Chapter : 215

Theo, gripping the staff, murmured a spell under his breath.

A single streak of light shot out and grazed Iris’s cheek.

Pzzzt!

It sounded like flesh searing. A burn blossomed across her cheek.

But she didn’t look pained at all—only smiled calmly and asked in a flat tone.

“If that’s all, I’m going to be disappointed.”

“Shut up!”

With Theo’s shout, mana erupted like an explosion.

The air twisted under the pressure of it, and the tip of the staff was swallowed in blue sparks.

“For the love of—just shut your mouth!!”

Lightning detonated.

BOOM!

A deafening roar, as if space itself had been torn open. Shards of light scattered in every direction.

Yet Iris remained utterly serene—even amid the one-sided assault, she only smiled, almost leisurely.

“Damn it!!!”

Another blast followed. This time, fire.

Crimson fireballs burst in succession, bathing the space in a hazy red glow.

Heat like molten mana stung the skin, as if it could melt the air itself.

Theo’s mana, having lost all control, poured out around the staff in a raging torrent.

Lightning and flame, ice and wind—everything tangled together, sweeping the battlefield like a storm.

“Ghk—!”

Inside that near-rampaging magical tempest, Zephyros frowned.

He should have gone to stop Theo, but the paralysis in his body still wouldn’t fade.

Lilia and Mordin—who might have stabilized the situation with magic—couldn’t, because they were busy supplying Theo with mana.

Zephyros forced himself to breathe, then raised wind with a body that wouldn’t move, shielding the others from Theo’s magic.

First, he dragged Lucian—whose paralysis was the worst—closer. Once it eased even a little, he’d shove the elixir straight into Lucian’s mouth.

As hair whipped in the gale, the mana storm began to subside.

By the time it fully died down, Theo—apparently at his limit—used the staff like a cane just to keep from collapsing as he stared at Iris.

Iris didn’t have a single unscathed spot left.

And yet, even in pain, she stood firm—smiling, calmly, almost cheerfully.

“Are you finished now?”

—

He had unleashed magic in a blaze of hatred so fierce it felt like it could burn his body from the inside out.

As long as that thing lived, Father could be in danger at any moment. To her, Father was a thorn in her side.

Whether Ouroboros could kill Father or not didn’t matter anymore.

What mattered was this: as long as Iris Viden existed, Father could be threatened at any time.

A seal—something half-measure like that—wouldn’t do.

Right. Just kill her.

But despite the resolve, his body reached its limit almost immediately.

“……”

It felt like he could crumble at any second.

With every sense dulled, he glared at Iris, brimming with hatred—his mind doing nothing but endlessly searching for a way to kill her.

“Are you finished now?”

Fine. Admit it.

He couldn’t beat Iris. He couldn’t kill her.

If he couldn’t kill her—then he’d erase her with his own power.

He fixed his gaze on Iris and reached for the pen.

《Theo Lisitoel, you idiot!!!》

If he hadn’t heard that shout calling his name, he would have crossed the line for good.

The instant he snapped back to himself, a stabbing pain surged through him—like claws raking his heart.

It was unbearable. His body gave out.

“Hngh—!”

The blood he spat up was dark—almost black-red.

“It hurts so much.”

《You absolute idiot!!》

Only then did he feel Albedo’s scolding, and the faint tremble of Rue against his chest.

…He really had been swallowed by emotion, even if only for a moment.

If he’d actually used his skill to erase Iris right then—would the backlash have killed him, too?

His hands shook violently as he vomited blood several more times.

《Theo, sealing Iris’s magic is…》

“I’m fine.”

He answered softly, as if whispering only to Albedo.

His skill was still intact.

Even while raging in anger, some small fragment of awareness had remained—don’t use that.

Or perhaps he’d judged it better to keep the skill as the last resort.

“Tch. How boring.”

Iris’s mutter scraped at his ears.

《Don’t listen.》

“I know.”

If Albedo hadn’t held him back, he might’ve flown into rage again and ruined everything.

The fact he hadn’t—was the only mercy.

As he steadied his breathing and forced himself back toward calm, Iris’s expression shifted, just slightly.

She’s coming.

Theo squeezed his eyes shut—

and in that instant, Lucian rushed in like the wind and blocked Iris.

“Not too late, right?”

“Lucian.”

“You recover fast,” Iris grumbled.

Iris and Lucian collided.

“Theo, fall back!”

At the shout, Theo barely regained enough clarity to retreat.

“No matter how I look at it, you recovered too

fast. What did you do?”

Muttering, Iris reached toward Lucian.

Theo immediately threw out a binding spell, snapping it around Iris’s wrist to stop her hand.

Trying to squeeze out mana after already pushing himself so hard was pure hell.

