense of reality in a fact that still felt unreal.
She remembered the sharp words she had directed at Roswaal before undertaking the tomb.
Roswaal had told Emilia: "Just produce results as your heart desires."
She couldn't fathom what Roswaal had been feeling at the time, but he likely hadn't wished for Emilia to overcome the "Trials." It was an incomprehensible stance, given that he himself had invited her here and recommended her as a candidate for the royal selection.
"Sensei... that's what he called someone, wasn't it."
At the same time, she recalled the person Roswaal had mentioned in passing—the one he called "Sensei."
Even Roswaal, who as a mage stood at what one might call the pinnacle, naturally had a teacher. For him, that teacher—the one called "Sensei"—had been the person who started the Sanctuary project together with Roswaal.
"Could it be... you were the one?"
Idly touching the coffin, Emilia thought this to herself.
If there was someone whom Roswaal considered irreplaceable—his teacher, his "Sensei"—then this white-haired woman might be the one who fit that description.
"I need to... tell everyone."
Shaking her head, Emilia looked away from the coffin, determined to leave no lingering attachment.
Whether she spoke about the woman in the coffin or not, everything else could wait. According to Subaru, from tomorrow night onward—meaning by the morning after next—terrible consequences awaited if they didn't leave the Sanctuary.
If a conspicuous change occurred within the Sanctuary, they should flee immediately, he had warned.
A full day still remained, but unexpected developments could arise at any time.
She hurried through the small room and entered the corridor, heading for the tomb's exit. If things were as they had been when she was sent in, Ryuzu and the Sanctuary's residents should be waiting for her.
Her heels echoed sharply as she dashed through the corridor, and Emilia emerged from the dark tomb into the great hall.
And then— "Huh?"
She stood before the Sanctuary being lashed by a fierce blizzard, her white breath ragged.
--- Snow had blanketed the entire world before her eyes.
The wind was practically violent, and the snow striking her body mercilessly stole her warmth. Emilia's purple-blue eyes widened as she exhaled white breath, her throat frozen in shock.
What on earth happened!?
"——Emilia-sama!"
The wind howled with tremendous force, and the cold seeping into her ears was painful.
Thinly dressed and cut by the freezing wind, Emilia stepped forward toward the voices reaching her from beyond the blizzard.
The snow had already piled up to below her knees, and she was at risk of being instantly swallowed if she lost her footing. Struggling to pull her feet free and pushing through the snow, she could see beyond the white curtain of the blizzard a number of shadows huddled together.
The residents of the Sanctuary, perhaps? If so, then in this blizzard, they had waited out here without even evacuating to the buildings— "Everyone! Out here in this snow, why are you—huh?"
Emilia's words cut short as she had imagined them gathered together, enduring the cold.
Led by Ryuzu, roughly forty Sanctuary residents had assembled. That alone was a significant number, but it was the figure among them who shouldn't have been there that caught her attention.
"Emilia-sama! Have you finished the 'Trials'!?"
The one who called out to her was a young man with a crew cut.
Emilia knew him. Before coming to the Sanctuary, they had spoken with each other—even if he didn't recognize her, she had recognized him.
He was a young man from
The fact that he was here, when he should have departed hours ago on Otto's arranged dragon carriage, made Emilia's eyes go wide. And it wasn't just him.
Behind the crew-cut youth, the faces of Arlam Village residents were visible here and there. They had brought their dragon carriages, and a mix of Sanctuary residents and evacuees were sheltering inside the carriages or in their shadows, enduring the snow.
"W-Why is everyone here? Weren't you supposed to have evacuated?"
"We did evacuate. Under the orders of Subaru-sama and Otto-san. We had the ground dragons memorize the route, and were told to flee without worrying about appearances."
"Then why come back here! Everyone was told this place would become dangerous—wasn't that right?"
"We were told. And we were given instructions too."
At Emilia's words, the young man gritted his teeth for a moment, then raised his face and pointed toward the other side of the forest.
"To wait outside the forest, and if we received a signal from the Sanctuary, to come back and retrieve the residents—that's what we were told."
"Huh?"
"Either Lady
"Those orders—were given by whom?"
"Otto-san told us that's how it would go."
At the name Otto, Emilia recalled the face of that timid-seeming merchant.
