Chapter 53: The Heat of Love

If one were to describe the relationship between Shion Ace and Julia Deuce in a single phrase, it would be this: “perfect opposites reflected in a mirror.” That description applied to everything about them—their appearances, personalities, even the circumstances of their births.

Shion had been born in the slums, among the poor and forgotten. Julia, meanwhile, had been born into the wealthy class of the Yaranri Kingdom.

A family that prospered by clinging to those in power, indulging in privilege while trampling others beneath them.

Perhaps that alone was sinful. But wasn’t that simply how every world worked? The capable and fortunate fed upon the incapable and unfortunate, growing fat from their suffering. To Julia, that reality had been natural since birth. Yet fortunate or not, she possessed enough intelligence to recognize just how twisted it truly was.

"Ahh… nothing but fools."

She said it constantly. Living like this would inevitably breed hatred. One day, the family would collapse beneath the weight of it all.

And she refused to be dragged down with them.

So she acted.

She took up the spear, the traditional weapon of the Yaranri Kingdom, and trained relentlessly. Because she understood that when disaster struck, power would be the only thing that mattered. No one knew how long their comfortable lives would last.

Faster. Faster. Faster.

She devoted herself to improving, desperate to make it in time. The thought that the strong and weak could reverse places at any moment terrified her beyond measure.

In the end, she did not make it in time.

Though fortune had favored her birth, her efforts could not keep pace with the speed of her family’s downfall.

Their mansion was burned to the ground. The servants fled. Her parents were murdered.

And Julia was violated.

The very people her family had once treated as prey trampled her dignity into the dirt.

Voices of hatred screamed endlessly around her. Bathed in their curses, Julia held together her breaking heart through sheer pride alone.

I refuse to break.

Grinding her teeth, she swore that someday she would kill every last one of them.

Then one day, just as that nightmare had begun to feel ordinary, everyone who had been “keeping” Julia was slaughtered.

She was rescued by a knight claiming to serve the “Spear King.”

Yet instead of relief, Julia was horrified that the targets of her revenge were gone.

To live, one needed a purpose.

And for Julia, that purpose had been simple: to personally kill those who had violated her.

But now that goal had been stolen from her forever.

Shion possessed a reason to live.

To protect her mother.

Julia had lost hers.

To kill those she hated.

Opposites to the very core. Entirely incompatible. Again and again they clashed, furious enough to want each other dead.

And yet—

Julia would never admit that a small part of her envied Shion.

The girl who had lost her purpose devoted herself to gaining strength for one reason alone: to never again become the one being trampled upon.

And so she stood against Shion Ace.

All for her own sake.

Thinking only of sacrificing her.

Believing that the weak existed to be crushed, she continued wielding twin spears in both hands.

"Dieeeee!!!"

"This is far from enough to kill me!!!"

Sparks exploded through the air.

Indigo hair and brown hair traded places in an instant, their positions reversing over and over again. Offense and defense shifted just as rapidly as the battle raged on.

Julia understood that the illusions created by “Heat Haze” were merely support tools. Though her magical spear allowed her to manipulate them freely, the illusions themselves possessed no physical force. They were nothing more than decoys.

Which meant Julia herself had to defeat Shion with her own hands.

She understood that if she stopped attacking—if she surrendered control for even a moment—the tide could reverse instantly.

Meanwhile, Shion, wielder of the “Poison Spear,” also found herself unable to press the attack decisively.

Aside from the abnormal exception named Toma, even the slightest scratch from her poison would spread through the victim’s body and rob them of their senses. But naturally, it could not remain active forever. Maintaining the poison continuously consumed magic power.

If the battle dragged on, victory through poison would become impossible, leaving behind only an injured Shion facing an unharmed Julia.

Likewise, spreading “Poison Mist” across a wide area was impossible. Julia was too fast. The moment she sensed danger, she would retreat immediately, leaving only Shion exhausted from wasting massive amounts of magic power.

"Tch!!"

Shion swung her spear toward the twin spears attacking from behind—

But it passed straight through them.

An illusion.

The moment her balance broke, twin spears lunged from her blind spot. She threw herself into a roll, worsening her posture just to evade them. The twin spears stabbed into the ground, and realizing those were the real ones, she burst forward at once.

Illusions generated by “Heat Haze” appeared before her to block her path, but she ignored them and charged straight through.

"Tch!!"

Julia did not miss the instant Shion’s vision was obstructed. Once again, she produced an illusion overlapping with herself.

Unable to distinguish the real Julia, Shion clicked her tongue and trusted her instincts, thrusting toward one figure with maximum speed.

