The response was immediate.
—Kuiehahahohahiiii!
A strange and indescribable voice burst out Finel’s mouth. Including her body, all the meat clumps she gathered swelled up simultaneously.
—Kieahhhh!
All the lips let out different, individual screams, but they didn’t last long, as a blue ray of light began to shoot out of all the eyes, nose, lips, and ears. It was mana, an overwhelming one that was impossible to fully wrap one’s mind around. The mana was powerful enough to even make Zich take a step away. Zich and Lyla met each other’s eyes. Without even needing to nod their heads or say anything, they both distanced themselves from the torrent of mana.
‘Those guys…’
Zich looked for Hans, Snoc, and Elena. As if they also felt something highly unusual, they were distancing themselves as farthest away from the meat clumps that they had been fighting as possible. Zich and Lyla joined them.
—Ahhhhhh! Ah! Ahhhhhh!
Finel shrieked desperately. Her cries were distressing enough to make any listeners grimace, including even her own opponents. Except for Zich, all the party members’ expressions darkened.
Craash!
Finel’s body exploded. The rough current of mana shredded her body into pieces. Her main body and all the body parts scattered around the space burst without a single exception.
Slid!
After wandering the space for a good amount of time, the mana disappeared. All that was left was the faint, cold mana emanating from the tree.
“…That must be the original form of the tree.” Like Lyla said, the tree’s appearance changed. The water droplets that had hung instead of green leaves were gone, replaced by clear streams of water spewing out from every branch of the tree.
The water streams were filled with mana and flowed past its own roots, through the crevices in the ground, and down to the lake. It was a truly mystical sight. The bluish light scattering from the tree appeared a bit brighter than before.
“Look at that, Nowem. Water is coming out of the tree.”
Koo!
“Is the tree making the water?”
“I don’t think so.” While getting supported by Elena since she hadn’t recovered her strength fully yet, Lyla disagreed with Snoc’s words.
“It’s probably pulling up all the water from nearby lakes. Even if it’s normal water, it’s not a normal task creating liquid. Even this tree wouldn’t be able to do such a task.”
“I see.”
‘Well, it’s already astounding that it’s pouring out water and flowing out that much mana though,’ Lyla thought as she stared at the tree in admiration. Yet, that didn’t last long. There was a task she had to do besides just admiring this tree.
“Elena, could you go that way?”
“Ms. Lyla! That place is…” Seeing where Lyla was pointing, Elena hesitated. Lyla understood why her lovely disciple was so worried, but this was an important task for her.
“Please,” Lyla said. Elena couldn’t dare to reject her master’s request and looked towards Zich for help.
“Don’t worry. I will go with you.”
“Thank you.” Elena felt a bit relieved hearing that Zich would join them. She supported Lyla and began to carefully walk where Lyla wanted to go. Finel’s remains were rolling around everywhere after bursting from mana. They were all burnt to the crisp and it didn’t seem like there was any possibility that they would regenerate.
The place where Lyla wanted to go wasn’t far away from the place where the rest of the companions were. Lyla and Elena soon stopped their steps, and Zich stood half a step away from them. Lyla looked down towards the ground. What came to her view was a burnt clump of meat—Finel’s flesh. Unlike Finel’s other body parts, it was still in a large clump.
—Uh, ah, ahh…
Little groans were slowly flowing out of her, but Finel could no longer feel pain. She had lost most of her physical abilities to that extent.
“…Finel.” Lyla called to Finel, who only had her head and chest left.
‘Is that this guy’s name?’ Having called Finel ‘that thing’, ‘that guy’, meat clump, and so on until now, it was Zich’s first time learning Finel’s name. Yet, Zich didn’t open his mouth. He just quietly watched what Lyla was doing.
—…You….ahhh…
Finel lifted her head from the ground. Her face was charred, and her nose was missing while one of her eyes was crushed; most of her eyesight was gone in the eye that barely managed to survive. Although she still had her hearing abilities, even that had deteriorated to a great degree.
—…You…bit…ch….
Even after her body was completely burnt, the loath in her heart was still burning. Her one remaining eye glared at Lyla, in a skewed way because she had lost most of her eyesight.
—This…is not the…end…
In her dying voice, Finel spluttered out curses.
—If there’s… another regression… I will get my… freedom for sure…
“…Finel.”
Finel’s face became even more distorted.
—Don’t…call me…by that name…!
With her last remaining strength, she shouted while spurting out blood.
—I am not a submissi…!
Thud!
She couldn’t say anymore. Finel’s face fell to the ground, and her movements completely stopped. She was dead. Zich walked to Finel while holding Windur. He planned to make sure of her death, but Lyla quickly called his name.
“Z-Zich! You don’t have to go that far…!”
“I don’t know what connection you made with this guy when you were alone with it, but this guy is our enemy. Thus, I must make a hundred a percent sure that it’s dead,” Zich said firmly, making Lyla close her mouth. Her lips twitched like she wanted to say something, but soon, it settled as she agreed to his words.
