If you've seen a bird with broken wings falling to the ground, you can anticipate the pitiful yet certain death of that small creature.

Because you know the fall will be fatal.

Similarly, foresight is not something grand. Foresight is something even a child can naturally achieve with sufficient experience and insight.

So you, with your extensive knowledge of combat.

While you cannot exercise foresight about whether a stage performance on a fine day will unfold successfully.

You can see that the mace flying toward you is crimson, its contained mana compressed to the extreme, with a texture that almost appears solid.

You know that such compressed mana can easily blow away an entire building with power to spare. You know it's an impact that human flesh cannot withstand.

You know that only seconds remain until collision.

You know there are means to block the attack, but doing so would be no different from severing your last lifeline.

Based on this wisdom—you sensed your death.

The end of all stories approaches. Death stands waiting at the door of your small room, about to drag you away from better times and cast you into merciless oblivion.

In that oblivion, a single period is all there is.

Fear creeps in. The single character that represents "end" contains infinite unknowns. What happens to a person after death? Does everything truly end like this...?

No one knows. Since no one knows about death, no one can foresee what lies beyond it.

All you know is your own life. All you can foresee is the extension of life. In the final moment, all you can think about is life. Therefore.

Before the curtain call.

We want to talk about your cowardly life.

===============================================================

You are a strong person.

You might think of yourself as weak. But that is not true. Because whittling yourself down through effort is an extremely arduous and difficult task.

Following your mother's wishes by striving every day, studying, wielding a sword, filling the wall of glory—all these processes prove your strength.

Because you endured.

How can one who endured such burdensome monotony be called soft and weak?

However.

You never used your strength for yourself, gave up thinking about your future, never stopped to face yourself when tired, and continuously ran away... You are a coward.

That avoidance is cowardly toward everyone.

You had hundreds, even thousands of opportunities to live for yourself alone.

Since you weren't confined to your family, you could have freely explored the world and found your own answers. You had ample possibility to pursue your own life, starting with small happinesses.

Didn't you even have a good lord who cared for you? Yet the result of obsessively ignoring your own desires is this present moment. A posture of looking toward the opposite of life.

But even now, aren't you still staring at the period?

Life isn't an endless fall from top to bottom. That's not where people should pour all their strength.

The place you should have been looking was slightly to the left. The sentence that has continued until now, and the space between the sentence and the period. This is your "wall of glory" and the will of your future.

Sissel Urensto.

Even if you followed your family's wishes, was your life until now meaningless?

'No.'

Has death ever been as frightening as life, or life as frightening as death?

'Yes.'

Do you like the sentence about embracing dreams and living for the future?

'Yes.'

Did you enjoy the splendid performance with Karen?

'Yes.'

—Then, do you know this story? That some branches can be cut off, planted in the ground, and grow just as they are. That branches can become saplings.

You've only been looking at the leaves hanging from the tip of the branch. But if you shift your gaze slightly to the side, at that moment.

That branch would have been a sapling.

...Do you still want to see the curtain call, Sissel?

.

No, Karen.

I want to fill the space between the sentence and the period with many things I can't even imagine now.

I will sing and dance, however vaguely. And if possible, I hope your name appears frequently in that paragraph.

I'm still afraid. It's still difficult to find courage, and I doubt whether I can really do it. Forgive my weakness. However.

If, as Karen said, this moment's choice is not the last leaf but the first sapling.

I will.

===============================================================

Sissel looked at the approaching mace and drew up her emotions. Emotions are faster than objects and thoughts. In a world that seemed frozen, the ascension blooms.

Wooooong—.

She starts the engine. Dyes her soul...

Her emotions still bear a grayish tint, but there's a blueness mixed in that wasn't visible before. Her soul seemed bewildered by the torrent of distinctly different emotions. Because the pain that should have been felt wasn't there.

-Become a knight worthy of the family.

When the spell binds the soul.

-Would you like to sing together?

Dreams release the soul.

As interwoven emotions repeatedly grip and release, the soul throbs like a pulsating heart, flowing special mana downward from its surface. The mana spreads throughout the body like paint.

What manifests is "Heaviness."

And simultaneously, Faceless's mace fell toward her crown.

Tch.

KWAAAANG—!!

Concentric ripples formed on the ground, and the walls of the abandoned warehouse began to collapse in places with screams. The impact shook the earth itself, reaching even those far away.

Where the mace struck, the ground was completely overturned as if bombed. Soil and stone particles that had shot high into the sky belatedly poured down like rain.

Thud-thud-thud.

Standing in the earth-rain, Faceless muttered.

"...Super acceleration? According to my research, she shouldn't have had such an ability. I've never heard of her possessing related artifacts either. I couldn't detect any signs of activation."

"..."

The mace had missed Sissel.

All that lay there was the crushed blade of a half-broken zweihander.

Sissel appeared at the far end of the abandoned warehouse. She helped Karen up and made her escape outside. It was near-teleportation-like high-speed movement.

Holding the zweihander that had been reduced to half its length, she said:

"Heaviness gained direction."

Feathered Ascension, "Vital Grasp."

The extreme power she once wielded by carving away at her soul was no longer present, but with the reduced power, she could now apply gravity to herself.

Like being carried by invisible hands, that instantaneous high-speed movement was achieved this way.

Clang! Roll-roll-roll.

Faceless kicked away the broken zweihander blade and said:

"Why did you need to do that... If you had manifested your original gravity sword, you could have erased at least half of this body."

"Because I found a path."

"Aha! I get it, you've become weaker? You judged that you couldn't repel my attack... so you decided to move your body instead. You really are deeply ill."

"...It's natural that you don't understand."

Sissel closed her eyes briefly and reopened them.

