Genesis trembled violently in her grasp. Crimson rivulets snaked down its gleaming white blade.
Veronica stared in horror at the sword embedded in the Bahamut’s chest. It looked eerily like a white serpent with its head buried deep in flesh, biting firmly and tearing at the creature’s innards. Her entire body convulsed uncontrollably as agonized groans escaped her bloodied lips.
“Ah…”
A searing, white-hot pain erupted through her body—connected to the Bahamut’s—forcing her to clutch desperately at her chest. It felt as though she had swallowed molten iron that now scorched her from within.
Blood burst from her mouth in a violent spray, and the divine sword she had released wobbled precariously in the air between them. It tilted its head at an impossible angle to examine its own wound, then turned its gaze toward her with the unnerving stillness of deep, predatory waters.
“Why… won’t you… die?” Veronica gasped. “I pierced… your heart…”
Her incoherent mumblings dissolved into the blood flowing from her lips.
Something was terribly wrong. While she fought for each ragged breath, It calmly extracted the blade from its chest with leisurely composure. A wave of dread washed over her, cold and absolute. Veronica twisted her body in agony as razor-sharp pain sliced through her flesh.
“Do you know why we eat your brains?” It asked, its childlike voice accompanied by an incongruous smile.
Veronica’s vision swam, the world tilting and spinning around her. It raised one ghostly white finger and pointed deliberately to its head.
“For our kind, this is where life’s essence concentrates.”
Veronica’s eyes widened in horrified realization. The magnitude of her fatal error crashed down upon her. She had been deceived by its human-like appearance and had driven her blade into the Bahamut’s chest.
But its heart—its true vulnerability—is in its skull!
“Why did you try to kill me?” It inquired, its voice unnervingly calm.
Veronica choked back a sob as she desperately pressed her palms against the cold floor, trying to crawl backward to escape. The overwhelming pain and growing delirium drained the strength from her trembling limbs. The agony radiating from her chest was beyond endurance.
“Why did you try to kill me?” It repeated.
The fact that it showed no anger, no rage at her attack, made the question infinitely more terrifying. Veronica, who had been dragging herself away by her hips, finally lost her grip and fell backward. Human bones received her with a sickening crackling sound beneath her weight.
No. This can’t be happening. This nightmare can’t be real.
But directly contradicting her desperate prayers, It smoothly mounted her prone form, just as it had done at the lake earlier. The only difference now was the divine sword clutched in its pale hand. It gripped the razor-sharp blade directly, causing a cutting pain to slice across Veronica’s own palm.
It hurts! God, it hurts so much!
“I-I told you already,” she gasped between ragged breaths. “I’m… human…”
But It asked again, as if her words had never reached its ears, “Why did you try to kill me?”
It was the exact same question, not a single syllable altered. Her terror had reached its pinnacle. Veronica suddenly realized that her humanity was not a sufficient answer to the creature’s “why.” The real reason, the true purpose behind her desperate action, was…
“Because killing you… is the only way… others can survive…” she finally confessed.
“Others?” the Bahamut asked with chilling innocence. “The Red Knight?”
The hair on the nape of her neck stood on end, ice flooding her veins. How do you know him? How could you possibly know Leon? The questions blazed across her face without needing to be spoken.
It smiled another grotesque, inhuman smile. The gaping wound in its chest had already vanished without a trace. “I met him many times. First below, then continuously after that. He hunts me relentlessly. He was there when I ate you, too. He buzzes around like an irritating fly.”
“Below” seemed to reference Tyran in the southern territories.
“Even the Bahamuts know of the Red Knight”—wasn’t that the whispered rumor? Veronica trembled violently as she contemplated how sometimes common gossip could touch so precisely upon hidden truths. She couldn’t determine which had come first—whether words shaped reality or reality was merely reflected in words.
At the mention of Leon, Veronica’s parched lips froze completely. Her thoughts slowed to a crawl before stopping entirely. That must have been why she failed to notice the subtle shift in Its expression.
The Bahamut gathered her trembling hands above her head in one fluid motion. Its whispered words fell upon her like thunder from a clear sky.
