"I know exactly what you're talking about. After all, I'm the one who woke both your souls."
That sudden line completely stunned Aria.
"A year ago, the one who connected to the soul fragments hidden inside Ais… was me."
A year ago… Aria's eyes widened.
Just as this child said, the fragments she and Albert had left in Ais had begun awakening a year prior. That was when she and Albert relinquished their bodies, preserving only their awareness and the integrity of their souls as they waited for Ais to arrive.
Everything had changed from that moment.
So… the one who altered Ais's fate—and theirs—was this child in front of her?
"No point wasting words."
"What matters now is our battle."
Before Aria could even process it, the child known as "San San San" was already standing in front of her physical body.
Lightning Transformation moved beyond normal perception. It truly reached the speed of light.
Bell had been refining Lightning Transformation for years, even creating Perfect Lightning Transformation and erasing every flaw the technique once had.
Its speed hadn't increased all that much, but along with instantaneous movement came reaction speed on par with light.
That gave Bell absolute control in battle.
Every time his silhouette appeared, it flashed like a bolt of lightning.
Strike after strike hammered the center, where the Spirit of Wind struggled desperately under the endless barrage.
Eventually, Aria could no longer withstand the suppression.
The soft, defensive winds she commanded sharpened instantly.
With a sweep of her hand, a hurricane rose around her.
The gale brimmed with razor edges, as if prepared to shred everything caught inside.
But before Aria could take even a moment's breath, thunder rumbled above.
Thunder?
She looked up and finally noticed the sky had grown dark with storm clouds.
Lightning flashed inside the swirling mass, and her own hurricane had drawn the clouds together directly overhead.
"Boom!"
A lightning bolt shot down from the eye of the storm, aiming straight at Aria's face.
It didn't strike fully; a portion of it was neutralized by the winds she'd concentrated into a hyper-sharp point. But to do that, she had gathered every bit of wind around her into that single counter.
Meaning that at this moment, Aria had no defenses at all.
A streak of lightning appeared before her.
"Thud!"
A heavy punch slammed into her face, the explosive force twisting her features grotesquely.
Before her face even returned to shape, another blow crushed into her abdomen, sinking it inward.
The beating began.
Bell's merciless strikes left Aria's form unable to maintain even its basic shape.
Was this a joke?
Bell was fighting with the intent to kill, not to spar.
It didn't matter who stood before him—he never held back.
Showing mercy was nothing short of suicide.
Unless he knew he held overwhelming superiority and complete control over the enemy's life, Bell would never even consider something as foolish as mercy.
Finally, under the relentless pummeling, Aria's control faltered.
"Crack!"
Her Wind Shield showed faint fractures.
Like the first crack of a collapsing dam, the shield's fate was sealed.
The lightning that had been flickering around her abruptly withdrew.
That brief moment gave Aria a breath, but she immediately noticed a surge of magic gathering far away.
Focusing her gaze—yes, it was Bell.
More than a kilometer away, Bell held his right hand raised. Threads of lightning wove together into the shape of a spear, growing larger with every passing moment.
"!?"
Aria felt death approaching. She raised her hand urgently, forming a thick wind shield in front of herself.
But the lightning spear had already formed.
Bell grasped it, twisted his waist, stepped forward, and threw it straight at her.
For light, the distance wasn't even an instant.
"Thud!"
Aria's raised hand froze. Every layer of wind shield was pierced in a heartbeat.
Her trembling gaze dropped. The lightning spear had driven straight through her body.
Her strength vanished.
Even the wind shield above her collapsed…
The lightning that had never managed to strike her until now fell unhindered.
"BOOM!"
The thunderbolt exploded against the sea, sending up a wall of spray that cloaked everything in mist. When it cleared, Aria's impaled body remained fixed upright. The spear tip rested on the water's surface, refusing to sink, pinning her body in place.
Bell looked at her and let a faint smile slip.
"All tricks I've played with already."
He flicked his fingers, and another bolt of lightning dropped from the sky.
"BOOM!!!"
This time it struck the spear's shaft. The immense pull of the lightning funneled all the thunder's force directly into Aria's body.
"AAAAHHHHHH!"
At last, Aria screamed.
Agonized cries spilled nonstop from her lips.
Her abdomen, pressed against the lightning spear, had already charred into blackened flesh.
Her limbs hung limp like overcooked meat, soft and sagging as if they might fall off at any second.
"Oh? Even though the body's controlled by the Dungeon, it still feels pain?"
"Interesting~"
Bell's voice carried genuine surprise; he hadn't expected a Dungeon-controlled body to show such reactions.
His gaze drifted to Aria's spirit form.
'The separation between soul and body is thorough. Looks like 0.0's method really works.'
They had severed body from soul, trapping consciousness and spirit within the flesh while giving up all control over it.
Without that, the Dungeon likely would've begun corrupting their souls the moment it seized the bodies.
And as for the pain…
'Emotions linger. Is the body making subconscious responses through its faint remaining link to the soul?'
'In a way… that's almost scientific.'
Because of that, there was all the more reason not to show mercy. That thing was nothing more than a mass of rotting flesh without a self.
'But if the link between soul and body keeps reacting like this, that's not a good sign. Looks like I'll have to finish this quickly.'