Standing before them was Elfiné in her uniform.
“…You found it, Selia.” Elfiné smiled with her usual gesture and took Riselia’s hand.
“Miss Finé…”
“I believed in the unlikely possibility you’d find this and released this little one to the research facility’s Garden. But you really found it. Did Clauvia send you?”
“Hm, this Avatar… Is it really you?” Riselia asked.
The avatar shaped like Elfiné slowly shook its head. “No. This is just Cait Sith’s mimicry ability, done by tracing the real Elfiné Phillet’s personality. I can only answer simple queries, but I’m not really her.”
“…R-really?” Riselia asked quizzically.
“It must be like the bone dolls I use to take my place when I ditch classes,” Leonis appended.
“I see… So the real Miss Finé…”
“The real me has probably been taken to the Fourth Assault Garden by now.”
“…The Fourth?” Riselia frowned.
“Yes. The Phillet’s main stronghold, where Count Deinfraude governs…”
“But why would they take you there…?”
Elfiné answered Riselia’s question by producing a bright light in her fingertip.
“What’s this…?”
“This light is my last remaining memory. Before my will completely went blank, I believed you would come here, and left it here…”
Elfiné pointed the light at Riselia, flicking it toward her so it entered her chest.
“This is the entirety of the Phillet’s D-Project I looked into. Creating Demon Swords, and research into Artificial Elementals. Demon Swordsmen soldiers using Homunculus technology. All of these were technologies given to Count Deinfraude by the Void apostles.”
“…The Voids are giving mankind technology?! Wh-what do you mean?”
“The Voids aren’t all unsightly monsters without an intellect. Some of the Void Lords wield knowledge that far outmatches anything humans are capable of. They’re called apostles. They mingle with human society, or join forces with traitors to mankind, like Deinfraude, and are plotting to have this world be consumed by the Void World…”
“There are humans working together with the Voids?!” Riselia’s ice-blue eyes widened in shock.
“—I know it’s hard to believe, Selia, but it’s true.”
“…”
Void Lords with advanced intellect. Leonis had an idea of who it could be referring to. The Dark Lord Armies’ former officers, like Nefakess, who plotted to resurrect the Dark Lords.
…So they call themselves apostles, Leonis noted to himself.
If that name was to be taken at face value, then they worked in service of a greater power.
And the Dark Lords’ Armies only ever worshipped one person…
As Leonis pondered this, Elfiné carried on.
“Count Deinfraude and the Void apostles are trying to push the D-Project to its final phase. I don’t know what he’s trying to use me for, but I’m sure he’s planning something terrible in the Fourth Assault Garden.”
She took Riselia’s hands and smiled.
“Selia, listen. There’s one last thing I have to tell you. I wish I could have told you this in person, but if nothing else, I’ll do it while looking like me…”
“Miss Finé…?”
“My life… The life I always thought was my own had been set up by my father since the day I was born. But the days you gave me in the eighteenth platoon were a time that was all my own—something no one can take away from me.”
Elfiné’s body began to turn to particles of light, starting with her fingertips.
“But I’m disappearing now. I’m losing myself. My mind is being eaten away by the Demon Sword’s power with the emptiness consuming it. So please…”
She parted her fading lips.
“If I end up becoming a Void, I want you to _____ me.”
“…?!”
“I don’t want to become a Void, an enemy of mankind…”
“…Miss Finé!” Riselia teared up and hugged Elfiné’s avatar.
But the older girl simply regarded her with a mournful smile…and shattered into particles of light.
“Miss…Finé…”
The black cat appeared at Riselia’s feet.
“Miss Selia…,” Leonis called out to her, as she embraced the empty space Elfiné occupied.
Riselia bit her lips tight.
“Deinfraude… Void apostles… Fourth Assault Garden.” She repeated the words, picking up the black cat Elfiné left behind.