Sheltered behind the frozen bark of a century-old oak tree, the man's breath was nothing more than an erratic cloud of vapor. The polar cold invoked by Lyra didn't just freeze the ambient air; it seemed to bite directly into the soul, numbing his limbs. His fingers, so frozen he couldn't even feel the pain anymore, convulsively clutched a cluster of low-quality mana stones. The gems pulsed with a brownish glow, saturated to the absolute limit of implosion.
???: "Come on... Hold on... Don't falter now..."
This man was not a combat mage, let alone a hero. His mana gates screamed in agony, burned by the friction of a raw energy that did not belong to him, forced through his frail and inexperienced body. But he couldn't back down. Trizz, that cynical, annoying, and terribly stubborn kid, had trusted him. He had entrusted him with this crucial role of shadow sniper. And for him, the thought of disappointing those he now considered his allies was far more terrifying than death itself.
???: "I'm just a simple civilian, damn it... A traveling merchant! Why do I always find myself on the front lines facing calamities like this?!"
He whispered these words, his teeth chattering violently, shivering under the effect of the devastating blizzard from the strawberry-pink-haired mage. The man knew perfectly well that if he missed his single shot, he and Trizz would perish in the worst way imaginable. Taking a deep and final breath, he closed his eyes and screamed with all his might:
???: "AL DONA!"
The mana stones literally exploded in the poor man's palms. The legendary earth spell he had just cast struck the battlefield with unprecedented violence, causing a literal inverted meteorite to shoot up from the ground, shattering the heavens.
???: "Damn it... Please let this work!"
Yet, Lyra's unbreakable layers of ice possessed a solidity rivaling the famous lonsdaleite ore. But under the cataclysmic impact, major cracks formed instantly, spreading like a giant spiderweb. The elite mage's high-class terrain was already starting to crumble and collapse in a crash of shattered glass.
Faced with this critical situation, Lyra cast one last look toward the young man with crimson eyes. Trizz stood there, motionless, an unbearable arrogance painted on his face and a smirk on his lips, as if he had anticipated every second of this exchange. Understanding the urgency, she immediately invoked her protective magic. It wasn't an offensive spell, but a measure of absolute desperation.
Lyra: "AL HUMAL!"
Casting an ultra-solid ice dome spell after a combat of such intensity bordered on magical suicide, but she had no choice. The river of azure-blue mana still lingering in the air was sharply transferred directly to the mage. A dense, transparent blue ice sphere formed around her, a fraction of a second before the devastating shockwave of the earth spell hit her head-on.
[ Time skip... 10 minutes after the attack ]
The man who had caused this cataclysm began to move his head to extract himself from the rubble. Shaking his head to remove the mud and soot blinding him, he dusted off his olive-green clothes, typical of his guild's merchants. Casting an anxious glance toward the epicenter of the conflict, he noted that the thick cloud of dust was barely clearing, despite the ten minutes that had passed since the spell's impact.
???: "Please, you idiot... Tell me you're alive. Don't leave me alone in this mess..."
Saying these words as he frantically stood up, anxiety for his friend twisted his stomach. Yet, the group's overall plan had worked beyond all expectations. All the assassins, the Witch Cult's army, and even the rabbit had been completely wiped out. All of this with zero casualties to report in their ranks.
???: "Well... Zero allied deaths, assuming that blasted kid didn't get crushed by my own spell, of course!"
The merchant looked around, beginning to run despite the suffocating dust floating in the air. Every single tree in this immense forest had been literally ravaged, cut clean or pulverized. Observing this desert of ash, an incongruous thought crossed his mind. Perhaps the Sword Saint, Reinhard van Astrea, could take care of it and replant all this greenery in the blink of an eye thanks to one of his countless Divine Protections?
???: "Are you out of your mind?! Stop thinking about Reinhard dressed in farmer's clothes holding a rake!"
It was a rather funny thought, but it proved necessary to lower the merchant's spiking stress levels. His ramblings, however, were interrupted by the appearance of three familiar little bubbles of light. A golden one, a black one, and a dark brown one pierced through the fog of dust. They were undoubtedly Trizz's quasi-spirits.
Relieved, the man shouted toward the lights:
Otto: "Hey! Trizz! I hope you still have all your limbs and are in any condition to run! Because the detour to the capital and Crusch-sama's camp, given all the awful things you spat about her military strategies, risks sending us straight to the dungeon! We're going to end up hanged high and dry by the Royal Guard!"
