Chapter 25: Severed Ties.

Isz lunges at Alphonse, but the doll blocks his strikes, revealing hidden blades beneath her wooden prosthetics. Isz looks into her eyes and sees they are the exact same as Helena’s.

Alphonse: "When Helena died, she was missing her eyes,Irineia took them. But she brought her back, Isz. The eyes are the key to the soul. In the new world, everyone who died will likely have a new life, just like Helena. Once everything goes right, we are going to bring her real body back."

Isz laughs and says he is going to put an end to Alphonse's nonsense.

Alphonse forms an alchemical circle in his hand and blasts Isz away. Isz dodges further magical attacks as Alphonse uses necromancy to summon specters into the clock tower.

Meanwhile, Rosie fights the doll, begging her to remember who she used to be. The doll sheds a single tear but quickly tells Rosie to stay away from Isz, slashing Rosie’s arm. Seeing no other alternative, Rosie unleashes her white flames, carbonizing the doll's face.

Alphonse watches Isz defeat all the specters and invokes cosmic meteors toward him. Isz dodges, but part of the tower shatters, sending debris crashing down into the village below.

Isz: "You idiot! Your problem is with me, not with innocent people!"

Isz slices Alphonse's fingers off, forcing him to draw back in reflection.

Alphonse: "Interesting. Your weapon is no ordinary blade."

Isz looks confused, and Alphonse explains that no normal weapon has any effect on him, yet this sword does. Alphonse regenerates his fingers and notices the burned doll lying on the floor. Shedding a tear, he says everything will be alright and uses magic to rebuild her, while simultaneously blasting Isz to the other side of the room with a spell.

Furious, Alphonse manipulates the metal beams, reshaping them into spearheads and hurling them at Rosie. Isz throws himself in front of her, taking the full impact, but he cracks a smile that Rosie has seen before.

Rosie: "Isz, are you...?"

Isz’s eyes glow bright blue, his nails grow into claws, and his lightning turns purple. He hurls a sharp metal shard straight into Alphonse’s eyes, pinning him to the wall.

Isz then charges at the doll. She looks up at him, reaching out to touch his face, attempting to say something like “I love you,” but Isz cuts her off: "Repulsive puppet. You will never be Helena."

Isz fires his weapon, shattering the doll's porcelain face into pieces.

Alphonse: "No!"

Enraged, Alphonse uses a spell to slam Isz into the ceiling before he crashes heavily back to the floor. Alphonse then approaches Rosie, kicking her in the stomach until she coughs up blood.

Isz lunges at Alphonse again, but Alphonse fires a beam of cosmic light that rips through Isz's chest. Isz's body regenerates, but he temporarily loses his beast mode. His vision blurs as he looks over at the fallen Rosie.

Alphonse: "This will be your grave. Let’s end all the misery you brought upon me once and for all."

Alphonse prepares a massive cosmic strike—meteors capable of wiping out the entire town. In that split second, Rosie burns his back, and Isz impales him through the chest with his sword.

Isz (panting): "It’s over, my friend."

Isz's sword triggers a cosmic explosion, disintegrating half of Alphonse's body as he falls dead.

Isz (panting): "I avenged you, guys... once again."

Isz drops to his knees, leaning heavily on his sword. Rosie approaches, cradling Isz’s head against her chest, telling him that he did what had to be done. Isz just shakes his head. Rosie places her cold hand on his face, a gesture that calms Isz down, and he thanks her.

Suddenly, the sound of a door opening echoes through the room, and a voice speaks out.

Irineia: "Alphonse, what is all this noise, my love? You said you would destroy this little town another time, after gathering more marked disciples."

Isz glares at Irineia. She was holding a baby in her arms—Alphonse’s child.

Irineia walks down toward Alphonse and sees his lifeless body. Tears stream down her face. The tower begins to tremble as she speaks: "You miserable wretch... you are the vessel of the beast. If I had known, I would have killed you sooner."

Irineia casts a spell that paralyzes both Rosie and Isz, making Isz float toward her. She attempts to rip the lightning beast out from inside him. With no other choice to save his life, Rosie transforms into a massive red dragon, breaking Isz free. She hurls fireballs at the tower and flies away with Isz in her jaws.

Irineia watches them flee, her eyes filled with tears of pure rage as the tower collapses around her. She opens a portal just in time, pulling the corpses through with her.

Down at the ship, Edward grows terrified as he sees a giant dragon approaching with Isz in its mouth. Rosie lands on the vessel, shifts back into her human form, and tells Edward to set sail immediately.

Edward: "What about the tourists?"

With a somber look, Rosie replies that they can't save everyone. They cast off.

Edward: "What happened up there? And how the hell did a pretty little thing like you transform into a dragon like that?"

Rosie explains everything that happened in the tower since their arrival in the city, and the truth about the cure.

Edward: "So Alphonse knew exactly who destroyed our city... what a bastard. At least Isz avenged everyone's memory. Well, except for Irineia—or whatever the Mistress of Illusions' real name is."

The weather turns bleak that day, and Isz finally wakes up.

Rosie: "Isz, you're awake! How do you feel?"

Edward: "I'm so sorry, Isz. I've already been filled in on everything."

Rosie sits beside Isz, hugging her knees. Staring blankly at the floor, Isz pulls out his gun, aims it at his own head, and says: "Sometimes it's better if you're just dead. When you have a gun in your hand pointed at your head, you start to think you're crazy... too unstable."

Rosie swiftly pulls the weapon from Isz's hand.

Rosie: "Stop it, please! You're not like this."

Isz smiles weakly, noting that even if he blew his brains out, his body would just regenerate, and he would wake right back up into the same nightmare he's had since Vein. He admits he is exhausted by the endless cycle.

Rosie holds his hand and places her cold palm against his cheek, whispering that for now, it's over. Isz asks how she managed to get them out of there, and she explains her dragon form. Isz thanks her, and Rosie smiles, saying she owed him one for protecting her from the metal spikes back in the tower.

Rosie rests her head on Isz's shoulder as the ship finally pulls into the city where they had stayed the previous night.