Silence grew heavier in the square until it seemed the very air had frozen.In the heart of this desolation, Mary stood alone, her armor shattered, her iron legions dissolved, while the Masked One faced her, the new aura around his body darkening and brightening all at once.She felt that only the echo of her own breath still tied her to the world, as his doubled voice pierced the void:
"Now… I will show you the difference between magic… and Eiji."
But instead of trembling, she lifted her head defiantly.Blood dripped from a gash on her forehead, mixing with sweat, yet her eyes burned with an undying flame:
"No… I won't let you… even if I turn to ash!"
She clenched her fist and summoned what remained of her broken will.The ground quaked, the ashes around her shuddered, as if the entire arena was dying alongside her.She raised her arms upward and cried out with a voice that came not from her throat, but from her heart:
"…Summon… the Iron Heart!"
The earth cracked apart, and from its depths burst three massive columns of living iron, swirling with dense blue radiance.Faces innumerable formed upon their surfaces—faces of men and women, young and old—all opening their mouths in silent screams.They were the souls of the army she had sacrificed.They were all she had left.
For the first time, the Masked One gasped and whispered:"…You dare to use the core of all your souls?"
But Mary did not reply.She focused her entire being on this final miracle.
She closed her eyes, threads of blood trickling from the corners of her mouth as she whispered:
"You whose sorrows I bore… lend me your strength… so I may burn this shadow forever!"
In the next instant, her body split internally as if unable to contain the union of all those souls.But the three pillars erupted skyward, forming a pulsating iron crown spinning around her at terrifying speed.At its center crystallized a transparent metallic spear, taller than any tower, alive with a thousand inscriptions like seals and prayers.
Mary raised her trembling hand toward it and closed her fingers:
"…End of Shadows!"
The iron spear launched faster than thought, cleaving the air straight toward the Masked One.As it passed, the earth melted, and everything it touched crumbled.Ordinary spears wound flesh… but this one was forged to pierce existence itself.
He raised his hand to stop it, but the spear struck with such force that, for the first time, he staggered two steps back.His body shuddered, and the edge of his mask cracked.A vortex of metallic sparks exploded around him, releasing a violent shockwave that overturned the dead stones.
The clashes between attacker and defender cascaded in succession.Every second, the waves from their collision shattered distant towers and ground the metallic sands to black dust.
The Masked One let out a ragged breath.He slowly raised his head, fragments of his mask falling away.He did not speak—he merely spread his arms, as though preparing for something unstoppable.
In that moment, Mary understood he was still alive… and had yet to unleash his true power.Her eyes widened slightly, but her hands did not waver.She cried out again:
"I will not retreat… even if I am the last light upon this earth!"
The iron spear flashed once more, blazing with pure blue light until it seemed a newborn sun had erupted amid the ruin.Then it shot toward the Masked One's chest, as if born solely to pierce his heart.
Only then did he speak, in a low voice:
"…Are you finished?"
He lifted his hand, and translucent geometric threads manifested around his fingers.With a casual gesture, like one waving to a small bird…in that moment, Mary's heart knew true horror.
The spear halted midair, then began to disintegrate into transparent geometric squares, dissolving as though it had been no more than an unborn thought.
Mary gasped and fell to one knee, her breath slow, her tears mingling with the dust.
The Masked One stepped forward, raising his hand inscribed with runes:
"Now… I will show you the difference between magic… and Eiji."
Mary: Damn it—what is this Eiji he speaks of and struck me with before?
He swept his arms through the space, unleashing a black wave laced with glowing blue sparks.For the first time, he merged Eiji with absolute magic.Enormous circles of divine geometry formed around the arena like celestial locks, their lines overlapping in an eternal riddle known only to primordial beings.From each circle emanated a pale glow that dimmed into utter darkness, as if swallowing all possible comprehension.
Mary stared at them, her heart sinking in her chest.She felt that time itself bent with those circles—that all her life, all her struggles, were but a fleeting flicker in an infinite sea.
The Masked One whispered, his voice an echo layered across dimensions:
"Mind Absorption."
In the next instant, Mary saw nothing.No rubble, no body, no light—not even the Masked One.She saw something more dreadful than the void:She saw herself… being pulled out of her own mind.
Her very awareness was being torn slowly from its roots.A vision beyond imagining: Mary standing in a gray emptiness while thousands of transparent threads coiled around her, extracting shards of memory, understanding—everything that had ever defined her as Mary.Each thread carried something of her:An old laugh… a tear on her mother's cheek… André's whisper as he patted her shoulder one night… her fear of bearing a child in a cursed world.
She tried to scream, but her consciousness was dissolving.Every thought was being pulled away and burned.She saw herself—not in her body—but as a transparent shadow melting into Eiji's threads.Then she understood what "Mind Absorption" meant:It was not the killing of flesh—but the killing of meaning.The annihilation of memory, identity, dream, and will, until nothing remained but a husk unaware it was alive.
