Amid the ruins of a neighborhood devastated by the disaster, a striking woman with long black hair rolled across the rubble-strewn ground, clutching her heart. Every so often, her body would stiffen before convulsing as though she had been electrocuted.
"Hahaha..."
Hearing the mocking laughter beside her, Claire forced herself to rise despite the agony tearing through her chest. She grabbed the longsword beside her and hurled it at the Witch floating in the sky, laughing openly at her.
The sharp blade sliced through the air, passed straight through the Witch's hovering body, and struck the exterior of a nearly collapsed building. The tremendous force carried by the sword delivered the final blow to the already unstable structure, adding another enormous pile of rubble to the ruins.
"What are you laughing at?! Aurora, this is your doing again, isn't it?!"
The purple-haired Witch had rendered herself intangible, making Claire's attacks completely useless, and was now taunting her right to her face. Claire felt as though she was about to grind her teeth to dust.
"Sodayo. You're my host, yet you had the nerve to stand there laughing while I suffered alone. Don't you think that was terribly unfair? So, out of the kindness of my heart, I opened up my perception of the pain and transferred it to you, Claire. Well? Do you understand now just how cruel it was to laugh while I was writhing on the ground?!"
Claire weakly supported herself against the half of a wall still standing nearby. She had just opened her mouth to respond when the purple-haired Witch admitted, in a voice dripping with mockery, that the chunk of flesh that had suddenly flown into her body several minutes earlier had indeed been her doing.
Claire felt the last thread holding her sanity together snap.
"Aaaah!!!"
Several minutes later, the street that had once been covered in rubble had been completely flattened.
Claire knelt amid the destruction, panting heavily. Her once presentable women's suit had been torn to shreds by the overwhelming pressure, and even the longsword beside her was cracked.
"I told you that you couldn't hit me. Why wouldn't you believe me? Anyway, you were the one who laughed at my suffering first, so it was only fair that I got even. Now we're square."
"I... Guh!"
Square, my ass! What does your bad luck have to do with me?!
Claire desperately wanted to say it, but the moment she began, another burst of agony from her heart cut her off.
In her rage, she had used every method she knew for dealing with ghosts, but not one of them had worked.
Now that the adrenaline was fading, the pain she had temporarily ignored surged back with full force. Claire felt as though someone had sliced open her chest, pulled out her heart, weighed it in their hand, then hacked it apart over and over. Whenever the severed heart began to heal, the newly formed strands of flesh were immediately cut apart again.
Her body trembled uncontrollably. Beads of sweat rolled down Claire's forehead, falling to the ground and soaking into her already tattered clothes.
Aurora did not seem particularly concerned by Claire's miserable state. She knew perfectly well that, given the mental condition of this deranged lunatic, the minor pain caused by replacing a heart might look severe, but it would never be enough to break her mind.
And just as Aurora expected, after another dozen minutes or so, Claire finally stopped trembling. Her face was as pale as paper, but otherwise, she did not appear to be in serious danger.
"Aurora, you'd better pray I never find a way to deal with you..."
How many times have you said that? Talk after you actually find one.
Aurora said nothing, but the fearless expression on her face clearly conveyed that exact meaning.
The sight almost made Claire draw her sword and charge at her again. The only reason she managed to restrain herself was that she knew her attacks would be completely useless and would merely give the shameless Witch another reason to laugh at her.
"All right, all right. You have to give something to gain something. A little pain in exchange for power is something countless people would beg for."
Seeing that Claire was close to losing her mind, Aurora knew she could not take things too far. At the very least, for that person's sake, she could not actually provoke Claire into doing something disastrous.
Her playful smile faded, replaced by the solemn expression of someone delivering a lecture.
"Huh? Power? What are you talking about, you shameless Witch?"
Claire pointed at herself in confusion and instinctively questioned her.
Aside from the pain that had felt as though her entire body were being torn apart, she had not sensed the slightest increase in power from the chunk of flesh that had fallen from the sky and entered her body. If anything, the agony had left her utterly exhausted.
