CHAPTER 195
The news that Sky Castle was ascending into the sky.
Hearing that absurd story, a curse immediately flew from my mouth.

"You crazy bitch! What the hell are you trying to do?!"

She was going to ram Sky Castle into the sky where the Transcendents gathered.
Just how preposterous and incomprehensible was that?
No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn't figure out what Asheria Eve was doing this for.
At my question, Asheria Eve smoothly lifted her head once, then slowly lowered it.

"I wonder?"

She smiled radiantly.
There was absolutely no emotion behind that smile.
That enigmatic smile felt even more chilling.
It was pure proof of just how much of a lunatic this woman was.
She clearly had no intention of revealing her true motives.

That was enough talking.
The situation had already spiraled into the worst-case scenario.
If I couldn't escape from here now, nine times out of ten, I'd be reduced to Asheria Eve's personal resurrection machine.

In reality, my body wasn't moving properly.
Partly because her fingernail was dug into my eye, but primarily because my arms and legs wouldn't move right.
She probably severed my tendons during the resurrection process.

Ultimately, what I needed to do right now was figure out how to get out of here.
Ririran was dead, and the Transcendent of Envy was waiting below.
There wasn't a single person here who could protect me.

'My Holy Power...'

Even though it was part of Asheria Eve's brainwashing, not everything she fed me was a lie.
Having overused my Holy Power, my body barely had any of it left.
Practically all my options were blocked.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it checkmate.

No, wait.
There was a way.
There was definitely a way.
Because Asheria Eve could even control the Dimension Eater, she had inadvertently let her guard down.
There was something they hadn't considered in this moment.

"What's your reason for invading the Regular Army's Commander-in-Chief's office?"

I threw out a question to keep her from noticing my plan.
Hearing it, Asheria Eve quietly stared down at me before sharpening her nail.
A fierce pain erupted in my eye.
It felt like my eyeball was slowly being crushed and torn apart.

"Harua, Harua, are you racking that brain of yours again? Trying to blow yourself up like last time? But you know, don't you?"

Asheria Eve smiled warmly and cupped my cheek with her other hand.

"In your current state, your next Resurrection Magic might not work properly."

She was right.
As Lua had told me before, if I took in too much Holy Power and underwent Divine Apostle Transformation, my Resurrection Magic wouldn't activate.
This was likely because the influence of another Transcendent became too overwhelming, weakening my original Ability.
A body overloaded with Holy Power.
If Lua didn't extract the Holy Power from me again, my Resurrection Magic might fail to trigger.

"Well then, isn't that good news for me?"

A savage grin spread across my lips at Asheria Eve's remark.

"Since there's no way you'll get my Resurrection Magic, and I won't be used by you."

Did you think you were the only crazy one here?
Sorry, but I'm just as bad.

"Aw, there's no way Harua would do that."

But Asheria Eve's tone was belittling.

"A greedy person like Harua could never die like that."

A greedy person like me.

"You know me well."

That was something I couldn't deny.

"But you know what?"

A bloodthirsty smile crept onto my face.

"That also means you guys can't kill me either."

Putting aside whether Asheria Eve failed to steal my Resurrection Magic or not, it was a fact that she was keeping a close eye on it.
That meant she couldn't recklessly kill me when my chances of reviving were slim.
So, I dug into that exact possibility.

KABOOOOOM!

The desk exploded, and my body plummeted downward.
Asheria Eve kept her fingernail clamped in my eye even as we fell, but I didn't care and violently twisted my head.

Riiiip!

My optic nerve snapped, and my entire eyeball was ripped out.
Half my vision vanished instantly as agonizing pain rushed in, but I gritted my teeth and endured it.
Through the shattered remains of the desk, Mimyung-ryung flapped its wings.
It had hidden under my back, dug into the desk, and destroyed it for me.
It was a spirit that was always consistently helpful.

With my head turned, I opened my mouth as wide as I could in that brief window.
At that moment, Mimyung-ryung flew forcefully straight into my mouth.

Thwack—

Mimyung-ryung shoved itself in.
Just then, a shadow reached out toward my falling body.
It was the shadow of Morbid Geryusika, the Transcendent of Envy.
I had already expected this.

As his shadow instantly swallowed me, ink-like water entangled me.
From the start, they had no intention of letting me escape, no matter what I did.
Since my arms and legs couldn't move anyway, I never thought I'd be able to make a clean getaway from the beginning.

Instead, I curled my body into a ball and slowly submerged into the black shadow.

Splash.

Soon after, Asheria Eve descended from above.
She looked at me and laughed merrily.

"I'm always amazed at how unpredictable Harua can be."