The merchant had every reason in the world to worry. Even if he had to admit, in the absolute secrecy of his heart, that the kid's icy and surgical analysis of the Duchess's frontal and suicidal tactics during the battle against the White Whale was cruelly accurate... at least, before Subaru took over the reins to mitigate the damage and reorganize the lines.
A dark silhouette finally emerged from the rocky debris, nonchalantly dusting off his black robe with bright orange trim. The boy raised his crimson eyes, deep and perfectly calm, toward his friend.
Trizz: "But was I really wrong at the core, Otto? No, absolutely not. The truth always hurts the oversized egos of this kingdom's nobles. Especially those who mistake a heroic charge for military genius. So dry your merchant tears, stand tall, and welcome to the wonderful life of an outcast, my friend!"
Otto: "Being an outcast hated by half the nobility and the kingdom was absolutely not on my career plan, Trizz! I aspired to become a prosperous and respected merchant, not a state criminal wanted by every garrison! You could have at least sugarcoated it, damn it!"
Trizz (sketching a slight, cynical smile): "Sugarcoating, Otto, is a luxury reserved for those who have the time to die politely. And as for us, we have an extremely tight schedule to keep for what comes next."
Otto (frantically waving his arms): "Don't say such terrifying things with such detachment! We're talking about our survival here!"
The ash-gray-haired, light-blue-eyed merchant, dressed in his eternal olive-green clothes, was truly exhausted. His legendary bad luck, which always pushed him into the worst imaginable situations, seemed to have found a dark echo in Trizz. He let his arms drop, letting out a soul-crushing sigh, and cast his gaze upon the ravaged ground.
Otto (widening his eyes, his voice dropping an octave): "Trizz... you expect me to believe she's really neutralized? A mage capable of mastering Water and Wind at the Al level? Really?"
Indeed, it was difficult to take in such a feat. A few meters away from them, the elite mage lay on the ground. A thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of her lips. Her robe, once an immaculate white, was now nothing but a heap of cloth stained with dirt, mud, and dead leaves. Her breath was short, ragged. She seemed to have consumed an astronomical amount of mana simply to survive the crushing pressure of Otto's earth attack.
Trizz (shrugging his shoulders, hands buried in his pockets): "You look truly ridiculous when you panic, Otto. She isn't some untouchable deity descended from the heavens... Just one more piece of trash affiliated with Lust. Maybe a bit more tenacious and clever than the other flies of her species, but it stops there."
Otto (pointing at the mage with a trembling finger): "I have very good reasons to be astonished and terrified! Did you see what she planned to do to you if our plan hadn't worked down to the exact second?! Ending up as an apology gift for an Archbishop, no thank you! But seriously... blocking a spell of that scale is terrifying."
Even though Otto noticed the woman's now completely broken gaze, his natural empathy took a hit against the cruel reality of the situation. This woman on the ground, however pitiful she might be at this moment, was still a monster from the Witch Cult who had deliberately tried to capture his comrade. Otto averted his eyes and shot an inquiring look at Trizz, who had just knelt down to observe his defeated enemy more closely.
Trizz (in a low, almost whispered voice): "It was enough to flatter her superiority complex. It's an omnipresent character trait among those who possess an innate gift, right, Otto? They believe themselves to be above the chessboard."
Otto: "..."
Trizz (tilting his head to the side): "Look at her closely. I simply had to make her believe she was the only misunderstood genius in this world, the only one capable of piercing my plans. But the true flaw I exploited to break her was her visceral loneliness. The unbearable weight of the masks she forged for herself to survive... Exactly like me, before."
Otto (sketching a sad smile, his gaze softening): "Fortunately, you ended up opening your eyes and changing course... Otherwise, Trizz, you could have very well ended up exactly like her. Face in the mud, obsessed with your own illusions."
The merchant turned his attention back to the pinned mage. She was completely paralyzed. Was it due to a total exhaustion of her mana gates, or were her muscles willfully refusing to obey after such a psychological shock? Otto couldn't say, but he noticed the silent tears welling at the corners of the young woman's eyes. She seemed to be gradually losing consciousness, her bright red gaze clouding over in the fog.
Otto (regaining his seriousness, crossing his arms): "And what do we do with her now? Do we tie her up and send her off with the mercenaries from Anastasia-sama's faction? That would be the logical procedure for this kind of criminal."
