That wasn’t all. The shock of the Emperor’s death had barely settled when screams from outside the palace pierced our ears. Without needing any prompting, Killian Dietrich, Edan Dietrich, and Hillstain Mathias rushed to the window and leapt out without hesitation. I hurried after them toward the shattered window frame.

“No….”

My heart sank the moment I looked outside. Enormous monsters flew through the sky, weaving between thick, dark storm clouds.

Kiiieeek! Kiiieeek—!

The grotesque shrieks of the monsters sent chills down my spine as they began hunting people fleeing through the garden-turned-battleground like toys. Each flap of their massive wings unleashed gusts of wind carrying a foul stench.

Edan Dietrich, Killian Dietrich, and Hillstain Mathias….

Their powers, glowing with blue light, sliced through the air without pause, relentlessly striking the monsters. Creatures of unreal proportions met their deaths under swift, powerful beams of light. Severed limbs and torsos crashed to the ground with thunderous booms—Kung! Kwoong! The sight was horrifying. Fear overwhelmed me to the point I could barely breathe, and goosebumps rose across my skin.

I glanced back hastily—the Grand Priest had collapsed to the floor, seemingly fainted from shock. The Empress, her crown knocked off, was drenched in blood from the recent chaos. Her face and dress utterly ruined, she staggered toward the dead Emperor. Trembling like a worn-out wooden doll, she reached the corpse, lifted her unfocused gaze, and stared. Thick streams of fresh blood poured from the gaping wound in the Emperor’s abdomen.

“Jul, Julius….”

Dazed, she stared up at him, rubbing her eyelids repeatedly with the back of her hand as if unable to believe what lay before her. Crimson blood smeared across her fingers. But no matter how many times she rubbed, reality wouldn’t change—and finally, she clutched both cheeks with her palms.

“No! Nooo! This isn’t right!”

Her voice cracked, bursting out like a scream.

“This isn’t what I wanted! This isn’t it!”

Tragic as it was, now was not the time to drown in grief. Frowning with a pale, grim face, I stepped toward her and shook her shoulders.

“Where is Ivy Violet!”

Damn it, you foolish Empress! Is this what you call acting for the sake of the Empire? Losing your mind over petty emotions and committing madness! Even if you intended to kidnap and use Ivy Violet, this is unacceptable! How can the Empress herself hand the hearts of holy maidens to a witch!

“Snap out of it and tell me where Ivy Violet is, right now!”

Startled by my shout, the Empress suddenly lifted her head.

“Ivy, Ivy… Yes. That bitch, that madwoman…!”

The horrifying final image of the Emperor reflected in the Empress’s enraged eyes. She bit her lip until it bled, twisted her face into something monstrous, and bolted outside. I chased after her. The knights who had been guarding the corridor had already rushed outside to engage in battle; the palace, decorated so beautifully mere minutes ago, was now in utter ruin.

The Empress opened a secret passage hidden within the palace. Running down a path paved with finely cut stone, we emerged into a garden blooming with vibrant flowers. Looking back, I realized it was a small garden not far from the Imperial Palace. Unlike the brightly lit palace nearby, this place was completely dark.

As if deliberately designed to be shadowed.

I sprinted after the Empress across the pitch-black garden until we reached a small circular pergola. A deep purple magic circle sprawled around it, surrounded by thick, ominous black mist. And there stood Ivy Violet.

“Ivy….”

I halted at a cautious distance. But unlike me, the Empress charged straight at her and slapped Ivy’s cheek mercilessly. Slap!

“You damn bitch!”

Ivy’s head snapped sideways limply. Before it could even swing back, the Empress struck her again. Smack!

“How dare you act so recklessly without knowing your place! Do you even realize what you’ve done!”

“Krk, Krrheheht!”

The Empress, raising her hand again, froze mid-motion. A sickening laugh trickled from between Ivy’s teeth as she tilted her head back.

“Ah, Your Majesty the Empress. What was our agreement again? Right—wasn’t it that you couldn’t stand seeing peace maintained in the North, so you asked me to summon a ‘reasonable’ number of monsters?”

Her head, which had hung backward as if broken, snapped forward savagely into place.

“You filthy worm…!”

“You idiot, did you really think such a thing was possible?”

Ivy’s eyes, cutting off the Empress’s words, had turned entirely black. Meeting those glossy, pitch-dark pupils up close, the Empress flinched and stepped back. But it was already too late—Ivy’s hand, coated in black veins and sticky blood, pierced straight through the Empress’s chest.

“Guh! Gahhk…!”

“Who told you I crawled out of prison just to listen to your demands?”

The whites of the Empress’s eyes were instantly veined with red.

“Didn’t I tell you to beg for your life by pressing your nose to the ground and staring at my feet?”

