「 episode 11; arc 4.3 」 —dual restitution//reclamation— 「 hyejoo vii 」

Jisoo was having trouble processing the sight of it.

The way it barreled towards her in a frenzy with unprecedented speed despite the chains of light and purification tethers right on its tail. The way it neutralized the fireballs of Jungeun sprinting behind her with matched spheres of violet shade. The way it effortlessly tore through Kahei’s walls of rock with the seamless summoning of pitch-black metal sawblades, ripping apart her earth like mincemeat.

Truthfully speaking, there was only one way to describe it. With the corrupted consciousness’ window of opportunity growing smaller by the second, Jisoo witnessed it first hand as it approached her with haste in spite of ongoing efforts from the others to stop it.

It was the physical manifestation of Olivia’s ravenous intent to indiscriminately slaughter her quarry while she still had the chance.

Despite being in fine enough condition to move, Jisoo was rightfully paralyzed. The manic look in Olivia’s exasperated eyes were in stark opposition to the eerily emotionless composure she carried herself with prior. Frozen in place with the demon after her life showcasing how serious it now was, uncertain fear had encompassed Jisoo’s mind.

Had it not been for Kahei’s perceptive mindfulness, Jisoo would have felt jagged tips of obsidian split her chest wide open in the following moment.

Nearing her target, Olivia bent her legs and pounced forth with enough strength to fissure the pavement beneath her feet. With her arm extended and claws outspread, she felt anger take root within her mind as she dug not into flesh and bones, but dense soil instead.

Standing upon one of several nearby towers of earth that she had hurriedly summoned with Olivia’s latest engagement, Kahei wasted no time in piercing a runic circle of mahogany with her fingers. In response, a bed of her mana that had taken shape beneath Jisoo coalesced alongside the shaking of the ground beneath her.

Jisoo fell to her knees as she found herself suddenly rising stories high. The ongoing quake at her feet was the birth of a pillar larger than Kahei’s other vantage points, rescuing her from Olivia’s assault. Crawling to the edge of her high rise platform, she peered down below and saw her pursuer staring straight up at her.

Her murderous gaze was entirely focused on the swordswoman above as she dislodged her claws from the soil. Her attention focused on Jisoo, Olivia was suddenly blindsided by a piercing into her side. Catching up with the corrupted consciousness in its moment of tunnel vision, Jungeun furiously stabbed her halberd into Olivia’s abdomen.

Sliding to a stop as she met the resistance of her freshly materialized barrier, Jungeun exerted as much extra force into it as she could before the strike tossed Olivia down the road. The fissures splitting around her waist expanded slightly in all directions as she crashed into the asphalt and tumbled down the street.

From behind Jungeun, light footsteps raced on broken ground until they came to a stop next to her.

With a silent breath, Chaewon commanded her mana tethers forward towards the downed demon. Approaching her still frame, their form was disrupted with the eruption of a fervent blast of force from Olivia’s body.

A dark, sickly aura of translucent violet dust took shape around Olivia as she slowly rose to her knees. Chaewon grimaced as she watched her tethers continue to dissipate upon sending them forth once more, their pathing impeded by the aura covering Olivia’s body.

“She’s rather serious about not giving up control yet,” Chaewon lamented with a sigh. Exhaling slightly, her odd eye twinkled momentarily as her tethers collectively vanished into nothing. “We need to fully restrain her in order to properly restart the purification process.”

“As much as I was hoping to avoid it, we’re going to have to break her shield,” Jungeun surmised with a small shake of her head. “I don’t think we’re shutting down that defense of hers otherwise, much less getting her to sit still.”

“I don’t see any other way of going about it, unfortunately,” Kahei’s voice sounded off in agreement from above. Traversing her network of vantage points, she arrived at the one closest to Chaewon and Jungeun. The crystal in the globe atop her staff radiated a steady light of amber as she spoke. “We need to destroy her barrier as fast as possible.”

“Very well,” Chaewon conceded with a tone of understanding regret. The runes in her tome and her eye of beige effulged in unison, dispersing a majority of her chains and their origin points. The resulting mana relocated itself closer to her current position, rematerializing once more into spheres of light and newly dispelled straightened chains. “How would you two prefer to go about this?”

