Serie took the pitch-black tome from the hands of those watching with worried eyes, and opened it immediately.
A mass of dark light engulfed Serie's entire body in an instant.
"Lady Serie!"
The assembled mages cried out in alarm.
"Calm yourselves. I am fine."
Serie's voice rang out from within the black light — clear and steady — and the others relaxed, if only slightly.
Another moment passed. Everyone stared at the shifting orb of light with bated breath, not daring to look away.
When the light finally dissipated entirely, Serie stood exactly as she had before — unchanged, unharmed.
At the sight of that, whatever the others felt, Sense at least let out a long, genuine breath of relief.
That black light swallowing a person whole — it was all too familiar.
If even Serie could be turned into a member of the Demon Race by Fíliya... she didn't even want to imagine what that future would look like.
"Lady Serie — what exactly is this?" Lernen asked, unable to hold back.
"...This is a magic... capable of breaking Fíliya's Immortality."
...?!!
A wave of shock swept through the room.
To think — the Continental Magic Association had mobilized every last resource and person they had during this period, all in pursuit of a counter to Fíliya's immortality. And yet for all that collective effort, they had made not a single step of progress.
And now, today of all days... Fíliya, their greatest enemy, had voluntarily delivered the very method to undo her own immortality?
This sort of behavior... just as Flamme had said — this girl's arrogance had already surpassed anything a human mind could comprehend.
"I see... no wonder that girl said it needed to be me who would deliver 'hope' to humanity..." Flamme murmured, and let out a quiet sigh.
"If you're in an invincible state, it doesn't count as a fair fight... That's definitely what Fíliya was thinking."
Hearing Flamme's words, Serie found her own emotions becoming impossibly tangled.
That idiot... always mocking me for being a brainless battle maniac... and yet what she's done is just as stupid as anything I would do.
Even I know to keep my defenses up at all times — and yet this fool has gone and handed over the one magic that could kill her, freely, with no conditions attached.
All for the sake of a "fair" fight?
Just how arrogant do you have to be... The real battle maniac here is her, isn't it? Serie thought, a flicker of irritation running through her.
"Well then. For an idiot who does something like this, it seems the only thing we can do is grant her wish — and show her what a decisive defeat truly feels like."
Just like Serie, Flamme was visibly furious upon learning what Fíliya had actually sent.
"Though before that... it seems we also have a second option." Flamme said, shaking off the brief cloud over her mood almost immediately.
"Oh?"
Once again, Flamme had the room's full curiosity.
"Mm. I've brought along a helper — one who can achieve time travel. May I let them in?" Flamme said, her tone perfectly casual.
"There are more experts?!"
The First-Class Mages were all startled. Flamme's arrival alone had been astonishing enough — but there were others, too, who had managed to slip past the guards and enter the Association undetected?
Didn't that mean the Association's defenses were practically nonexistent?
"It seems the people you brought are more than one," Serie said, casting a mildly exasperated look at her disciple. She had of course noticed the concealed figures long ago — she simply hadn't bothered to point them out.
"You're right. I should have asked your permission in advance. That was my fault." Flamme said, and dropped gracefully into a half-kneel before Serie, her manner full of genuine deference.
But that gesture only made Serie more displeased.
She still remembered — long, long ago, when the girl standing before her was still a tiny little thing, she had never once behaved like this.
Back then, she would only tug at Serie's hand and wander aimlessly through the flower patches with her, and whenever Serie sat down, the little creature would shamelessly climb up onto her shoulders and the top of her head to cause mischief.
But somewhere along the way — as though Serie had blinked and missed it — that tiny creature had become something much larger, and had suddenly learned propriety. She no longer did anything impolite, and every time she saw Serie, she had learned to bow respectfully and with great care.
But truthfully, Serie had always wanted Flamme to be a little more at ease around her.
She just hadn't known how to say it.
And so she had waited... right up until Flamme died, and the words she had prepared were never spoken.
