"Hey, Arte. This might sound a little strange, but..."
I need to go in there.
Even after saying that to Arte, I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d even allow it.
After all, it was an absurd request—even I thought so.
I glanced at my side.
Thanks to Arte’s first aid, the bleeding had stopped, but the white thread was stained crimson, making it clear just how severe the injury was.
This really is ridiculous.
But there was no other way. And to increase the chances of success, I desperately needed Arte’s help.
With her by my side, we could easily block the monster’s frantic, life-threatening attacks.
But how do I convince her...?
"Okay. What do you need me to do?"
"...Huh?"
"Should I cut off my arm? Or build a wall for you?"
Arte smiled brightly at me, as if waiting for my instructions, leaving me utterly speechless.
I’d been racking my brain over how to persuade her.
I’d spent so much time agonizing over what to say to get Arte to help me.
But she just smiled, as if all that worry had been for nothing.
"...So you’re, uh, giving me permission?"
"Permission or not, I never planned on refusing in the first place."
"Why...?"
Yu Siwoo was confused.
Up until now, Arte had been so dependent on him that she’d even shown signs of anxiety when he wasn’t around.
And yet, here she was, not even considering refusing when he announced he was going into a dangerous place.
This was completely different from the Arte he knew, and the sudden change left him bewildered.
But then Arte chuckled and spoke to him.
"Because I trust you."
"...You trust me?"
"Yes, I do."
Trust.
That was the reason she wasn’t stopping him from walking into danger of his own accord.
That’s what Arte said.
"It’s definitely dangerous. Trying to force our way through there is insane."
Arte looked at the creature blindly lashing out at everything around it, as if it couldn’t see a thing.
"It’s so confused it’s practically growing new heads. If we get too close, we might get sliced to pieces by its blind attacks."
Even as she said such grim words, Arte didn’t lose her smile as she looked at him.
"But I’m not worried."
That look of hers—
The way she smiled at him was so beautiful that it stole his gaze without him even realizing it.
"No matter what happens, Siwoo will end up with me in the end... Right?"
Arte lifted the bracelet on her wrist and smiled.
Her gentle smile and the trust she placed in him.
Ensnared by her, Yu Siwoo found himself nodding without a thought.
"Okay. What do you need me to do?"
"When I charge in there, I need you to cover me."
"Simple request, but a tough one."
"...Haha, sorry."
"No need to apologize. I have a score to settle with that thing anyway."
Yu Siwoo felt like Arte’s attitude had changed a lot.
...It was as if she’d shed all hesitation.
Like she’d crossed some kind of line.
He wasn’t the only one who felt that way—Dorothy was also staring at Arte with a dazed expression.
"...Come to think of it, this might be the first time you and Siwoo have worked together like this, right?"
"Huh? ...Is it?"
"From what I remember..."
As I traced back my memories at her words, it was true.
Up until now, Arte and I had gone through countless incidents and accidents, but we had never fought side by side.
Arte had always left to do something.
In event-based battles, we were always on opposite sides.
...Ah. So this is the first time we’re fighting together.
"This might sound a little strange... but I’m happy."
Arte’s face flushed with slight embarrassment as she spoke, and for some reason, I felt my own face heat up and turned away.
Then, Dorothy, who had been watching us, raised her hand apologetically and cut in.
"...Sorry to interrupt your little moment, but that thing’s getting away?"
"Ah."
Right, we were supposed to deal with it somehow.
Before I knew it, I’d wasted time, and the girl—now grown slightly larger, her human form no longer recognizable—was far away.
"Alright, Dorothy. I’m counting on you."
"Yes. And I’d like you to come back alive so you can keep reenacting that scene right in front of me."
"In front of you...? That’s a bit..."
As usual, casually.
As if we were just heading off to handle some trivial task, I finished the conversation and began approaching the girl.
To bring her story to an end.
Before long, I stepped into the area where the girl’s abilities were raging wildly—like a natural disaster created by human hands.
As soon as I did, a terrible headache flared up in my head, likely from Dorothy’s reinforcement.
But I didn’t stop.