However, appearances aside, he was Subaru's friend. Every time she saw them having a pleasant conversation, she had come to reassess him as someone who could hold his own alongside Subaru.
In the many events of this Sanctuary affair—from Garfiel's recruitment onward—there was no doubt that Otto had been scheming as Subaru's strategist.
If that was the case, then these orders must carry great significance as well.
"B-But it's reckless! A blizzard like this keeps blowing—someone should have been able to judge it was dangerous, even in these conditions!"
"............"
"What's wrong?"
At Emilia's words, the young man looked awkward and averted his gaze. Emilia caught that reaction and pressed him for an answer.
Pierced by Emilia's purple-blue eyes, the young man placed a hand on his forehead and exhaled white breath.
"Otto-san told us that if things truly became dangerous, there would be a signal before the snow even fell. But if snow did fall, it meant time had run out—and we should leave the forest immediately."
"Snow falling too... no, that's not the point. If that was the case, then why!?"
"——Because the snow fell."
To Emilia's near-tearful voice, the young man straightened his back and answered clearly.
The strength in his gaze left Emilia at a loss for words.
They had been told from the beginning that if snow fell, it was dangerous.
And seeing the snow actually fall upon the Sanctuary, they realized the dangerous time limit had reached its end. The choice they made at that culmination was to come here.
To rush to the side of the Sanctuary's residents, who were being endangered by the falling snow.
"We thought Subaru-sama and Emilia-sama would do something like that."
"————"
The young man smiled wryly and gave the answer that Emilia had been about to voice herself.
Behind them stood evacuees protecting the dragon carriages. Of course—they were the youth brigade members from Arlam Village. Presumably brought for the purpose of extracting the Sanctuary's residents, the unnecessary personnel had been dropped off and evacuated elsewhere. Still, even those who were dropped off were forced to evacuate on foot.
They had accepted that—because that was why they were here now.
"Emilia-sama, if the 'Trials' are over... can we leave the Sanctuary?"
"Y-Yes... that should be the case. But with this blizzard and snow..."
Glaring at the ground, the young man clicked his tongue in frustration.
His reaction said it all. The snow was deep enough that even walking a short distance was difficult. Naturally, the dragon carriages' wheels couldn't turn either—they were stranded.
If only there were a place where a large group could shelter from the cold— "If we can't make it to the Cathedral, then... let's go into the tomb. It's warm inside because of the mana, and the building won't collapse under the weight of the snow."
"We can go in there?"
"I've stopped the dangerous mechanisms in the tomb, so it's fine now. More importantly, can you lead everyone to the tomb? And I want the ground dragons unloaded from the passenger cars and brought inside too."
Six ground dragons had returned this far, guided by the youth brigade's intentions. Thanks to the passenger cars the ground dragons had pulled, dozens upon dozens of people were alive right now.
There was no option to abandon them.
At Emilia's words, the young man nodded and said, "We will."
For now, the snow situation was handled. The real problem was that the snow had fallen, and "something" dangerous was on its way.
"If only I had listened properly from the start!"
Emilia regretted not having had a proper conversation with Subaru before facing the "Trials." It was probably because Subaru hadn't wanted to burden her with extra anxiety before she challenged the trials.
She appreciated that consideration, but it was no good if it meant delayed action.
Someone else who, like Subaru and the others, would know about this snow—three candidates came to Emilia's mind: Roswaal, Ram, and— "Emilia-sama, I am glad you have returned safely."
"Ryuzu!"
Stepping down from one of the dragon carriages onto the snow, the girl with long, light pink hair—Ryuzu—extended her hand toward Emilia. Being short, the snow that reached Emilia's knees came up past Ryuzu's thighs. As Ryuzu struggled to push through the snow, Emilia too trudged forward to reach her.
"I finished the 'Trials' properly! Is everyone here!?"
"All the residents of this Sanctuary, plus the humans who came back for them. However..."
"However?"
"Little Lady Ram and Roz-bou are not here. The two of them left this place together, and have not returned since before the snow began to fall."
Emilia turned her gaze to the dragon carriages and the surrounding people.
Neither the tall figure in the usual eccentric outfit nor the reliable pink-haired girl was anywhere to be seen.
"I need to find them... Ryuzu! Do you know—if the snow keeps falling in the Sanctuary, what will happen?"
