In the oppressive gloom of the forest, where a mournful wind swept through, Trizz's silhouette was that of a broken man. Ram's dried blood stained his dark robes, contrasting sharply with the deathly pallor of his skin. Physical exhaustion was a mere detail regenerating his heart had consumed nearly half of his mana and stamina but that was the least of his worries. It was the guilt that gnawed at him, an emotion he desperately tried to deny.
The young man forged ahead, dead leaves crunching beneath his boots. For the first time since his arrival in this world, his mind was not an engine of cold calculations, but a storm of emotional chaos.
Echidna (Internal, sarcastic): "You're making such a fuss. You've sacrificed and used Ram multiple times before. Don't expect me to summon the Archbishop of Melancholy now; you are Pride, remember?"
Trizz ignored the mocking remarks. It wasn't simple death that haunted him, but the torture and betrayal that had preceded it. He had killed Rem's sister an ally he had allowed himself to respect. He had committed the irreparable. Even Subaru's Return by Death could not erase the filth of this act from his memory.
Echidna (Internal): "What are you doing? Are you trying to tell me that Pride regrets his actions? You are Pride; you are always right, are you not?"
The young man stopped dead in the middle of the forest. The Miasma surrounding him a legacy of his resurrection after the fight against Ley, Roy, and Regulus grew denser and more menacing.
Trizz (His voice rising, threatening and sharp): "You think this is all a game?! You think I'm some emotionless husk like you?!"
He clenched his fists, rage mingling with self-loathing. The façade of the superhuman was crumbling under the weight of reality.
Trizz (Continuing, his tone breaking into an exhausted whisper): "Yes, I am imperfect! Yes, I'm just a teenager trying to pass himself off as a superman! I'm... I'm... just a fool who thinks the world should always revolve around his own little self!"
Echidna's silence was heavy, breaking from her usual sarcasm. This admission of "foolishness" the acceptance of his imperfection and moral failure was information of inestimable value to her.
Echidna (Internal, her voice suddenly soft, charged with insatiable curiosity): "Fascinating... You are aware of the duality of your soul. This is the first time you have questioned your Pride. Tell me, frizz... if you are a fool, then what do you make of all the chaos you organized for the salvation of the Kingdom? Was it merely a whim? Explain to me the link between the fool you claim to be and the strategic genius you embody."
Trizz (Face twisted in frustration): "A strategist? I am nothing. What do you still not understand, even after seeing my memories? Does your Witch's brain not grasp that I am not an infallible genius? You're all sick, you..."
He cut himself off. He realized what he had become. He was no longer the awkward boy trying to be funny, but the monster Echidna had described: a being capable of planning massacres, yet still traumatized by the endless hell of the loops.
Echidna (Internal, blinded by results rather than human reality): "You are nothing? Your actions say otherwise. How can a fool manipulate Royal Candidates with such ease? How can a fool send the Sloth Cult to its own destruction? How can a fool train the most dangerous assassins in the kingdom? Explain it to me, frizz."
Trizz (Breaking down mentally): "Explanations? Are you doing this on purpose?! I sacrificed people to get enough information to destroy the Cult! I used memories of the anime and the novel to understand the psychology of the candidates! I am not the perfect man you think I am! I'm just a cheater..."
The silence became glacial. The image of the "Infallible Genius" Echidna had projected onto Trizz had collapsed, replaced by the vulnerability of a traumatized "cheater." The Witch fell silent to analyze the situation.
But only one thing remained for Trizz: his determination. He had to settle this arc. He would not be a monster like Echidna, but a weakling who would do anything to succeed. His rage and guilt were now channeled toward the one person at the root of this catastrophe: Roswaal. The man who had destroyed Ram and Rem's village, the man who had tried to turn him into a slave, the man who had just tried to assassinate him.
Trizz (His crimson gaze darkening with burning hatred): "Genius or not, I will be the one to bring you down, Roswaal."
The guilt persisted, but determination was now his only law. He had to succeed at all costs, even if it meant dying again and again. His pace quickened. A few minutes later, he found himself near the houses. Roswaal was nowhere to be found. Trizz realized this loop was a disaster either the sadistic clown had left the Sanctuary, or he was hiding.
Trizz (Internal, fists clenched): "Roswaal, I'll get you one day. And on that day, you will be my slave for the rest of your miserable life."
He continued walking, eyes fixed on his destination. In the distance, however, a young man was walking slowly, an aura of despair hovering over his head. It was Subaru. Something serious must have happened to him, or worse. Subaru looked up at Trizz but actively avoided meeting his crimson gaze. Trizz knew his stare was terrifying to most, but Subaru the anomaly who could usually look him in the eye was avoiding him. It was a minor concern; he would deal with it later. There were more important things.
Subaru (In a falsely reassuring tone): "There you are, Frizz... Emilia-tan wants to see you, as always... Ram humiliated me again; that's the second time today!"
Something was wrong with Subaru. Since the start of this loop, he had been actively avoiding Trizz's eyes.
Trizz (Hiding his guilt with sarcasm): "Barusu, Emilia wants to see me? She doesn't want to see the idiot with the scary eyes anymore? That surprises me, you know?"
Feeling belittled, Subaru found a new, emphatic tone.
Subaru: "Yeah, that's right! One day, I'll have more charisma than you and I'll have a harem all to myself!"
Trizz: "Your harem? Emilia would be thrilled to hear your fine words; she'd finally succumb to your legendary future charisma, wouldn't she, Lolimancer?"
The nickname and the panic made Subaru react with a mix of disdain and fear that Emilia might hear, but instead of apologizing, he burst out laughing like a child.
Subaru (Placing a hand on Trizz's shoulder): "Lolimancer! That brings back memories of our first day in this world, Frizz. We were such screw-ups thinking we were invincible. Elsa thrashed us like ants."
Trizz let out a small laugh, remembering the time he smashed Old Man Rom's door with his reverse psychology theory, then hid in barrels for fear that Elsa would attack him. He had been so naive, thinking he could solve everything through the loyalty of his allies.
Trizz (Finally releasing his mask of the cold, distant strategist): "Yeah, I remember. Remember when I asked Emilia to marry me and Puck said, 'Lia would never go out with an insolent, suicidal brat who creates explosions'?"
Subaru (Clutching his stomach and choking with laughter): "And Beatrice turning you into her apprentice with a slave contract?! Forcing you to clean her library and be her private chef! Ah, the good old days!"
Trizz burst into laughter in turn. His mask had collapsed, leaving room for the Isekai teenager buried under the tension.
Trizz (Trying to imitate Beatrice): "With her famous line: 'Trizz belongs to Betty, I suppose. Betty's apprentice must not waste time with people unworthy of your species, I suppose.' Beatrice even tried to sleep in my bed after the Snow Festival!"
auteur : I'm writing the remake of arc 2.5 while I'm writing this chapter. After reading this chapter, you'll need the chapters from arc 2.5... you will know why I say it
Echidna (Internal, sulking): "What a boring relationship! When I make jokes, you call me a degenerate. When it's your impulsive friend, you laugh like a kid. Tell me the truth, Frizz am I really that much of a nuisance to you?!"
Subaru (His laughter fading, replaced by harsh reality): "Yeah, I remember that day... But all of that is in the past now... Frizz, I didn't know when or where to tell you this, but... you've changed a lot."
Subaru's words brought Trizz back to reality. Subaru was right he had changed. He had manipulated everyone he met and placed himself above them to avoid feeling betrayal which had failed today, as Ram had betrayed him just like in the forest.
Trizz (His smile fading, leaving a cold stare): "Changed a lot? Let's just say I grew up faster unlike you, who doesn't even try to improve and just spends your time running after Emilia."
Subaru held his breath and clenched his fists. Trizz was right again. He was dead weight, serving only as a reset button. He had dumped his entire burden onto his friend. He felt pathetic self-disgust mixed with the guilt over Rem being in a coma.
Subaru (Eyes still fixed on the ground): "Yeah, I know. I'm an idiot obsessed with Emilia-tan. Just a good-for-nothing who only causes you problems. I know I'm useless. My only use is to reset the world every time things go wrong, but..."
Trizz (Cutting him off): "What are you telling me, 'useless'? Barusu, I'm not looking for you to become like me. I just want you to focus on the loop, not on superficial relationships. If you were that useless, I never would have given you such important tasks."
He approached Subaru with a sincerity he thought he had lost months ago and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Trizz: "You pulled off the Alliance and destroyed the White Whale with just the random hints I gave you. Thanks to you and your jokes, Emilia is doing much better. Thanks to you, we have new allies, and more. Don't forget Rem's words we are her heroes, after all. I am Trizz, the one with the cold, strategic brain. You are Barusu, with the tactical and emotional brain. We both need each other."
Subaru (His self-disgust vanishing for a moment): "Thanks, Frizz. I've gotta go. Good luck with Emilia-tan."
Subaru walked away. Trizz resumed his walk, the weight of guilt returning, but now bolstered by the determination to defeat Roswaal.
Echidna (Internal): "You don't see me as a friend or a trusted ally, after all our intellectual strategy discussions? You lower yourself to the role of a big brother, despite your potential..."
The word "potential" brought back memories of a failed loop Priscilla and Anastasia were willing to let lives perish for their own benefit and had forced him to join their side. If Trizz hadn't destroyed the Sloth Cult, hundreds of villagers would have died because of the hypocrisy of the Royal Candidates.
Trizz (Internal, spitting a cold truth): "You're all the same, wanting to use me for your own benefit. All of you are souls darker than the shadows."
Echidna (Internal): "Me, a hypocrite? Impossible! I'm just trying to make you grow! Without any ill intent. Besides, I have more class than her royal candidates
Trizz( Interne)"Shut up, Echidna! Go dig through my memories and leave me alone with your degenerate jokes!"
Echidna (Internal, sulking and hurt): "Always the same manners! You take everything so seriously! Fine, I won't help you anymore!"
