Chapter 195: That Is All I Remember

"As you wish," the voice said.

A thin crack appeared in the space before Stella, spreading like a fracture in invisible glass before widening enough for something to emerge.

A dark hand, its elongated fingers digging deeply into a white crystal.

Stella stared at the treasure, her brows drawing together as it moved toward her.

"Take it and envision the attack that makes you envious," the voice explained.

She hesitated for a moment, sensing something ominous emanating from the treasure, but the eight-headed serpent was already approaching through the purple smoke, and she could hardly afford to refuse an offer when she had no other way to survive.

"Fine," she muttered, reaching out with her left hand and taking hold of the treasure.

Closing her eyes, she searched through her memories for the one attack that had fundamentally changed her understanding of swordsmanship, an attack so overwhelming that it had made her realize how much further the path of the sword extended beyond her own comprehension.

The serpent’s three heads emerged from the purple haze, their red eyes fixed upon her as they opened their enormous jaws. Their fangs glistened beneath the dim light, and the pressure of their simultaneous approach shook the ground beneath Stella’s boots.

Then, the King’s Sword in her right hand began to glow.

Its crimson radiance intensified until the blade extended farther and farther, growing longer with every passing moment as though an invisible force were stretching it toward the heavens. The dark world brightened beneath its brilliance, and the purple smoke retreated from the expanding light, revealing the serpent’s enormous body as its heads lunged toward her.

Soon, the sword shone like a star descending into the darkness.

Stella’s right arm screamed beneath the tremendous pressure gathering within it. Her veins swelled and ruptured, blood spilling across her skin as her muscles snapped under the strain, while the bones within her forearm began to crack and crush against one another.

Nevertheless, she gritted her teeth and swung the sword just once.

And that was all it needed.

False Saint’s Sword.

For an instant, the world was blinded beneath a blinding radiance.

The crimson light swept across the clearing, passing through the serpent’s enormous heads without resistance before swallowing its colossal body, the jagged pillars, and the dead trees surrounding them. The ground split apart beneath the invisible force, yet even the resulting destruction seemed insignificant compared to the overwhelming slash that continued beyond the clearing.

The hidden dungeon itself trembled.

The veil concealing the dungeon from the outside world, an enormous barrier woven into the very fabric of the surrounding space, appeared beneath the light as a vast, translucent expanse. Then, a perfectly straight horizontal cut materialized across its entire length.

The veil split, and when the light finally faded, the clearing had become unrecognizable.

The serpent was gone, reduced to nothing alongside the jagged pillars and the dead forest that had surrounded it. The blood mirror had vanished, leaving behind an enormous expanse of pulverized earth, and the dungeon’s protective veil bore a colossal horizontal wound that stretched beyond the horizon.

Nothing remained of the creature that had nearly killed Stella.

She stumbled backward, her legs giving way beneath her before she fell onto the broken ground. Blood dripped steadily from her ruined right arm, and her sword’s brilliance faded until it returned to its ordinary form and crumbled into dust.

The treasure slipped from her left hand and landed beside her.

Stella breathed raggedly, struggling to draw enough air into her lungs as she stared at the devastation. Her entire right arm throbbed with unbearable pain, and even the smallest movement sent fresh waves of agony through her shattered muscles and bones.

"That was..." she began, but the words died in her throat.

After several moments, she forced herself to stand, suppressing a groan as she reached down to retrieve the treasure before abandoning the thought and leaving it where it had fallen.

Natia and Gideon mattered more.

She staggered toward the twins, checked that neither had suffered any additional injuries, and then lifted them onto her shoulders again. Although the movement aggravated her ruined arm, she endured the pain and began walking toward the newly opened exit.

"What are you doing?" the voice suddenly called out. "What about our deal?"

Stella chuckled weakly, glancing toward the empty clearing as she continued walking.

"You really think I will help something like you escape?" she asked. "There must be a reason why you were locked here in the first place."

"What?"

The voice sounded genuinely stunned, but Stella ignored it and continued toward the breach in the dungeon’s veil.

As she crossed the distance, however, her gaze fell upon a sword embedded in the ground.

It was a straight, double-edged tsurugi forged from an ominous, dark metal, with a prominent fish-spine ridge running precisely down the center of its blade. Coarse white cord wrapped around its hilt, secured between a small, flared bronze crossguard and a massive T-shaped pommel that anchored its brutal, forward-heavy balance. Its blade bore patterns of lightning and mist as though a storm lay beneath the metal.

[Image]

The weapon looked unsettling, yet it lacked the presence of one.

Stella approached and pulled it from the ground, testing its weight before examining the blade.

"Not bad," she mumbled dryly.

She secured the sword and resumed walking, carrying the unconscious twins toward the exit without giving the strange voice another thought.

"I have been waiting for this for centuries," the voice muttered darkly. "Do you really think I would simply fall for your lies?"

Stella’s brows furrowed as she heard the bitterness in its tone, but before she could question it, the voice continued.

"As long as Envy exists in your heart, I can take everything from you."

Her steps slowed.

"What are you talking about?" she pressed, turning her head toward the space beside her.

