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Victor was a strangely normal guy.
That's what Merlin thought as she watched him from afar, silently, arms crossed.
Now that she could actually see emotions — not just feel intentions or sense mana flow — she finally saw the true depth of her best friend.
She couldn't tell whether he had changed since they first met, or if he had always been this way — revealing himself bit by bit, shaped slowly by time.
He was terribly unlucky.
But somehow, that bad luck had never been enough to stop him.
Even after Niyx, after all the pain and loss he'd endured in the past, he still kept going.
He still smiled at others naturally — as if he truly believed in the good in people.
His expression, however, rarely changed.
He carried a calm that felt almost artificial, eyes too steady — sometimes inhuman.
People stepped aside when he passed; it wasn't intentional, but his presence alone was intimidating.
Merlin, though, knew that behind that cold gaze was just a boy trying to understand the world — and himself.
She smiled faintly, watching the measured rhythm of his movements as he fought.
"…How amusing" she murmured. "I'm happy for you."
She said that because, even amid the chaos, Victor seemed to finally be enjoying something.
There was purpose in every move — a spark of pure focus that only someone deeply driven could have.
But she didn't know that at that moment, all he really wanted was to show off a little for her.
"Hm?" she tilted her head, sensing the vibrations cease. "Looks like it's almost over."
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The battle raged on, the armor pressing harder, closing in on Victor.
His strikes weren't doing much damage, but slamming it against the environment was.
After several minutes of fighting, he realized it — that metal wasn't ordinary. It was blessed with holy magic.
Extremely effective against monsters, a direct attack on their very existence.
Every time he hit it bare-handed, his skin burned — just like when Pumpkin had healed his zombie scratch back in Cirgo.
Of course. It made perfect sense. This was the armor of one of the greatest vampire hunters in history — of course it was forged to exterminate beings like him.
'Doesn't matter. I'll just stick to my plan. It's almost there.'
As he dodged the constant slashes and spatial distortions, Victor attacked the same spot — the stomach — again and again, every time he saw an opening, with his fists or feet.
Using [Phantom Step], Victor shifted around the armor at impossible speed, striking from every angle in fractions of a second.
The armor twisted its wrist, and the sword's energy turned red again.
When it swung, the space before it split horizontally — forming a circular rift.
From that rift, a vacuum formed.
Air was swallowed, stones were pulled in, even sound itself vanished.
Victor stood unmoving.
His body began to slide toward the circle, but he planted his feet deep into the cracked ground, deforming it under his strength.
He waited for the exact moment — and vanished.
In an instant, he reappeared inside the circle.
Both fists clenched, he brought them down in a direct blow to the armor's stomach.
The impact shattered the air.
The steel body was launched backward, tearing through broken pillars and crashing into the crater wall.
Shards of metal and clouds of dust rained down like heavy ash.
Victor didn't wait.
Using the momentum, he moved again — reappearing above the fallen armor.
His knee came down like a hammer, crushing the knight's chest.
The metal gave way. Cracks spread like glowing webs until he drove his arm into the opening and ripped out the core.
A red sphere pulsed in his hand — alive, unstable.
The armor still tried to move one arm, but the voice that came from within was only a distant whisper:
"…Greven… Aster…"
And then, silence.
Victor stared quietly at the core for a moment.
His body was covered in dust, blood drying on his hands.
Merlin approached softly from behind.
"Is it over?"
He turned, raised the core, and nodded.
"Yeah."
The smile he gave at that moment was rare — a real one.
Her eyes lit up, and Merlin almost forgot to breathe.
Now that she had evolved, she understood better what it meant to be human.
And when she thought about it, she realized Victor was far more complex than he let on.
He still didn't fully remember his past — as if he didn't want to.
But there was something different about the way he dealt with it.
He didn't chase answers, didn't talk about it much — he simply moved forward, in his own way.
Even now, he was chasing a new goal.
She didn't dwell on the past either, though it was still a sensitive topic.
But she admired that about him.
"You…" she blinked, surprised.
Victor tilted his head, not understanding her expression.
Merlin smiled again, a soft laugh escaping her lips.
"It's just…" she crossed her arms. "When you smile like that, it's different."
He frowned. "Different?"
"Yeah." She stepped closer, lowering her voice slightly. "You look… really cute."
Victor looked away, scratching the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed.
"T-that's not…"
Merlin covered her mouth, giggling — her laughter echoing gently through the crater.
Victor sighed, but a small, involuntary smile broke through.
The silence that followed was peaceful.
Then, both of them looked toward the enormous staircase that led into the sky.
"Let's bring this back and call it a day."
"Oh! Are we eating out today?"
He pretended to think. "Yeah, we are."
With that, the two climbed the staircase to its end — and in an instant, they appeared at the steps of a beautifully preserved cathedral.
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