[THE FOLLOWING WEEK]
The clearing in the Midland Forest was charred once more.
Entire swathes of grass had been reduced to black earth; even the trees surrounding the clearing was shown scarred.
Merlin stood tall in the center, her staff leveled before her, and her breath steady and unwavering.
Her blue hair, tied in a loose ponytail, fluttered in the breeze.
Grimhild watched from her usual place. Her eyes pierced Merlin, weighing her soul as much as her spellcraft.
"Begin." Grimhild's command cut the silence.
Merlin nodded, her hands tightening around her staff.
For days she had reflected on her choice. Agnes' words had repeated at her mind, tempting her with freedom, with vengeance, with an easier path.
And in the end, she had made her decision.
She had told Grimhild only once, her voice shaking but her will firm:
{"Even if it erases me... I will walk this path. Destruction or nothing. I won't run away anymore."}
And Grimhild had simply nodded:
{"Then prove it."}
Now, it was time.
Merlin shut her eyes. The first thing she let go of was fear. Fear of failure, fear of pain, fear of disappointing her master. She let it sink into the abyss.
Then sorrow. The ache of loss, the childhood screams still echoing in her dreams. She exhaled, letting them unravel thread by thread into silence.
Joy followed. Laughter, warmth, the rare smiles she had found in Grimhild's face. She felt her chest clench, but she let them go.
One by one, her memories slipped into stillness until there was only emptiness.
Her breathing slowed, and her heart no longer thundered in her chest.
The world fell away.
She entered the Voidstate.
A black magic circle bloomed in front of her. Its edges were lined in black and purple flame, yet no heat radiated from it—only the suffocating chill of nothingness.
"..."
Merlin raised her staff, her voice hollow, stripped of emotion.
"Emil Dronta Hades!"
But it was not the incomplete spell she had struggled with for weeks. The circle roared to life, collapsing into a concentrated singularity before expanding outward as black fire.
Except it was not truly fire.
The air where it burned simply ceased to exist.
Trees dissolved into smoke, stones vanished as though plucked from creation itself.
Grimhild's eyes widened—the smallest crack in her eternal stoicism.
"...She's done it."
Merlin's body trembled as the annihilation surged forward, yet her will did not falter. She had entered the Voidstate, severing herself from all she was.
Even though it was a temporary trance, the Voidstate still takes away certain emotions, making one less of a human.
Merlin staggered, collapsing to one knee, gasping for air.
"I... I did it." Her voice was weak, but there was no mistaking the truth.
Grimhild stepped forward.
Her expression was unreadable as always, but her crimson gaze lingered on her student for a long moment.
"You... mastered it faster than even I expected."
Merlin blinked up at her, surprise breaking through the haze of exhaustion.
"Y-You mean... you didn't think I could?"
Grimhild's lips twitched—barely, but enough.
"I thought it would take you years. Decades, perhaps. But in a week... you have reached the first seal of Destruction Magic."
Merlin looked up at her, smiling.
"Merlin. From this day onward, you are no longer merely my apprentice. You are a wielder of Destruction."
Merlin's chest heaved, her lips parting in disbelief.
Then, for the first time since she entered the Voidstate, tears welled in her eyes.
"Master... thank you. I'll never betray the path you gave me!"
Grimhild looked at her tears streaming down her cheeks before finally smiling.
"Wielding this power means making the world a better place, Merlin."
Merlin lowered her head, tears falling uncontrollably from her face.
"Despite its name, I want it to be used to save people, and make this world a better place."
The girl looked up, eyes shining with exhaustion and triumph alike.
Her master's voice, though even, carried the weight of judgment.
"You've achieved what few mortals could even dream of. But now comes the greater question." Grimhild's staff pressed lightly into the scorched ground. "Will you wield this power as I have taught you? Will you use Destruction not as a weapon of vengeance, but as a means to stand at King Arthur's side—to change this world, to preserve hope, and to guide mortalkind away from ruin?"
Merlin's breath caught.
She thought of Arthur, the legendary king who bore the world upon his shoulders. She thought of Grimhild's words, her training, her sacrifice.