"————"
Ryuzu's expression stiffened, her eyes dropping. From that reaction, Emilia understood instinctively.
Ryuzu knew. She knew what the danger was.
"Tell me, Ryuzu. We have to prevent it."
"But the timing is off. According to Su-bou's account and Roz-bou's plan, the snow was supposed to fall tomorrow night. This falling now must be some mistake..."
"Mistake or not, the snow has already fallen! So we have to do what needs to be done when the snow comes! Ryuzu!"
Emilia placed her hands on the girl's thin, small shoulders, trying to persuade the hesitating Ryuzu.
Then, Ryuzu's expression shifted from reluctance to something like astonishment, and she stared fixedly back at Emilia.
"Wh-What is it, Ryuzu?"
"...Emilia-sama. Did you enter a building deep within the Sanctuary's forest?"
"Deep in the forest?... No, I didn't."
At the unexpected question, Emilia tilted her head in puzzlement. Ryuzu blinked at the answer, murmuring "That can't be..." before looking past Emilia toward the tomb.
"Could it be that within the tomb, there was something... special? For example... something like a giant magic stone?"
"There was. A reeeeally big magic stone. I was going to have Ryuzu and Roswaal check it later, though."
Looking around cautiously, Emilia brought her lips close to Ryuzu's ear.
She didn't want those behind them, who were preparing to move the ground dragons, to overhear.
"Actually, there's a woman inside the magic stone. I don't know who she is."
"——!"
Ryuzu's expression transformed drastically upon hearing that information.
With her childlike features, Ryuzu opened her eyes wide and stared at Emilia. Then, after a long, long exhale, she nodded as if something had finally clicked into place.
"I understand now. Emilia-sama, please—ask me anything. I have an obligation to answer. An obligation to obey the command that has been bestowed."
"A command? That's..."
"Please listen. What Emilia-sama touched in the tomb is a magic stone that selects the one who has the qualification to command 'Ryuzu.' The qualification has now moved from Gā-bou to Emilia-sama. I shall... rather, we shall obey Emilia-sama. Please, command us as you see fit."
Ryuzu responded solemnly and began to lower herself in the thigh-deep snow. It was the gesture of kneeling, and with Ryuzu's small stature, she would be buried up to her head—Emilia panicked.
She caught her shoulders in a hurry.
"W-Wait! I get it! So I'm in a position where I can ask Ryuzu for help. Then I'm asking—what will happen to the Sanctuary now that the snow has fallen?"
"...According to Su-bou's account, when snow falls in the Sanctuary, the
"Weather-altering formula magic... someone caused this weather!?"
In disbelief, Emilia pressed the question, and Ryuzu nodded silently.
Magic on a scale large enough to manipulate the weather. If
"...Roswaal did this?"
"Most likely. Little Lady Ram went to stop him, I believe. But since the snow fell regardless, something must have happened, or perhaps..."
"Stop. I don't want to imagine that. In any case, we have to find them both. Ryuzu, I'm going to search the village for them. If you have any idea where they might be—"
"That will not be necessary, Emilia-sama."
Ryuzu cut Emilia off with surprising confidence.
Her attitude suggested she had something in mind, and Emilia drew a slight breath.
Then— "If it is within this Sanctuary, these Ryuzu eyes are sharp. —I shall quickly locate Roz-bou and the others and guide you there."
With that, she gave her absolute guarantee.
--- Ram, unconscious, looked as though she were merely sleeping.
"...Ram?"
Roswaal caught the collapsing girl, held her, and shook her body while calling her name. But there was no response from Ram.
The same Ram who, under normal circumstances, would prioritize Roswaal's words above anything else.
Of course.
Ram was on the brink of death. Everything—it was all Roswaal's own doing.
His Gospel had been burned, and fury had rushed to his head. His vision had gone red, he could no longer think straight, and he could forgive no one—only the one responsible, Ram— "————"
He had launched the flame projectile he had manifested, and the defenseless Ram had been blown away by the impact.
Having already strained her incomplete oni powers and endured the same burden only hours before, Ram's body had reached the limit of its endurance.
And then the fireball had struck her mercilessly.
Her life was now but a candle in the wind.
"...Ram."
He couldn't remember what he had been thinking as he approached her fallen body and touched it. Even now, holding her small frame and gazing at her childlike sleeping face, nothing came to mind.