The mutation of Feathered Ascension. She never imagined she would experience such a rare special event that was only passed down as rumor. It was a strange feeling.

She wouldn't be able to show the same performance as before. But she didn't much regret that loss. It had greatly helped elevate Sissel Urensto's reputation, but ultimately it was a harmful thing that ate away at her life.

That judgment was correct.

Now, with the new ascension she had obtained... she would defeat this villain. That's all.

Spot.

Sissel's form flickered. A gash appeared across Faceless's cheek, and hot blood trickled down. Fast.

Faceless wiped her quickly dampening cheek and complained.

"...This feels unpleasant."

Spot, slash.

With each passing afterimage of Sissel, wounds increased. A leg was cut, and a section of hair flew off. Faceless spun her mace calmly and thought.

She can't control it.

If she could perfectly control speed and direction, she would have taken my head first. There's no reason to just scratch non-vital areas as she passes by.

She's just putting that broken zweihander in front and crudely shooting herself like a bullet. Hoping to hit a vital spot by chance.

Grrrr.

Swish, swish.

She put all her strength into the hand holding the mace. The mace had also bent halfway from the previous strike, but it could still deliver one more full swing. She ignored the minor wounds and waited.

Mana gathered. Crimson mana climbed up the bent mace.

The opportunity would come. The lantern was still swaying, so misfortune would eventually befall Sissel. The moment she charged in at a good angle for Faceless to strike...

I'll send her head flying high into the sky, making her into a star.

Slash-!

This body was just being controlled anyway. It didn't matter if the entire skin was shredded. An ear was cut off, fingers flew away. The precision was gradually increasing. Now, the left arm not holding the mace was severed cleanly from the elbow.

But the precision of the Lantern of Foresight was also increasing. Due to the unexpected mutation of the ascension, the lantern's progress seemed to have decreased significantly... but it could be built up again.

"...Come."

The afterimages were becoming more familiar to the eye. The charging speed was constant. With good calculation, she could launch a counter without misfortune.

Come. Hurry. The opportunity.

And.

Sway.

The invisible lantern swayed.

A flight path that would enter the mace's trajectory perfectly appeared. Faceless gathered all her strength and swung that vicious mana.

"Annoying fly, now die!"

ZZZZZZT—!!

The powerful strike that sent scattered wooden boards on the ground flying upward with just its aftereffects—missed again. By the narrow margin of just one fist.

Because Sissel, who had been flying with high-speed movement, stopped dead in mid-air as if nailed in place.

"...Now I know how to stop too. Unfortunately for you."

"Father, why didn't the lantern activate—"

"Die and disappear. Forever!"

Swoosh.

The cutting sound was remarkably quiet due to skilled technique.

"Ugh, gaack...!"

The half zweihander sliced diagonally through Faceless's puppet. And from that slash, a gravitational force was generated, pulling inward.

Even with reduced power, "Heaviness" manifested inside the body was a fatal wound with no chance of recovery. Even regeneration couldn't fix this. In a few seconds, she would become like a cube of meat.

The dying puppet grinned. She was extremely frustrated and hadn't accomplished what she wanted, but she still had many lives left.

"...See, you. Next, time."

Faceless severed the connection with the puppet, promising a next encounter.

Sissel finished the battle by throwing her zweihander into the puppet's face.

===============================================================

I'm alive.

"..."

The last leaf didn't fall. She had saved Karen, and she was alive. Sissel felt dazed by the surreal luck.

For a brief moment, it felt as if Karen was speaking to her.

No... it felt like she was whispering directly into her heart. And as a result, she had been able to erase the fatal penalty of her ascension.

A miracle. Was the Goddess watching over her?

Sissel kicked away debris at her feet and trudged out of the abandoned warehouse. In the distance, she could see "Courage" tournament arena.

Since she had missed the finals, the mysterious magician X would naturally have won.

Multiple participation in the tournament was not allowed. Sissel's opportunity had ended. The plan to become a hero and find a way to extend her life... was over. That was fine. She wouldn't die immediately, and the mutation of her ascension had stopped the deterioration.

She couldn't restore her soul that had already been deeply scarred...

But that was okay. Even if her life would be short, she should be grateful for surviving today. And think about what to do in the future. There was still plenty of space left between the sentence and the period.

I'll sing, share friendship, and live my life.

A life so abundant that the emptiness of the period won't even be worth a glance.

"...Oh, Miss Sissel? What are you doing here?"

A voice suddenly interrupted her resolution. She turned to see the Mad Magician.

He had helped her. He had intervened in her clash with the Northern Warrior, and provided various conveniences in climbing the tournament.

Black hair and red eyes. If he was the same benefactor who had tracked Karen's location, she would be even more grateful, but he didn't feel like the same person at all.

"Ah, Magician... sir. We met in the carriage with the Prince. Do you perhaps have a twin brother... no, have you seen a red-haired girl nearby?"

"I don't think this is the time to ask such things. Judging by your appearance, you seem to have been caught in some trouble... but everyone's waiting right now."

"Pardon?"

"The finals. X is throwing a tantrum saying they should bring you, so it's still being delayed. My cooperation with the Prince works only if you take a position... aren't you going to hurry?"

Sissel blinked with wide eyes.

If the tournament finals had not yet ended.

Perhaps the chance to receive luck that could heal even her soul. Still in my hands.

"...!!"

Feathered Ascension, "Vital Grasp"...!!

With a whoosh, the knight flew through the air. Perhaps due to her hurry, her trajectory was quite crude, and sometimes drew alarmingly straight lines that made onlookers dizzy. But she was fast.

She'll manage to arrive somehow.

MadMa, who had been watching her with a hand shading his eyes, turned around and leisurely walked away. Now it was time to prepare the epilogue.