"You want me to stand by his side? Y-Yes!" She whispered at first, but her voice shook with certainty. "Yes, Master. I'll use this power to protect. To save people. I'll stand beside Arthur's dream and change this world, just like you want!"
Grimhild gave the smallest nod, her expression a smile.
"Good. Then your path begins here."
Merlin smiled through her tears, yet the warmth lasted only a heartbeat.
Because another voice rose in her mind.
{"She would have you chained to her vision of the world. She would make you a tool for Arthur's dream, not your own. Is that what you want, little bird? To follow Grimhild's ideologies and morals? To not live how you want?"}
Agnes' words sank in her mind like poison, and Merlin's chest tightened.
She saw her parents again—their faces pale with terror, her mother's last cry, her father's blood-soaked hands reaching for her as those people tore through her home.
Her tears trembled on the edge of her lashes with her hands gripping her staff tightly.
"No..." She whispered.
Grimhild raised her head slightly.
"What?"
Merlin stood slowly, unsteady but unyielding.
She met her master's crimson eyes with her own violet ones burning.
"No, Master. I can't!"
Grimhild's expression sharpened.
"Explain."
Merlin's throat burned as the words poured out.
"I don't want to fight for Arthur's dream! I don't care about saving the whole world or guiding mankind. I want... revenge." Her voice trembled fiercely. "I want the people who destroyed my village to suffer! I want them gone. I'll use this power—for them. For my parents. For my sake!"
The clearing fell deathly silent.
"You would use Destruction... for vengeance?"
Merlin's breath came fast and uneven, but she refused to look away.
"Yes."
Her voice rang in the air like a blade.
"I want justice. My justice! Even if it isn't what you wanted for me. Those people killed my family... I can't just let it go! I want to use what you taught me for revenge! Then maybe... I'll serve by King Arthur's side."
"Revenge..." Her voice was low. "I had hoped you were wiser than this, Merlin."
Merlin's fingers clenched around her staff.
"Wiser? Master—they slaughtered my village! My parents died screaming! And you expect me to just... protect strangers and preach about 'hope'?!"
Grimhild's expression did not change, but her silence pressed like a mountain.
At last, she spoke.
"I know the taste of hatred." Her words carried an ancient weight. "I know what it is to let hatred burn in your chest until it devours everything else. And I know, Merlin, that when the flames of vengeance die, only ash remains. You think it will heal you, but it will leave you emptier than the Voidstate you struggled so hard to master."
Merlin shook her head violently.
"No! You don't understand! I need this! I need them to pay!"
"Listen well." Grimhild's voice hardened, slicing the air. "If you wield Destruction for hate, you will become no different than the very ones you despise. You will be ruled by regret, trapped by the corpses of those you thought you avenged. This is not justice. It is corruption of the soul."
Merlin's chest heaved, her staff trembling in her hands.
"Then let me be corrupted! At least then I'll finally have peace!"
Grimhild's crimson eyes narrowed, and for the first time, a shadow of sorrow crossed her face.
"...Then you have chosen your path."
Merlin froze.
Grimhild lowered her head in disappointment.
"From this day forward..." She declared, her voice ringing like judgment. "You are no longer my apprentice. You are cast out from my sight, Merlin. Never return to this place, and never again call me Master."
The words struck harder than any spell.
Merlin staggered back, her lips parting in disbelief.
"W-What...? No, Master, wait, I didn't mean..."
"You meant every word." Grimhild turned her back on her. "And because of that, I can no longer guide you. Leave, Merlin. Before I erase you here and now."
Merlin's throat burned, and tears spilled freely down her cheeks, but her legs carried her backward, step by trembling step.
"...Fine." Her voice shook, raw with fury and grief. "If you won't stand with me, then I'll walk my path alone. And when I've avenged my family, I'll prove to you I was right!"
Her scream echoed through the forest before she turned and ran, vanishing into the Midland Forest.
Grimhild remained unmoving in the clearing.
Only when silence returned did she finally close her eyes, her fingers tightening around her staff until the wood creaked.
"...Foolish child."
Her whisper was soft.
"Hatred will eat you alive."
But even so, for the first time in years, the Witch of Destruction felt the weight of something heavy and bitter in her chest.
It was Regret.
She had many of those nowadays.