Human Fortress.

Andi stood in the street, a fist-sized stone clenched in her hand. Mana curled around her palm, and the stone’s surface was stained with Blood. Before her, a crying girl sat crouched on the ground.

Not long ago, a man had gripped a stone and hurled it at the girl before Andi. He had treated her as an outsider, a monster, simply because she was a Sorceress who could use only magic.

Stone after stone struck the girl without mercy. Her tender skin split beneath the blows, and the faint scent of Blood spread through the air.

The girl cried and sobbed. She looked at Andi with a trace of helplessness in her eyes.

“What’s your name? …Hey, don’t be afraid. Big Sister here is a… Sorceress too.”

Andi reached out her hand. Perhaps it was because they were the same kind. Perhaps it was because Andi had helped her. Either way, she lifted the girl up with ease.

Andi had expected it to be troublesome.

“My name is… Fertini. Thank you… Big Sister.”

Fertini gave her name, but her words still came in broken fragments. She kept her eyes shut as tears continued to pour from them. Andi gently patted her back, hoping to ease her suffering.

“That man just now was my father…”

After calming down for a while, Fertini spoke first. But the moment she mentioned her father, her tears broke loose again.

It was hard to imagine that the man who had thrown stones at her and spat his contempt was her own father.

As Fertini’s biological father, he was the person least qualified to treat her as an outsider. Yet he had done exactly that—and even raised his hand against her.

The thought filled Andi with anger.

Looking at the heartbroken Fertini, Andi gently smoothed her disheveled hair and spoke softly.

“Fertini, right? Let me tell you a secret. Tears are precious things in this world. Your tears should only be shed for yourself, understand? Crying for a father like that isn’t worth it. Big Sister will help you get even later!”

Andi wiped the tears from the young girl’s face with her fingers, then pulled her into her arms.

With Fertini leading the way, Andi found the man’s home. By then, he was hiding beneath his blankets, terrified that the Sorceress would come looking for him.

At first, Andi had thought the man was living rather well. After all, he still reeked of alcohol in the middle of the night. From the smell, it was barley wine.

But now it seemed he had merely been squandering the last of his family’s wealth, selling off furniture to survive. His house was bare as a tomb.

How pathetic.

Andi intended to give him a warning. She entered through an unlocked window, yanked away his blanket, and prepared to lecture him.

That should keep him from bullying Fertini again, right?

But who could’ve expected the man to leap from the bed? With the fastest movement of his life, he grabbed the knife by the door and swung it savagely at Andi.

Outside, Fertini shut her eyes, afraid to witness the bloody scene that would follow.

But it never came.

Andi’s strength was poor, but she could still stop an attack like this.

She seized the man’s arm and the knife hilt, then pressed the Blade against his throat.

A chill shot straight to the crown of his head. He stumbled back two steps and slammed into the wall. With nowhere left to retreat, the sharp Blade left a thin Blood mark across his neck.

The wound made him howl in pain.

He tried to speak, but Andi clamped a hand around his throat. Not even a trace of sound escaped him.

“From now on, you’re not to lay a hand on Fertini. Otherwise…”

After delivering her warning, Andi released him and turned to leave with the knife.

But the man shakily rose to his feet and charged straight at the Andi who had beaten him down. He knocked her over and began pounding her head with his fists.

When that still wasn’t enough, he grabbed the chair behind him.

His mouth overflowed with filth. He cursed the Sorceresses. He cursed Andi. He cursed his own daughter.

Andi had a Magic Layer, but it wouldn’t last long. Taking advantage of a gap between his attacks, she rose with the knife and drove it into the man’s abdomen.

The man cried out in pain. After rolling twice across the floor, he went still.

Andi stood there, breathing heavily. Her eyes widened in disbelief.

She had killed someone.

Yet she was strangely calm. She had never been this calm before.

She looked at the Blood on the floor, then at Fertini outside the door. Slowly, she walked toward her.

“You… I killed your father.”

Andi was about to apologize, but Fertini shook her head.

She had already suffered too much misfortune. Most of it had come from her and her father.

If he was dead…

Perhaps that was for the best.

“Will you come with me? From now on?”

Fertini nodded.

Perhaps because Fertini had nodded, a trace of determination settled in Andi’s heart.

She seemed to have found an idea—and she intended to put it into practice.

She would take in every girl like Fertini and help them live a little more happily.

But once tonight ended, her evil name would spread through every street and alley.

There was no way she could keep living here.

She had to leave…

“You’re thinking of leaving, aren’t you~?”

A shadow appeared behind Fertini.

Andi’s eyes widened. Her grip tightened around the knife.

“Who are you?”

“I’m a member of one of the Sorceress tribes. Our tribe can offer you both shelter—including the little one standing before me. This is the only place you can go now, isn’t it?”