This time, Julia clicked her tongue as she blocked the spear with her twin weapons.

"You damn reckless boar…!! Are your instincts seriously on the level of a wild animal!?"

"If I qualify as a beast, then what in the world would Lord Toma be!?!"

"Kh…!! That man’s already nothing but a monster!!!"

In raw physical ability, Shion held the advantage.

Sweat trickled down Julia’s face as the Poison Spear slowly forced her backward. Desperately, she searched for a way to break the woman standing before her.

That alone would be enough.

At that point, victory or defeat would no longer matter.

Once despair consumed this woman, her body would belong to the Spear King anyway. The stubborn light still burning within her eyes would be extinguished once that monster took over.

Without realizing that some small part of her hated the thought, Julia chose what she believed was the best possible method.

"GET OUUUUUUT OF MY WAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!"

"Wha—!? You’re charging in yourself!?"

Julia shoved back against the advancing Poison Spear, thrusting her own face toward it with all her strength.

If Shion continued forward, her spear would pierce straight through Julia’s skull.

But Shion’s heart was neither strong enough nor cruel enough to do that to someone who had once trained alongside her.

So the spear tip shifted slightly.

And Julia smiled, knowing she had won the gamble.

The Poison Spear grazed her cheek as she swung her twin spears with the momentum of forcing it aside.

Shion failed to evade completely, suffering two wounds in return.

Yet by any measure, Julia had taken far greater damage.

"Hah… hah…!!"

Breathing desperately through parted lips, Julia accepted the reality that poison was steadily consuming her body.

She only had a little time left in which she could still move properly.

And after that—

All that remained was accomplishing her goal.

"『King Spear: Cast Off』…!!!"

One of the twin spears darkened, turning pitch black as though swallowed by shadow itself.

Darkness spread outward from the spear, staining the ground like ink until everything was consumed in black.

Naturally, that darkness reached Shion as well.

Her instincts screamed warnings.

If she stepped into that darkness, something catastrophic would happen.

She immediately tried to retreat—even if it meant turning her back on Julia without dignity.

"Like hell I’ll let you escape!!!!!"

The erupting darkness wrapped itself around Shion.

It writhed toward the wounds she had received, trying to invade her body. Her limbs were bound. Unable to swing her spear, Shion was swallowed whole.

"Gah… Aaah… AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?!?!?!!!"

The darkness sank into her.

It settled inside Shion’s body.

Vein-like, grotesque markings spread across her skin, revealing how the darkness had entered through her wounds. Tears streamed endlessly from Shion’s eyes, as though her very being was being violated from within.

Her soul itself felt crushed as she screamed until her throat threatened to tear apart.

『――――As long as I continue deceiving that child, I…』

『Ahh… I swear it. This “Spear King” shall guarantee the peaceful life you desire.』

Memories flooded into her mind.

The Spear King.

And the woman she had loved as her mother.

Toma had already told her about this. But seeing the scene with her own eyes forced her to fully understand that she had been deceived.

The woman’s appearance was like someone draped in filthy rags—nothing hidden anymore. Her utterly flat, emotionless voice revealed that she felt absolutely nothing toward the girl she had raised as a daughter.

Shion’s heart nearly shattered.

『That girl trusts me completely now. The magic poses no issue either.』

The Spear King’s memories crashed over her like a tsunami.

The woman pretending to be her mother spoke with an expressionless face Shion had never seen before, calmly admitting that she had deceived her.

There was no emotion there.

Only the figure of a “slave” mechanically carrying out her assigned task.

Shion’s heart nearly broke.

『Why are you so obsessed with that child? There are other candidates, aren’t there?』

『You have no need to know. Have your emotions swayed you?』

『No… they have not. I will continue fulfilling my role.』

The woman standing before the “Spear King” looked almost identical to the one Shion knew now.

There was hesitation in her eyes.

Yet she crushed it down and continued carrying out her duty.

That duty being—

Deceiving Shion.

Shion’s heart nearly broke.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!?! AGH—GAHAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!?!? GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?!?!?!"

She was being overwritten.

Erased.

She could feel her soul sinking into the abyss.

Despair clouded her eyes, deepening the darkness around her.

She was forced to realize that she had always been nothing more than a fool.

That everything had been meaningless.

That from the very beginning, none of her wishes had ever come true.

Everything stopped mattering—

And then she heard a voice.

That woman’s voice overlapped with someone calling to her from reality. She could no longer understand who was speaking or what they were saying. Darkness filled her vision. She could see nothing.

She should not have been able to recognize anything at all.

And yet—

She felt warmth against her back.

Someone was embracing her.

A sensation she thought she had lost returned to her.