If I stopped here, I’d die horribly.
For Arte’s sake, I couldn’t die in a place like this.
I took a step forward, and blind flames, wildly swinging arms, and sharp shards of ice flew toward me.
But I advanced without dodging. I knew they’d disappear before they could reach me.
Since the ice would shatter and send fragments flying, I shifted my foot a step to the left.
Instantly, the fragments embedded themselves where I had been standing.
Arte had used her Thread Extraction Ability to protect me, but by chance, the trajectory had twisted and sent them my way.
She hadn’t expected this—her face stiffened before she sighed.
No, I didn’t *see* it.
I *knew*.
With the throbbing headache, I kept moving forward without stopping.
Countless attacks flew at me, but none of them could harm me.
With Dorothy’s reinforcement, even if a god descended, they wouldn’t be able to wound me. Maybe that was only natural.
Perhaps sensing that I was slowly closing in, the monster roared and launched attacks at me, but all of them were meaningless.
Somehow realizing that all its movements were being read, it even closed its eyes and swung wildly—but that, too, was meaningless.
Because I knew everything.
How that monster would move.
Where its attacks would come from, how it would strike.
Even if it couldn’t understand itself, I could.
That was my ability.
This was the pinnacle of my ability.
"I’m sorry."
Not to the monster—
To the girl who had lost someone precious and gone mad.
If I had failed to protect Arte, I might have ended up like her.
A pang of sympathy struck me, but I still had to stop this girl.
Before receiving Dorothy’s reinforcement, I hadn’t fully understood why... but now I did.
Now, I could understand it clearly.
I could see it.
To banish the Author from this world forever.
And to do that, I had to defeat the girl.
"Grrrk...?!"
Sensing the threat to her life, the girl attempted a desperate move.
The beast that had wounded me.
The beast that had been clinging to the girl’s side now obeyed her command.
Right. You’d absorb that beast afterward.
Then you’d use its power to stop me.
But that wouldn’t work.
You couldn’t stop me. You couldn’t ambush me.
Her arm suddenly twisted, a massive mouth bursting forth to bite me—but I already knew it was coming and dodged effortlessly.
And right now, Dorothy would mutter,
"The attacks... they’re avoiding Yu Siwoo..."
Left, up, down—a tail lashed out. Up, down, right, right, left, right, up.
In that fleeting instant, I could see every attack coming.
Even with my throbbing headache and aching side, I evaded every strike.
And now.
She’d stop attacking to put distance between us, leaping backward.
Seizing that moment, I lunged into her arms just a step ahead of her.
Slowly enough that she wouldn’t notice me following.
But fast enough to catch her.
By the time she realized I hadn’t even tried to dodge and had charged in with her, it was too late.
My sword had already carved through her chest.
"Kuhk...?!"
"..."
A monster that wouldn’t die even when beheaded.
Yet its death was so simple, so anticlimactic.
Not just the heart—when I ripped out the furnace from the chest my blade had split open, it collapsed like a doll with its batteries removed.
...Perhaps because it was an enemy the Author hadn’t anticipated, its death lacked any of the Author’s dramatic flair.
But that wasn’t what mattered.
Killing this girl wasn’t the end.
The cause of this world’s transformation.
The reason Arte had come to this world.
The one who sought to plunge the world into chaos—was still here.
Right now.
At this very moment, when they were at their most careless.
This was the chance to sever them from this world.
"T-That was amazing...! Are you hurt anywhere...?!"
"Arte, I’m sorry."
So I kept my blood-dripping sword raised, now pointing it at the one I loved.
"W-What?! ...W-Wait?! Is something wrong?! Like, mind control or something?!"
"...No. Stay back, Dorothy."
"Huh?! But—!"
Dorothy stared at me, utterly confused, unable to grasp my intentions.
She was probably wondering if something had happened to me before I died.
But Arte just looked at me and smiled.
The most beautiful smile I’d ever seen from her.
"It’s fine. Do what you need to do."
"...Are you sure it’s okay?"
"I told you before, didn’t I? I trust you, Yu Siwoo."
Even if it meant giving up her heart.