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1.

There were things she wanted to say but couldn’t.

Feelings she longed to share but kept hidden.

She felt suffocated.

Isolated.

She tried to fix the things that had gone wrong, trying to mend the distance.

And she knew that there were things that simply wouldn’t get through unless she said it out loud, just as Clara had said.

She understood that.

But, she was still afraid.

Of being abandoned. Of being rejected. Of receiving a cold, indifferent stare.

Hence why she couldn’t bring herself to face Siwoo directly.

And could only hope for an accidental meeting.

But perhaps, deep down, fearing they’d never meet at all, she wandered through Gehenna, clutching onto her hesitant resolve and fearful heart.

Wandering.

Indeed, that word fit her perfectly.

Foolishly drifting without any direction, with no solid ground under her feet.

Her aimless walk began somewhere in Lenomond Town and came to an end as she arrived in Tarot Town.

Because she had seen Siwoo.

And beside him stood a witch.

A woman with deep green hair, mint-colored eyes, and a cute smile that never left her face as she stayed by his side.

“...”

They exchanged warm smiles, their conversation flowing naturally, and their gestures reflected a deep trust and affection.

“Amelia...”

Clara, who had been watching nearby, gently rested her hand on her shoulder.

But, it didn’t matter.

Amelia still stood frozen, lost in thought as time passed her by.

When she snapped back to reality, she realized she had been watching him from a distance.

Everything felt more hurt than she expected.

But at the same time, she felt strangely numb.

Only a dull ache lingered, like a once-throbbing wound now frozen over.

It wasn’t the first time.

When she peeked at him doing indecent acts with the Countess Gemini’s twin apprentice.

And when she had seen him having intercourse with Yebin Smyrna, the woman she’d invited to heal him, the tingling sensation was also there.

Now, as she traced that ache like touching a wound, she realized where the pain had stemmed from.

Back then, she was ignorant.

She didn’t understand what love was, and she couldn’t accept it.

Back then, there was hope.

A sliver of a future where, no matter the cost, she’d apologize to him without fail.

But now...

This wasn’t the same Siwoo she faced fighting the Witch of Desire.

His expression, his gaze, and the tone of his voice she had seen so often back when they lived together in that cabin, were now directed at this witch.

She didn’t feel bitter for losing him.

Because that was a feeling she didn’t deserve to have.

But the sight of the pair completely engrossed in each other, as if the world belonged solely to them, seemed so flawless in her eyes.

It was as if they were showing off that her relationship with him could never turn back to what it used to be.

Her legs gave way.

“Amelia.”

“I’m fine. I’m okay.”

The way her voice sounded so calm, as if coming from someone else, surprised her.

But the moment the words left her lips, her chest felt like it was burning, and the numbness in her heart began to melt, replaced by unbearable pain.

“I’m not bothered at all. I’m alright.”

Her breathing grew heavier.

It felt like the ground was shifting beneath her, as if her sense of balance had suddenly vanished.

How did it come to this?

This...isn’t what I wanted...

-Rustle.

At that moment, something fell to the ground.

It was a small, folded note she always carried.

The same one that she couldn’t bring herself to open.

Because, if those were Siwoo’s parting words, she was afraid that reading them meant abandoning her duties to clear the Kill List and putting him in danger again.

So, she couldn’t bring herself to open it, afraid that the last pillar supporting her might finally collapse.

And now, she reached out for that note.

It was a futile attempt, a desperate grasp for a final shred of hope.

‘Maybe, he had already forgiven me.’ She hoped.

Even if it was too late, she needed something to cling to.

The note, folded only twice but seemingly impenetrable like a magic barrier, unfolded all too easily.

Its message was brief, with more blank space than words.

[I will never forgive you.]

Those words grabbed her by the ankles and dragged her down into the darkest depths.

At that moment, Lilith gently placed a hand on her waist, wiping her tears away.

“Oh, Amelia, my poor, poor Amelia.”

“...”

“It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Amelia still didn’t react.

It was as if she had locked herself away in a place only she could reach, completely detached from the outside world.

-Woooong!

Instead, a storm of particles began to swirl violently around her.

After reaching the 15th rank, a witch could achieve a state where her magic and mind became one.

At such heights, her instincts and emotions fused with her mana, and that bond would grow stronger as they increased their rank.

Lilith watched her with a sweet, satisfied smile.

There was no need for her to pretend anymore.

Finally, the magic she had planted within Amelia began to spread, taking root in every corner of her brand as Amelia’s mind unraveled.

To Lilith, this whole act had been crude, almost childish in its simplicity.

All she had done was manipulate the misunderstanding between them and tweak the note he had left her.

But for someone like Amelia, who was already crumbling on her own, what she had done was an overkill.

But, Amelia wasn’t the only witch Lilith had under her control.

Besides, she didn’t have the time nor the patience to make every last one of her attempts perfect.

It hurts.

I want it to end.

It’s unbearable.

Leave me alone.

I’m fine by myself.

I don’t regret it.

I’m okay.

Shattered fragments of emotion rushed past Lilith’s ears.

They were too beautiful, too much like a fairy’s shimmering light, to be simply described as sorrowful. She gently caressed each one of them.

Intense emotions were easier to manipulate than subtle ones.

Whether it was overwhelming joy or blood-spitting rage, such emotions could be thrown entirely off course with a gentle nudge.

“You can still change things, even now.”

The Cowardly Witch did it, Bianca did it, and so did countless witches whose names Lilith had forgotten.