“Time is of the essence here,” Jungeun reiterated Kahei’s point. “The sooner we get this over with, the less chances she has to get to Jisoo. That barrier has to go as soon as possible, but Kahei and I can’t target Hyejoo’s weak points without conversion…”

Chaewon’s eyes widened slightly as Jungeun held out her polearm to the left of her. Kahei’s gaze fell upon the sight as the spearwoman turned her head towards her junior. “We need your light, Chaewon. I know it’s something you’ve only barely started to mess with as an Intermediate, so it might be a lot to ask, but—”

“It’s fine.”

Chaewon’s words were rife with confidence as she watched a slowly recovering Olivia get back to her feet.

“It’s true that I haven’t gotten to practice elemental modification very much, so the altered alignments may persist for only a short while,” Chaewon revealed, her eyes shifting towards Jungeun, “but I agree that it’s the best shot we have. The three of us exploiting her weak point without need for conversion is surely the fastest way to get Hyejoo back.”

“Thank you, Chaewon,” Kahei said with a small nod of appreciation. She held her staff downwards, pointing it towards her comrades below. “We shouldn’t need the modifications for long.”

As Chaewon took a deep breath, Kahei and Jungeun’s watchful eyes returned to Olivia down the road.

The girl of light’s mismatched eye emanated a harsh beige light. Simultaneously, the runes across several of her grimoire’s shuffling pages shined brightly. Runic circles of Chaewon’s mana layered with an extensive amount of symbols beyond their usual came to life at the bottom of Kahei’s and Jungeun’s weapons.

With moderate speed, they traversed the length of the weapons. As they did, the sorceresses’ armaments underwent a tranation. The crimson metal of the shaft of Jungeun’s halberd turned into a matching shade of beige. The deep scarlet steel of its conjoined heads similarly shifted into a hue of fawn darker than the pole below it.

Kahei’s staff was subject to a transformation of similar colors which even extended to the crystal within its globe and the web of mana it was suspended within. From dark mahogany to soft beige, both her weapon and Jungeun’s now contradicted the shades of their odd eyes and their natural alignment.

Completing their course down her teammates’ weaponry, Chaewon’s runic circles dissipated into dust. The resulting mana, however, did not.

Curiously, the modified halberd and staff seemed to absorb the remains of Chaewon’s essence. The runes etched into the steel of Jungeun’s steel and the glass and rod of Kahei’s staff lit up as Chaewon’s mana flowed into them. As a result, the weapons began to glow with a steady aura of modest beige light.

“How long do you figure we have, Chaewon?” Jungeun posed an open question while bringing her newly altered polearm close to her center. Flipping it over, she held it carefully with both hands, peering at its new form.

“Ten minutes at best,” Chaewon replied in a tone more melancholic than anything else as she reviewed her handiwork. Seeing the aura of light encompassing the modified armaments already dim ever so slightly, she grimaced. “Realistically, about five. On top of my lack of practiced application with modification, I’m still a little out of it after everything that just happened…”

“Five minutes is five times as many as we’ll need.”

Jungeun’s declaration was as steadfast as her steely glare towards the recovering being of darkness. Olivia had fully recollected herself from her impact, her eyes briefly inspecting her fractured defense system. A network of splintered veins wrapped around her body like a broken shell, inciting the onset of an irritated scowl upon her face as her eyes locked onto Jisoo once more.

“Keep your chains ready, Chaewon,” Jungeun instructed. “As soon as that barrier is gone, we’ll—”

Jungeun’s words came to an abrupt stop. What resumed was the act of her bursting forward into a feverish sprint towards Olivia who had just done the same towards the swordswoman.

Seemingly experiencing tunnel vision once more with her entire existence solely focused on Jisoo above, Olivia displayed surprising awareness as Jungeun approached. Having had kept her attackers in her peripheral vision, she deftly avoided a horizontal swipe from Jungeun’s halberd at the last possible moment.

Olivia graced them with her attention for only a brief instance as her sideways leap safely placed her on top of a displaced vehicle. Targeted by a continued assault, Olivia’s continued attention was forcefully seized by Jungeun as she jumped towards her with her halberd raised.

