Chapter 55 – The Dusk of the Codex

The footsteps of the Solar Paladins pounded against the stone, a relentless march of discipline and fanatic faith. Every strike of their boots echoed like the tolling of a military drum.

At the head of the formation strode Haruna Mizuno, Heroine of the Codex. Her glasses glinted in the torchlight, and though threads of silver streaked her dark hair, her bearing was still that of a commander. Her cold, watchful eyes locked onto the two figures blocking the cathedral’s entrance.

Mirai, Opera mask hiding all but the hardness in her gaze, stood like a blade forged of steel. At her side, María rose slowly, opening her book with ritual solemnity.

“Well, well…” Mirai murmured, twirling her daggers between her fingers. “Feels like fighting a dozen Adas at once.”

“I’ll take the lady.” María lifted her staff as the pages of her grimoire fluttered on their own, searching for a spell. “I’ve always wondered what it’s like to fight a heroine.”

In a blur, Mirai vanished, daggers clashing against consecrated spears. In an instant, the square erupted into a storm of steel and sparks.

María advanced with the gravity of a priestess of some forgotten creed, her grimoire trembling in her hands as if the pages themselves chose the incantation.

“What is your purpose?” Haruna demanded, her voice deep and commanding. “Surrender now, and I promise you a fair trial!”

María smirked, pressing a hand against her stomach as though touching an old wound.

“Don’t tell me… you’ll just run and hide again, like you did thirty years ago?”

A murmur rippled through the paladins. Haruna, however, did not flinch.

“That was the past,” she said calmly, her words weighted like a verdict. “I was young then… afraid of death. Your empty taunts can’t provoke me.”

A heavy silence fell over the square. Yet the paladins stood taller, their resolve steeled by her words.

María narrowed her eyes and closed her grimoire for a moment.

“Then show me… if your convictions cut deeper than my chains.”

Haruna reopened her Codex, its runes glowing, illuminating her hardened face.

“Then it’s our duty to teach you a lesson.” Her tone was sharp as iron.

At her signal, the paladins surged forward.

Mirai’s daggers danced like shadows, slicing spears aside and deflecting blessed thrusts. The paladins charged in unison, only to fall one by one, unable to match her speed.

María whispered softly, and black chains spilled from her grimoire, snaring the soldiers’ legs and sending them tumbling into each other.

In minutes, the Church’s disciplined force had descended into chaos.

Haruna held her ground, countering the spells with her ancient Codex. Sweat trickled down her brow; her age weighed on her body, yet her eyes burned with unyielding steel.

“What a nuisance… a disciple of Shion.” Light flared around her, wrapping her like a setting sun. “Then I’ll show you… the power of a divine weapon!”

She raised her left hand, voice thundering with solemn might:

“Index! Mortem Requiem!”

The Codex’s pages blazed, and from the darkness erupted grotesque burning arms. They tore through María’s chains and lunged at her. Some lashed toward Mirai, but her movements left nothing but streaks of steel and shadows.

“What… what are these things?” María gasped, struggling as the fiery limbs coiled around her legs, dragging her down like sinking sands.

With a desperate cry, she bit her own hand, letting a drop of blood fall onto the grimoire.

“Sacrifice!”

A dark shockwave burst forth, shattering the flaming arms and freeing her.

Haruna gritted her teeth, watching.

“Of course… Shion’s magic always exacts a price. You’re only shortening your life.”

“I don’t fear death.” María’s smile was defiant, her eyes blazing. “I chose to live… without regrets.”

And then, suddenly…

A black blade pierced straight through her chest.

María trembled, blood spilling from her lips.

“You… should fear death…” a chilling voice whispered behind her.

“Cough…! When did—?” María barely managed to turn her head.

From the shadows, Lucy emerged, adjusting his glasses with casual indifference, as if the moment meant nothing at all.

“Overconfidence shortens lives… brat.”

“Mariaaaaaaa!”

Mirai’s scream tore across the plaza, echoing through the broken columns. The night rabbit hurled herself forward with all her speed at the impassive Lucy, who showed not even a flicker of humanity.

The clash of her daggers against his black lance was impossible to follow. To the soldiers, there were only flashes—steel, shadow, and streaks of blue fire, colliding in a storm too fast for the human eye.

“I’ll kill you, bastard!” Mirai roared.

“Beyond the Limits! Burning Soul!”

Her speed shattered every boundary. Her aura blazed into a blue comet, a star of death tearing through the night.

But Lucy only smiled.

“Dance with the Devil.”

He snapped his fingers.

Time froze. The world became a void without light, without sound. In that frozen eternity, Lucy seized Mirai’s wrist and waist, as if guiding her through a grotesque waltz.

Her body wouldn’t move. Her soul burned, consumed by the toll of her own technique—and by the absolute dominion of the demon before her.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered, her broken voice carrying memories of her friends, of the villagers of Albus. “I guess… this is as far as I go.”

When Lucy’s technique ended, time resumed. To the others, there was only the sight of Mirai’s body unraveling into a whirlwind of ashes, scattered into the night wind.

Lucy adjusted his glasses again, unmoved.

“How foolish… she burned both, body and soul.”

He turned toward the cathedral, ignoring the soldiers’ shivering stares.

Haruna clutched the Codex to her chest. She could hardly believe it—those two girls, so skilled, had been erased in the blink of an eye.

“Thank you for your aid, Master…” she said solemnly. “The king has withdrawn. Makoto is with him.”

Lucy gave no reply. His eyes remained fixed on the cathedral, sensing the phantasmal presences had faded.

“Very well.” He turned away, calm as ever. “Clean up the rest. I’m leaving.”

His silhouette melted into the darkness, leaving behind only an icy weight in the air.

Haruna stood among the fallen, lowering her gaze. Pity pressed against her heart—not only for the soldiers lost, but for those two young women who had fought with such fire, only to be reduced to ashes by the man they once called master.

A sudden light burst inside the Schubert mansion. Ada rushed down the stairs, alarmed by the tremors.

In the hall, she found Latina, Sakura, and Luisina—just returned through the quick-escape scrolls Ren had entrusted them with. They had completed their mission, but something in their faces unsettled Ada more than any wound could.

What caught her most was Luisina. The yuki, usually so theatrical, so irreverent, leaned against the wall, gasping for breath. Ada had never seen her like this.

“Why did you do that? We should go back!” Latina protested, fists clenched.

“N… no.” Luisina shook her head, her voice trembling. “It isn’t safe… I felt an overwhelming presence outside the cathedral…”

She buried her face in her hands.

“I felt… fear.”

Silence consumed the hall. Neither Sakura nor Latina could find words.

Ada pressed a hand against her chest, fighting back tears.

“Ren…”