Merely a brush is enough to steal one’s sight, and after being utterly enchanted deep within the heart. What is the next step for lovers who have passionately fallen for each other?

Ding-dong!

Ah, the sound of sacred bells rings out.

White petals scatter in all directions, and a refreshing breeze of blessings tickles the ears, asking if you’re ready to share a kiss.

The souls of the two are intertwined, ready to vow to gaze upon each other for eternity.

Amidst the beautiful melody… tragedy steadily approaches.

—

A wave of information, mixed with white petals, emanated from the queen’s core. It was a piercing wave that penetrated rather than repelled. This radial wave was not something that could be blocked.

I have no idea what this absurd ability is.

I understand it’s a sublimation ability crafted with a wedding motif, but it’s uncertain what it will trigger. Until it’s experienced firsthand, its specific abilities can’t be inferred.

Who knows whether a bloodbath or an NTR will occur at the queen’s mental wedding. It’s like earrings if hung on the ears, or a nose ring if on the nose.

But one thing is clear.

Whether it’s this ability or the next one connected to it, there’s definitely a quasi-lethal ability that will blow the target’s head off, who has fallen in love.

Because a tragic end is what makes the love between two people delicious.

The mindset of a madman is best understood by another madman.

Whoosh!

The wave brushes past the body. All sorts of emotions, inflated by the release of desires, start to change rapidly into affection. It’s viral.

You can’t put new items in a full storage, so the plan is to rot the crops inside to make room.

I anticipated being penetrated. Simply put, this side is metaphor, and that side is sublimation. The abilities are of different calibers, so we’ll be pushed back unless we counter the activation mechanism precisely.

The decision was quick. I’ll be tanking.

“I’ll cover, so you attack!”

“Understood!”

With my superior information processing ability, I’ll somehow buy time, and in the meantime, Pingballez will crack the queen’s head open.

Using the connected tail, I pull even the parts of Pingballez that were hit. It accelerates. All emotions are contaminated with affection. I’ve fallen for the queen.

To make one fall. Well, let’s see if you can handle my love.

I awaken the malignancy and turn the circuit of abusive love. I’ll turn it into a bloody wedding.

“Hurry, aim for the carotid artery, you b*stard!”

“Oh my? Mima, were your tastes always this violent…?”

The queen looked surprised. And towards such a queen’s face, Pingballez’s splendid right straight punches out.

The Succubus Queen was rumored to have no training in close combat or information warfare. If that’s the case, the showdown will be decided here──

Thud.

A sudden shadow rose before the Queen, blocking Pingballez’s punch. It was the figure of a muscular middle-aged man with unkempt hair. The shadow was Cheonma.

He might not be a 100% complete Cheonma, but it seemed he had stolen some parts of the martial arts doctrine. That alone was fine. If it’s just a martial arts proficient clone, Yuri, with my support, can overcome it.

However… the Queen was compensating for the incomplete Cheonma’s lack of predictive power with psychological warfare.

“Uh-oh, targeting just the face is scary, Yuri… Could it be jealousy? Afraid you won’t be loved unless you’re in your younger form?”

“No. I won’t be satisfied until I’ve smashed your face to pieces!”

Behind the Cheonma, the Queen smiled beautifully. Each of her gestures and movements was designed to provoke Yuri’s emotions and induce her movements.

It’s about manipulating others into a trap.

Ding.

With the sound of a bell, Yuri lost her balance to the Cheonma’s low kick.

The Queen struck a counter in Yuri’s opening. I interfered with the shadow blade that sprang from the pure white ground, aiming to rip through her abdomen.

Clang!

I flicked my fingers, sending information flying, shattering the blade. Then, the Queen turned her gaze towards me.

“I’m impressed by such a terrifying creation made to supplement the vanguard. May I borrow it? Forever.”

“…Give it back, darling!”

“If you kneel and lick my toes, I’ll consider it positively.”

“Shut your filthy mouth and die!”

Whoosh!

With the sound of tearing wind, Pingballez’s fist was launched.

