Gardenia’s Heart

That battle was not confined to the ground.

Step by step, the silver-haired girl shot upward along the trunk of the World Tree.

“I know your fighting spirit is burning, but you’ve gone way too far!” Lily shouted toward the staff floating at her side, her usually impassive face now twisted with panic.

It had been only a test—nothing more. She had carefully poured in no more mana than what was needed to form a few dozen ice crystals. And yet, a pillar so vast it split the heavens had erupted.

The staff, glowing faintly as azure butterflies circled around it, floated near her with confidence and pride despite the scolding it received. Seeing that, Lily could only furrow her brow as she hastened her pace.

Her stardust blade allowed her to channel mana into sharp, devastating strikes. When forming spells, it let her multiply their number while keeping the mana cost low. But what Akasha had done went far beyond that.

“The greatest weapon of all.” Those were Sylvan’s words—the ones Lily had once overheard. She knew that for an Archmage of Sylvan’s stature to say such a thing was no mere jest. Yet even so, to witness something on this scale felt unreal.

“Let’s try again.” Watching Torment continue its climb up the tree with claws and vines, Lily spoke with quiet determination.

Once more, she focused a portion of her mana into a spell. Even without directly touching Akasha, as long as they were close enough, she could channel mana to it.

Then, with a stardust blade in one hand and a blade of ice in the other, she attempted to summon her storm-wings.

Or rather, she tried.

“You’ve got to be kidding me...” The whisper never reached anyone’s ears, for a deafening roar tore through the air.

A blinding white flash erupted, only to be instantly shredded by streaks of blue and orange light.

The static in the air raised the hairs on her body. Lightning—not born of the skies but from her very back—coiled around her like pure energy, splitting into countless arcs that raced across the World Tree.

It was as if the storming heavens themselves were crashing down.

Each bolt seemed alive, a serpent of crackling electricity spewing sparks as it writhed through the air, zigzagging wildly and filling it with the acrid tang of ozone. Within that ocean of fury, the snarling web of lightning surged upward, striking the fae-beast directly.

A guttural scream from the creature merged with the thunderclaps. Its branch-like limbs spasmed violently, and its gaping jaws became seared with burns.

Unable to cling any longer, Torment plummeted. Its grotesque body—a warped mass of burning shadow and corrupted flesh—crashed into the lake with a thunderous impact.

Though it hadn’t been her plan, Lily had succeeded in striking her target. But that didn’t mean she was safe.

The surging blue bolts also converged toward her.

The world turned gray.

With a desperate push, Lily leapt aside, narrowly dodging the first cascade of lightning chains. As time seemed to unfreeze, she braced to leap again and create distance from the next wave—when something she hadn’t anticipated happened.

The repeated impacts of the bolts unleashed shockwaves that rippled through the great tree, shaking its vast body and rendering the surface beneath her unstable.

She slipped.

Barely seconds after releasing her spell, Lily found herself in freefall.

The last bolts still came toward her. Her mind spun, searching for what to do, but before she even dropped a few meters, black wings formed on her back and an obsidian sphere wrapped around her.

Impact after impact crashed against the sphere, yet it did not so much as tremble, absorbing each strike in sequence. Seconds passed until the final lightning faded, and then, as the sphere began to dissolve, Lily’s lips curved into a smile.

“Thank you, Nia.”

Letting out a breath of relief, Lily whispered her gratitude, and in response, she felt a gentle squeeze from a tentacle beneath her dress. Even while facing the Twilight, Nia could still support her as always.

Now, as the fleeting moment of affection with her wife slipped away, guilt clouded Lily’s expression. She swallowed hard and turned her gaze to the vast trunk of the tree. The uncontrolled blue bolts slowly disappeared, leaving behind flaming scorch marks etched deep into the bark.

Cleomel and Selene had warned her many times about foolish mages who lost their lives after losing control of their own spells. Yet, after the day she destroyed herself to kill the guardian Nox with her own magic in the process, Lily had never considered that such a thing could happen to her again.