In the first place, why—how had Ram stood against him?
For Roswaal, Ram had been an exceedingly convenient pawn.
The circumstances of her coming to him, the contract they had formed—it all served as an incredibly straightforward bond between them.
He had been honest with Ram alone—his true feelings, his objectives. Everything in exchange for handing over his own body to her after the goal was achieved: the reward for an accomplice.
And yet, halfway through, Ram had betrayed him.
Her words were correct, and if one considered the contract, Roswaal had failed to advance matters according to plan, so her rebellion was an inevitable act of revenge.
Therefore, Roswaal had no intention of blaming Ram for that. If anything, he wished she had postponed her revenge just a bit longer and at least witnessed the outcome of this world.
There was also the matter of his wager with Subaru. Garfiel had turned out to be far more of a pushover than expected, and Emilia had spoken with an air of understanding before returning to face the "Trials," but those were ultimately the delusions of the weak.
They could never defy a future already set in stone. Even if the path was altered, the future would always reach its predetermined end. If one strayed from the path leading to the correct ending, what awaited was an eternal death.
And yet, to resist that—how laughable. And to understand that yet still fear their actions, that weakness of his own was equally laughable.
Why try to change? He couldn't understand.
All feelings, from the moment they reached their peak, should continue unabated. If one had loved someone, if one had spent time burning with love for another, that heat, that radiance, should be eternal.
It didn't matter if the vector of those feelings was not love but hatred—the same applied.
A wish held for so, so long should be sublimated into something genuine. Feelings that had withstood time were unshakeable and would lose to no one. That was how it had to be.
Garfiel's hatred of the outside world would shatter.
Emilia's sorrow over a past she wished to forget would be accepted.
And Ram's vengeful hatred of Roswaal—the hatred that should have been endless— "Ram loves Roswaal-sama."
"——!!"
Those words, still burned into the depths of his ears like a curse—a confession of love.
The words that should never have been spoken, spun from the mouth of the girl now closing her eyes in his arms.
If the contract still bound heart and soul, he could have understood. The blazing hatred would be converted into devotion to Roswaal, and the loathing would become love itself.
That was precisely why he had trusted Ram more than anyone to carry out his objectives and to handle the aftermath.
He had believed in it all—the hatred swapped for love, the vengeful intent to kill Roswaal.
He had believed in the hatred of the young girl who, from their very first meeting, had looked at Roswaal with nothing but refined murderous intent.
—And yet, Ram had betrayed her own vengeance and proclaimed love.
"Why, Ram... I don't understand..."
The faint sound of breathing grew distant, and Roswaal realized Ram's life was fading.
His heartbeat quickened—something screamed that this couldn't continue. His right eye throbbed. Terribly, terribly. Stop. Don't assert your existence. I'm losing myself.
What should he do? What should he do? What did he have to do—what must he not do? He couldn't remember. He couldn't think.
He looked around. What he sought was nowhere to be found. The Gospel that would show him the future and guide Roswaal to the right path had been consumed by flames. No one—no one would tell Roswaal what choice he had to make now.
Then there was nothing left to be done.
"——The wailing wind summons clouds, the light that fills the earth returns to the sky. Droplets become shaped silence, and the white of untimely death mourns the eternal world—"
Incantation.
The chant, sung like a song, gave direction to the power surrounding
A frigid wind blew, and a cold so piercing it froze to the core swept through the Sanctuary.
Snow clouds blanketed the entire enclosed forest, and white snow crystals fell upon the earth one after another.
—The power of the large-scale formula magic, Artemillion.
"——Ugh."
Finishing the incantation, the magic's power that had taken so long to prepare was released.
An enormous quantity of mana was drained from his body, and even Roswaal, who boasted a supreme individual mana capacity, felt a slight dizziness.
Originally, magic of this magnitude required months of mana accumulation, and even when cast, the range would normally be more limited. Only two days of preparation, and interfering with an area more than twice the usual range—Roswaal was the anomaly.
And the mage who had accomplished this feat let out a long breath before sinking into despair.
"As the Gospel dictated, the snow has fallen... What am I supposed to do now?"
At this point, Roswaal had forgotten the fact that he had made the snow fall one day earlier than the Gospel stated. No—his head no longer held even the matter of the wager.
