Chapter 82
Herais looked at the sparkling ring and my smiling face, then let out a quiet laugh as if to say he couldn’t stop me.
“You’ve gotten pretty clever. To think you’d actually use the ruby.”
“There’s such a simple method—running around to find someone in person is way too inefficient, isn’t it?”
I said shamelessly, winking, and Herais let out a low, amused chuckle.
“I can’t compete with you. Now I feel like an idiot for smashing every church I came across just to find you.”
“You smashed them? What about the others? Are they okay?”
“They’re all frantic trying to find you. Now that I disappeared too, they’re probably going crazy.”
He didn’t seem the least bit interested, though.
Maybe seeing me had calmed him. He spoke in that signature sly tone of his as he stepped up beside me.
“Before Father causes an even bigger mess, should I just cut off the cult leader’s head?”
“Who are you calling Father?”
“If he’s your father, then he’s Father to me.”
Flirting at a time like this, seriously?
At least he was consistent.
“We lost Lucas too. How are we going to find him?”
“Sienna, I think we already found him.”
Van, who had been quietly listening, pointed toward the side of the room.
And there, a door I had never seen before appeared before us.
“…That wasn’t there a second ago.”
“Guess it wants something.”
Wants something, huh…
“Probably me, right?”
They tried to snatch me alone and failed.
I could more or less guess what they were thinking.
“They probably want to deal with me personally for mocking and insulting the Light Order.”
Who would go this far over something so petty? These lunatics had no sense of reason.
‘Fine. Let’s see what they’ve got.’
Just before opening the door, I picked up a wooden plank lying on the floor.
“Sis?”
“Hang on. I need a weapon too.”
Relying only on my magic staff—what if it broke?
I wrapped the plank in ice. Sharp icicles formed along it like embedded nails.
“Mm, this should do.”
“If that hits wrong, someone could die.”
“You’re going to poke holes all over someone’s body.”
I tilted my head at Herais and Van’s words.
“That was the plan?”
“…”
“…”
“…Weren’t you going in there to deal with the cult leader?”
Was it too much?
Seeing them both avert their gazes awkwardly, I scratched the back of my neck.
“Fine. Hold on.”
I started modifying the plank again.
I shaved off the spikes and wrapped thick ice along the slender wood.
Then I rounded off the sharp end, shaping it like a baseball bat.
“Now it’s good, right?”
I rested the bat on my shoulder, chin raised proudly.
“Let’s go. Open the door.”
BOOM!
I kicked the door open and entered the room. Under a massive inverted cross, an old man with white hair was waiting for us.
“You made it far.”
“What do you mean made it far? You’re the one who dragged me here alone. But what now? Your plan failed. Herain came along too.”
“Sienna Winter. Just as I’ve heard—your tongue is far too long. Arrogant, insolent, and conceited.”
“Better than having a short tongue. And I have no reason to bow my head to a cult. Of course I’m going to be arrogant, insolent, and conceited.”
I stood like a thug, one leg out and my chin up.
Determined to get under his skin, I kept provoking him, and sure enough, his face turned red and blue.
“How dare this impudent, blasphemous wench! In the name of the Father, I shall—ugh!”
“What are you even saying.”
Before he could finish, I smacked his head with the bat.
Thud. The cult leader collapsed, and Van hurried over to me, whispering nervously.
“Sienna… shouldn’t we at least hear him out…?”
“What are you talking about? You wanted to listen to all that? No way. If we leave him talking, something bad will happen. Ever heard of ‘strike first, win first’?”
“Strike… first… win first…?”
“Yeah! Strike first, win first! Only amateurs wait for the enemy to finish chanting their spells. Hit them before they can cast!”
I struck the cult leader again as he tried to get up.
“Sure, beating up an old man is bad, but this bastard’s a criminal, right? A piece of trash who deserves to die, right? Then he should die.”
Kidnapping and imprisoning a duke. Killing the duke’s knights. Brainwashing villagers. Offering innocent people as sacrifices. Polluting forests and lakes, destroying entire ecosystems…
The list of crimes was endless.
