Karan’s whistling faded away. Then complete silence fell.
Neither Iris nor Chase dared to move, only staring intently at the dagger.
Karan was a meticulous person.
This was evident in how he had thrown the dagger exactly within the range of movement for both Chase and Iris.
While Iris couldn’t use magic, which wasn’t much of a threat, Chase remained tense, knowing that people can exhibit superhuman strength when cornered.
The quiet standoff ended when Iris lunged for the dagger.
Chase, realizing a moment too late, ran half a beat behind. He used his long legs to kick the dagger aside.
Iris, having missed the dagger by a hair’s breadth, grabbed his ankle and bit down.
“Aargh!”
Chase kicked Iris’s body mercilessly, but she clung on like a leech.
This ends only with death.
Chase dragged Iris along as he went to pick up the dagger. Just as he was about to reach for it, Iris tightly hugged his legs, causing him to fall.
From that moment, a brawl ensued.
Iris scratched Chase’s face, neck, and arms indiscriminately with her dirty, grimy nails.
Chase struggled to grab her wrists.
They tumbled back and forth, their positions changing several times. Their breathing grew increasingly ragged.
Iris got tired first. Being a woman and having been imprisoned since in Tetris, her stamina was already depleted.
“Get off!”
Chase forcefully pushed Iris’s abdomen with both feet. Iris’s body flew and crashed into the wall. She went limp in that position.
Chase, his chest heaving, looked at Iris. He thought she might be dead, but then Iris coughed and spat blood.
“Hic, hee, hehehe.”
Then she started laughing like a madwoman. Creeped out by the sound, Chase quickly crawled to grab the dagger.
“Oh Ragnaros of darkness and sorrow, I, your humble creation, seek to offer myself…”
Iris began chanting a strange incantation.
“W-weren’t you unable to use magic?”
She couldn’t use normal magic. But she could use dark magic that involved offering sacrifices.
However, due to the magic-binding device’s influence, a large sacrifice was needed.
For example, a human life.
Iris raised her head and bit her tongue. Red blood flowed between her teeth, turning into black smoke as it dispersed.
Startled, Chase raised the dagger without thinking.
“You’re wrong, Chase.”
But it wasn’t enough to subdue Iris using dark magic.
Iris grabbed Chase’s hand and turned the dagger around.
“Ugh, wh-what’s happening?”
“This is how it should have been from the start. When our marriage was decided, I should have killed you instead of thinking about fixing you.”
Iris smirked. The knife’s tip touched Chase’s abdomen. Cold sweat ran down Chase’s forehead.
“I’ll make sure your death isn’t in vain. I’ll get revenge, on Elise and on Karan.”
The sharp knife plunged deep into Chase’s abdomen. Chase gasped for air.
Iris pulled out the knife. Watching Chase collapse, bleeding profusely, Iris completed her incantation.
“…I return your creation to you, descend upon me and fulfill your will!”
A fierce wind blew. The strong gust bent the iron bars and shattered the bindings on Iris’s body.
Then the wind enveloped Iris.
“You, you evil…”
Chase couldn’t finish his words. Iris had vanished.
He couldn’t let her escape like this. Chase rolled his eyes towards the emergency bell.
With Iris’s escape, the situation should turn in his favor.
So, he needed to ring the bell. But Chase ultimately failed to do so.
He died with his eyes wide open.
It was a pitiful death with no one to mourn him.
****
“Iris has disappeared!”
Bedrokka Castle was thrown into chaos, and security tightened severely.
“His Highness Chase is dead.”
Lange retrieved Chase’s body and issued a travel ban for outsiders from Tetris and Magnus.
“What’s this about? How is this different from confinement?”
“Your Highness Karan, His Majesty took this measure considering the safety of the allied forces’ representatives.”
Karan’s brow furrowed.
“You mean to entrust our safety to incompetents who couldn’t properly guard one woman wearing magic restraints and let her escape? No thanks.”
“Your Highness, your words are too harsh!”
The administrator flared up. Karan’s eyes turned fierce. Haltbin intervened, sighing deeply.
“Thank you for your hard work, please leave now. We’ll handle things ourselves.”
After shooing away the administrator, Haltbin returned.
“I need to go see for myself how she escaped.”
“I thought you might say that.”
Haltbin pulled out a whistle. Hearing the bird-like whistle sound, warriors hidden throughout Bedrokka Castle would gather.
“Just a moment, Your Highness.”
Elise, who had been quietly observing the situation, headed for the dressing room.
“Elise, I’m going out to take a quick look. Stay here.”
