Volume 4—Chapter 117: Sweet Reunion
High above the city, Amelia rode her broom in a sharp upward arc, closing the distance between herself and Nidhogg.
The dragon did not emerge from the rupture in the sky. But its head alone was so enormous that the shadow it cast swallowed almost the entirety of Tsukuru City beneath it.
In Amelia’s hand, her sword burned with a brilliant golden radiance.
Nidhogg roared.
The sound rippled through the atmosphere, shaking the sky itself. Windows below shattered, the clouds trembled, and even the floating debris around the battlefield quivered from the force.
Amelia, however, only tilted her head with a teasing smile.
“Hello, cute lizard,” she called, her voice carrying impossibly well through the chaos. “What are you doing here? Isn’t your favourite snack far below the roots of the world tree?”
Compared to the dragon, Amelia was microscopic.
A speck.
Like a mosquito hovering before a human face.
But unlike a human struggling to track such a tiny nuisance, Nidhogg had no difficulty at all.
A portal ripped open beside Amelia without warning.
A massive claw burst from it, curved talons aimed straight for her.
Clang.
Amelia met it instantly, her glowing sword intercepting the strike in a shower of golden sparks. The force sent a shockwave rolling through the air, but her broom barely wavered.
As quickly as it had appeared, the claw withdrew back into the portal.
Then Nidhogg inhaled.
The motion alone stirred the clouds into spirals.
A moment later, it exhaled a torrent of violent wind laced with poisonous miasma. The dark haze spread unnaturally fast, swallowing the sky and pouring downward toward the city like a living plague.
“This is problematic,” Amelia muttered.
With one hand, she reached into her dimensional storage and pulled out a small green bottle. She crushed it in her palm.
A translucent barrier flared to life around her, a shimmering shell that pushed the miasma away before it could touch her.
But Nidhogg wasn’t finished.
Dozens of portals split open across the sky.
From them emerged long, serpentine creatures that twisted through the air with terrifying speed.
“A sky serpent? Really?”
Her tone made it sound like an inconvenience rather than a threat.
Amelia’s sword flashed.
Golden arcs carved through the air, severing serpent after serpent before they could reach her. Their bodies dissolved into fragments of shadow and scattered into the storm.
Any that slipped past her were no longer her concern.
Below, the city had already fallen into chaos.
The poisonous haze reached the ground in thick waves, and many espers collapsed almost immediately, unable to withstand its effects.
Irana reacted at once.
Walls of ice surged from the streets, rising into a crystalline fortress that sealed off entire blocks from the spreading poison. Beside her, Elizabeth-sensei spread her hands, and vines, roots, and thick flowering branches erupted across the cityscape, weaving shelters around weakened espers and the civilians who had failed to evacuate in time.
Together, they turned destruction into refuge.
But in the panic, one person had been left behind.
Syena.
Everything had happened too fast. No one had expected the miasma attack to descend so suddenly, and while Irana and Elizabeth moved to shield the greatest number of people possible, Syena had been separated in the confusion.
Unlike the others, she had no visible way to defend herself.
The dark haze rolled closer.
Syena stepped back, her breathing quick and uneven.
Her eyes fixed on the approaching poison.
There was only one thing she could think of.
That mysterious power.
The authority over Fate.
She still didn’t understand it, not truly. She didn’t know the shape of it, the rules of it, or even how to call it properly.
And yet…
Somewhere deep inside, she felt that if she truly reached for it, it would answer.
Her fingers trembled as she prepared to try.
Then flames erupted around her.
A sudden ring of fire burst outward in a brilliant wave, circling her body before expanding in every direction. The encroaching miasma vanished the instant it touched the flames, burned away so completely that not even smoke remained.
Syena’s eyes widened.
As the fire dispersed, a figure emerged from the fading blaze.
A girl with vivid red hair dashed straight toward her.
Before Syena could even react, the girl threw her arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace.
It was Ariana Fresia.
