It had already woken up. The chimera had already woken up.

Shirley pulled me back and dragged me into the cover of the trees again as the cloud of dust slowly rescinded. That was the right decision. We had to wait and see what it was capable of—

My thoughts stopped in the middle of their tracks.

“My child… my son, just a little longer.” A tearful, apologetic voice followed behind the chimera. “Mama will save you… you must be in pain…”

There was no mistaking it. That face. I was holding out hope, pitting one false image against another.

I wished—I truly wished it wouldn’t be her—but reality was as cruel as ever. The one in front of us was the same person for whom we had started this entire thing.

The same person for whom Richard and I had set out in the first place.

A twig snapped under my feet as I grit my teeth.

Shirley and Mrs. Frock both snapped their heads my way. Our cover was blown quite soon. But even so, I had seen more than enough. The Chimera was clearly not complete, or Mrs. Frock wouldn’t have said those words.

If we were to stop it, we had to do it now. Letting it loose to gauge its strength was not an option.

“Who is there!?” Mrs. Frock screamed, and I slowly stepped out.

“You… boy, it is you.” A gentle smile took over Mrs. Frock’s face. The same smile I had seen every time I visited her boutique. “Ah… Ethan, boy, you said you wanted to see my son, right? C-c-can you do me a favor?”

Mrs. Frock bit her nails and stepped forward. Her eyes were fixed on mine.

“C-can you please die for my child? You have always been a dear, you can do this much, right?”

I held my breath and placed my hand on my side. Mana seeped out of my palm and slowly coalesced into a blade.

Mrs. Frock didn’t let it go unnoticed.

“You won’t… boy, you won’t… YOU WANT TO HARM MY SON?” Mrs. Frock took a step forward. “I won’t let you… no… never, you can’t touch my son… kill you… kill you… kill you… I’LL. KILL. YOU!”

A shiver ran down my spine at her maddened screams.

“This bitch has gone mad!” Shirley shouted. “That’s not your son, you old tramp, that’s a monster!”

Shirley swallowed her words. The chimera’s rock-like muscles suddenly contracted and trembled. It shot off the ground and suddenly dashed straight at us.

“No, Graham!” Mrs. Frock shouted, but the Chimera was clearly not in her control.

The giant blue monster suddenly appeared before my face. It raised its arms the size of logs and swung them down. I took a step back.

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“Shirley!”

“I got it!”

The darkness below the chimera wriggled and wrapped around the shadow of its arms. The Chimera stopped in its tracks, and without wasting a second, I swung the mana blade at its arms.

Strangely enough, there was next to no resistance. The Chimera’s hand separated from its body and fell.

“NO!”

The Chimera stepped back in pain. A sudden flow of mana formed around Mrs. Frock. She was about to reinforce the Chimera.

I immediately grabbed its fallen arm and tossed it like a canon toward Mrs. Frock. The high-speed projectile smashed into her and carried her away, stopping her spell before it could materialize.

Mrs. Frock fell into the debris of the lab, and I didn’t spare her another glance.

“Don’t stop Shirley! It will heal!”

Shirley immediately changed her stance and closed in. As I had expected, the Chimera’s hand had started to heal up like Denadis’ did.

We had to make it. Before anyone could do anything. I had to end this fast, but I lacked the firepower to finish it in a go.

The Chimera restored its hand, and we prepared our follow-up. Once again, Shirley held it in its spot, and I cut it. The Chimera swung its arms in a mad thrashing.

I quickly jumped in and raised my hands before it could hit my support.

“Professor!”

“I am fine!” I wrapped my hand around the Chimera’s. I yanked it to the ground with all my strength and slammed it down.

Shirley didn’t miss the chance and used her shadows to attack it. The Chimera split from the middle. The half I held wriggled and dissipated into a slimy structure as it gathered again at the lower half. The whole chimera formed once more, but noticeably shorter than before.

“This is working!”

We both charged in again and just like that, we took turns. When Shirley held it down, I cut it with my blade, and when I pinned it, Shirley’s shadows started to sear through it.

“No… no no… my son. Stop. Why are you doing this?” A desperate cry rang out from the sides. “Why are you hurting my son…?”

A cry so utterly real that I almost hesitated.

“GRAAH!” The chimera screamed and repeated its same old attacks, but we managed to hold it off every time. There was nothing it could do against us.

“Why… why must he suffer… I…”

My gaze went to Mrs. Frock. Chalking her behavior up to insanity was the perfect way, but if she did something strange…

“Shirley!” I screamed. “Get to Frock first!”

“What?” Shirley asked back in surprise. “You can’t handle it alone—”

“It doesn’t matter! Go, stop her before she does something actually insane.”

Shirley hesitated. She stopped in her spot, alternating her gaze between the Chimera that was engaged with me and Mrs. Frock.

Perhaps that hesitation caused our greatest problems.

In Mrs. Frock’s hand was one of the claws I had cut off and tossed at her. She held it high, its sharp nails pointing straight at her neck.

Both our eyes widened when we noticed her actions.

“If I can… save my child…”

She was going for the worst. The greatest taboo that I had barely stopped the last time.

A sudden image flashed in my eyes. An image I had seen five years ago before I rejoined the war.

Mrs. Frock… was going to sacrifice herself for mana.

“STOP!” I screamed and reached out. I could have thrown my blade, ran to her before she could blink, this would never have been an issue… if I wasn’t injured.

“WAIT YOU!” Shirley screamed and charged through the ground. Her shadow traveled even faster than her toward Mrs. Frock.

But unlike us, she held no hesitation.

A truly insane person… cared not a shred about herself.

We wouldn’t reach. Shirley’s spell would be a second too late. My eyes turned elsewhere. Toward the Chimera in front of me.

If I could take it down before Mrs. Frock sacrificed herself… the mana would have nowhere to go. Even if it meant injuring myself further.

My heart pumped once more. All the mana in my body gathered into my blade, and every single last drop coursing through my veins was squeezed out into the blade.

With the difference of a tenth of a second, two events happened that night. The two events that formed the difference between the safety and destruction of Glorenstein.

Mrs. Frock drove the Chimera’s claw into her neck.

And I swung my blade with all the mana in my body, entering a mana shock.