Trizz: (Interne)"Always? What do you mean 'always'? Are you starting to lose it, Echidna? Explain yourself we've only known each other for three days!"
Trizz (Internal): Echidna...
Echidna did not answer. She had activated "Spoiled child mode." Two possibilities occurred to Trizz either this was another one of her twisted jokes, or she didn't perceive the passage of time the same way in the real world. That word, "always," was unsettling, but he brushed it aside. He would deal with it later. He had to see Emilia.
(Time Skip...)
Trizz quickened his pace along the dirt path toward Emilia's quarters. Silence had settled in his mind, Echidna having ceased her chatter for several long minutes an absolute record. Without the Witch's constant venom, Trizz's mind regained a glacial stability. He had to focus on the Mansion; Subaru had to handle Emilia in his absence. He had abandoned the plan of sending Garfiel to the Mansion; it was too late to subdue him by force. This loop was a disaster; Roswaal's sick plan had worked to perfection.
Arriving at the door, Trizz locked his mask into place. He buried his rage, guilt, and disgust deep within his soul. Emilia was too unstable for him to show her the darker facets of his existence. He knocked on the cold, smooth door.
A honeyed voice, fragile as a cracked silver bell, answered: "You may enter. The door isn't barred."
He entered. The room was airy, the window open and the flesh-pink curtains dancing softly. In the center of the room, in a bed slightly larger than average, lay Emilia, dressed in a milky pink gown. Long silver strands framed her pale face. Her amethyst eyes, clouded with crystalline tears, betrayed a devouring insecurity.
Emilia: "Thank you... for coming. I'm sorry for making you come all this way... I'm sure you had something important to do..."
Trizz approached and sat on the edge of the bed. He was deeply annoyed that she used him in every loop as an emotional replacement for Puck, but he hid that contempt behind his mask of the indispensable ally.
Trizz (His crimson gaze scanning her face to calibrate his lies): "Don't apologize, Princess. As I told you, I will always be there for you, through the best and the worst. It is the privilege of those who serve."
Emilia (A slight smile appeared, though her gaze remained fragile): "Thank you for always being so kind to me... but I don't deserve your kindness..."
It was confirmed her mental state was in shambles. The Clown's fault, again. It was time to play the part.
Trizz (Adopting a theatrical pose, hand over his heart): "Hmm... Princess, what is the matter? Have you lost your spark? I, Trizz, am here to reignite that light and charm you, as the future Knight I have promised to be!"
Emilia: "A knight? You hadn't forgotten that promise?... You always keep your promises, even when everything goes wrong..."
Trizz (Fatigue mingled with disgust behind a brilliant smile): "I know, it's part of my irresistible charm! After all, I shall be the one to carry the burden in your stead, in exchange for a smile that, on its own, will brighten my day."
Emilia (A light, melodic laugh): "A single smile can make you that happy?... You sound a lot like Subaru when you say that."
Hearing Emilia compare him to Subaru sent a cold shiver of rage down his spine. She dared to compare him to an impulsive idiot after all his talent and strategy? She truly was a naive half-elf, a fool convinced the world was made of flowers and good intentions. When the Sanctuary fell, he would personally see to breaking that insufferable naivety.
Trizz (Suppressing his deep irritation): "In a way, you're right about the sentiment. But in practice, I am far more responsible than he is!"
Emilia: "I know. That's why I trust you so much... you're the only one who accepts my weaknesses and my uselessness... and one of the few who isn't terrified by my nature as a half-elf."
Trizz leaned in closer, a soft, warm smile plastered on his face despite the inner storm.
Trizz (Calculating every intonation): "Half-elf or not, you are Emilia, the only one who makes my heart skip a beat. (He waved his hand through the air) Let's play a game. I bet I can make you laugh in a single second."
He struck a dramatic pose, scanning the room with a mock-sly look.
Trizz (Narrowing his eyes to build tension): "Emilia, describe the cutest creature in the world to me. She must have the eyes of a goddess, an enchanting gaze, wonderful hair, and most importantly... pointed ears!"
Emilia placed a hand on her chin, thinking intensely about the clues. Her focused expression was strangely endearing, reminiscent of Anastasia when she smelled a good deal.
Echidna (Internal, flying into a rage, deactivating her sulking mode): "How dare you?! Saying that thing is the cutest creature in the world? What about me? What am I to you? Trash? You don't find me cute?!"
Trizz ignored the shrill voice in his head. Answering now would shatter his mask.
Echidna (Internal, her anger reaching a crescendo): "On top of that, you're ignoring me! You asked for this. I will no longer be your Mentor! And don't you dare speak to me from now on! Keep your title as a womanizer, Pride! Go lose yourself in your lust!"
Ironically, it was she who had been harrassing him since the contract was signed. She was a true nuisance, an emotional leech who couldn't stand the competition.
Emilia (Looked up, her ears twitching as if steam were coming out of them): "Yes! I've got it! It's PUCK!"
Trizz shook his head with gentle mockery. He moved even closer, invading her personal space, and delicately placed two fingers on the tips of her ears. His crimson eyes, filtered by the light, momentarily hid the darkness of his soul.
Trizz (With a honeyed voice, his tone from his old life resurfacing despite himself): "It's you, Emilia."
Emilia blushed instantly, waving her hands frantically in the air, totally caught off guard by the raw intimacy of the remark. She had fallen for it completely.
Emilia (Hiding her scarlet face): "Bu... but... that's not funny! At all!... Really not funny, Trizz!"
Trizz flopped backward onto the sheets, bursting into genuine laughter, his lungs empty. He was surprised himself by the natural charm he had accidentally used.
Echidna (Internal, a voice of icy, pure hatred): "Curse that she-devil."
(Time Skip...)
Stepping out of the room, the mission was a success Emilia was temporarily stabilized, even if Trizz had crossed a line by making her blush with raw emotion. Walking over the dead leaves in the courtyard, he knew he had to leave as soon as possible. He activated "El Aka" a golden light enveloped his silhouette, preparing him for combat. He was now ready to face Elsa, Meili, and especially the mysterious blue-haired man who despised him so much.
He didn't know why that man hated him, but he knew Elsa and Meili were now obsessed with him after the successful massacre of the Sloth Cult. This realization, almost military in nature, was that even the Kingdom of Lugnica, with all its Knights over 400 years, had failed. Trizz had humiliated the Order of Imperial Knights a second time. He was superior to them, having earned the title of the proudest person in Lugnica, the genius of chaos.
But this brought major drawbacks every rival camp (except Felt's, who remained his friend) wanted to manipulate and claim Trizz. He was far too precious a commodity to be left free in the hands of a naive half-elf. They wanted to exploit him as a resource.
Running toward the barrier, he found a frustrated Garfiel, whose gaze betrayed a growing suspicion toward Trizz and his Miasma of Pride.
Garfiel (Brows furrowed, eyes dark, tone threatening): "Hey! You! What the hell are you doing here? You should be with Emilia-sama and the others licking their boots, instead of wandering around!"
Trizz, surrounded by his golden light, had no time for excuses. He had to craft a new mask to neutralize Garfiel without a fight and without jeopardizing his plan. The attack was scheduled for the fifth day.
Echidna (Internal, still furious, but driven by the pride of her knowledge to intervene): "Use the tone of a strategist, but with absolute confidence, like a herald announcing the apocalypse. Tell him the truth, but brutally. This demi-human is simple-minded, Frizz; play on his heartstrings loyalty!"
Trizz (Internal, surprised by this charity, the opposite of her sin of Greed): "You're helping me? Thank you; you're saving my life! You're a nuisance, but a useful one!"
Trizz scratched his temple silently, his crimson eyes marked by determination.
Trizz: "Garfiel, I know you hate me because of my scent and my Cult attire. I don't care about your feelings, but listen closely: your sister, Frederica, is in mortal danger."
Garfiel (Frowning deeper, teeth gritted): "Huh? What kind of gibberish are you spouting? And how do you know?! Is this another one of your bastard tricks to slip away?!"
Trizz (Fists clenched by calculation, dark gaze): "I don't have time to explain how I know what I know. Time is against us!"
Garfiel's anger subsided, though his suspicions of Trizz did not. He was forced to cooperate Trizz was the camp's strategist, and thus the ally and protector of Frederica.
Garfiel (Rage replaced by pure determination, fists tight): "Let me go with you! I have to help her! You're just a gnat; you'll die out there in two seconds!"
His trap had worked. Garfiel was his pawn in this sacrificial loop.
Trizz (Acting with hidden contempt, exploiting the logic of the Guardian): "No. And listen well! You stay here! I must go alone. Only I can handle this specific threat. Your role is infinitely more crucial here You are the pride and the Unshakable Shield of the Sanctuary, the protector of the weak. Leaving with me means abandoning your sacred duty to the Sanctuary and its people. Watch Subaru in my absence. His weakness could ruin the Trial; he risks ruining everything and showing that demi-humans are inferior."
Seeing Trizz's implacable logic and his (feigned) desire to protect the Sanctuary, Garfiel reluctantly accepted. Trizz could handle the threats and save his sister. Besides, if he were as weak as he claimed, he never would have dared to challenge Garfiel to a fight.
Garfiel (Fists clenched): "I get it this time, you bastard. I'll let you go, but if my sister gets so much as a scratch, I'll make you pay with your miserable life!"
Trizz continued on his way. Thanks to his Yang spell, he also activated the buff from his Authority the golden aura shifted into a crimson aura, like flames. It multiplied his physical reflexes. His crimson eyes reflected an endless determination. Elsa, Meili, and the blue-haired man would perish no matter what, even at the cost of hundreds of deaths.
Trizz: "As the legend says This alliance began in blood, and it will end in blood."
Echidna (Internal, a satisfied laugh): "What a bloody poem... The mind of the genius is back, isn't it?"
Trizz did not answer, but Echidna's statement flattered an ego he thought he had lost. Pride was his only law.
(Time Skip...)