For Roswaal, the process no longer existed in his mind. All that mattered was the final act surrounding the Sanctuary's events. The snow would fall. The barrier would dissolve.
And once that was accomplished—once that was accomplished—what was it again?
"Ram... ah, yes. Ram."
No longer could any sound of breathing be heard from Ram.
Roswaal looked down at her face and gently pressed his palm to her forehead. From the white scar where a horn had once been, blood was flowing due to the effects of the oni transformation. Wiping away the blood, Roswaal poured in colorless mana—a composite of all elemental attributes—as he always did for Ram.
A ritual he had always performed to prevent Ram's body from being overwhelmed by her own oni blood.
There was no particular reasoning behind it.
He had simply understood, unconsciously, that to keep Ram alive, he had to bet on the demonic life force she herself possessed. He harbored no doubt in the desire to save her.
Ram had to live. For Roswaal to achieve his purpose, and for the time after.
"Sensei... Sensei... I... I don't know what to do! Sensei... Sensei...! Please tell me... guide me once more...!"
Roswaal's mind had reached the depths of confusion, and he no longer understood his own heart that spilled out such feeble words.
While trying to hold on to Ram's life, his anger at her betrayal had not faded. Knowing he had lost his guiding light, he still searched for the radiance he had once seen.
The snow fell, mercilessly covering both Roswaal and Ram's bodies in a white shroud.
Everything was buried in white, fading to nothing.
Yet not a single fragment of the feeling that this might be acceptable took root.
--- Led by her guide, Emilia pushed through the snow and ran, her breath coming in white plumes.
"Huma! More—Huma!"
She chanted, continuing to cast her ice magic.
It was a measure against the time lost to repeatedly stepping into and pulling free from the deepening snow. By deliberately freezing the snow with ice magic, she created an improvised path to run across.
A measure that could be dangerous for others—risking slips and falls—but— "Hyah! Hah! Heave-ho!"
Being an ice magic user herself and raised in the Elior Great Forest, Emilia was accustomed to icy ground. She tore across the frozen snow of the Sanctuary with ease, pursuing the small shadow guiding her.
"Are you really sure this way is okay?"
Panting, Emilia asked the guide who had fallen into step beside her. The short-statured girl glanced over, but only gave a slight nod—her silence spoke volumes.
They could communicate, but conversation was essentially not her thing. Just as Ryuzu—the representative Ryuzu—had explained in advance.
At the square before the tomb, one of the Ryuzu clones had suddenly shown Emilia deep reverence.
She had told Emilia that she was a being born from the soul of a girl named Ryuzu Meyer who had once existed, and that there were multiple beings of the same status within the Sanctuary. These Ryuzu clones worked as "eyes" throughout the Sanctuary, and the one who would find Roswaal and the others within the settlement would guide Emilia to them.
In this world, there existed an extremely rare magic called duplication magic.
She had never heard of it being applied to living creatures, but at the level of forbidden arts, such possibilities might exist. Holding back the many questions she wanted to ask, Emilia relied on one of the Ryuzu clones to guide her out of the Sanctuary as she searched for Roswaal and Ram.
"If we don't hurry... the Great Rabbit will come...!"
The magical beast known as the Great Rabbit.
Even Emilia, who was unfamiliar with worldly affairs, knew of its existence.
One of the three great magical beasts alongside the
Each individual was a weak, fragile, small rabbit-like magical beast. But the Great Rabbit was a collective organism—the colony itself was the beast. Not the individuals, but all of them gathering together formed the singular disaster known as the Great Rabbit.
With boundless appetite and overwhelming numbers, it devoured everything in its path, and still not satisfied, continued to wander the world while cannibalizing its own kind—a true catastrophe.
What made it terrifying was its seemingly infinite reproduction. The Great Rabbit normally kept its numbers low, enduring hunger through cannibalism when food was scarce. But once it found prey that stimulated its appetite, there was no stopping it. It would reproduce infinitely, chew through prey until nothing remained, reduce the land to a wasteland, then dwindle in numbers before wandering off once more. That was its nature.
Against this supreme magical beast, Emilia had steeled herself to stand and fight.
If the Great Rabbit was going to attack the Sanctuary, the time to flee had already been taken from them. The snow impeded escape, and Emilia and the others no longer had a choice.