“Y-you damned wench…! How dare you touch me?!”
“Sorry, but I don’t care to listen to a pathetic man who’s getting beaten by a damned wench.”
He was strong, sure—but only in dark magic. Physically he was incredibly weak.
So weak he reminded me of my old self.
Looking at him, I suddenly understood exactly why dark magic was considered dangerous—it devoured the body.
‘If his body’s this weak, I can finish him before he can even chant.’
But if he could cast magic without a spell or staff like Herais…?
“You arrogant wench. I’ll kill you first.”
His pitch-black eyes glared at me as he clenched his teeth.
A chill ran down my spine.
I spun around just in time to see a black mass in the air opening a gaping mouth at me.
Those razor-sharp teeth looked like they could chew me to bits any second.
My frozen mind kicked into overdrive.
‘What do I do? Block or attack?’
No—my shield only just worked earlier. The odds of it working again were low.
‘I’ll shatter it with ice.’
As I recalled the saying “the best defense is offense” and opened my mouth to chant—
Snap.
A finger flicked.
BOOM!
Like a bomb exploding, the mass burst apart into falling fragments.
“You’re right. To stop them from pulling that crap again, we should strike first.”
A shield I hadn’t even cast had activated, blocking the debris from hitting me.
“Herain…”
“Who did you say you were going to kill first?”
Herais stepped forward, pulling me behind him, his voice turning deadly cold as he loomed over the cult leader.
“Watch your mouth. How dare you lay a hand on them.”
Before the chilling warning finished, the cult leader’s body rose into the air.
Then—crash!—he was flung straight into the massive inverted cross hanging behind him.
“Urgh! Y-you… bastards…!”
He struggled desperately to break free from Herais’s magic, but couldn’t move an inch.
“Sis, watch closely. Remember how every mage has a mana core?”
“Yeah. We learned that in the first class.”
I remembered how much I struggled trying to gather and condense mana into a core.
“If you block it—or destroy it—”
“N-no…!”
Herais extended his hand toward the cult leader’s chest. White light burst forth from his palm.
“Gah—! Aaarghhhh!”
“—that mage becomes nothing more than a helpless, powerless fool.”
With a single burst of pure mana, Herais shattered the cult leader’s mana core.
He dropped to the ground, writhing weakly, and Herais looked down at him with cold detachment.
There wasn’t a trace of emotion on his face.
Just the look someone would give a crawling insect.
“Sis, how should I finish him? He dared to use such filthy words toward you.”
“It’s fine. Do whatever you want.”
It was considerate of him to ask—but something about having him kill on my command made me uneasy.
“H-how… how could a mere human possess such power…?!”
“So curious? I’ll show you. Not that I know if you’ll understand.”
Herais wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
Then, in a language I had never heard before, he spoke:
《 לבה 》
And the world turned upside down.
The ground trembled and split open, molten lava churning beneath.
The room that had been the cult leader’s chamber had become a cavern, dark and vast, with molten rock dripping from above like rain.
The scorching heat was overwhelming.
Terrified by the sheer scale of magic, I clung to Herais’s waist.
One wrong step and I’d fall straight into the lava.
Herais gently patted my shoulder, reassuring me.
“It’s okay. It’s an illusion.”
“This is an illusion? You’re kidding. It feels so real…”
“Well, you can kill someone with an illusion.”
A chill ran down my spine at his calm voice.
It felt like I was finally seeing his true power. And even this wasn’t all of it.
Meanwhile, the cult leader—isolated like an island in a sea of lava—stared blankly at the raging heat around him.
“This power… what is this…?”
Overwhelmed by the sheer difference in power, he trembled as he looked into Herais’s blue eyes.
Then—like someone struck by lightning—he convulsed in shock.
“I knew it… This was no ordinary power. From the moment you recognized me, I sensed something was different…!”
Finally realizing Herais’s true identity, the cult leader stammered, voice shaking as he spoke one final word—
“Father…!”