“I understand now. The most annoying one’s existence ends today. When he dies, you will become my loyal family. Wait here.”
The divine sword plunged down like a ritual nail, impaling her overlapped hands to the ground beneath. Veronica’s agonized scream echoed through the chamber.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What are you saying…? No, he has nothing to do with this. Please, don’t go. I’ll—I’ll do anything. Whatever you want, I’ll do it.”
Veronica’s voice trembled with desperation, repeating the same words like a madwoman, but the Bahamut simply rose to its feet. Its bare feet crunched through bone as it disappeared from her sight. No matter how she thrashed or screamed, the creature paid her no heed.
Alone on the mountain of human bones, cruel visions filled her mind. The divine sword Genesis had pierced straight through her palm, pinning her to the ground like a butterfly in a collection. Each slight movement tore the wound open anew, drawing whimpers of pain from her lips. She thought she would lose her mind.
What have I done by coming here? If I’d just stayed put, the Bahamut wouldn’t have gone after Leon. Why is it so obsessed with family? Doesn’t it have enough already? After creating so many, it still wants more?
Thoughts swirled chaotically through her mind as dark clouds of anxiety smothered her consciousness. With Karta now occupied, if the Bahamut decided to search the city—if it strategically attacked the cathedral—the siege wouldn’t last long. She felt herself teetering on the edge of madness.
And even if they encountered each other… Leon wouldn’t want to kill it, because doing so would mean her death.
She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the confession she’d heard through his helmet.
That radiant voice of his. Those eyes that shimmer like heat rising from summer stone. You are like fire itself, Leon.
She recalled the way he had looked up at her from the bed, with his disheveled hair and firmly set jaw. She had felt so breathless that she longed to take him to the sea. She imagined them sitting together on the obsidian rocks of Bayern, gazing at the deep blue horizon. Perhaps there, the flames that burned so painfully within them both might finally subside.
In his eyes, she had seen everything—tattered love, sorrowful regret, unspeakable sadness, fleeting joy, and lingering attachment. The stability and happiness that she had yearned for her entire life but could never possess rippled there like sea foam on the tide. The precariousness of it had overwhelmed her, making her hesitant to speak.
It wasn’t that I didn’t love you. I was simply afraid that if I let even a single drop of confession fall, our overflowing emotions would sweep us away like a flood.
So she couldn’t let him drown alone now, after she turned and fled from the tidal wave like a coward. She had to find a way out of this, somehow.
Through the gaping hole in the cave ceiling, the sky had already deepened to cobalt blue with approaching dawn. As she vacantly watched clouds drifting overhead, Veronica glanced down at her leg with a start and discovered insects crawling up her pale skin.
“No… No! Get away! Please, just leave me alone!”
The bones in her hand were twisted at an unnatural angle and throbbed with pain. The metallic scent of blood wafted past her nostrils. Cold sweat trickled down her spine and forehead, while goosebumps rose on her skin.
Even after she had chased the insects away, her anxiety remained. She jerked her head at every tiny sound of hundreds of little legs skittering across bone. Then suddenly, the horrifying realization dawned that she was the only living person here. No matter how desperately she searched the shadows for glittering eyes, there was only impenetrable darkness.
She was terrified—purely, primally afraid of being so utterly alone. Her entire body itched as though invisible vermin crawled across her skin. If she remained in this nightmare place much longer, she would surely lose her mind. After spending what felt like an eternity trying to devise an escape, Veronica finally surrendered to exhaustion, her body going limp. Her fragile heart still hammered from the earlier shock, refusing to calm.
Her condition worsened. Each breath became a struggle, and the left side of her chest kept tingling ominously. The fear of suffocating to death at any moment gnawed relentlessly at her mind. Her consciousness slipped away periodically, with no sense of time passing. Each time she closed her eyes and opened them again, the world had changed—first pitch darkness, then the crystalline late spring sky filling her vision. Dizziness from hunger and blood loss overwhelmed her, and she slipped into unconsciousness like a candle being snuffed out.