The divine fire scattered the mist from the capital, letting the warm sunlight once again bathe the land of Livorden.
The last traces of Ra's divine power, before its form vanished, seemed to answer the hearts of Miles and Aisha, soothing the wounds left by the Shadow Game. Golden particles of light drifted down, falling upon the unconscious Ren and Kaima, healing the shattered souls that had endured nearly ten thousand damage in that dark duel.
"I… I'm alive?" Ren opened her eyes again, instinctively gazing up at the sun breaking through the mist. "It really is the sun… It feels like forever since I've seen it. This is the first time I've felt the sun could be so warm."
Kaima soon rose as well, her eyes settling on Miles, whose hair tips still glowed faintly with lingering gold. "We won, didn't we, Miles. Hmph…"
A cold huff—but instead of her usual prideful retort, Kaima muttered, "Well fought."
For someone as stubbornly tsundere as Kaima, such plain praise was almost unheard of. The last time had been aboard the imperial warship… and that wasn't all that long ago.
With the mist dispersed, the Shadow Game ended, their fallen comrades and the duelists across the capital awoke and recovered. A scene of joy—marred by one piercing scream.
Of course. From birth until now, Luca Slint had never fit in, and even in her last moment, she remained apart.
"AAAAAAHHH! It hurts, it hurts!!"
Even after the Shadow Game's end, the girl's body did not stop burning with Ra's flames. A normal body, after being seared by the sun god's soul-flames, would soon collapse—both flesh and spirit reduced to ash.
But Luca Slint's alchemically reforged body, crafted by Viel, was too strong. Strong enough to endure Ra's fire without destruction.
"It hurts… it hurts so much…"
That strength became her prison. The too-resilient flesh bound her soul, denying release. Her pale skin cracked under flame, only to knit together again by mana flowing within her body—again and again, an inferno's torment.
"Why… why must I suffer this…"
She still didn't understand. No one in her life had ever told her that her choices would lead to such a miserable end.
"I just wanted…"
Through searing agony, she clutched the Millennium Ring at her chest—the counterfeit, a magical replica.
"I just wanted… wait, what was it I wanted again?"
Her pupils widened, unfocused. She had gambled everything in that last battle, chasing the Millennium Items because the Ring had told her, as a child, that collecting all seven would grant the power to change the world.
However, now… what meaning did that hold?
The fake Ring crumbled into ash under the godfire. Deep down, she knew: she had long since been abandoned by the Millennium Ring. She could never complete the Items.
Aisha muttered, "Luca, you…!"
Seeing the Ring vanish from Luca's chest, Aisha suddenly recalled why Luca had once told her, during the duel with Princess Nova: "You lend the soul of your other self so carelessly, Aisha Carlos, huh? Be careful, and someone might steal it away."
Luca's Ring truly had been stolen—along with the soul within it. Then… could the same happen to Miles one day?
For the first time, simple-hearted Aisha felt a crisis lurking beneath the surface.
Why did Luca, stripped of her Ring, still chase the Millennium Items? Even she could not answer. Perhaps it was the only "ideal" she had ever held, however impossible.
"Other me… you said we could change the world. Was that true?"
So long as she clung to that ideal, the ragged little girl in the alley from ten years ago—clutching the Ring and asking again and again—had not yet vanished.
Abruptly, the moment Luca asked herself, "What was it I wanted again?"—that girl was gone, slain by her own hand.
"It hurts… it hurts… Kill me! Please… kill me… Miles, I'm begging you…"
The endless torture left her even deathless, her last hope of release resting on Miles—the one who had been her mortal enemy.
"I'm not so merciful, Luca." Miles refused flatly. He would not stain Aisha's hands with such blood.
"When someone knelt before you once, begging for their life—did you ever spare them, Luca?"
"!!!"
His words pierced her. In Luca's pale eyes flickered a memory: the shopkeeper pinned beneath her blade, begging that he had a wife and children to care for… She had driven the sword into his heart.
From that point, she had lost the right to chase her "ideal."
"So I died… back then already."
Crack—!
From the depths of her soul came the sound of shattering. Though her body still burned, Luca Slint's despairing soul had already vanished into Ra's flame.
From within the fire fell three cards. Holders of Millennium Items, defeated in the Shadow Game: Reigun Seth, Locke Slint, and Luca Slint.
Three cards…
The Sacred Beasts fell at Miles's feet.
...
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