What’s happening? Lucimia’s heart jolted like a struck gong.

The worm reared to swallow her whole. She hastily called on her Authority Power. “Devour the worm’s influence on me.” She took the sight for a worm-spun illusion.

Bang.

The scene cracked like a mirror hit by a hammer. A crisp snap rang out. The illusion ruptured, and blackness fell over her eyes like a dropped curtain.

She opened them again and found herself back in Jaha Town, standing beside Desty.

Two heartbeats passed. Lucimia looked again at the blood-red worm. It still craned up, fixed on her like a needle.

Her face darkened like a stormfront. She snapped a Fireball Spell and slammed it into the thing.

The worm burned to ash in her strange flame with shocking speed. In the firelight, she watched its whole arc from struggle to stillness.

“Uh… what was that?” Desty flinched at the sudden magic.

“Nothing.” Lucimia shook her head. A thought lit up, quick as a spark. “Your Purification Blessing against pollution—passive or active?”

“Active.”

“Then keep it on. Always.”

Before Desty could ask why, Lucimia turned away and headed for the town center like a shadow drawn by wind.

She found another beast corpse. She looked close. As expected, another blood-red worm writhed over cooling flesh.

What is this thing?

A parasite? Did they steer the beasts to attack the town? Weren’t the beasts teleported here?

How do they knot into the plague?

She couldn’t make sense of it. She flicked her fingers; another tongue of flame erased the worm like dew in sunlight.

She still didn’t know when the beasts reached Jaha Town. If they were teleported in, then after Reversion, she needed to destroy every corpse at once.

So—Reversion?

Yes. Only that path remained. No ships meant no escape, and even with a ship, she couldn’t helm it.

Settled.

Just as she moved to trigger Reversion, a razor-thin beastly scream scraped her ear like ice on glass.

That airy shriek rippled outward like rings on black water.

“Ugh…”

Pain spiked her skull; she clutched her head as if holding back a storm.

What is this? Where did that scream come from?

She scanned the ruins. No living beast. She glanced at Desty. Desty watched her, worried, as if she’d heard nothing at all.

“What’s wrong? Headache? You had this back in the village. You really need rest, right?”

“No…” Lucimia forced the words out through grit. “You… didn’t hear a scream?”

“A scream? No.” Desty hurried up, concern bright as a lantern. “Are you hearing things?”

She didn’t hear it…

Desty heard nothing, yet Lucimia did.

Elyssus’s trick? Or something else gnawing unseen?

“Kh—kh…” A cough racked her like a hook.

Those two coughs drained the color from Desty’s pretty face.

“Lucimia, you… you coughed blood…”

“Me?” Lucimia spat to test. The spit was red and foamy, like the blood-flecked phlegm Dori hacked up.

Huh? What’s happening?

The thought barely formed when her chest turned heavy as stone. Each breath stabbed ribs and back, and her head swam like a boat in chop.

Wait—what’s wrong with me?

Don’t tell me… I’m sick?

But I used Authority Power to bar viruses. Why is Desty fine?

Wait… could it be… that worm?

We only locked eyes for a heartbeat.

What do I do? Use Authority? Are my symptoms the same as Dori’s? The same concept should work, right?

No—better to Reversion. Reversion would wipe the sickness clean.

But what if the Reversion level isn’t enough, and it won’t reset the disease?

Fine. Kill the symptoms first.

While she weighed choices, Desty’s voice cut in at her ear like a pebble in still water.

“Hey, someone!”

Lucimia turned toward the sound. Not far away, a two-meter-tall heavy infantryman trudged toward them like a walking tower.

Black armor wrapped him head to toe. An iron helm hid his face, with only narrow slits at the eyes like cold vents.

He gripped a steel giant-ball joined to a haft by chain links. Step by step, he came on.

Each step sent a tremor through the ground like drumbeats in a siege.

At Desty’s call, the black heavy soldier halted and looked her way.

“Are you a soldier?” Desty asked.

He tilted his head a fraction, as if measuring. After a breath, his right foot slid back. His right hand took the weapon’s haft. He set the iron ball by his right boot.

Lucimia caught that tiny tell like a spark in dry grass.

“Desty, watch out…”

“Eh?”

Right on cue, as her warning left her lips, the heavy soldier erupted like a ram through a gate. His right arm snapped, and the iron giant-ball—bigger than two of Lucimia’s heads—whistled out and slammed at Desty.

The warning sparked Desty’s reflex, but a warning couldn’t bend iron.

The ball was too fast. She barely raised both hands and kicked left, a reed in a flood.

Speed and size crushed her margin. The giant-ball still caught her upper body, blasted her into the air, smashed her through several houses, and left her sprawled, motionless, like a broken doll.

Lucimia spared the red-haired girl a glance. Now her hair wasn’t the only red; her world wore that color like spilled dusk.

“Why attack us…” Lucimia turned back, voice low as thunder behind clouds.

The heavy soldier said nothing. He recalled the ball, set himself the same way, and hurled the killing iron again.

“Tch…”

He wouldn’t talk. Lucimia clicked her tongue. Fighting her body’s revolt, she kicked back and, on reflex, used a Flight Spell to open distance from the hurtling mass.

Regret hit at once. Above, the sky gathered flickers of lightning. Her black hair lifted, static-pricked toward the clouds.

Lightning had her locked like a hunter’s sight.

“Damn…”

The heavy soldier, one strike landed, didn’t rush. He reeled the ball in and gripped the chain with both hands.

He drew power for a second or two—

Thump.

He tore the chain apart with brute force, like ripping wet hide.

The ball, free of its leash, thudded to the ground.

He scooped it up. Lightning crawled over his gauntlets, then wrapped the sphere in a hide of crackling light.

Raising it high, he set his stance, lunged forward, and pitched the thunderball at Lucimia like a comet.

Pressed from above and ahead, Lucimia’s patience frayed like silk.

A Fuzzy Orb slipped from her cloak and gulped the flying iron sphere in one bite. Another Fuzzy Orb rose overhead and swallowed the falling lightning like cold noodles.

Lucimia touched down. She didn’t counter. She meant to use Authority Power to erase the illness, then trigger Reversion straight away.

But as she moved to act, she saw her own hands. Transparent swellings bubbled along her skin, full of some unknown fluid—or nothing at all.

What is this?

If I use Devouring, what concept do I choose? Tumor, or blister?

No time to think. The heavy soldier was already on top of her like a shadow at noon.

In a pinch, Lucimia swiftly Devoured the cough from moments ago. Inspiration struck. “Devour the disease effects the blood-red worm caused in my body.”

That way, the energy cost would sit neatly between Layer One and Two, leaving no gap for Elyssus to exploit.

When she finished, dazzling white light burst from her eyes. Time slid into Reversion.