The freezing wind swept through Trizz's black locks under the pale light of a crescent moon, sharp as a scythe. His Cultist robes, heavy and sticky, bore the scars of battle the dried blood of dead cultists and... the darker, haunting stain of Ram's. That mark plagued him, but another thought parasitized his mind, far more unsettling than guilt.
That excessive familiarity. The complete truths she was serving him on a silver platter. Trizz knew the alternative history, the Kasaneru (Greed IF). In that reality, Echidna offered only half-truths to Subaru, letting him die a hundred million times just to satisfy her curiosity. Here? She was reversing her nature. She was actively participating in his survival.
Their contract was supposed to be simple she took the knowledge (memories of another world), he took the freedom (the power). But why would an observer intervene so much? Why this irrational anger after his romantic display with Emilia? It was an anomaly in the equation. But he had no time for riddles. He was entering the edge of the forest, the hunting grounds of Roswaal's domain.
Suddenly, a familiar but amplified sensation surged through him. Since assuming the title of Archbishop of Pride to manipulate the Cult, Trizz had become hypersensitive to the Miasma. His Authority had evolved. It no longer just protected him; it could now share "buffs" with those he deemed worthy, like a king ennobling his subjects.
His instinct, fueled by the Authority, had sharpened. He no longer felt just anger or bloodlust, but an entire palette of surrounding negative emotions. Even more concerning his regeneration. Thanks to his supposed connection with Satella, his wounds closed quickly, but the drain on his mana and stamina was terrifying. He was burning his own resources like raw fuel.
An enemy was close. Immediately, he deactivated his Authority's aura to melt into the shadows, scanning for the threat. What he saw wrenched a grimace of disgust from him, recalling Subaru's horrified descriptions.
It wasn't an animal; it was a mistake of nature. A massive creature, vaguely humanoid, but its head was nothing more than a smooth, cone-shaped skull, without eyes or a mouth. The true horror lay on its torso a gaping, vertical maw lined with rows of sharp, slimy teeth.
No time for questions. Trizz instantly invoked his three Quasi-Spirits Nini and Styler (Yang) hovered to his right, while the Earth Spirit (still nameless) rumbled to his left.
Trizz tried to form a stone sword via Dona magic. The blade appeared, crude and poorly balanced. No matter. He didn't intend to get his hands dirty in melee combat with this abomination. He aimed for the torso.
Trizz: "El Jiwald!"
Four rays of golden light, burning like the sun, shot from his fingers. The impact was devastating. The Mabeast's flesh melted instantly, revealing charred ribs and pulsating organs a blackened liver, a heart beating frantically. Blood erupted in a violent geyser.
Mabeast (Deformed Centaur): "WAHHHH! OOOOUUUWAAAAA!"
The cry wasn't beastly. It was the discordant scream of thousands of infants in agony. Trizz winced under the sonic assault. But instead of collapsing, the creature convulsed. Tissues stitched themselves back together at insane speeds; bones snapped back into place with sickening cracks. Barely regenerated, the beast entered a blind rage, spitting chaotic fireballs in every direction.
A sphere of flames hissed past Trizz's ear. He dodged it just in time, his reflexes boosted by the El Aka spell, and rolled behind a century-old oak.
Is this thing blind? Is it just destroying everything at random? Or is this a tactic to flush me out?
Trizz (Internal, urgent): "Echidna! Do you know this abomination? Tell me how to kill it, fast!"
The silence lasted a second too long before the Witch's voice echoed, dripping with spite.
Echidna (Internal, sulking and cold): "Why should I help you? I believe I am a 'nuisance,' am I not? Besides, you were quite busy ignoring my feelings while flirting with that naive half-elf. Ask her for help."
A tree two meters from Trizz exploded under the impact of a fireball. Time was running out. Echidna was becoming a major logistical problem.
Trizz (Internal, exhausted by this tantrum): "What do you want, for god's sake?! The world is collapsing out here, I'm about to die, and you're playing the jealous brat?!"
Echidna (Internal, her tone shifting, suddenly mischievous and satisfied): "It's very simple. I want reparations for my wounded heart. I want you to declare, right here and now, that I am the smartest, cutest, most incredible, important, and brilliant person... The most useful, magnificent, and sincere Witch of your entire life! And swear never to ignore me again or have an emotional relationship with another person especially not a half-elf without my written permission!"
Trizz nearly choked. She was holding him hostage in the middle of a death match. He clenched his teeth so hard he thought they would shatter. He had no choice. His pride would have to bend for his survival.
Trizz (Internal, forcing himself, every word tearing a piece of his soul): "Are you done with this masquerade?! Fine! You are... beautiful. Magnificent. Incredible. And so smart it makes me want to propose to you! Is that enough?!"
Echidna (Internal, giggling like a lovesick teenager, completely ignoring the sarcasm): "Propose to me? Oh, Frizz! I accept! That's a valid verbal contract! Imagine, we shall accumulate INFINITE knowledge together, hand in hand, through your friend's loops!"
Trizz felt a shiver of pure horror. He had just sold his soul (again). He had to regain control.
Trizz (Internal, baring his fangs to re-establish dominance): "Don't get ahead of yourself. Return by Death belongs to Subaru, and I will never share it with you, or anyone! I gave you what you wanted, Witch. Now, hold up your end of the bargain! How do I kill this thing?!"
Echidna (Internal, teasing and honeyed): "Such Greed, my dear... But a deal is a deal. To kill that thing, aim for the head the cone. It's the only part that cannot regenerate; it's its vital core. See? Your lover takes good care of you."
My dear... Your lover...
Trizz felt like gagging. The disgust for these nicknames almost rivaled what he felt for the monster drooling a few meters away. But he had the information.
He stepped out from his hiding spot, eyes locked on the beast's conical skull.
Trizz: "Let's end this. El Jiwald!"
A blade of concentrated light, surging from the stone sword (empowered by El Dona), struck the beast's conical head with full force. The sound was a macabre symphony cracking bone, splattered red flesh, and geysering blood. The headless body of the Mabeast collapsed with a dull thud, landing on the ash and dead leaves charred by its own fireballs. The air was filled with a nauseating stench of mold and rotting meat.
Trizz approached the carcass to examine it. It was the first time he had seen this type of Mabeast in this Arc.
Echidna (Internal, seeing Trizz's confusion): "You see, that thing is called a 'Blade King.' They are usually found toward the Pleiades Watchtower, located in the sand seas of the Augria Sand Dunes. A strange location for assassins to be using here, wouldn't you say?"
Trizz knew of the Watchtower and the Sand Dunes from having read half of the Gluttony IF, where Subaru killed his friends to retrieve their Books of the Dead with Shaula. However, he had never been able to read Arc 6 due to his studies in his past life as a teenager.
Trizz (Disgusted by the Mabeast's corpse): "What a monstrosity... Elsa and Meili went to the sand dunes to tame these creatures just to kill me. And I bet there are many more in the vicinity."
Echidna (Internal, cold and purely analytical tone): "The fact that they used such chaotic and uncontrollable Mabeasts ones that even I, Flugel, and... a certain arrogant strategist failed to completely eradicate from the Tower's surroundings shows the intellectual level of these assassins. Or rather, their madness."
Trizz: "Even the great Echidna sees their acts as madness. It doesn't surprise me; they're just brainless psychopaths. They don't know how to master chaos. Furthermore, these Mabeasts cannot be fully controlled by Meili's Divine Protection without a permanent risk of rebellion."
The conclusion was inescapable: Elsa and Meili were using Mabeasts that could turn on them at any moment. They hadn't calculated the danger, only the immediate benefit. Echidna saw this as a lack of intelligence, while Trizz saw it as impulsive chaos the exact opposite of his own chaos strategic and cruel.
Continuing his journey, Trizz kept El Aka active. The golden silhouette vanished into the woods, heading toward the Roswaal Manor.
Trizz (Internal, eyes of steel): "They understand nothing of the Art of War. They are nothing but butchers. My Pride will not forgive them for this insult to strategy."
(Time Skip...)
After running a long distance, Trizz finally arrived in front of Roswaal's manor, an elegant building decorated with all sorts of trees and flowers. He approached and knocked on the door with a dull thud.
The door opened, revealing a demi-human with long golden hair and emerald eyes, sporting a shark-like smile with fine, blade-like teeth, much like Garfiel's.
The door opened, revealing a demi-human with long golden hair and emerald eyes, sporting a shark-like smile with fine, blade-like teeth, much like Garfiel's
Frederica (Bowing slightly with an enchanting delicacy that hid deep confusion): "Good evening, Trizz-sama. You have returned?"
Echidna (Internal, concerned, a tone of reproach): "I hope your lust doesn't get the better of you this time, Frizz. You are fiancéed now, don't forget."
Trizz ignored Echidna's words, focusing on Frederica. He had to tell her about the impending assassin attack, but more importantly, he had to check if Beatrice was still alright.
Trizz (Stepping closer, his tone becoming a sharp whisper): "Frederica, I am here because the manor is in mortal danger. Your immediate task is to set traps and barriers outside. I, personally, will handle the assassins when they arrive."
Frederica (Eyes wide, recoiling in fear): "But... Trizz-sama, why would assassins want to attack the manor? And why traps?"
Trizz (Placing a hand on his head, an expression of sheer exhaustion): "Your so-called master, Roswaal, has paid assassins to kill every inhabitant of this house. And because of my presence and reputation, the assassins have recruited numerous Mabeasts to storm the manor the night after tomorrow."
Frederica looked as if she had been struck by lightning, struggling to grasp why Roswaal would orchestrate such a massacre. Giving her no time to digest the information, Trizz stepped closer.
Trizz: "I know it's hard to understand, but you must listen to me. Every second counts. The entire perimeter must be trapped before the assassins arrive. I'll handle Beatrice."
Still confused and in shock, Frederica moved to execute Trizz's orders. He was right it was time for action, not panic. Trizz entered the manor and began heading toward his room. He was drained; regenerating his heart, using El Aka combined with his Authority's buff, and the fight against the Mabeast had left him hollow. He needed rest.
