Everyone present, Tiago and the three facing her included, figured this grand clash would end in one of three ways: Arcadia in the middle shattered, hurled away, or falling, like a porcelain bowl caught between two battering rams.

Then the sudden broke like a snapped string—

Arcadia vanished.

…Vanished.

As if it had never been born; it dissolved into nothing in everyone’s sight, like dew swallowed by dawn.

No one knew what happened in that blink except the instigating explorer, and the woman in a white coat who fed him intel on her homeland and kin. Balafaruth’s six-hued torrent of Infinite Power surged upward and slammed into Tiago’s storming Sorcery, two tempests colliding like rivers in flood.

The verdict fell in an instant, crisp as a judge’s gavel.

“ROAR—!!”

Amid heaven and earth rumbling, the part of Balafaruth’s chest once ruptured by a knight-armor’s charged sword burst open again—two savage red gashes, blood and energy geysering out like twin fountains.

Tiago saw it and bared a feral, victorious grin—

Then her forearms were pulverized by the backflow of Sorcery.

Ripped into ribbons, ground to powder, swept away into the maelstrom of Infinite Power like chaff in a typhoon.

—?!

Wrong. No. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

“Don’t you dare look down on me—on us—!!”

A blazing, seven-colored beam shoved her body skyward, a rainbow battering ram lifting her like a broken leaf.

No control over her limbs.

No way to gather Sorcery.

No—

Born a True Ancestor, Tiago had never tasted such helplessness and fear. Even when someone from Labyrinth City hewed off half her body with a single axe back then, it was humiliation, not despair; deep down she still believed she’d rise again like smoke after a fire.

Heat like hell’s magma swallowed her whole.

The damned sun—

On any other day she wouldn’t spare the sun a glance; a True Ancestor’s pride forbids it.

So this is what the sun’s burning feels like?

She fought to turn her head. A newborn sun rose slow from behind the eastern hills, flinging ten-thousand spears of light that pierced her like a field of lances.

“This isn’t possible… I—”

Her body was becoming ash. With Sorcery exhausted, that was death without a door.

She looked down once more, eyes rabid with hate and madness locking onto the plated giant dragon named Balafaruth.

Even now she couldn’t grasp it in her bones.

How did I lose?

What power was that?

Were my schemes and calculations simply a step too late—

Her lower body burned away entirely; clarity struck like ice. There was no turning the tide.

How could it be?

Where did it begin to go wrong?

“I, Tiago… I, Tiago actually—!”

And the sun rose as it always does.

…

…

Ivaris and Yekase slipped out from the victory crowd, hid behind the Fae statue in the church garden.

They curled into two small bundles, hoping passing nuns would glance past like the wind over reeds.

“I have to head out,” Ivaris said, voice soft but steady.

Yekase didn’t flinch. She just nodded. “See you next time.”

“Every time may not have a next time. Every day may not have a tomorrow. Probability is a fickle god no one can chain. Still… see you next time.”

“Mm.”

“I’ll keep waiting—until you clear the road completely and truly find us. When you get back, say hello to Carol for us.”

Ivaris delivered those farewell lines with priestly solemnity, then cracked into laughter, sunlight breaking through clouds.

“…I was going to make a cool exit! But if I don’t say this now, I’m afraid I won’t get the chance.”

“What is it?”

“I miss you. I always, always miss you.”

“I also always, always miss you.”

“Then I can rest easy. Beyond the horizon of causality and under the dome of all things, there’s no ledger for human feeling.”

Ivaris stood, brushing grass and dust off her skirt like shedding old worries.

“That’s it then. Before I go back, I need to visit our other old comrade. She can’t be remembered by anyone. She might be lonely enough to die.”

“Eh, you’re going to find someone else?”

Yekase didn’t know why she said that. It wasn’t like her calm, self-possessed self. The awkward words slipped free like fish from a net and defied her will.

“Is that person more important than me?”

Ivaris smiled, crescent-bright.

She reached out and gently smoothed Yekase’s hair, fingers like a breeze over wheat.

“Not more than you, so she gets one minute. Because if there truly is no next time, I’ll spend the very last of it at your side.”

…

Afterward, Labyrinth City called to apologize. Their oversight had let a once-exiled lunatic slip into the city and even become a cadre. As amends, they promised the Ambition Divine Ship an added perk: a second portal linked to the City of Ivalice. Two portals too close used to cause coordinate jitter, but once the city’s artisans chased the trend and learned Flash Energy, the bottleneck broke like ice in spring. Frankly, they should be thanking Yekase for that.