Trizz (thoughtfully scratching his chin, his crimson eyes turned toward the morning sky): "No. I was thinking instead that we would leave her here, quietly under the thermal protection of my Yang quasi-spirit, Styleur, until she wakes up from her coma."
Otto (letting out a muffled scream, holding onto his merchant's hat which threatened to fly off from the shock): "Leave her free?! But Trizz, you're going completely mad, my word?! Just imagine the colossal risk we're taking! If she tracks us down, or worse, if she's plotting a vendetta!"
Trizz (standing up in a fluid motion): "Oh, calm down. Believe me, after the reality check she just took straight to the face, she won't be stupid enough to attack us again. Plus... I'm leaving her alive because, in a way and completely unintentionally, she helped us greatly. But think for a second, Otto: are you really sure you want to let her go with the Hoshin vixen's mercenaries?"
The question would have been simple for the old Otto, the naive civilian. But the "new" him, forged through contact with Trizz's machinations, immediately understood the subtext. Anastasia didn't follow the strict moral code of knights. A mage of this caliber, endowed with such an intellect, would be a godsend for the businesswoman. She would recruit her in the shadows, bind her with secret contracts, and turn her into a formidable weapon for her own camp.
Otto (snapping his fingers, looking resigned): "Ah... Looking at it from that angle... Really, there's no catching you off guard! You're always one step ahead, it's infuriating!"
Trizz (turning on his heels to head out of the devastated battlefield, casually placing a hand on the back of his neck): "I knew your merchant instinct would understand the calculation. On our way, now. Let's head back to the Sanctuary. Mistress Betty must already be waiting for me with hundreds of sharp reproaches and a pouty face that risks costing me dearly."
Otto: "Hey! Wait for me, damn it!"
In his haste, the merchant almost tripped miserably over a charred root. Letting out a small cry of panic, he regained his balance in extremis by windmilling his arms and began to run with long strides behind Trizz's dark silhouette. It was out of the question to stay alone for even a second longer with a Witch Cult mage.
With the first golden rays of the rising sun finally piercing through the ash suspended in the air, illuminating their backs, Otto couldn't help but smile nervously. It was the conclusion of an absolute nightmare, and at the same time, the beginning of a whole new chaotic adventure alongside this elusive boy.
[ Time skip... ]
The image of the sun's rays on the horizon, silhouetted behind the boy draped in his Cult robe, suddenly seemed artificial. He no longer felt the warmth of the wind, nor the bite of the morning chill that should have frozen his limbs. Bizarrely, even when his heavily iron-shod boots struck the ground, he felt absolutely nothing, not even the consistency of the hard earth or the roughness of the battle debris.
An illusion? Believing such a simplistic explanation would be almost stupid, or at least far too convenient a shortcut. If all of this was nothing but a lie of his mind, it would mean that all the hard-won successes of this boy, all his surgical victories, were nothing but a vast joke of bad taste orchestrated by a higher entity.
Trizz: ....
Then, a strange sensation brushed against his face. The contact was neither hot nor cold, suspended in a kind of irreality peculiar to dreams. The illusion theory was beginning to take a dangerously tangible turn. If that were the case, Leith's death, the contracts with Elsa and Meili, the cataclysmic duel against Lyra... was all of it false? Was the boy wasting away in yet another death loop, lying unconscious somewhere with severe injuries and an unprecedented pain that his brain refused to process?
Trizz: Hmn....
The landscape of the freshly apocalyptic forest began to fracture like a broken mirror. The silhouette of the merchant, Otto, dissolved into nothingness in the blink of an eye. The sky became vague, almost liquid, while the quasi-spirits that once floated around him went through every color of the rainbow before flickering out.
What exactly was happening? A dream? A bad joke? Was it Satella or Pandora playing at destroying the foundations of his reality? Or simply the effect of a mortally damaged body at the bottom of a death loop? To all these questions, no hypothesis seemed correct.
Trizz: Hmn... but...
All his thoughts were swept away to make room for a massive shadow over his face. A smiling face, with skin strangely too pale, smooth like fine porcelain. The boy's blurred vision finally stabilized, revealing one of the most annoying and disgusting faces he had had to endure since his arrival in this isekai, and perhaps even long before.
???: "Sleeping during a discussion with a lady seems very impolite. At least from my purely rational point of view, it contrasts sharply with your usual attitude as a wanderer of the mind."