Echidna (Internal, sarcastic): "Congratulations, you've overcome your urge to build a harem. That deserves a medal!"
Trizz (Internal, face dripping with sweat, throwing her sarcasm back at her): "Don't forget that you are part of this twisted harem too, Witch. You are my greatest conquest a mortal who turned the most legendary Witch into his fiance."
Echidna (Internal, a laugh like shattering crystal): "And who are the other members of your harem? Priscilla Barielle, the most arrogant and conceited woman in the kingdom? Anastasia Hoshin, the greediest? Elsa, the Bowel Hunter? Meili, the Mabeast tamer? Petra, the young apprentice maid? Beatrice, the guardian of my library?"
Echidna (Taking a theatrical pause to introduce herself): "And finally, me, the Witch of Legend, the most intelligent, the source of limitless knowledge, the one who collected the souls of the other Witches, and the one who was killed by the Witch of Envy after trying to save the world!"
Trizz entered his room and collapsed onto the soft bed.
Trizz (Closing his crimson eyes, allowing himself to look weak and vulnerable): "You, the Witch who wanted to save the world? Don't make me laugh. and don't label me a pedophile by putting children in this imaginary harem! The Royal Candidates have no feelings for me. They just want to use me, just like Elsa."
Echidna (Internal, with a malicious and persuasive voice): "I think you're wrong. Elsa and Anastasia truly have feelings for you; they simply express them in their own way. You could manipulate them for the ultimate benefit... for both of us."
Trizz did not answer. Exhaustion was dominant. The world faded to black.
(Time Skip...)
Someone hammered violently on the door a sharp, thundering knock that brutally yanked Trizz from his sleep. He sat up heavily. He knew it was her, but he had hoped she would sense his state and wait until morning. His fatigue had mostly vanished, but looking out the window, he saw it was still pitch black.
He opened the door. Standing before him was a young girl with yellow hair, butterfly-shaped pupils, and a dark gaze that rivaled the shadows inhabiting Trizz's soul. It was Beatrice, his self-proclaimed mistress.
Beatrice (Tone high and angry, pointing an accusing little finger): "You never keep your promises to Betty, I suppose! And now that you've arrived at the manor, instead of bowing before your mistress Betty, you dare to go to sleep without permiss...
Beatrice (Tone high and angry, pointing an accusing little finger): "You never keep your promises to Betty, I suppose! And now that you've arrived at the manor, instead of bowing before your mistress Betty, you dare to go to sleep without permission, I suppose!"
Trizz immediately recognized Beatrice's mental state: she could explode at any moment. He instantly donned his mask of the devoted, repentant apprentice to avoid further provoking her or managing a magical crisis.
Trizz (Dropping to one knee in a dramatic pose, as if proposing, crafting his lies with a forced smile): "I am sorry for leaving so abruptly, Mistress Betty. Roswaal has been neutralized and is incapable of harm. I have finally returned to serve you as I should."
Beatrice's anger slowly ebbed, her Pride flattered. She was proud that her apprentice had surpassed even Roswaal in strategy. After all, she was Betty. She held the man the kingdom's elite desired most. The fact that he bowed to her the Genius of Chaos showed her superiority to the entire realm.
Beatrice (Her small chest swelling with pride, a satisfied but vain smile crossing her lips): "You may rise now. That was slow. You should have neutralized Roswaal in only a day or two. You are late, but Betty forgives you this once, I suppose."
Echidna (Internal, choking with laughter and anger at once): "The artificial spirit I created is your mistress, Frizz?! You lower yourself to the role of a servant to a capricious child! This is the best joke of my existence!... If you are to be this devoted to her, then you must be exclusively devoted to me as well! I want the same praise!"
Trizz was tired of the endless voice in his head, especially since the "apprentice" mask was the hardest to maintain with his sleep so brutally broken. He was at his wit's end.
Beatrice (Stepping forward slightly, hiding a hint of bashfulness behind her vanity): "Betty broke her sleep to come see you, I suppose. Now, she wants to sleep with you, I suppose."
Trizz (Rising, hiding his hatred and contempt behind a bright smile of fake contentment): "Your pleasure is my command, Mistress. It will be a great honor to share my bed with someone of such importance to me and the Manor."
Beatrice (An arrogant smile masking deep loneliness and insecurity): "Betty grants you this privilege because you are her apprentice, after all, I suppose."
Trizz lay back down, looking annoyed. Just like with Emilia, he was being used as an emotional nanny and a comfort object. He hated these roles, but they were necessary, disposable tools for this loop.
He closed his eyes. Beatrice clung delicately to him, nesting against his heart. She trembled slightly but felt warmth and softness pressing against his chest. The steady beat of Trizz's heart slowly lulled her into a deep sleep. His presence was strangely safe, like that of a protective brother figure.
Echidna (Internal, a calmer but no less insidious tone): "Goodnight, Frizz. But do not forget my words. Keep an eye on Anastasia and Elsa. They are not as selfless as this child."
(Time Skip, Day 4...)
Trizz woke gently, leaving Beatrice to sleep peacefully with her small body nestled against the pillow. Walking noiselessly through the corridor, he entered one of Roswaal's rarely used rooms, filled with unstable artifacts and dust-covered decorative armor. Trizz retrieved a light but balanced sword; its weight felt familiar.
He left the room with a thought both immoral and rational he planned to sacrifice everyone in the manor, including himself, to gather the maximum amount of information for the next loop. This loop was a lamentable failure, and only a violent reset could save the future.
The sound of footsteps behind him stopped him in his tracks. Sword in hand, he still wore his Cultist attire.
Behind him stood Petra, a young girl with reddish hair and sky-blue eyes. She was in her maid uniform, and a radiant, innocent smile illuminated her face at the sight of him.
Petra (Smile radiant and innocent): "Trizz-sama, you're back at the manor! Are you okay? Have you eaten well? Is there anything useful I can do for you?!"
Petra (Smile radiant and innocent): "Trizz-sama, you're back at the manor! Are you okay? Have you eaten well? Is there anything useful I can do for you?!"
A crushing guilt struck Trizz like a whip. He had sacrificed Petra in the last loop, and he was going to sacrifice her again today. She was the only person who didn't see him as a tool. His Pride refused to let her go. He placed Petra's survival above all his allies. She was important to him his only source of uncorrupted emotion.
Trizz (Smiling, hiding his guilt): "Hello, Petra. How are you? Frederica told me how quickly you're learning. I'm proud of you. I want you to come to the kitchen with me. I'm going to prepare some treats for Beatrice; could you deliver them to her?"
Petra jumped with joy. Trizz needed her for "very important" tasks. In reality, he was using this to place her under Beatrice's protection, the safest place in the Manor.
Petra (Tone energetic and excited): "Yes, I'll follow you, Trizz-sama! I'll do anything for you (a bit shyly)... But where is Beatrice-sama?"
Trizz (Amused by her innocence, walking down the hall): "She's in my room, still sleeping. But I want you to stay with her for now. You two can be friends! Despite her arrogance, she's harmless proof being, I'm still alive!"
Petra (Following Trizz, hands over her mouth to stifle a laugh at the joke about Beatrice): "If you say so, Trizz-sama... Hihihi... Trizz-sama, if you're alive, then I can do it too!"
Echidna (Internal, curious): "I wonder how you managed to keep your cool after sacrificing that child twice, Frizz... Regardless, you know as well as I do that she will die very soon. Stop hiding in your denial."
Trizz ignored Echidna's words. He entered the kitchen, beginning to prepare ingredients eggs, butter, flour, sugar, jam. He hated this world that forced him to watch his allies die over and over... He was powerless. He had to play his role to give Petra a moment of joy before her brutal death...
Once Petra had left, clutching a tray with five crepes shaped like hearts, rabbits, and stars, Trizz let out a silent sigh. He had just sent innocence to take refuge in the only inviolable sanctuary: Beatrice's library. The battlefield was now clear.
He headed toward Roswaal's personal study. If the clown had left any traces of his twisted plan, it was there. Arriving at the heavy oak door, he found it magically locked.
Trizz (Eyes cold, concentrating mana in his leg): "No time for delicacy."
With a violent kick reinforced by his Authority, he shattered the lock. The wood groaned ominously. He entered the room, kicking up a cloud of dust. The air was stale, heavy with ancient obsession. He began frantically searching the desk, tearing open drawers and tossing useless scrolls to the floor.
Echidna (Internal, in a flattered and almost dreamy tone): "All these sacrifices for me... All this future blood spilled and the deaths Roswaal orchestrated, simply to attempt my resurrection! Such morbid devotion. But do not worry, Frizz. Even while you live, you shall remain the only chosen one of my heart."
Trizz ignored Echidna's twisted advances. His anger was reaching a breaking point. Everyone was going to die. Subaru and the inhabitants of the Sanctuary were about to be devoured by the Great Rabbit, and here at the Manor, the massacre was imminent.
It was his fault. By reincarnating, his Pride had accidentally derailed the original scenario. He had made this world infinitely more dangerous, unpredictable, and unstable. He was the origin of this irreversible disaster. He was not the savior; he was the catalyst for chaos.
Echidna (Internal, awkwardly trying to comfort him with her cold logic): "Do not be so hard on yourself. It is the events that forced you to act this way, not the other way around. You adapted your strategy to the madness of the world."
Trizz's self-loathing only intensified in the face of Echidna's apathy. He had become a monster by necessity, certainly, but a monster nonetheless. Suddenly, a honeyed voice, charged with palpable perversity, drifted across the room, freezing him in place.
"Pride-sama... It has been such a~ long time since we last met. Your scent made me want to open bellies the moment I arrived."
Trizz's blood turned to ice. Why now? She was supposed to arrive on the evening of the fifth day. Why this premature event? Was it his Pride again? Was misfortune simply hounding him?
He turned his head slowly, locking his emotions behind his cold strategist's mask the same vacant stare he had worn during the annihilation of the Cult.