Whether she was or not, it didn't matter.
I just quietly remained silent and stared at Asheria Eve.
There was one fact she had overlooked.
My Resurrection Magic didn't require me to touch someone with my hands.
To be exact, as long as any part of my body touched them, the Resurrection Magic could activate.
Even if that part was my internal organs.

Inside my stomach.
I felt something swelling up.
At the same time, Mimyung-ryung's wings poked out of my mouth.
A variable not even Asheria Eve could have predicted.
Seeing that bizarre sight, she raised an eyebrow.

"Harua?"

The moment she asked that question, I opened my mouth and screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Rapha Hastel!"

Along with my roaring voice, my body vanished in an instant.

Crash, bang!

Soon after, as I tumbled across the floor, I felt my swollen stomach shrink back down.
The morgue.
Just as I had shouted, I had been spatially teleported to the Regular Army's morgue.

"Haa, really."

In front of me stood a small, naked woman, her body completely drenched.
She seemed to have finally realized her current state and was looking at me with eyes full of absolute shock.

"Boy, I already knew this, but you really are out of your mind."
"Ugh, there was no other way."

What I had delivered into my mouth via Mimyung-ryung.
It was Ririran's severed wrist that had been lying on the floor.
As a fairy, Ririran had a wrist much smaller than a normal human's.
Given its size, swallowing it wasn't hard, and I was able to get it down to my stomach quickly.

Even without my hands touching it, Resurrection Magic works.
Ririran had been resurrected inside my stomach.
It was a crazy stunt, but it succeeded.
And somehow, I had escaped.

I felt a nauseating sensation in my stomach.
At the same time, my gouged-out eye throbbed, but it was fine.
As a Holy Mage, I just had to heal myself like a Holy Mage should.

"Lady Ririran, Asheria Eve will be here soon. Since she's using the Dimension Eater's Ability, she'll track the coordinates of the space magic."
"Yes, I've already figured out your intentions."

Ririran immediately opened one of the morgue's cold lockers.
Inside lay a single, solitary finger.
A finger that originally would have been used for the Regular Army in the future.
Both of us knew exactly whose finger it was.

"I never thought we'd reunite like this."

Ririran cast a deeply bitter smile.
But right now, in this moment, there was no other card we could play to stop Asheria Eve.
Rapha Hastel.
It was his finger.

"While the Resurrection Magic is active, the body will temporarily return to its original state. I'm going to infuse Holy Power into it then."

Ririran understood what that meant.

"Divine Apostle Transformation?"
"Yes, the body will hold together, even if it's not for a long time."

It was an application of what Lua had told me before.
Of course, it wouldn't fundamentally cure his heart disease.
As time passed, Rapha Hastel's body, which had already reached the end of its lifespan, would eventually crumble.
This wasn't a true resurrection.
It was terminal lucidity.
Just a brief awakening, akin to the state where a person temporarily regains their vitality right before death.

But right now, it was the best move we could make.
I hurriedly reconnected my severed tendons with Holy Magic and stood up.

"If it's Lord Rapha Hastel without his heart disease..."
"He'll win."

Ririran declared with absolute certainty.

"Because that man is stronger than anyone else in this world."

Her firm faith in the old man she loved.
That faith was enough.
The Resurrection Magic began to spread from the finger I held in my hand.
The magic soon began forming a single body, and seeing this, Ririran revealed an expression filled with myriad emotions.

At the same time, I pushed Holy Power into it.
With this...

KABOOOOOOOM!

An explosion swept over us.
The vision in my remaining eye shook violently, and my body was sent tumbling across the floor.

"Boy!"

Along with Ririran's cry, dozens of slashes flew toward her.
Ririran twisted space to block them, but a Dimension Eater appeared behind her back and struck her.

Crash!

The Dimension Eater pounced on Ririran as she was sent flying.
The moment I tried to somehow push myself up, a heavy impact slammed into my back.

"Keugh!"

A single sword pierced through my back.
Above me stood a black-haired woman.
Asheria Eve.
She stood there, accompanied by numerous Dimension Eaters.

Damn it, Cain, you useless bastard.
As if proving that the Dimension Eaters he controlled were just cute pets, the level of danger here was on a completely different dimension.

"I really am surprised every time Harua pulls something like this."

She didn't speak for long.

"Playing along ends here."

The moment shadows surged up, as if she refused to allow any more variables...
The sky flipped upside down.

Literally. Asheria Eve, myself, and even Morbid's shadows were flipped and suspended in midair.
Beneath us.
An old man with deep blue eyes slowly raised his head.

Asheria Eve's face froze for the first time, and the old man unleashed his fury.
That alone made the atmosphere roar violently, as if it were being ripped apart.

"It is time to put an end to our long history."

Commander-in-Chief Rapha Hastel.
It was his resurrection.