Viviane winced her knight rammed into her, the two of them tumbling to the side as the massive beam of dark mana expired mere inches away.

They tumbled for a few seconds before laying still on the floor, both of them breathing hard. Medrauta was the first to recover, pushing herself off the ground and whirling around to face the still-standing Bastiche. A large gaping hole now resided where the nobleman’s chest once was, acting as a gruesome window as it clearly displayed the scenery behind him. Small wisps of smoke rose from the fatal wound, a result of the heat generated by the sheer power of his beam.

For a moment, there was nothing but pain and despair on Bastiche’s face, but his anguished visage soon turned into one of sickening pleasure and satisfaction as Viviane rose to her feet. The noblewoman hadn’t been touched by the blast at all, but that didn’t mean she had escaped from all harm.

A thin red line formed just above Viviane’s cheek where a tiny piece of debris had struck her in the chaos. The wound itself was only skin deep and negligible, but it was a wound nonetheless. A single bead of crimson rolled down her cheek as she took her place beside her knight, staring at Bastiche who cackled even in the midst of his death throes.

Medrauta could sense that something had gone wrong, but she couldn’t tell what. Bastiche was about to expire, and Ritya had already perished. Whether the knight had returned to Aluvsha’s embrace or been fated to something else entirely escaped Medrauta’s knowledge, but she felt it was hardly relevant in the face of Bastiche’s twisted expression.

Plip.

The entire room shook violently. Bastiche’s laughter reached a crescendo. The myriad canals etched into the slate floor all lit up, the still-running blood within glowing and steaming as they evaporated rapidly into the air. Medrauta looked around for the catalyst of all this, but she couldn’t find it. There was nothing that could’ve caused the activation of such a large magic circle unless...

“...Ahahahaha! She has it! Oh, Isabella must be furious right now! She was right all along! Liquid sunlight!? What a joke! Ahaha.. ha...” Bastiche collapsed on the ground, his body falling limp at last. That outburst had taken the very last vestiges of life force within his body, his last moment of rapture being his brightest as he finally joined Ritya in death.

Indeed, it was the single drop of blood that fell from Viviane’s jaw which sparked the entirety of this reaction. In the end, Viviane had been their target all along. Medrauta was stunned for a second, staring at the rapidly vanishing drop of blood beside Viviane’s feet. She didn’t understand it at all.

If one drop of Viviane’s blood was all it took... Then what the hell was all this!? Medrauta’s gaze flickered between the pile of mutilated corpses still in the center of the room, at the still bodies of Ritya and Bastiche, and at Viviane who looked equally shocked. She knew the corpses had been mutilated out of cruelty, but they still served a purpose in whatever this ritual was at the very least, supplying what seemed like an infinite quantity of blood that drenched the room’s intricate canal system.

However, if all it took was a drop of Viviane’s blood to complete the ritual, then Bastiche and Ritya’s actions made absolutely no sense. During the course of their confrontation, they had plenty of chances to not only harm Viviane, but also take her life. She had been especially vulnerable while unconscious, but as far as Medrauta knew, Bastiche hadn’t done anything to the noblewoman and seeing as Viviane was uninjured after regaining consciousness, Bastiche had most likely been focusing solely on Medrauta while supporting Ritya.

Viviane wasn’t sure what had happened while she was in the Lake, but she knew there had been plenty of opportunities for Bastiche to take her out even after she had regained consciousness. This whole sequence of events made no sense to either of them... That is, until Medrauta’s gaze landed on Ritya.

Ritya’s corpse was a husk now, all her blood having been drained from her body. It was a grisly sight, but also an important one as Medrauta noticed the state of Bastiche’s corpse which lay just next to her. Unlike Ritya, Bastiche’s body mirrored the appearance he had when he was still alive mere seconds ago, and there was no sign of any blood being drained despite the crimson liquid still pouring out of the hole in his chest.

“The conditions are right!” Medrauta recalled one of the final lines Bastiche had said, allowing for all the pieces to fall into place at once. It wasn’t that they refrained from killing Viviane while she was unconscious because of honor or noble dignity. It was that the ritual hadn’t been ready for its catalyst for it lacked one additional sacrifice, a role that Bastiche and Ritya had planned for Medrauta to fill.

As much as Medrauta wanted to stay and continue deducing what exactly the purpose of this whole ritual was, she and Viviane were already running low on time. The moment the chamber began shaking, debris had started falling from the ceiling. Chunks of slate and dirt crashed into the floor, all of them of varied shapes and sizes but equally dangerous. Without wasting a second, Medrauta pulled Viviane toward herself and scooped the noblewoman up into her arms.

Stolen story; please report.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!” Medrauta exclaimed, dashing toward the staircase that led back up to the castle. As far as Medrauta knew, it was the only exit in this massive chamber, and though they were still a good distance away from it, she shouldn’t have much difficulty reaching it so long as no debris directly obstructed her path.