Hide the non-combatants in the tomb, and set up a defensive line at the entrance.
There was no other way to face the beast. Emilia and Roswaal—and if possible, Ram too. They needed to gather every fighting force the Sanctuary had.
And so— "————"
A snapped tree trunk. A building scarred by the shockwave of battle. Gouged earth and unnaturally piled snow. —And beneath the shade of a tree, a man and a woman huddled together.
Finding Ram lying unconscious and Roswaal sitting there in a daze, Emilia shouted.
"——Roswaal! Ram!!"
Leaving the silent Ryuzu clone behind, Emilia slid across the frozen snow. With practiced control of her boot soles and scattering fragments of ice, she moved like a snow fairy and grabbed the shoulder of Roswaal, who sat half-buried and unable to move.
"Are you listening!? Roswaal—Roswaal, I'm talking to you! It's an emergency right now! Everyone needs help! This is no time to be frozen!"
"————"
The shaking dislodged the snow piled on Roswaal's head, revealing the expression it had hidden. Emilia let out a small, sharp breath.
Because Roswaal's face, staring at Ram with hollow eyes, looked so terribly weak.
"Roswaal...?"
"............"
Roswaal said nothing. He didn't even seem to notice Emilia.
Afraid of his non-response, Emilia shifted her gaze from him to the arms he cradled. There lay a pink-haired girl, and— —the snow falling on her cheek showed no sign of melting.
"——! Ram? Ram!"
Calling to Ram in Roswaal's arms, Emilia tried to rouse her.
But there was no response from the girl with closed eyes. Not a reply, not even the flutter of an eyelid. The cheek she touched, the lips—were abnormally cold. As though— "That can't be...!"
Rejecting the weak thought, Emilia gritted her teeth and slipped her hand inside Ram's clothes. When her hand brushed across the chest area, she felt a faint, feeble heartbeat.
A heartbeat so weak it could vanish at any moment.
"She's alive! It's okay! There's still time, Roswaal!"
Finding hope, Emilia cried out and turned to Roswaal. But Roswaal simply kept his palm pressed to Ram's forehead, his expression blank and vacant.
However, Emilia noticed.
From the palm touching Ram, Roswaal was pouring in an enormous quantity of mana. And this was the lifeline that barely kept Ram's life intact.
"You're saving Ram..."
"————"
"——!"
When she realized this, Emilia also grasped the devastating truth.
Ram was in a critical state of unconsciousness, and Roswaal was forced to apply his delicate healing skills to keep her alive. There was no way he could lend a hand in combat.
In other words, Emilia would have to face the approaching Great Rabbit alone.
"............"
—Could she do it? The question flashed through Emilia's mind.
A creature counted among the three great magical beasts, which had lived on for four hundred years since the era of the
Many must have steeled themselves with the same resolve Emilia now held and challenged it before. Could Emilia, alone, resist the beast that none of them had been able to destroy?
Without Puck, with Emilia standing alone.
"Even now..."
Should she choose to flee? But then what—if they were caught?
With no place to evacuate or hide, if they encountered the beast, Emilia could never protect the residents. The tomb was the most defensible location.
Losing Roswaal and Ram as fighting strength was painful, but she must not give up the fight.
"Roswaal. Anyway, bring Ram and follow me to the tomb. The Sanctuary's everyone is—yes, they're all evacuating there. I will definitely protect that place. And Roswaal—don't give up on saving Ram..."
"I can't anymore."
Roswaal's hoarse whisper cut off Emilia, who had met his gaze and was about to lay out her determined plan.
With empty eyes, Roswaal continued to stare at Ram's face.
"I can't. Everything... the future, I don't know anymore. I don't even know myself. ...This world is at its end."
"Saying that again!? What is this book anyway!? The contents of some book that maybe some important person wrote—what does that have to do with what we do!?"
Unable to bear Roswaal's defeatism, Emilia raised her voice in fury.
Why was this happening? The Roswaal Emilia knew was nothing like this.
He was always composed, making bold decisions with casual ease, wearing that knowing smile as if he understood everything. Was that not who Roswaal truly was?
Who was this weak man who, cornered and lost like a child, had thrown everything away?