To be honest, the stranger was telling the truth.

Andi had nowhere else to go. If she wanted to shelter more children like Fertini, she couldn’t do it alone.

She needed backing, at the very least.

The offer in front of her tempted Andi.

“What do I have to do?”

“Drive his head into the fortress wall. Consider it your token of allegiance. How about it?”

Andi looked at the corpse on the floor.

With one stroke, she severed the man’s head. Then she climbed onto the fortress wall and nailed it there.

The stranger was satisfied. She led Andi and Fertini to the Sorceress tribe.

It wasn’t a large tribe, but more than a hundred Sorceresses had gathered there.

Still, they were somewhat different.

“You’re too weak. First, you must become like us. Approach Her. Understand Her. Don’t worry. Your power will only change into another form.”

Andi knelt before a statue, holding a liquid called “holy water” in both hands. She raised it high above her head.

Under the Sorceresses’ guidance, the basin of holy water slowly poured over the sacred statue.

The moment the liquid touched it, the Sorceresses’ chanting rang out from both sides.

The sound came from beneath the earth and below the heavens.

The statue absorbed the liquid and erupted with profound patterns. They clung to the surface of Andi’s body like maggots burrowing into her bones, drilling into her Blood and bone.

In the end, they fused deep within her skeleton.

Unknown whispers sounded beside her ears.

The voice came from the statue. It came from every direction.

Only after a long while did the whispers finally stop.

Afterward, Andi was fed something she didn’t recognize. The Mana within her began transforming into Abyssal Aura.

Before long, her strength advanced into 【Chapter Three】.

With her new power, she began to act.

She didn’t care where that power came from. In the end, she returned from the Human Fortress with dozens of Sorceresses and gave them a place to live.

That life continued for several decades.

Then the third sun appeared.

Surviving under two suns had already been difficult. Three suns left the weak with no chance of survival.

Andi went to seek help from the tribe.

But the tribe had long since become empty.

“Let’s go. We’ll search for that rift.”

So she could only lead her branch of the tribe in search of the rift recorded in the ancient texts.

They would go to another world and seek a path to survival.

But 【Cantata Three】 wasn’t enough.

Her strength wasn’t enough.

If she wanted to keep the little ones behind her alive through the disaster, she had to glimpse the realm beyond it.

Whether it was the power of the gods or the power of the Calamity Dragon, as long as it could give her the strength to protect these children, she would seize it by any means necessary.

Just as she had once cut off that man’s head without hesitation and nailed it to the fortress wall.

Andi hung suspended in midair. Her butterfly knives slaughtered the unknown, tumor-like creatures.

But with every one she killed, her headache worsened.

The foul-smelling creatures wore away at her will to fight. For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to strike them.

Fortunately, Night Frost tore open the rift for them.

Andi no longer had to fight those things.

But the instant she stepped into the passage, dizziness seized her mind.

The whispers that had once appeared only during her prayers now echoed constantly beside her ears.

“Kill… her? No foreign… variables… allowed?”

She looked at Night Frost with a trembling gaze.

Night Frost was still asking what they should do next, but Andi’s mind had already descended into an internal struggle.

That eerie voice seemed intent on taking over her body.

A chill spread throughout her.

Her body seemed to be slipping beyond her control.

Could this be the price of borrowing power from a god?

The god wanted to use her body to kill Night Frost.

“Let’s make a deal, stranger from another land.”

Andi forced the words out through her throat.

“The moment I stepped into this passage, I heard the voice of a god.”

The whispers drew closer and closer, as though the god stood directly behind her.

“It wants me to fight you. To the death.”

“I know I can’t beat you. Will you take them and leave?”

“These children have never received the power of a god.”

After hearing Andi’s words, Fertini began to tremble as well.

Andi had raised her for more than a decade. In Fertini’s eyes, Andi was worth more than her parents.

And now, Andi wanted to…

Throw her life away?

Anyone could see that Night Frost was stronger than Andi. After lifting her restrictions, the pressure she gave off was even more overwhelming.

“Tell her what I said, Fertini.”

“Didn’t I tell you? Your tears are precious. They can only be shed for yourself…”

“You’re already this old, after all.”

Andi’s fingers wiped the tears from Fertini’s cheeks.

Fertini threw her arms around Andi.

Fertini drew in a deep breath, then repeated Andi’s words to Night Frost.

“I’m sorry… I had some bad intentions toward you before. But after seeing your strength, I let those thoughts go.”

“Now, though, I can’t control myself… I’m truly sorry.”

Andi slowly straightened and drew the two eight-slash Blades from her back. She leaned forward slightly.

Night Frost sent the little Sorceresses into a corner, then drew a Spear from the flames.

“You don’t need to apologize. You haven’t done anything yet.”

“Besides, you’ve helped me quite a lot, haven’t you?”