This female voice, distilling a carefully measured blend of polite tone, muffled insult, and icy coldness, belonged to his contractor. Or, more precisely, to one of the crazy women circling much too close to him in this world of madmen.
Suddenly noticing that the distance between their faces was terribly, even dangerously narrow, Trizz plunged his eyes into the void-like pupils of the silhouette. Her two hands were placed delicately on his cheeks. The brutal realization of his position made him react instantly to break all physical contact with this woman he now referred to as nothing more than a "thing."
Trizz: "Don't touch me, you bitch!"
???: "What savagery and ingratitude. You seem to have had a terrible nightmare, haven't you? It was my right, and especially my duty, to wake you up to save you from an unfortunate distress, my dear contractor~"
Trizz: "When you say contractor, do you mean your favorite lab rat? You really have behaviors that border on the inhuman, Echidna."
The dark silhouette facing him was a young woman with the appearance of a nineteen-year-old, now named Echidna. Her long white hair cascaded down her back like a river of frost. She was dressed in an ink-black mourning dress-quite strange clothing for having tea under a parasol, isn't it?
She took her seat with unshakeable grace on the wooden chair opposite the boy, settling on the other side of the low table. The tray was laden with cakes and biscuits-the ingredients of which it was better not to look into-and cups of tea. Or rather, a single intact cup, for the contents of the second had visibly spilled over the boy's Cult robe during his agitated awakening.
Echidna: "You mean 'Mistress Echidna', am I wrong?"
Trizz: ...
Echidna: "Don't misunderstand. It was one of the explicit clauses of our agreement for me to deign to help you again, especially after the childish consequences you orchestrated with your... friend. Is that indeed your relationship? Surprising, isn't it?"
The "childish consequences" mentioned by the Witch referred to the catastrophic event that occurred when she had attempted to betray Trizz. She had sought by every means to bind Subaru-who was then impressionable and deeply traumatized-by a contract of psychological slavery. An affair that had nevertheless ended in a public and extreme humiliation for her in front of her own sisters.
Setting her cup back down after a small sip, she elegantly clapped her hands to disperse the icy tension that had settled under the parasol, even though the visceral disgust etched into the crimson gaze of the boy across from her remained impossible to conceal.
Echidna: "Now, now, now... surely you won't hate me so much for so little? Even though I must admit, I might have exaggerated the staging just a little bit."
Trizz: "A little? You call that 'a little'? Deliberately pushing me to embrace my darkest vices by putting on an act, pretending to be a lovestruck and possessive high school girl to better isolate me, hiding vital information from me for the simple pleasure of watching me die in loops, torturing my mind, plunging me into my own madness, and finally betraying me to try and turn that idiot Subaru into a vulgar reset tool? And the list of your horrors goes on and on, Witch."
Echidna: "Oh, how you exaggerate! All of that was merely a logical sequence of tests to evaluate the potential of my research subjects. A mind as brilliant as yours should appreciate the rigor of the method, Frizz."
Trizz: "Shut up. Your 'method' is nothing but the whim of a knowledge junkie that is seriously starting to get on my nerves. Don't think your little tea party game will work forever."
Echidna: "Yet, here you sit, and our contract still stands. So, instead of brooding over your resentment in such a sterile manner, shall we move on to the rest of your precious plans?"
Wiping the hot tea spilled on his Cult robe with a sharp gesture, Trizz brutally set the cup back down on the table. His crimson gaze overflowed with a profound disgust, tinged with an icy contempt he no longer even sought to hide.
Trizz: "You're the worst thing to happen to me since the beginning of my existence... Mistress Echidna."
Echidna (smiling softly): "I cannot deny those accusations, unfortunately they are mine. But... from a purely social and ethical standpoint, it seems to me that you aren't exactly above me morally, are you?"
Trizz: ....
The Witch's reply resonated like a bad joke. He, Trizz, as morally dark as this Witch? It was not only stupid, but viscerally disgusting. Unlike her, who consumed human lives like mere currency to quench her thirst for knowledge, he acted to save lives, to prevent the worst.
Echidna (noticing that the boy's gaze hardened even further): "Oh, don't take offense. First, I must congratulate you for saving everyone and managing to recruit the masochist and the tamer in the shadows. It was a brilliant move, as usual. But..."
With a theatrical snap of her fingers, she made the table, parasol, and chairs vanish. Deprived of support, Trizz stumbled and sprawled heavily onto the ground, into the green grass of the Citadel. Instantly, the peaceful sky faded away to give way to black clouds and a cold, gloomy rain.
