*Crack*

The sound of trees breaking under the feet of the giants echoed in the empty fields.

"Me? A Remnant?"

Elliott looked at the army marching toward Turric with a face expressing distaste for his own idea.

"Why me?"

Layla asked with genuine curiosity.

"Is it a good idea to give such a powerful duty to... someone like me?"

A frown even stronger than the previous one appeared on Elliott's face.

'I don't like how self-deprecating that sounded. Still, I suppose it is inevitable after all that happened between us.'

Visibly bothered by her tone, Elliott sighed to remove the excess emotion from his mind and turned his head toward her.

"I am not proposing this on a whim."

Their eyes met, and a short silence, sometimes broken by the loud noises, occurred.

Elliott opened his right hand, closest to Layla.

"I have in my possession the source of Kagalkan, the previous Remnant of Revelry."

An orb with a bright sigil escaped from the palm of his hand and began to revolve around his hand.

"The Remnant of Peace?!"

Seeing the most important nature of every faction in front of her eyes, Layla took a step back. She wasn't expecting this in the slightest, which began to cloud her mind with questions.

"Yes, this source also nurtures the power to bring peace, as well as Joy and Wealth."

Elliott clasped the source in his hand, making it sink into his body to avoid losing it.

"Layla, you are strong. The power you had when corrupted, most likely thanks to Orion, is still present in you. Although wrongly used before, your soul has returned to its most pristine form."

"I have no fears concerning your falling victim to corruption ever again."

A faint smile removed the anxiety from his face.

"But we're talking about a power capable of changing the fate of the continent. Peace—isn't it something everyone desires and strives to achieve through unending sacrifices?"

"If you were to refuse, I would not hold it against you. This puts you at risk of being targeted by Miasma. Peace is something he doesn't want, as it will bring everyone together against him."

Elliott placed a hand on the scabbard strapped to his waist, making it sway up and down.

"I wouldn't mind spending the rest of this life protecting the 'Peace' you would bring to this world."

Layla's eyes opened wide at his sudden declaration. Shock, but also guilt, took over her emotions.

"I can't force you to be stuck with me! I don't-"

Before she could finish, Elliott interjected.

"I understand. You have your own troubles weighting on your mind, which have been torturing you since being revived by Orion."

"It is not the time for this kind of conversation, so let's leave this for another day."

Glancing at the giants getting closer to Turric, Layla swallowed her words, and pondered seriously.

Then, she nodded.

"You are right. This is not the time for that."

Her eyes fell, and her hands entered her vision.

"When I became an Apostle, I had dreams of creating a peaceful environment for everyone."

Elliott nodded.

"I remember. It was quite a long time ago."

"Two hundred and thirty years ago, to be precise."

Layla's magic was special in that it kept her body from aging rapidly. After only two hundred years, she approached her fifties.

After Miasma possessed her body, her whole body recovered to her twenties.

Her unparalleled beauty was brought back to its peak, yet, this boon never interested her.

If not for the corruption encroaching on her core, she would never have abused this magic to live five to seven times her original time on this earth.

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"I was only a child, but corruption was so easy to infiltrate my thoughts. Before long, I was an adult with no common sense and showing no remorse for the pain I'd caused others."

The pain and intense regret filled her voice, which Elliott resonated with.

"Is it alright for me to receive another chance? Won't it be wasted on me?"

Elliott shrugged lightly.

"Not even Enri-Ann, the Remnant of Fate, knows. Only by giving it a shot will you find the answer."

After pondering his words, Layla clasped her hands into fists.

"I will."

Determination replaced the doubt in her eyes. Satisfied by her answer, Elliott nodded.

"Give it your best."

Then, unexpectedly, Elliott pulled Layla toward her.

"Wha-!"

The woman's long hair flowed graciously in front of Elliott, who spun her body around, pulling her back closer to his chest.

He held her right hand tightly, but not so strongly as to hurt her wrist.

"E-Elliott?"

She glanced at him over her left shoulder, and noticed a severe expression on his face. He was serious, and she was unable to free herself from his grasp.

Not that she wanted to, actually.

"I don't know how you will react if I insert the source carelessly. Stay like this until I'm done, and I promise to make it as comfortable and painless as possible."

"Alright."

Without giving it a second thought, Layla nodded.

Feeling the warmth of Elliott on her back, she closed her eyes, basking in this special moment.

Elliott began lifting his left arm higher, before the source of Kagalkan appeared, tightly lodged in the palm of his hand.

"!"

With a swift and powerful movement, he slammed his hand on Layla's chest, forcing the source inside her.

"Ahn!"

A moan escaped her mouth, as a foreign energy pierced her body.

"Mmh!"

She bit her lower lip to avoid making more embarrassing noises, and she began to fight back involuntarily.

Held tightly by Elliott, who showed no trace of struggling, she was unable to free herself from his grasp.