Hyejoo’s alter ego scoffed under her breath at the sight of Jungeun poised to strike down with the axehead. Content to enact her winning strategy from their previous encounter, Olivia raised her sickly arm of obsidian to catch the weapon once more.

To her surprise, she was met not with downward steel, but instead a chain of light ensnaring her at the wrist and pressing into her barrier as her vision drowned in light.

Jungeun had suddenly rotated her halberd and slashed upwards, cleaving through a runic circle of light that had materialized above her. Behind Jungeun, Chaewon’s odd eye stared at Olivia with clear determination in its illumination.

The girl of light jumped onto the shortest of Kahei’s nearby vantage points as her circle released a burst of light like a flashbang. Momentarily stunned in a blinded daze, Olivia felt a tight pressure around her wrist preceded by the sounds of rattling chains.

Blinking hard as her vision came back to her, the consciousness possessing Hyejoo’s body was caught unawares and unable to respond to Jungeun bringing her weapon right back down onto her. Entirely preoccupied with her goal of bringing death to Jisoo, it was only as her obsidian arm was drenched in a deluge of cracks that Olivia realized the altered state of their weapons.

The sound of a disturbed Olivia screaming in agony as Jungeun pressed her traned halberd of light further and further into her barrier greatly unsettled Jisoo. Chaewon reflexively closed her eyes for a moment, doing her best to not let the sound of Hyejoo’s voice crying in pain deter her from her efforts of bringing her back.

In the span of a second, the section of Olivia’s shield around her weaponized limb became nearly mutilated. Chaewon’s chain keeping her claws at bay and sinking into her barrier by her wrist caused a storm of damage that only multiplied with Jungeun’s pressure at her forearm.

Mustering what strength she could as the fissures rapidly danced up her arm and began to mix with the damage across the rest of her body, Olivia leapt off the vehicle away from the two. Landing on the pavement, she planted her feet into the ground and reared her arm of steel back.

Pulling forcefully against Chaewon’s chain, Olivia glowered at the girl of light as she broke free of her restraint. Its ire now fully brought forth, the being of darkness heaved labored breaths as its nearly ruined shield vanished.

“Petulant imbeciles…you’ve disrespected the courtesy of my ample warnings for the last time.”

Jungeun was ready to continue her advance, but the sight of it kept her glued to where she stood as she stared at it wide-eyed.

With a long, drawn out breath, Olivia summoned a thick sea of violet dust around her. Had it not been for her flooded eye of darkness seething with a burning light of prodigious wrath, Jungeun would have lost sight of her as she nearly disappeared in her own dense fog of mana.

“This is the end of the line. Cease.”

Olivia’s ill-tempered declaration coincided with her mana restructuring itself in front of her, forming into a runic circle of monumentally tremendous proportions. Reaching above even Jisoo on her stories-high tower and encompassing the width of the street, it had circles within circles and beyond. Runes across different layers were linked with bridges of lavender, shining as brightly as Olivia’s consumed eye.

“Olivia, if you use an effect of this magnitude, Hyejoo will—”

“That much mana...she’s going to—”

“Don’t—”

As Olivia brought up her arm and pierced the bottom edge of her gargantuan circle with a single claw, unified protests from her three adversaries alike were silenced.

Olivia took a step back, hunching over with severely strained breaths as a legion of countless dark voids began to form within a vast area surrounding her. Small patches of skin on her left cheek began to change into a lurid gray as the split in her runic circle continued upwards, her spheres of shadow multiplying with its progress upwards.

Reaching the top, the circle split in two and slowly dematerialized, leaving Olivia standing in the midst of hundreds of voids.

Standing up straight with a deep breath, Olivia glanced upon Chaewon with loathsome abhorrence. The girl of light’s eyes were quivering with trepid anxiety as she stared back.

Olivia’s gaze shifted towards Jungeun. Fearless to the very end, the spearwoman had already started her charge, making a break for Olivia with palpable resentment in her footsteps. Peering at her form of unfaltering courage, the corrupted consciousness found itself almost regaining a shred of respect for the woman it couldn’t quite comprehend.

Almost.

Olivia brought her attention back towards Jisoo above. With a slight wince, she immediately rushed forward towards her. As she did, her poison laid waste to the world around her.