“Ugh—”

Blood spilled again.

“Are you okay?”

Lilia—apparently recovered at last—jumped in and joined Lucian, trying to widen the distance between Iris and Theo as much as possible.

But Iris’s objective was clear, and she grew only more relentless in closing in on him.

“Hurry it up, Zephyros!!”

No matter how Theo tried to harass her from the rear, the damned mana overstrain meant his spells wouldn’t come smoothly.

He needed a safe gap to drink the Golden Elixir.

With the chance Iris might steal it, he couldn’t drink it right in front of her.

Just a little more. Just a little farther—out of her line of sight.

While measuring the distance, Iris grabbed Lilia by the throat and flung her like a ball.

“Damn it!”

From far off, Zephyros’s cursed snarl rang out.

Only after seeing Zephyros catch her with wind did Theo finally spend what little mana he’d managed to gather—once more—to obstruct Iris.

And once more, blood surged up in his throat.

“This is really pissing me off.”

He’d had enough of “seeing red,” too. But if she pushed this far, of course he’d be furious.

Clenching his teeth, with no time even to wipe the blood away, he cast binding magic again.

His job was simple: buy a fraction of a second.

Thanks to Zephyros, Lilia and Laurel returned to the front after drinking the Golden Elixir.

From mid-range, Pell and Mordin began supporting them.

Once he’d gained enough distance, Theo immediately drank the Golden Elixir he’d kept on him.

The sweet taste slid down his throat—

and he felt, truly, like he could live again.

Like stumbling upon an oasis at the edge of death in a desert.

《So the elixir really is extraordinary.》

It wasn’t “legendary” for nothing.

As a one-and-only means to avoid death, it was perfect—without a single flaw.

If you didn’t die, it would heal any wound completely.

《But did Iris truly need such an elixir?》

“Huh?”

At Albedo’s unexpected question, Theo’s thoughts froze.

《Even if what you call the Golden Elixir cures all ailments and heals any injury… did Iris Viden truly need it?》

At that, he blankly stared at Iris and the others locked in fierce combat.

Ah—danger.

This time, instead of binding, he crushed Iris with gravity magic.

Then he followed with electricity—trying to numb her, even for an instant.

Under the successive attacks, Iris looked startled.

A moment ago, the “human” had been coughing blood from a single binding spell—yet now he seemed fine even while chaining spells. Of course she’d react.

This is what gear does.

He desperately wanted to shout, You don’t have this!—but swallowed it.

“…No way.”

Iris’s gaze wavered as she looked at him.

Something is changing. A heavy premonition rose.

And then—

Iris moved too fast for his eyes to track.

A faint afterimage lingered—

and in a single blink, Iris was at Ruwon, seizing him by the throat and pinning him down.

“Everyone, stop. Unless you want to watch Ruwon’s neck snap.”

“As if you’d really—” Theo muttered.

Iris answered with a frigid face.

“I’m more serious than ever.”

Under that murderous threat, everyone stopped, abandoning any counterattack.

“You obtained the Golden Elixir?”

Iris’s eyes gleamed with obsession.

Theo’s breath caught. This was the first time he’d seen Iris like this.

Even when she’d proposed a contract, she hadn’t looked this irrational.

What was the Golden Elixir to her, that it drove her to this?

Iris wouldn’t need it, not even if it existed.

No matter what might happen in the world, could any “variable” really arise that someone like Iris couldn’t handle?

If that were possible, it would take someone like Lucian—fully reborn as the Hero.

Lucian was the only candidate that came to mind; anyone else was negligible.

Even with his hostility toward Father, Father would have installed countless safeguards.

Then why?

“No… you made it, didn’t you? Right?”

Ruwon didn’t answer.

He only clamped his mouth shut, glaring at Iris with the eyes of an enemy.

“You should answer.”

But fear carved deep into a person couldn’t be erased completely.

Just as Ruwon’s resolve began to waver, Theo spoke up.

“Iris Viden.”

“Be quiet. I don’t have the leisure to listen to you.”

“I’m the one who has something to ask—”

“I said, be quiet, didn’t I?”

There was no leisure left in Iris’s voice.

If anything, her movements looked more impatient than ever.

Yet Theo looked at her calmly.

Not the Golden One.

Not the first human to swallow Ouroboros’s power.

Not the mother who lost Ruwon and let everything slip through her fingers—

but simply Iris Viden, a human being.

“You’re not afraid of your own death… you’re afraid of someone else’s. Of losing your family.”

No matter how she’d tormented Ruwon, in the end he was the one-and-only human she regarded as family.

Ruwon “Viden.”

That’s why she changed after losing him at the end of Part 1.

That—was the decisive reason Theo had never been able to understand Iris until now.

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