Thud—

A sword was thrust into Auria’s body.

Drops of blood dripped from the embedded blade.

The sensation was distinctly different from when only her arm had been severed earlier, making it clear to Yoon Si-woo that this was the finishing blow in combat.

“Haah, kuh…”

The sound of blood droplets falling mingled with Yoon Si-woo’s rough breathing, resonating softly in the air.

His breath was tinged with urgency and agony.

This was not merely the pain from squeezing every ounce of breath to chase down Auria while wildly cutting down demonic beasts.

It was because he had witnessed it.

That the necks of those who got too close to Auria were severed cleanly.

And just before he struck,

“…Scarlet, let!!”

He saw Auria’s hand gripping the neck of the girl who stood in her way.

“Get your hand off…!!!”

Yoon Si-woo forcefully pulled away Auria’s hand from the girl’s throat and drew her into his embrace as if snatching her away.

Then he confirmed the girl’s face up close again and contorted his expression even more.

He had hoped what he saw during their struggle was a delusion, but there was no mistaking it — this was Scarlet.

Seeing that, he despaired.

At the thought that she would soon become like the headless corpses scattered around.

“Ahhhh…!!”

Despondent, Yoon Si-woo screamed as he hugged Scarlet tightly, shutting his eyes tight.

And then,

“…Yoon, Si-woo?”

After a moment, hearing the voice from within his arms, he opened his eyes.

What greeted his sight was Scarlet’s face, wearing a perplexed expression as if to ask what was wrong.

His worries were proven unfounded.

Scarlet was safe.

“…Hah…”

With a sigh of relief, Yoon Si-woo felt as though he might collapse right there and embraced Scarlet once more.

“…Um, it’s a bit suffocating.”

Scarlet wiggled in his arms as if uncomfortable.

Yoon Si-woo shot her a stern glare.

To be honest, he wanted to scold her right then and there.

What on earth was she doing here?

Didn’t he just tell her to stay quietly in the room earlier?

But for now, there were still matters to settle.

“…Hah, for now, it’s good that you’re safe.”

Looking up at the massive mass of magic floating in the sky, Yoon Si-woo let out a small sigh, releasing Scarlet from his embrace.

As he did, Scarlet fell, fluttering her fiery wings as she hovered mid-air.

Yoon Si-woo realized that it was precisely those wings that allowed her to make it this far despite her discomfort, and clicked his tongue.

He made a mental note to have a word with that demonic beast later on.

Turning his gaze, he found Auria.

“…Huh, kuh.”

Auria lay on the ground, the sword still lodged in her body, groaning weakly.

She looked far too feeble to be the witch who had been rampaging just moments ago, even after having lost one arm.

Yoon Si-woo slowly approached Auria as it seemed she could no longer resist, looking down at her with a cold voice.

“…Hey, the terms we agreed on. If you can’t escape by any means and get caught, then it’s a win for us, right? To me, it looks like you’re in no condition to run anymore.”

He meant it as a suggestion to give up quietly and acknowledge her defeat.

Auria, lying sprawled on the ground, stopped her groans upon hearing his words and looked up at Yoon Si-woo with a faint smile.

“Haha, I really didn’t think I’d end up getting caught… Well, even I can’t argue against the current situation. Yeah, I’m completely caught. You win the bet.”

She raised her palm slightly, as if surrendering, acknowledging her defeat.

At her words, Yoon Si-woo felt a strange sense of dissonance.

Wasn’t she being far too compliant about this?

Considering she was the witch who had schemed countless plots and plunged people into suffering.

An inexplicable unease and a nauseating sense of strangeness began to gnaw at him.

Warily, he fiddled with the sword in his hand a few times before finally letting out a small sigh and sheathing it.

Yeah, after all, the enemy right in front of him could no longer resist.

What was most important right now was to resolve the current situation.

To that end, Yoon Si-woo broached the topic of the terms of their wager.

“Do you remember? The loser had to grant the winner one request.”

“…Keh. Yes, we agreed on that.”

“You lost, so you have to grant us what we want.”

At Yoon Si-woo’s words, Auria seemed to wait for those words, looking at the mass of magic hovering in the sky before speaking again.

“…What you want is obviously for me to handle that magic, right?”

“…Yeah. Either eliminate it, or if that’s impossible, then move it far away enough not to affect the city. That’s what we want.”

“…Yeah, I suppose so. After all, there’s probably no other way for you to resolve that issue without asking me.”

Auria said this while looking up at the sky.

She captured in her eyes the black sun hovering above, the end prepared to obliterate this world.

Then she smiled wryly.

“…But, what should I do now?”

She muttered softly.

“It seems like it’s already too late.”

“…What?”

At that moment, a heavy thud echoed from somewhere.

“……?!”

Yoon Si-woo turned his head sharply toward the source of the sound.

It came from the distant heights of the sky.

And as he looked upward, Yoon Si-woo realized it.

He couldn’t help but.

The black sun, which had been calmly suspended until just moments ago, the massive mass of magic—

“…! No way, it’s falling…?!”

He realized, slowly beginning to plummet toward the city.

“You…! Didn’t you hear what I said earlier?! Hurry up and do something about it!”

Seeing the mass of magic falling, Yoon Si-woo grabbed Auria by the collar and shouted.

He demanded immediate action.

Yet, Auria only flashed a sly smile in response.

Yoon Si-woo couldn’t fathom her actions.

Because she was someone who had made a contract with him.

Didn’t she even say something deceptive when they formed a contract earlier?

So why, no, how could she be saying something else now?

“Have you forgotten? You made a contract with me—!”

“You know, you really are naive.”

At that moment, Auria interrupted Yoon Si-woo’s words.

