"Those whose consciousness you intend to restore... Vihera and Rhodos, was it? Lay them side by side on the floor."
Grimm issued the instruction while floating the Silver Lion's still-pulsing heart—pulsing even after its Magic Stone had been extracted—near himself.
Following his instruction, Yohanna and her companions laid the two on the floor.
The sight of Vihera and Rhodos lying side by side was striking in its contrast.
Woman and man; one unconscious, the other emaciated.
Seeing the two of them like that, everyone present let out a small sigh.
These two were about to regain consciousness.
Even though they understood this, a lingering doubt remained in the back of their minds: Will it really happen?
That feeling was undoubtedly tied to the fact that Grimm was an undead monster.
Grimm was aware of the gazes directed at him from those around, but without seeming to pay it any mind, he moved on to his next action.
He positioned the heart above the two unconscious figures and lightly tapped the floor with the tip of his staff.
In an instant, a Magic Circle rose up on the floor, centered on Vihera and Rhodos.
...Yes, rather than taking the time to draw it out, the Magic Circle had been produced instantaneously.
And it was no small circle, either.
It was a massive Magic Circle with a radius of roughly five meters, centered on Vihera and Rhodos.
"Nuh!?"
The party cried out in astonishment at the scene that suddenly spread out before them.
That was how utterly absurd the spectacle unfolding before Rei and the others was.
However, Grimm did not appear to hear their voices, as if they had passed right through him. With his left hand—the one not holding the staff—he intricately interlaced his bones-only fingers while weaving words in a language Rei and the others could not comprehend.
As the words... as the chant progressed, the pulsing of the heart floating above Vihera and Rhodos gradually weakened, and in its place, light rained down from the heart onto Vihera.
The fact that, at this point, no light fell upon Rhodos at all was simply Grimm carrying out his priority on Vihera.
Elk's and Min's expressions were stern and tight as they watched the light raining down on Vihera.
It was only natural. If the light vanished before it could reach Rhodos, it meant he would not regain consciousness today.
Elk's fists were clenched so tightly that his nails were about to break skin and draw blood, and Min was gripping her staff hard enough to whiten her knuckles.
The rest of the group watched the light raining down from the Silver Lion's heart, praying somehow that Vihera's consciousness would be restored.
Just like that, how much time had passed?
For Rei and the others watching intently, it felt like it could have been seconds, minutes... or even hours.
Eventually, the rain of light pouring down on Vihera's body stopped.
The Silver Lion's heart, floating in the air, had shrunk considerably compared to when it first began producing the rain of light, but it still retained a substantial size.
Seeing the heart, Elk and Min let out faint sighs of relief.
Judging by its appearance, there might be enough to restore Rhodos's consciousness as well.
The foreign entity within her.
Since the battle with that entity had begun, Vihera had no idea how much time had passed.
More than two months had passed in the outside world, but Vihera had no way of knowing that.
Her sense of time had completely vanished.
With her sense of time paralyzed, Vihera continued to fight the foreign entity inside her.
Anbris. She knew it was an entity called by that name, but even so, she continued to unleash attacks against it one after another.
Of course, by attacks, she did not mean punching, kicking, or using skills in the way one would in the real world.
Recognizing that this place was within herself, she rejected the entity. That was the nature of the battle.
No, "eliminate" was perhaps a more accurate term than "reject."
She had been engaged in such a battle endlessly, but perhaps because her sense of time was gone, Vihera felt no exhaustion... no mental fatigue existed whatsoever.
If anything, as time went on, she had gradually become capable of even overwhelming Anbris.
However... she could overwhelm it, but she could not touch what could be called Anbris's core at all.
To be precise, she could touch it, but it would be more accurate to say that her attacks had no effect on it whatsoever.
Understanding this, Anbris had retreated into its shell and taken up an impenetrable defensive stance, launching attacks as if to exploit gaps in Vihera's focus.
Looking at the battle situation alone, Vihera held an overwhelming advantage.
And yet, she still could not secure a decisive victory... it had become a situation close to a stalemate.
(This is troublesome. If I stay in this situation forever, I'm probably worrying Rei.)
Even the words she spoke did not actually resonate as sound in her current situation.
This was that kind of strange space.
Vihera had already grown accustomed to that fact, but truthfully, she could not think of any way to deal with Anbris's core, which sat right in her line of sight.
Anything other than the core—for instance, the tentacle-like entities extending from it that tried to erode her—could be effortlessly obliterated by releasing a strong intent to eliminate them.
But that only worked on the parts of Anbris extending from the core.
The core itself was untouchable.
Since she was obliterating parts of Anbris, she had thought before that if she just took enough time, she might eventually be able to defeat it.
But she also considered that if Anbris truly sensed danger to itself, it might stop even sending out those tentacles.
As long as it remained in its core, Vihera's attacks were ineffective.
In other words, it had secured its own survival, at minimum.
This was extremely troublesome for Vihera, and it was also the reason she could not carelessly obliterate the tentacles protruding from the core.
(What in the world should I do? It's incredibly troublesome. ...The fact that my attacks don't work on Anbris—does that simply mean my offensive power is insufficient? But offensive power in this world doesn't seem to have anything to do with the physical body.)
There was nothing she could do.
That was the conclusion Vihera reached.
Of course, she still tried to think of something and made various attempts, but... in the end, none of it worked.
As a result, she had claimed over ninety percent of this world as her own, yet she was stuck at a standstill there.
(I'm sure Rei is doing something to help... Was it a while ago? Or just a moment ago? I've felt a sensation like power welling up inside my body a few times.)