The source and Elliott's energy slowly sank into her chest, creating a wave of both uncomfortable and comfortable feelings in her.

Her limbs began to tremble, her breathing became rougher, and her face turned a deep crimson.

'This is the first time I ever tried something like this... I hope Tiohr-nam's words were true.'

The idea to give the source to Layla came after Elliott spoke with the Tree of Life in Horizon.

Right when Orion's companions were discussing the fate of their faction, and their future without him, Elliott was having a discussion with her.

After a heated argument, Elliott won. Tiohr-nam agreed to leave the source in his hands and find Kagalkan's replacement.

To help his endeavor, she shared a way to ease the assimilation.

'Bathe the source with my energy, and slowly let Layla's core get accustomed to it.'

The problem was how tiresome and energy-consuming this process was. Luckily, Elliott still had a massive pool of energy unused thanks to Gula.

Squirming in his arms, Layla was unable to fight back. Then, the source finally disappeared entirely into her chest.

But Elliott kept his focus unwavering. This was only the beginning.

Now that her core was being influenced by the source, he had to be careful. One wrong move, and her body would be affected by it.

The source was still fully formatted as the giant Kagalkan. If his process wasn't careful enough, Layla could turn into a giant herself. If possible, Elliott would prefer to let her keep her origins.

Deep inside her soul, the sigil began to etch itself into her entire being. The powers given by Nature herself wrote themselves into her core, changing the perception she had of those concepts entirely.

Compared to Deveralna, the power of the Remnant of Peace was barely worth something. There was no fear of rejection, like with the source of Power.

Elliott silently covered Layla in his energy, protecting her from turning into a giant. After barely five minutes, his aura diminished.

Reluctantly, he let go of her hand. Layla took a few steps forward, clenching her chest stronger with each steps.

*Thump*

Watching the blue aura around Layla grow increasingly stronger, he thought that even through his cautiousness, he had failed.

But Layla proved that his assumptions were unfounded.

"Fuuuh..."

She took a deep breath, exhaled a hot cloud of steam, and shook her head.

"How do you feel?"

Caring for her actual wellbeing, Elliott asked.

"I... can't contain it..."

Layla turned around, unleashing the peak of her aura in every direction.

"..."

As expected, the change was too much to take for Layla. Elliott sighed before pointing at the giants.

"I'll help you. Just focus on getting it under control."

With a nod, Layla took this chance to ease his worries.

"I'm not losing control. There's just too much energy condensed in me. It's like my proficiency in water magic just underwent a massive improvement."

"If I let out the surplus of energy, I should be fine."

Elliott nodded. She was the best to understand what was happening inside her.

'This surplus of energy is probably the remnant traces of what I used to facilitate the assimilation. It is partially my fault, then.'

Quickly gathering the reason for her explosive energy, Elliott couldn't ignore this, as he was the cause of it.

He walked behind her, and placed his right hand on her back.

"I'll manage the flow of energy inside you. Release as much as you need to."

With a nod, Layla aimed both hands in front of her, directed at the army of monsters.

A small orb of water grew in front of her. It rapidly grew, attaining the size of a large rock.

Then, Layla's body underwent changes.

Blue lines appeared on her body. Pulsing with water energy, they helped her control it more precisely.

Layla's Elemental Mastery awakened.

The orb suddenly began to spin wildly while keeping its form intact. The orb spun without altering its original form, while Layla continued to force more magic into it.

With more energy forced into the water, bubbles began to burst on top of it. From the lines on her body, blue fumes erupted, covering the orbs with an even denser magic.

Now that the entire extra amount of energy was out of her body, Layla lifted her arms slightly upward, dragging the orb with her.

Then, with one slight push, she fired the orb in an arc above the ground.

It crossed the distance with ease, and fell on top of the middle row of giants.

*BOOM*

The ground shook violently, and a white cloud of mist akin to a mushroom traveled upward from the impact.

Layla and Elliott looked in shock as fifty giant monsters were atomized on the spot, leaving no trace of their passage behind.

The snow covering the landscape melted instantly, while droplets of boiling water fell upon the land around Turric. Then, a powerful shockwave pushed them away slightly.

Elliott grabbed Layla's shoulder with his left hand and drew Vanitas out of its scabbard before planting it into the ground to avoid being pushed away.

Covering them both in a veil of energy, he protected her from being scalded by the boiling droplets, which evaporated the instant they made contact with the ground.

When the entire event came to an end, the energy disappeared.

In utter shock, the two returned to the spot they were at before being pushed backward by the shockwave.

"Layla... are you alright?"

"I am..."

Unable to believe the scale of the destruction they had caused, they looked at each other.

"I think I am alright."

The two then shared a faint smile while watching the remaining giants walk back into the portal, while the smaller beasts ran to Turric, meeting with the powerful army of the south.