NOVPUBThose who had fought before in the Sacred Silvervine Arena understood that what came next was a contest of close-range, powerful moves.
But at this critical moment,
Enon suddenly extinguished all flames, and the magic power that had been gathering around her dissipated as well.
She stood quietly, a peaceful smile on her lips, her gaze calm and composed as if welcoming the ultimate conclusion of a settling dust.
A gray crack ran straight through her heart.
Not until the gray rift burst and Enon coughed up a mouthful of bright blood, slowly closed her eyes, and her body fell weakly down, like a blood-red leaf elegantly drifting amongst the rubble and ruins.
"...?"
Lanci stared, confused as to why Enon had been defeated so easily by him.
"Ivanos? Why on earth...?"
Lanci asked her, bewildered, in that instant.
Talia appeared in person, intercepting Lanci from continuing to approach Ivanos without any precautions.
But Talia also understood that Ivanos likely had no deceit left.
At the moment Lanci sought to kill her,
she surrendered.
Ivanos lay on the ground with a slight smile, looking up at the clouded sky where no sunrise could be seen.
"..."
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, her eyes gradually dimming.
She neither cried nor laughed, nor did she answer Lanci’s question.
And so, she passed away in serenity.
As if it were the curtain call of her life.
Leaving behind only the Original Tablet - Fire. 𝚗𝚘v𝚙𝚞b.𝚌𝚘m
"Why must it be this way..."
Lanci seemed to come to some understanding, or perhaps due to fatigue; the sudden brightness was somewhat blinding, causing him to cover his forehead in distress.
The earth shook once more, likely due to the collapse from their brief but intense Eighth-order battle.
Talia quickly took the stone slab and grabbed Lanci to leave the ruins, bringing him to the relative stability of a small chapel’s rooftop farther away.
Their recent fight was but a light shower compared to the unceasing storm that had raged all night.
To the demons of Floral City, at best, it was just a slightly louder alarm clock at dawn.
The ambitious Perlman and the Curse Spreader Beelzebub were both dead.
The legendary magic device, Parlony’s Grudge Record, had also been destroyed.
The demons in the city district of Floral City had all returned to normal.
The city began to revive.
Refugees and demons gradually emerged from the shelters, stepping back onto this scarred land.
The sounds of rain, flowing water, lights, and the laughter of those who had survived the ordeal combined into a nocturne for a rain-soaked, sleepless city, echoing long in the skies of Floral City Pariel.
"Lanci, what’s wrong with you?"
Talia looked at Lanci and noticed that he indeed seemed overburdened, more exhausted than she had expected, so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open.
"Do you know how to define despair?"
Lanci sat down on the rooftop, his voice tired as he watched the cloud layer that drifted by, already lighting up the horizon.
Even as a light rain continued to fall in Floral City, it surely would make way for clear skies with the sunrise.
"I don’t know."
Talia shook her head.
Such matters were often better understood by Lanci, but he rarely took the initiative to discuss them with her.
It seemed as though if Ivanos had fought to the bitter end with them, Lanci would have been alright.
But her serene death made Lanci’s heart ache.
"There was such an experiment... It began by giving some mice a period of happiness, implanted electrodes in their brains to record the cells excited by bliss. Then it took away their friends, confined them in a narrow, closed, damp, and cold space, continuously shocked them, occasionally dunking their heads in icy water. They couldn’t escape the night, nor could they struggle. After some time, they despaired."
Lanci spoke, his gaze fixed in the distance.
"How can you be sure it really despaired? What if it was a ’never-say-die’ roach, the more you tormented it, the stronger its will to resist became?"
Talia listened intently, raising her doubt.
She sensed Lanci was even more fatigued than she had imagined, his voice half as light as usual.
"There are two indicators,"
Lanci continued,
"The first is called the sweet water test. After torturing them, they’re placed back in the cage with two types of water, sweet water and plain water."
"A psychologically healthy mouse drinks sweet water and plain water in an eight-to-two ratio; it favors sweet water but occasionally drinks plain water."
"If it goes back and the drinking ratio becomes five-to-five, we consider it disturbed."
"Why?"
Talia asked.
"It has lost its preferences, everything it eats or drinks tastes the same."
Lanci looked at her, explaining.
"..."
Talia seemed to understand; if one day she lost hope, she too might become like that.
If she’d never met Lanci, and upon arriving in Ichrite had found that Hyperion had already met her end, and then found no trace of her sister in the Cerryti Empire, she might have indeed given up on everything but vengeance.
"Of course, one indicator isn’t enough."
Lanci took a deep breath, then let it out,
"The second is called the tail suspension test. They pick up the mouse by the tail, let its head hang down. A psychologically healthy mouse will curl up its head, will struggle. But if it gives up everything, stops resisting, loses the will to live..."
"Then after fulfilling those two criteria, it indeed is in despair."