Echidna: "Between us, beyond the 7th loop... the next ten loops, from the 8th to the 19th, were absolutely not other failed attempts to save your allies. Rather, it was the execution of a particularly bloody personal agenda, Frizz."
On the ground, Trizz observed his surroundings. His gaze was irremediably drawn to the direction the Witch was staring at with a narcissistic smile, even though his entire being screamed at him to look away.
In front of an artificial forest recreated by the Citadel, two silhouettes appeared. The first, dark, wore the same Cult clothing that Trizz was currently sporting, but with notable differences: a shorter height, around 1m59, and lunar hair. The other silhouette was that of a young girl tightly tied to a massive tree. But that wasn't the most terrifying part.
Echidna: "This is by far the scene I loved the most, Frizz. It easily rivals that famous 'Grand Guignol theater' you told me about... or at least, that I took pleasure in digging out of your
memory."
NOTE : I really wanted to describe this scene in detail, but to avoid overloading the narrative, I just left it as it was.
The tied-up girl was barefoot. What turned one's stomach in this scene was not her tears or her piercing screams, but the fact that her feet were literally burned raw by the persistent heat of Yang magic. Her toes were blackened, covered in dried blood and blisters.
???: "Another wrong answer! Oh my! And yet it was the prisoner's dilemma from game theory! A wrong answer to such a simple question is truly disappointing!"
The lunar-haired silhouette, displaying a falsely childish attitude, was none other than Trizz-or more precisely, Trizz under a powerful illusion of Yin and Yang magic learned through Echidna. He violently grabbed the young girl by her hair. She was sobbing, snot running frantically from her nostrils.
???: "If you really want to rejoin your Onii-sama, little tamer, you must at least answer one of my questions correctly. Otherwise, you won't be forgiven. Your Onii-sama will be very, very angry, because you attacked him and his pawns!"
Tamer (sobbing heavily): "Bu... but... it's not my fault! It's Mama who forced us... I swear to you... I'm telling the truth... please..."
Cultist: "It doesn't matter! What is done is done. You cannot change your past actions... But you can still try to answer my questions to redeem yourself. Because Elsa, unfortunately, no longer has that chance."
The tamer's hands dug into the ground. Since the destruction of almost all her demonic beasts and the loss of her allies, she hadn't seen her sister. But to her, Elsa was immortal and invincible.
Tamer (painfully raising her head): "But... where is... Elsa? She found Onii-sama, didn't she?"
Cultist: "Fufufu... How can I put this tactfully? Let's just say that after getting trapped in fire crystals, she was in pretty bad shape. That's when she crossed paths with your Onii-sama, alias the Archbishop of Pride... or as he is now called, the Architect."
Tamer (with a smile broken by hope and pain): "So... she's with Onii-sama... right now...? She's going to come get me with him...? Is it all finally over?"
Cultist: "Too bad! Another wrong answer! As I told you, your big sister was in bad shape, she couldn't defend herself at all. And after the deaths of all the assassins, the fanatics followed your Onii-sama, driven completely insane by his miasma..."
Displaying a wide, almost monstrous smile that clashed horribly with his angelic face under the illusion, the Cultist leaned toward her. The young girl's eyes widened in terror.
Cultist: "On your Onii-sama's direct orders, the fanatics began to have fun with your super big sister. After an act of brutality lasting three hours-a real record, isn't it?-the cultists ripped off her jaw to force her to swallow fire crystals and blow her up from the inside... What a shame you missed the show."
The tamer's eyes instantly lost all light, making way for the purest and darkest despair of her being. Without Elsa, the tamer no longer had any reason to live or obey. Her Onii-sama had abandoned her, her sister had been defiled, tortured, and slaughtered on his orders. Was she still Meili, or just a piece of trash now useless?
Cultist (standing back up with an indifferent shrug): "Well, I think we've played enough for today. Look over there... your children are running over to say goodbye."
Her children? The few remaining living mabeasts. Meili wasn't controlling them at all anymore. Totally unstable and enraged, they charged at her. Before Meili could even find the strength to ask another question or scream, one of the mabeasts had already launched a powerful fireball straight into her face.
Echidna watched the illusion of the silhouette thrashing in the flames, a thin smile stretching her pale lips.
Echidna: "Look at her thrashing on that burning tree... it's fascinating, isn't it?"