And yet…In that gray darkness, one image did not vanish.She saw two shadows standing at the edge of her awareness:Adam… and Mila.They appeared as featureless phantoms staring silently.She realized they had not come to save her.They were a sign of the end—as if she were telling herself:"This is how… my children will see me… broken… stripped of all will."
Something cracked inside her chest.She could no longer move.She felt her body truly beginning to split under the pressure.A dreadful cracking—her bones breaking.The gray emptiness shattered into thousands of tiny mirrors.Each reflected a moment of her life.When she looked, half the mirrors had already turned completely dark.Then… her vision split.She herself split.
Outside, the scene defied description.Mary was slowly splitting into two symmetrical halves.It was not only a physical division—but a sundering of consciousness.Each half screamed without sound.Only the Masked One remained still, hand outstretched amid the spinning geometric circles that dissolved the laws of existence.
With a voice deep as the final heartbeat before death, she murmured:
"…Why did I forget you… André…"
I'm sorry, but truly—why did you vanish from my memories?
In her mind, André replied:I don't know—perhaps I died… or was sealed… or drifted into another world.
At the moment her halves began to separate, an ancient memory flickered—A night she sat beside André, laughing without worry, dreaming of a future that never came.A final tear choked her ash-veiled eyes, and she whispered:
"…If only I hadn't forgotten you…"
It was not a passing murmur—it was a fracture that shattered what remained of her soul.Her voice sounded as though it rose from an immeasurable depth, the depth of a woman who had fought every war to build a future for others… only to discover she had lost herself along the way.
In that moment suspended between life and oblivion, everything stopped.The blood flowing from her split body froze.The dark geometric circles ceased their spinning.Even the Masked One stood motionless, gazing at her with a silence akin to mourning.
In his eyes—if only for a heartbeat—she saw a strange question:Why do some humans choose to cling to their memories until their final breath?
Her tear was heavy—heavy with a lifetime of hope, fear, and regret.It fell slowly onto the metallic sand, and she heard its sound with uncanny clarity—as if it were not a drop of water, but a fragment of her soul.
And when that memory flared—André's face smiling in an old sunset—she knew she had never forgiven herself.She knew she had forgotten that face, those features she once believed in, and only recalled them now, as she was dying.Her cracked lips moved, barely forming words:
"How… could I have left you… there alone…?"
Her mind, torn between two halves, replayed the remaining shards:A long night she sat by his bedside as he slept, her trembling hand brushing his hair.A morning she laughed for no reason other than the safety she felt near him.A tear on his shoulder, once, when she feared he would not return from his last war.
She had never seen these images again in her living years…but now, as she drew her final breath,they all came at once.As if fate mocked her:You remembered only when remembering was useless.
Another tear fell, then a third, until her ash-streaked cheeks were like a painting of fire and water.Her voice broke between a sob and a moan:
"…I'm sorry… André…"
Then she thought she glimpsed him standing among the wreckage.She was not sure—a tall silhouette shining in the darkness—her tear-filled eyes could not tell illusion from truth.But she smiled.Despite the pain, despite being split apart, despite the ash.
The black light in the circles erupted, then faded.The absorption ended.Her two halves fell upon the metallic sand, apart, dripping blue blood that dissolved into the earth.An immense silence.Nothing but silence…Even the wind that had howled among the ruined towers bowed in reverence.
Mary was half a body… half a soul…Suspended between life and nothingness,while the Masked One watched her without approaching,as if her death were a sacred rite unworthy of disturbance.
She felt her hot blood seeping onto the metallic sands,flowing from her massive wound,drawing red lines across the gray ash—lines that seemed to her like the final record of a life no one would read.
She tried to breathe…but her chest was split,and the air passed through her without filling her.
So this… is what death feels like…
That was her thought, her eyes half-closed,as cold slowly crept into her weary heart.Her gaze drifted across the ruin,and she saw the shadows of Adam and Mila…not as living beings, but as hazy phantoms.She saw her son she had never understood,and her daughter born into the world with a curse in her heart.
She tried to reach for them…but her hand was no more than a remnant bone dripping blood.Her head sank slowly forward.She could no longer hold it.Her chest convulsed in a final gasp…then she lifted her eyes to the dark sky,her cracked lips trembling:
"…O Lord… forgive me… for all that I failed…"
With the last syllable of her words,the spark of life faded from her eyes.Her body grew cold in an instant,as if her soul departed only then…leaving behind only a sad smilethat seemed to say:
Forgive me… for everything.
Then a gentle wind rose…covering her body in ash fragments,as if the earth itself had finally chosen to embrace her.
And thus…Mary Ethan was no more.
Even the Masked One remained still for a moment, as if honoring what he had done.Then he bowed slightly, his doubled voice rising like an echo from a tomb:
"You resisted as no one ever has… Mary Ethan. If there was ever a final day for the light… you were that day."