“Or maybe you’re not naive, but overestimating your capabilities? Thinking you have a gift for discerning lies or something?”

“…How do you know that!”

“I told you earlier. It was I who called upon Lily, the witch of lust, to plant her minions in the city.”

That girl had become a resource for making the thing that was now floating high above in the sky.

With a smile, Auria continued.

“I knew because Lily told me. While your ability can discern lies, it has an unexpected flaw. If the speaker doesn’t believe they are lying, you won’t realize it, right?”

Thus, just as Yoon Si-woo had been oblivious to the fact that the Dolos family had been manipulated by the witch of lust.

“So, when I said that you could get what you wanted if you beat me, it also implied that I might not grant what you ask for, which wouldn’t qualify as a lie. You had no idea that I meant it with that intention.”

“Ugh…!!”

Yoon Si-woo’s expression twisted as he realized that Auria had used that knowledge from the very beginning to deceive him.

However, Yoon Si-woo was not so foolish as to completely lower his guard against his adversary just because of that.

He had dropped his guard due to a decisive moment.

“But when we made the contract, you clearly said you’d grant us our request if we beat you! Back then, you didn’t lie… how could you…!”

That was precisely because he hadn’t sensed any deceit from her at the moment they made the contract.

Yoon Si-woo hadn’t trusted Auria.

He had trusted the pact’s power, which would strip the witch of everything if she broke it.

“Aha, that’s why I said you’re naive.”

Yet, because of that,

“A contract can be broken whenever I wish.”

Yoon Si-woo was played for a fool.

“Up until we proposed the contract, I was indeed sincere. But whether I keep it afterward is entirely up to me, you see? So I broke it. You didn’t even know that I’d believe you could solve that problem if you defeated me. Ahahaha!”

He hadn’t even entertained the thought that there could be a madwoman who wouldn’t adhere to a contract crucial enough to affect everything.

“You… If you pull something like that…!”

Yoon Si-woo’s voice trembled as he shouted, not so much from the shock of being deceived, but from the realization that Auria was casually breaking the contract.

Yet Auria merely replied with a smile that implied, what of it?

“I know, I lose all my powers. And I did it knowing that.”

Although an unexpected event occurred where she broke another contract before breaking the current one, it was not of great importance.

As Auria chuckled, looking at the mass of magic in the sky,

“By the way, do you know how it was that it was hovering in the sky, as it was earlier? I used my powers to fix it in place with a barrier.”

No, now she was asking what would happen if that ability to keep it suspended suddenly vanished.

Yoon Si-woo let out a sigh at the realization of Auria’s true intentions behind proposing that bet earlier.

To her, the outcome of that wager had never mattered.

After all,

“I told you from the start? The end of this world is already decided.”

The result would ultimately be the same.

Yoon Si-woo clenched his lips tightly as he came to realize that he had been dancing entirely within Auria’s palm from beginning to end.

And he finally threw out the question that had remained in his mind until now.

“…Why, why go so far to do this?”

“Hmm, you mean that, huh?”

Auria looked over the expressions of Yoon Si-woo and the heroes around.

Then, grinning as if she couldn’t contain her amusement, she replied.

“I wanted to see that expression.”

The expression of having hope ripped away right before their eyes, that look of despair.

Confronting the twisted reality that he could not comprehend until the end, the heroes could do nothing but succumb to their despair.

“Ugh, ahhaha! Ahahahaahahah!!!”

And achieving the expression she desired, Auria burst into uncontrollable laughter.

In the midst of laughter.

“Ahaha— kuh…?!”

Blood erupted from Auria’s mouth as she laughed.

Suddenly, an overwhelming pain crashed through her body.

“This is…?”

She felt an inexplicable pain that could not even be compared to the agony from the sword piercing her, but soon realized its source.

“Kuh, huff… So it seems, since I’ve already lost my power, I’ll have to take something else with me?”

That pain was the price of breaking the contract.

Having already lost all her abilities once by breaching a contract and now breaking another, Auria was losing all the things that she once considered sacred due to the penalty for violating the contract.

Blood, life, and perhaps even her soul.

Auria’s body gradually lost something crucial.

Yet even in pain that would typically make one lose their sanity and scream,

“Kuh, huff… Ahaha!”

Auria laughed instead.

All ‘ends’ come only once.

Yet even among those ends, there were undoubtedly more precious ones.

And what came to Auria now was something she had only ever imagined.

“This is my ‘end’….”

Her own existence’s finality.

Facing death, Auria collapsed to the ground, staring up at the sky.

Above her, catastrophe was descending, the end of the world was falling upon her.

Originally, she had wanted to witness the scene of the world ending.

But if her own ‘end’ could take this world along with her as a companion?

Would there be a more dramatic conclusion than that?

Would there be a happier ending than this?

“How luxurious an ‘end’ this is…”

Auria opened her arms wide, accepting the impending demise descending from above.

And feeling an overwhelming ecstasy, powerful enough to eclipse the pain of her soul evaporating,

“Magnificent, huh…”

With a beaming smile, she embraced her ‘end’ in bliss.

 

The witch Auria, who plunged the world into crisis, finally breathed her last.

“Damn it, the evacuation of the citizens…!!”

“For now, everyone is being evacuated to the outskirts of the city, but…!”

“Damn it, damn it…!!”

Yet even after her death, the amalgamation of evil she had prepared to end the world remained, plunging the heroes into despair.

While they were evacuating the citizens, they knew that it had little significance.

Before the catastrophe descending from above, no one could assert their power.

“It’s over…”

“It’s impossible now…”

And just when everyone lost hope and began to lower their heads one by one,

“Hey, over there…”

“…That’s…”

People saw it.

A girl wrapped in fiery wings, who refused to bow her head in despair and looked up at the sky.