Dina rushed Filvis at full speed.
She had originally intended to hold back a little, but the jealousy that had resurfaced in her heart made it impossible for her to stick to that plan.
Her twin swords, the Knight's Merciful Blades, carved out a deadly, razor-sharp dance of steel that enveloped Filvis completely.
Half a year of peaceful living had not dulled her killer's instincts.
Filvis kept dodging, slipping past several attacks by the narrowest of margins.
As a mage, she was not suited for close combat.
But that was only in relative terms.
"You've clearly gone through some very strict training."
Dina could hardly imagine that the wretched little elf who had once known only how to scream had grown this much in so little time.
"Strict?"
Filvis did not want to describe the period she had gone through that way. It felt far too understated.
At the same time, she had no desire to glorify her suffering. After all, she had not worked that hard for her own sake.
"Compared to that person, you two are still far behind!"
"Devour the enemy, Staff of Shadow!"
Filvis's spell was also a short-chant spell, and with concurrent chanting layered on top, reciting magic in battle barely slowed her down.
The reason she had not counterattacked until now was because she had been compressing her magic all this time.
The magic Filvis used after compressing her mana was not a wide-area blast like a simulated nuclear strike. It was a focused, pinpoint destruction spell within a limited range.
If it landed, whatever it hit would vanish without leaving even a trace of ash behind.
As if it had been swallowed by darkness itself.
By the time Dina realized what was happening, the compressed orb of mana was already right in front of her.
Faced with that overwhelming sense of death, she immediately chose to evade.
With her Level 6 agility, she successfully dodged the attack.
It was a swift and correct response—but it was also exactly what Filvis had anticipated.
As Dina threw herself off balance to avoid the strike, she discovered that Filvis had already released another spell from her other hand, one far smaller in scale.
But "smaller" was only relative.
And Dina had not noticed it until now.
If that attack landed, half her face would be blown away.
Concealing a killing blow—this too was one of the secrets Filvis had learned from Lord Shadow.
In that instant of crisis, Dina had no choice but to throw both arms up to protect her face.
She did not fear dying, but she had no intention of dying in an ugly state before Lord Shadow.
Seeing that both of Dina's arms had been ruined and that she had lost the ability to continue fighting, Filvis turned toward the younger sister, Vina.
Throughout the fight, Vina had not made a move once, rendering Filvis's caution pointless.
When Vina saw Filvis looking at her with both wariness and confusion, she lowered her staff, her expression complicated.
"Two of my three spells are large-scale attacks. The third isn't worth using here, and I don't have a magic sword on hand. If you can defeat my sister, then that's enough. Go ahead and kill me."
After watching the fight, Vina knew she had no chance of winning.
And she did not want one.
Filvis was already strong enough—so strong that she no longer needed the sisters' acknowledgment.
At the rate she was improving, she would surely be able to help Lord Shadow in the future.
Once Vina understood that, she lost all will to fight.
The sisters, as they were now, were no longer the sort to throw their lives away out of jealousy.
And if the battle dragged on, Vina could not even be sure her face would remain unharmed.
She still wanted to die beautifully.
Even if only her appearance remained beautiful.
Filvis withdrew the compressed mana in her hand, her emotions tangled.
At last, she understood why Lord Shadow had not struck the sisters down when they had begged before him.
It was hard to deal a finishing blow to someone who had no will to fight, even if they were your enemy.
But Filvis was not Shadow.
She did not possess Lord Shadow's strength, nor his mercy.
After lowering her staff, Filvis picked up one of Dina's fallen short swords and plunged it through Vina's chest.
Then she gave the now-armless Dina a finishing blow as well.
In their final moments, the sisters once again sank to their knees before Cid.
"Lord Shadow… if we are reborn… may we serve you then?"
"We'll be good. We'll obey your every command."
Cid gave a faint smile and crouched down, taking their hands in his.
Dina's hand was already mangled beyond recognition. It likely had no feeling left at all.
"You can join right now. Shadow Garden will always welcome pure-hearted elves."
Vina brightened and weakly clasped his hand back.
But at this point, the sisters still retained enough self-awareness.
"Lord Shadow… we are not pure-hearted elves."
Dina knew better than anyone that the sins of this life could never truly be repaid.
Now that she had awakened to that fact, there was no point in pretending to be pure anymore.
"But haven't you already washed away those sins with your own blood?"
Cid could see the blood flowing from both sisters, merging together into one stream.
They had shed enough blood. Enough, at least, to atone for their past.
"…So that's it. Sins really are washed away with one's own blood."
Vina finally understood.
Their thinking had not been entirely wrong. They had only gone astray by a small step.
Unfortunately, no one had ever corrected them before they met Lord Shadow.
"Lord Shadow, we offer you our eternal loyalty…"
"In this life… and the next… and the one after that…"
Once both of them had gone still, Cid had Filvis leave first.
"I'll bury them elsewhere. You had a grudge against them, so don't bother helping."
"Yes… Lord Shadow. Their sins have been cleansed now. Should I think of them as comrades?"
"Ask your own heart. Don't ask me."
"I understand, Lord Shadow."
Filvis withdrew, while Cid took the sisters' bodies to a quiet corner of the Dungeon and buried them there.
After today, the two misguided elves would become nothing more than memories.
"Skeleton—quit sneaking around."
After addressing the hidden observer, Cid turned and left.
Roughly two minutes later, the Sage, Fels, emerged from the shadows.
"So that was Shadow… What an overwhelming presence."
Even as someone who had survived for eight hundred years in the form of a lich, Fels had never encountered a being so oppressive.
He had not been following Shadow. He lacked the ability for that.
He had merely happened to be in the area after finishing another task.
Even so, the fact that he had run into Shadow in such a remote location…
"Perhaps this, too, is fate."
Fels looked at the two gravestones before him and understood exactly who was buried there.
The Dis sisters had been two Level 5s, after all. He could hardly have ignored them.
He had only recently received word that they might be in Melen.
Judging from how things had turned out, they had probably been subdued by Shadow—and yet had never truly found a path back.
Just as Fels was about to turn and leave, he sensed a change in the Dungeon around him.
"What terrifying attachment. You would even choose to fall into becoming Xenos?"
He knew there was a nest of intelligent monsters somewhere nearby.
Monsters that possessed reason and could converse with people.
For such creatures to be born here meant this region of the Dungeon was no ordinary place.
Perhaps, very soon, two more intelligent monsters would be born.
But Fels did not interfere with the strange phenomenon unfolding before him.
No matter what else happened, the Dis sisters were already dead.
....
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