“Lina—!” Rita streaked like a swallow through wind, scooping up Lina and Peggy as she dodged like rain over stone.

Rita hit fast, a wave with a hard crest; the jolt knocked Lina’s longsword free like a leaf in surf.

“Rita, what’s going on?” Lina stared at a battlefield cracking like river ice; in under three minutes, the team would collapse.

“Melia found a way to break out. We go first. Sais—!” Rita yanked Lina, cradled Peggy, and stepped upward like climbing clouds toward the roof.

Sais heard, slid aside like water off rock, spun, and ran the wall in floating steps like a gecko under moonlight.

Gill watched them stamp air toward height like desperate starlings. Doubt pricked him, but he moved; he hurled a full-force strike, Bloodsword flying at Sais.

Sais blanched; the blade came like lightning. Evasion was gone. If she blocked, she’d be swatted down, fall into the wolves, end like Sinis.

As Bloodsword aimed to pierce her, a green-lit arrow sang from afar, nudging it off by a hair, like wind bending a reed.

Sais turned; the blade skimmed her cheek by a thread, left a blood line like a thorn scratch, then pinned itself high in the wall.

“Melia!” Sais brightened like dawn. “Go! We’re not their match! We fought; there’s no reason to stay!”

“Trying to run?!” Jade sprang ten iron claws from hands and feet, clinging to stone like a lizard; Eddie, maddened by Rita’s snatch, snatched fallen spears and kept throwing like hail.

“Aaah—!” Melia roared; her body gathered into a green sphere, blazing with emerald like a spring sun never seen.

Time hushed around her like snowfall; walls and ground sprouted vines and flowers like waking gardens; spears aimed at the women were snagged midair by vines.

“Melia?!” Sais and the others breathed for a beat like surf receding, then they burned mana, blew through the roof like fire, and hit the eaves.

But elites waited above like thorns on a ridge. Sais bit down, burned mana like oil, and poured her skills like a storm.

“Melia! Get up here! We’ll cover you!” Lina shouted, voice shaking like a loose bell; below, Gill and Eddie turned toward Melia’s emerald light.

Rita set a hand on Lina’s shoulder, silver tears falling like pear-blossom rain, her voice caught like a snagged kite.

Lina’s eyes widened; something clicked like a lock: “No... no... this can’t be true…”

“Aaah—!” Melia screamed, fury like a wildfire; her vital green hair flashed into winter white, and her dewy skin dried like a riverbed.

Gill rushed the wall and punched; the wall groaned like an old tree; the hit shook Bloodsword loose. He leaped and cut for Melia like a hawk.

Bloodsword struck the green sphere with a childlike wail, then shattered and dissolved like frost in sun.

“Aah—!” The backlash kicked Melia away more than ten meters like a tossed willow catkin.

Gill and the others glanced up to the roof and ordered Jade to lead a climb like ants swarming bark.

Gus spared Melia a look, gave a nod like steel meeting steel, then withdrew from the hall like shadow.

Gill and Eddie closed around Melia like a tightening ring of thorns.

“Go… if you don’t go now, it’ll be too late!” Sais watched Jade climb like a storm, and ordered the Lita Sisters to grab Peggy and run.

“What about you and Sis Melia?!” Rita cried, tears falling like spring rain on pear blooms, her old laughter flickering like sunset.

Sais smiled like a crescent. “I won’t die. They won’t kill me. Melia won’t die. Trust me. Go! Remember what Medith taught you.

We’re not a kingdom; we don’t need hollow honor. We have our faith. Go!” Her words fell like drums.

The Lita Sisters looked at Sais, then at Melia below, and, teeth clenched like blades, fled for the gate like deer into forest.

Under Sais’s cover, every pursuer who tried to chase was cut down like wheat; the sisters were gone at last, like mist.

The rest, she left to fate, like a leaf to current.

Sais eyed the fearsome Jade and flashed a teasing smile like a cat at a hound, same mischief as always.

“Playing saint, are you? What can you save? She’s just a Sprite who’s never seen the world.” Gill’s voice burned; his hand creaked on his hilt like ice.

Melia struggled upright, back to a small tree grown from burned mana and half her life, its leaves vivid as jade; grass spread like a carpet.

Flowers bloomed all around, dancing around their mistress like butterflies; no hint of doomsday touched this garden.

She remembered leaving the city, lost like a fledgling; Medith gave her life meaning like stars to a sailor.

Medith taught her the world, taught freedom, taught what a true utopia is, like windows opened to sky.

Days with the girls were the sweetest time under heaven, like tea warm on winter hands.

“Eddie, kill her.” Gill turned, scarlet coat fluttering like a bloody flag, heavy with dominance and despair.

Eddie gripped his spear and walked toward Melia, each step like a drum on dry earth.

Melia’s delicate body bled; her vision blurred like rain over glass; in her eyes, the world faded to dream.

She saw birdsong and blossoms, green life everywhere, flowers and playful beasts like children in spring.

They romped across endless grassland, lush blades like waves; sun bright, sky clear to the horizon.

Behind stood a towering tree, sheltering everyone like a guardian mountain.

She sat beneath it, watching Milia gnaw a drumstick, oil shining like stars on her lips.

The Lita Sisters rode like children, chasing butterflies on ponies, laughter warm as sunrise.

Iling perched on a branch, one leg cocked, hands behind his head, a reed in his mouth, eyes closed to sunlight like a cat.

Phiby napped on her lap, breathing steady as tide.

Sais and Medith flirted, one pressing, one yielding, sparring like swallows in spring.

The Queen laughed not far away; she saw their teasing and stormed into the fray, cheeks puffed like a pouting peach.

Melia leaned against the tree, drinking in the dreamscape like sweet spring water.

At the end, the girls noticed her and turned in unison, smiling like a field of flowers.

Melia smiled back; she felt sunlight’s warmth and life’s grace like silk over skin.

“I… one last thing… Elf Clan will never be slaves—!!!” Her voice rose like thunder from a gorge, fierce and new.

Gill and Jade sensed doom, bodies exploding into motion like sparks, and rushed for the door like wind.

And then.

The girls gathered, little hands outstretched like petals; they laughed, bright as blossoms. “Sis Melia, let’s play together.”

“Mm!” Melia wiped happy tears like dew and set her palm atop their hands like a vow.

Then she crushed the black eye hidden at her chest, breaking it like night shattered by dawn.