"That was my heart. What kind of powerful offensive ability did you expect it to have? But if you really want to know what my heart can do, you could try cutting off your own head."
Aurora raised an eyebrow and gave Claire a knowing look.
Aurora had made the answer so obvious that even Claire could understand it after a moment's thought.
She immediately decided to test it.
Of course, Claire was not actually going to cut off her own head as Aurora had suggested. What if the Witch had exaggerated? Instead, she cut herself with her sword, making the wound deep enough to test the ability while still remaining treatable.
The effect was excellent.
The wound, several centimeters long, closed at a speed visible to the naked eye and vanished almost instantly.
"That's incredible! It doesn't seem especially useful, but thanks anyway, Aurora."
Claire stared at the healed wound in amazement, her eyes lighting up as she thanked Aurora, who was looking at her with a strange expression.
"...You're welcome. I barely ever used that ability myself, but it suits you perfectly. Honestly, without regenerative power on this level, I can't believe you dared to try it just because I mentioned it. How exactly have you survived this long?"
Aurora's mouth twitched.
Her understanding of the madwoman before her had been overturned yet again.
After remaining by Claire's side for so long, Aurora already knew that Claire had a habit of courting death. Even so, she could not help wondering how such a recklessly curious personality had developed.
Learning to seek danger was not difficult. Surviving long enough for it to become a habit was another matter entirely, especially when Claire was still so weak.
"I don't know. I've been like this since I was little, but somehow, I always end up fine. Maybe... it's luck or fate."
Claire did not seem particularly concerned.
The number of times she had nearly died as a child was absurd, yet she had survived every one of them by the narrowest margin. After enough close calls, she had simply stopped thinking about it.
"Luck... or fate? Heh. Yes, I suppose you could call it good luck, or perhaps destiny."
Aurora repeated the two words Claire had used. As she recalled that black figure, sudden understanding surfaced in her heart.
Yes. Being able to call an existence like that her younger brother could certainly be called good fortune.
Or rather, only someone like him could possibly endure Claire's dangerously inquisitive nature.
"Sometimes, people don't get to decide whether they live or die."
"Huh? Aurora, what are you muttering about?"
Claire frowned and asked curiously when she saw Aurora speaking quietly to herself, but Aurora merely smiled and shook her head.
"No. I have my own little secrets too."
"Tsk. Fine, keep them."
Claire clicked her tongue but did not pursue the matter.
Judging from Aurora's reaction, it was probably nothing important. Besides, after spending so much time with her, Claire had already learned that until she found a way to drag Aurora out, pin her to the ground, and beat her, the Witch would never reveal anything she did not want to say, no matter how much Claire questioned her.
"Then let's discuss something important. What exactly happened just now?"
Claire's expression turned serious. She pointed toward her heart and questioned Aurora solemnly.
Aurora merely tilted her head.
"I already told you. That was my heart."
"Of course I know it was your heart. I'm asking how it ended up inside me."
"..."
"What is that look supposed to mean?"
Claire glared at Aurora, who was staring at her as if she were an idiot.
"I remember telling you before that after my left leg was accidentally released, it came to you on its own and entered your body. Did you forget?"
"Did it really just enter my body?"
Claire stared intently at Aurora, her voice dropping.
"...You could describe it that way."
"And how would you describe it another way?"
"It fused with the corresponding part of your body, replacing and strengthening it."
Aurora shifted her eyes slightly to the right, looking faintly guilty.
"Damn it! I knew you were up to something, you evil Witch! You're planning to use me to resurrect yourself, aren't you?! I'm taking you down with me right now!"
"Stop, stop! You can relax about that. As long as nothing happens to him and he remains capable of watching over you, you are absolutely the safest person in this world. No one else even comes close. Even if I had several more lives, I still wouldn't dare use you to resurrect myself."
Aurora hurriedly pressed Claire's hand down, stopping her from trying to drag them both to their deaths.
Realizing that their friendship might genuinely end if she did not explain herself this time, Aurora grimaced and revealed just enough information to reassure her.