From the innards  of her dark spheres, concentrated streams of viscous acid suddenly shot forth. Void of color and oozing with bubbles, it was the same black liquid which had burned away the sleeve of Hyejoo’s shirt and turned into the ebony steel which now covered Olivia’s arm.

In its raw form, beyond how it melted mere fabric, it effortlessly erased matter from existence. Sections of concrete and parts of cars became sizzling sludge as Olivia’s pressurized beams of dark acid swept the street. Everything touched burned to nothing, leaving behind only muck. The muck became a hazard in and of itself as the pools of it steadily hardened, expanding into dangerously jagged metal as sharp as her claws.

Olivia’s disregard for her surroundings became clear as her streams of condensed poison rained down the street without rhyme or reason. Reaching far and wide, nearby buildings were practically cleaved in half as their centers were split. Their full collapse was prevented only by the acid’s tranation into spiky obsidian somewhat holding them together.

Without much time for thought or preparation, the sorceresses of earth and light hurriedly leapt from spire to spire as Kahei’s network came undone. Running straight for Olivia, Jungeun endured pain spreading in her legs as she forced herself to dash faster still.

Set to intercept the rushing demon as she neared her, Jungeun saw Olivia glare at her from the corner of her eye for a split second. In that selfsame moment, the spearwoman was met with the sight of a thick beam of black venom flying straight at her.

Before Jungeun could even think to save herself, however, the deed had already been done for her.

Standing upon one of the few remaining viewpoints she had remaining, Kahei’s scintillating odd eye glistened with amber as she extended her staff towards Jungeun below. With blinding speed, a considerable amount of beige mana had shot forth from the inside of her weapon’s glass compartment and rushed to Jungeun’s side.

The crystal within Kahei’s staff shook with steady vibrations as the mana coalesced into a giant hexagon-shaped mirror. Anchored to the ground by chains of light digging into the floor from its lower corners, it gave off a bright light as it sheened in the moonlight. Jungeun felt unparalleled appreciation towards Kahei take root within her as she watched the toxic stream barrel into the mirror.

Saved from the suffering of being drenched in hell’s fluids, she sighed lightly as she witnessed an immense aura of beige swallow the mirror whole. Olivia’s poison never touched the surface of the mirror, instead being reflected away from the group into the sky above. The remnants of it fell in a straight line down the road, creating a pathway of twisted metal.

Out of harm’s way, Jungeun continued her advance as the mirror of light began to disintegrate. She heard two pairs of footsteps behind her, followed by the rattling of chains which became louder as they passed her from behind. With no towers of earth to remain perched upon, Kahei and Chaewon had taken to the ground and were bravely rushing to aid Jungeun.

As Jungeun brought her eyes back to her front, though, she realized it wasn’t just her they were desperate to help. Her eyes furiously narrowed at the sight of it, and the muscles in her legs tensed as she bid her body to break its limits.

“I told you to stay out of this, god damn it!”

Down the road, in an act of conceited rebellion—

“I will not be saved by the forsaken conjurer who abandoned the salvation I so kindly blessed her with! ‘Twould be preferable to die with some form of dignity, barriers be damned!”

—Jisoo had defied Jungeun’s very simple instructions.

Landing from a quick descent with winds at her back, Jisoo was poised to challenge Olivia. The sight of Chaewon’s approach in defense of her had triggered a need to redeem herself. Unwilling to cower any longer, Jisoo shouted with fresh courage as she flourished her weapon. “Come, wretched hellspawn!”

With the woman she was so eager to decisively decimate sprinting towards her without hesitation, Olivia wasted no time in leaping forward with extended claws.

Meeting her pouncing strike head on, Jisoo parried the corrupted consciousness with an immaculately timed raising of her blade’s forte. Unlike their prior clashing, Jisoo found herself met not with greater strength, but noticeably less.

Olivia’s exhausted breaths and slow expansion of sickeningly decayed skin on her face was all the confirmation the swordswoman needed. The demon with power beyond measure had played its most potent trump card and was now suffering the price. Visibly drained of stamina and succumbing to its own corruption, the playing field was now properly leveled.

Jisoo felt it as the realization hit her—pure clarity sweeping everything away from her mind. The courage to take matters into her own hands that she had found herself suddenly instilled with increased exponentially.