Trizz gritted his teeth. He stood up abruptly, brows furrowed, and pointed an accusing finger at the dark-clothed Witch.
Trizz: "You are deeply mistaken about my nature. I had her tortured and killed in loops for the blasphemy they committed against Beatrice and the other inhabitants."
He stepped forward, his gaze dark and cold.
Trizz: "Killing and torturing four assassins for twelve loops is a strategic calculation, a zero-sum equation to save lives. But killing millions of innocents for a sterile quest is something else entirely. It's a monstrous, selfish, and catastrophically costly investment in the long term, Mistress Echidna."
Echidna tilted her head slightly, not in the least intimidated.
Echidna: "A nuance, please. You killed those assassins to soothe your ego and your thirst for vengeance. And to achieve that, you manipulated your tracksuit-wearing companion, forcing him to die twenty-one times on the altar of your plans."
Trizz: "That changes nothing in the equation, you are nothing but a narcissistic monster trying to justify yourself by demonizing me."
Echidna: "You are mistaken, if we are to look only at the events of the Sanctuary, I have killed no one and all my choices are failed manipulations; therefore, there is no bloodshed if we follow the course of recent events on my part."
With a snap of her fingers, she made the wooden chairs, treats, and tea table reappear. She sat down calmly, gesturing with her hand for Trizz to do the same.
Echidna: "Come now, let's change the subject. A draw, one point to each side."
Trizz (sitting down with one arm on the table): "You are the very embodiment of a sore loser."
The woman continued to stare at the boy as if scanning his soul, then a crystalline sound escaped her throat: the only chuckle she had never controlled.
Trizz: "What are you still laughing at? The image of a child burned alive? Your Witch's brain is sicker than I thought."
Echidna: "Dry your insults, please. To understand why I laugh, look at yourself and look at me. You may know nothing of my past, but in truth, we are very much alike."
Trizz: "We are alike? So four centuries of isolation and senility are finally catching up with you, what wonderful news, bitc-... Mistress Echidna."
The young woman brushed off the insults with a sip of tea, then set her cup on the table, fingertips pressed together with a genuine smile.
Echidna: "It might surprise you, but four centuries ago, I sincerely wanted to save the world. After some time, I allied with the legendary heroes and-"
Trizz: "I have absolutely no desire to know your past, your present, or your tragic future. You are just a thing, an annoying parasite in my life."
Echidna (her smile widening): "So, consequently, you have no need to know that you possess the Sloth Factor?"
Trizz: "Wait... what did you say? A second factor?"
Echidna didn't answer. She pouted while quietly drinking her tea, waiting for an apology like a spoiled child.
Trizz: "My wonderful para-... I mean, Mistress Echidna, please continue... telling your legend of the past."
Echidna (with a triumphant look): "If you wish. Where did I leave off, again? Ah yes, we built the Pleiades Watchtower in the dangerous deserts of the Augria Sand Dunes. As time passed, the Witches fell one after another mysteriously. The risks of my quest skyrocketed, especially after I was attacked by the Warlock of Melancholy, Hector."
Trizz: "Wait, wait... weren't the Witches killed by Envy?"
Echidna shook her head with an amused smile, then pointed to the far side of the Citadel. The image of Typhon, the Witch of Pride-a little girl with green hair, her eyes covered by bandages-appeared, her body horribly dismembered.
Echidna: "Typhon, the Witch of Pride, or at least your spiritual mother... died dismembered and drowned in a mechanical trap in the city of Priestella. An ironic end, isn't it?"
Trizz: "Echidna!"
Echidna: "Okay, I get it, I take back what I said. You are truly sensitive, my poor Frizz."
The image changed to show Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth-an immense woman with pallid skin and long mauve hair-falling down the Great Cascade.
Echidna: "Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth, after a titanic battle against the Divine Dragon Volcanica, fell from the Great Cascade. For someone who refuses to move, it's rather ironic, isn't it?"
The next image showed Carmilla, the Witch of Lust-a young woman with indistinct features and long pink hair-her face and flesh torn apart by flames.
Echidna: "Carmilla, the Witch of Lust, burned alive. A death a bit too passionate and fiery."
The image of the desert lingered on tiny, half-buried bones, the ruthless sun beating down on what remained of a life condemned to insatiability.
Echidna: "Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony. She starved to death, completely alone in the middle of the Augria Sand Dunes desert. For someone whose entire existence revolved around the need to eat and devour, dying in this manner... it is of a fascinating, almost morbid irony, don't you think?"