“Ice crystals swell into mountains, and wings turn into whole storms of lightning...” Her mismatched eyes narrowed as she stared at the floating staff so intently that it began to tremble in panic.

It was her first battle wielding Akasha, and she had tried to test the few spells she knew—but the scale at which they were amplifying sent shivers down her spine.

Forget stopping the new Torment from destroying the World Tree. If her magic slipped even slightly and struck the tree, she could split it in two herself.

With a gentle motion, the black wings created by her wife carried her above the lake where the creature had fallen. Keeping several spells active at once was impossible for Lily, but since Nia controlled her movements, she could focus entirely on attacking.

There was no time to practice controlling the spells magnified by Akasha—she had to fight carefully, or risk destroying the city in the process.

“If possible, I’d rather take it away with a portal... but I doubt it’ll just sit still and cooperate.”

The creature’s incandescent body made the waters boil, steam erupting with such force that its massive frame did not sink.

“One strike won’t be enough, will it?” Lily muttered, tightening her grip on the blades between her fingers.

Though part of the unintended storm had struck it, almost no wounds marked its twisted body apart from burns. Physically, the monster before her seemed to possess a strength equal to—or perhaps greater than—Akasha itself. She would need to land blow after blow, piling on damage until the weight of it all finally brought it down. This was a trial of endurance.

“Akasha, let’s go again—!?”

A chill ran down Lily’s spine before she could even finish the words, and suddenly, the world turned gray.

Her black wings surged, and she shot across the lake at high speed.

Right in front of her, dashing across the bubbling water in that colorless world, Torment was rushing straight toward Lampides.

“Shit.” Lily cursed.

Since Akasha was her only reference for temporal magic in battle, she cursed herself for not realizing it sooner.

Stopping time just to escape, and not to fight.

That possibility had been there all along.

Thanks to Nia’s barrier, she didn’t need to worry about defending herself, but that meant nothing if her opponent had no intention of fighting her in the first place.

“We need to make sure that thing focuses only on me.”

Twisting her arm, Lily gripped the ice sword tightly in her left hand and, using the full torque of her body and the force of her wings, hurled it with a powerful throw.

The bluish blade cut through the mist of the frozen world, striking the lake’s surface meters ahead of the monster. A brilliant flash of azure followed as the water exploded into a massive wave in all directions, forming a jagged wall of ice.

A sharp, reverberating impact rippled through the gray-toned world.

Unable to slow down in time, Torment crashed headlong into the ice wall, shattering it into countless shards.

The mass of flaming shadows and corrupted flesh became tangled in the icy spikes. Thrashing violently, the creature whipped its vines in all directions like rampaging lashes. Its sheer brute force prevailed. In just a second, its body tore free, leaving thousands of bluish fragments falling into the lake like broken glass.

But that brief instant was all Lily needed.

“Sorry, but I can’t let you go any further!”

The girl’s voice rang out alongside an impact. With the soles of her boots, Lily used every ounce of momentum from her wings to stomp down on Torment, driving the monster’s body deep into the lake.

The cold liquid engulfed them both.

The darkness of the water posed no problem—her eyes scanned the surroundings in an instant.

The lake’s depth resembled that of Caligo, deep enough to swallow the monster’s entire form.

Lily didn’t need to breathe, so normally her only concern would have been her movements slowing under the resistance of the dense water. Yet her brows shot up in surprise when she realized it was the exact opposite.

As if a bubble of air wrapped around her, not a single drop touched her body despite the crushing pressure of the lake’s depths.

“Nia, this is amazing!” Lily couldn’t help but cry out in excitement.

Nia’s barrier used to be nothing more than a small black semi-sphere that had to be activated every time Lily was targeted by an attack. But now, not only did it envelop her whole body, it also remained active constantly—and without obstructing her vision. Lily’s attacks passed through without issue, meaning she could swing her sword freely without concern.

Underwater, Torment thrashed madly. Its storm-wings triggered the water’s electrolysis, sending surges of electricity that wracked its body with spasms while its vines and jaws hammered against Lily’s barrier in a desperate bid to break free.

