The young exorcist stood before me, summoning his katashiro talismans, his eyes locked onto mine. Meanwhile, I had already prepared my Silveit threads, ready for the inevitable clash.

Between us, only the blizzard raged, a whiteout swirling around us, its icy fury making the young exorcist’s pale clothing blend into the landscape. He smirked, almost amused.

“You’ve changed, child. Your face… something’s different. What happened?”

The being in front of me, wearing the face of a young exorcist, was no exorcist at all. I didn’t bother answering his question. Instead, I leveled my gaze and declared coldly:

“—You’re a bug, aren’t you?”

At my accusation, the young exorcist laughed—a chilling sound that echoed through the frozen wasteland—and nodded.

“Indeed. I am the insect.”

I felt my blood boil. This thing was responsible for everything. The reason the Yuki-onna inside Aya-chan had her mind warped, and her magic twisted against her will. It was this insect that sought to drain Aya-chan’s magic, using the Yuki-onna as a tool. But even in her twisted state, the Yuki-onna had protected Aya, freezing her magic to stop this parasite.

If not for this insect, none of this would have happened.

And now… I would exorcise it.

“So, you know I am the insect,” he mused. “Then tell me, child. Just how much have you seen?”

“Everything,” I replied, my voice hard. “I saw it all.”

He raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. “I see… more than I anticipated. No wonder you seek to exorcise me. However, I’ve been working towards this moment for a very long time. I won’t let you end it so easily.”

With that, five katashiro talismans flew from his robe, shooting toward me. At the same time, strings of Silveit extended from his fingers, connecting to the talismans and triggering an immediate attribute change.

In the blink of an eye, the talismans twisted and warped, transforming into water bombs.

A roaring deluge erupted, as if a dam had burst, aiming to sweep me and the Yuki-onna behind me away in a massive wall of water.

But to me, who could see Silveit, the build-up was all too slow, as if the spell itself was begging me to counter it. I reached back, grabbed the Yuki-onna, and leaped into the air.

Both my legs were already wrapped in Silveit, reinforcing my movements with pure body enhancement—without the aid of the Thunder God’s artifact. For some reason, artifacts didn’t seem to exist in this mental world. The Thunder God’s relic, which should have been in my pocket, had never appeared.

As I executed the jump, a faint nostalgia hit me. It had been a while since I had used pure body enhancement magic without any external aid.

Mid-air, I turned to face the young exorcist.

“That was the Water Flow Technique—’Tsubaku,’ right? A technique to wash away everything in its path. Simple yet effective,” he said, stepping forward as the torrent that swept away houses and fields settled into a flattened wasteland.

I landed and immediately released a fine thread of Silveit toward him. I infused it with the attribute change: water, but I didn’t stop there. I combined it with wind to add pressure, and earth to introduce fine particles, increasing its cutting power.

The moment it was ready, I launched it.

“—Ama Ugachi!”

A sharp, slicing sound ripped through the air, but my attack collided with a wall of stone that had materialized in front of the exorcist at the last moment.

The Ama Ugachi drilled into the rock, creating a crater about 30 centimeters deep, but it failed to pierce through completely.

“Hmm, you’ve chosen to use water not for washing away, but for piercing instead. Mizu-shitatari-ishi-wo-ugatsu, eh? A fascinating technique, child.”

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With that, the stone wall crumbled into dust, revealing the young exorcist smirking behind it.

“Where did you learn such a spell?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as he studied me.

I remained silent. Instead, I focused on preparing my next move.

High-ranked monsters often use magic, so I had been developing a counterspell for such situations. A spell designed to neutralize their abilities, at least for a short time.

“Jubaku,” I chanted.

In response, countless wooden roots, birthed from the attribute change: wood, erupted from the ground, ensnaring the exorcist. They wrapped around him tightly, restricting his movements and attempting to sap his magic.

But these weren’t ordinary roots. They were created specifically to drain the magic of anything they ensnared, feeding off their prey’s power to grow stronger.

However, the spell was incomplete.

It could only drain magic from the points of contact, and even then, the amount it siphoned off was minimal. I hadn’t perfected it yet. This spell might work on a First-Rank monster, but not on something more powerful.

Still, if it could stall him for even a moment, it would be enough.

“Homura Bachi,” I cast, unleashing the fiery lance.

The instant my flame spear made contact with the exorcist, it detonated, consuming both him and the Jubaku roots in a violent explosion. The air ignited, and the ground shuddered from the force of the blast.

As the flames raged, I gently set down the Yuki-onna, who I had been holding.

“Stay back,” I said, my voice firm. “I’ll handle the rest.”

“Itsuki! Look forward!” the Yuki-onna suddenly shouted.

I turned, and my heart sank.

The explosion had dissipated, and there, standing in the now charred, snowless field, was the exorcist. He was scorched and singed, his clothes blackened and his exposed skin showing burns. But beyond that, he was unharmed.

“Water Flow Technique—’Tameike,'” he muttered, and the katashiro talismans attached to his body peeled away, revealing the reason for his survival.

What did he just do?

I furrowed my brow, confused, as the exorcist continued.

“A technique I developed for firefighters. It’s a spell that protects their bodies as they fight against raging flames. But of course, it has its uses in combat as well.”

“…I was draining your magic,” I said, bewildered.

“Datsumei, right? The southerners call it ‘drain.’ Yes, I anticipated it. I’ve prepared countermeasures.”

Damn it.

It seemed my unfinished spell wasn’t enough to hold him off.

While I was still weighing my next move, the Yuki-onna stepped forward from beside me.

“Itsuki. I’ll blind him. You know what to do,” she said, her voice cold and resolute.

“‘That’?” I echoed, momentarily confused. But then, it clicked. There was only one spell she could be referring to.

—Insei Nagareboshi.

Of course.

The Yuki-onna raised her arms, and the winds howled in response, growing fiercer by the second.

The temperature plummeted instantly, even my magic-enhanced body feeling the biting cold as the heat was ripped from me. The wind swirled with snow, creating a blizzard so dense it obscured everything.

Everything except the exorcist’s Silveit. Thanks to my True Eye, I could still see his threads.

He couldn’t hide from me.

“—Insei Nagareboshi.”

I unleashed the spell, my Silveit latching onto the exorcist. In the sky, a massive meteor, formed from attribute change: earth, came crashing down.

There was no time to react. In the blink of an eye, the meteor smashed into the exorcist with a deafening roar.

The ground quaked, and the air was filled with the impact’s aftershocks. The blizzard, now displaced by the meteor’s force, surged toward us like a tidal wave of snow.

But no black mist appeared.

The insect had not yet been exorcised.

“An insect is immortal. It becomes a chrysalis and eventually, a butterfly,” came the exorcist’s voice, disembodied and echoing through the distorted air.

I felt my consciousness slipping away.

“I no longer need to inhabit this spirit. The time has not yet fully ripened, but… yes, with this power, I am more than ready.”

It felt like the end of Resonance.

“—Let’s call it ‘rebirth.'”

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