I ran.

  I didn’t think.

  I didn’t choose.

  I just—ran.

  Grandpa had fallen.

  Not to his knees.

  Not bracing himself.

  But like a tree snapping from the inside,

  collapsing helplessly into the dirt.

  Blood was spreading, soaking into the soil.

  The man didn’t approach immediately.

  After delivering that blow, he stepped back a few paces,

  tightening his grip on the gauntlet around his right hand,

  as if deciding whether to finish him or wait.

  He watched with cold, measuring eyes.

  Judging whether there was still breath.

  Judging whether a killing strike was needed.

  That tiny opening—

  —that was what we slipped through.

  She reached him first.

  I followed right after.

  Both of us at once.

  Grandpa was lying on his back.

  One hand pressed against his side.

  The other… trembled.

  His breathing was shallow, uneven,

  wet.

  Bubbling.

  Blood had reached his lungs.

  —There was no time.

  We both dropped to our knees beside him.

  He looked at us—

  just once, clearly.

  And then—

  he forced out his voice.

  「…Elthariel.」

  Everything was inside that single word.

  「…Take her there.

  The two of you.

  …Without fail.」

  His throat rattled.

  Even breathing was agony now.

  「…The bell.」

  「Right now—

  you can ring it.」

  With shaking fingers, he removed the small bell from his belt

  and pushed it into our joined hands,

  making our fingers overlap,

  closing the circle.

  As if linking something.

  Securing a path.

  「…That is the way.」

  「…The king and the staff… walk together.」

  His fingertips were still touching ours.

  And then—

  something quivered.

  The bell.

  A moment later, it rang.

  Once.

  Deep.

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  Resonant.

  A sound that reached further than us—

  as though something larger had heard it.

  I felt it: we were accepted.

  Recognized.

  I looked at her.

  She looked at me.

  I blinked.

  She didn’t.

  She understood everything.

  And somehow… she understood me too.

  We could—

  flow.

  And I wasn’t a burden.

  I wasn’t in the way.

  I was—

  her magic’s path.

  「…At last.」

  She whispered it—

  a fragile, trembling sound.

  And then.

  Grandpa exhaled.

  His last breath.

  He never took another.

  The moment that breath disappeared,

  the air changed.

  The stillness trembled again.

  I didn’t let go of her hand.

  She didn’t release mine.

  I didn’t know what we had triggered.

  Only that—

  it was flowing.

  The bell had gone silent,

  but its reverberation still shook inside my chest.

  The scent of the air shifted.

  Not blood.

  Not fire.

  Living magic.

  Free—

  and moving with purpose.

  The man lifted his gauntlet again.

  「…I don’t know what you two just did—」

  His voice growled low.

  「…but this is over.」

  He charged toward us.

  But I wasn’t looking at him.

  I was looking at her.

  Feeling her.

  For the first time in my life,

  something tore straight through me.

  Not lightning.

  Not force.

  Not a wave.

  Magic.

  Raw.

  Vast.

  Yet it didn’t hurt me.

  It filled the emptiness inside my body.

  Up through my legs.

  Across my arms.

  Climbing my back,

  wrapping around my chest—

  and flowing out through the other arm.

  It didn’t burn.

  It didn’t weigh me down.

  It was mine.

  And hers.

  All I had to do was—

  let it pass.

  Not control it.

  Not weave it.

  Just—

  guide it.

  She realized it in the same instant.

  We didn’t need words.

  One small movement.

  That was enough.

  The spell released.

  The same spell that crushed the tower before.

  But this time—

  it didn’t explode out of control.

  It drove straight forward.

  Sharp.

  Heavy.

  A sound splitting the air.

  Light tore across the space.

  The ground shook.

  Pressure rippled outward.

  The man tried to guard—

  but far too late.

  The gauntlet shattered at the elbow.

  Bone and metal breaking with a dry, decisive crack.

  A scream.

  His body was launched backward

  and slammed into the trunk of a thick tree.

  He didn’t fall immediately.

  But—

  His left arm was gone.

  From the joint down,

  everything had become molten metal.

  The soldiers around him froze.

  「Retreat!」

  Someone shouted.

  「Pull back! Now!」

  A small sphere rolled across the dirt,

  erupting into a burst of white smoke that swallowed everything.

  We didn’t chase them.

  We couldn’t.

  She was gasping for breath,

  shoulders shaking.

  I couldn’t feel my legs.

  And Grandpa—

  was no longer bleeding.

  Because there was nothing left that could bleed.