"I found you."
The words had barely settled in the air when Sylva moved.
There was no warning and no shift in her expression. Her hand lifted slightly, and in that instant, the wind detonated.
Elna was the first to be caught. Her body was swept sideways like a dry leaf caught in a storm, and she didn't even have time to scream before her back slammed into a tree trunk with a sickening crack. The wood split on impact, and her body bounced before disappearing into the bushes.
"ELNA—!"
Vein stepped forward, but he was already too late.
The air around him hardened. It wasn't a gust or a shove, but crushing pressure from every direction at once. His chest tightened as if invisible hands had wrapped around him, squeezing the air from his lungs, and his feet lifted from the ground without warning.
"What—?!"
He grasped at nothing. There was no earth beneath him, no support to cling to, only the unseen force of wind holding him in place.
Sylva looked at him.
Her face was calm—too calm. She didn't look enraged, confused, or out of control.
She looked resolved.
Her hand rose slightly higher.
And Vein was launched.
His body shot straight upward with a deafening impact, the ground vanishing in an instant beneath him. The trees shrank rapidly, and the split hillside became nothing more than a thin scar across the earth.
Air slammed into his face, knocking the breath from his lungs as sky and ground exchanged places in a dizzying blur.
"NO—!"
His voice was swallowed by the rushing wind.
He kept rising higher and higher until the world below him felt distant and unreal.
Then he stopped.
For a fraction of a second, everything went silent.
He hovered at the peak of his ascent, suspended between sky and earth. Below him, the land stretched wide and open, like a grave waiting to receive him.
Then gravity seized him.
He fell.
The air turned into blades against his skin as he plummeted downward. His eyes watered violently, his lungs burned, and the ground rushed toward him faster than his mind could process.
I'm going to die.
There was no panic in the thought, only certainty.
His hands clenched.
There was no time for theory or panic, only instinct.
He shut his eyes.
Mana.
Flow.
Open.
Not to attack, but to endure.
He tore mana from within himself without structure or control, forcing it through his bones, pressing it against his muscles, hardening it beneath his skin. It felt crude and incomplete, as if his body itself was trying to become armor, as if his skeleton were being wrapped in thin, unfinished steel.
The ground rushed closer.
Faster.
Closer.
"—GH!"
BOOOOOOM—
The impact shattered the air.
The earth cracked outward in a violent ring, stone fragments blasting away as dust surged upward in a muted explosion.
For a single second, there was no sound.
Then a piercing ringing filled his ears as the world spun into white.
When his vision returned, Vein lay at the center of the crater he had created.
Alive.
But barely.
His skull throbbed as if it had been struck from the inside. Breathing came late and ragged, each inhale scraping painfully through his chest.
His hands trembled as he forced himself to move, his vision blurred as he lifted his head.
Sylva stood in the distance, unmoving and unhurried.
She did not approach.
She did not rush to finish him.
She simply watched.
And in that moment, Vein understood.
He hadn't been thrown in anger.
He had been thrown because he was in the way.
The dust had not yet settled when a small vial spun through the air from behind the bushes and shattered behind Sylva, releasing a burst of fire that briefly swallowed her in heat and light.
"Elna—!" Vein gasped.
Flames surged, smoke filling the clearing.
For a brief moment, it looked as if she had been consumed.
Then the wind twisted.
The flames split apart instantly.
Sylva stood at the center, completely unharmed, as if the fire had never touched her.
She hadn't even stepped back.
Her eyes moved slowly, turning toward the bushes.
Toward Elna.
"No…" Elna whispered.
Her hand reached for another vial, but it was already too late.
Sylva lifted a single finger.
The air tightened.
Elna's body was lifted again and hurled through the air before slamming into the ground beside Vein with a dull impact.
The earth cracked faintly beneath them.
Elna coughed, a thin line of blood slipping from the corner of her mouth as she grabbed Vein's sleeve.
"Buy me time, Vein."
He turned toward her, but her face blurred as the world tilted around him.
The ringing in his ears grew louder, drowning everything else. He couldn't hear his own heartbeat or feel the ground properly.
His skull felt heavy, filled with burning fog.
"What… do I…" he muttered.
Sylva began to walk toward them, slow and unhurried, each step light and almost soundless.
The mana around her was stable—too stable, like the surface of a lake just before a storm breaks.
Vein forced himself upright. His legs trembled, his vision doubled, and his body screamed in protest.
He didn't know the plan.
He didn't know the spell.
He didn't know what to do.
He only knew one thing.
If he didn't move now, Elna would die.
So he ran.
His steps were heavy, uneven, and reckless.
"SYLVA!"
He swung.
His left fist struck her face with solid impact.
But it felt like hitting stone.