Settling into an advantageous position with her parry, Jisoo was equipped with a solemn expression of composed calm about her face. With Olivia recoiling slightly, Jisoo executed an elegant riposte as she lunged forward. Lowering her arm and extending her rotated sword hand, she took a quick breath as she drove her rapier into her opponent’s abdomen.

The tip of her sword pierced into the same side of Olivia’s torso that Jungeun had struck prior. An already veritable shower of cracks manifesting with her shield, the damage became even more ruinous as they deepened further. Spreading out like flames in a forest, Olivia’s defenses were nearly compromised with fissures now covering most of her frame.

With Jisoo’s exhale, her seamless assault continued. Azure mana that had materialized behind her coalesced into spheres of water. Arranged in two vertical lines behind her, Jisoo’s eye of ocean blue surged with light as they expelled blasting streams of water forward.

The high pressure aerial rivers crashed into Olivia, sending her sliding backwards as the coat of light surrounding her continued to break. Bearing so little vigor that she couldn’t even ground herself properly, she lost her footing and tumbled backwards. With ragged breaths, she rolled to a stop.

As Olivia rose to her feet, the acid downpour she mindlessly drenched the world with came to a stop all around the sorceresses. Jungeun, Kahei, and Chaewon had caught up to the scene, coming to a cautionary stop not far from the battered being of darkness. Jisoo rushed forward from her position, her gained upper hand driving her to press her assault.

She stopped, however, as the center of her chest came inches away from the glowing tip of Jungeun’s modified halberd. The spearwoman herself didn’t even grace Jisoo with her attention, instead looking to Olivia in front of her while holding her weapon out behind her.

“Enough is enough, Olivia. It’s over.”

Hyejoo’s alter ego didn’t answer immediately. Huffing aching breaths, her eyes were to the floor as she collected her words. Opposite to Jungeun, Kahei stood behind Olivia as Chaewon slowly approached her from the side.

Chaewon’s footsteps froze as Olivia lifted her head. A scowl of deep-seated frustration and a lavender eye of ardent rancor returned Jungeun’s cold gaze. More and more of the left side of her face was beginning to wash over with gray, pathways of black wriggling alive underneath. Between her fatigued heaves of air, she spoke in fragments.

“If you had merely...suspended your farcical desires...and accepted your fatuous beliefs as wholly superfluous…”

Diminutive in size and hidden behind the palm of her obsidian hand, Jungeun hadn’t noticed it at first.

“...I could have ended this...with at least some degree of veneration remaining towards you.”

It was Jisoo pushing her aside and running ahead of her that told Jungeun something was wrong.

“Jungeun!”

Kahei’s cry came with the sound of the bottom of her staff slamming hard into the ground below.

A small number of Olivia’s miniature abysses had reformed themselves in the air above Jungeun and Jisoo. With their recreation, a small runic circle came to life behind her hand. The movement of her index claw reaching backwards concurred with Jisoo coming to her front and ing her rapier into her chest.

Jungeun blinked as she watched Hyejoo’s shield materialize. The damage from Jisoo’s strike flew outwards across her body like frenzied clockwork, fissures upon fissures joining the rest surrounding her. In an instant, her defense system collapsed in on itself with a final explosion of cracks.

Flinching from the impact, Olivia's barrier evaporated into dust as her claw fully pierced her small circle of violet.

Channels of ebony venom centralized in a small area above Jungeun and Jisoo began to cascade towards them. Jisoo clenched her teeth as she looked up, cursing underneath her breath as she realized she wasn’t quick enough.

With little time to act, Jungeun’s body moved with urgent haste ahead of her mind as every aspect of her predicament hit her at once.

Her knuckles going pure white as she tightened her grip on her halberd, Jungeun hurriedly spun it over and plunged it into the asphalt below. On the way down, she stabbed through a series of beige runic circles that took shape with its descent—her weapon’s aura of light had intensified to an almost blinding degree as the mana present within its runes quickly seeped out.

Chaewon’s stored essence rapidly crafted the circles in the same motion, Jungeun’s polearm breaking through them as they were formed. With the destruction of each one, a ring of white blades flashed into existence around Jungeun’s waist. No bigger than arrowheads, the small blades spun around her momentarily before flying forward in staggered waves.

