NOVPUB“Guh-ack!”
Ludger struck the back of Krolro Febius’s head—who was still dazed—knocking him out cold.
He placed his palm gently on Krolro’s head.
A strange aura began to flow from Ludger’s hand and seep into Krolro.
The wind spirit in the form of a horse stomped its hooves, clearly agitated—demanding to know what Ludger was doing.
“Hold still. This guy is the key to defeating that fire monster.”
The wind spirit didn’t seem convinced.
Ludger withdrew his hand from Krolro Febius.
“That’s enough. This should be sufficient.”
Whinny!
“What did I do? I’ll show you later. That’s not what matters right now.”
Ludger looked toward the earth and water spirits that were still fending off Quasimodo.
Their strength had diminished significantly since the start.
They were nearing the limits of their manifestation.
The horse stomped again, glaring at Ludger—it was demanding to know his plan, clearly anxious about its master’s safety.
“Don’t rush me. I was going to tell you. As you can see, Quasimodo is still holding Esmeralda. There’s only one thing we need to do—separate them.”
Of course, it wasn’t that simple.
Quasimodo, unlike before, wasn’t acting purely on brute strength.
After having faced death once, he had grown more cautious.
“He’s a sly bastard. He’ll do everything he can to keep hold of Esmeralda. So we need to distract him and pull her away. That’s where your role becomes crucial.”
The wind spirit stared at Ludger.
It had understood what it needed to do.
“Thank you.”
Ludger offered sincere gratitude.
The wind spirit simply nodded in response.
They were spirits—beings born of nature.
Even if they disappeared here, they would not be completely erased from existence.
Of course, they would need a long time to rest.
Reuniting with their contracted master would take time.
But as long as they lived,
They would surely meet again one day.
The three spirits held that absolute belief.
So in this moment, they had already made peace with the idea of using up all their strength.
Ludger understood their resolve.
“Then... I’ll leave it to you.”
At Ludger’s words,
The three spirits charged directly at Quasimodo.
This time, there was no hit-and-run tactic.
They attacked head-on, using raw force to press Quasimodo back.
[So the weaklings, cornered, are now making a final stand.]
If they were coming directly at him, that just made things easier.
Quasimodo exhaled a breath of flame, and the earth spirit threw itself in front of the blast.
It took on the form of a great buffalo with towering horns, blocking the fire—yet its form began to crumble.
Splash!
The water spirit sprayed water directly into Quasimodo’s eyes.
In that brief moment of obscured vision, the earth spirit rammed its head into Quasimodo’s abdomen.
[That tickles.]
Quasimodo didn’t budge. Instead, it was the exhausted earth spirit that collapsed to the ground.
Its body melted and dissolved into light.
In that narrow opening, Ludger rushed toward Quasimodo.
Just as Quasimodo caught sight of Ludger—
The water spirit gathered all its remaining energy and dove into Quasimodo’s face.
Ssssshhh!
Steam hissed as water met flame.
But it was the water spirit that evaporated under the pressure.
[Kuhuhu. That’s all you’ve got? Throwing yourselves at me?]
Quasimodo opened his mouth and released a breath of fire.
Much hotter and stronger than before, the blazing breath surged like a tidal wave.
There was no space to dodge.
Still, Ludger didn’t stop running.
Just as the wave of fire was about to engulf him—
The final remaining spirit, the wind horse, appeared in front of Ludger.
In that fleeting instant, their eyes met.
Ludger nodded.
Wooooosh!!
The wind spirit poured every ounce of its remaining power into one final act.
Its equine form unraveled—becoming a single sharp blast of wind.
Boom!
The wind punched a hole straight through the heart of the flames.
And then the wind spirit, too, vanished into light—leaving only a lingering breeze that pushed against Ludger’s back.
The final gift from the wind spirit.
With that momentum, Ludger leapt.
Quasimodo saw him.
Ludger, flying through the flames that he himself had created.
The blade in Ludger’s hand flashed.
His target—the hand holding Esmeralda.
But—
[Too shallow.]
Ludger’s sword only managed to slice halfway through Quasimodo’s wrist before slipping past.
After so many battles, the blade could no longer hold and had begun to melt.
[What a shame. If your sword had been just a bit sturdier, you would’ve won!]
Quasimodo grinned at Ludger.
Ludger didn’t reply.
At that moment, a gust of sharp wind swept in and finished what Ludger had started—severing Quasimodo’s wrist.
The hand, already half-cut, couldn’t regenerate in time and fell away.
[What?!]
Even Ludger was taken aback.
The wind spirit should have already exhausted its role when it pierced the flames.
“Let go of her!”
