If you were to ask how the timing could be so perfect,
The only answer I could give is that it was all too simple and effortless.
From the beginning, the Transcendents' strategy fundamentally revolves around unsettling their opponents.
They prefer to throw the battlefield into chaos—whether through assassinating key figures or engaging in guerrilla warfare.
The reason? They are, after all, vastly outnumbered by humans.
Especially now, when so many of their schemes have failed,
Isaac believed the Transcendents would focus even more intensely on such tactics.
In his past life, the assassination of Princess Adeline had dealt a devastating blow.
This time, too, he was certain they would attempt to assassinate Princess Adeline while attention was diverted to the North.
That was why Isaac had come here, collaborating with the Magic Tower to arrive just in time.
Under normal circumstances, the Magic Tower would have been skeptical of Isaac's claims.
Mages, by nature, tend to disregard anyone who isn't one of their own.
But the Tower Master, now aware of Isaac's uniqueness, had no choice but to offer full trust and support.
And that was precisely why Isaac had been able to arrive here right on time.
Twin blades slid from their sheaths.
The unique draw technique known as "Flying Wings," exclusive to Isaac.
Amid the fluttering motion resembling a bird's wings, Isaac spoke.
"Why did you abandon me?"
"...!"
CRASH!
The clash of steel resonated, but the shock that struck Liana's heart ran far deeper.
The cold, penetrating question dredged up the fundamental guilt she carried.
The hesitation in her heavy swings was unmistakable.
Answering felt like holding a blade in her mouth, cutting her own tongue—yet the curse of her transformation into an Apostle denied her the right to silence.
"I… abandoned you—"
CLANG!
Another metallic ring.
Matching the force behind the greatsword was no easy task.
But Isaac refused to back down. Even if just to prolong this conversation, he gritted his teeth and poured strength into his grip until his sword threatened to shatter.
"You abandoned me."
"...!"
"For four years, you left me behind—and in the end, I broke."
His blade hardened, entwined with fury and sorrow.
"You were the one who destroyed me the most."
Never in either of his lives had he spoken so openly.
They had always been composed, always proper, believing that was how they showed consideration for one another.
But no.
There comes a time—
When one must cast it all aside.
"That's right… I—"
Liana's expression darkened abruptly. The subjugation transformation forced her to spill every thought that surfaced, even if the words came out disjointed.
"I abandoned you—"
"Why?!"
For a brief moment, Isaac's blade forced Liana's greatsword back.
His face twisted in rage—yet,
"Ghhh—!"
"Ugh—! Khh!"
What poured from his Spectral aura was not anger, but tears.
As his aura clashed against Liana's Crimson Aura, it wailed with a ferocity that matched her power, as though voicing the anguish of his heart.
"Because Mother was going to kill you…! If I stayed close to you, Lohengrin would have crushed you even harder—!"
BOOM!
Isaac staggered back slightly.
Watching him, Liana wept.
"You were too precious to me—!"
Words she should never have spoken.
Words she believed she must never say.
But her cruel tongue betrayed her heart and refused to stop.
"You were my weakness!"
"In their eyes, you were too easy to break."
"So I couldn't let you be seen as someone I cared about. I had to make it look like I regretted our childish marriage. Only then—!"
THUD.
A deep, heavy step forward.
"Only then would you stop getting hurt!"
This time, it was Liana who lunged, swinging her sword at Isaac.
The Crimson Descent Aura surged like wildfire, carried by the wind as it descended upon him.
Isaac's twin blades spun like a windmill, his spectral aura twisting the flow of the her aura—just as he had done against Lohengrin during the Sword Festival.
"Liana, you were the one who hurt me the most."
"...!"
"Just—! Just you pulling away from me. That alone drowned out every other pain—!"
He knew he should avoid a direct clash.
But Isaac didn't evade.
His Spectral aura, infused with the Crimson Aura, collided with Liana's. His body was momentarily pushed back, but he braced himself desperately, barely managing to hold his ground.
"That was what hurt me the most."
Close quarters.
A desperate whisper.