The shadow Cheonma engaged in a brawl with Pingballez, and the Queen, controlling the Cheonma, scattered pheromones between her movements, blocking my checks. Even fighting 2 against 1, the battle was evenly matched.

I too was bewitched once out of ten times. Fooled by the Queen’s bluffing as if she was going to finish Yuri, I wavered. But.

Yuri Lanster’s desperate struggle was changing the flow of the battle.

Even as attacks were deflected and she received counterattacks from the Cheonma, she took the punches straight to her forehead. Bleeding profusely and melting away, she continued her ferocious assault.

Even the Queen was slightly intimidated by that intensity.

Yuri Lanster, with an all-out offensive, was gradually pushing back the shadow Cheonma.

This wasn’t resignation or a suicide pact. She was trusting in me, connected by a tail…

“If you hate seeing her die, heal her yourself!”

“……..”

She was relying on the high-performance information recovery module. I shaped the information like a knife and threw it at the Queen, while romantically exaggerating the swelling affection in a yandere-like fashion, and healed Yuri’s body, which had been smashed by the Cheonma punch.

If I had a body, my head would surely be burning up.

We’ve turned the tide. The momentum is now on our side. But… the fourth wave isn’t coming. There’s no reason to keep playing a losing position.

Ding.

The bell continues to ring faintly. Could it be?

Is the “Wedding March,” the sublimation attack… still ongoing? Was it not enough to taint the target’s emotions and turn them into affection?

A shiver runs down my spine. It feels as if ice water has been poured over me.

At this moment, the queen accelerates her offensive. Focus here. Could Yuri end up dead? She seems to say.

Her actions give me certainty.

The repeating bell sounds like a ticking time bomb. Whatever happens, the trigger is affection. I have an intuition that I must dispose of this swelling affection somewhere.

“Hologram!”

I create a gender-reversed temporary version of myself to shove the affection into. I’m willing to accept some data loss. And my judgment was correct.

Bulge.

Bulge, bulge, bulge.

The avatar’s chest swells grotesquely, as if thousands of balloons are inflating inside. It’s a prelude to an explosion. I’m slightly late.

Boom──!!

The affection explodes. An explosion fueled by the love cultivated within—what a vicious ability. It was triggered after discarding about 80% of the emotions, minimizing the damage.

But with the remaining 20% and the explosion that occurred nearby, more than just my right arm is gone. I roll on the ground, spewing out information like blood.

It hurts like hell.

“Magician?!”

“Cough, cough… I’m alive, I’m alive, so focus over there!”

If the casting is done, shouldn’t the fourth wave be coming?

A bad premonition is always right. The queen, with a slightly fatigued face from excessive sublimation use, draws her next power.

“Shall we end this soon…? ‘Heroine: Once More in the Afterlife.'”

The red thread quivers.

My skin prickles, and a sense of crisis rings the alarm.

The queen’s powers increase in lethality with each cast. If the last one could make a person explode, it wouldn’t be strange for a conditional instant death ability to come flying this time.

With a slight air of leisure, the queen spoils the story of her victory.

“If you survive this time too… Hehe. Then, even if it’s a bit of a stretch, I might just capture both of you. To make you embrace someone else. What do you think?”

“You b*stard…”

Now is the time to bet it all.

In the midst of the queen preparing her grand authority to end the drawn-out fight.

As the queen takes the offensive, leaving no room for her own defense.

While casting, with no time for any other nonsense.

Now, as I’ve been seriously wounded and the aggro has shifted away from me.

And.

Now that Yuri and I have steeled our resolve.

I’ve begun to prepare for loss.

—

The queen seemed more wary of me than Yuri throughout the battle, but the main attack was not mine, but Yuri’s.

The power manifested by Yuri Lannister’s soul, tainted black, was a strike cast by burning a firmly bound heart.

Not to sink beneath the lake, but to erase and gain strength.

Furthermore.

The queen still harbors affection for me. It’s Yuri’s love, stolen from her and grafted onto herself. So, it interlocks.

