Opening her eyes, the first thing to enter Vihera's field of vision was a skeleton.
Not the skeleton of a corpse, but an entity that could be understood at a glance to be a powerful monster.
"Huh!?"
Vihera, who had been certain that Rei was the one who saved her, reflexively leapt up from where she lay and tried to put some distance between them, but...
"Vihera!"
She stopped moving at the voice that suddenly reached her ears.
If asked why, it was because she recognized that voice.
The man who had reminded her that she was a woman, when she had only ever been interested in fighting.
She could never forget the voice of a man like that.
"Rei, what exactly is going on... here?"
Vihera had been about to question Rei while keeping a sharp guard against the skeleton in her line of sight, but when she saw that the undead monster showed no sign of paying her any attention, she found it suspicious enough to ask.
The undead appeared to be doing some kind of work. Something was floating in the air right near where she had just been sleeping, and from it poured what could only be described as a rain of light.
And the one receiving this rain of light was another person Vihera found familiar.
"...Um, who was he again?"
She recognized him, but unfortunately, it seemed Rhodos had left absolutely no impression on Vihera's memory.
Those who knew of Rhodos's feelings felt a twinge of pity seeing Vihera tilt her head and murmur like that.
"It's Rhodos. Rhodos."
"Oh. The Axe of the Thunder God guy."
That this was all it took to satisfy her left no room for doubt as to where Rhodos stood in Vihera's mind.
Anyway... Vihera turned her gaze away from Rhodos, who was still being showered with the rain of light, and looked around once more.
There, she found a large number of people besides Rei whose faces she recognized.
Elena, Marina, Ara, Elk, Min, Yohanna... and beyond them, Yohanna's companions.
Also, though they were not human, she could see the figures of Set and Ielo.
"So, could you tell me what exactly happened and how things ended up like this?"
In Vihera's mind, her memories cut off right after the battle with Unbris had taken place.
She had simply found herself in this situation upon waking, so it was only natural to have questions.
But Rei, who received the gaze she turned toward him, found himself at a loss for words.
He was happy that Vihera had regained consciousness, but that was not the only reason he was struggling for words.
"Vihera, your eye color...?"
At Rei's murmured words, Elena and the others turned their gazes back to Vihera and quickly wore expressions of understanding.
Rei, Elena, Marina... those who were fairly close to Vihera or better all noticed that her eyes were a different color from what they had seen before.
"Huh? My eye color?"
But naturally, Vihera herself had not realized that her eye color had changed.
Still, if asked why they had changed, she could more or less understand.
"Unbris, I suppose."
"...Unbris?"
The one who asked in return at Vihera's words was Marina.
"You used the Silver Lion's heart to do something about Unbris, right? Then, if it's influencing me, I'd think it's the Silver Lion's heart. After all, my eye color is silver too."
"Silver Lion?"
The next one to tilt their head was, unsurprisingly, Vihera.
But she had heard the name Silver Lion from Rei before, and when she hastily looked around, her gaze landed on a massive corpse—far too large to be called a lion by any stretch.
Its fur was silver, and Vihera could easily imagine that this was the monster called the Silver Lion.
"Then, is this the dungeon said to be near Gilm?"
"Correct. You should be grateful. We defeated an S-Rank monster to save you, you know."
"...It seems so."
They defeated an S-Rank monster.
Upon hearing that, the first thing Vihera felt was: Why wasn't I there?
Vihera had always been fond of battle to begin with. An S-Rank monster was nothing short of enviable to her.
As if understanding what Vihera was thinking, Elena muttered with a hint of exasperation.
"The battle with the Silver Lion was harsh in many ways, you know? So much so that even Rei was injured. How about you start with a word of thanks, at least?"
"...I suppose you're right. Thank you, everyone. For taking action for my sake."
So said Vihera, but she still could not entirely hide the feeling of envy that crept through.
"If you had been here, we could have fought the Silver Lion far more advantageously."
Marina, who understood Vihera's nature, muttered with a hint of exasperation.
"That's true. We really struggled against the Silver Lion's fur, to a surprising degree. Honestly, I can't count how many times I wished you were there."
When Rei murmured in agreement with Marina, Elena and the others nodded.
Vihera's Magic Impact Palm, which dealt shock directly to the interior of the body, could be called the worst possible matchup for the Silver Lion, whose fur granted it high physical and magical defense.
But at the same time, a single strike from the Silver Lion's forelegs or tail would undoubtedly be fatal to Vihera as well.
They could be called natural enemies of each other. That was what Rei thought, but recalling the battle with the Silver Lion, he didn't think even Vihera's Magic Impact Palm could deal damage so easily.
(Her attacks would probably deal damage, but she'd be at an overwhelming disadvantage defensively.)
A short distance away from Rei and the others who were thinking such things, Elena and Marina were explaining the current situation to Vihera.
Similarly, Rhodos, who lay within the Magic Circle, continued to receive the rain of light produced by the Silver Lion's heart.
Still feeling a dull ache in his body and not wanting to move much, Rei lightly stroked Set, who had come over to his side along with Ielo.
"Gururu."
"Don't worry. It's not that serious. The wounds on my face healed with potions, and the rest will heal before long."
Rei spoke as if instructing him, but Set tilted his head as if asking, Really?