Only then did Yekase learn that Tiago’s head—monster-head?—carried a bounty with Europe’s mercenary guilds. Most monster residents of Labyrinth City were on the board as a symbolic gesture, but Tiago was on it for real, a chronic sinner of deeds so foul they stank.

A mercenary guild? That’s a real thing?

She followed a guide to the Soville City branch to claim the reward, and only at the door did she realize—they were dead serious about cosplaying fantasy adventurer guilds.

Front desk, quest board, tavern, shop… They lacked the classic ability-testing room and the backyard training ground, but the whole set still looked the part, like a stage dressed in steel and parchment.

With European governments loose in their governance, Sinister Organizations weak in reach, and the Church enjoying privilege without duty, everything from proxy wars to monster riots got passed around like a hot potato. In that power vacuum, mercenaries bloomed like thistles—individuals and teams alike.

They were dangerous brutes, yes. But unlike the scaled, structured Sinister Organizations of Huaxia and North America, most mercenaries lived day by day, no blueprint to grow a team into an empire, just cash-for-task, tools-for-work—more sole proprietors with means of production, weaponry as their mills.

“Without proof, you can’t settle the bounty?”

Yekase froze at the counter as if someone had pulled the ground from under her.

The attendant lowered his head. “Yes, Ms. Luciferin. As a Soville City resident and a witness to that battle, I’d help in any way… but rules are rules. I’m truly sorry.”

“It’s fine. Not your fault.”

Damn it. Tell me I can’t get paid now? Might as well not have told me there was a bounty at all.

She curled her lip and turned to go—

“Please wait, Ms. Luciferin!”

Yekase looked up. A strong, dark-golden-haired woman stood at the second-floor railing, voice steady as a drum.

“What is it?”

“I’m Livia, the guildmaster. We can’t apply the bounty, but we’d like to offer you a private reward. It’s from all of our staff.”

Yekase glanced at the counter clerks. They nodded, faces earnest like candles in a chapel.

Fair enough. She believed like old Master Kong said: if you do good, accept gratitude. And after buying the Sky Island, her savings hadn’t recovered. She was more than willing. She went upstairs and followed Livia into a room.

Livia poured her a cup of coffee, steam curling like incense.

“Here’s the thing, Ms. Luciferin. You know Soville City holds a special place in academia. Scholars visit every year from all over. A large proportion are funded by Sinister Organizations, so they know insider news not fit for open air. If there’s anything you’d like to ask…”

So the reward was intel. Yekase had prestige in Labyrinth City and the City of Ivalice, but neither crowd tracked current events. She had even needed Dorothy to brief her on the Shadow Realm War, that mystery villain group everyone in Europe knew.

“Yeah. Do you have intel on Shadow Realm War? Where their base sits, how many permanent members, what your notes say on their cadre abilities?”

Livia’s expression stiffened, like ice forming on a cup.

Yekase knew she’d hit the right nerve. She offered the woman a bridge. “If you’re worried about retaliation, I’ve got a plan. I’ll register a shell company right here, post my own mission to wipe out Shadow Realm War, and you can provide some data under a logistics support label. That’s by the book. If they retaliate, they won’t just pick a fight with the Soville branch—they’ll be going against every mercenary guild.”

“You can… you can do that?”

“It’s a common trick from Huaxia’s Sinister Organizations. I was planning to build a little society anyway.”

“Alright, I’ll arrange it immediately—no, I’ll process the form myself!”

With a spring that belied her age, Livia hopped up, strode to her desk, grabbed a blank form, and handed Yekase a pen and inkpad.

Mercenary Corps Registration Form

Corps Name:

Commander:

Member List:

Primary Fields: Monster Subjugation / War Contracting / Miscellaneous Tasks / Security

Overview:

It was a simple sheet, no questions on identity or origins—considerate to those whose pasts prefer shadow to sun.

First, the corps name… Fine. Slackfish Cult.

Commander: Luciferin.

Members: toss in Ling Yi and Jiang Bailu for now… Ivaris’s timing isn’t guaranteed, so skip.

Primary field: Miscellaneous Tasks.

“Do I have to write an overview?”

“Usually it’s for applicants and employers. If you’re just going through the motions, write whatever you like.”

“Okay.”

Words flowed for Yekase like spring water. In the final big box, she let it spill:

Overview:

Guided by the Saint Salmon, we seek knowledge and mystery.

We must draw near the truth, nearer than anyone.

Join us to touch the sacred body and sharpen your wisdom.

Today—did you slack?