"Then what exactly are you trying to do?"
Claire stopped reaching for her sword and stared quietly at Aurora.
"Nothing. If anything, you're the one who has gained a tremendous advantage. Those people are now free from the restrictions of their lifespans. Since they no longer need parts of my body to keep themselves alive, they'll definitely begin using them and releasing my sealed body parts one by one."
"Once those restraints are gone, my power will naturally seek out you, the person hosting me. You'll be able to join the ranks of the world's strongest without doing anything at all."
Aurora explained with complete confidence.
Now that the upper ranks of the Cult of Diablos had gained the extended lifespans offered by the other two worlds, they no longer needed Beads of Diablos to survive. They would undoubtedly release her body and begin making full use of its terrifying capacity and power.
In any case, they were destined to be crushed by that nearly invincible figure eventually.
"Wait, Aurora. Are you saying I'll have to go through something like this several more times?"
Had Claire not already endured the pain once, she might have been tempted by the advantages Aurora described.
But after experiencing it firsthand, she immediately caught the most important implication. Her face turned pale as she asked the question.
"Mm. And the pain will probably get worse each time. What? You don't want it?"
The corner of Aurora's mouth curled slightly.
The purple-haired Witch truly enjoyed seeing Claire scream in agony. Staying beside her every day could become rather boring, after all.
"I do! Of course I do!"
Claire nodded without hesitation.
Although she claimed to have extraordinary luck and always escaped danger, she did not truly believe her life would remain smooth forever. Her pale expression had only come from remembering the agony of replacing and fusing her organs with Aurora's.
She would rather return to the World Battlefield and fight for another entire year.
"It's just... are you sure there are no risks? This power feels so haphazard..."
Claire paused.
Sometimes, power obtained too easily only made people uneasy.
"Of course not. When I handle something, you can rest..."
Aurora stopped in the middle of her sentence, as though she had suddenly remembered something.
Uncertainty appeared on her face.
"Hey, you're not like those unscrupulous merchants who praise their products to the heavens while hiding a mountain of flaws, are you? The kind where one tiny mistake makes the whole thing explode?"
Noticing Aurora's hesitation, Claire's expression stiffened.
The Witch suddenly seemed far less reliable.
"Fine. Although the possibility is extremely low, if my malice escaped from underground, it could indeed interfere with the fusion. But you can relax. Tens of thousands of years ago, I cast my malice into the deepest reaches beneath the earth. The chance of it escaping is practically zero."
After thinking it over, Aurora decided not to make any absolute promises.
"Malice?"
"It's just a collection of useless data. Normally, it could never interfere with me. But if it happened to destroy the world and killed me along with it, then it would all be over. I mean this current world."
"You can destroy the world too?!"
Claire stared at the Witch in shock.
Only a few dozen minutes had passed since the previous disaster ended, yet she was already hearing Aurora mention another possible world-ending incident.
"It wouldn't exactly be me destroying it. Even at the height of my power, I could still be beaten to death if enough people in this world attacked me together. The real problem is what exists within that collection of data."
"What could possibly be inside it that's so powerful?"
"It was something I created while I was still sane, then physically sealed away to prevent the world from being destroyed. If it weren't capable of something like that, it wouldn't be worthy of my status."
"As for what it is, you don't need to know. Knowing wouldn't help you anyway. That thing can never escape."
"...All right."
After hesitating, Claire silently nodded.
Since Aurora had put it that way, she was not going to argue blindly. If what the Witch said was true, then it was at least a catastrophe on the level of the world's strongest. That was certainly not something the two of them could interfere with.
Even the great Shiva had been defeated by an existence of that level.
"...Wait. I have one more question."
"What is it?"
Seeing Claire suddenly become anxious, Aurora instinctively assumed she had found a flaw in the explanation.
"If I fuse with your body, will I still be Cid's sister?"
"..."
"Aurora?"
"You hopeless brother-obsessed lunatic."
After cursing her, Aurora's phantom vanished from Claire's sight.
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