Delicately seated on the edge of the open window, bathed in the glow of the early morning light, was a woman of poisonous beauty. Black braided hair, purple eyes sparkling with murderous desire, and a 5'6" silhouette draped in a black dress with a revealing cape. She held her kukri in hand, slowly licking the blade in a way intended to be as exciting as it was terrifying. It was Elsa Granhiert.
She devoured him with her eyes, not as an enemy, but as the ultimate object of her fantasy
She devoured him with her eyes, not as an enemy, but as the ultimate object of her fantasy. Yet, Trizz felt no direct hostility, only a morbid curiosity. He slowly closed the desk drawer, the sharp click echoing like a gunshot.
Trizz (Voice chilling and menacing): "Weren't you supposed to attack the manor on the fifth day, according to your contract? You are a bit ahead of schedule, Bowel Hunter."
Elsa (Cheeks flushing slightly, she placed a hand theatrically against her face): "Oh? You even guessed the exact moment we were going to attack? I expect nothing less from you! After all, you are Pride-sama!"
She stepped down from the windowsill with feline grace, her heels clicking softly on the parquet floor. She advanced toward him, step by step. Trizz knew she could close the distance in a fraction of a second and decapitate him, but she preferred the slow approach the predator savoring the fear of its prey.
Elsa (Drawing her second kukri, closing the gap): "We found one of our most powerful Mabeasts lying on the ground, beheaded. We concluded it was your work. Meili wanted to see you again... just like me."
Echidna (Internal, coldly analyzing the situation): "So that's it. Your action against the Mabeast accelerated their arrival. Be careful, Frizz; this is still a twisted way of loving you. I hope you have a plan she can flip into carnage mode at any moment."
Elsa stopped right in front of Trizz, invading his personal space. The scent of blood and heavy perfume enveloped him. She raised a gloved hand and placed a finger on Trizz's chin, forcing him to look her in the eyes.
Elsa (Her voice becoming an intimate, perverse whisper): "When I told them that you destroyed the Sloth Cult all by yourself, my employers took me for a madwoman. But I saw the reports... You defeated the Kingdom's most perfect Knight, Julius, and you humiliated the Alliance. You are the future partner coveted by Anastasia Hoshin and Priscilla Barielle... You are... perfect."
Her gaze was no longer human. It was that of a fanatic before her idol an idol she desired to dissect just to see what made it shine so brightly. Trizz let an arrogant smile stretch across his lips. She had fallen for it. She was talking too much, savoring her own admiration.
Trizz: "Me, perfect? You're wrong, Elsa. I am broken."
His gaze suddenly turned inhuman, his crimson eyes glowing with a dark light.
Trizz: "But my plans... they are perfect. El Shamak."
A thick, viscous black shadow exploded from Trizz's hand, instantly swallowing the room. This was no simple smokescreen. This modified El Shamak did not just target the senses; it attacked the connection between the soul and the body. Elsa froze, her pupils dilating as her mind was violently torn from physical reality for a few precious minutes.
Trizz retreated into the darkness. He had bought time. The fight was only beginning.
Trizz burst out of Roswaal's study. Elsa was here, which meant the countdown had hit zero. Beatrice had surely already sealed Petra in the Forbidden Library, while Frederica had to be fighting Meili and her Mabeasts alone outside.
As he sprinted down the stairs toward the exit, the world began to slow down. The atmosphere became heavy, syrupy. It was that familiar sensation the whistling in his ears that occurred every time he brushed against death.
His eyes closed. He relaxed his muscles, letting his survival instinct, sharpened by his past deaths, take the lead. His hand drew the light sword and snapped it above his head in one fluid motion.
CLANG!
An axe slammed violently against his blade. The assailant, surprised by this reflexive counter, was thrown to the floor. The man stood up with calculated slowness, looking deeply annoyed.
The Man (Sky-blue hair, bloodshot yellow eyes, a stained black cape): "Damn... you've got good reflexes for a rich brat."
He gripped his axe, his gaze burning with pure hatred. This was no ordinary assassin. He did not appear in any of Trizz's memories of the original story. He was an unforeseen variable, an anomaly born of Trizz's influence on this world.
The Man: "Tall, crimson eyes, black hair... The world's been kind to you, hasn't it, Mr. Perfect? The man all the candidates want to claim that's you, right?"
Trizz (Pointing his sword, gaze vacant and superior): "Did you come to kill me out of jealousy? Spare me your inferiority complex and let's fight."
Trizz attacked. He wanted to test the opponent. The blades clashed in a metallic roar. This man's strength was overwhelming and raw, reminding Trizz of his duel against Julius, but without the knightly elegance. Trizz dodged a circular axe swing and landed a masterful kick to the man's stomach.
The man recoiled, groaning, but counterattacked immediately.
The Man: "El Dona!"
Five stone spikes erupted from the ground, transforming into jagged arrows. Trizz activated his Pride Buff, a crimson aura boosting his speed. He zigzagged between the projectiles, shattering the last ones with a backhand of his blade.
Echidna (Internal, analytical): "He's an experienced Earth magic user, Frizz. Watch out he can alter the terrain beneath your feet at any time."
Trizz lunged, taking advantage of his combined buff and natural agility. But the man was disconcertingly nimble. He dodged the thrust, and Trizz's strike smashed into the wall, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
Trizz (Internal, frustrated): He's too fast for an Earth mage... Is he even human?
Before he could form another thought, a massive block of stone, hidden by the dust, struck him violently in the chest. The impact was so great that Trizz was launched through the window. He fell two stories.
CRAAAAC.
The sound of his own body breaking against the garden floor was unbearable. Trizz vomited a flow of hot blood. His ribs were fractured, several piercing through the skin of his chest. His left arm was twisted at an impossible angle. The pain was a white burn that threatened to snuff him out.
Echidna (Internal, between fascination and horror): "Oh... that really isn't pretty to look at! Don't die just yet, Frizz, or all these efforts will have been for nothing!"
A red light, pulsing like a diseased heart, enveloped Trizz's body. His bones began to snap back into place with sickening squelches and cracks. In the distance, he saw Frederica. She was in her tigress form, but it was a sight of horror. She was nothing more than a mass of mutilated flesh. She was missing a hind leg, her tail had been ripped off, and half of her body was burned raw, exposing cooked flesh and smoking muscle.
Seated on a Blade King, Meili swung her legs, a childish smile on her lips.
Meili: "Again! Again! You can't die now, it would be less fun! Another layer of fire won't hurt you!"
Then, her gaze landed on Trizz, who was slowly standing up in his halo of red light. Her eyes widened with joy.
Meili (Radiant smile): "Onii-sama! You're here! I knew you wouldn't waste your time with those nasty, arrogant ladies from the capital!"
Trizz coldly ignored the child and Frederica. He stood up, a hand on his ribs still fusing together, and picked up his sword. He re-entered the manor, crossing paths with the blue-haired man descending the stairs, rage in his teeth.
The Man: "Can't you just croak like a normal human?! Why do you keep getting up while all your friends are rotting outside?"
Trizz (Arrogant smile, buying time for his regeneration): "Why do I keep going? Why don't I weep for the deaths of my allies? Simply... because I am the Sin of Pride!"
The man froze. The word "Pride" struck his mind like a forbidden thing. If this man was truly the Archbishop of Pride, then attacking him meant drawing the wrath of "Mama" (Capella). And no one wanted to suffer the punishment of the Witch of Lust.
Taking advantage of this second of hesitation, Trizz completed his regeneration. He activated El Aka to its maximum, transforming into a flash of gold and crimson. The man leapt back to dodge, but he fell exactly where Trizz wanted him: on a patch of soft earth. Trizz summoned his Earth Quasi-Spirit.
Trizz: "Dona!"
The ground beneath the man turned to mud, slowing his superhuman movements. He was trapped. Trizz concentrated all his mana, his eyes glowing with divine fury.
Trizz: "EL JIWALD!"
A massive, pure ray of golden light erupted from his blade. The beam sliced the man in half like hot butter. The body separated slowly. The brain appeared, sliced clean; the tongue was cut in two. His entrails slid onto the floorboards with a wet thud: the melted pancreas was still smoking, the heart though separated from the rest beat one last time before going dark. The liver fell heavily into a pool of blood mixed with waste.
Trizz stood amidst the carnage, panting, his gaze fixed on the remains of the one who had dared to despise his Pride.
Echidna (Internal, a crystalline laugh): "Magnificent. That is the genius of chaos."
Trizz gasped for air, his lungs burning as if he had inhaled crushed glass. The corpse of the blue-haired man lay at his feet a hollowed, smoking husk. His gaze then shifted to the silhouette blocking the exit Elsa Granhiert. She was leaning against the front door, her cheeks flushed with morbid excitement, watching the carnage with the devotion of an opera spectator.
Elsa (placing a finger to her lips, voice trailing): "What a beautiful dance... To kill an Earth mage with his own magic is such a sadistic irony. It is entirely worthy of you, Pride-sama."
Trizz's forehead was drenched in sweat. He cast a circular glance the manor had become a literal meat market. He knew that in his current state, he could not defeat Elsa, nor Meili who continued to mutilate Frederica in the garden and certainly not extract Beatrice and Petra. He was trapped. But... all was not lost. The information he had just gathered was worth its weight in gold. He now knew the attack occurred as early as Day 5, he knew the blue assassin's technique, and Meili's Mabeast types. He readied his sword for the final act of this loop.
Elsa (unsheathing her kukris, approaching with feline slowness): "Are you inviting me to dance with you, Pride-sama? What an honor... I promise you, this is a dance you will never forget."
She lunged with superhuman speed, her blades cutting the air with a sharp hiss. Trizz knew that trying to track her with normal senses was suicidal folly. He nearly closed his eyes, activating El Aka and his Pride Buff to their absolute maximum, letting his survival instinct drive his limbs.
