It was obvious whose power the Authority Spell belonged to.
Yuri steadied herself and scanned her surroundings. But Kori was nowhere to be seen.
The moment the Authority Spell’s power reached out, Yuri could sense Kori—and gauge her own condition to some extent.
As originally planned, it seemed she had to lure Cedric outside.
“Ha…”
Yuri calmed her wavering heart and focused on Cedric.
He was looking at her with a hint of amusement.
“Looking flustered, aren’t you?”
“Not really.”
“That Kori you cared about betrayed you. How does that feel? Didn’t see that coming, huh?”
“Idiot.”
“What was that?”
Cedric faltered for a moment.
Though Yuri had been hostile toward him, this was the first time she’d openly insulted him like this.
Seeing that, Yuri let out a small, bitter laugh.
“Cedric. Hearing you spout nonsense like that, I can tell just how pissed off you are. I must have really gotten under your skin coming all the way here, huh? Didn’t expect this, did you? You pretended to be glad to see me, calling me an unexpected presence, but after losing over and over, you’re just as annoyed as I am, right?”
“Nonsense.”
“Bragging about dragging Kori into this like it’s some big deal. What an idiot.”
“Yuri, Yuri…”
Cedric twisted his mouth into a smile.
“You’ve really sunk low with your words and actions. Have you fallen that far?”
“You were the lowest from the start. And it’s all thanks to that so-called black magic of yours. Do you think your ideology and words are noble?”
“Shut up. I’m going to change the world.”
“That’s what’s pathetic.”
“Yeah. In the end, you’re just the same monkey…”
“Ugh.”
Yuri spat on the ground and sneered. Cedric’s face twisted in anger.
“I was the idiot for believing and following someone like you as my brother.”
Cedric closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath. Though he tried to regain his composure, his flushed face betrayed how furious he truly was.
Yuri admired her own talent.
She hadn’t expected to provoke Cedric this much.
Emboldened, she pressed on.
“Kori… I guess he’s too scared of me to show himself? Cedric, how untrustworthy must you be for that to happen?”
“Kori!”
Cedric shouted.
“Come out right now! Show yourself to that insolent fool who thinks he can get away with this just because I’m holding back… your new self…”
Following his command, Kori hesitated before beginning to reveal himself.
From a space beyond where Cedric stood, the hem of a robe brushed past.
Yuri immediately flipped Cedric off.
“Nope. Not looking.”
Then, without hesitation, she turned and leapt toward the window straight ahead.
She hadn’t fully realized how high up she was until the vast expanse of the Anti-Empire Alliance below made her heart drop.
If she fell like this, she’d die.
Summoning her Soul Slash, she drew in the chaotic energy.
Mana spread out like silk, forming a barrier that gripped the air.
Thanks to the air resistance, Yuri’s fall slowed to a gentle descent.
“Yuri!”
Cedric’s voice tore through the air behind her.
“Running away?”
Yuri glanced back.
And was shocked once more.
The tower soared into the sky, and from every window, countless tendrils burst forth like a flood.
At the very top of that mass of tendrils, Cedric hovered in midair, glaring at Yuri.
His face was twisted beyond recognition—no longer the Cedric she once knew.
Yuri smirked.
“Oh wow, you’re really mad.”
Seeing him react so sensitively, she realized she must have mattered to Cedric more than she thought.
Anyway, the plan was working.
Watching the tower crumble, Yuri’s lips curled into a smile.
“Now, the real fight begins.”
The altitude gave her a clear view stretching far into the distance.
As she fell from the sky toward the ground, she lifted her eyes to the distant horizon.
A wave of emotion washed over her.
Coming back to the past, fighting for so long—it had all been for this moment.
The root of all this chaos.
To kill Cedric.
But the presence she felt behind her was overwhelmingly powerful. It stretched endlessly, as if reaching the heavens, and was vast enough to dominate the entire visible land.
Could she win?
Yuri took a steady breath.
For the first time, victory felt so unlikely.
He was human, but an enemy larger than any mountain.
Yet.
She wasn’t afraid.
Winning or losing didn’t matter.
In fact, standing against Cedric was the only reason she existed, and that gave her a deep sense of satisfaction.
It felt like she was exactly where she was meant to be.
The Guilty sword in her hand felt better than ever.
With each deep breath, with every heartbeat pulsing through her veins, the power of Soul Slash flowed like a river through her body.
Feeling the chaotic energy where all possibilities were tangled and wild, Yuri smiled.
“Everyone, ready?”
The Anti-Empire Alliance, who had been slaughtering the cocooned enemies, looked up in stunned silence at Yuri’s divine-like descent and commanding shout.
“We fight that.”
She pointed behind her.
The tower was collapsing, revealing the demon.
“Raise your swords!”
Yuri landed on the ground.
She immediately spun around and looked up at the tower’s remains.
The tower was gone.
In its place stood a massive monster made of tendrils, looming over the Anti-Empire Alliance like an ant hill.
Could they really fight something like that?
As that question crossed the soldiers’ minds, Yuri’s voice, filled with mana, rang out loud and clear.
“Charge!”
And she took off running.
The Anti-Empire Alliance reflexively followed her lead, rushing toward the enemy.
The monster had a humanoid, bipedal form. Flesh dripped from its body, and tendrils sprouted randomly from every part, bristling with thorns in all directions.
A humanoid mass of tendrils.