The illusion flickered to reveal a new landscape, ravaged and drowned under a pouring rain. In the center, a woman with long blonde hair and a generous figure was on her knees in the mud. Her once-radiant clothes were soiled and torn. She was weeping bitterly, her face twisted in despair, as she was surrounded by the menacing shadows of a countless, hostile crowd.
Echidna: "And finally, Minerva. The Witch of Wrath. The one you love to insult as a child trapped in a woman's body... Betrayed, trapped, and driven mad by the thousands of people she spent her life healing without asking for anything in return. Ultimately, she was killed out of pity by Satella. A pathetic conclusion for such a narrow-minded spirit."
With a simple, graceful wave of the Witch's hand, the macabre visions dissipated. The Dream Citadel resumed its peaceful, timeless appearance: vibrantly green grass stretching infinitely beneath a breathtaking blue sky.
Echidna: "I believe that is all. The overview of my dear sisters is complete. Let us return to where we left off."
Trizz: "Wait a second. What about you?"
Echidna (raising an eyebrow, elegantly bringing her cup to her lips): "Me?"
Trizz: "Don't play dumb with me. How did you die, Echidna?"
Echidna (smiling enigmatically, her gaze lost in the void for a brief moment): "I sincerely thought you wanted to know nothing about me. But if you truly demand an answer... let's just say I died the same way I lived."
Trizz: "..."
Yet another riddle from the Witch. Even if he took the trouble to solve this absurd puzzle with his usual logic, would it yield any useful information for survival? Of course not! It was just one more smokescreen to hide her true nature.
Echidna: "You have had your answer, so let us continue now. As I explained to you, after a bitter defeat against Hector, the Warlock of Melancholy, I had to create the Sanctuary to protect myself from his pursuit."
Trizz (his face twisted with visceral disgust): "To protect yourself. Meaning, by trapping hundreds of innocent demi-humans behind a magical barrier. Turning them into mere livestock for your insane experiments. And above all... by sacrificing that poor demi-elf, Ryuzu Meyer, as a core for your experiments on immortality... I deeply despise you."
Echidna (maintaining an Olympian calm, placing her hands on the table): "I did that to save the world, Trizz. The equation was simple. Even if the methods were doubtful in the eyes of laymen, and entirely uncommendable from an ethical standpoint, the final result justified the sacrifices."
Trizz stood up abruptly, his chair scraping violently against the dreamlike floor. He could no longer stand listening to the rationalized madness of this "thing" sitting across from him. In Trizz's purely strategic mind, to save a diseased body, one had to amputate the threat, neutralize the poison. But deliberately destroying the heart of the body under the pretext of "saving" it was not a rescue maneuver: it was pure and simple murder.
Trizz: "Listen to me closely. With your illusions of grandeur and your oversized ego, you didn't save the world... you methodically destroyed it. And after that, you dare to tell me you 'saved' Beatrice and Roswaal with your poisoned contracts?"
Echidna: "Their roles were necessary. They accepted their share of the burden for the sake of the future."
Trizz (pointing an accusing finger at her, his voice heavy with contempt): "Look at what you did to them! The worst part of all this isn't even their tragic existence stuck in the past. The worst part, the absolute horror of your work, is that you broke them so deeply psychologically that they still have blind faith in you! You manufactured broken dolls that worship you!"
Trizz brutally buried his face in his hands, massaging his temples where an excruciating migraine pulsed. What could one even call this? When an omnipotent creature destroyed the lives and souls around her while sincerely believing she was the savior of humanity... It perfectly summed up the unfathomable madness of this nightmare world in which he had had the misfortune of being reincarnated.
Echidna: "Make a little less noise and come sit back down, I pray you. My other sisters might complain about your tantrums, and the acoustics of this place are temperamental. Besides, look at things with a bit more perspective... it's not as catastrophic as you claim. At their core, they are merely small experiments that went wrong. A simple scientific mishap on the road to knowledge."
Trizz: "Small experiments?! We are talking about human lives, you sociopath! Just look at what you've done! You've locked Shima and her sisters in this open-air slaughterhouse for four centuries for your tests. And do you know what the worst part of your sick equation is? If the Sanctuary is ever liberated, these girls will perish right here, reduced to ashes in a matter of days, without ever tasting freedom or seeing the outside world. All because of you and your fucking obsession with immortality!"