"Do you really think Orochi was here to guard this dungeon?" the voice asked, releasing a chilling laugh. "No! It was here to stop me."

Stella’s heart sank.

She quickened her pace, but before she could reach the breach, the ground ahead of her suddenly shifted. A figure with purple skin, gray eyes, long black hair, and two horns made entirely of purple energy emerged from the earth before launching itself toward her.

"Time to complete your deal!"

Stella immediately swung her sword, aiming to cut the intruder apart before it could reach her. However, the blade passed through the figure without resistance, and the purple-skinned woman entered Stella’s body like a shadow slipping beneath a door.

Stella froze.

She blinked several times, waiting for something to happen, but she felt no pain, no foreign presence, and no immediate change in her body.

"Nothing?" she mumbled.

After shaking her head, she continued walking and eventually crossed the dungeon’s shattered boundary.

The moment she emerged, the unnatural darkness receded behind her, and the ordinary forest stretched before her beneath the daylight. She carried Natia and Gideon beneath the shade of the trees before lowering them carefully onto the ground, then sat beneath another tree and examined her ruined arm.

"I will have to find a healer," she mumbled bitterly.

Then, the voice from before echoed inside her head.

"I did not expect this..."

Its tone had changed completely. The confidence and amusement were gone. It sounded stunned and horrified, and hearing it sent a shiver down Stella’s spine.

"What did you do to me?" she asked grimly.

"Haha! I have not even done anything yet. The true fun will begin soon, as I slowly break this mind of yours and take this body for myself..."

---

"How did you get that coin?"

Other Stella’s question brought Elias out of his thoughts.

He stopped rolling the coin between his fingers and looked at the woman standing before him.

"I do not think that is important right now," he replied, slipping the coin away. "Is that everything you remember?"

Other Stella nodded slowly.

"Beyond that, everything is a blur until the day you first woke me up."

Elias leaned back in his chair and studied her face, trying to organize the fragments of information she had given him.

"Anything you would like me to do?" he asked after a long while.

Other Stella remained silent for a moment before looking directly at him.

"Can you find Natia and Gideon? When I first met them, they lived in the Margrave State of Jorn."

Elias’s expression softened, although he knew the answer would disappoint her.

"I would love to, but I cannot, at least not until we have left the west."

"I understand," Other Stella said quietly.

"I apologize," Elias mumbled, feeling disappointed in himself.

"You do not have to." She paused before raising her gaze again. "Can you do something else for me?"

"Of course. I would do anything for my wife," he responded immediately.

A faint smile appeared on her face as she raised both arms toward him.

"Can you give me a hug?"

Elias blinked several times, caught off guard by the simplicity of her request. After everything she had endured, he had expected her to ask for something extraordinary, but all she wanted was a hug.

A wide smile spread across his face as he rose from his chair.

"Of course. I am more than willing to."

He walked around the desk and embraced her, wrapping his arms around her lean yet well-endowed body while she rested her head on his shoulder.

She closed her eyes.

Although she could not feel the warmth of his body or the pressure of his arms as a living person would, knowing that someone still cared enough to hold her was sufficient to bring a measure of peace to her troubled heart. For a long while, neither of them spoke, and Elias simply continued embracing her until she finally loosened her arms.

"I should return to Stella," she said as she stepped away.

"Sure," Elias replied, then tilted his head curiously. "Can you not fly?"

Other Stella frowned at him.

"Why do you think I can?"

"Well, you are a spirit in a way, are you not?" he asked, scratching the back of his head.

She stared at him for several seconds before muttering, "And how do spirits fly?"

Elias shrugged.

"Maybe think about flying?"

"There is no way that would wo—"

Her words abruptly stopped as her feet lifted from the floor, and she found herself floating several meters above the ground.

Elias stared at her with open fascination.

"It does work, huh?" he muttered.

Other Stella gave him an unimpressed look before drifting through the doorway and leaving the office.

He chuckled as he watched her go, but his expression soon darkened.

Although Other Stella had revealed many details about her past, he still did not know how she had become the Killer Flower. He could not say for certain whether the massacre of her clan had caused her transformation, but he could not dismiss the possibility either.

Perhaps it had been the breaking point.

He leaned back in his chair and turned toward the window, allowing his gaze to settle on the garden below. Sermus Flinn was there, moving through the grounds.

He immediately remembered the blood he had seen near the main manor’s entrance.

Apparently, the slender man had somehow survived a deadly attack from Deamon, an Exalted Elite. If that wasn’t ridiculous, he didn’t know what was.

A Pathless mage surviving an attack meant to kill him. Even an Exalted mage couldn’t defeat a swordsman if the latter managed to get close enough, which was why he believed that something about this former ruinsmith was different.

Something that he needed to know.

"Let’s see what secrets you are hiding," he mumbled.

He fixed his gaze on Sermus and mumbled inwardly, ’Physique Appraisal.’

A golden glint appeared across his black irises, and Sermus’s body suddenly turned into a mass of green and blue colors.

A screen materialized before Elias.

[Name: Sermus Flinn]

[Physique...]