It was as she heard. There was no mistaking it again. It should have been impossible. Everything made sense. Worse more, it wasn’t even the first time she experie. Whatever god that looked over her had a cruel and uive means of toying with her. To use the same tri her agai she did fall over it again. Who was more of a fool?

  Fumiko stared down at the girl, a quick shift occurred across her fabsp; “You’re saying that this is just an image, an illusion. You don’t actually look like this, you’re not actually a child.”

  Giggling a little more for Fumiko, Glykeria smiled for a few moments. It was hard to see if she ehe se from some sort of malicious i or just a pyful one. Her emotions bleogether too well. “That’s right. The smart ones usually figure it out quickly, seeing the insistencies, but the dumb ones just take things at face value. They’re always so shocked when they learn. People rely too mu what they see for their answers.”

  A shadow drew down over Fumiko’s eyes. That was what she needed. “Then how old are you? Older than me?”

  “Naturally, I’m one of the most veteran Titans. I’m not rahird for nothing.”

  “Is that so?” she muttered. Streams of sacred magic poured down her arm into her hand. It made her entire arm almost appear to glow red.

  Glykeria’s expression quickly ged to bewildered fusion. “Eh?” She didn’t uand the ge in Fumiko’s attitude. The entire presence around her flipped.

  Red turo brilliant blue within Fumiko’s palm as a massive fme igo e her hand. “Knowing that, I fight with my full power!” Fumiko swung with her hand still holding on to the fme. The blue fme immediately engulfed the twisted Glykeria.

  Chapter 247 – Childish Beliefs

  Dragged out of the initial bst by her doll, Glykeria remained doused in fmes. The vilin began to pat down her body trying to extinguish the fire to little results. Another doll appeared, but with bright blue hair, though otherwise seemed simir iures to the existing one. Water appeared from the air drowning Glykeria, finally putting out the fmes.

  Stepping out, she looked soaked and permaly scarred with burns over most of her body that was not clothed. “So you be serious. But only because some morals are no longer in your way, eh?” A moment ter, like stepping a frame flykeria's body returo the inal unharmed state.

  Eager azure fmes burned in Fumiko’s hand, still wanting more. “It’s nothing like what you’re thinking. I have my reasons, which I don’t pn to expin to you!” Fumiko charged forward after Glykeria to put a quid to the fight. Even though she could fight now without aation, there was no reason for it to tinue. Target the bad guy and the fight ended, especially since she didn’t seem to have any power for herself.

  The blue-haired doll moved in front to take over. Immediately a rge volume of water grew out in front of the doll’s raised hand, direg it at the charging Fumiko. She dodged it with plenty of time, but the doll adapted and ged the course of the water. It ended up catg her hand, stealing away the fire.

  Fumiko leapt away a couple of steps to safety, staring at her hand. ‘Damn, it's supposed to be magic right? Shouldn’t I be able to overe it? Or is it not normal water?’ Lost in thought, she didn’t see Paramonimus, the first doll, fnking her. Its sword caught another piece of her before she escaped. ‘She kept him out still…’

  Glykeria ughed watg Fumiko fumbling around. “You thought I’d only have o at a time? When I py with my dolls, I py with more than one. You should know you never py with just one.”

  The water-using doll fired off volleys of water at Fumiko, keeping the timing with the other doll. She was able to use her fire to keep the water from doing anything, but it urely defensive position. With only two dolls, Glykeria had pushed Fumiko to a pace set by her. The hero could do nothing. ‘I need somethier than this. I ’t cast the fire fast enough to deal with both and I only dodge so well. She’s got me pletely disadvantaged…’

  In front of her face, a white-haired doll appeared, one she never saw before. She couldn’t reabsp; A fsh of light blinded her a her dazed. “Huh?” It was gone almost immediately, but the situation had somehow turned worse against her. The blue-haired doll used its water like rope to tie her up. ‘What just happened? It just disappeared…and now I’m…’

  “I told you. I py with more than one doll.” The white oed on her shoulder almost like it sat down, but still hovered a little. “This one pys with your perceptions. Just a little game it likes to py. Makes hide-and-seek a lot more iing. Don’t you think?”

