"We're here."
Fíliya arrived at a place of extraordinary lushness — vegetation so dense and wild it could have passed for a primeval forest.
What caught the eye most was this: amid the sprawling thickets of orchid grass, a warm spring welled up from the rock beneath. It pooled in the natural hollows, forming two or three shallow ponds; the water was a soft milky white, breathing with slow, pearl-like bubbles.
"So it is here."
Solitär had had her suspicions the moment she noticed Fíliya heading in this direction.
"Mm."
Fíliya gave a quiet nod, her expression composed.
"Wait — what are you two going on about?! Where is this? Is there really a place this lush right near the Demon King's Castle...? I don't remember it at all."
In complete contrast to Solitär, both Aura and Linie were entirely at a loss — they hadn't the faintest idea where they were.
"Hmm? Aura — are you really one of the Seven Sages of Destruction?"
Fíliya turned to look at her with a genuinely puzzled expression.
"O-of course I am..."
Being fixed with that stare, Aura felt an inexplicable pang of guilt.
"That's strange, then. Do you rarely visit the Demon King's Castle? Even I know that Aureole sits right next to it."
"...?! Oh — this is Aureole... I've only ever heard of it... You come to the Demon King's Castle to see the previous Demon King, and then you leave — who wanders around the vicinity for no reason..."
Miss Aura mumbled under her breath, clearly making excuses for herself.
"So then — does Aureole actually have souls dwelling within it? I can't sense anything at all."
Solitär stepped forward as well, scanning the spring's surroundings with a look of open curiosity.
"There are — but the Demon Race likely can't perceive them. Humans, on the other hand, would probably be able to converse with the lingering souls here... Though rather than saying souls dwell here, it's more accurate to call this place a channel leading toward Heaven."
Fíliya offered the explanation with calm certainty, then let her gaze drift toward the spring's source — as though she could see something there that no one else could.
"Mm... and it isn't only humans, either. All living beings except the Demon Race — Dwarves, Elves, humans... so many, so many."
"What does that mean... that the Demon Race has no souls? Or that we don't deserve Heaven?"
Aura pressed her lips together with an expression of undisguised displeasure.
"Of course the Demon Race has souls — your own Magic of Obedience is the best proof of that. It's simply that when demons die, they leave no body behind. And demons have all, to varying degrees, committed a great deal of evil. They simply don't qualify to pass through here."
"Then... what exactly did you come here to do? There shouldn't be anyone here you want to see. And didn't you just say the Demon Race can't communicate with the souls here?"
Aura pressed on, now genuinely curious.
"That's true — the souls here refuse any communication with the Demon Race. I'm no exception. It seems they harbor quite a deep hatred of our kind."
Fíliya nodded, and the corner of her mouth curved slightly upward.
"There truly is no one here whom I hold dear... and that, in truth, is something to be glad of — isn't it?"
"..."
The three behind her fell silent. They all sensed that Fíliya had something planned, and so they fixed their eyes on her — the look of people bracing themselves for a spectacle.
"Since communication is off the table, it seems the only option remaining is to simply take someone by force."
As she said it, Fíliya closed her eyes — and then a terrifying pressure, together with a surging torrent of mana, began to burst from her body in great, crashing waves.
The three behind her instantly pressed their hair down against the wind, steadied their footing, and squinted to watch what was unfolding ahead of them.
In no time at all, something materialized beside Fíliya — a woman's body, fully clothed, conjured from nothing at all.
From the orange braided hair that fell all the way down to the back of the knee, Solitär had already formed a fairly clear idea of whose body Fíliya was constructing.
And once the woman's face was fully shaped, Solitär was able to confirm it completely.
[The Great Mage Flamme.]
"She didn't even use that barrier magic...?! And she can still call Flamme out?!"
Aura was immediately taken aback. She simply couldn't fathom what level of power Fíliya had reached anymore.
"This is called [Fantasy Materialization]. I used the impressions recorded in [The Other Shore] to sculpt Flamme's body directly."
As she spoke, Fíliya brought the vacant, hollow-eyed shell of Flamme's body before the group — and even, with an air of idle amusement, made the empty body perform a few small gestures.