Warm tears ran down her cheeks, and Shion realized that she herself was crying.

"—ON!! ———ON!! SHION!!! SHIONNNN!!!!!"

She could hear her.

The voice of the woman who had deceived her all this time.

She should have hated her.

That woman who had stolen her mother’s place should have been unforgivable.

And yet, hearing her own name screamed so desperately filled Shion with overwhelming relief.

"No!!! Don’t let it consume you!!!!! You’re going to be happy from now on!!!!! More than the happiness you gave me—no, even more than that!!! Your life is only beginning now!!!!! I don’t care if I die for it!!! I don’t care if you kill me!!!!! So please… liveeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The voice pouring into her ears was nothing like the flat tone from the memories, nor the gentle, relaxed voice she usually used.

It was raw.

Desperate.

Passionate.

And Shion finally realized—

She knew nothing about this woman at all.

"Meeting you made me happy!!! In all my life, no one ever loved me… and you taught me the happiness of being loved!!! I know it was the same as stealing the real Ciel’s love, but shameless as I am, I accepted it anyway!!! That sin will never disappear, so I don’t care if you kill me for it!!! I don’t care if I become a slave again!!!!! No matter what happens to me, I could never regret loving you!!!!!!!"

After spending years with Shion, Ciel had changed.

A woman who had never known love had been given love, and learned how to give it in return.

But she believed that love was not something a fake like herself had the right to offer.

Even so—

To the girl who called her “Mom”—

She wanted to give her love.

Pour love into her.

Fill her life with love.

She wanted to repay even one ten-thousandth of the happiness she herself had received.

She wanted Shion to be happy.

Even if that future no longer included her.

For that sake, she would abandon her pride, her dignity, everything—enough to cling desperately even to the “Sword King.”

Using her magic, “Truth Word,” at full power, Ciel screamed desperately to tether Shion back, as if willing to sacrifice not only her magic power, but her very life itself.

(Ah… ahhh… M-Mom…)

Just like the Spear King’s memories before, Ciel’s memories now flowed into Shion through the warmth embracing her from behind.

And with them came emotion.

That warmth spread throughout Shion’s body.

She remembered the time they had spent together.

The emotions buried beneath the darkness resurfaced.

Even if their relationship had begun as a lie—

Not all of it had been false.

Shion loved the woman who had become her mother’s replacement.

Because sometimes she remembered glimpses of her real mother.

She had always felt that faint sense of wrongness.

And yet—

Shion still loved Ciel.

Even while believing something was different, she trusted the love Ciel gave her.

She remembered how comforting those days had been.

When she had been delirious with fever.

When Ciel had stayed by her bedside nursing her.

She remembered seeing her quietly crying.

Remembered her praying to a god she did not even believe existed.

That alone was enough proof of love.

"Why!? Why is the darkness of the ‘King Spear’ being pushed back!?"

Julia’s scream made Shion realize she was resisting the darkness.

The consciousness that had nearly been swallowed returned to reality.

As if proving there was no reason for despair, she roared and forced the darkness back.

『That woman suffered the entire time. She kept agonizing over when to tell you the truth. But she feared that if you couldn’t endure it, the “Spear King” might take over you completely… so she couldn’t say anything.』

Shion remembered Toma’s words.

Remembered the truth her instincts had already told her.

『She said she didn’t care what happened to herself. That she was willing to be hated and cursed by you forever. I can’t even imagine the resolve it takes to accept being hated by the person you love most.』

Every word revealed just how deeply he cared about both of them.

『No matter what ending awaits, I don’t think it’s something you should decide impulsively. You should think it through beforehand and decide what you truly want. I know how difficult that is, and I probably can’t really help you with it either. Because it’s something only you can decide for yourself.』

It was a matter of the heart—something beyond anyone else’s reach.

Grinding his teeth over his own helplessness, he had still wished for the best possible future for both of them.

Seeing that now—

Shion felt overwhelmed with guilt and gratitude for having forced burdens onto him that he never should have had to carry.

『Ciel loves you. Both the real her… and the fake one.』

"Yeah… I can believe that now. Without question."

The darkness dispersed.

Shion swung the spear in her hand, then turned to see the second mother clinging to her back, crying uncontrollably—

And for the first time in a long while, she smiled from the bottom of her heart.

Certain now that she was loved, strength returned to her heated body, and an even fiercer fighting spirit filled her as she faced her enemy.

"It’s okay, Mom. I’m alright now. Because I know your love is real… my heart will never break again."

Even a false relationship could be accepted, so long as the love within it was genuine.

Believing that with all her heart—

Shion Ace raised her spear to protect her mother.