The blades clashed, creating a rain of sparks in the darkened hall. Elsa vanished from his field of vision only to reappear behind his back, aiming for his kidneys then his abdomen. With a brutal pivot guided by pure intuition, Trizz blocked the strike. He stayed on the defensive, waiting for the flaw the single second where the predator would believe herself victorious.
Trizz (shouting through the crash of metal): "SHAMAK!"
A fog of black smoke, viscous and opaque, erupted from his left hand. Elsa's purple eyes widened with surprise and delight. She loved the unpredictability of her prey. She dodged Trizz's thrust with disconcerting ease, leaping toward the stairs. However, upon landing, she felt a searing heat on her right shoulder. Her arm was burned to the second degree, but her supernatural regeneration immediately began stitching the tissue back together. What alerted her was Trizz's smile. The smile of a predator who had just closed his trap.
Trizz (turning slowly, sword lowered): "I see my strike landed, Elsa. Do you not realize you are missing something vital?"
Elsa's smile faded, replaced by genuine confusion. She checked her weapons, her limbs... everything was there. Then, she felt a cold draft on her back. Her magical cloak her protection against high-level spells was nothing more than a pile of smoking ash. Trizz had used Jiwald not to kill her, but to specifically target the artifact. Her safety net was annihilated; she was now vulnerable to direct magical attacks.
Elsa (her cheeks turning from pink to crimson under the adrenaline): "Congratulations, Pride-sama! What a performance! You prove once again that you amply deserve your title."
Trizz (his crimson eyes darkening with impatience): "Why do you continue to play, Elsa? You could have decapitated me ten times over. Why do you hold back?"
Elsa lunged again, her kukris describing deadly arcs. The sound of the weapons had become a rhythmic melody. Her attacks were intentionally slower, heavier.
Elsa (striking from left to right, her blades sliding against Trizz's sword): "It's for the pleasure, Pride-sama... Why kill someone like you so quickly? I want to savor every second; I don't want to ruin it."
Trizz countered a lateral attack, feeling the killer's strength vibrate through his bones. He jumped back to gain space, but Elsa returned to him like a black arrow.
Trizz: "EL JIWALD!"
A blade of pure light burst from his sword, slicing the air. Elsa could not avoid it entirely her left arm was severed clean at the elbow. Blood sprayed across Roswaal's luxurious rug, but even before the limb hit the floor, the assassin's muscles and bones were already reconstructing with a sickening squelch. Trizz did not waste a second.
Trizz: "SHAMAK!"
For the second time, the Yin fog consumed the combat zone, plunging Elsa into absolute blindness. Taking advantage of this few-second respite, Trizz rushed behind a massive pillar, his heart pounding fit to burst.
Trizz (Internal, catching his breath): I need to understand... Why isn't she unleashing her full power against me? Why this game of cat and mouse?
Echidna (Internal, her voice echoing with analytical coldness): "This woman has developed feelings that are twisted, yet consistent with her own madness, Frizz. My theory is simple she hasn't forgotten that you saved Meili from the villagers' wrath after the curse was lifted. And by participating alongside you in the massacre of 170 cultists, she saw in you a predator greater than herself. She sees you as her superior."
Trizz pressed his hand against his burning forehead, annoyed by revelations that offered no immediate escape. The Shamak fog began to fray, letting Elsa's silhouette filter through.
Trizz (Internal): Regardless of her reasons. All I care about is neutralizing her as quickly as possible.
Echidna (Internal): "She fears a certain 'Mama,' doesn't she? Use that terror. It is the only lever that surpasses her desire to disembowel you."
Trizz (Internal): "I'll do as you..."
He didn't have time to finish. A kick of incredible violence slammed into his ribs. The shock was so great that he was launched three meters from the pillar, his body plowing through the waxed parquet. His bones, barely fused, cracked again. His head hit the floor with a sharp crack, making him bite his own tongue. Heavy bleeding began to flow from his forehead, masking his vision with a scarlet veil.
Elsa (her purple gaze darkening with cruelty): "Break time is over, Pride-sama. It is time to end this."
Trizz rose heavily, the world swaying around him. Ignoring the dizziness and the excruciating pain hammering his skull, he fixed his gaze on the assassin.
Trizz: "You're not holding back your strikes just for pleasure, are you, Elsa? There is something else. I see it in your eyes."
Elsa (playing with her kukri, approaching dangerously, her heels clicking like a death sentence): "Besides the pleasure of seeing your entrails spread across this rug, Pride-sama... I don't see why I would let you live a second longer."
Trizz (clutching his side as the red aura of his regeneration activated painfully): "My entrails? No. Does this involve Meili?"
Elsa stopped dead. The child's name acted like a petrification spell. Her gaze remained icy, but her muscles no longer coiled for attack. She was listening.
Trizz: "You have failed two missions in the past. The first time, you failed to kill me, Subaru, and that naive half-elf. The second, Meili failed to massacre the villagers of Irlam because of my intervention. If this mission fails as well, or another in the future... Meili will be executed by Capella, won't she?"
The name of Capella made the air tremble. Elsa froze, paralyzed by the shadow of the one she had to call "Mama" to avoid unspeakable torture. In a second, she relived the sessions where she was transformed into a giant fly or a mass of screaming flesh for the sadistic pleasure of the Archbishop of Lust.
Trizz (an arrogant smile stretching across his bloody lips): "You don't kill me because you hope I am the one who can protect her, thanks to my title. You know that Capella wouldn't dare openly attack Pride. Pride is the highest sin in the Cult's hierarchy... the right hand of Pandora. A rank even your 'Mama' fears to provoke."
Echidna (Internal): "You possess the Factor of Pride, but not yet the official title. However, to her, the distinction is invisible. Continue, Frizz. Manipulate her with this false title."
Trizz: "So, Elsa... If I place Meili under my personal protection, she is saved, isn't she? The question is: are you ready to bet her life on your urge to open my belly?"
At the exact moment Trizz finished his sentence, a female voice, soft as a whisper of frost, tore through the heavy air of the manor.
??? : "El Huma."
Four translucent ice spears hissed and slammed brutally into Trizz's body. The impact pinned him to the floor. His system, already exhausted by two deadly fights, wavered. He could no longer move; every spasm drove the crystals deeper into his flesh, and his mana was draining away trying to plug the breaches through which his life was leaking.
A few meters away, a young girl stood. Her hair, a pale pink reminiscent of strawberry ice cream, fell in silky waves down her back. Her eyes, a deep blood red, shone with a sickly shyness, as if she were apologizing for being a murderer. But the horror did not come from her. Behind her, the blue-haired man the one Trizz had literally sliced in two stood there, very much alive, cracking his neck with manifest annoyance.
Echidna (Internal, her cold tone replaced by horrified fascination): "What?! We saw his entrails smoking on the floor five minutes ago! It's impossible... unless... His resurrection exceeds everything I've studied in four centuries!"
Echidna had no empathy for Trizz's physical suffering; she saw his wounds only as data to be analyzed. Trizz, however, felt a hatred boiling within him: how could she call herself his "lover" while she savored the spectacle of his agony?
The blue-haired man stepped forward, his yellow eyes shot through with hatred fixed on Trizz. The pink-haired girl approached timidly, fascinated by Trizz's features, which were so unusual in this world.
??? : "It's truly unsettling, Leith... Look at his features. Is he... a member of a royal family?"
Leith. A name carrying wisdom that clashed violently with his stained cape and brutal assassin temperament.
Leith (spitting on the ground with contempt): "I told you, Lyra. He's just a talented rich brat, nothing more. I'll admit his face looks like the Vollachia bloodline, but that doesn't change the fact that he's going to croak."
Elsa, who had not taken her eyes off Trizz, intervened. She no longer called him "Pride" in front of these strangers to protect his secret identity, but her tone was heavy with disapproval.
Elsa: "Trizz-sama was not born of a wealthy family. He is not of royal kind."
Leith turned toward her, brows furrowed, a threat tinged with disgust in his voice.
Leith: "Him? Not a rich brat? He's just a buffoon who bought elites to train him. All his spells are level two; he's a low-tier player who got lucky."
Trizz tried to stand, the insult to his Pride being more painful than the ice in his lungs. But with every movement, the crystals raked his muscles, forcing him to vomit a flow of hot blood onto the floorboards.
Elsa (her purple gaze darkening with icy furor): "I shall repeat myself. Trizz-sama was born of nothing. Everything you see is the work of a man who refused to bend before destiny. He even used self-destruction to neutralize me the first time we clashed. Do not compare him to your usual targets."
Leith felt a sting of jealousy pierce his heart. Even at death's door, Elsa chose to defend this man rather than listen to him.
Leith: "Elsa, he destroyed the Sloth Cult with cowardly traps and by manipulating bratty throne candidates. He's still just a lucky good-for-nothing!"
That was the final straw. Elsa unsheathed her kukris with a sinister hiss. A heavy, suffocating aura of murder filled the room. She advanced toward Leith, her eyes burning with cold rage.
Elsa: "Take back what you just said about him... or I might decorate this manor with your entrails, Leith."
Panicked, the pink-haired girl, Lyra, threw herself between them
Panicked, the pink-haired girl, Lyra, threw herself between them. She knew an angry Elsa was a promise of the end of the world.
Lyra (bowing clumsily, voice trembling): "Sor... sorry! Leith is an idiot, he won't do it again! Please Elsa, don't hurt him!"
Trizz, pinned to the floor by the ice, watched the scene. He understood one crucial thing: this group was unstable. Leith hated him out of jealousy, Lyra was the emotional heart, and Elsa was the pivot of violence. But above all... this man, Leith, could not die normally.
The atmosphere of the manor, already saturated with the smell of ozone and blood, was suddenly torn by a dull pounding. The sound of heavy, irregular hooves made the floorboards vibrate. Meili appeared, perched on the back of a centaur Mabeast with deformed musculature. Her emerald eyes widened, shifting from childish excitement to sincere concern as she discovered the scene: Trizz, the man she idolized, lying in a pool of scarlet, his face livid, his body pinned to the ground by Lyra's ice spikes.
