“This orb should stay with you, Melia—like a lantern kept for the worst storm.

Lina’s too green; when it counts, her mind turns to ice.

Rita and Peggy are still children, hearts soft as spring shoots.

Me? I can judge and act, but my head misfires, and my temper’s a wildfire.

So I’ll entrust it to you. Medith said you just smash it to trigger it—like cracking a thunder seed.

It erupts in an instant, lightning without warning, impossible to dodge.

It’s our last resort. I hope you never need it. Hold fast, like a willow in gale.

We’ll make it through alive.”

Sais was sent flying like a leaf in a squall, Jade’s single cut flinging her dozens of meters, Dark Blade snapping again.

Suspended in the night air like torn silk, she recalled placing the orb into Melia’s hands.

“Huh? Why am I remembering this?” The question fluttered like a moth in her skull.

Thud— She hit the wall hard, stone ringing like a cracked bell, her vision swimming.

She spent her last scrap of magic like a handful of sand, blunting the blow to a bruise.

A hush—then a crash—then a long, low wail—

Far off, a black pillar of dead-cold gloom rose, shrouding the deep night like funeral smoke.

Sais understood, the truth biting her like frost; she bit her vermilion lip and let out a soul-piercing howl.

“Aaaah—” Her scream split the sky like a streak of white fire, echoing through the clouds.

The city’s onlookers felt their souls jolt like strings plucked in a storm.

A frail-looking boy stared, eyes wide with disbelief and awe, like a deer catching dawnlight.

“In this chaos, there’s still someone that selfless?

Is that the Elf Clan’s purity, or… no. I’ve seen too many selfish sprites, like brambles in bloom.

This is her doing—the one who lights their path like a hidden star.

On that alone, she can’t be some petty villain.

No—I have to join them.” His gaze on the black pillar warmed with worry and reverence, like embers under ash.

He sprinted, the ground curling into a Cyclone at his heels, wind carving rings like a dancer’s ribbon.

If someone had seen him, they’d gape—his power and his face didn’t match at all.

“Sis Melia—” Rita knelt, grief drowning her like winter rain, memories of Melia’s laughter rising like lanterns.

Melia had given her a warmth she’d never known, like fire in a snowbound hut.

Lina’s tears fell too, heavy as summer storms; she’d braced for this, yet the reality crushed her like a wave.

She wanted to scream, but looking at unconscious Peggy and her sister gasping like a flickering candle, she hardened.

“Rita! No crying! Melia didn’t die for you to sob here!

Get up!” Her words cracked like a whip in the dark.

Rita stayed collapsed, wailing, rooted like a stone in the riverbed.

The grief hung thick enough to taste, and the sound drew tears like a mournful flute.

In the distance, the reaper in black-and-red cloth stepped from the dusk, shadow unfolding like a bloody banner.

Lina tried to drag Rita, but Rita sat fused to the ground, a nail hammered in.

“Rita! Get up! Do you want Melia’s death wasted?” Lina choked, each word a knife wrapped in silk.

That last line snapped Rita awake; she turned grief into steel and bolted for the gate like a fleeing swallow.

“Stupid woman! Should’ve… should’ve left you there!” Jade stood panting before Sais, breath ragged as torn cloth.

She looked wrecked, her ninja garb shredded by some force, tatters and blood scoring her like claw marks.

Even her mask was sliced in half, exposing one side of her face, pale as moonlight.

Sais stared, stunned, her breath catching like a snagged thread.

Thick bandages wrapped Jade’s chest, hiding what lay beneath like snow over stones.

Her waist was slender and white, navel a small, dangerous star.

That exposed half-face was breathtaking, purity and nobility veiled by mature allure, a lily shadowed by night.

“You’re a woman?” Sais whispered, disbelief trembling like a branch.

Jade raised a pale, graceful hand and chopped the back of Sais’s neck, a clean strike like a guillotine’s shadow, dropping her cold.

“Damn it.” Jade stripped Sais’s Crimson Sun coat and threw it over herself like a stolen dawn.

Sais still wore a short-sleeved top; Jade clicked her tongue at that devilish figure, like a statue carved to tempt saints.

She dug up a ruined leather jacket from the rubble and wrapped Sais, then hoisted her like a bundle of reeds and headed for Kuso Guild HQ.

The Lita Sisters burned their magic like oil in a lamp, three hours of ducking and weaving through alleys like mice under hawks.

They finally reached the gate, only to find the exit sealed by Kuso Guild elites and the city guard, shields bright as fish scales.

“Ah?” The sisters blanched, horror soaking them like cold ink; behind, the reaper unfurled crimson wings, darkness draping them like a funeral shroud.

Lina looked at the endless crowd, a tide of faces, and sighed from the heart like wind through pines.

“Rita, promise me—live well.” She stroked Rita’s smooth cheek, eyes brimming with love like spring water.

Rita’s head shook like a rattle drum, exhaustion and grief hammering her to splinters.

“Medith, the best thing Lina ever did was joining you, following you to see the world, wide as a sea.

It’s not friendly, but it’s beautiful and vast, mountains and thunder and dawn.

Humans are still cruel, like thorns in bloom, but there are good people too, their innocence no lesser than ours.

I just… I want to walk with you to the world’s end.” Lina faced the charging crowd, her resolve hard and bright like tempered steel—like Melia’s.

“No—sister!” Rita saw that familiar, terrifying life orb flare, swelling like a sun about to burst.

Boom— The sky cracked like a drum, and a white pillar of holy light fell, a spear from heaven.

It slammed Lina’s swelling life orb back into her body, forcing it down like a storm stuffed back into its cloud.