Black smoke flowed from the struggling girl's mouth.
Dorothea could see the stains climbing up her ankles and gradually engulfing her.
To others, it would have seemed like nothing more than a person writhing alone and convulsing.
However, in Dorothea's eyes, she could clearly see that the girl's soul was being consumed by an intense flame.
'The medium of gold magic was her soul.'
Hertia may not have known how cruel and vicious the people she joined hands with to achieve her goal were.
Before she knew it, thick black tears flowed from Hertia's blurry eyes, as if something had been written on them.
'What kind of person could be so cruel?'
It was devastating to see the girl losing herself one by one.
Colin's eyes, who had been taking a step back the whole time, landed on Philip, who was looking at the girl with dead eyes and writhing body like a doll, with no emotion.
“Colin.”
He was stung by Dorothea's call and quickly looked away and took off the hour hand.
She asked a question, pretending not to know Colin.
“Is it because Hertia’s death was not planned that the reaper does not come even though her soul is burning?”
Colin's face frowned at Dorothea's question.
Only then did he realize that his comrades wandering around this place filled with the energy of death were nowhere to be seen.
Because he was constantly focusing on the wrong things, he overlooked even situations that should have made him feel uncomfortable.
"Right. There must be a list responsible for that child’s life.”
Colin frowned.
No messenger will miss the important matter of arbitrarily erasing a name from the list of Gods.
Colin looked at the black flame burning Hertia's soul with calm eyes.
“That’s a magic essence used by demons.”
“Demons?”
“So even though the soul is being destroyed, the reapers do not notice. I don’t know who it is, but someone who made a contract with the demon world is using forbidden black magic to erase that woman’s soul.”
It is an unplanned death, but even that death is so that no one will notice.
Once her soul is destroyed, her existence will be erased from this world.
It was an eternal extinction that could never be revived or returned under any circumstances.
The Reaper's scythe separates the body and soul.
The soul that has reached the end of life must separate from the body and cross the river of the dead, carrying the cause and effect of life. Those who failed to do so remain on the ground, and those who crossed the river prepare for the next life.
That soul will never be able to prepare for the next life again.
“You pay quite a high price for your greed.”
Black flames fluttered as if they were engulfing the girl's soul.
For Hertia, the cost of going down the wrong path due to greed for a moment was to lose all of the life she was allowed to live and even the next life.
Dorothea, who had been staring blankly, turned her head towards Colin.
“If this continues, everything related to this incident will disappear without a trace.”
Dorothea, who was looking down at Hertia, spoke in a monotonous voice.
“If that’s what the other person wants, there’s no reason for me to join in.”
She took out the squirrel that was sleeping soundly in her arms and placed it on her palm.
Phi Phi, who had just woken up, rubbed his eyes, and when he saw the burning soul, he instinctively raised his fur and raised his abundant tail.
“Colin, I give you permission to use your power. With this, cut the soul out of that body.”
“...It is not in perfect condition. Even if I separate the soul now, I won’t be able to get the information you want.”
It would take hundreds of years or more for the fragmented soul to return to its intact state.
Dorothea smiled brightly at Colin’s words.
“Do you think I’m going through all this trouble just to hear a few words? I can find out that in other ways.”
It wasn't an eye that sympathized with the other person, felt pity, or felt sorry for them.
“Whatever the reason, in the end, the spirit I brought belonged to that child.”
Even if the spirit wasn't amazing, it was quite cute, and it was worth paying the high price for.
And there's a more important reason than that.
“I don’t want to do what they want.”
It was obvious why he had put so much effort into casting a spell so that he could just leave a weak girl alone.
The intention is probably not to leave any traces.
“If I leave that behind, wouldn’t it be like spitting on people who are obsessed with useless tricks?”
She would be even more grateful if someone could find an imperfect soul.
Although they touched Hestia, their plan also failed, so they will be cautious for the time being.
Finding and punishing those who had already gone into hiding would be cumbersome in one way or another, and it was obvious that they would also have to suffer a lot of losses.
Dorothea narrowed her eyes and looked at Colin distrustfully.
“It’s your job. I guess you haven’t already forgotten who you are?”
“You speak well. How did I end up like this?”
“That’s why I’m giving you a chance. It means doing something you used to do and reminiscing for the first time in a while.”
Colin, who had become as hard as stone at Dorothea's friendly voice, slowly stretched out his hand.
He held the squirrel in Dorothea's palm with such force that he felt as if he were going to crush it.
At that moment, it seemed as if he had even forgotten the existence of Philip, whom he had been conscious of all along.
The small squirrel was struggling in Colin's hand as he held it, but then quickly changed to limp.
A large silver scythe that was taller than a man was aimed at the fluttering black flames.
Dorothea, with a raised eyebrow, pulled Philip, who was frozen as a stone and stepped back.
Strange words flowed from Colin's mouth that Philip could not understand.
The messenger who came down to the world of the 'world' is coming again, and Dorothea allows him to cut down the poor souls who have met the wrong end.
It was a moment when his scythe was raised high as if it would hit the opponent.
Dorothea asked Philip, who was standing blankly.
