The Final Struggle!

“It… it stopped?”

The hatchet hung in mid-air, frozen solid, as if caught in an invisible, inescapable iron vise.

Not only that, but before Ewan’s horrified eyes, the rusty blade of the hatchet began to melt, distorting and dripping like hot wax, as if it had been thrust into an invisible furnace. The molten metal even gave a playful little wiggle, like a mischievous slime from a storybook.

But this is room temperature, my friend! You’re about a million miles away from your melting point! Can we please have a little respect for the fundamental laws of science?!

“Don’t tell me…”

Ewan’s head snapped up, and he saw that it wasn’t just the hatchet that was melting. The battered cabinet door and even the cabinet he had just been hiding in were also turning to liquid.

Anything and everything made of metal was melting.

The molten liquids twisted and writhed, floating in the air like metallic serpents before converging toward a single, terrifying point.

That point was… the palm of Anne’s hand.

“The power of a Law… A God-Chosen!”

Ewan’s vision went black for a moment. This massive, cosmic slap in the face from fate nearly made his blood pressure shoot through the roof and out the top of his head.

A child of the gods, an agent of a fundamental Law of the world. Just as Celicia wielded the absolute power of ice and snow, it seemed that Anne, too, had been favored by some cruel, twisted deity, gaining the power to control metal. With that kind of reality-bending, physics-defying power, melting metal at room temperature was nothing. She could probably melt it into a square, then a circle, then a cute little teddy bear, and it would all be perfectly, horrifyingly fine.

“But…”

Why? Why is Anne one of the God-Chosen?

The original novel had never mentioned it. It had never even mentioned a blessing for the control of metal. And if Anne was one of the God-Chosen, a being of immense power, why would she debase herself by becoming a mere maid?

“Why, that is… because of love, of course.”

Seeing the utter confusion in Ewan’s eyes, Anne smiled, a sweet, gentle smile as she condensed the molten metal in her hand into a swirling, deadly swarm of razor-sharp blades.

“Fame, power, money… they are all like dirt to me. All I have ever wanted, all I will ever want, is you, my dear Young Master.”

“So, come now,” she cooed, her voice a silken caress. “I will bring you back into my embrace. And this time, I will cut off your arms and your legs, so that you can never… ever… leave me again!”

She pointed a delicate finger at him.

The condensed blades shot through the air, a swirling storm of steel that descended upon him like a whirlwind of autumn leaves.

“Shadow Step!“

At the moment of crisis, Ewan used the skill, despite the agonizing side effects. He became a fleeting, ethereal shadow, vanishing from his spot in an instant. He reappeared several meters away, his face twisted in a mask of pure pain and his stance unsteady, but he had, by the very skin of his teeth, dodged the deadly attack.

“Crap.”

Ewan felt the sharp, tearing pain in his legs and couldn’t help but curse. A yandere was bad enough, but a yandere with this kind of terrifying, god-like power? Was the universe even trying to give him a chance?!

Oh, cruel heavens, if you hate me so much, just strike me with a bolt of lightning and get it over with! Why must you torment me like this?!

“Hm?” Anne’s delicate brows furrowed. “Another new move I have never seen. Young Master, just how many things have you been hiding from me?”

“Heh. A man’s secrets, much like a woman’s age, are not to be pried into so easily,” Ewan forced a pained, cocky smile.

“Is that so? But I will still diligently, and thoroughly, seek to uncover all of you. Not as a man, but as—my property.”

Anne opened her arms, as if to embrace the entire world.

And then Ewan heard it. From the depths of the tunnel behind her, a sharp, grating, and deeply, deeply unsettling sound.

Under the dim light, a massive, glittering behemoth scraped and clawed against the tunnel walls, slithering toward them. Its body looked as if it had been forged from countless steel bars, violently twisted together by some immense, external force. Ewan could vaguely make out the distorted, nightmarish shapes of his own shackles and the iron gate, now serving as the monstrous creature’s writhing limbs as it crushed the fragile walls and floor in its path.

Ah, I almost forgot.

The cage I was just in… was made entirely of metal.

“Do you have to be so damn extra?!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ewan turned and ran.