She held Syena close, almost fiercely, as if reassuring herself that Syena was truly there.
For a moment, she didn’t seem willing to let go.
Syena stiffened in surprise, caught completely off guard by the warmth and urgency of the gesture.
“Uh… are you… Ariana?”
Her voice was small, uncertain, but her confusion was mixed with something quieter, something that softened the fear still lingering in her chest.
Because despite the chaos, the sudden closeness felt strangely safe.
Ariana lifted her head.
For a moment, she simply stared at Syena, crimson eyes searching her face as if trying to confirm that this was real, that the girl in her arms was not another cruel illusion born from panic and exhaustion.
Then her expression tightened.
“What kind of question is that?” Ariana said, her voice trembling between relief and frustration. “Of course it’s me.”
Before Syena could respond, Ariana’s hands moved to her shoulders, gripping them firmly.
“Do you have any idea how long you’ve been gone?”
Syena blinked.
“Gone?”
“For more than a month, Syena.”
The words came out sharper than Ariana probably intended, but the tremor in her voice betrayed something deeper than anger. Sleepless nights. Endless searching. The kind of fear that had nowhere to go except into obsession.
“I…” Syena lowered her gaze. “I didn’t realize it had been that long.”
Her sense of time has been messed up. Maybe because of time dilation between this world and the other worlds?
Ariana stared at her in disbelief.
“You didn’t realise?”
Her fingers tightened slightly before she caught herself.
The battlefield still raged around them, poison clouds drifting in the distance, golden flashes tearing through the sky above, but Ariana looked as though none of it mattered compared to the fact that Syena was standing here, alive.
“I looked everywhere,” Ariana said, quieter now. “Everywhere they said you might have been. The studio, the academy, the old shopping district, even the places you said you hated because the paparazzi kept finding you.”
Syena’s eyes widened.
“You… did all that?”
Ariana looked away for a second, as if embarrassed by how much of herself had slipped into her words.
“You disappeared without a word,” she said. “What was I supposed to do?”
The question lingered between them.
To Syena, it sounded like the obvious concern of a childhood friend reunited after a terrifying absence.
To Ariana, it was far more than that.
Syena offered a small, apologetic smile.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry.”
That only made Ariana’s expression soften and ache at the same time.
“You always do,” she muttered under her breath.
“Hm?”
“Nothing.”
Ariana exhaled and stepped half a pace closer again, close enough that Syena could still feel the warmth radiating from the flames lingering around her.
Then Ariana’s eyes sharpened as she glanced at the poison miasma still hanging over the street.
“You’re staying with me,” she said firmly.
“Eh?”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”
The words were immediate, instinctive, almost possessive in the way they left her lips.
Syena, however, only tilted her head in innocent confusion.
“Okay…?”
To her, it sounded less like a declaration and more like a natural reaction after everything that had happened.
Ariana pressed her lips together, clearly aware that Syena had completely missed the weight behind her words.
Before she could say anything else, another presence entered the ruined street.
The sound of heels clicked softly against cracked pavement.
Syena turned first.
At the far end of the street, framed by drifting smoke and the pale light of the burning sky, stood a familiar woman with black pony hair and the unmistakable bearing of the Fiolera bloodline.
Yukari Fiolera.
Syena’s older cousin.
For a brief moment, Yukari said nothing.
Her gaze moved over Syena slowly, as if measuring the reality of her return after more than a month of absence.
Then her eyes shifted to Ariana, to the way she stood so close, almost shielding Syena with her body.
A flicker passed through Yukari’s expression. Not anger. Not quite surprised either.
The sight of this reunion, warm and fierce in a way her own with Syena had never been, seemed to hold her in place.
At last, Yukari spoke.
“So you finally decided to come back.”
Her tone was even, almost detached, but there was a faint crack beneath it, something so subtle it could easily be mistaken for the wind.
Syena stiffened.
The warmth Ariana gave her only made Yukari’s distance feel colder.
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