Seeing Sathya trapped by the magic she had prepared brought Elcalan no joy.
At that moment, she even hesitated, a sudden urge to end her own life washing over her.
Because she did not truly know whether Sathya was a magical beast.
“Kill me, Elcalan.”
“...Kill me, before I join her and become one of them.”
In her dazed state, those words echoed in Elcalan's mind.
Indeed, she had loved Castina.
Deeply. She believed her feelings were not a single bit inferior to those between Tina and Sathya.
Yet, Castina had turned into the very thing they had once hated most.
For whatever reason, Castina had become a powerful magical beast.
Her power as a magical beast was several times greater than her power had ever been as a human.
If Pope Castina had not locked herself away before transforming, humanity would likely have faced extinction.
At the thought, Elcalan felt a sharp pang in her chest.
She did not know whether the pain came from her battle wounds or from the deep-seated guilt she harbored toward Castina.
Cults worshipped magical beasts as gods.
Countless humans had perished at the hands of those madmen.
Unlike the Rebel Army or even the magical beasts, they were organizations born from the darkest depths of the human heart.
Following the magical beast invasion, they had sprouted like mushrooms after a rain.
Those fanatics would delusionally sacrifice entire villages, even whole towns, to create magical beasts—even though they had never once succeeded.
She and Castina had campaigned for years for the sole purpose of exterminating those fanatics alongside the magical beasts.
Her so-called support for the Saintess program was nothing more than a self-deceiving lie.
She simply wanted to escape.
In anyone's life, there comes a time when they refuse to acknowledge or face the reality before them.
And the reality was that her beloved had become the very evil they had once fought to destroy.
Thus, she had lost her way.
She refused to participate in any campaigns against magical beasts, turning a blind eye to both the cults and the Church's dogmatic incompetence.
She even wanted to hide away, completely forgetting everything that had transpired between her and Castina—or rather, that magical beast.
She had even ignored Aether's sins, turning a blind eye to the massacre of the Lystrans—an atrocity every bit as heinous as those committed by the cultists.
By chance, she had uncovered just how dangerous the “demon” was who had killed Babarol at the Holy Academy, along with numerous clergy and Inquisitors, shocking the high-ranking officials of the Church.
She had sought to draw close to that powerhouse, that demon, to engage her in direct conflict.
Even then, her heart had remained lost and hesitant, casually referring to Tina as a “demon.”
But then, Tina began to gradually reveal her true form.
—She was indeed the legendary Demon King.
On that day, the entire world had convulsed under the weight of her obsession. The ground for miles around was utterly devastated in an instant. Had the teleportation scroll she left behind not activated by pure chance, she too would have perished in the White Dusk Forest.
Yet, what followed was something she would never be able to forget for the rest of her life.
Sathya, the strongest apprentice Saintess, had arrived.
But to Elcalan's utter shock...
...Sathya did not kill Tina. Instead, she “saved” her.
And so...
Her heart, which had been stagnant and lost in a daze for so long, finally stirred for the first time.
“Don't... don't lie to me... I love you... Little Ya... I love you so much...”
“Sob, sob, sob...”
“I never... never want to see you get hurt again... You liar...”
She had heard every single word of their conversation.
It was impossible.
Unacceptable...
Why? Why were they able to do it?
How absurd was that?
Unless... Sathya was of the same kind as the demons!
It had to be.
How could a human ever fall in love with a magical beast?!
Sometimes, she too wanted to confirm whether Castina was still the person she once knew.
But she knew it was a futile hope.
Just like Sathya and Tina.
How could there ever be a happy ending?
Hummmmm—
Trapped beneath layer upon layer of countless magic circles, Sathya looked as though she were sealed inside a towering spire.
Within Elcalan's line of sight, the Saintess was now thoroughly trapped inside the Divine Nail she had designed.
In truth, this artifact possessed absolutely no ability to kill humans.
Sages from centuries ago had left behind vast troves of wisdom specifically designed to combat magical beasts.
Elcalan had modified and upgraded certain weapons based on those ancient designs, creating the Divine Nail.
And its function had only ever been one thing: to torture and kill magical beasts.
No matter what form a magical beast took, it would be tortured and eventually slain within the Divine Nail.
No matter how powerful she was, she would at least be forced to reveal her true, beastly nature.
She wanted to tear away Sathya's mask. With Aether's assistance, she would expose the girl's monstrous nature to the entire world.
She had planned this strategy with Aether long ago, waiting patiently for this very moment.
...
【Die.】
It was a voice that seemed to echo from the very depths of the abyss.
Suddenly, Elcalan sensed an immense surge of chaos energy.
Driven by pure instinct, she leaped backward, jumping off the platform of light.
Boom—!
In the next instant, her original foothold, the platform of light, and even the bridge itself vanished entirely.
In their place, scalding, deep blue flames erupted, instantly blotting out the sky and engulfing her entire field of vision.
Then came the overwhelming pressure of a beast, accompanied by a deafening roar that threatened to shatter the very soul.
“Roar—!!!”
When the flames finally dissipated, the Divine Nail was gone.
Over where Velrose and Krulu stood, the cloaked girl had vanished.
In her stead, a dark figure hovered in midair.
It was a young girl.
Her slender waist and legs were breathtakingly beautiful, her fair, flawless skin adorned with patches of scales that added an alluring, demonic charm. Half of her body was shrouded in a swirling tornado of miasma. Flanking her long, dark blue hair was a pair of massive, spiraled horns. From her back extended a pair of silver-and-cyan dragon wings engulfed in black flames, making her look like a goddess of calamity descending upon the world.
Though a cold pity for all creation lingered on her face, she raised her hand, ready to shatter humanity's pride with a mere flick of her finger.
At this moment, Tina felt a blazing fire in her chest, one that had been burning furiously ever since Elcalan made her appearance.
Her entire body grew scalding hot as a colossal power erupted from within, leaving her with the sensation that she could crush anything in existence.
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