For Set, the blood-covered figure he had seen after the battle with the Silver Lion was something he could not have watched calmly.
It was something he would have preferred never to see, if at all possible.
"More importantly, how are you doing, Set? You took those continuous tail attacks from the Silver Lion at the end, didn't you? ...No, there's no need to ask."
Stroking Set's body, Rei immediately understood that there were no wound scars left.
Not only that, but even the blood that had been on his fur was gone.
As for who had wiped it off, it was obvious without needing to think.
Among those present, there was only one person who could be described as a Set addict.
In fact, Rei had seen her rush straight to Set's side the moment she entered the room.
As Rei waited for Rhodos to regain consciousness while playing with Set, Elena, Vihera, and Marina—having apparently finished their explanation—approached Rei, followed shortly after by Ara.
"I've heard the situation. ...I never expected you to have an undead acquaintance, Rei. But then again, considering your personality, it's not really surprising, is it?"
Vihera asked with a smile, and Rei returned a wry one.
He understood that he was special in various ways.
"More importantly, are there any abnormalities in your body, Vihera? Your eye color seems to have changed, for one."
"So it seems. ...But other than that, there's nothing in particular. No physical abnormalities or anything of the sort."
Vihera moved her body lightly to show them, and just as she said, there were no impairments.
"If anything, my body feels in excellent condition. Is this... Unbris's influence, I wonder? Or the Silver Lion?"
"Unbris?"
Rei tilted his head at Vihera's words.
He didn't understand why that name was coming up here.
Of course, he knew that Unbris was the reason Vihera hadn't regained consciousness this time, and above all, Rei had seen with his own eyes Unbris sinking into Vihera's body.
But considering Vihera's words just now, it almost sounded as if she were saying her body felt good thanks to Unbris.
It wasn't just Rei; Elena, Marina, and the others likely felt the same.
Meeting their inquiring gazes, Vihera offered a small smile before opening her mouth.
"It's true that I was fighting Unbris inside me. I actually had Unbris cornered, but there was nothing I could do beyond that. It had shut itself inside its own core, and I simply didn't have enough attack power to destroy it. Or so I'd guess."
Of course, since it was a Mental World, it wasn't attack power in the literal sense, Vihera added.
Perhaps because they had never experienced it themselves, Elena and Marina only nodded as if they couldn't quite grasp what she meant.
In contrast, Rei, who had been fond of reading manga and novels back in Japan, could vaguely imagine what Vihera was trying to say.
"Honestly, I have no sense that nearly two months have passed since I fell unconscious due to Unbris. The sense of time inside a Mental World was incredibly vague. So much so that if someone told me only a day had passed since I lost consciousness, I'd almost believe them."
Vihera murmured in wonder, but that was surely related to the fact that her body hadn't deteriorated at all.
Under normal circumstances, if someone were unconscious for two months, their muscles would atrophy.
At the very least, someone who had just regained consciousness wouldn't be able to walk around freely like this... let alone lament that they regretted not being able to participate in the battle against the Silver Lion. Saying such a thing would be impossible.
No, she might be able to say it, but actually maintaining a physical condition fit to fight a Silver Lion immediately would be all but impossible.
But what made that possible was the state Vihera had been in while unconscious.
It was clear to see that Unbris's magic was at work—or so Vihera's condition suggested.
"Oh, I got sidetracked. Anyway, I was fighting Unbris in the Mental World, but I couldn't break through its final defense. Then, power suddenly surged up within me... and as a result, Unbris must have judged that it would be annihilated if things continued as they were."
A smile floated on Vihera's lips as she gave a small shrug.
A combative smile, very much like Vihera.
And yet, the impression she gave was somehow different from before.
"Unbris, with its annihilation now certain, chose to be absorbed by me in order to leave behind even a small trace of its existence. The one who had tried to absorb me being absorbed by me instead—it's a somewhat amusing story, isn't it?"
"...In other words, you absorbed Unbris's magic? Are you sure you're okay? Unbris is an entity born from a magic abnormality, right? Thinking about it normally, it could only be bad for your body."
Meeting Rei's worried gaze, Vihera nodded to indicate there was no problem.
"There's no need to worry about that. Like I said, Unbris wanted to leave proof of its existence. In that situation, do you think it would do anything to me, who had received that proof? ...Well, it was only made possible because of the power that suddenly surged up."
Without the Silver Lion's heart, Vihera wouldn't have been able to do anything about Unbris's core.
In other words, the current Vihera had effectively inherited not only Unbris's power, but the Silver Lion's power as well.
Though it might be called a different kind of inheritance from Elena, who had inherited an Ancient Dragon's Magic Stone.
Besides, the Silver Lion's Magic Stone was in Rei's Misty Ring. What Vihera had inherited was the Silver Lion's heart... its fresh living blood and magic.
"For all that, the only thing that changed is your eye color."
"Isn't it? I thought there would be a more obvious change. Like growing wings, or sprouting horns and fangs, or developing a third eye on my forehead."
"...What exactly are you planning to become?"
It was only natural for Rei to mutter that in response to Vihera's words.
"Become what? Hmm, what am I, I wonder. Well, one thing is certain—I can now live together with Rei."
Vihera said this with a happy smile, and the rain of light that had been pouring down on Rhodos vanished... and his eyes opened, almost at the exact same moment.