There was no recoil, no blood, no reaction.
Sylva looked at him.
Then she laughed softly.
A quiet breath, almost amused.
A single gust of wind struck his chest, pushing him back a step.
Vein gritted his teeth. His hands trembled.
Not enough.
He inhaled sharply.
Mana.
Open again.
He didn't understand how.
He just forced it.
The strength buff erupted inside his body, raw and violent. Pressure surged through his muscles, his bones creaking under the strain, his blood burning as if it had been set alight.
His broken right hand trembled uselessly at his side.
He clenched his left fist.
"I'm not running again."
He lunged forward.
Sylva raised her hand, but this time she was too late.
BOOOOM—
Vein's fist slammed into her face with everything he had left.
The air detonated. The ground shook beneath them.
Sylva's body lifted from the ground and was hurled backward, crashing through the trees as trunks snapped one after another under the force of the impact.
CRAAASH—
Silence followed.
The buff vanished instantly.
Vein swayed.
Then the pain hit.
His arm burned as if it had been torn apart from within. His muscles felt shredded, his bones grinding painfully against each other. His right hand throbbed with the fracture, while his left screamed under the strain.
Both hands trembled uncontrollably.
The ringing in his ears only grew louder.
The world tilted.
He nearly collapsed.
Still, he forced himself to look toward the forest where Sylva had disappeared.
There was no movement.
No sound.
No sign of her.
Not yet.
Vein swallowed, his head spinning, his body barely holding together.
And he understood one thing with terrifying clarity—
if Sylva stood up now, he had nothing left.
—
The wind blade came without a sound.
Vein never saw it coming.
His body was too exhausted to react in time. He stumbled, his balance breaking for just a fraction of a second—
CRAAAAACK—
The massive tree behind him split cleanly in two.
Its upper half slid for a brief moment before collapsing, slamming into the ground with crushing force. Dust surged upward, filling the air.
Vein froze, his breath caught in his throat.
If I hadn't fallen…
He didn't finish the thought.
Soft footsteps approached.
Sylva descended slowly from the air, landing lightly before walking toward him.
Her face was empty.
Not angry.
Not hateful.
Just… empty.
And Vein knew immediately—
this was not the Sylva he knew.
The wind coiled around his body, lifting him off the ground without a single touch. His feet dangled uselessly as invisible pressure compressed his chest, making it harder and harder to breathe.
Sylva stepped closer, her movements steady, almost mechanical, like someone following an order no one else could hear.
"SYLVA!"
His voice cracked.
"It's me! Vein!"
There was no response.
Only the sound of her quiet footsteps drawing closer.
Vein swallowed hard.
"SYLVA!"
Her eyes flickered.
Just for a fraction of a second.
A crack.
"SYLVA ROSALINE!"
The wind trembled.
The pressure faltered.
Vein saw the opening.
He reached forward, forcing his body to move, and grabbed her throat with his left hand even as he was still suspended in the air.
"Hey… Sylva…"
His voice came out hoarse, barely steady.
"You're a Second-Rank mage of the Sanctum of the Three Arts…"
His grip tightened slightly.
"Don't lose to corrupted mana."
And then—
JLEB.
Something pierced through his stomach.
Vein froze.
Not because of the pain—
but because of the shock.
Slowly, he lowered his gaze.
Sylva's staff.
Embedded in his abdomen.
Her hand trembled as she held it.
Her eyes were hollow.
Tears streamed down her face, silently, uncontrollably, as if she didn't even realize they were falling.
That wasn't the gaze of someone trying to kill.
It was the gaze of someone who had already lost control.
"Y–you…?"
The wind weakened.
His suspended body dropped slightly as the pressure around him faltered.
Sylva's lips moved.
"I'm not… weak…"
Her voice fractured, breaking apart as if something inside her mind was tearing at it.
"I'm not weak…"
Her tears fell harder.
The wind collapsed completely.
Vein dropped to the ground.
The staff slid free from his body, and warm blood spilled across his stomach.
Sylva staggered back.
Her breathing hitched.
Her eyes began to clear.
And when their gazes met—
awareness returned.
"I'm sorry, Vein…"
Her voice broke.
There was no hatred in it.
No killing intent.
Only fear.
Vein lay there, clutching his wound. His head still rang, his hands numb, his body barely responding.
But now he understood.
He looked into Sylva's eyes—
and knew.
She had never truly been fighting him.
She had been fighting something else…
something that was using her body.
The wind stopped.
The forest fell silent.
And for the first time—
that silence was not a threat.
It was guilt.
Hanging heavily between them.
Vein forced a breath through clenched teeth.
He realized something far more terrifying than the wound in his abdomen—
if corrupted mana could break Sylva…
then none of them
had ever truly been safe.