CH 245

‘But that’s enough,’ Estian thought. ‘It’s over.’ There was so little difference in their skills that their fight had become a battle of attrition, so even a razor-thin advantage like this was enough to break the stalemate. Predicting the end as he resumed his attack, Estian felt a strange emotion blooming within him.

For the first time in his life, it felt like he had someone fighting by his side. Until now, all his battles had always been fought alone. Even his knight commander, Kane, would retreat to fight elsewhere so as not to be a hindrance. If even he could not fight at the emperor’s side, then what was there to say about the others? To Estian, fighting meant facing every enemy on his own. The assistance of others amounted to insignificant help and was more of a nuisance. So, why did he feel so reassured by this small assist that he was receiving now? The answer was simple: it was Cecile that was helping him.

Meanwhile, Ruin slowly readied his stance. He had slowly grown accustomed to the pattern of the glob’s movements after suffering from several attacks. ‘As expected… I’ve roughly grasped it now,’ he thought. He had increasingly been able to dodge the attacks, and now prepared to launch his counterattack. When the next attack came, he landed a punch and managed to disperse the water in all directions with a satisfying smack!

“I was only caught off guard earlier. This amount of water can hardly deal any damage anyway…” Ruin suddenly trailed off and froze in place.

‘Why did he stop?’ Estian wondered quizzically. At that moment, a drop of water landed on his face. It wasn’t from the glob of water that had been pulverized earlier, and he looked towards the sky. It had been a clear sky filled with stars when the fight had begun, but now they were all obscured. Soon, the sound of raindrops hitting leaves rang out and then…

“My word,” Estian exclaimed.

* * *

“Hey! Stop!” Richard cried, knowing the reason behind the change in her state.

Even as she panted heavily, Cecile shook her head in refusal. Not only had her breathing turned rough, lines of sweat were running down her face. Her eyes were focused on the distant sky above where Estian and Ruin stood. A humongous mass of water was gathering in the air above them. ‘Just a little more,’ she willed.

When rain began to fall, as if possessed, Cecile raised her hand towards the sky and drew a large circle. Suddenly, a change occurred. Droplets continued to fall, but not a single drop landed on the ground. Even those that had fallen began to rise up again and joined the gathering mass.

As the rain rapidly gathered together in one spot, Cecile felt a tremendous weight bearing down on her. Her legs were buckling under the weight, but she had no intention of calling it quits. It was hard, but she was happy. Cecile was so happy that she wondered why she’d never known of this power until today. Now, even she could help Estian.

But at that moment, a voice rang in Cecile’s head. “Stop,” it said.

Cecile shook her head defiantly. ‘Why? Why must I do that?’ she thought.

“I do not wish for you to despair anymore,” the voice answered.

Cecile realized her power was weakening and realized the voice speaking to her was taking it away. ‘No!’ she thought, gritting her teeth. She was determined not to let her power be taken away, because… ‘This was mine to begin with!’

By then, all the water had finished gathering into one large sphere hovering above Estian and Ruin.

Unyieldingly, Cecile uttered, “That’s why, give it back! Let me help Estian a little!”

A moment later, a huge wave of water gushed forth from the gathered sphere of rainwater and came crashing down deep in the mountains far from Aluna.

* * *

“She awakened in the end,” the first guardian witch sighed, gazing into her bowl of water.

The second guardian witch echoed her, heaving a long sigh of her own, as she too looked into her own water bowl. Shaking her head, she said, “Goodness. The Archwitch cast so many seals on her to delay the end of days as much as possible, yet she still managed to undo them all.”

The third guardian witch breathed out an even longer sigh than the previous two and said, “But like me, you girls already knew…”

In unison, the three guardian witches said, “She was bound to cause something huge…”