And then—mid-fight—its entire body froze. Not as if it had been encased in ice, but as though, in the span of a single instant, it had become utterly immobile.

The girl did not waste the opportunity.

Tightening her grip on the sword’s hilt, Lily poured mana into the blade, and with a single thrust from her black wings, she lunged forward.

The stardust-forged sword cut with lethal precision, one slash severing several of the flaming vines and carving a violet gash along the creature’s abdomen.

Without the resistance of the water holding her back, Lily had all her speed. Like a silver blur, her blade seemed to dance, delivering strike after strike in rapid succession.

But it couldn’t last.

She was reaching her limit as well.

Colors returned to the world.

And an unbearable sound tore through everything.

From Torment’s throat came not a roar nor a howl, but—muffled by the cold water—a hiss like scalding steam, a sound that made the very depths quake.

The quadruped monster convulsed with newfound fury, its claws sinking into the flesh of its own wounds as though trying to tear the agony out of itself. Violet blood mingled with the lake, staining the water in dark clouds beside severed vines spilling from its back.

The torment—pain with no comprehensible source—wracked it until its senses, blurred by suffering, locked onto the cause.

Pain, confusion, anguish—set aside.

This was not reason. This was primal recognition.

Yellow eyes fixed upon the girl. The source of its torment.

It charged.

“Akasha!” Lily ordered.

A bluish glow burst from the floating staff and from the swarm of butterflies encircling her as the mana circuit completed within her body.

Formally speaking, this had been the very first spell she learned.

An orange brilliance erupted from the depths. The water split and parted as if to make way for something far greater. In an instant, a colossal fireball was born.

Like a miniature sun, it blazed, illuminating the lakebed entirely. Its core burned white-hot, forcing any who looked upon it to clench their eyes shut, the waters around it boiling with relentless heat.

And then, standing squarely between girl and beast, came the reaction.

The lake trembled.

The surface swelled violently, rising into a massive dome of superheated water, ballooning like an underwater volcano—until at last, it exploded.

A colossal column of water surged skyward. It was not clear, but murky, laden with sand and streaked with violet stains. The sound was apocalyptic: a wet, seething roar that made the very air vibrate.

The shockwave, unhindered, hurled both combatants toward the surface.

Shielded by the barrier, Lily felt only a faint push as her wings carried her clear of the blast. Not a drop of water, not the faintest trace of heat reached her skin. The same could not be said of the monster.

Struck head-on by the full impact of the blazing sphere, Torment was tossed violently across the lake’s surface. Its incandescent body had some resistance to fire, but not to the crushing pressure of water and scalding vapor hammering bone and flesh alike.

At last, the wall of water met the cold air, falling back as rain over the lake and part of the forest.

“It was still stronger than I expected…”

Soothing her weary mind with the comforting squeeze of the tentacles against her body, Lily watched the drops of water falling from the sky slide down the barrier without ever touching her.

Since the spells cast through her fairy’s help became far more powerful, Lily considered ways to contain them, given the proximity of the elves’ city.

She wasn’t arrogant enough to claim full understanding of the principle, but she knew two of the pillars of fire were heat and oxygen. If the lake’s water cooled the flames and the vapor born from the explosion consumed the oxygen, the attack could be contained considerably.

Her heterochromatic eyes fixed on Torment as it rose once more, hatred burning in its yellow gaze as it poured all its bloodlust into her. Just as she expected—it was tough.

“Eight seconds, then?” she murmured, her tone low, as Akasha gave a subtle nod of agreement.

Individually, Lily and Akasha could each freeze the world for four seconds. But if Lily cast the spell with Akasha as the catalyst, then at the cost of a slightly slower activation and heavier mental strain, that time stretched to eight seconds.

In a duel between time mages, the one who cast first would hold the advantage of an unavoidable strike. Yet, that wasn’t always the case.

This new Torment seemed bound to something between five and six seconds. So even if they activated at the same time, Lily’s extended hold would guarantee her the inescapable strike in the end.

