Gardenia’s Heart

Lily trusted her instincts completely.

As someone who constantly threw herself into situations where her life could be placed in danger, that intuitive sense which transcended logic itself was the force capable of tipping the scales between death and survival.

And because of that, she knew.

“This fire is dangerous.”

Feeling a single drop of sweat slide down her cheek before vanishing, the silver-haired girl took a step back while staring at the majestic emerald phoenix before her.

This was a problem.

Every nerve in Lily’s body made her aware of that fact.

Her wife’s barrier was not weak, yet even it could not fully dissipate the heat radiating from that creature, even from this distance.

Having been constantly protected by Nia’s magic day after day, Lily had long since become accustomed to the sensation of her wife’s barrier surrounding her.

And after witnessing Bahamut shatter that same barrier with a single punch, Lily had developed an intuitive understanding of what kinds of attacks could—or could not—break through those defenses.

She could not allow the phoenix to touch her. Her instincts were absolutely certain of that.

Without wasting another second, Lily bent her knees and burst forward with explosive force. Just as she expected, the furious phoenix immediately gave chase.

Beating its wings, the creature of emerald flames twisted its body midair as it accelerated after the girl.

The cavern was large, but not endless. Even though it had been created through magic, something within the spell’s conditions forced Cicuta’s creation to move as closely as possible to a real living being. Because of that, despite being only three meters tall, the phoenix could not fly freely through such uneven terrain.

Like a caged bird, the flaming creature could not reach its maximum flight speed.

But the same applied to Lily.

“Feels like giant opponents are always chasing me,” Lily muttered.

Using a nearby boulder as footing, she leapt toward the cavern wall. Even without anything to grip onto, her running speed was enough to defy gravity itself, allowing her to sprint along the rocky surface.

If they had been outside, then even if maintaining them during battle consumed additional mana, using her storm wings for three-dimensional combat would have been ideal. However, in enclosed spaces, those wings would only slow her down.

“Let’s see what you can do,” Lily whispered.

Like a violent wave crashing against the shore and leaving behind a line of white foam upon the sand, a beautiful trail of snow and ice formed everywhere Lily’s feet touched.

To the naked eye, the pale curtain resembling the arrival of winter was a majestic spectacle.

But to a creature made of flame, it could not have been more lethal.

Flying after the girl, the phoenix’s massive body was soon swallowed by the freezing haze.

Its line of flight obstructed, the flaming creature spun violently. The instant evaporation of the ice upon contact with its wings created an enormous cloud of steam almost immediately.

The ice was thin and fragile—only enough to briefly lower the temperature of the outermost layer of its feathers—yet the sheer quantity of it was so overwhelming that the blazing bird was forced crashing down to the ground.

A powerful crack echoed through the cavern, and a massive cloud of dirt and sand was thrown into the air at the moment of impact.

Even though the bird was made of fire, the combustion still generated shockwaves strong enough to affect its surroundings.

Hidden within the dust cloud, Lily descended toward the phoenix, which was already preparing to take flight once more. With a blade of ice in each hand, she closed the distance in a single second, the infernal heat becoming increasingly unbearable the closer she drew to the flaming silhouette.

“It’s like walking toward a furnace.”

Clenching her teeth, Lily muttered under her breath, certain that if not for Nia’s barrier protecting her, her skin would already be suffering third-degree burns from this distance alone.

Planting her foot firmly against the ground and leaping upward, Lily twisted her body in a spiraling motion midair, bringing her glacial blade directly toward the phoenix’s head.

It was a precise strike.

Even with the intense heat making it difficult to keep her eyes open and the phoenix’s outline partially distorted within the dust cloud, the silver-haired girl executed the movement with flawless precision.

And yet, before she had even completed half the arc of her swing, Lily felt the bluish blade in her right hand completely evaporate.

The instant the phoenix noticed its target directly before it, it abandoned any attempt at flight, bending its legs and lunging forward with its razor-sharp beak.

Finishing the strike with only one remaining weapon, Lily knew the same thing would happen to the other sword if she tried to continue. She had to improvise.

Without a single moment of hesitation, she released the blade in her left hand.

The ice sword flashed brilliantly before exploding midair. A powerful navy-blue burst of light erupted outward, sending an icy shockwave in every direction and forcing both Lily and the emerald phoenix backward in opposite directions.

Quickly regaining control, Lily landed several meters away, her differently colored eyes narrowing as she observed her opponent.

Half of its head… and its entire right wing.

Those were the portions of the blazing bird her attack had extinguished, as though a raging fire had simply gone out.