Meili (a mix of childish joy and panic): "Onii-sama! But... Lyra, use your magic to heal him right now! He mustn't die, not like this!"
Lyra, troubled by the little tamer's order, looked back at Trizz's broken body. She stepped forward clumsily, her boots slipping on the blood, and knelt beside him. She placed her trembling hands on his chest, where the crystals tore through the fabric.
Lyra (whispering, eyes darting away): "I apologize! I'm so sorry! Don't die just yet, or I'll be in huge trouble with Elsa and Meili..."
A bluish glow, characteristic of healing water magic, began to emanate from her palms. The ice melted slowly, turning into lukewarm water that washed Trizz's wounds while attempting to stitch together the lacerated muscles. Meili, for her part, watched the scene with scientific curiosity, wondering how a mere human could have endured such agony.
Meili (placing a finger on her chin): "Elsa... is it normal that Onii-sama managed to survive all of Leith's attacks and yours?"
Elsa's anger evaporated instantly, replaced by protective pride. She sheathed her kukris and fixed Meili with a solemn look.
Elsa: "Trizz-sama possesses a capacity for adaptation that defies understanding. Every wound seems to make him more dangerous. He amply deserves his title as the Genius of Chaos."
While the two killers talked, Lyra, even as she provided care, performed a cold calculation behind her mask of shyness. She observed Trizz's bone structure and how his body reacted to mana.
Lyra (voice suddenly devoid of emotion): "Intelligent... capable of adapting to extreme danger... a merciless manipulator. And that regeneration coupled with Quasi-Spirits... His Yang magic is pure gold, Leith told me; it's an absolute rarity. It would be a huge waste to let him rot here."
Echidna (Internal, a poisonous possessiveness in her voice): "Do not let them touch you like that, Frizz! Do not forget we are engaged. You belong to me alone, even in death!"
Trizz could barely hear the Witch anymore
Trizz could barely hear the Witch anymore. His gaze was vacant, fixed on the dark ceiling. He was critically low on blood, his skin had become translucent, and his breathing was nothing more than an erratic hiss. He knew he had to die. This loop was over; he had all the necessary information.
Leith (confused, approaching Lyra): "What are you getting at? Our contract is clear: we kill everyone, we leave no witnesses."
Lyra (fixing Leith with a new authority): "What I mean is that we can hide his death from the Kingdom. Imagine the reward if we deliver the most coveted man in Lugnica directly to Mama. Mama would be delighted to possess such a toy, rather than let him die stupidly in a ruined manor."
Meili jumped with joy on her Mabeast. The idea of keeping her "Onii-sama" forever, under Mama's tutelage, enchanted her to the highest degree.
Meili (a radiant and terrifying smile): "Onii-sama is going to join us! Mama will be so happy! We can play together every day!"
Trizz, hearing this fate worse than death becoming a slave to the Witch of Lust made an immediate decision. He had to kill himself by his own means. Ignoring the excruciating pain, he gathered his last strength to bite his own tongue with all his might, seeking to choke on his blood and trigger a fatal hemorrhagic shock.
But Elsa, whose reflexes were sharpened by years of hunting, instantly noticed the contraction of his jaw. Before Trizz's teeth could close, she delivered a sharp, precise kick with her heel to the side of his face. A sinister crack rang out Trizz's jaw was instantly dislocated, leaving him unable to close his mouth or speak.
Elsa (a smile both cruel and tender): "Oh no, Trizz-sama... I won't let you escape so easily. The dance is just beginning."
A brutal distortion of the air, like dense purple smoke, suddenly manifested in front of Trizz's broken body. From this void emerged a familiar figure, small in stature but immense in the magical pressure she emitted. Beatrice stood there, her blonde curls trembling under the effect of her rage, her butterfly-shaped eyes fixed on the assassins with sovereign contempt.
She cast a fleeting glance at Trizz, and her artificial heart tightened at the sight of her apprentice reduced to such a pitiful state.
Beatrice (voice trembling with contained fury): "This human belongs to Betty. Betty will share him with no one, I suppose. How dare you torture Betty's apprentice under her own roof? You shall taste the wrath of the librarian, I suppose!"
Leith straightened up, wiping blood from his cheek, a mocking smile stretching across his lips. He didn't seem to realize who he was dealing with.
Leith: "Look at that, another doll? You'd have done better to stay hidden in your hole, kid. Now that you've shown your face, we can't let you live. (He turned a disgusted gaze toward Trizz) Not only are you incompetent, you're a pedophile? Is this her, your 'mistress'?"
A vein pulsed violently on Beatrice's forehead. The insult was twofold: he dared to belittle her apprentice's genius and, even worse, he treated the great Beatrice like a mere child. She raised a hand toward the void, her fingers closing as if to crush the assassin's very existence.
Beatrice (her gaze turning abyssal black): "Die, insect! Minya!"
Crystals of purple light, born from the purest Yin magic, shot out instantly. Before Leith could even raise his axe, a crystal pillar pierced his chest, pinning him against the wall where he remained fixed in a painful temporal stasis. Elsa, sensing danger, grabbed Meili by the shoulder to retreat into the shadows, while Lyra backed away abruptly from Trizz's body, terrified by this power.
Beatrice knelt beside Trizz. Her anger turned into heartbreaking concern. These monsters hadn't just slaughtered the inhabitants of the manor; they had profaned her most precious possession. Without paying attention to the assassins retreating to regroup, she began to channel her mana.
Beatrice: "Betty is not surprised you are still alive after facing three monsters all by yourself, I suppose. You are far too stubborn to accept such a mediocre end, I suppose."
Trizz could not speak. His crimson eyes, clouded by pain, stared at Beatrice. She immediately understood the state of his jaw. With a fluid movement, she reset the bones with her water magic before turning to the gaping wounds on his chest.
Trizz (his voice only a fragile murmur, broken by exhaustion): "Thank you... Mistress Betty... Take care of them... I will... I will get up... But Frederica... did you save her?"
Beatrice shook her head, a veil of sadness darkening her face. She continued her care, her hands glowing with a bluish light.
Beatrice: "Idiot, stay still for once, I suppose. Petra is safe in Betty's library... but when Betty came out to deal with these intruders, Frederica was nothing more than a pile of flesh, dismembered from head to toe... Betty had to put her out of her misery, I suppose."
The news of Frederica's death hit Trizz like a dagger. He had planned to sacrifice lives for information, but seeing his allies undergo such torture exceeded his calculations. He tried to sit up, but his legs didn't respond. His bones were pulverized. He vomited a stream of blood, his body swaying dangerously on the edge of the abyss.
Beatrice held him firmly to the floor. She knew him better than anyone healing him completely meant letting him run toward certain death, driven by his stupid Pride. She refused to lose him as she had lost her "Mother."
Beatrice (standing up in front of him to shield him with her body): "Betty cannot let you fight, Trizz. You must understand, once and for all, that many people care for you, I suppose. Many are ready to sacrifice themselves simply to prolong your existence."
These words resonated in Trizz's mind. His cynicism fought against this truth. To him, he was only a tool, a pawn on the chessboard of chaos. He hated this world for its hypocrisy, even in kindness.
Taking advantage of this moment of vulnerability, Lyra, hidden in the debris, launched a devastating wind spell.
Lyra: "Ul Fural!"
A razor-sharp wind blade sped toward them. Beatrice, unperturbed, didn't even turn her head. With a simple flick of her hand, she nullified the spell's power, dissipating it like a mere breeze. Lyra's eyes widened, petrified by this overwhelming superiority.
Beatrice (with an air of superior, almost divine boredom): "Minya!"
Five flaming purple crystals shot toward Lyra with the speed of arrows.
Lyra: "El Huma!"
A thick wall of ice rose to protect her, but Beatrice's magic was unconventional. The crystals passed through the ice as if it didn't exist. One of them grazed Lyra's cheek, leaving a trail of boiling blood and a purplish burn that would not heal. The message was clear Beatrice was no longer here to play.
The shadow stretched abruptly behind Beatrice. Elsa, having put Meili in safety, leapt from the darkness with the discretion of a ghost. Her kukris shone with a murderous glint, aimed at the small librarian's neck. Beatrice, focused on Lyra, didn't seem to have perceived the threat.
But Trizz, despite his crushed ribs and the blood flooding his lungs, hadn't taken his eyes off her. His instinct, sharpened by agony, screamed the alarm.
Trizz (mouth filled with bloody foam, pointing a trembling finger at the assassin): "El Jiwald!"
The effort was excruciating. Trizz vomited a more violent flow of blood, but the ray of golden light shot out with surgical precision. The shot didn't kill Elsa, but it blinded her and fractured her trajectory, breaking her momentum. This short instant was enough for Beatrice to react.
Beatrice (a spark of contempt in her eyes, snapping her fingers): "Murak!"
Suddenly, gravity around Elsa became a crushing force. Her body, usually so agile, felt as if it weighed tons. Her movements became slow and labored, as if she were fighting through an ocean of lead. The speed that was her greatest strength had become her heaviest burden.
Beatrice: "You are far too familiar with Betty's apprentice, I suppose. El Minya!"
A complex geometric glyph illuminated beneath Elsa's feet. Columns of purple crystals erupted from the roof like divine spears. Despite the crushing weight, Elsa showed inhuman resilience. she leaped from pillar to pillar in desperate somersaults, the crystalline points shredding her clothes and grazing her skin by mere millimeters each time.
She finally landed on the steps of the grand staircase, her body striped with cuts, her flesh sliced from head to toe. Her regeneration activated immediately, but that was exactly what Beatrice expected.
Beatrice (a mocking smile stretching across her pink lips): "Trapped, I suppose. Minya!"
Elsa realized too late that the crystals Beatrice had launched to either side of the hall were not missed shots. They were beacons. In the blink of an eye, thirty new crystals erupted from the surrounding walls, all converging on the center of the staircase.