Ivy grinned, her black eyes glinting wickedly.

“Go ahead and beg, Your Majesty.”

“G-Gahhk…!”

The Empress’s pupils had already rolled behind her eyelids. Even the groans rising from her throat seemed mere reflexive bodily responses.

“Pfft!”

Ivy glanced at the Empress’s pain-ravaged face and burst into giggles.

“Well, in this state, I guess you can’t even beg properly. No choice then.”

Where on earth did she get such strength? Ivy gripped the Empress’s heart and ripped it out.

“I crawled out of the dungeon on my knees, begging before you—but you couldn’t do the same, so you had to die. It’s not my fault, Your Majesty. You simply didn’t beg properly.”

Flesh plopped to the ground as the Empress’s body collapsed face-first. Thud. Her face buried in the dirt.

“Ivy!”

I shouted her name, having watched the entire scene. Ivy turned her head toward me.

I stared at her palm. A raw, bleeding heart pulsed weakly atop her hand.

“Latieana Merigold, long time no see.”

Ivy twisted her face into something between a smile and a grimace, then took a huge bite out of the heart. After chewing a few times, she spat it out.

“Tastes awful.”

“You… how are you still alive?”

No matter how hard I tried to stay calm, it was impossible. The Ivy Violet before me was no longer human.

She wore the same filthy, torn dress as when she’d been in the temple—but her hair was matted like clumps of dead animal fur, and the flesh on her legs was grotesquely stripped away. Strange insects crawled through the gaps, yet she seemed to feel nothing. Her body was skeletal, shriveled to the point of snapping at any moment. Sunken cheeks and scattered, swollen traces of pus made her look even more horrifically ruined than when I’d last seen her.

“You know, Latieana Merigold, I’ve reflected a lot. About trying to kill you, I mean. I deeply regret my foolish past self.”

“What?”

“And I’m honestly relieved.”

“What are you talking about?”

“How much would I have regretted it if I’d actually killed you? Thank goodness I didn’t. If you’d died, I might have gone mad with rage.”

Ivy tossed aside the now-still heart of the Empress.

“The hearts of the holy maidens were delicious. Yours, as the Grand Holy Maiden, must be even sweeter—surely as red and sweet as ripe pomegranate juice. But don’t worry, I won’t eat it. While maggots gnawed at my flesh, I chewed on rats burrowing into my hair—and I thought, constantly.”

Ivy paused, then giggled aloud as if recalling a pleasant memory.

“Just imagining you suffering brings me joy! Ah, Latieana Merigold—how can I make you suffer? How can I tear that smiling face of yours apart? How can I make you—the most miserable person in the entire world!”

As her emotions intensified, the black mist around Ivy thickened further. Her voice began splitting into two tones. Speaking now in a calmer, almost monstrous tone, she continued slowly.

“But no matter how much I thought, I found no answer—because no matter how much I torment you, you always end up happy.”

“This is your own doing! You devoured yourself! Not everyone with witch’s blood becomes like you!”

“Shut up! This all happened because you coveted what was mine from the start!”

“What are you deluding yourself about? I never once coveted anything of yours!”

“Liar! Liar, liar, liar, liar! That healing power you have—it was mine! Those cherry-blossom-pink hairs of yours—mine! Everything was mine at first! You stole it all! You thieving bitch!”

“…Ivy Violet, you’re insane. You’re not in your right mind.”

“No! I’m not insane! I’m right! If I can’t be happy, neither can you. Even if I become happy, you never will—you’ll spend your entire life rolling alive in a sewer, and those damn cherry-blossom-pink hairs will be shredded and burned to ashes!”

Ivy spread her arms wide, stretching her bloodstained lips into a grotesque grin.

“Look, Latieana Merigold! You created all this misery!”

She swept her gaze across the ominously dark sky, as if rain might pour any second, then looked with utter satisfaction at the monster-infested Imperial Palace and the shattered castle. Her pitch-black eyes were consumed by madness.

“This is my solution. For you to be miserable, the people around you must suffer—because it’s they who make you happy. Especially… Duke Edan Dietrich.”

A damp, repulsive wind blew. The nauseating stench of blood now saturated the air around Ivy. After silently staring at her for a moment, I let go of all resistance, releasing the tension from my body.

“Let’s stop this. Let’s end this tiresome relationship.”

“No. I told you—I want you to live… and suffer.”

“I’ll give you what you want.”

“What?”

“You wanted my power, didn’t you? I’ll relinquish it—even now. Better this than watching everyone around me suffer. Come closer. Take it—my power.”

I reached my hand toward Ivy. Around my outstretched arm, a brilliant, intensely radiant light of healing power began to glow.