“…”

Merka was startled when Turing suddenly sprang up, but he didn’t hesitate for long. He immediately stepped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around Turing from behind.

“Don’t be like this… Turing. It hurts to see you like this…”

“We still have a chance… If we can escape Acadia, we’ll have plenty more happy days like this, okay?”

“Trust me… Trust me, I’ll make you happy… Turing.”

“Don’t be angry. Turn around and look me in the eyes. Come on… come on, look at me.”

At Merka’s words, Turing took a deep breath. The fury roiling inside her eased a little.

She turned to look at Merka, two angry tears welling in her eyes.

But Turing hadn’t expected to see tears in Merka’s eyes, too.

Only, unlike Turing’s tears, the ones streaming from his eyes were two trails of blood.

“Mer… Merka, your eyes… your eyes are withering?”

The sight of Merka’s strange condition scared Turing out of her wits.

Seeing what had happened to Merka, Turing’s simmering anger vanished in an instant.

In shock, she cupped Merka’s handsome face. His eyeballs were withering away like wilted flowers and rotting leaves, so she quickly tried to heal them with magic, frantic with worry.

But nothing happened.

【What…?】

A vast surge of magic poured from Turing’s hands into Merka.

More blood welled from Merka’s eye sockets, but his ruined eyeballs showed no sign of healing. Instead, they shriveled up and fell out of their sockets.

“It’s okay… sweetheart. I’m fine.”

“I know what’s happening to me.”

“Kagtua wants to plunge every Acadian into an illusion. Now, to conserve magic, it’s using a spell to restrict the development of us Curseborn’s organs.”

“My eyes won’t heal unless I break free of the illusion.”

As he spoke, Merka wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, then gently picked the bits of flesh still lodged in his eye sockets.

He rubbed his empty eye sockets with practiced ease, then took the gemstone prosthetic eyes from his pocket and put them back in.

“There. The original Merka, fresh off the assembly line.”

Merka opened his eyes, and his magical sight returned. Turing’s adorable face appeared before him once more.

But Turing’s expression now looked a little unnatural—stiff, even.

“What… You don’t have to look at me like that. Is there something on my face?”

Turing looked as if she were facing an enemy. She stared behind Merka in shock, then raised a hand and pointed faintly over his shoulder.

“N-no.”

“Merka, look behind you…”

Merka’s heart gave a sudden lurch. He had a bad feeling about this.

He swept his magical sight behind him. A terrifying monster, holding a massive, savage-looking mace, slowly emerged from the shadows.

Dozens of mouths and eyes were embedded haphazardly across the brutish monster’s body. Its limbs and muscles were horribly twisted, with only its hands and feet faintly resembling those of a human.

A bee-like head sat atop the monster’s neck.

It breathed faintly, exhaling a cloud of murky mist.

Apparently noticing Merka and Turing, it raised its weapon toward Turing.

The enormous mace, as long as two or three grown adults were tall, lifted its head toward Turing like a hideous dragon.

A chain trailed from the mace’s tail, even more terrifying and cumbersome than the weapon itself. Thick pink mist hung all around the chain.

Turing’s eyes widened.

She realized the chain was brimming with magic used specifically for sealing spells.

Its magic was exactly the same as the magic radiating from the chains around the ice block that had sealed Sister Mostima.

“That monster… Could it be the killer bee?”

Merka turned around in disbelief.

“Th-this… this thing…”

Turing clenched her teeth and turned her hand palm-up, curling it into a half-fist toward the monster.

It was the opening stance of the Incandescent spiral.

【This has to be the bastard who sealed Sister!】

【Those ice bees froze her in place. Then this monster used those chains to seal her in the ice cavern!】

“I have some personal business with this thing.”

“Merka, I’m going to kill it myself.”

Turing said through gritted teeth.