So now — wasn't this a chance, once lost, given back?
Serie surfaced from her brief, dazed reverie, and drew a slow breath.
"Flamme... you don't need to kneel before me." Serie did her best to keep her voice as flat and unaffected as always.
"?"
Flamme looked mildly puzzled. After all — her teacher had always criticized her for having no manners and no sense of propriety, which was exactly why she had been so careful about it ever since she grew up.
But Teacher looked somewhat dissatisfied with her current behavior. Was it because over a thousand years had passed? Even a set-in-her-ways old soul like Serie was, in the end, a living, changing being — and change did happen, didn't it?
"Understood. I won't do it again." Flamme rose at once, and looked at her teacher with a light, easy smile.
"Good... then let the ones you brought show themselves." Serie gave a slow nod and issued the order.
Flamme turned and made a gesture toward a particular spot in the empty air — and a moment later, a group of figures materialized out of concealment.
"They were hiding this close to us..."
"And yet we didn't detect them at all..."
"It looks like a layered approach — Mana Concealment, breath suppression, and some form of visual blocking magic working in concert..."
The First-Class Mages broke into murmured discussion over the remarkable sight before them.
Frieren, for her part, said nothing. She had sensed someone in that corner from the start, but since even Serie hadn't said a word, she hadn't bothered to bring it up either. Besides, her attention had been drifting along with her teacher Flamme the entire time.
The assembled group was, to put it simply... quite a peculiar collection.
Among them was even someone with two horns growing from their head.
"When all of humanity faces a crisis together, naturally you'd want all kinds of capable fighters, wouldn't you?" Flamme said with a light laugh, stepping forward in front of the group and beginning to introduce them one by one.
"Elven warrior-monk — Kraft. Frieren, you remember him, right?"
"First-Class Mage and also Court Mage, Denken — and of course the reinforcement who came with him, the leader of the Seven Sages of Destruction, Macht."
"This one is a happy coincidence — we happened to cross paths, so she came along. Imperial frontline commander, Lady Fres, and warrior, Sir Valros."
"And as for this one — I think there's no need for me to say much..."
When Flamme reached one of the Dwarf warriors among the group, Stark, standing behind Frieren, jumped forward before she could finish.
The young warrior, who had shown almost no interest in the ongoing conversation among the mages, suddenly cried out in shock.
"M-Master... how did you end up here too?"
That's right — the Dwarf warrior Flamme was gesturing to was none other than Eisen, warrior of the original Hero's party.
"Who doesn't want to spend their last years in peace? But with the state things are in, even if I wanted to retreat and live quietly, I'd see nothing but chaos and unrest every single day. These old bones may as well get moving again — wouldn't you say so, Frieren?" Eisen said, holding his battle-axe and looking at Frieren with a perfectly blank expression — though in truth he was smiling, his long beard made it impossible to tell.
"It's been a while... Eisen."
The return of an old comrade naturally brought a faint smile to Frieren's face as well.
At the same time, Fern's gaze had become frantic with barely suppressed emotion.
Because she was thinking:
If Mr. Eisen could return... and even Mr. Himmel had been resurrected by Fíliya... then did that mean the figure she had longed for every single day might also be able to...?
But Fern was disappointed. There was indeed someone dressed in the robes of a monk among the crowd — but that person was someone she already knew: Sein.
Her foster father — the legendary monk of the Hero's party, Heiter — was not among them.
Flamme had finally arrived at the most unassuming figure in the group — though unassuming as he was, he was also the one who surprised everyone the most.
The one who had been under house arrest ever since that incident — the Emperor of the Empire, already transformed into a member of the Demon Race by Fíliya — had somehow appeared here at the meeting as well.
And from the look on Flamme's face, it seemed that the "helper" capable of achieving time travel she had spoken of was, in fact, this very Emperor — now transformed into one of the Demon Race.
____
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