Soaring through the air around her, Jungeun’s blades of light each found one of several runic circles that encompassed the area around her and Jisoo. Kahei’s odd eye was ablaze with brilliant luminosity as each circle surrounding the two broke into pieces—the triggers for her forthcoming effect set into motion, a subdued pulse of energy broke free from the crystal within her staff.

The web of beige mana that surrounded the crystal swiftly swept forwards and escaped its glass enclosure, carried in segmented pools towards each circle. Interconnected hexagonal mirrors of light quickly materialized in a wave, creating a protective dome above the entire group. As their collective auras began to surge, the dark of night was brushed away in an instant.

Oscillating waves of blinding light drenched the street of shadows as Olivia’s poison was repelled back up into the sky. Acid rain falling back to the earth, her orbs of darkness vanished unceremoniously. Drops of her destructive substance burning thousands upon thousands of tiny holes into concrete, vehicles, and rooftops alike, Olivia suddenly growled with feral fury as she extended her arm.

Still standing in front of her assailant, the spectacle of Kahei’s shelter of light had stolen Jisoo’s attention away from Olivia. The sound of the demon’s guttural roar caused her to snap her head back towards her aggressor.

A nervous shiver rolled down Jisoo’s spine. Her heart had skipped several beats. She gulped hard as she blinked.

Three wicked claws of serrated obsidian were an almost imperceptible hair’s breadth away from maiming her and mangling her face into an unrecognizable mess.

Jisoo stepped back slowly with widened eyes. Olivia’s assassination attempt was stopped by a series of white chains coiled around her arm. Her barrier destroyed, they managed a secure grip directly onto her limb without resistance. Chains were also at her neck, waist, and ankles, preventing her attempts to use her remaining ounce of energy to break free and continue through with her assault.

Jisoo’s gaze followed the chains to their origin points. Coming to their destination, she experienced something brand new to her. It was something she had never quite seen before, even despite the several years of history they shared. She could scarcely believe the reality behind it, but there was no denying it.

“You’ve overstayed your welcome, Olivia.”

It was genuine acrimony residing within Chaewon’s tone, becoming more and more pronounced in every word with resounding turbulence.

The rage inside of her small voice extended to the shine of her ignited odd eye, the light coming from it more cross than Jisoo had ever seen before. As her mismatched gaze of beige and hazel fell upon the rising corruption and decaying flesh brought upon Hyejoo’s body, Chaewon’s weary expression shook with barely contained vexation.

With every step Chaewon took, Jisoo could feel how severely the girl of light was holding herself back—the normally quiet, well-mannered sorceress was furious beyond description. Yet, despite the intensity of her emotions, her composed demeanor was measured and tranquil.

As Chaewon’s body was enveloped in light with a single purification tether taking shape in front of her, the strength of her character was utterly apparent as she ultimately did not succumb to the sentimental storm brewing in her mind.

“It’s time to go.”

Jisoo stepped back further as Chaewon approached Olivia. As if their storied history was a false memory, Chaewon didn’t even so much as grace Jisoo with a single glance as she walked past her. Her focus entirely on dispelling the corrupted consciousness, Jisoo watched with bated breath as Chaewon came to a stop in front of Olivia.

From behind the swordswoman, Jungeun approached slowly. Debilitation showed itself in her eyes as she sighed, stopping behind Chaewon. The beige aura that swallowed her halberd started to fade, and with it, its altered hues gradually reverted back to their crimson bases.

Similarly, Kahei walked forward, her downcast eyes mixed with both worry and relief. Her weapon equally reverted back to its original form, yet the mana surrounding the glass-protected crystal did not return. The crystal itself was a dim gray, its source of might entirely drained. Even as Kahei’s dome of light began to fade with the acid rain coming to an end, it remained dull and lifeless.

Standing close to Hyejoo’s alter ego, Chaewon remained quiet as her mana tether began to crawl forwards. Grunts of protest came from Olivia as it came to her, but with her energy depleted and with mana deprivation setting in, the dark being was powerless to stop it. Barely above to move against the restraints of Chaewon’s chains, Olivia bit her lip in dissatisfied defeat as it made contact with her.

A soft, serene warmth began to ripple within Olivia’s body...and she hated it.