By burning Yuri’s affection, I can simultaneously detonate the queen’s. Just as I exploded due to the queen’s sublimation.

It’s the best strike, but at the same time, the worst.

Even if it’s a love that grew entangled in the queen’s schemes, its foundation is… memories with me. Pessimistically, maybe. We could become strangers.

Even the friendship before the affection could burn away, leaving nothing but wasteland.

If she speaks to me as always, but her eyes hold the awkwardness of seeing a stranger. It would be incredibly sad. It would hurt.

But, I will reclaim it.

Since we became friends from our first meeting. The second time will be easier.

The succubus’s love I lose here today, I will surely reclaim someday. It’s not even lost. Just momentarily released.

So… let’s do this.

Shattered and tattered, I gather all my information into one place. I’ll shake up the queen’s emotions and information, making it impossible for her to dodge Yuri’s strike.

“The shadow cast at your feet.”

Let’s do it. Let’s pave the way for Yuri Lannister. If I think of it as an equivalent exchange for her vengeance, it’s not such a bad deal.

“The darkness peeking through the closet gap…”

No. It’s too precious. It feels like death to give it up. Such a hard-won heart. Such built-up emotions! Even the surging dark feelings are encapsulated in the arrow.

A black arrow that seems to absorb all colors gently rises.

I don’t want to use it. But I grit my teeth and draw the line. I soothe my greed. I trust myself. We will leave here and play, smiling as always.

“The solitude of the pitch-black night!”

Even until the last moment of parting, I hesitated briefly.

But I believe in Yuri Lannister’s promise to return to me.

Hand,

“『Heart-Piercing Dark Arrow』──!!”

Released.

—

Did the queen think she could avoid or counter it? She waved a red thread, trying to exert some power, but the magician’s heart was quicker.

The black arrow was shot and hit its target at the same time. It plunged into the queen’s heart as if being sucked in, leaving a black trail behind.

“Ah… agony…”

The queen’s expression twisted. Yuri Lannister pushed aside the unstable nightmare horse with her shoulder and took a step towards that pure white nightmare.

It’s close.

And from the tail, a cold, icy black emotion is transmitted.

The mad magician’s emotions once again overtook her soul. The pure white light was peaceful enough to make one drowsy for a moment.

But these dark, vile emotions stirred up all her malice and made her rampage. Her vision changed, her heart burned with hatred, the world seemed ridiculous, and love felt trivial.

A black dot appeared in her eyes.

Chrrrrrr──.

The sound of violent chains rang out.

Is this malignancy? She’s lucky not to have gone mad. Yuri Lannister understood the magician’s pain a little more.

At this moment, she felt she could easily, with a flick, throw away her love. Like tossing it into a trash can.

But that shouldn’t be the case.

It was a precious emotion, after all. Shouldn’t she properly lament, grieve, and cling desperately as she lets it go? Shouldn’t she face it?

The magician, harboring something much larger in her mind, steadied her heart. So, she couldn’t be swayed by just this petty thing.

Chrrrrrak──!

Black chains appeared out of thin air, coiling around Yuri Lannister’s right arm like a snake. And a strand of chain stretched from her wrist to the white queen’s heart.

She could feel it. Her own yearning and the yearning the queen had stolen. Both.

The precious pulsating heart.

Yuri Lannister pulled on her arm, took a deep breath, and sneered.

“I understand. He’s quirky but interesting. It’s not strange for a woman who’s been alone for hundreds of years to have hearts in her eyes.”

“…Yu, riiit…!”

“So… how does it feel to experience firsthand, such a petty heart?”

No answer came. Perhaps there was no leisure to respond. Struck by a wave of emotions, one would be tossed about in the tumultuous sea of feelings.

I relax my entire body. Just before the impact, calm like a rippleless surface of water.

It felt like I had been on a very long journey.

Having lost my hometown village, frolicking like a stray dog, until finally nesting by the side of a sorcerer. How many emotions have risen and fallen?

Soon, a period will be placed.