“Joanna Lovett...?”
An unexpected third party had intervened.
It was enough to shift the momentum of the battle.
‘Joanna? Why is she here? No... That’s not important. This gave me an opening.’
Joanna Lovett had attacked Quasimodo through the wind spirit’s remnants.
“You monster! Get away from her!”
Quasimodo instantly recognized her.
[Joanna. Of course. You were still around—survivor of the Great Fire.]
“Shut up!”
[Why are you interfering? I am the agent of your vengeance. My very existence is the embodiment of your hatred, is it not?]
Quasimodo struck her where it hurt most.
Joanna fell silent. She couldn’t refute it.
She had wanted revenge.
Revenge on House Febius, who burned Roteng to ashes.
Revenge on a world that hid such horror and never acknowledged it.
That was why she had joined the Black Dawn Order.
[And now you would betray me?]
“I never... I never followed a monster like you!”
[Oh? Suddenly so brave? Joanna the coward. That day, when your family burned alive inside that building, you just stood there and watched.]
Quasimodo shook his head with feigned pity.
[They screamed for help, and you couldn’t even open a door. You saved no one. A coward. A weak little human. And now you think you can fight me?]
“I... I...”
An opening.
Quasimodo lunged at Joanna with his hand.
He intended to incinerate her, then reclaim Esmeralda.
That was his plan—
Until—
“You’re wrong. It’s not true that she saved no one.”
A dazzling burst of color blinded Quasimodo, twisting his arm away from its target.
“What...?”
Joanna stared in awe at the magic unfolding before her.
Even she had never seen something so beautiful.
Ludger, observing from afar, let out a faint smile.
“You’re late. Pierre.”
“Apologies. There were too many people nearby—I had to sneak in without being seen.”
“H-huh?”
Joanna turned, confused, at the voice.
When she saw the man with both eyes covered in bandages—
She froze in disbelief.
“You... don’t tell me...”
Pierre smiled gently at her.
“It’s been a while, Miss Joanna. I didn’t get your name back then, but I know it now. Do you remember me?”
“...How could I not?”
Joanna recognized him instantly.
That timid aura. The blind eyes. The clothes stained with paint. The brush in his hand.
The only person she’d ever managed to save—
The one life she’d rescued the day she lost her family.
“Why... are you here...?”
“I couldn’t stay in that place forever.”
Before the festival began—
Ludger had sent Hans to contact Pierre.
He told him: If you want to end the nightmare of that day, come to Seorn.
“At first, I was afraid. Terrified. But when I heard that you, who saved me, were still alive and fighting... I couldn’t {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} stay still.”
So I came.
Pierre smiled warmly at Joanna.
[Krrrgh. You dare interfere—half-baked mage!]
Pierre dipped his brush into a palette of colors and scattered them into the air.
Brilliant hues spread, blinding Quasimodo’s vision once again.
“Yes. I’m a pitiful excuse for a mage. Even now, all I can do is draw pictures in the air.”
Pierre could feel the intense heat on his skin.
Though he couldn’t see, that made him feel it all the more clearly—
The heat of that day.
The fire that had burned the village still lingered in this world.
“They were shameful days. I’ve blamed myself countless times, wondering why someone like me survived. But right here, right now—I want to thank you, Ludger.”
At last, he had found the place where he could stand tall.
Pierre gripped his brush so tightly it seemed it might snap.
“Even if all I can do... is buy time!”
His mana reacted with the paint, creating a vivid, colorful illusion around them.
“If that’s what I can do—then I’ll do it!”
[You did nothing that day. And now you think you can stop me?!]
Quasimodo’s lips twisted in fury.
That the survivors of Roteng—those worms—were interfering with him.
That he had actually taken hits from them.
He was beyond enraged.
He couldn’t stand it.
[That childish magic of yours. I’ll burn it all to ashes!]
As Quasimodo unleashed a torrent of flame, Pierre’s painting-based spell shattered completely.
The colors melted and ran like wax.
Pierre stumbled backward from the impact.
With a single blow, the largest spell he had ever cast was utterly dismantled.
It was a truly overwhelming difference in power.
Pierre clenched his teeth.
The spell he had poured everything into had only managed to block one attack.
“Well done.”
Clatterrrr!
At that moment, gleaming white chains appeared and wrapped around Quasimodo’s body.
“You have every right to be proud, Pierre. That one spell just turned the entire situation around.”
[What is this! These chains?!]
Quasimodo tried to struggle, but the chains did not break. Instead, they constricted him even more tightly.
Slowly, Quasimodo’s body began to be pulled toward the chains.
The chains were anchored at one point—right where the heart of the unconscious Krolro Febius lay.