Pain was washed away without issue as it healed every corrupted fiber of her being. With every fraction of a second spent under the subjugation of Chaewon’s purification, Olivia heard her rise from her slumber within.

Chae...won…?

Olivia felt time move at a snail’s pace as her reduction to subconscious thought began. The blotches of gray skin that stained Hyejoo’s face gradually began to regain their color.

“Didn’t expect you to be such a massive hypocrite.”

With a low murmur, Jungeun’s tired voice made itself audible. Only Jisoo and Kahei acknowledged it in full, their heads turning to face her. Chaewon’s gaze remained locked onto the now fading presence which had seized her friend. Olivia herself kept her eyes to the floor, fighting a losing battle at remaining conscious against Chaewon’s purification.

“You chastised me for risking both Hyejoo's life and my own to stop you, but then you go and nearly kill both her and yourself with that effect...you know damn well her body can’t take that, even with you at the helm.”

Jungeun held her halberd steady as she paused, the of it seated on broken asphalt below her. Her expression souring and her free hand curling into a tight fist, she dug her nails deep into the palm of her hands as she found her words. “Just what the hell were you doing, Olivia? What are we supposed to think when you go and do something like that…?”

“To discredit my actions and calumniate me with the insult of hypocrisy...to fail to comprehend how it was your own incessant meddling which drove me into that corner and left me with no other options…”

Despite her frail tone from her weakened state and ongoing gradual transference of consciousness, Olivia’s words were as sharp as the deathly edges of her claws. Jungeun didn’t flinch as she was addressed by the fading being.

“...once again, your ignorance baffles me.”

Silence was cast over the five sorceresses as Olivia slowly raised her head. Peering at the spearwoman, she held a beaten frown as the sea of lavender that submerged her odd eye began to transition back to normal.

“The moment you decided to interfere because you valued a belief system over the cursed one’s survival was the exact moment in which you sealed my fate and forced my hand,” the dwindling consciousness revealed. Her eyes shifted to Jisoo slowly, giving rise to a tense discomfort within the swordswoman.

Olivia’s composure breaking momentarily, she took a struggling breath of pain through her teeth as her vision began to blur. Her eyes fell back to the ground below.

I’m right here, Chaewon...wait for me...

The foundations of her consciousness were at their limits. She didn’t have much time left.

Olivia blinked hard, fighting against Chaewon’s light and Hyejoo’s growing presence within her as best she could. Lifting her eyes towards Jungeun once more, she saw the spearwoman gazing upon her dissipating existence with incredulous eyes.

“Blessed with the element of surprise, I was seated within the perfect position to make short work of an otherwise potent new nemesis,” Olivia divulged with a shake of her head, “but then you intervened.”

The vanishing being of darkness winced as she shamelessly delivered a hateful scowl towards a quiet Jungeun.

“Boasting about your sanctimonious philosophy, acting in the interests of preserving the nonexistent worth of useless morality...your vapid showcase of self-righteousness has now accomplished naught but two things: the survival of an enemy, and the undeserved gift of information that will surely lead to the cursed one’s untimely demise...your preposterous fallacy lives on.”

The nails of Jungeun’s fist sank deeper still into the skin of her palm as Olivia continued. “The swordswoman now bears knowledge of the cursed one’s predicament, of my existence and of what brings me forth...which means she and her allies may now develop the means to circumvent my awakening. This was the only chance I had to assist, and you have squandered it. Next they show themselves, I may not be able to save the cursed one, nor her anchor or anyone else.

“If only your blindness had not tricked you into seeing me as your enemy...may you discover a cure for that affliction within your lifetime, for it will only lead to many more incorrect judgments,” Olivia lamented, her overwhelming contempt and disappointment towards Jungeun coming through in full. “Lastly, while I may have enacted a similar plan of self-destructive measures, I’ll not spend my potential final hours hearing you claim that I have erred in the same fashion as you. I am no hypocrite...”

With an adamant argument in her self-defense, Olivia grinded her teeth.

“The uncertainty of whether or not I would ever see the light of day again becoming clear to me, I merely aimed to make the best of the situation while I still had the chance. My actions never put the life of the cursed one at risk. Truthfully, how can you think as much…?”

Olivia blinked slowly.