Amelia, being her stupidly naive self, wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

“Stop holding it in. It breaks my heart to see you as the only one sacrificing yourself. I can’t bear to watch anymore.”

Lilith’s voice was tinged with an uncontrollable laughter.

She gradually pushed and prodded at the raging storm of emotions that was still gaining momentum.

“It’s been hard and painful for you. You had to carry all that pain alone. That’s enough for you to atone for your sins.”

-Wooooong!

Fireworks erupted in the distance, bursting against the night sky.

Tiny particles spread between them, starting to fill the air.

Then, came the rain.

A downpour cascaded from a cloudless sky, as if the heavens themselves were weeping.

The particles expanded, spreading outward until they covered the whole of Tarot Town.

Amelia’s power was formidable, enough to make even Keter wish to use her as a weapon.

She sought to bring every inch of this vast expanse under her dominion.

“It hurts, doesn’t it? It’s upsetting, but it’s alright. I’m going to help you. I will teach you how to attain happiness.”

Of course, said ‘happiness’ was anything but genuine.

Lilith gave a small, subtle pull of her fingers.

Like a puppet on strings, the magic she had sown into Amelia began to pulse and expand.

Amelia’s vacant eyes slowly found Lilith.

Her once sky-blue eyes, always filled with depth, now felt empty, like a pit of despair.

“Happiness...?”

“You have power, don’t you? The strength to reclaim what’s rightfully yours.”

A flimsy rationale.

Barely even an argument, more like a twisted excuse.

Even Amelia knew that the feelings between a man and a woman couldn’t be dictated by sheer power alone.

But in her current state, it didn’t matter.

Sadness was something that could easily be morphed, most often into anger and desperate screams.

Negative emotions and violence had always walked hand in hand.

Even if she would deeply regret it later, right now, she felt that it was justified.

“All you need to do is snap your fingers. That’s all it takes to stay by his side. To live in a world where it’s just the two of you. I’ll help make that happen.”

Her words were merely sweet lies, twisted logic, and promises that would never be fulfilled.

But her poison had already taken hold of Amelia.

With each word that dripped from her tongue, Amelia’s mana spiraled further out of control.

“Show him your sorrow, your anger. Let him see it all.”

-Wooooooong!

Wherever the rain fell, tiny sprouts began to bloom in abundance.

As blossoms the size of a pinky nail unfurled, everything around them crumbled.

With this, Lilith had achieved her goal, and Keter’s plans lay in ruins.

-Snap!

Amelia’s hand, lifted as if in a trance, twisted in midair..

Then, an extremely brief ripple appeared.

With mana and particles as her medium, the ripple flowed out, consuming everything under her command.

-Rumble!

Each time a flower bloomed...

Her particles absorbed mana, producing even greater power.

Lilith’s face lit up with ecstatic delight.

All would fall.

Gehenna’s collapse was imminent.

“...It’s happening...”

Just as Lilith was about to burst into laughter,

All the trembling came to a halt.

At the same time, Lilith’s crazed laughter stopped.

Her eyes darted around.

Within the eerie silence that came out so suddenly, the raindrops became more visible.

They hung in the air, as if suspended, moving slowly, scattering light as though they were caught in a realm with no gravity.

Stunned, Lilith turned her gaze to Amelia.

When Amelia had broken down mentally, Lilith’s self-essence magic, ‘Whisper’, had undoubtedly taken hold of her body.

She should’ve been nothing more than Lilith’s puppet by now.

“No... No...! This can’t be...!”

But, how was she supposed to explain this phenomenon?

The magical phenomenon that didn’t follow the laws of classical mechanics.

A spell had its own inertia.

Like a speeding train that couldn’t stop abruptly, halting a large-scale spell like this was nearly impossible.

But Amelia did it; she rejected all of her sweet lies.

She poured all her strength into controlling the spell that had erupted from her emotional surge.

As a result, the 23rd rank spell imploded, causing this phenomenon.

Spatial randomization.

It was the rupture that only would occur when spells of the witches of the highest ranks had clashed head-on. Amelia had triggered such a phenomenon by herself.

“This can’t be happening...”

Lilith stared at Amelia, her face twisted in disbelief.

Her control on her was still intact.

Indeed, the leash she had put on on Amelia was still there.

“Amel—”

Just as she reached out again, Lilith noticed tiny buds pushing up under her skin.

If she had reached out for one more inch, her arm, or maybe her entire body, would have burst open.

It was a clear rejection.

A rejection directed not only at Lilith.

But at the entire world.

“Ahaha.”

Her bewilderment quickly turned into amusement.

Lilith’s spell, ‘Whisper’ worked differently depending on the target’s magical prowess.

It was a peculiar spell, shifting in power based on the strength of its target’s mind.

Amelia, who Lilith had dismissed as immature, was now defying her spell with sheer willpower.

She had to admit that she had severely underestimated her.

But that was it.

Amelia might have rejected Lilith’s control, but she was still on a rampage.

The evidence was in the twisted space that refused to settle, and the particles pushing everything around her away, holding it in suspension.

As always, Amelia was driving everything out and retreating into her own isolated space.

In the distorted space, defying the rules of the world, she was crafting a new shelter, a spell to cocoon herself away from the world.

The space was becoming increasingly distorted, and Amelia was already fading from view.

“Well, this isn’t too bad.”

Lilith didn’t mind this unexpected variable.

In her eyes, no matter the process, the outcome wouldn’t change.

“Let’s see you struggle.”

With those final words, a thick darkness engulfed Lilith like a lightning strike, ejecting her from the space.