And yet, despite losing part of its body, the creature began slowly reconstructing itself, as if being reborn from its own embers.

“This is like fighting a dragon…” Lily murmured.

A being that would endlessly rebuild itself as long as it still possessed the strength to regenerate. It was not truly alive, yet that realization did nothing to make it easier to face.

“Don’t think my spell will be destroyed as easily as the flames from before.” Cicuta laughed as she watched Lily gradually being cornered.

If she extinguished the phoenix’s entire body at once, would the spell finally end? Lily wondered before shaking her head.

She was not fighting a monster.

She was fighting a mage.

And in a duel against a mage, the best way to interrupt a spell was to incapacitate the caster.

Turning sharply, Lily burst into a sprint. Her target was the beautiful white-haired woman staring at her with a smug smile upon her face.

A single blink was all it took for two massive ice crystals—each as large as tree trunks—to form beside Lily and surge forward.

“Foolish human.”

Cicuta spat the words between laughter as she watched the freezing attack carve through the air toward her.

Surrounded by a literal sea of flames, the dragon woman did not take a single step to evade. Extending both hands forward, Cicuta commanded the fire to engulf the incoming magic.

Lily’s spell was dense enough to make the dragon woman briefly grimace as her mind worked furiously to manipulate the flames with exact precision.

Nearly a meter long. Perhaps only a tenth of their original size, yet small enough for her to seize the ice spikes with her bare hands and bring them directly to her mouth.

The instant they touched her fangs, both crystals vanished. Once again, her body replenished the mana reserves constantly being drained by feeding on her opponent’s magic.

By limiting herself to merely weakening the ice crystals enough to grab them, Cicuta could intercept Lily’s attacks and then devour them.

“Do you still not understand?” Cicuta shouted mockingly, making no effort whatsoever to hide the euphoria overtaking her. “The stronger my opponent’s magic is, the more mana I can obtain from it.”

Without even having the chance to consider another attack, Lily was forced to leap aside as the cavern echoed with the fiery impact of the phoenix’s massive body crashing into the place where she had stood a second earlier.

Grabbing onto one of the cavern walls and hanging there momentarily, the silver-haired girl began analyzing her situation.

If she did not use enough mana, her attacks would never pierce through even the outermost layer of emerald flames.

But if she used too much, the dragon woman would simply devour them.

Releasing the wall and dodging the phoenix’s next assault, Lily sprinted away from the scorching heat while her thoughts raced.

The way to prevent Cicuta from restoring her mana was obvious: defeat her without using magic.

However, that was far easier to think about than to actually accomplish.

If Lily stopped using her ice to cool herself and the surrounding area, the interior of the cavern would become Cicuta’s territory entirely.

Enduring the temperature and resisting the phoenix was not impossible, but there was another problem.

“Tsk!”

Clicking her tongue, Lily leapt into the air, her storm wings manifesting for a brief instant to help her escape a bottomless crater that suddenly opened beneath her feet.

The terrain of the Valley of Dawn had already been dangerous enough on the surface, but deep underground, it proved far worse.

With the environment this unstable, if even more extreme conditions were unleashed, it would not take long for the cave structure itself to collapse.

Lily could not allow Tiamat’s elder brother’s corpse to remain buried beneath the earth for all eternity.

“Getting close while she still has mana really is impossible… I’ll have to exhaust her all at once.”

The very last thing Lily wanted right now was a battle of endurance that dragged on for hours.

Sunset was rapidly approaching, and the time she had requested for the trial would soon arrive. If she failed to bring the evidence she had promised, she would lose her final chance to prove the innocence of the elf delegation.

And beyond that, she had one more reason that outweighed all the others.

“Mommy…”

Holding tightly onto her mother, Rose—who had hidden against Lily’s back since the battle began exactly as instructed—whispered anxiously.

Rose had briefly seen that woman during the banquet before.

But the hateful radiance she was witnessing now, the sheer malice emanating from Cicuta…

It was terrifying.

“It’s okay, Rose. Trust me.”

Speaking gently, Lily comforted her daughter.

Held by the purple tentacles of her metamorph mother while clinging tightly to the back of her human mother, Rose nodded and hugged Lily as hard as she could, trying to calm her racing heart.

Feeling her daughter slowly settling down, Lily began walking forward at a slow pace. The phoenix that had relentlessly pursued her until now stood motionless before Cicuta, burning fiercer than ever.

“Let’s finish this already, shall we?” Tilting her head slightly, Cicuta spoke in a bored tone, her golden tail and aurora-shaped wings swaying gently behind her.