Imprisoned by the gravity of Murak and encircled by a forest of purple spikes, Elsa could only cross her arms in a final defensive reflex. The crystals struck her from all sides, sinking into her flesh before freezing in place. An explosion of dust and stone shards saturated the air, forming a dense fog that masked the scene.
Echidna (Internal, her voice vibrating with unholy fascination): "Even at the threshold of the void, you refuse to bend. Your Pride has totally eclipsed your survival logic. It is... absolutely magnificent, Frizz!"
The fog slowly cleared, revealing a vision of petrified horror. Elsa Granhiert no longer moved. She had become a statue of purple crystal, her body pierced through and through. Her purple eyes, once so full of murderous desire, were now dull, fixed on the void in eternal paralysis. The Bowel Hunter had ceased to breathe; she was sealed in a tomb of Yin magic.
Beatrice stood still for a moment, eyes fixed on Elsa's crystalline statue. An involuntary smile touched her lips. She who thought she had to fly to her apprentice's rescue realized that he had, once again, turned the tables. This human was far too possessed by Pride to accept his limits, and that was precisely what made him fascinating.
Beatrice (turning her back to Trizz, crossing her arms with royal poise): "Betty told you not to intervene, I suppose! You only ever do as you please... Betty will punish you severely for your insolence once we are safe, I suppose!"
She waited for a sharp retort or a sarcastic murmur, but only silence answered her. She knew he had drained his vital reserves; using Yang-type mana while the body is broken was the equivalent of seting one's own nerves on fire. Yet, the idea that a mere mortal, armed with second-level spells, had held his own against three monsters flattered Beatrice's Pride. He was her apprentice, after all.
Beatrice (staring at the rubble of the hall with a disdainful pout): "Ram is going to have a lot of work cleaning up this mess, I suppose. I will take you to the Sanctuary as soon as I've stabilized your wounds, Trizz. This manor reeks of death..."
The silence persisted heavy, cloying. A shadow of worry began to crawl up the librarian's spine. Her Pride fought against her fear; she refused to turn around, afraid to see that the spark of life in those crimson eyes had gone out.
Beatrice (voice trembling, suddenly snapping): "Betty hates it when you play the silent game to annoy her! Answer me, I"
The words died in her throat. Her eyes widened at a vision of pure horror. Someone had brutally grabbed Trizz by his black hair to pull his head back, pinning a jagged blade against his bloodied throat.
Beatrice stood petrified. How was it possible? She could still see, a few meters away, the body of the assassin pinned to the wall by her crystals. And further off, the remains sliced by Trizz still lay on the floorboards. Yet, a third version of this man stood there, very much alive, holding Trizz's life between his filthy fingers.
Leith (fixing Beatrice with renewed hatred, yellow eyes bloodshot): "Enough games, brat. I have your pup in hand. At the slightest mistake, the slightest incantation, I'll slaughter him like a beast in the abattoir."
Beatrice felt a cold rage wash over her. Her small fists clenched so hard her nails dug into her palms. This magic of duplication or immediate resurrection was an insult to the logic of Yin.
Beatrice (voice low, vibrating with disgust): "Such a coward... Betty is sickened to see that a being as repulsive as you can exist, I suppose. You are an error of nature."
Leith (letting jealousy distort his face): "Me, repulsive? Look at your precious apprentice! A brat lounging around surrounded by candidates, maids, and little girls... He is the one who is an insult to those of us who truly suffer!"
Beatrice (sketching a mocking smile despite the critical situation): "My apprentice is special, unique... Unlike you, who are nothing but a noxious vermin, I suppose. You give Betty nausea with your vagabond scent and your second-rate soul."
Mad with rage, Leith abruptly let go of Trizz's hair. The young man's head hit the floor violently, the impact reopening his cranial hemorrhage with a dull thud. Leith stood up, hatred boiling in his veins. Even at the gates of death, even before a child, he remained "the inferior."
Leith screamed, his voice drowned out by the hiss of unstable mana: "Lyra, go! I've bought enough time! Strike down this little bitch and her pup!"
Lyra emerged from her hiding place, but her shy face had given way to a mask of absolute concentration. A two-toned aura an unstable mix of icy blue and incandescent glints surrounded her silhouette. She was not aiming for Beatrice. She knew that to break the Great Librarian, she had to destroy her anchor: Trizz.
Lyra: "AL HUMA!"
The cry was not a whisper, but an explosion. Hundreds of ice crystals, charged with devastating kinetic energy, appeared throughout the hall, encircling the area. Leith, in a survival reflex, leapt back to flee the impact zone, leaving Trizz, agonizing and unable to move, at the center of the target.
Beatrice understood instantly. In a last desperate attempt to protect what she held most dear, she tapped into the forbidden reserves of the Library, forcing the magical link to the breaking point.
Beatrice: "UL SHAMAK!"
An absolute void, a pitch-black spatial tear, opened before her. The black hole began to devour everything around it Lyra's ice crystals were sucked in, shattering in a roar of crushed glass before vanishing into nothingness. But the power of the spell was too great. An apocalyptic gust of wind rose, tearing away the woodwork, the paintings, and the floor tiles.
Roswaal's manor began to collapse. Marble columns cracked, the ceiling burst open, and outside, the garden became a vision of the end of the world. Ancient trees were uprooted, fountains shattered, and the sky seemed to twist under the pressure of the Yin mana.
Trizz, pinned to the floor, clung to the debris to avoid being sucked in. His black hair and cultist clothes whipped violently in the storm. He refused to join that dimension of void where he would be imprisoned for eternity, far from any possible reset.
Echidna (Internal, her voice trembling with terror): "Frizz, hold on! Do not die by being sucked into this spell, or you will never return! I do not want to lose the Library of Pride! Do not leave me alone in the void!"
Trizz's mind darkened. The pain faded, replaced by a numbing cold. His consciousness frayed like smoke. His last vision was that of Beatrice the little girl with blonde curls, her face distorted by effort and tears, shielding him with her body to keep him alive.
Why? The question echoed in the void of his mind. He had manipulated her from their very first meeting. He had sacrificed her in a previous loop without a shred of remorse. He was the monster, the Archbishop, the Genius of Chaos who used affection as a weapon. He didn't deserve this sacrifice. He deserved only the void.
Trizz closed his crimson eyes. His heart, tired of rebuilding itself, gave out. His body let go, and he slipped into the darkness as the manor collapsed in a final, deafening crash.
(Time Skip...)
Trizz slowly opened his eyes. The world was nothing but blurred chaos, an abstract painting of rubble and smoke. Every blink was agony; his vision was saturated with a deep crimson other just from his natural eyes, but from the blood flowing from his forehead, flooding his sockets.
A few meters away, a silhouette ran toward him, stumbling through the ruins. It was Beatrice.
His mind, functioning in slow motion, tried to analyze the battlefield. On the other side, he saw Meili. She was smiling, an innocent and macabre grin. Beside her, Leith carried the unconscious body of Lyra, exhausted by her final spell. But what chilled the little blood remaining in Trizz's veins was the black arrow standing upright and intact before the assassins.
Elsa.
She should have been sealed, dead in her crystal tomb. Without her anti-magic cloak, she had no chance. Yet there she was, her black dress fluttering in the wind of the apocalypse, as if she had cheated fate itself. But for Trizz, that enigma suddenly became secondary.
A visceral impulse, a will born from the depths of his wounded Pride, pushed him to crawl. His legs were inert, broken in multiple places, but he dragged himself across the ground with his hands, plowing through the earth mixed with blood and ash. He had to reach her. His paranoia which had always pushed him to see Beatrice as a mere learning tool, a source of mana and knowledge shattered. She was no longer a resource. She was the only light in his world of darkness.
Crawling through the sharp debris, he finally reached her side. Beatrice collapsed near him, in tears. But something was wrong. An ethereal, bluish glow was beginning to escape from her. Particles of mana flew from her body like dying sparks.
Trizz's eyes widened with a horror that no death had ever managed to inspire in him.
Trizz (voice choked by sobs and blood): "Mistress Betty... no... not you... not now!"
With his last strength, he pulled her against him. His trembling hands desperately tried to catch the escaping particles of light, as if he could stitch her existence back together with his bare hands. It was then that he saw the wound. Across the little girl's abdomen, a clean, deep gash slashed her body. Elsa's work. A backstab delivered while Beatrice was using all her power to save Trizz from Lyra's spell.
He raised his head toward the assassins. Meili was laughing, hands over her mouth, silently mocking the artificial spirit's agony. Elsa licked her blade with sensual slowness, and Leith watched the scene with unhealthy pleasure, savoring his revenge.
For the first time since his reincarnation, for the first time in this life of calculation and coldness, Trizz wept. Burning tears washed the blood from his cheeks.
Trizz (crying like a child, his voice breaking): "Mistress Betty... I beg you... don't leave me... stay with me..."
Beatrice looked at him, eyes swimming with tears. She was free from her 400-year contract, but at what price? She had to leave behind this apprentice she had learned to cherish. She knew the man her mother had ordered her to wait for was not Trizz, but Subaru. Trizz knew it too. But in this moment, historical truth no longer mattered.
In a final surge of tenderness, Beatrice pressed herself against Trizz's chest. She had failed to protect him, but she would not let him become the toy of monsters.
Beatrice (fading away bit by bit, her voice becoming a distant echo): "Betty apologizes... for being unable to protect you, Trizz..."
In a final deployment of spatial magic, to prevent her apprentice from falling into the hands of the Archbishop of Lust, she used her last fragments of existence to teleport him away far, far away from this cursed manor.
Trizz felt space tear around him. Hatred a pure, black, and absolute hatred consumed his Pride. He hated himself for being weak, for using her, for not seeing the danger. But this hatred soon turned toward the four silhouettes fading before him Meili, Elsa, Leith, and Lyra.
Trizz (Internal, a demonic rage screaming in his skull as the world vanished): "I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you..."