The world is red.

I can hear a heartbeat. My own.

Amidst the blood-drenched world, the monster is walking toward me.

With a bare hand, it pulls out the blade lodged in its neck. The wound closes in an instant, the mist of blood vanishing. The severed right arm has not regenerated, but the wound is now filled with flesh.

“…Monster…”

Darkness consumes my right field of vision. My eyesight is gone.

The creature stops before me and bends its knees. Then, grabbing my hair with its left hand, it stands, lifting me into the air.

Ah, how infuriating my own foolishness is.

I let my guard down. I thought I had won, and I relaxed. A fatal mistake. If this were Blythe’s body, I might have endured. I could have kept fighting. But in the ten-year-old body of Eremia, I can barely move.

Yet beyond the monster, I see the despairing faces of my young classmates.

I must save them. Draw it. Draw the stiletto. As I move my hand, the monster speaks.

For the first time, it speaks.

“…Ha…te…ful… Kill… hum…ans…”

As if hurling its hatred at me.

“…We… are… a… live…”

It releases my hair and clenches its fist.

That fist no longer glows. The monster, too, has sustained considerable damage.

I barely manage to draw my stiletto, blocking the oncoming fist with the flat of the blade—

The moment the impact lands, the blade shatters and flies from my hand. A shock runs through both my shoulders. Though I was already falling, my feet never touch the ground as I am hurled backward—

Ah, this is it. I’m dead. Is reincarnation truly a one-time miracle?

The stone wall rushes toward me. I don’t even need to look. My head will smash into it, and it will be over.

But in that instant, a shadow darts into the gap between me and the wall.

“El—tan!!”

A sickening crunch echoes as two bodies collide.

It’s Miku. Fool. If you had the time to do this, you should have fled alone. With your Stealth Arts, you might have escaped.

I collapse on the ground with Miku beneath me.

He grits his teeth, blood bubbling from his lips. The stiletto is gone. The sword is gone. I can no longer fight. My body is in tatters. A ten-year-old’s body is far too fragile.

Ah. If I were still Blythe, this wouldn’t have happened.

The monster is walking toward us again.

Even now, in this moment, my mind recalls Lili’s words.

—I will do as my master did.

—I wanted to be a part of Blythe’s family.

Fool. Did you think to make Eremia your family?

Impossible.

It’s no use. My thoughts won’t come together.

The monster approaches through my distorted vision.

But it no longer moves leisurely. It, too, is near its limit. Whatever it is, as a living being, it has lost too much blood to function properly. A human would be dead. Most monsters would be dead. That’s how severe its wounds are.

It staggers, nearly collapsing, swaying left and right, pressing against the walls as it advances.

If my classmates all moved at once, they might have a chance. But frightened humans are useless in any era. Their hearts have already lost. They have no will to fight. They are shouting something, but I can no longer make out the words.

Ah, damn it… If Lili, the War Maiden, were here in my place…

…Whether she won or lost… she would…

“…Is this… the end…?”

My thoughts grow murky. At this moment, I can no longer tell if I am Eremia or Blythe.

It feels like my soul is blending together.

The moment the monster stops before me, the cluster of screaming classmates parts. Through the newly formed path, I see a blue instructor’s uniform.

“…Huh?”

The woman, once a wandering nomad, descends the stairs with the speed of a four-legged beast. From mid-level, she leaps, her long hair and the skirt of her uniform fluttering.

In midair, she twists her body, drawing her naked blade, spinning three times—

The monster senses the wind cutting and turns its head toward her.

That instant, she rides the force of her spin and lets her blade pass through its throat.

Just a single stroke. So swift, it barely made a sound.

Like a dance.

She lands beyond even my and Miku’s position. Using the remaining momentum, she turns to face the monster.

But the monster does not turn toward her again. Instead, it falls to both knees.

A moment later, its neck shifts—parallel.

“…!”

With a dull thud, the monster’s severed head rolls.

For a brief instant, a fountain of blood erupts from its body. Then, in seconds, it stops, and the torso collapses beside the head.

A red pool spreads.

Seeing this, the woman sheathes her sword at her waist. The quiet chime of the guard striking the scabbard echoes.

I open my eyes, which were about to close.

The murky thoughts caught between my past and present life are instantly drawn back to reality.

“L…Lili…?”

She kneels beside me, lifting my upper body.

“Eremia, are you alright!?”

Ah, what a sight. What an unbelievable sight.

Magnificent. There are no other words. Her skill is astounding. She cleaved through the monster’s hardened skin without even fracturing a fragment of it.

The cut is flawless. Beautiful.

Since losing Blythe, Lili has grown at an astonishing rate. Kilpus did not want to make her a Sword Saint just because she was Blythe’s disciple.

She is a true Sword Saint.

Her slender arms lack the raw strength of Blythe. But she compensated with a technique of her own. The three midair spins to increase the force of her slash—

Do you see? Does she understand?

She did not inherit Blythe’s swordsmanship. It is because she has no formal style—because she is “formless”—that she has attained this new power.

Lili Ituka embodies the strength of formlessness. This is a fragment of Blythe’s ideal, the perfected form of his swordsmanship.

Ah. Could there be a moment more exhilarating than this? Blythe left something behind. Something thicker than blood, within Lili Ituka.

It lives. Blythe’s soul, in another shape.

I groan.

“…Lili…”

She narrows her eyes slightly and exhales in relief. Then, with a glint in her eyes, she speaks, lips curving slightly.

“Ituka Instructor, right?”

Even now, at this moment. How stubborn.