I CAME FOR YOU...

- Spiritual magic?

- That's right. Ialda's story is not a fairy tale either. It's full of tragedy after tragedy. In the course of that miserable life, she first learned necromancy. However, what that means at its core is manipulating the souls of people already dead, at a basic level. Still, her talent for it was quite high. She took that as a foundation and used it to start manipulating not only the souls of the dead but also those of the living. Of course, those still on this plane are much more challenging to handle, but she still managed. As I mentioned earlier, her resonance is the best example of that. What's most terrifying is that it works on a global scale, with just her power.

- What exactly does her power consist of?

- Like I said, it's on the level of Mars and Venus magic combined because, like them, it works as a concept more than a specific magic. It affects their souls; in an attack, she only ignores their physical bodies. However, it's so powerful that if not used carefully, Ialda herself could end up damaged.

In other words, Tota obtained Ialda's help and is using her resonance alongside the magic circle to form a stronger link with people, like reinforcing a fishing line, to achieve a faster absorption speed.

............................................

This was a dark place, entirely bathed in black. Impossible to distinguish right from left, up and down, there were no distances or time; sounds were nonexistent. In other words, human senses served no function here other than as decoration.

If a normal person entered there, no matter how much mental strength they had or the experiences they had in their life, madness would slowly invade them, little by little, without them noticing until it consumed them completely.

However, despite the lack of light, one could clearly see their own body—hands, fingers, legs—everything was as clear as sunlight. The strange thing was that even though it was like that, at the same time, the form could be said to have no defined form, as if it were constantly changing. Perhaps what was seen was not a body itself but an essence, the most basic and pure, inexplicable to detail. This was a space that revealed the truth of people.

In this place where time or space could not be distinguished, the image of a woman appeared.

This woman was different from any other; she had no height, her body fluctuated between that of a girl, a woman, a lady, and finally, an old woman.

This woman possessed, at times, a radiant and innocent light in her eyes; other times, only agonizing pain was visible.

Time passed. How much? Perhaps a few hours, perhaps a week, months, years. But no matter how much time passed, she remained still in the same place. Her body became like a blurry shape in which only a human being could be distinguished, a silhouette with nothing more.

Since she entered, her figure had done nothing but dissolve more and more.

Time continued to pass, and she became only a blurry spot. Something similar to when a point is made with a spray.

Finally, she began to take shape again. First, it was just a large spot with five small points around it. Then it compressed and compressed until, instead of being a spot, it began to be something more defined.

Time continued to pass, and four of the five small bulges elongated, forming limbs, the last took on an oval and slightly elongated shape from which golden bristles grew to what could be considered the waist.

After a time that no one knew if it was a second or a century, a woman opened her eyes, bright blue eyes that contained the depth of the ocean and the softness and fluidity of the calmest and clearest waters; her skin was clear to the point of almost being considered transparent, like finely polished jade for decades until it sparkled more than physical limits would allow; long and slender arms and legs, perhaps only a ballet dancer from the heavens could have such perfect limbs radiating perfection; chest and buttocks for which there are no words to describe them, there was not a single touch of eroticism, only elegance that could not be tainted and misunderstood by the filth of the world; her hair of strands of fine gold, no, not even a room full of gold could be worth as much as a single bristle.

This was a place where form did not exist because only the souls of people passed through here, however, in this place was a woman of no more than 20 years with a beauty that only God could have created after a few millennia of work.

Yukihime's soul had been shattered, and she had lost consciousness, but then she realized that she was being transported to another place. When she arrived, her pain began to ease, and little by little, she calmed down more and more.

She realized what was happening, like everyone else, her sorrows were being absorbed.

But she didn't want to, she didn't desire that, even though it hurt so much that she almost died, even though it stabbed so much that she cried blood. Forgetting was worse because she would return to a carefree life while someone else suffered.

Then she remembered, she began to remember little by little what was true.

"I see, it was always within me."

Yukihime opened her eyes and remembered everything. Her soul deforming was nothing more than the process of her assimilating what belonged to her. She almost lost it; her soul almost shattered or dispersed countless times, but she persisted.

Her soul was beautiful, so beautiful, incredibly beautiful. Not because it had no flaws or because there had been no tragedy in her life.

It was beautiful because she decided that even though nothing from the past could be changed, she still had the present to correct it.

No longer did the pain, lamentations, regrets, and the like matter; only the future remained to be lived.

She opened her eyes and for the first time saw a man with black hair and eyes at a certain distance from her.

He was sitting with crossed knees, staring at her with a happy but slightly scared expression, like a child caught doing a mischief on the scale of accidentally burning the house.

Beside him, hugging his arm, was a woman as beautiful as Yukihime herself, only instead of emanating a golden light, she emanated silver. In all other aspects, they were the same; undoubtedly, she was another unmatched goddess.

She was the most feared mage and mortal enemy of Yukihime, Ialda.

- I came for you...Tota.

Yukihime uttered a prayer as a tear filled with happiness and longing threatened to fall down her cheek, but in the end, it was contained.

They had finally been reunited.