Its height was dizzying, like a mountain, and it seemed it could easily step over the fortress walls.
Yuri gritted her teeth.
Stepping forward, she confronted the monster’s overwhelming presence.
Even the madness radiating from the black magic was cut down by her sword.
“Don’t be afraid!”
Yuri shouted again.
“If we don’t kill it, we die!”
She pushed off the ground and leapt.
With a powerful jump, she soared to the monster’s knee height. Countless tendrils lashed out instantly.
Yuri slashed them all away, stomped on the monster’s knee, and leapt again.
This time, the waist.
There was nowhere solid to step on—only tendrils aiming to strike her.
Yuri grabbed one with her hand.
Screeeech!
It was as if every tendril had its own life.
Grief and screams pierced her mind.
The demon’s grimoire, accumulated over a long time, poured death and despair onto Yuri.
Within it were concepts she couldn’t even comprehend.
A black, empty void—death itself—invaded her soul.
A god from another world.
It too desired Yuri.
The despair built by the demon’s grimoire on this land and the incomprehensible outer cosmic entity beyond had merged.
The result was this monster.
“Cedric, what the hell have you done?”
Yuri muttered as she climbed the tendril, her arm muscles bulging as if about to burst.
No matter how much the tendrils shook, she held on tight.
The surrounding tendrils attacked her.
She swung Guilty, but couldn’t block them all.
Her skin tore, blood flowing down.
But at this moment, the pain faded, almost like pleasure.
The rage she drew from deep within changed everything.
If it meant killing Cedric—and this monster—she didn’t care how much blood she shed.
Pain was joy.
She switched from one tendril to another, climbing higher and higher.
When she reached the monster’s chest, her forehead split open, blood flowing down, and her vision turned red.
She couldn’t see clearly.
Wiping her eyes roughly, she stabbed the monster’s body with Guilty.
“Enough already, damn it…”
Leaning on the sword, Yuri caught her breath.
Looking down, the Anti-Empire Alliance surrounded the monster like a swarm of ants.
Some fired arrows, others focused on cutting tendrils.
Some tried to climb like Yuri but fell before reaching any height.
Yet no one gave up.
Yuri chuckled.
From this height, everything looked like a farce.
“Uaaaaah!”
Jose, wielding two swords, was climbing the monster’s body, stabbing his blades in.
But he was still far from where Yuri was.
Morongchan and Francesco were doing the same, all chasing after her.
Yuri turned again and climbed the monster’s body.
Before she knew it, she reached its shoulder.
Finding a place to stand made things easier.
The ground rippled as tendrils rose to attack, but Yuri never lost her balance.
Now, she headed for the head.
The creature was so massive that the distance from shoulder to head was considerable.
Yuri cut down tendrils blocking her path as she walked.
“Cedric!”
Then, the monster’s face slowly turned toward Yuri.
The moment she saw it, she instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.
When she first looked up at the monster from below, its face was pitch black, reflecting nothing.
She thought it was just a mass of darkness.
But up close, it was something entirely different.
There was something utterly horrifying there.
The mind of an ordinary human couldn’t comprehend it; all it registered was a pitch-black void.
Standing so close now, that madness pressed down on Yuri’s spirit.
“Yuri.”
Cedric’s voice echoed.
“You can’t even see it properly.”
Yuri gritted his teeth and raised his sword.
Tentacles were piercing his body. Desperately, he conjured a barrier of mana to shield himself. His senses were scrambled—there was nothing else he could do.
“This is what it means to be human.”
“Shut up.”
“This isn’t something from another world. It’s a manifestation of humanity’s ugliest parts. Born from humans, yet no human can bear to look at it. And you still want to protect humanity?”
Yuri wanted to gouge his eyes out.
“Get that face away from me…!”
“Nope.”
The monster stared at Yuri intently.
Yuri’s mind burned red.
His eyes were assaulted by unbearable sights, his ears by unbearable sounds, his nose by unbearable stench, his skin by unbearable touch, and his tongue by unbearable taste.
His senses twisted and warped.
Yuri clenched his teeth.
“Damn it…”
There was nothing he could do like this. Every sense was out of control. He wanted to collapse right there.
He didn’t know what to hold onto.
Cedric’s mocking laughter echoed inside his skull.
“You can’t even handle this, and you want to fight me? Yuri, in the end, you’re just a monkey. And monkeys can’t understand me.”
Yuri sank to his knees.
Unconsciously, he dropped Guilty.
“I’ll make it easy for you. Become a part of me. Yuri, you disappointed me, but you’re still my precious little brother.”
Yuri wanted to grip his sword again.
But no sense could perceive his surroundings.
As long as that monster’s face glared at him, Yuri would be doomed to scream in eternal agony, stripped of all five senses.
Then—
At some moment—
Yuri became aware of Guilty lying at his feet.
How he could sense it, he didn’t know. Something beyond the five senses, something indescribable, connected him to Guilty.
This feeling—he had experienced it once, long ago.
Yes, back then.
Without anyone saying a word, without anyone pushing him—
Yuri just knew this person would stand by his side.
“Are you Yuri Briol?”
The day he first locked eyes with Ekaterina.
His sixth sense had captured her.
Yuri raised his hand.
And before he knew it, Guilty was in his grasp.
He opened his eyes.
His sixth sense, having reached the realm of the soul—or even deeper—was linking him to the world.
Yuri straightened his back.
And faced the monster’s face head-on.