"Blood magic... you mean... the magic of the Corax?"
"Yes! You know it well. It's the kind of magic preferred by the black-feathered race among the bird anthro(鳥人) of the north."
Lisia said with a sly smile, her eyes narrowing.
"It's similar to water magic... but different. It feels like a greater power. Not like the force of a flooding river, but something else... a fierce, intense power."
From the corpse of Rant lying at Lisia's feet, dark red blood began to rise toward her palm, coalescing into a spherical shape.
"What do you think? This is about what you get from one body. Still, it's enough to kill a mana-drained mage, so don't be too disappointed."
With a crazed, unfocused look in her eyes, Lisia pointed the tip of the sword in her right hand at Diara.
From the blood sphere floating above her open left palm, thin streams of blood began to trickle to the ground.
The blood that fell to the ground soon took the form of small red snakes, slithering toward Diara.
Hiss—
Countless tiny blood snakes covered the clearing's floor, advancing toward her.
The foremost snakes reached Diara, rearing up with wide-open mouths, lunging at her.
Thud! Thwack! Thump!
Diara swung her staff at the attacking red snakes. The tip of her staff, glowing blue as it sliced through the air, struck the snakes, causing them to lose their form and scatter as blood droplets.
But blocking the onslaught of countless red snakes, pouring toward her like a torrent of rain, was beyond even Diara's agile movements.
"Ugh!"
The snakes bit into her arms, legs, shoulders—any part they could sink their teeth into. Diara groaned in pain from the bites all over her body and hurled herself toward the ground of the clearing.
"Hahaha! They don't come off that easily!"
Lisia said, channeling more mana into the now much smaller blood sphere in her left hand to heal the wounds across her body. She approached Diara with a relaxed smile, the outcome of the battle clear.
"Time to wrap this up, don't you think?"
Lisia said, stepping closer to Diara, who stood shakily, barely holding her staff, bitten by the writhing red snakes.
"Haa... haa... not yet... it's far from over." Diara gasped.
Was it the effect of Lisia's blood snakes? A hallucination whispered in Diara's ears: 'Run.' 'Run now.' Lisia's voice seemed to murmur with her fading breath.
Diara's mind split in two. The hallucination crept into the cracks of her divided heart, and Lisia's figure appeared before her eyes.
A vision. Lisia's form materialized behind Diara, touching her shoulder. Lisia drew closer to Diara's face... and the whispering grew louder, stirring the fear in Diara's heart.
Breathing heavily, Diara shifted her grip on the staff to one hand, using her free hand to cast a small flame spell that burned away the snake biting her leg.
"No! You should fall now!"
Lisia shouted, quickening her pace and thrusting her blood-stained bone sword toward Diara's shoulder.
Diara parried the first strike with her staff, but Lisia's sword swiftly struck again, slicing through Diara's thigh, causing blood to gush out. Without pause, Lisia attacked again, targeting the arm holding the staff, then drove the blade deep into Diara's shoulder. Only then did she pull the sword back, looking down at Diara, who had collapsed from the wound in her leg and glared up at her.
"See? I told you I could end this anytime I wanted. Now, let's finish with something bigger, flashier."
Lisia said with a smile, stepping back a few paces. She closed her eyes, focusing, and summoned a long rod made of connected bones into her hand. She planted the rod into the ground and concentrated her mana again, drawing the still-wet blood around her to the rod's tip.
"Should I have made more wounds? Hmm... it's a bit late for that, so I'll use my own blood this time."
Lisia said, pausing. She used her sharp nails to slice her opposite arm, letting red blood flow.
The snakes still wriggling and biting Diara turned back into dark blood, flowing toward the rod Lisia held. From Diara's deep wounds, the blood spilled on the ground, and the cut on Lisia's arm, large and small droplets and clumps of blood gathered, taking shape at the rod's tip.
It formed a curved blade, bending inward—a scythe.
When the massive red blade attached to the bone rod was fully formed, Lisia gazed at it with a satisfied expression.
"Hmm~ It's even more beautiful with bright blood mixed in, don't you think?"
Lisia swung the scythe through the air with both hands, then approached Diara, slowly bringing the sharp tip of the blade toward her neck.
Looking at her completed weapon, Lisia said, "This should be enough to kill the Knight of the Hidden Moon, right? Well then... goodbye."
As she whispered, Lisia locked eyes with Diara, curious about the look in her eyes at the moment of her end, as Diara clutched the wound on her leg.
But it wasn't the look of someone breathing their last. A sudden unease gripped Lisia's entire body. Instinctively, she tried to pull back the scythe, but her arms wouldn't move. Instead, they were yanked backward, as if being pulled.
