Sora turned toward the sound as if pulled by a thread tied to her soul.
Her lifeless eyes trembled—
Then focused.
Through the thinning veil of smoke, a shape stood where nothing should have remained.
A silhouette.
Tall.
Familiar.
Familiar in a way her heart recognized before her mind did.
Her lips parted soundlessly.
"…Null-san…?"
The smoke peeled away in slow spirals as the heat currents shifted.
Ash drifted down like dark snow.
The silhouette sharpened.
A person.
Standing.
Her breath caught painfully in her throat.
Standing in the center of the crater.
Dual swords still in his hands.
Clothes scorched at the edges.
A few bruises along his arms.
Soot marking his cheek and collar.
But—
Alive.
Very much alive.
For a moment, Sora simply stared.
Her mind refused to process what her eyes were seeing.
The despair that had just swallowed her heart had no time to retreat—it shattered instead, replaced by something so overwhelming her body didn't know how to contain it.
Her hands flew to her mouth.
A broken, trembling breath escaped her.
Tears spilled instantly from her sky-blue eyes, slipping through her fingers without restraint.
Warm.
Uncontrolled.
Her chest trembled as relief crashed into her with a force stronger than fear, stronger than despair, stronger than anything she had felt since this battle began.
He's alive…
He's alive.
He's alive.
The words echoed over and over inside her.
Not as thoughts.
As relief.
As salvation.
She repeated it like a prayer.
Like a miracle she didn't dare believe was real.
The suffocating weight that had been crushing her lungs vanished all at once, replaced by a trembling lightness that made her knees weak.
Her heart pounded wildly—not in panic, but in an indescribable, overwhelming relief and joy she could not suppress.
A soft, fragile laugh escaped her through tears before she even realized she was making a sound.
Relief.
Joy.
Disbelief.
Gratitude.
All of it crashed into her at once.
After a few seconds, She hurriedly tried to wipe her tears away, embarrassed at how completely she had fallen apart.
Through her blurred vision, she took in his state desperately, as if afraid he would vanish if she blinked.
Bruised.
Burned.
But standing.
Then—
For the briefest, strangest instant—
Something flickered at the edge of her perception.
His hair.
That long, lustrous white hair.
For a fraction of a moment—
It looked black.
Not shadowed.
Not dimmed.
Pitch black.
Like strands of living darkness cascading down his back.
Sora blinked in confusion.
Her breath hitched.
Impossible…
She blinked again.
Her vision cleared as she wiped the last of her tears away.
White.
His hair was still pale white.
Untouched.
Unchanged.
She exhaled a long, shaky sigh of relief.
Of course.
There's no way…
Her mind must still be unstable from the emotional shock.
She shook her head faintly to dispel the absurd thought.
There is no way he is an {Inversed Extreme}.
How could she even momentarily think something so horrifying?
Such beings were abominations.
Existences that are destiny to distort reality itself.
How could she even allow such a thought to surface?
That glimpse—
Nothing more than an illusion created by her distressed mind.
She scolded herself inwardly for allowing such a thought to surface.
Especially now—
Especially after realizing how deeply he had come to matter to her.
...
Null sheathed one blade, then the other, the metal whispering softly as they slid home.
He walked toward her through the settling ash as if the battlefield were nothing more than an evening stroll.
Unhurried.
Unbothered.
Alive.
Each step closed the distance that had just felt like an uncrossable abyss.
Sora was still kneeling.
Still trembling.
Still trying—and failing—to compose herself.
Tears clung stubbornly to her lashes despite her attempts to wipe them away.
He stopped right in front of her.
Close enough that she could see the faint bruises on his skin.
Close enough that she could hear his calm breathing.
Close enough that she could feel that he was real.
Alive.
A familiar, mischievous curve tugged at the corner of his lips.
"…Sora-san," he said lightly, voice carrying that familiar teasing warmth, "you look like you've seen a ghost."
"I didn't know my absence for ten seconds could cause this much devastation to you."
Her breath caught.
Before she could react, his hands rose.
And gently—
Very gently—
Warm fingers gently cupped her cheeks.
Sora's entire body stiffened in shock.
Her eyes widened.
A sharp intake of breath escaped her.
This was improper.
Too close.
Too intimate.
Her instincts screamed to pull away.
To scold him.
To restore distance.
But—
She didn't pull away.
Didn't swat his hands.
Didn't scold him.
She simply looked up at him, frozen, caught between embarrassment, relief, and something far more dangerous.
His thumbs brushed faintly beneath her eyes, wiping the tear tracks she had failed to hide.
"…You were crying," he observed softly, head tilting.
A playful glint entered his eyes.
"For me."
Her lips parted, but no words came out.
Color rushed to her face.
"I—I was not—" she tried, voice unsteady and utterly unconvincing.
He leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice just enough that only she could hear.
"Sora-san," he murmured, "that didn't look like the concern of a saintess for a civilian."
Her heart pounded violently against her ribs.
"That," he continued softly, a devilish hint returning to his smile, "looked very personal."
Her fingers tightened into the fabric of her dress.
She couldn't look away.
Couldn't gather her thoughts.
Couldn't form a single dignified response.
His gaze softened just a fraction.
"I'm starting to think," he continued gently, "that you might care about me more than you're willing to admit."
Her mind went blank.
Every thought tangled.
Every defense she had built crumbled uselessly.
"…Null-san…" she whispered helplessly.
He studied her expression with open amusement, but beneath it was something strangely tender all at once..
"You know," he added casually, thumbs still resting against her cheeks, "if you keep looking at me like that, I'm going to misunderstand."
Her face burned hotter.