Those sensations were actually caused by Rei mouth-to-mouth feeding Vihera a World Tree potion, and by Recovery Magic users casting Recovery Magic on her... but she herself was completely unaware of it.
Even with the sensation of power welling up inside her, it was useless in this space.
...No, it was still useful in the sense that she understood Rei was taking action from the outside to help her.
(No, that's not it. I need to do something about this anyway. At this rate, I won't be able to see Rei no matter how much time passes.)
The moment she thought that... suddenly, truly suddenly, Vihera felt her own consciousness swell with power.
So much so that she wanted to ask what she had even been doing until now. An increase in power that made her want to say exactly that.
To give an analogy, if she had been a Goblin up until just a moment ago, she was now a Cyclops.
(No, comparing myself to a Goblin is a bit unpleasant.)
Denying her own thoughts, Vihera nonetheless smiled as power surged through her body, even if she didn't understand the reason for it.
Above all, she understood perfectly well who had done this for her.
(It's definitely Rei, isn't it. Maybe Marina or someone is cooperating with him too. Or... come to think of it, has Byune returned yet?)
The figures of various people passed through Vihera's mind.
Even as she thought about them, she could feel her power increasing as time passed.
Also... since Vihera's abilities were increasing, Anbris inside her naturally understood this as well; its core wavered in bewilderment.
Until now, Vihera had not been able to damage its core no matter what she did, but now it was different.
Vihera, who had visibly come to harbor immense power, was certain that she could destroy the core now. That was what it felt.
Of course, even if it felt that way, Anbris did not possess clear human-like thinking capabilities.
It acted almost entirely on instinct, so it might be more accurate to say it perceived it that way.
But... precisely because of that, it feared the opponent before its eyes.
Anbris had chosen to enter Vihera and take over her body as a path to survival, stimulated by its survival instinct out of fear of being annihilated by Rei. But now, that survival instinct was being stimulated once again.
If things stayed like this, it would die.
It understood that, but since it had already entered Vihera's body, it could not leave of its own volition.
It would perish at this rate, yet there was no way to avoid it.
Anbris's greatest miscalculation was likely Vihera's mental fortitude.
Far from taking over Vihera's body, the current Anbris was merely managing to survive as a core within a tiny fraction of Vihera's Mental World.
Die, live, die, live, die, live.
Anbris lacked the faculty of thought, but precisely because of that, it simply and plainly realized that it would die at this rate and could not survive.
It understood from past experience that fighting would result in defeat, and it could not flee from Vihera's Mental World either. As for defending against attacks, that might have been possible a short while ago, but there was no way its defensive power could block Vihera's current offensive power.
It was truly, without a doubt, a hopeless, life-or-death crisis. That was Anbris's current state.
Even if it tried to resist somehow, there was no method to do so.
The only thing Anbris could do was hole up in its core and fortify its defenses.
...In this case, it was probably a blessing that Anbris's ego had not poorly developed.
If it had developed an ego, it likely would not have been able to endure the terror of its own annihilation.
Even so, without panicking, the Anbris that had awakened to its survival instinct contemplated whether there was any way for it to survive.
Perhaps because it had originally been a natural phenomenon, it could not conceive of methods like negotiating with Vihera at all.
While Anbris hesitated, Vihera took action.
She began to erode Anbris's core.
Until just a short while ago, no matter how hard she tried, Anbris's core could not be eroded.
But with Vihera's newly increased power, it was now possible to erode even Anbris's core.
Of course, the entire core was not eroded all at once, but still, little by little... yet steadily, Anbris's core was being eroded by the existence known as Vihera.
Die. Lose. Perish.
Anbris's instinct could not be put into clear words, but it was filled with an instinctive aversion to its own disappearance.
Vanishing, vanishing, vanishing.
When it realized that its annihilation was an absolutely unavoidable fate... along with despair, a single thought was born within Anbris.
It could not accept its own disappearance like this.
If so, by any means necessary... even if its own existence could no longer be recognized, it wanted to leave a trace of itself behind.
Even while Anbris's thoughts were shifting, Vihera's erosion of the core continued.
The core, which had been absolutely inviolable until recently, was already about forty percent eroded by Vihera.
At this rate, it would be eroded and annihilated before long.
Before that happened, it needed to act.
Since Anbris possessed only instinct, once it judged that it wanted to leave even the slightest trace of its existence behind, there was no hesitation; it acted swiftly.
Incredibly quickly—so much so that it was hard to believe it had been defending with its core until just a moment ago—it let Vihera in.
And as the existence known as itself was eroded before its very eyes, it spread out, allowing itself to be absorbed by Vihera.
(Hm?)
Vihera felt a question arise at the abrupt cessation of Anbris's resistance, but this was likely because they were mentally connected. She was able to understand the feelings held by the entity known as Anbris.
Rather than be annihilated like this, it wanted Vihera to absorb it and leave even a trace of its existence behind.
Why she did not reject Anbris and instead accepted it—Vihera herself could not fully understand that either.
Perhaps it was because they had spent that strange time, both brief and long, together, or perhaps it was because she needed more power in order to stand beside Rei.
What she did know was that if she accepted Anbris as it was... or rather, if she absorbed it, her power would undoubtedly increase.
And if her power increased, she would be able to fight stronger enemies in more fulfilling battles.
With various reasons swirling... as a result, Vihera decided to accept Anbris, absorb it, and make it her own nourishment.
Once she finished absorbing Anbris, light gradually filled her surroundings, and for the first time in a long while, Vihera performed the act of opening the eyelids of her own flesh.