“I think this might be the first time I’ve agreed with you.”

A dense mass of ice slowly began forming around the girl, the ground beneath her feet becoming covered by a soft layer of white snow.

“There’s no reason to drag this out any longer.”

Once again within that cavern, two lights, two temperatures, two emotions rose to their absolute peak and stood against one another.

On one side, a sea of emerald fire flickered violently, flames licking across the ground and reducing everything to ash.

On the other, an icy blue transformed the earth into a frozen field of snow, hexagonal crystals materializing throughout the air.

The first to move was the fire.

“Disappear for eternity!”

Pointing forward with a single finger, Cicuta commanded the phoenix to attack. Beating its wings, steam exploded upward as the blazing creature surged toward the glacial domain ahead like the fury of a thousand suns.

And then, the woman beloved by ice spoke her words.

“[Diamond Doom]”

A sharp crackling sound, like shattering glass, seemed to rise from the depths of the earth itself. Emerging from beneath the ground like roots, enormous chains of gleaming blue ice shone like precious gemstones. Each link, meticulously sculpted, formed a structure flawlessly crafted down to the final millimeter.

Sliding across the ground and surging through the air, the frozen chains coiled around the phoenix’s body, climbing across each of its limbs as though they possessed lives of their own.

At the top of the cavern, the two spells clashed against each other.

The flaming bird twisted violently with savage movements, struggling to escape chains as thick as tree trunks. Yet whenever it managed to free one wing for even a single instant, another chain immediately appeared to restrain it once more.

An intense cracking noise continued growing louder and louder, while a massive cloud of steam rose upward like an inverted funnel before spreading throughout the cavern.

The cold was not extinguishing the flames.

It was suffocating them.

At the same time, the fire struggled to carve an escape route through the ice.

This was not a battle between living beings.

It was a battle between two spells, each desperately trying to fulfill the will of its master.

Lily was not like her wife. She could not perform complex multi-casting. With both hands extended forward, she poured every ounce of determination into the frozen chains, making no hidden attempt at another attack.

It was a pure and honest final strike, devoid of tricks or deception.

Pouring all of her mana into the spell, she continued controlling the chains while sweat streamed heavily down her face.

Likewise, Cicuta furrowed her brow.

Planting her feet firmly against the ground, the dragon woman struggled with everything she had to keep the phoenix’s flames from being completely extinguished by the overwhelming cold radiating from the crystalline chains.

The destructive power was immeasurable.

The equivalent of years’ worth of accumulated mana was vanishing within seconds.

The human was far stronger than Cicuta had anticipated.

Their two spells were perfectly matched. Neither could overpower the other, and the clash would only end once their casters collapsed from exhaustion.

“Damn it…”

Cicuta felt the strength fading from her ankles. Her knees buckled as her body instinctively searched for a way to remain standing despite the overwhelming fatigue.

If this continued, she would run out of mana first. She was certain of it.

“Hahaha.”

But unlike the foolish human recklessly confronting her final attack head-on…

Cicuta still had her trump card.

Taking a deep breath, Cicuta poured every last fragment of her remaining mana directly into the phoenix. As expected, even that sudden surge of power only allowed the blazing bird to free both of its wings, but that alone would be enough.

With a flick of her wrist, Cicuta commanded the phoenix toward the ground.

For the first time since the battle began, the dragon woman moved from her spot, running toward the impact site without caring how pathetic or ugly her sprint might look.

With no mana left within her reserves, her spell would last only another minute at most, but that no longer mattered.

Grabbing onto the frozen chains beginning to coil around the phoenix’s wings, Cicuta bent her body forward and sank her fangs directly into the ice.

Unlike the fools of her clan, who had never learned to use their innate ability for anything beyond hunting, Cicuta understood the true potential of her power.

A sound resembling shattering glass echoed the instant her jaws closed around the frozen chains.

It did not matter how complex or powerful a spell was.

If she could bite it, she could devour it.

The moment she consumed the human’s magic, her mana would return.

Like an oasis in the middle of a desert, that woman’s ice would quench her thirst for mana.

One chain, then another, and another after that.

With every frozen chain she devoured, a little more of her mana returned.

Chain after chain, she would consume that overwhelmingly powerful spell and make its strength her own.

That was how it should be.

It had to be.

But…

Even so…

Something had been bothering Cicuta ever since the beginning.

“Why does your magic contain so little mana within its structure?”

The oasis did not quench her thirst.

Pulling her mouth away with widened eyes, Cicuta tried to keep herself from stumbling on trembling legs, but the lack of strength caused her to collapse onto the filthy ground.