"Roswaal. I don't know what you're feeling or how much you've been hurt—not right now. I want to understand, but there's no time. ...So I want to create that time. And for that, I need your help."
"————"
She didn't understand Roswaal. Even if things stayed as they were now, she probably never would.
But by exchanging words, by laying their feelings bare, there were things that could then be understood. There were things that couldn't be understood without doing so. There were things that wouldn't reach across without time.
They had to create the time needed to bring their hearts closer.
"So please. Stand up, Roswaal. Neither you nor I can end things here. I won't let Ram end either. Together, to where everyone is—"
"Enough..."
Even with Emilia's plea, Roswaal still wouldn't meet her eyes.
Still looking down at Ram, he moved his lipstick-stained lips and spoke.
"Enough already..."
His voice was hoarse, on the verge of fading away.
In truth, it was nearly stolen by the howling cold wind, barely becoming sound at all.
Spoken only within his own mouth, a voice so faint it was questionable whether even Roswaal himself had heard it.
But that small voice of surrender had reached her nonetheless.
And so, Emilia— "——Don't you dare say that!"
She seized Roswaal by the collar, her voice trembling with rage.
At the sudden grip, Roswaal shook his head and let out a small groan. Into that face, Emilia pressed on, biting out her words.
"Enough!? Enough—what does that even mean!? There's nothing that's 'enough'! Nothing is 'enough'! Don't you dare give up on your own! Don't you dare decide it's over! I'm not done, Ram isn't done, you're not done—there is nothing about any of us that's 'enough'!"
"————"
"I finished the 'Trials'! The past I was afraid to face! The possibly happy present! The sad future that might come someday! I saw it all! And even so, I chose to walk this path—only after deciding that could I finally move forward!"
She roared.
The fury that surged within Emilia was so intense she had never even felt it toward herself before.
Yes. Ah, yes. What a feeble voice, what a pathetic thought, what a spoiled spirit. Could anyone call this a life worth living if it ended simply by deciding "enough"?
Roswaal's cheeks stiffened at Emilia's shouting, and he tried to look away. More than worrying about Ram's condition, it was the posture of someone turning away from what they didn't want to see.
Emilia caught his chin and forced him to face her.
"When you're talking to someone, you look them in the eye!"
"——"
"You have to look into their eyes to understand what they're desperately thinking. You have to look into their eyes to convey why you want to do what you want. Look at me properly. Listen to my voice. And then—stand up, and follow me."
Roswaal's mismatched eyes flickered, as if noticing something.
His lips trembled faintly. But no sound came.
"——ah."
"I won't let anyone say 'enough'! As long as we're alive, there is nothing that's 'enough'! So—I won't let anyone die here!"
Emilia rose to her feet and turned behind her.
Without even needing Emilia's call, more than a dozen Ryuzu clones had gathered. All of them knelt solemnly in place, waiting for a single command.
Drawing a breath, Emilia delivered her white command.
"I'm taking Roswaal and Ram back to the tomb. Everyone—I will protect you all. I swear it."
With majestic bearing—knowing full well that this authority was something she had obtained by chance—Emilia led the Ryuzu clones as they charged into the snow-covered Sanctuary.
The Ryuzu clones supported Roswaal and Ram together, taking turns clearing a path as they followed Emilia.
—There was no longer a shred of hesitation in the feet with which Emilia ran.
--- And so, the story— "You don't have to push yourself so hard, Emilia-tan."
The boy who cherished the girl returned to the side of the girl who had decided to protect everything and connect all feelings— "You can leave the rest to me, and fall back if you want. —Because there's a first-battle bonus, you know."
"Sorry. I have no idea what you're saying."
Exchanging their usual banter, the girl smiled even as she struggled to keep her wavering body upright, following the white figure that stepped forward.
Two shadows stepped forward—hand in hand.
Two voices could be heard.
There was something buoyant about those voices, and the girl felt as though she had been waiting for the moment they would overlap, and her heart raced.
"I don't care anymore what happens."
"Yeah, I'll figure something out. —Together, you and me!!"
And the story overlapped once more into a single thread, and the wishes merged as well, drawing toward the curtain's fall.
In the snow-blasted Sanctuary, a knight and a princess face the magical beast.
The knight, insufficient alone, brings a mage to his side to offer victory— —The Sanctuary's final battle begins.