I could express the exhilarating feeling of revenge. Mocking the queen, cursing her, and giving the greatest insult possible. I could end it all with such a flourish.

But no. I don’t want to end it with those words.

Chrrrrrrrrr──!!

Tick, tick-tock.

Sparks fly. A spark ignites in the heart, and fire catches. The combustion that arises from the heart becomes a massive flame of magical power, spreading even to the chains.

The fist wrapped in chains burns pink, as if to show that affection is its fuel. What flits across the queen’s face as she watches is jealousy.

So it seems…

I breathe strength into every single muscle fiber in my body. Tautly pulled and contracted, I complete the loading.

It’s regrettable. It’s a pity. Even if they are false emotions nurtured by the queen’s manipulation, they could have been genuine emotions that grew over time. To think that such a heart has to be burned.

But it’s alright.

I realized that the sorcerer is more pathetic than I thought. Surely, he will make an effort to win the heart of Yuri Lancer.

I believe.

Still, there’s a bit of… unease.

Yuri Lancer, who loves the mad sorcerer, adds one last word to her future lover.

“When I return, make me fall for you properly again──.”

“Yuriiiiiiit-!!”

With the queen’s scream that sensed the end, I am swung around. The strike that uses the heart as gunpowder, with enough force to crack the realm of imagination, accelerates. Crunch, crunch, making a destructive sound.

As the queen’s love explodes, right there in the bursting chest. The flames burst forth with it.

“Black: Desire Burnt to Ash.”

Crunch. Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Boom──!!

The explosion that blew away the upper half of the queen’s body overturned the area. With the death of the caster who maintained the imaginary world, the long nightmare was shattered in an instant.

From noble mtl dot come

Yuri Lancer’s mind, now functioning normally, made the decision to protect itself by rejecting all foreign substances.

And the mad sorcerer was expelled from the heart.

—

Afterward, the incident was somehow resolved.

“The Nest” was destroyed, the succubus forces missing, fled, or dead. The queen likely perished, though it’s not certain. The statue of the demon of pleasure was secured by the mad magician.

About 90% of the Annihilation Squad members held by the queen were rescued.

Yuna, the modern-day strongest fantasy magician and Purple Tower Master, was thoroughly miffed.

Yuri Lanster, the defense country’s field agent, was recovering from a coma. However, she was expected to wake up and regain consciousness within a week.

And today marked exactly one week.

The mad magician, having prepared a lush bouquet, opened the door to the hospital room, where Yuri Lanster had just awoken from a long sleep.

Unbound hair and no glasses, Yuri Lanster looked refreshingly different. The magician stared at her for quite some time.

Yuri was the first to break the silence. She yawned languidly and greeted him as usual.

“Have you arrived?”

“I’m here. How do you feel, any memory loss?”

“You know, I never understood what love was… but now, I think I’ve come to realize it.”

“Go back to sleep. Lie down for another week or so.”

No memory loss, then.

The mad magician placed the bouquet beside the bed and carefully examined Yuri’s hair. All was well, except for the need to rebuild her mental barriers from scratch.

There were some tangled memories, but it was a very mild side effect. Considering she had faced off against a high-level succubus in her mind, it was a miracle she wasn’t a complete fool.

After further examinations and testing her physical condition, the magician wrote ‘no abnormalities’ on the medical chart.

“…Well, rest up. Don’t strain yourself for about a week.”

“Yes. I might just use this as an excuse to rest for about a month.”

“Good thinking. And… no, never mind. I should go, darling. I have to appease Yuna.”

“Yes, take care. My dear.”

The mad magician, after the brief exchange, wondered if he might discover some hint of a rosy emotion. He observed Yuri Lanster’s eyes very carefully but found nothing.

“……..”

Disappointed, the magician left the room, his spirits deflated.

After he left…

Yuri Lanster, fearing someone might discover her, pulled the blanket over her head and let out the breath she had been holding. Her ears were burning red.

There were remnants left behind.

That alone was enough for the succubus to have learned about love.