Quasimodo instinctively realized what Ludger was trying to do.
[You're going to seal me inside that human’s body?!]
“Sharp as ever.”
[Don’t be absurd! I’ve already formed a contract with Esmeralda! The contract is absolute!]
“True, contracts are absolute. But there’s something you don’t seem to know—an inferior contract can be overwritten by a superior one.”
The chains connecting Krolro Febius and Quasimodo—
They were fundamentally different in nature from the red thread that linked Quasimodo and Esmeralda.
“It’s an upgraded version of the original Evil Spirit Banishment Seal. And in your weakened state, you have no chance of resisting it.”
[Kraaaagh! Esmeralda! What are you doing?! Save me!]
As Quasimodo was dragged by the chains, he used the last of his strength to grab hold of the red thread.
It turned into a tug-of-war between the chains and the thread, but the thread didn’t break easily.
Instead, Esmeralda was visibly suffering, unable to endure the contract’s backlash.
Quasimodo let out a twisted grin.
[Kheheh. Have you forgotten, Esmeralda? The sorrow and thirst for vengeance of that day? You’re going to abandon me now?!]
“Stop... Stop it...!”
[I am you! Only with me can you be complete! So save me!]
Clutching her chest, Esmeralda finally opened her mouth.
“If you want me that badly...”
She raised her head, her eyes filled with tears as she glared at Quasimodo.
“Then take all of me!”
Something broke free from within Esmeralda, who was bound by the thread.
It was her soul.
As the anchor of her being left her, Quasimodo’s body lost its grip and was dragged helplessly by the chains.
[Esmeralda! What are you doing?! You trying to die with me?!]
Esmeralda didn’t respond to his cries.
Instead, she turned and smiled at Ludger.
[Please... Take care of Selina.]
“You...”
Before Ludger could say anything, Esmeralda shouted with fury in her eyes, glaring at Quasimodo.
[Let’s die together, Quasimodo! Your meaningless slaughter ends here!]
[Don’t make me laugh!!!]
Quasimodo’s body began to slowly be drawn into Krolro.
Fwoosh!
Krolro’s body burst into flames, unable to endure Quasimodo’s power.
The chains glowed red-hot, conducting the flames into the vessel’s flesh.
SSSSSSHHHH!
[AAAAAAGH! How?! I am fire itself!]
Quasimodo let out a scream filled with agony.
A demon of fire.
A giant born of flame. 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
A cryptid born from hatred.
And now, Quasimodo was being burned by the chains of fire.
“Sister!”
“You can’t! You’ll get caught in it too!”
Pierre grabbed Joanna as she tried to run in.
Esmeralda’s soul, entwined with Quasimodo, was being consumed by the flames.
Those flames burned souls.
And the pain they inflicted was beyond anything flesh could endure.
Even so, Esmeralda smiled as if content.
She would burn away alongside Quasimodo.
That was the choice she made—the one role that was truly hers.
This was the end.
Now I can rest.
Esmeralda closed her eyes.
There were no beautiful landscapes in her vision anymore.
Only blazing flames stretched out before her.
This must be the path she was meant to take.
From within the fire, the dead reached out toward her.
Telling her to come.
To share in their suffering.
Red threads streamed from that place, binding her tightly.
This was a fate she could never escape.
And if she could end it all by burning her soul to ash—then she would gladly go.
Esmeralda slowly closed her eyes and began to cast herself into the flames—
“What the hell are you smiling for?”
—but she didn’t fall.
Because someone had grabbed her hand.
Esmeralda opened her eyes.
Even in the searing flames, she could clearly feel the sensation in her hand.
[How... How is this possible?]
Through her blurry vision, she saw Ludger holding her hand.
And through their joined hands, the flames had begun to spread to Ludger as well.
[What are you doing?! Y-Your hand!]
“Shut up.”
The flames that touched them were unimaginably painful.
Even now, they were burning his palm and creeping up his arm.
But Ludger didn’t flinch.
Instead, he glared fiercely at Esmeralda.
[Why... Why are you doing this?!]
“I don’t like a single thing about this.”
[What?!]
“Don’t go dying on your own. Did you think throwing away your life would solve everything? Or that dying like this would bring you peace?”
[I... I...]
Ludger barked at the shaken Esmeralda.
“Don’t flatter yourself!”
He gripped her arm, pulling her back from the brink.
“You’re not the one who’s going to end this fight.”
He raised the half-broken sword.
Pouring every last drop of mana into it, a silver aura gathered at the tip.
“I am.”
And with one decisive swing—
He slashed through all the red threads binding Esmeralda in a single blow.