"What... what's happening..."
An indescribable pain surged through her arms, followed by a searing heat.
When she turned to look, a fox-shaped mass of fire was biting her arm, its fiery tail swaying.
"A summoned beast?!"
Lisia screamed, leaping back from Diara to shake off the flaming creature.
"This little fire?!"
Lisia shouted, reaching toward the ground to cast a spell.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed as it struck the clearing's walls. The sound of Diara's magic, Fox Flame, reverberated, and Lisia, thrown back by the blast, crashed into the rocky wall of the clearing and collapsed. Slowly, she rose again.
"Diaraaaa!!!"
Lisia screamed, her robe charred, her body scratched from the wall, and her right arm gone. Without wiping the blood dripping from her mouth, her furious cry scattered tiny blood droplets to the ground.
With a pale face, Lisia staggered toward Diara.
The reason Fox Flame appeared behind Lisia wasn't complicated. Diara had learned the high-level Pentra magic(level 5), Fox Flame, from Gravel and had cast it upon entering the clearing, enhanced by a mana-gathering rune, also known as Carnot's rune. Instead of directly channeling mana into the magic circle, she used a rune that drew mana from the surroundings, delaying the spell's activation.
From the moment Diara emerged from the cave and saw Lisia's frenzied killing intent, she knew a fight was inevitable. Deeming it too risky to cast a high-level Pentra spell directly, Diara had placed three Fox Flame magic circles at the clearing's entrance before charging at Lisia with her staff. One of those circles had activated, biting Lisia's arm.
"...I can't let it end like this."
Lisia said, her bloodshot eyes shedding red tears of pain down her cheeks.
Her trembling remaining arm reached forward, her voice sobbing as it reached Diara.
"The body is but a borrowed room; the only room truly mine is reason."
Diara shouted, mustering her strength toward Lisia.
"..."
As the teachings of the Temple of Hidden Moon reached Lisia, her steps toward Diara halted. Her strength gave out, and she collapsed to the ground, her outstretched hand still pointed at Diara.
"Now... those teachings... I don't... need..."
Lisia's voice faltered as a deep red magic circle formed in her hand.
"My reason is my own! My spirit! Even if my body is destroyed or weakened..." Diara continued, reciting the temple's teachings through tears.
Was it the blood loss from her wounds or the overuse of mana? Lisia's form, casting the red magic circle, grew blurry in Diara's vision.
Her sight faded.
"I can't go back now."
Lisia's faint voice whispered.
Before Diara's vision was completely swallowed by darkness, she saw two fiery foxes summoned from the Fox Flame magic circle leap toward Lisia's shoulder and outstretched arm from behind.
*****
A cold wind blew along the ridge path, and Diara's wagon rattled with the sound of its wheels.
Though winter was far off, tiny snowflakes from the eternal snow atop the distant mountains danced in the wind, settling on the grass by the road and on the cheeks and hair of travelers.
Before leaving the Farmstead, Diara had to speak a lot—and listen a lot.
After the battle with Lisia, Diara, battered and wounded, had barely escaped the cave, only to collapse unconscious in the middle of the forest.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying in a bed in a room at the Farmstead.
Gravel's healing magic had mended her physical wounds, but a heavy weight lingered in her heart.
Afterward, Diara rose and spoke with the people at the Farmstead and the companions escorting the statue about what happened with Lisia. She also learned from Gravel about Gallad's death and the story of Kavnak.
At first, no one believed her—or rather, they didn't want to believe.
It wasn't until they found Rant's body, Lisia's body, and the underground crypt deep within the cave, lined with skulls engraved with the names of Lisia's countless victims, that the few remaining skeptics were convinced.
Only then, after the chaos had somewhat settled, could they take time to mourn and grieve for the dead.
The day passed in a blur. But the next day, Diara had to climb back onto the carriage.
The affairs at the Farmstead were left to Roper and the long-time residents who would help him handle the aftermath. Diara and her party set out for Ves-Dinas, leaving the Farmstead behind.
So many incomprehensible things had happened. Holding the reins, Diara gazed at the sky above the distant Ratella Mountains as she traveled.
It was a bitterly cold day for Diara.
Extra: The Conversation Between Gravel and Lisia
Looking at the moon reflected in the pond, Lisia spoke.
"I like the moon reflected in the water. The real moon, when I look up at it... it's too bright for me. And too frightening. So, seeing it reflected on the water, just as it is, is enough for me... Is that strange? What about looking at your own reflection in a mirror? That's not strange, right? The only way to see yourself is through something that reflects you. The moon isn't like that, but... the moon on the water feels closer to me. Much closer than that dark, distant sky... That's why I like it."