“Do you want to see ‘properly’ what that is?”
“...”
“Do you want to know who he is and what he is doing?”
Dorothea's eyes, which had been dry all along, seemed to have no interest or interest in anything.
Philip had realized from the moment he entered this place that the girl with a gentle smile was not a pitiful being whose life was being threatened by his father.
“I can show you the truth if you want. However, I don’t know if it will necessarily make you happy.”
The human mind is not something that can be easily fathomed, so sometimes it goes in a completely different direction than she intended.
Philip, who was looking into her eyes as if possessed by something, opened his mouth.
“...Show me."
"Good."
Dorothea smiled brightly and slowly covered the boy's eyes.
As the lukewarm warmth covered his eyelids, a stinging sensation remained as if something sharp had scratched his eyes.
“Now, open your eyes.”
When Philip slowly opened his eyes at her words, he was speechless at the bizarre scene that unfolded before him.
Jet-black smoke, which had clearly been invisible until a moment ago, was billowing out from Hertia's mouth and nose.
And the black flames that seemed to engulf her body at any moment, and the large and threatening scythe aimed at it.
And Colin holding the scythe in his hand.
Philip stared blankly at the familiar yet unfamiliar face.
The man's face was different from that of the one the boy had hated for so long that it was etched into his bones and soul.
A man who exudes a very alien energy, as if he is not a living being.
Colin, whose eyes sparkled with desire more than anyone else, couldn't have been that person.
The abyss-like black eyes gave him chills just by looking at them.
That was the moment when the sickle he raised high pierced the girl's body.
“Kyaaaa!”
A bizarre scream filled the prison.
The scythe passed through her body and pulled her burning soul out of her body.
The soul, much of which had already been lost and damaged, lost even its light and flew helplessly to a place far away from the body in a blurred state.
The boy could also see that her remaining soul was in tatters.
Squeak. Squeak.
The sound of nails scratching so high and sharp that he didn't want to hear it irritated his ears again and again.
Colin, who was glaring at that, opened his mouth.
"Go away."
As a low voice warned, the half-spirit that had lost its reason and had only instinct left fluttered out of the space.
If Philip was lucky enough to meet another reaper, he would know that someone was playing with the extinction of souls here.
Colin slowly turned around and twitched his eyebrows when he felt Philip's gaze on him had changed.
"You...”
The spirit, who had suddenly turned back into a squirrel, squeaked and quickly returned to Dorothea's arms.
“Could it be that you ‘showed’ it?”
“Because if I don’t, he won’t understand.”
“...”
Colin glared at Dorothea, who was calmly saying that she had shown things belonging to the 'world of death' to a young human who had not even lived half his life yet.
Philip again looked up blankly at the stranger who had the heartless yet cruel face of his father.
Same face. Same voice.
There was no other person with a face like this and a voice like this.
Nevertheless, the unrealistic scenes from earlier gave the boy a little confidence and hope.
The eyes, which were filled with disgust and anger every time he looked at his father, still looked cold and insensitive, but there was a little bit of embarrassment in them.
Did they say that the eyes are the window to the soul?
Philip looked into the man's eyes and slowly let out the breath he had been holding.
“You are not that guy.”
"Yes."
At the calm words, Philip looked at him blankly and pursed his lips.
Dorothea answered the unasked question on his behalf as if she had expected what would come out of his mouth.
“Now you will never see your ‘father’ from the past again.”
Because he no longer exists anywhere in this world.
Colin frowned in annoyance at Dorothea's words but did not deny it.
Philip closed his eyes at a fact that was hard to believe.
It didn't really matter what scythe the man in front of him was wielding or why he was sitting there.
"That man."
"Yes?"
The pale-complexioned boy asked with a very serious expression on his face.
“Did that man die painfully?”
"Yes."
Dorothea nodded.
“He was burned to death in a much more painful and painful way than that kid just now.”
There was no one to even stop along the way, so his soul was torn apart and went into the stomachs of others, burning, and in the end, not even a single piece the size of a fingernail remained.
During that long time, he would not have been able to escape the pain even for a single moment.
That's what it means for the soul to get hurt.
As Dorothea's eyes turned to Hertia's already dead body, a long, sigh-like breath flowed from the boy's mouth as he finally guessed the man's final fate.
It was a deep and heavy breath as if it were trapping away the exhausting and painful emotions from yesterday.
"Ah...”
At that moment, with a single word, Dorothea's body went down helplessly.
Philip's embarrassed hands waved in the air.
Her white legs, thin as tree branches, were trembling.
Her bloodless face was as sickly as when she first joined the Marquis.
Colin, on Philip's behalf, came to her side as she grumbled.
“Colin, you took too much power on your own.”
“It’s about handling sacred energy. Besides, they made such a strict request to leave a soul behind, didn’t you expect this?”
He shot her a disapproving look and picked up her helpless body.
Dorothea, who naturally leaned into his arms, closed her eyes and Colin began to walk slowly.
Philip, who had been standing still, began to slowly walk behind Colin.
A faint, but different light than before began to appear in the boy's empty eyes as he looked up at Dorothea.
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