“We have the advantage.” A sharp little smile formed on Lily’s lips, her silver hair swaying gently in the breeze along with her black cape.

Beneath the surface of the lake, girl and monster stared each other down, poised for battle.

The world turned gray.

Torment charged across the lake’s surface, its blazing body instantly boiling the water beneath its claws into thick vapor.

Lily soared forward at high speed, black wings whipping violent gusts as arcs of lightning crackled around her.

They collided.

One second.

With a sweeping motion, Torment’s claws slashed horizontally, seeking to cleave the girl in half. This time, however, its paw did not smash against the black barrier but instead met a blackened blade.

Sparks erupted in all directions as the stardust-forged sword caught the monster’s strike. By deliberately receiving the blow, Lily guided the claw down the length of her blade, shifting the weight of the ten-meter beast to the side.

Two seconds.

The warped mass of burning shadow and corrupted flesh possessed great resilience against spells, but not against the bite of steel.

The blade’s edge traced a deadly arc across Torment’s body, just as its jaws lunged for her.

A scream of pain erupted. Forcing the maw back with the impact of her sword, Lily carved a deep wound into the beast’s jaw, violet blood spilling in torrents.

Three seconds.

With a mighty leap, the girl now hovered above the creature.

More than ten flaming vines whipped through the air like frenzied lashes, only to be intercepted by violet tentacles. The invertebrate limbs twisted and coiled, locking against one another in a brutal struggle for dominance.

Like a tug-of-war, girl and monster forced each other in opposite directions.

Four seconds.

A crack like the splintering of a tree trunk resounded beneath the lake as all ten vines snapped at once.

Torment’s body collapsed into the water, a cry of anguish tearing from its throat as the violet tentacles struck its flesh again and again.

Five seconds.

The air seemed to freeze, and the pressure of the environment seemed to thin.

At a terrifying speed, thousands of black and blue ice crystals formed in the air around the creature. A dense layer of ice clustered like lights beneath the great lake.

Six seconds.

Torment had fallen, but Lily knew she couldn’t rush. Her magic would only work if her opponent was completely immobilized.

Even though it was resilient, that attack—combining her strength with her wife’s—was devastating enough to bring this to an end. Holding the black blade toward the creature, the girl prepared to deliver the strike that would decide the battle.

Seven seconds.

For the first time, Lily felt uneasy.

Something was wrong.

The time Torment could keep the world frozen had already passed.

She only needed to wait for her inevitable chance to strike...

But it never came.

Eight seconds.

Color returned to the world, and everything around her seemed to spin.

There was no transition. No blur in her vision, no vertigo. It was an instant change of position.

Lily felt the cold water weighing down her clothes.

Her body was lying flat, floating on her back beneath the lake as shards of the barrier that once protected her fell like rain around her. The only fraction of a second she was allowed was just enough to see the enormous shadow cast over her body. A colossal jaw, open like a flaming abyss, was closing right where she lay.

She was going to be swallowed.

The clear, cold conclusion formed in the girl’s mind—there was no more time to react.

And then, a tremendous impact shook the water into violent ripples.

A gasp escaped Lily’s lips just as a massive black wolf, over five meters tall, hurled itself against Torment’s body. A portal, shimmering like a starry sky, opened beneath her immediately, pulling her out from between Torment’s jaws and carrying her to the base of the World Tree.

With solid ground beneath her feet again, the smell of wet grass mixed with the fragrance of flowers filled the air. Lily needed a moment to steady her body and regain her senses, the countless tentacles around her doing their best to calm her down.

But even with her mismatched eyes wide open, Lily turned her head in disbelief. Across the lake, Akasha and Torment were locked in a devastating struggle.

The colossal wolf, protecting its master, was now in its full monstrous form—hundreds of glowing blue eyes spreading across its skin as it focused on the other fae, its tail clashing against the newly grown vines while both maws bit down on one another.

Lily finally understood what had happened.

“Don’t tell me…”

Panic flared through her mind, and she could barely believe the words stuck in her throat.

It was unthinkable.

“That is burning its own life to keep time frozen for longer!”