Chapter 3

My body deteriorated far faster than I could have imagined.

In the first month after losing the fire seed, my legs began to go numb. By the second month, my vision grew increasingly blurred, and the blood I coughed up was laced with fragments of my own internal organs.

All I could do each day was sit in a wheelchair, staring blankly at the falling leaves outside the window.

That was until the day the warning bells shattered the tranquility of the Dawn Court.

The sky was torn ajar as unprecedented fissures fractured the warding barrier.

Thousands of shadow beasts poured forth like a black tide, swallowing the Court's outer defenses in an instant.

As the Chief Mage of the Dawn Court—even under house arrest, even with my mana dried up—I had no reason to retreat in the face of absolute annihilation.

Forcefully burning away the last of my life force, I used a thread of mana to brace my legs and walked out of the mage tower.

The core of the battlefield was the central altar—the absolute key to repairing the barrier.

By the time I arrived, Carlos was wielding the sword Starfall, struggling desperately to hold back the beast tide. Lilia cowered behind him.

"Cecilia! What are you doing here? Get back!" Carlos roared, catching a glimpse of me amidst the brutal chaos.

I ignored him. Walking straight to the focal point of the altar, I formed hand seals, forcefully drawing upon the lingering light elements in the air.

"By my blood, summon the light of the dawn..."

As I chanted, a colossal pillar of golden light erupted into the sky, temporarily driving back the encroaching shadow beasts.

But such life-draining magic caused blood to seep from my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. My vision blurred beneath a veil of crimson.

Just as the barrier was on the verge of mending, disaster struck.

Two massive, high-tier shadow wolves broke through the light pillar's suppression.

One bared its bloody maw and lunged at Lilia, who was hiding near the edge. The other, bringing a suffocating stench of blood, leaped at me from the flank while I was anchored, continuously sustaining the spell.

They were too close. Carlos only had enough time to save one of us.

Time seemed to stretch out infinitely in that exact moment.

I saw Carlos turn his head. A violent struggle flashed across his gaze as it darted between Lilia and me for a split second.

Then, instinctively, he turned his back on me and sprinted toward Lilia like an arrow released from the bowstring.

"Lilia!" he screamed, shielding her with his own body.

At that moment, I could hear the sound of my own heart shattering completely.

The claws of the shadow wolf plunged straight through my shoulder. The immense impact sent my body violently flying off its feet.

Like a kite with a snapped string, I plummeted backward over the edge of the altar, tumbling toward the bottomless abyss below.

In that suspended fraction of a second, I noticed that although Lilia was shielded by Carlos, a splash of the wolf's shadow venom had landed directly on her face. She let out a blood-curdling shriek; the venom was burning through her flesh, threatening to rot her away entirely.

In my past life, she died because of me. In this life, I didn't want to owe anyone anything ever again.

"Spatial Transposition."

I forced those words out, depleting the absolute last trace of mana from the depths of my soul.

A faint flash of silver illuminated the dark air. I brutally stripped away the "Aegis of the Dawn"—the very last vestige in my body capable of resisting shadow venom—and manifested it as a streak of light. It landed flawlessly onto Lilia, instantly dispersing the lethal acid.

Live well. As long as you live, his devotion in this lifetime will finally have a place to rest.

Having done this, I completely lost all strength. Gravity seized me, dragging me down into the endless dark.

I slowly closed my eyes, waiting for the jagged rocks to smash me to pieces.

Just then, a soul-tearing roar echoed from the edge of the altar.

"Cecilia—!!!"

Carlos had turned his head just in time to witness my final descent into the abyss.

He saw the radiant glow of my mana burning out to save Lilia; he saw my body torn apart by the shadow wolf; and he saw the peaceful, entirely unattached smile resting upon my face.

"No! No!"

Like a madman, he shoved Lilia out of his arms, stumbling and crawling as he dashed to the precipice. He reached out a trembling hand, desperate to catch me, only to watch helplessly as my silhouette was completely devoured by the pitch-black void.

In the exact instant I vanished into the depths, a terrifying magical shockwave erupted from the floor of the abyss.

The shockwave rocketed into the clouds. Carrying the fading aura of my soon-to-be-extinguished soul, it relentlessly slammed into Carlos's mental sanctuary.

It felt as if countless needles had pierced his brain simultaneously, the sheer agony forcing him to curl into a tight ball. That familiar surge of mana acted like a heavy hammer, instantly shattering the impenetrable seal that locked away his memories.

Images flooded frantically into his mind, spinning relentlessly.

He remembered my sheer resolve when I stepped in front of a fatal blow to save him...

He remembered the solemn vow he made beneath the starry sky as he slipped the ring onto my finger...

He remembered losing his memories...

Furthermore, he remembered how coldly he had pointed his sword at me, how he had burned the tokens of our love right before my eyes, how he had personally ripped out my fire seed, and how, at the edge of life and death, he had pushed the woman he loved most into the jaws of death!

Carlos fell to his knees at the edge of the abyss. His hands clawed desperately at the unforgiving rocks, his fingernails bending back, bleeding profusely.

He let out a mournful, agonizing wail. Tears and blood gushed in equal measure from his eyes.

He had finally remembered everything.

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