Amid the wailing of his spectral aura, his quiet voice sent Liana's emotions into turmoil.
"I'm sorry."
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Isaac."
"Why didn't you stay with me?"
"I'm sorry."
"Just having you there would have been enough."
"I'm sorry."
"That mansion—you were the only reason it felt like home to me—"
"I'm… truly sorry."
Her trembling voice clung to the edge of her blade.
"I was foolish."
"..."
"I thought I could never protect you forever. I believed I had my limits."
Killing or hurting Isaac would have been too easy.
As a human, Liana needed sleep—he could have been killed in such a moment.
Even something as simple as poisoning his food or utensils would have been enough.
"The tighter I held you, the harder they would have tried to tear you away. I thought… you wouldn't survive the tug-of-war between us."
"If I had to die—"
It would have hurt less than this.
The look on Isaac's face made Liana's expression darken abruptly, as if gripped by terror.
As though her heart had spoken, she desperately swung her sword to put distance between them.
"Please… don't say that."
"..."
"I still wanted you to live."
"Even that was too much to ask of me."
The weight of shock, wounds, and self-blame pressed down on Liana Helmut's shoulders.
"So… that's how it was."
"Yes. That's how it was."
She knew her words would wound.
But they had to be said.
Now, in this moment, she couldn't hide her emotions any longer.
Tears streaming down her face, Liana confessed like a sinner at the gallows.
"Back then… I couldn't choose anyone."
"..."
"Between my family and you. I knew… I had to cut one away, but I couldn't bring myself to do it."
Yes, that was how it had been.
But now, she knew.
"I should have made a choice."
Liana's Crimson Aura began to ripple—chaotic and emotional, like the tears she shed.
"I struggled, over and over, between you and my family. But in the end… I couldn't decide."
Liana now understood.
Even if love held beauty, there were times when it became shackles.
"Yes, you're right. My mistake was not choosing."
What she chewed on was regret and self-reproach.
The guilt of her own powerlessness.
The bitterness of her foolish past.
"I should have either abandoned my family… or let you go."
A bitter, complicated smile formed as Liana's greatsword slowly rose toward the sky.
The Crimson Aura radiating from her blade carried an ominous intensity.
A life of nothing but regrets.
No one lives without mistakes—but the responsibility for them still falls on the one who made them.
"Where did I go wrong?"
Tears mixed with her crimson hair as it whipped wildly in the wind.
"The affectionate words from my mother in my childhood… the stiff but always shared family meals… the father I admired."
Things she had never thought to cherish had quietly piled up, tangling around her ankles.
"If even one of them had been missing—"
Amid the surging Crimson Aura, Liana began preparing herself to accept the inevitable end—one steeped in regret and resignation.
"Could I have left that mansion with you?"
Regret piled upon regret.
The consequences of her choices and indecision came to her like fate itself.
And he was coming for her.
Her greatsword, laden with the weight of the Crimson Aura, descended.
"Crimson Love's End."
The final stroke of her sword, carrying the sorrow of that day.
Liana Helmut's full strength—the same that had once split the river to reach him.
"Even if everything else is drowned in regret—"
Amid the sorrow and remorse,
If there was one thing she couldn't let go of—
"The day I met you—"
She could never call it a mistake.
She refused to regret it.
Even if it killed her.
By now,
Isaac's spectral aura had fallen silent.
As if it had shed all its tears, as if there was nothing left to pour out.
It settled cold and sharp upon his blade, carrying only resolve.
Like silk being sliced apart, the Crimson Descent Aura was severed.
The river-splitting strike of Crimson Love's End was now split in return, opening a path forward.
"If there is a god—"
Liana closed her eyes softly and whispered.
"I thank them… for letting me pay for my sins."
The man she loved most had come to kill her.
The cruelest possible ending had been prepared for her—and for that, she was grateful.
By now, her tears had dried, and the roses had wilted.
"My lilac."
May you bloom in full.
If, in the past you overcame,
I am remembered only as a foolish, fleeting woman—
Then, as long as you remember me at all—
That would be enough.
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[TL Note]
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