Several chunks of stone crashed around Medrauta, causing Viviane to wince at the impact. The knight darted through the newly-formed forest of stones, weaving her way through the still-falling daggers of slate threatening to grant them an early death. Looking up, Medrauta was greeted with an alarming sight that only served to motivate her further. Several pieces of the ceiling directly above their sole exit began to break off, threatening to seal off their only path of escape.

“Haaaaaah!” Medrauta leapt forward, summoning all the strength she still had in her body. It wasn’t much considering the strange balancing act she was forced to keep up as she carried Viviane with one arm, but her resolve more than made up for it. With a clarion cry, Medrauta leapt forward and dove straight through the entrance with barely a second to spare as a massive piece of rock smashed into the space she just passed through, closing off the chamber forever.

The moment she landed in the shelter of the stairway, Medrauta collapsed onto the steps, panting heavily. Although being a knight gave her considerable reserves of stamina, the strenuous physical demands and stress of combat had taxed her body greatly. With adrenaline levels slowly lowering in her bloodstream, exhaustion crashed into Medrauta like an avalanche the moment she delivered Viviane to safety.

“Come on, Medrauta! This is no time to rest!” Viviane glanced at her knight worriedly, but Medrauta simply shook her head tiredly.

Though they were no longer inside the chamber, it definitely wouldn’t be long until the collapse began causing all sorts of other structural issues. In fact, the stairway itself was already beginning to shake, giving Viviane a renewed sense of alarm. Thinking fast, Viviane decided it was Medrauta’s turn to be carried now, bending down and urging the knight to get on her back. Although she would’ve preferred carrying Medrauta in her arms, she wasn’t exactly confident she could do so while also running up a staircase.

“Sorry about this, Vivi...” Medrauta groaned, her head bouncing gently as it rested against Viviane’s shoulder while the noblewoman ascended the long stairway. The violent shaking from the ritual chamber’s collapse had put out a few torches lining the way up, but lighting was irrelevant now that there was only a single path forward.

Viviane shook her head in response to her knight’s apology as the two of them burst out of the narrow stairway and back into the castle’s interior. Aside from the incessant shaking that was prevalent all throughout the property, nothing had really changed. Through the room’s windows, Viviane could see that the sun’s position had lowered significantly compared to when they’d first descended into the castle’s bowels, but that was a given.

“What do you think is causing all this shaking...?” Viviane asked, frowning as she stared out the windows. Perhaps it was just the angle, but she couldn’t really see anything outside.

Medrauta shook her head. “I have no idea. I might’ve been able to figure it out if we had a bit more time to study the circles in that chamber, but I guess we’ll just have to find out.”

Viviane pursed her lips. It wasn’t exactly the answer she wanted, but it was still the answer she expected. After all, the knight’s knowledge on witches and dark magic was by no means encyclopedic. Shaking her head, Viviane dismissed any follow-up questions from her head as she started out of the room with Medrauta. Right now, the priority was rejoining their allies and getting Medrauta’s arm patched up.

The pair made their way through the castle’s lengthy hallways in relative silence, welcoming the precious moment of peace granted to them after such a chaotic fight. Simply basking in one another’s presence was enough now, especially when Medrauta had nearly thrown away her life after she thought Viviane had died. Although the constant shaking was still slightly nerve-wracking, Medrauta and Viviane took solace in the castle remaining intact at the very least.

Resolving to use the building’s main entrance instead of the sluice gate this time, Viviane guided Medrauta through the castle’s familiar floor plan. Though its layout wasn’t entirely identical to her own family’s fortress, Revelo Castle shared quite a few similarities that allowed Viviane to navigate its interior without much issue now that they weren’t focused on taking routes that would lower their chances of encountering patrols.

Strangely enough, the hallways remained eerily empty even as they continued through the structure, drawing closer to the main gate with each passing second. Perhaps the homunculi had simply dissolved after Bastiche’s death, but there were no signs of mysteriously abandoned weapons or piles of dirt and blood either, meaning that they must’ve expired outside of the castle or somehow survived the death of their creator.

“You think the fighting’s over?” Viviane asked, her tone hopeful as she stopped before the castle’s front gates with Medrauta. Although Isadora had said the homunculi would cease functioning once Bastiche was slain, it sounded a little too easy. But then again, killing Bastiche hadn’t been easy at all.

“No.” Medrauta stopped in her tracks.

The silver-haired knight stared upward, her eyes fixed on the heavens as she pushed open the castle’s front gates. The ground beneath them still shook as the entity that had taken hold of Medrauta’s vision continued to rise higher and higher into the sky. Viviane followed her knight’s gaze, only to be stunned into the same silence.

Far in the distance, an enormous tower continued to rise. Its color was pitch-black like the spears Amelia called forth. Ominously, it loomed over the landscape of the empire, casting a shadow that stretched onward for miles. The structure was already incomparably tall, no doubt visible throughout the whole of the empire. Even so, it continued to spiral toward the heavens as if it were piercing Aluvsha himself.

As Viviane and Medrauta stared at the steadily rising spire in disbelief, the knight’s next words encapsulated everything running through their minds in a single sentence.

“...I think the fighting’s only just begun.”