But the three demons before her were clearly in no state to appreciate the display. What Fíliya had done had surpassed every frame of reference any of them possessed.
"As for the soul — that's where it gets tricky. Wresting someone away through Aureole is bound to take considerable effort."
Seeing that none of the three had given her the reaction she was hoping for, Fíliya said nothing and simply turned back to resume her work.
The process took a long time. Even her now-seemingly-bottomless reserves of mana showed the faintest signs of beginning to run dry — and only then did she finally retrieve what she had come for.
She poured that slender thread of pure white soul into the empty shell.
A few seconds passed.
The body she had crafted began to recover its awareness and its capacity for movement. Flamme's eyelids trembled faintly — as though she might open them at any moment.
The sight left all three demons completely speechless.
To sculpt a human body from nothing... and then to forcibly retrieve a soul from Heaven itself — did that not mean that the Fíliya of today could revive anyone she pleased, on a whim alone?
Such magic was nothing short of... a miracle. A divine miracle, beyond any question.
"What are you all so shocked about? Come to think of it... combat has never really been my strong suit. What I'm truly best at has always been this kind of thing — this rule-breaking trickery of mine."
Fíliya was clearly quite pleased with what she had accomplished. With this alone, she had reached, in the most literal sense, the [Domain of the Divine].
"The unfortunate part is that I have no idea where demon souls go — or perhaps they simply dissolve upon death... Otherwise I could have fashioned a few more useful allies from scratch. So please — take good care of your lives. If any of you die, I honestly wouldn't know where to begin looking for you."
Fíliya let the wistful expression fade quickly from her face and turned to the three of them with a look of genuine gravity.
And just then, the Great Mage Flamme finally opened her eyes.
The instant she saw Fíliya, she was visibly startled — but in the very next moment, fury crossed her face.
"You ungrateful student... so you went ahead and did the very thing I least wanted you to do."
Flamme's comprehension was clearly far beyond the ordinary. A single glance at the surrounding environment — and at the expressions of the demons standing before her — seemed to tell her everything at once.
"I'm sorry for disturbing your rest, Teacher."
Fíliya looked toward Flamme with an expression that carried a trace of genuine apology.
"...So just how much trouble have you caused this time? That you'd resort to something like resurrecting me... Though if you can pull off even this, then I suppose you truly are the disciple I chose."
Flamme's brow furrowed deeply — but quickly smoothed again, and a smile broke through.
"Hmm? Shouldn't you be furious, Teacher?"
Flamme's reaction left Fíliya slightly startled.
"Furious? Of course I'm furious — I took you as my disciple so you could become a cornerstone of humanity, and now you're telling me you turned yourself into a demon?!"
Flamme's face fell immediately into a stern mask as she drew the words out, slow and heavy with indignation — but then she continued:
"But... as a teacher, the most joyful moment of one's life is watching a disciple surpass you. Watching them reach a height even you could never have imagined. On that count, I am still very glad... Now — what exactly is going on here?"
Flamme pressed on with her questions.
"Well... I transformed the Emperor of the Empire into a demon..."
Fíliya instinctively scratched the back of her head, and then proceeded to lay out everything she had done for Flamme, one thing at a time.
"You really are..."
Flamme put on a look of pure fury and raised her hand.
Seeing this, Fíliya reflexively raised her hand to defend herself — but then, as though some thought crossed her mind, she immediately lowered it again and simply stood still, waiting quietly for the slap to land.
...Getting smacked by my teacher shouldn't be a problem.
That was her thought — she even deliberately deactivated her pain-suppression. But the anticipated slap never reached her face.
"Haah..."
All that came was a long, slow exhale from Flamme.
"So then — what is it you want from me? I am not capable of supporting what you've done. If you try to make me serve at your side, I'll cut my own throat and return to Heaven."
"Mm. Don't worry — I have no intention of forcing you, Teacher. Quite the opposite, actually. I want you to go to the human side... Go and see Serie, and see what this new world has become. They must be racking their brains right now trying to figure out how to deal with me... So — please, Teacher. Go and give them a little hope."
____
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