Chapter 16

* * * “Gh, aaah!” The blast knocked Kirlilith away. She hadn’t died instantly, but there was no way she was getting back up. Rain had seen over half her body burning. Man, that was even more of a gamble… The tension finally drained out of him. He’d nearly died several times over because of Kirlilith’s overwhelming ability. Nothing he’d tried had worked in the face of her transcendent Qualia and her bullets’ incomparable destructive might. But Air never gave up—and they had survived. All that’s left… Rain reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a silver bullet. He had to finish Kirlilith with it, so he walked up to her body with it in hand. “I’m…surprised…” Her voice sounded extremely feeble. “A Ghost, saving another… And me…losing…” “Make no mistake—you were way out of my league. If you hadn’t toyed with us at the start, you would’ve won.” “…Yeah…you’re right.” As he gazed at her, Rain noticed that the left side of Kirlilith’s body was a charred husk. “At some point, death became…almost unimaginable…,” she said. “I’ve lived for…over a century… I’ve claimed lives both young and old in battle. I’ve even killed infants… And then I’d disappear…and wake again for the next battle… In all those many years, I never imagined…I would die like this.” Those were the dying words of the eldest Ghost, Kirlilith Lambert. “I see.” Air climbed down from the Exelia and began speaking to her. “In all your prior battles, during all your prior victories, you never truly feared death. Right now, you’re clinging to life for the very first time.” “That was…what strength meant…to me…,” the dying crimson girl said. It was pitiful, truly. “I stole and destroyed…without ever worrying for my own life. That was all I wanted…after I died like an insect…on the battlefield. It was what I wished for the most…as a Ghost… The power I sought in life.” The power she sought in life? “Say, Air…haven’t you…ever resented it?” “Resented it?” Air paused for a moment as she considered how to respond. “What about you, Kirlilith? Do you?” “Of course…I do… All the Ghosts I’ve met have powers that stem from…their hatred. Inside, they’re dark pits of rage…as black as the color of our eyes.” So wasn’t Air full of hatred, too? Didn’t she loathe the world that had turned them all into terrible monsters? Air fought back her wasp-hued eyes as she responded to Kirlilith’s provocation. “I’ve heard enough. Rain.” She hadn’t answered her question. She hadn’t given the dying Kirlilith the word she wanted to hear. “We’re done here. I’ll kill Kirlilith…and permanently erase her existence,” Air said as she whipped out her own pistol and loaded it with the Devil’s Bullet. However— “Ha-ha-ha.” Even at the very end, Kirlilith laughed. Even here in agony, she was mocking them. “I don’t mind…dying. Honestly, I’ve grown a bit tired…of living. But…” And then… “…I don’t want…to have my existence erased.” …at that exact moment… This is...! …Rain sensed a massive surge of mana diffusing around the area, washing over the terrain. A symbol surfaced on the ground around them…the Traxil’s emblem. “I am…the Ghost Kirlilith.” The sight came as a shock. If Kirlilith could invoke the spell to blow up the mine so easily, that meant she had prepared it before she ever called them here. And that meant it’d been ready to blow during their entire battle. So what would happen if all the heat she had accumulated was released at the same time? What if Kirlilith, one of the strongest mages, unleashed all her magic at once? “I won’t let anyone…steal my magic!” As soon as the words left her mouth, her magic formula activated in exchange for its creator’s life.