It made no sense.

None of it made sense.

The more powerful and complex a spell was, the more mana it required.

That was an absolute truth for everyone.

A spell this magnificent. A power capable of rivaling her strongest magic should have required an absurd quantity of mana to create.

So how?

How did this human’s magic contain even less mana than those ice stakes she had launched earlier?

“Let’s just say I have an ally who was dying to do something.”

With a smile across her sweat-covered face, Lily tilted her head slightly, her differently colored eyes glancing toward the wooden staff at her waist, whose spectral butterflies fluttered as though desperate to break free.

Although the black wolf would have become furious, Lily could not fully manifest Akasha to serve as the frontline in this battle.

A fairy’s body was composed almost entirely of mana. Even one considered nearly monstrous due to its dark mana constitution could not risk being devoured by Cicuta’s fangs within seconds.

However, direct attacks were not her fairy’s only ability.

By multiplying the potential of a spell to the point of making it almost uncontrollable, the creature bearing the title of The Time Reaper revealed its true power when fighting alongside its master.

“It’s a pretty big meal, but I don’t think it’s going to satisfy you very much. Sorry about that, okay?”

Looking down at the dragon woman collapsed on the ground, Lily spoke with a soft laugh.

It was little mana.

Far too little mana.

Rolling onto her back on the ground, Cicuta began crawling toward where the phoenix had vanished, panic steadily overtaking her heart.

“N-No… No!”

Stammering between broken sobs, the woman tried to move faster. However, with no mana left to sustain the phoenix of fire, her greatest spell vanished like a candle being snuffed out.

Dropping to her knees, Cicuta shook her head desperately, trying to deny the sight before her eyes. Her aurora-shaped wings trembled violently. She could no longer fly. Her body was filthy, and her vision had become blurred.

This was not over yet.

As nausea began threatening to drag bile up from her stomach while overwhelming terror consumed her, Cicuta collapsed onto the ground and desperately searched across the dirt with trembling hands.

She needed something to absorb mana from. Anything.

Even the mana-rich herbs growing in the soil would do.

Anything.

She needed to absorb something so she could continue fighting.

“What is this!?”

However, before her fingers could find anything to bite, her entire body was suddenly lifted from the ground, and a scream escaped her lips.

“As long as your fangs can’t reach anything, we shouldn’t have any problems, right?”

Resting one hand against her waist, Lily observed the numerous purple tentacles now wrapped tightly around Cicuta’s slender body, immobilizing her completely from head to toe.

“I’m guessing you’d try to absorb the mana from any healing spell we used on you, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t struggle too much and accidentally hurt yourself even more.”

Letting out a sigh as Cicuta uselessly attempted to bite through the tentacles restraining her, Lily shook her head in clear exhaustion.

“Mama Lily, can’t she turn into a giant dragon to escape?”

Finally realizing it was safe to emerge from beneath the cloak, Rose peeked over her mother’s shoulder at the restrained dragon woman.

Even completely immobilized and exhausted, the presence radiating from Cicuta remained frightening enough that Rose did not dare look directly into her eyes, keeping her attention fixed on her mother instead.

“Mimicking a humanoid form is an innate ability shared by all dragons, but considering how exhausted she is, I doubt she can manage it. Actually, if she tries and passes out in the process, that would be even better for us, so it wouldn’t really be a problem.”

Pulling Rose into her arms, Lily quickly hugged the little girl and rubbed their cheeks together several times.

“Mama Lily, you’re sweaty!” Rose protested.

“My strength is completely drained. I need to recharge by absorbing the cuteness of my baby.”

“I-If that’s the reason, then it’s okay. Mama Lily was amazing.”

Somehow accepting her mother’s logic, Rose allowed herself to be hugged and wrapped her arms tightly around Lily’s neck.

“D-Don’t act… don’t act like you’ve already won…”

Even with exhaustion so overwhelming that it was difficult to keep her eyes open, Cicuta spoke in a tone that made it clear she believed this was not over.

“Even if you take me prisoner, none of the other dragons will believe you! No matter what you do, the war will still happen! Everyone will die!”

“Do you need any more confirmation, or is this enough already?”

Simply turning her back on the dragon woman, Lily stared toward the entrance of the cavern.

“Hoho… this is far more than enough, my terrifying young warrior lady.”

The rough voice, still carrying traces of a lingering hangover, arrived together with slow yet sincere applause.

His figure was short and broad, with a long, thick beard stained by the soot of the forge. Deep wrinkles carved through his face, and two black eyes stared into the depths of the cavern.