Plush!
Windur pierced into Finel’s body, but there were no movements. Lyla shook her head. Zich pierced in Windur a couple of more times, but Finel continued to show no movements at all. Zich pulled out Windur and announced indifferently, “It’s over.”
* * *
When the battle was over and they thought the situation was now safe, Zich and his companions sat down. Hans, Snoc, and Elena poured the potion down their bodies and healed their injuries. Zich also ripped his body and took out each potion he stuffed in his body. The other companions stared at him in horror, but this wasn’t their only reaction.
Hans said, “In an emergency situation, that might not be a bad plan.”
Snoc answered, “Yes, it seems so. Senior, I guess the problems are ‘which areas of the body would be most effective to put the potions in’ and ‘how well I can move while stuffing the potions inside my body’, right?”
Elena looked at Snoc and Hans, who were seriously debating about the merit of Zich’s potion stuffing method, with shock.
Koo!
‘Even Nowem!’
Would she also become like this if she stayed longer in this group? Elena suddenly became very worried about her future.
Lyla seemed to have gotten back her strength as she stood upright with her own strength. However, it was still too much of a strain for her to move like usual. Every step she took felt like she was walking on solid ice. However, Lyla continued to stay besides Finel.
“Have you calmed your heart?” Zich approached her while rubbing off the blood stuck on his skin.
Lyla nodded. “Roughly.”
“Then, would you be able to tell me what happened between you two?”
“Yeah.” Lyla had no plans to hide this information from Zich in the first place. Lyla beckoned Zich to follow her with her finger. The information that Lyla was about to share was related to regression; it was still a secret from Hans, Snoc, and Elena. Zich stopped the disciples who were about to follow them with his hand. Then, Zich supported Lyla, who was unstably walking, by holding her arm.
“Thanks.” Lyla didn’t reject Zich’s goodwill, and she walked while leaning half of her body weight to Zich.
Since Hans and Snoc, especially Hans, had a very sharp hearing, they needed to move a great distance away from the rest of the group. They walked past the space with the tree and walked a long distance into the tunnel.
“Even Hans wouldn’t be able to hear from this distance.”
“Really?” Lyla sat on a projected rock nearby.
“What happened?”
At Zich’s question, Lyla slowly opened her mouth. She had already finished organizing her thoughts, and there was no hesitation in her voice. Lyla explained all the events that happened since Zich was dragged into the lake by the Kraken. She also explained other details like Finel’s name, her identity, the reason why Finel targeted her, and her connection with Finel and the strange creatures they faced before.
“Hmm.” Zich stroked his chin. ‘First, some of my questions have been clearly resolved.’
Zich was happy about the information he obtained. But seeing Lyla’s slouched posture, it didn’t seem like this was the case for Lyla.
“Okay, Clowon’s Princess. Why do you look so down?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Then, should I call you goddess?”
Lyla glared at him in anger. However, this type of reaction didn’t work on a person like Zich at all. While watching him stumble back in an overexaggerated way and chuckle loudly, Lyla wanted to punch him.
“Well, it doesn’t seem like you’re upset that you were someone of high status in Clowon. Then, are you feeling pity for Finel, or what’s her name?”
“Pity. Yeah, you’re right. I thought she was really pitiful.”
“Well, from what I heard from you, she had a tragic life.”
Finel was born as an experiment and tortured all her life. In the end, she was murdered. Her life was the very picture of a tragic life. However, Zich didn’t put too much meaning into it.
‘Before I regressed, the number of people who had tragic lives like that could fill a city.’
However, Zich also knew that it was too much to expect Lyla to have the same sentiments as him. Moreover, Lyla had played a part in Finel’s tragic life.
Zich asked, “Do you feel guilty?”
“Yeah.” Lyla nodded. Then, she immediately said, “I wonder what type of person I was before I lost my memory?”
“Didn’t we get a rough picture? A cold and emotionless Demon Lord who would kill and destroy everything to restore Clowon.”
Lyla slightly shivered.
“Were you concerned about that?”
“…Yeah.”
Zich was able to predict what Lyla’s current state was like. ‘She’s probably shocked by how she was like before she lost her memories, combined with her pity for Finel.’
If it was Zich, he wouldn’t be bothered by these matters at all, but Lyla was a different person from him. Moreover, Lyla’s emotions were probably closer to the norm.
‘Also, I have things I can’t easily shake off either.’
Zich sat down next to Lyla. Since he sat down on the ground, he had to look up at Lyla, who was sitting on a rock. However, Lyla’s eyes were looking down, so it was easier for him to meet her eyes this way.
“Well, I understand. It’s extremely shocking to know that there’s a version of yourself that you can’t accept. From the information we have, it seems like it’s basically a fact that I used to have the last name Brave at one point, so I completely understand your emotion.”
This truth had given him a nightmarish shock. Zich expressed his disgust by frowning, and Lyla made a small smile at this sight.