She felt it in the back of her head as she lost the will to open her eyes again.

“How could I risk her life…?”

The presence she had taken over was now reclaiming its rightful place on its throne.

“How could I risk something that was no longer secure—something that had already been forfeited by your hand of misguided belief...?”

Jungeun held her tongue as her nails broke through her skin.

“Thus, pray do not speak to me as if you are...a heroine worth praise, spearwoman...” Olivia requested in broken, strained fragments, “for should the cursed one...meet her end due to the swordswoman...you will be the only one to blame.”

Jungeun opened as if to counter, but when Olivia suddenly fell forward, she closed it with a small grimace.

The woman of fire hadn’t realized it, but Kahei had long since redirected her glance towards her. Behind her glasses, ruminative eyes gazed upon the spearwoman. As Jungeun’s sharpened gaze gradually fell to the floor, a troubled frown showed itself on Kahei’s face.

Her chains stopping Olivia from hitting the floor, Chaewon’s eye softly glistened with light as they turned to dust. Words remained unsaid as the three watched Chaewon drop to her knees with the taller girl’s body in tow, holding onto her tightly as she fell into her arms.

“Hyejoo…?”

Chaewon’s voice broke a stressful quiet that set in with Olivia’s transition into slumber. The girl of light was answered not with words, but a reclaimed iris of contained violet staring at her as it slowly opened halfway.

“...Chae...won…”

Hyejoo’s voice was nearly inaudible. Chaewon almost questioned if she had truly heard it, but with Hyejoo looking right into her eyes and gently reaching for her hand, her worries vanished without a trace. Chaewon smiled warmly as she felt long overdue alleviation settle into her soul with the embrace of their fingers.

“Is everyone…okay...?”

Enervation was clear in Hyejoo’s half-opened eyes and her sleepy voice laced with fatigue. Her eyes slowly moved away from her anchor.

Her vision was blurry beyond belief, but even still, she made out Jungeun’s frame with her gray hair and halberd in hand. A head of auburn hair with bangs informed her that it was Kahei she saw next, stepping into her field of view and coming to a stop next to Jungeun. The Master sorceress held her hands at her chest, a look of relief washing anxiety away from her face.

Despite the resurgence of the junior she was so desperate to protect, Jungeun’s expression was dissimilar to Kahei’s and Chaewon’s. As Hyejoo attempted to look her in the face, Jungeun oddly looked away with despondent eyes aimed towards the devastated pavement below her.

“We’re fine, Hyejoo,” Chaewon said quietly with a squeeze of Hyejoo’s hand. “Everyone’s alright.”

Hyejoo’s eyes wandered further as Chaewon answered her. Behind Jungeun, a figure with a ponytail stood, looking down at her quietly. Even through her faltering sight, she saw the distinct shade of an azure odd eye stand out in her vision.

As Jisoo stared at her, Hyejoo found a peaceful solace overwriting the final worry present in her mind.

“Even her…”

Closing her eyes, her voice trembled as the tiniest smile showed itself on her face.

“...thank goodness…”

Though Hyejoo descended into silence, the calm amongst the four wasn’t jeopardized. As Chaewon put two fingers to the side of Hyejoo’s neck, she gave a small nod as she felt a pulse coincide with the steady rising and falling of her chest.

“She’s passed out from physical exhaustion and mana deprivation,” the girl of light ascertained, bringing her eyes up to Kahei and Jungeun, “but she’ll be fine.”

“Given the potency of that effect, I wouldn’t be surprised if her unconsciousness lingers for more than just a few hours,” Kahei reasoned, her eyes lost to the sleeping Hyejoo, “but what’s important is that she’s safe and sound.”

“Alright.”

Immediately following Kahei’s assertion, Jungeun’s voice rang out with the shuffling of footsteps.

She had turned around, closing some of the distance between her and Jisoo with a calm approach. Holding her polearm by the base of its conjoined steel, she extended it towards the swordswoman’s chest.

The middle of her rapier’s blade resting within the palm of her free hand, Jisoo remained perfectly still as Jungeun stared her down. “A challenge, is it?”

Jungeun shook her head. As she proclaimed her intentions with surefire conviction, Jisoo found herself thoroughly annoyed.

“You’re coming with us.”