Cicuta recognized him immediately.

“Ipomoea… you? What are you doing here?” the dragon woman asked in confusion.

“Simply repaying a favor I received from a certain lover of alcohol.”

Ipomoea scratched his beard with a grin, and Cicuta immediately turned her widened eyes toward Lily, who merely shrugged.

“Even if I dragged you back by force and claimed you confessed, they wouldn’t listen to me, right? But what about the respected leader of the dwarf delegation?” Lily explained.

“And that’s not all. You recorded everything, didn’t you, Mioculca?”

Turning around, the old dwarf looked toward a younger man of the same height, holding a small rectangular object in his hands.

“Y-Yes, Elder!”

Adjusting the glasses threatening to slide off his face due to how much his body trembled, Mioculca struggled not to stutter.

“Let’s put your new invention to the test. Even if they refuse to believe this old man’s words, they won’t be able to deny that.” Scratching his beard once more, Ipomoea let out a loud, raspy laugh. “Besides, it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to doubt her words now… Even I nearly got killed several times just from watching. With strength like this, defeating Lord Fafnir truly wouldn’t have been impossible.”

“Of course not! Mama Lily is the strongest of all! That evil woman was never a problem.”

Still diligently “recharging” her mother’s energy by rubbing their cheeks together, Rose declared triumphantly.

“In truth, she really was a troublesome opponent… at least under these circumstances.”

Lily was not lying.

After all, this had been a battle fought under numerous self-imposed restrictions.

If she had used her time-stopping magic to defeat Cicuta too quickly, they would not have obtained proof demonstrating how skilled the dragon woman truly was with magic—evidence necessary to present before the clans.

This confrontation needed to display Lily’s strength clearly enough to prove that she truly could have defeated Fafnir, preserving the honor of the former leader of the Wing Clan, while simultaneously proving that Cicuta was responsible for Tiamat’s situation.

By deliberately restraining herself from defeating Cicuta too quickly, and even avoiding the use of her fairy until the very end, Lily managed to accomplish her goals at the cost of considerable exhaustion.

“Well, avoiding using Akasha until the end definitely helped catch her off guard,” Lily whispered tiredly, hugging and kissing the little girl in her arms as though she could not bear to go another second without it.

“I was told I should wait for my transportation, but to think you would bring us here to watch your battle using teleportation magic.” Still scratching his beard, Ipomoea stepped closer, observing Lily with curious eyes. “Who would’ve thought the legacy of The Mad Slaughter would bloom once more within that family after so many years.”

“This ‘slaughter’ thing again? What exactly do you mean by that?” Lily asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Hoho… don’t mind the nostalgia of an old soldier.” Ipomoea waved the question aside. “Now then, humor this old man for a moment, would you? Lady Thelira explained some details about how you planned to use this dragon’s corpse to lure out the culprit. But tell me… how were you so certain it was the former missing leader of the Fang Clan?”

The way Ipomoea deliberately avoided answering her question irritated Lily, but deciding to leave it for another time—and somewhat surprised by the respectful manner in which he now referred to Thelira—she fell silent for a moment before turning her gaze toward the massive dragon skeleton.

“Even with the perfect façade expected of a respected leader, there was one moment when Tiamat allowed her emotions to control her actions.”

Gently stroking the silver hair of the little girl in her arms, Lily formed a faint smile.

“When Rose greeted her, the explosive reaction she showed before collapsing never left my mind. Someone like Tiamat didn’t seem like the type who would react that way no matter what my daughter said or how she behaved in her presence. There had to be something else that pushed her to that point.”

“Something else, you say?” Ipomoea asked.

“Catching the scent of the fangs belonging to a brother who disappeared centuries ago would be a reasonable explanation, wouldn’t it?” Lily replied with a smile.

Rose immediately grabbed the daggers she carefully kept hidden beneath her dress.

“So it was my daggers…” the little girl murmured, staring at the Moon Fangs as they continued to gleam even within the dimly lit cavern.

When Tiamat had knelt before her and desperately tried to ask where she had obtained them, it had been the weapons she was asking about.

At the moment Rose found the dragon’s body down here, she had not thought deeply about it, so the possibility of something like this occurring had never crossed her mind.

“You fools, none of this will matter. They will never believe I was capable of doing all this.”

Still immobilized and suspended in the air by the purple tentacles, Cicuta continued trying to protest.

“Yes, yes, you can complain later. You’ll still have your chance to present a defense. Because right now…”

Lily began speaking just as a purple glow filled the massive cavern, a portal resembling a star-filled sky opening before them.

“We have a trial to attend.”