“First.”
Bell’s voice was devoid of warmth, like a frozen lake in winter.
“I will cleanse your soul. I will erase all the filthy, twisted things from your mind. I will preserve your earliest memories, the girl who would blush in the garden. From this day forward, you will be my sister. My true sister.”
This was surgery.
A complete lobotomy performed on a terminally ill soul.
“Second.” Bell raised a second finger.
“Give up your ridiculous obsession. Leave on your own, go anywhere you wish. I can pretend nothing ever happened and let bygones be bygones.”
He looked at Cecilia, awaiting her answer.
A deathly silence fell over the loft.
Only the wind blew in through the broken window, stirring up dust from the floor.
Cecilia lowered her head, her long hair obscuring her face, making her expression unreadable.
After a long silence.
A soft chuckle escaped her throat.
“Heh heh...”
The laugh was light and low, yet it instantly sent a chill down Bell’s spine.
It wasn't madness.
Nor was it mockery.
It was... an extreme weariness.
Like hearing a joke that had been told for hundreds of years, one that wasn't funny at all.
Cecilia slowly lifted her head.
In her blood-red eyes, sorrow had faded, replaced by the placid calm of an ancient well.
“Brother.”
She, too, raised a finger. Her uninjured, blood-stained finger.
“I will also give you a choice.”
Bell’s brow furrowed.
“First.” Cecilia’s voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable authority. “Live out this life with me. Be my brother, peacefully and obediently. I will find a way to achieve true immortality. We will never be separated again.”
She paused, the curve of her lips widening slightly, with a hint of cruel tenderness.
“Second.”
“I will restart this world again.”
Boom.
These two words struck harder than the previous Soul Vibration Cannon.
They landed heavily on Bell’s heart.
Restart the world.
What did that mean?
No.
He would absolutely not accept it.
“I refuse.”
Bell’s voice was firm and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
He stood up, looking down at Cecilia.
“I won’t choose either of your options.”
“It seems you still want me to make the decision for you.”
In Bell’s palm, a yellowish-brown light glowed once more. The power to extract souls stirred restlessly.
“Is that so?”
Cecilia’s expression remained unchanged.
She didn’t even look at the mana in Bell’s hand.
She simply looked into Bell’s eyes, as if at a clueless child.
“Brother, do you truly believe... you can cleanse my soul?”
Cecilia smiled.
This time, her laugh was filled with pity and mockery.
“Hundreds of loops, thousands of years of solitude. Every death, every rebirth, has been a tempering.”
“My soul is no longer water, Brother.”
“It is steel, folded and forged billions of times. It is an indestructible diamond.”
She pushed herself up from the floor, swaying as she stood.
Her crushed right hand hung limply, but her back was perfectly straight.
“Your cannon blast certainly hurt. It felt like it would tear me apart.”
“But it was only pain.”
Cecilia walked step by step towards Bell, ignoring the lethal mana glow in his hand.
“You want to cleanse me?”
She stopped in front of Bell, raised her uninjured left hand, and gently caressed his cheek.
“Unless you possess the power to define the rules of the world.”
“Otherwise, you cannot do it.”
Bell’s body stiffened.
He didn’t dodge.
Because he knew she spoke the truth.
The “first loop Bell” could briefly freeze time and space because he was merely an afterimage, a loophole in the rules.
But he, himself, could not.
“So, Brother.”
Cecilia’s finger traced his lips, the icy touch sending a shiver through him.
“Now, the choice is back in your hands.”
“Either, kill me now.”
She guided Bell’s hand towards her heart.
“Use your strongest power to grind my body and soul into their most basic particles. Make me completely disappear from this world, with no possibility of rebirth.”
“Or.”
She withdrew her hand and turned, walking towards the broken window.
The moonlight outlined her slender back.
“Let me leave.”
Bell watched her retreating back, the mana glow in his hand flickering.
Kill.
Or not kill.
Logic told him he had to kill her.
This woman was a walking nuclear bomb, capable of detonating at any moment and shattering his world.
But...
In his mind, the girl who sucked his finger in the garden, the girl who cried while holding his charred corpse, the girl who walked alone through countless loops...
Those images branded his soul like a hot iron.
“Hmph...”
Bell let out a long breath.
The light in his hand slowly dissipated.
“This is the last time.”
Bell’s voice was incredibly hoarse.
“For ‘his’ sake.”
“I will give you a chance.”
Cecilia’s retreating figure paused.
She didn’t turn back.
“Brother.”
She said softly.
“You truly are... as weak as ever.”
As her words fell.
The air before her rippled like water.
Immediately after, a black rift tore open silently, like a hungry maw.
On the other side of the rift was a distorted, chaotic void.
Cecilia lifted her foot, preparing to step in.
“Don’t worry.”
She didn’t turn back, but her voice clearly reached Bell’s ears.
“Before restarting this world.”
Her figure vanished into the dark rift.
“I will definitely return.”
“And ask you again.”
“Ask you if you are willing to change your mind.”
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