Shock. Dismay. Utter disbelief.
Those were the only emotions flickering in Sheris' eyes as she stared down at the stone spear jutting clean through her chest. She had considered countless ways Ur might react, but never in her wildest imaginings did she think things would end like this.
This wasn't how the script was supposed to go!
Even Jelka, hardened by years of battle, was struck dumb. Her pupils shrank to pinpoints, and disbelief froze her features as she watched Ur's spear impale both Sheris and Jeris in a single strike.
The battlefield fell silent.
Only the echo of Ur's footsteps rang against the ground, each step sounding sharper, harsher, in the stillness.
"Why?" Jelka's voice cracked with anger and despair. Tears welled up as she stared at Jerris's lifeless body crumpled on the ground. "Why would you do this? He was your comrade!" Her words carried anger, but behind it was a raw, aching disappointment.
Ur blinked, genuinely confused, before answering with the first words he'd spoken since the battle began. "Who told you he was my comrade? That guy was just a thief I caught during my mission."
Sheris: "!!"
Jelka: "!!"
The words landed like a hammer.
Ur could practically see the way their expressions froze solid.
Especially Jelka, her tear-stained face went utterly blank. She just stood there, lips parted in stunned disbelief, unsure whether to laugh or cry. With her round, damp eyes and dazed expression, she looked pitifully cute.
As for Sheris, her heart was in shambles. If she had the strength left, she would have screamed at him: Are you out of your damn mind? What kind of lunatic drags a half-dead thief into battle just to slow himself down?
But she had no strength left.
Ur's strike had been a killing blow, aimed directly at her vitals. The only reason she was still standing was that she forced her magic to keep her body upright. But now, after hearing Ur's words, even that thread of willpower snapped.
Her life was slipping away fast.
Summoning the last of her breath, she glared at Ur and rasped, "Brat!"
Ur tilted his head slightly, glancing over.
Sheris opened her mouth one last time, forcing out her final words.
And then, with a heavy crash, her body hit the ground.
Ur's expression darkened immediately.
Because those final words, if translated bluntly, meant something like: "Go to hell, you bastard…"
Being cursed at by a dying enemy left Ur with a peculiar feeling.
At first, it was frustrating. If someone cursed at him while alive, he could at least curse them back. But a corpse? He wasn't about to stoop to grave-cursing, even if the corpse happened to belong to a beautiful woman.
But the moment a torrent of raw magic surged out of Sheris' fallen body, all traces of irritation vanished.
She was not like the fodder he'd slain before.
Even among Devil's Fang, she had stood as a high-ranking combatant. Her magic power pressed at the very threshold of S-Class. Even if only a tenth of that vast reservoir entered him, it was still an astronomical gain.
Ur's body swelled with new magic, and though Jelka noticed, she held her tongue. Their relationship wasn't close enough for her to pry into his secrets.
Having learned his lesson from Erza, Ur wasted no time. Without hesitation, he walked straight over to Sheris' corpse and began rifling through her belongings.
In this world, not every mage carried their entire fortune in enchanted space-items—it simply wasn't practical. So Ur hadn't expected much from her.
Ur didn't expect much. After all, Sheris's shredded armor left little to the imagination.
But to his surprise, he actually found something.
From Sheris's body, he pulled out a tightly rolled parchment. His eyes gleamed as he unrolled it. It wasn't money, but something far rarer, Sheris' personal magic: Whitefire Magic.
Ur skimmed the runes, then tucked them safely away. No gold, true. But a rare, powerful spell like this? That was a treasure in its own right. He wasn't picky when it came to loot. He was easy to please. Spoils of war were spoils of war.
After pocketing his prize, he finally turned toward Jeris. There was no saving him.
When Ur cast the spear, he hadn't aimed to spare Jeris. He had driven the weapon straight through the thief's heart. That was the only way to justify his claim on the reward for the stolen gold.
With Jeris gone, the mission was technically a failure.
But with Sheris slain and gold in his hands, Ur didn't care. Dragging around a corpse wasn't an option.
So once everything was settled, Ur strode over to Jelka. Despite her weak protests, he scooped her up without hesitation and carried her out of Moya City at a swift pace.