A person can always find a terrifying, hidden potential in a moment of crisis, and Ewan was no exception. Although the sharp, searing pain in his legs was still screaming at his nerves, in that moment, he ran faster than he ever had in his entire life.

The light of the exit ahead grew larger and larger, until it filled his entire vision, his entire world. After a brief, blinding moment, the world, bathed in the warm, gentle, and beautiful light of the sky, came back into view. The familiar scenery was so wonderful it almost brought him to tears.

“As I thought, this is… the back gate of the ducal estate!”

He had no time to celebrate.

A deafening, metallic roar echoed from behind him.

The giant, steel-centipede-like monster smashed through the pitiful exit of the basement and lunged toward him with terrifying speed.

Ewan hesitated for a split second. Then, he abandoned the idea of running back into the relative safety of the mansion and sprinted away from it, toward the open grounds.

Outside the back gate was a river, its surface glittering in the afternoon light.

“My dear Young Master, why do you run? If I were to accidentally damage one of your important parts, I would be absolutely heartbroken.”

Anne stood atop the monster, her arms open as if to give him a gentle, loving embrace, her whole being radiating the reassuring, comforting aura of a kind, older sister.

…If it weren’t for the fact that the steel monster beneath her was also sprouting countless menacing, razor-sharp spikes.

“So my arms and legs aren’t ‘important parts’ to you?!”

Ewan, of course, did not stop running. Instead, he pushed his body even harder, squeezing out every last, desperate drop of his potential. But the purpose of the giant monster was now terrifyingly clear. In this open space, its speed far, far surpassed his.

He felt the bright light of the sky fade as he was once again enveloped in the monster’s massive shadow. The oppressive, terrifying presence behind him grew stronger, closer, a palpable wave of killing intent.

Ewan had no time for anything else.

“Shadow Step!“

The special movement technique, meant for dodging and assassination, was now being used for a desperate, long-distance sprint. Not to mention the intense, agonizing side effects from his low rank. Ewan felt as if every single cell in his legs were screaming in pure, unadulterated agony with each use.

But he could not stop.

If he stopped, he would lose his freedom forever.

“I want… to live.”

“In this not-so-beautiful world… I just want to live a normal life.”

“And if at all possible… I want to live happily…”

And so…

RUN!

“Shadow Step!“

The intense, grinding pain was tearing at his nerves, making his consciousness go hazy and dim. But in that chaotic, desperate mix of agony and obsession, after all his strength had been exhausted, after he had been pushed to the very brink of his limits, a new, different kind of heat was gradually, miraculously, born.

It started in his dantian, a tiny, flickering spark, and then flowed down to the soles of his feet.

“This is…”

A look of pure, unadulterated, almost religious ecstasy appeared in Ewan’s eyes.

Battle Aura!

He had broken through at a time like this?!

A searing hot energy enveloped his legs, and the agonizing pain instantly subsided, replaced by a surge of pure, exhilarating power. And in the records of the black book, the original Shadow Step LV2 instantly jumped to LV5!

No, it was still rising!

LV6!

“Shadow Step!“

The threat behind him had not yet disappeared. He activated the skill again.

This time, he crossed more than ten meters in a single, effortless bound. And with the support of his new battle aura, there were no side effects. That meant, as long as he had the stamina, he could use it without limit!

“YOUNG MASTER!”

Seeing Ewan’s speed suddenly increase so dramatically, on the verge of actually escaping her grasp, a ferocious, unprecedented snarl appeared on Anne’s beautiful face.

Abandoning the giant steel beast, she leaped from its head, launching herself through the air toward him like a vengeful goddess.

“PLEASE, DO NOT RUN AWAY!”

“Sorry, Anne.”

Ewan suddenly turned back, a brilliant, triumphant smile on his face. Behind him, the river reflected the distant setting sun, as if it were flowing with blood.

He raised his hand and aimed it at the stunned, airborne Anne.

Another power, one he had never used before, the raw, untamed power of magic, gathered in his palm and then poured out with a reckless, desperate abandon.

“Light! MAXIMUM POWER!”

In that instant, a second sun was born in the world.

And it was even brighter than the sunset.