She wanted to protest.
To scold him.
To regain her composure.
But she couldn't.
Because for the first time—
He wasn't wrong.
"Scoundrel," Sora murmured, averting her sky-blue eyes with a pout.
Seeing this, Null couldn't help but remark, "Cute..."
Sora's already flushed face turned an even deeper shade of red.
Null withdrew his hand, his dark red eyes gleaming with an inexplicable emotion.
A jagged snarl tore through the air.
"HOW… ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!"
Mor'gan's voice thundered across the crater, raw with disbelief. His molten-gold eyes were locked onto Null as if trying to burn an answer out of him by force alone. One clawed finger shot forward, pointing straight at the boy like an accusation hurled by fate itself.
"I saturated the barrier. I saw the lances pierce through. I watched the ground where you stood turn into a furnace!"
His voice dropped into a hoarse growl.
"You should be ash."
A step forward. Stone crushed under his heel.
"You should be nothing."
Ash drifted lazily between them.
Null didn't answer immediately.
He had just withdrawn his hand from Sora's cheek. The warmth of her skin still lingered faintly against his fingers.
He glanced down at them for a brief second, as if momentarily distracted by that sensation.
Then he turned.
Slowly.
Calmly.
His dark-red eyes met Mor'gan's burning glare without a trace of agitation.
He brushed soot from his sleeve.
Rolled his shoulder once. A small wince acknowledged the bruising.
As though he were assessing damage after tripping on a road.
"Hm," he murmured thoughtfully.
Mor'gan's eye twitched.
Null looked at him with mild curiosity.
"Good question."
The demon's lips peeled back. "Do not toy with me!"
"I'm not," Null replied evenly.
He tilted his head slightly, as if analyzing the memory himself.
"I saw them coming. The barrier weakened. The timing was… unfortunate."
A faint exhale escaped him.
"I just moved where the fire wasn't going to be."
Simple.
Too simple.
Mor'gan snarled. "There were no gaps! That was saturation bombardment!"
Null tilted his head slightly.
"Then I suppose," he said gently, "I moved into the one place they weren't going to be."
The answer sounded absurd.
Too simple.
Too light.
Too… truthful.
No pride.
No dramatic defiance.
Just a quiet statement of what he believed happened.
Mor'gan stared at him.
Because Null did not speak like someone who had performed a miraculous feat.
He spoke like someone who had stepped aside from falling debris.
As if surviving that attack required nothing more than basic awareness.
As if he had not stood inside a killing field designed to erase anything caught within it.
"You're lying," Mor'gan growled.
Null gave a faint shrug.
"I don't think so."
A small pause.
Then, with a crooked hint of a smile:
"Maybe I'm just lucky."
The word lingered strangely in the air.
Lucky.
Behind him, Sora watched silently.
Her breathing had not fully steadied yet.
Her heart had not fully slowed.
But as she looked at Null standing there so casually, so inexplicably intact—
A thought she didn't dare voice stirred quietly in the back of her mind.
Mor'gan's disbelief…
Didn't feel unreasonable at all.
A low sound rumbled out of Mor'gan's chest.
Then it grew.
A laugh.
Deep. Harsh. Grating against the ruined air like metal dragged across stone.
"Hah… hahahaha…"
The disbelief drained from his face, replaced by something far more vicious.
A cruel glint ignited in his molten-gold eyes.
"No matter," he said, voice dropping into something calm and poisonous.
"Miracles, luck, tricks… it changes nothing."
His gaze slid past Null.
Settled on Sora.
A slow, wicked grin stretched across his face.
"I'll kill you myself."
A pause.
"And this time…"
His eyes gleamed.
"I'll make sure your girlfriend watches it happen."
The words had barely left his mouth—
When he moved.
The ground beneath him imploded.
Stone shattered outward as his massive frame blurred forward with terrifying speed, greatsword dragging a streak of burning light behind him like a comet tearing through the battlefield.
Sora felt it before she saw it.
A spike of killing intent so dense it felt like the air itself turned into blades.
Her body reacted instantly.
She stepped in front of Null without thinking.
Feet slid apart.
One hand forward.
The other drawing radiant light into existence.
"Null-san— stay behind me. Don't move."
Her voice was firm.
Sharp.
Composed.
Completely different from the trembling girl who had been kneeling in smoke moments ago.
Light flared around her like a living mantle as Mor'gan's first strike descended.
CLANG—!!!
His greatsword crashed against a hastily formed barrier of condensed radiance. The impact detonated outward in a shockwave that tore through the crater, sending ash and debris spiraling into the sky.
Sora's heels dug into the fractured ground as she absorbed the force.
Her arms trembled.
But she did not yield a single step.
Mor'gan's grin widened.
"Yes!"
His sword rose again.
Crashed down again.
And again.
Each strike heavier than the last.
Each blow accompanied by laughter that grew louder and uglier.
"Let's see how long you can protect him!"
BOOM.
A second strike split the light barrier with cracks of luminous fractures.
BOOM.
A third sent spiderwebs of radiant fissures racing across its surface.
"I'll make sure—" he snarled between blows, "you both taste the deepest pits of despair before I kill you!"
His sword swept sideways this time, not aiming at Sora—
But curving toward the space behind her.
Toward Null.
Sora twisted instantly, intercepting it with a burst of blinding light that exploded outward on contact.
The impact sent her sliding backward several meters, boots carving lines into the scorched earth.
She forced herself back into position immediately.
Back in front of Null.
Shielding him.
Mor'gan's eyes gleamed with savage delight.
"Yes… that's it."
He raised the greatsword again.
"Break yourself trying to save him."