Karan followed her into the dressing room.
“No. I need to see the situation too. How did Iris escape? I have a bad feeling about this.”
Seeing how they’ve closed off the castle, Bedrokka seems to think an outsider helped.
That was the most rational explanation. But Elise’s intuition said otherwise.
“Elise, will you be alright?”
“They’ve already cleared away the body, right? I’ll be fine.”
“That’s not what I meant…”
Karan let out a low sigh and embraced Elise.
“Everything will be fine. Because I’m here.”
“Yes. Because you’re here, Your Highness.”
Elise hugged Karan back before changing her clothes.
She put on pants and a shirt specially prepared for battle, a leather vest over them, and donned a robe engraved with numerous magic circles.
Finally, picking up the sword Karan had gifted her, Elise hung onto Karan’s neck.
“Let’s go, Your Highness.”
Karan lifted her up. His lips twitched, and light enveloped them both.
It was teleportation.
****
“Dark magic.”
Karan’s single remark after surveying the underground prison caused enormous ripples.
Magicians were hastily dispatched from the Ivory Tower, and Bedrokka’s knights surrounded Lange’s office in double and triple layers.
While the Ivory Tower was identifying what dark magic Iris had used, a report came in.
“We have information that Iris entered Gate 1!”
In that moment, several past scenes flashed by. Iris disappearing into the gate, and the strange events that occurred whenever she appeared.
“Dark magic borrows others’ power through equivalent exchange with sacrifices. Elise, are you thinking the same thing as me?”
Karan turned to Elise. Elise nodded with an unreadable expression.
“Don’t keep it to yourselves, please tell me too.”
Haltbin expressed his frustration.
“Iris might have borrowed Ragnaros’s power. No, she must have.”
Elise concluded, using all her knowledge about dark magic.
The only one who could implement dark magic from a lost era is Ragnaros, who has been alive since that lost era until now.
Iris must have been in contact with Ragnaros since Gate 3, gradually learning dark magic.
“Wouldn’t Ragnaros’s power be weakened after lending dark magic?”
“No. Iris will offer more sacrifices. To allow Ragnaros to gain power.”
“Huh… Then…”
“Many people might die. So…”
Elise gripped Karan’s hand tightly.
“We need to move faster.”
Before Iris fully recovers. Before she starts hunting for sacrifices for Ragnaros in earnest.
Karan took out his whistle. At its sound, ten owls flew in through the open window.
“Oh? That owl!”
Among them was an owl familiar to Elise. When Elise extended her hand in greeting, the owl pecked her hand as if it was only natural.
“Sorry, I don’t have anything prepared today. I’ll have a snack ready next time we meet.”
The owl haughtily turned its body towards Karan.
Karan wrote notes to be sent to Magnus, Tetris, Dex territories and the Gates, placing them in the owls’ bags.
“Haltbin, convene a meeting of the Continental Allied Forces. King Lange should come as Bedrokka’s representative.”
“He’s hiding in fear, will he come out?”
Haltbin shook his head. After seeing Chase’s corpse, Lange was gripped by fear that Iris would come to kill him.
While understandable as a human, it wasn’t behavior befitting a king.
“If he says he can’t come to the meeting, take his royal seal by force. The allied representatives will make decisions on behalf of Bedrokka.”
As Karan and Elise departed for the meeting hall, Haltbin went to find Lange.
****
Lange ultimately did not appear at the meeting hall. Haltbin, who had gone to meet him, returned empty-handed.
“It’s impossible to subjugate Ragnaros without Bedrokka.”
Ilaria’s point was apt.
If Bedrokka didn’t take full responsibility for Gate 2, other countries would inevitably be burdened.
Who would take on more when even one gate was overwhelming?
Yet they couldn’t abandon Gate 2 either.
Ragnaros would come out through the empty passage.
“The Ivory Tower will provide more magician support.”
“Will you be able to handle two gates?”
Elise asked in response to Parrish’s words. Parrish smiled bitterly.
“We’ll do our best.”
Best efforts alone won’t suffice. They must absolutely block it.
“Let’s think a bit more. There must be a way.”
She said this to reassure people, but in truth, Elise didn’t think there was a good solution either.
It was a plan devised after ten years of contemplation, including past lives.
All they needed was someone Bedrokka’s representatives and knights could trust and follow.
Finding such a person was difficult.
Just then, there was a knock.
“I have an urgent message.”
It was Haltbin, who had become the secretary for the Continental Allied Forces delegation. His expression was unusual.
“What is it?”
Karan asked.
“There’s good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?”
