“Cecilia, you left a trail!” With a flick of her blade, Sophia thrust her sword forward once more.
Narrowly dodging the strike, Cecilia didn’t forget to unleash a burst of Fire Magic, forcing Sophia to retreat and defend.
“Sophia, you’re not bad either.” Once she regained her footing, Cecilia raised her staff again, facing off against Sophia.
If anyone were to overhear their conversation, they might think this was merely a simple sparring match.
In reality, neither had held back from the very beginning. Their tempers had flared, and neither was willing to take a single step back. After a series of stinging insults, the confrontation had truly devolved into a life-or-death struggle.
The two were actually quite close in skill level. Sophia was simply more well-rounded, whereas Cecilia leaned more toward high-output magic.
At this moment, both Sophia and Cecilia bore various degrees of injuries.
Sophia’s hands were scorched and bloodied by the searing heat, while a small laceration on Cecilia’s neck slowly leaked bright red blood.
By now, both Sophia and Cecilia had gradually developed the mindset of killing the other first and then apologizing to Lilianna later.
If Lilianna refused to forgive them, they would simply take her away by force and spend the rest of their lives healing the trauma they had caused her.
“Let us decide this here—life or death!”
Sophia and Cecilia shouted in unison.
“Sister Lilianna is mine, and she always will be!”
“Nonsense! I am Lilianna’s eternal friend!”
They were truly prepared to deal a killing blow.
“Stop it!”
A shout laced with Soul Power echoed in the ears of Sophia and Cecilia at the perfect moment.
The two of them turned toward the source of the voice simultaneously.
They saw a young girl, her face as pale as if she might shatter in the next instant, sitting in a wheelchair.
It was Lilianna. She had finally rushed over before everything became irreversible.
A flash of joy crossed the eyes of Sophia and Cecilia, but they did not stop their movements. Instead, they tried to strike first to finish the other off.
“I’m sorry…” A touch of madness flickered in their eyes.
“You guys…” Lilianna looked at the valley, which had been ravaged beyond recognition, and at the two women who had no intention of stopping. She realized that simple methods would no longer suffice to restrain them.
She needed to use a “strong medicine” to stop both Sophia and Cecilia at once.
Lilianna bit her lip, and a few tears rolled down her cheeks.
“You actually want to kill each other… This is all my fault…”
She looked up at the moon in the sky, ensuring she was bathed in the Moonlight.
Lilianna had a death-defying talent that could be activated under the Moonlight.
**[Illusory Moon’s Grace (Gold): While bathed in Moonlight, you are immune to the physical damage of death once per hour.]**
“If it’s going to be like this…” Lilianna pulled out a Stiletto Dagger. “Then it would be better for me to die first, and then I’ll wait for you both…”
*Puchi!*
Gripping the Stiletto Dagger with both hands, Lilianna drove it violently into her own heart.
**[Warning: You are in a Heavily Wounded state!]**
**[Warning: You are in a Bleeding state!]**
**[Warning: You are Near Death!]**
Intense pain accompanied by a suffocating sensation washed over her. Lilianna no longer had the strength to even hold the Stiletto Dagger; her hands fell weakly to her sides.
“No! Sister Lilianna!”
“Stop! Lilianna!”
The moment Sophia and Cecilia saw Lilianna pull out the Stiletto Dagger, they realized something was wrong.
They no longer cared about the opponent they were fighting and rushed toward Lilianna’s position with frantic desperation.
It was common knowledge that after the heart was pierced, a person could still live for several minutes to more than ten minutes.
Lilianna had never felt time pass so slowly.
‘It hurts so much!’
She was actually very afraid of pain. Now, she didn’t even need to act; the pain was enough to make her burst into tears at any moment.
A distance of several hundred meters was nothing more than a blink of an eye for experts of the Moon-binding Rank.
Sophia and Cecilia reached Lilianna’s side almost simultaneously.
Each of them grabbed one of Lilianna’s hands.
Like a butterfly caught on a pin, Cecilia had completely lost her mind. She reached out and yanked the dagger from Lilianna’s heart.
Cecilia’s incredible speed of action once again showed its brilliance.
“Hiss—” Lilianna couldn’t help but gasp in agony.
“Sister Lilianna, don’t leave me! I won’t let you die!”
“I only just reunited with you.”
Cecilia cried while leaning against Lilianna’s leg.
Lilianna desperately wanted to explain to Cecilia that a sharp weapon piercing the heart cannot be pulled out directly, but she was in too much pain to speak.
She could guarantee that the wound had definitely been enlarged by several margins.
If there had been a chance for rescue earlier, Lilianna was now basically at death’s door.
“You idiot, who told you to pull it out?” Sophia felt like she was going crazy at Cecilia’s actions.
“Then… then I’ll put it back!” Cecilia picked up the Stiletto Dagger she had just thrown aside and prepared to stab it back in.
Lilianna’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head.
‘I haven’t even started my performance yet. Is my first life in the real world really going to end at Cecilia’s hands?’
At this moment, she could only place all her hopes on Sophia, wishing she could stop Cecilia’s “hands-faster-than-the-brain” behavior.
Fortunately, Lilianna was able to continue her sinful life.
“Get away!”
With a shove, Sophia knocked Cecilia aside.
Compared to Cecilia, Sophia was clearly much calmer. She ignored Cecilia and knelt by Lilianna’s side.
She used one hand to cover Lilianna’s wound, while her other hand produced a small Potion bottle. She bit the cork off with her teeth and poured the liquid onto Lilianna’s injury.
It stung, but the effect was decent. At the very least, the exterior of the wound began to close slightly.
Glancing at her status window, Lilianna saw that in her current state, she still had exactly ten more minutes of life.
The timing was perfect for her to deliver her last words before dying with her eyes open.
“Lilianna, how are you feeling?” While pressing down on the wound on Lilianna’s chest, Sophia gripped Lilianna’s hands. Sophia shed tears in front of Lilianna for the first time. “Hold on. I will definitely find a way to save you.”
“Sister Lilianna, please don’t die, okay?” Cecilia could only rub Lilianna’s hand, continuously trying to wipe away the blood. She had long since turned into a sobbing mess.
“Cough—” Lilianna coughed a few times. Blood bubbled from the wound again, staining Sophia’s hands.
She didn’t say anything sentimental. She simply targeted the two of them and used her skill: Soul Contract.
It wasn’t the first time Sophia and Cecilia had seen this ability, so neither of them refused. In an instant, Lilianna’s emotions were linked to theirs.
A surge of intense sorrow, along with hatred and resentment that had yet to subside, crashed into Lilianna like a tidal wave.
“It hurts… it really hurts…”
“My heart really hurts…”