Echidna: "It wasn't just a selfish experiment on the immortality of the soul or the duplication of bodies... You attribute far too cold and mechanical intentions to me, Frizz. I sincerely wanted to bring someone back. Someone who deserved to live again."
Trizz: "Go to hell, both of you! You, your morbid experiments, and that damn corpse you were trying to resurrect! You're nothing but a bunch of dangerous lunatics!"
Echidna (abruptly rising from her chair, slamming her palms onto the table as her mask of absolute calm finally cracks): "Frizz. I will not permit you to insult that person. If you feel a visceral need to pour out all your hatred, your resentment, and your disgust, I am sitting right here to take it. Strike me with your words if it amuses you. But never speak of him with such a contemptuous tone."
Trizz: "..."
Slowly removing his hands from his face, Trizz observed the young Witch in mute astonishment. He had never seen her raise her voice, nor lose that icy, aristocratic composure that characterized her so much. This sudden, almost human anger clashed horribly with her usual aura. Who could this person possibly be to provoke such a reaction? It seemed, for the very first time, that this knowledge junkie was viscerally attached to something other than her own sterile wisdom.
But deep down, Trizz couldn't care less. If this individual had been intimate enough with such a creature for her to try to cheat death for his sake, he must inevitably be just as corrupt and twisted as she was.
Echidna (slowly sitting back down, smoothing the folds of her dark dress with a gesture to regain her composure): "In any case. Speaking of the past and the ghosts that haunt us... I have noticed over the course of our interactions that you suffer from severe memory issues regarding the period prior to your arrival in Lugnica. Is that not so?"
Trizz (narrowing his eyes, immediately on the defensive): "Yes... so what? Wait, don't tell me you can do something about that? You, healing a human mind instead of breaking it?"
Echidna: "Do not attribute miracles to me that I cannot perform. Let's just say that no, my method will not make the entirety of your lost memories reappear with a snap of my fingers. The mind is a fragile scroll. But... by proceeding with the proper delicacy, you could recover about 40% of your memories, or at least assemble the remaining fragments to give them a coherent meaning."
The proposal hit right where it hurt. Indeed, ever since Trizz's arrival in this ruthless world, a thick fog had shrouded his original past. The image of his parents, the faces of his loved ones, the details of his schooling... everything was drowned in a shapeless mist. Truth be told, he knew next to nothing about his seventeen years of existence on Earth, as if his old life had been erased by the universe to leave all the room for this waking nightmare.
Trizz: "Nothing is ever free with the Witch of Greed. So spit it out. What is your method? And above all, what is the price to pay for this shock therapy?"
Echidna (sketching her slight, haughty smile once again): "What hurtful suspicion... The price is derisory, if not non-existent. It falls almost entirely within the clauses of our contract-the very one you took a wicked pleasure in derailing. You see, thanks to our bond, I have already accumulated all the memories of the countless time loops you have traversed here. The suffering, the battles, the strategies... everything is archived. But I possess barely 10% of the data relating to your life on Earth. And your world of origin, devoid of magic, impresses and fascinates me infinitely."
Trizz: "Alright. I see the trap. What of it?"
The warm, green plain of the Citadel suddenly vanished, swept away like ash by the wind. The tea table, the chairs, and even the gentle sun at its zenith evaporated to make way for an absolute void, a liquid and infinite darkness stretching out right beneath their feet. Floating in this shadowy emptiness, the Witch slowly extended her pale, slender hand toward the boy.
Echidna: "I will be your guide in this damaged mental labyrinth, and above all, the privileged spectator of your past life. Your memories will satisfy my curiosity, and in exchange, they will be restored to you... but only if you agree to hold my hand."
Trizz (approaching the Witch with slow steps, staring at the extended hand as if it were a poisoned blade): "So, you're going to dig through my childhood memories along the way to amuse yourself... Clever. Very clever. And I must admit that this extended hand brings back some damn bad memories."
A faint, crystalline laugh escaped Echidna's lips, echoing mournfully within the immensity of the void. That "particular bad memory" was none other than the precise day their cursed contract had begun. The day Trizz, backed into a deadly dead-end, had been forced to take that same cold hand to seal his fate.
Silencing his final mental warnings, Trizz stepped forward and firmly gripped the Witch's fingers. The last thing the boy saw, just before the dark space fractured to be brutally swallowed by a screen of blinding whiteness, was Echidna's amused and triumphant smile.