Erie couldn’t hear what he said. Or to be more precise, she heard him, but it went through one ear and out the other.
“By putting the human body in a state of suspended animation, you can overwrite the original personality with an artificial one using Engrave Incantations. You can kill the mind of a person who knows something they shouldn’t, yet have them act as if they were the same. I was able to do that by combining the Church’s drug with this cube.”
“……”
Erie’s mind stopped working, like the cogs had gotten stuck. The same thing that happened every time she tried to think of her past.
“When you enrolled in the Academy a year ago, you remembered me. You didn’t remember my face, but you recognized my voice and the air about me; the things that couldn’t be changed with plastic surgery. So, I used a rare red cube on you. I engraved a personality that imitated the original you and implanted fake memories into it.”
She couldn’t hear him.
“And born anew on that day was the current you before me. I gave you two Restrictors, ‘can’t kill humans’ and ‘believe you are a normal human being and never doubt it.’ These were truly effective Restrictors in buying me more time.”
She couldn’t hear him.
“And then, when all my preparations were finished four days ago, I put my plan into action. All that was left to do was have Jair activate Sephiroth and use him to wipe out the Church. But Miss Lovel nabbed the last red cube and ran for it…! I was out of cubes, and I needed one to activate Sephiroth.”
Grinzam’s eyes dropped to Erie’s chest as he said, “So I decided to remove the cube from your chest and use it on Sephiroth instead. Long story short, I’m just trying to take back what I never intended to use on you in the first place.”
“…!”
Clarity returned to Erie’s mind after he finished talking. She knew she had been told something of great importance, but couldn’t rouse the desire to think about it.
The one thing she knew for sure was that Heath had gotten mixed up in this man’s evil plans and was murdered for it. She knew this man was a hypocrite, who didn’t hesitate to kill people in order to achieve his goal of raising someone important to him from the dead.
For some reason, Erie couldn’t find it in herself to take matters into her own hands and kill him, despite the hatred she felt. But she could never forgive him for what he had done. The origin of the disaster haunting this archipelago had to be ended, right now.
“Heathy, kill Jair and Grinzam!” Erie shouted to Heath. Her command would put an end to all of it.
But Heath didn’t move. He stayed perfectly still with his knife thrust at Jair’s neck.
“…Heathy?” Erie didn’t understand at first, and then she gasped. Red Engrave Incantations floated to the surface of the hand around the knife. The Engrave Incantations that had originally vanished after inscribing them reappeared, covering his entire body.
Grinzam saw it and cackled. “Haha! What a sorry twist of fate…! Did your temporary brain freeze cause it? Or is it the result of the bloodlust you’ve harbored since you created him…?”
“Heathy?!” Erie called his name, not wanting to believe her eyes. But her voice didn’t reach him anymore. Red suffused the Engrave Incantations drifting on his skin. The emeth on his forehead began glowing like a freshly stoked fire.
“He’s gone berserk!” Grinzam announced, elated with his triumph.
Erie cried out in a hysterical voice, “HEATHY! Listen to me! Kill him! Kill him!”
Heath didn’t move. He trembled, his limbs quivering as he fought against the desire to rampage surging through him.
Jair snatched the knife from his hands. He shoved Heath away and ran at Erie. He swung the knife down at her as she stared up at him wide-eyed.
“Ah!”
She had no time to do anything. The tip of the knife sliced deep through Erie’s chest. The strength rushed out of her body and she crumpled to the floor. Heath’s movements completely ceased. Jair tossed the knife aside, and it clattered against the cold, hard floor.
“I never even considered you would turn Heath into a Golem… Your quick-thinking sure threw a wrench into my plans.” Grinzam took a deep breath and strode over to Erie. “Use the dead in whatever way necessary to exact revenge—of course, you would have at least considered the option. I created you. It wouldn’t be strange for us to think alike.”
Erie was his captive audience—she was unable to even twitch her fingers. Grinzam peered down at her face and said, “But the moment you viewed him as a tool, he ceased to be Heath. Golems are just Golems, after all. They are nothing more than empty puppets that move to their Tamer’s will. Being together with this Golem is no different than being all alone.”
Erie couldn’t even cry. Her consciousness was barely hanging on by a thread. A red cube rolled out with the blood gushing from the giant slice through her chest.
It’s Sehem-hamphorasch. Why’s it in a place like this? Erie thought, seeing her own soul, the soul that had lived Erie’s life from a year ago until this day.
“We finally have it… Let’s make haste to the station, Jair.”
She heard Grinzam’s voice in the distance. He left the cellar with Jair. She merely watched his fading back, unable to do anything to stop it. Erie could no longer move her body. Darkness dyed her vision black. Sensations disappeared, thinking ceased, and her heart sunk in despair, dropped into the void of darkness.
And that was how the soul of the girl who had been called “Erie Reyer” for the past year vanished from the world.