  Fumiko groueeth, taking in her situation. She didn’t know what they had pnned for her, but she was pletely at their whim. ‘She’s supposed to be an adult, yet pying around like a child. Even now, I don’t think she is even being serious. It’s all just a game for her.’ An adult pretending to be a child. The notion made Fumiko want to ugh.

  ‘Which of us is more foolish? An adult that ’t be serious or a child that is uo be a child?’ She couldn’t believe that she was actually thinking about having some sideration for the vilin. They just wao capture her or worse kill her. They weren’t something that she should be giving any sort of thought.

  Fumiko saw quick fshes in the back of his mind. She returo her mind once more. She was the reason for the s on her body. She was the reason for the shield she bore for the others. She was the source of everything. The ohing that she could never fet, never five and never escape.

  ‘…Kimiko…’

  The source of all and the cause of her ges. She was the reason for all of her as. ‘Sister…’ Fumiko had to face it again. More so even now, that it affected her fight. She had to help Yuki and losing or dying would only cause a burden for the others. ‘An adult that’s a child and a child that wants to be an adult. Some pair we are…’

  eling divine magic down her arm, Fumiko attempted to free herself from the water. However, water materialized around her hand pletely preventing her magi f. Escape was cut off. ‘Damn…why ’t my fire work…’

  She didn’t feel that her doubt clouded her anymore. fessions made it clear that she was no child. ‘It’s no longer a reason. Isn’t my magic strong enough?’ The wicked water doll took to giving a little punishment for the attempted breakout. The water rope tightened around her. It seemed impossible for water to have any strength to be harmful, but Fumiko could barely breathe from the crushing pressure of it ed around her chest.

  ‘I know she’s not a child, so I should be able to fight. Is it because of the appearahat I’m still subsciously holding babsp; Are you angry Kimiko?’ The shadow over her never went away. All of the years it still hung over everything she did. It was such a long drawn shadow. ‘I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I know…but I o fight right now…please…’

  Various images went through her mind of her sister. Fumiko begged her. ‘I’m not asking for fiveness. It’s not something I have. I don’t deserve it. Never, but I o do this.’ Fumiko tried calling on her magic again. ‘I’ve done everything I . I’ve never fotten. I’m different, ged.’

  Her magic still refused her. It seemed actually to be weaker than before. The holy azure fme stopped appearing, only the weaker crimson fme answered her. Her body tightened further. It felt like her bones would snap as her arm dug into her ribs. She couldn’t move. ‘What more I do for you?!’

  The hero fell to the traps sealed away. Only the bodily pain reminded her that she still lived. Pain surrounded her and forted her. It was all she knew. ‘I only did this because of you! I saw her…’ Chiharu surfaced in her mind. Their meeting at the tree where the fairy gathered them.

  Many times before it trolled her, the guilt. It was all she had to carry her. The child she found at the school, when she first met Yuki came to mind. ‘I actually thought that I might have finally paid enough. That the end was finally for me.’ Her arm went still.

  ‘I’m the worst.’

  The magic disappeared. Her body groaned uhe stress.

  ‘I killed you, Kimiko.’

  Fumiko’s face lost any sense of life.

  ‘That’ll never be wiped away…nothing I do remove it. Yet I still try…selfishly to make up for it.’

  Kimiko surfaced in her mind again. She never answered her. Anytime she tried to call out to her sister, she never replied. It only made sense. Who would reply to the ohat killed you?

  ‘I ’t die yet huh? Yeah, you won’t let me. My suffering ’t end so simply.’ Fumiko pulled at her arm, sparking life bato her body. ‘I’m selfish. I’m a killer. I’m a murder. I’m just a child. I shout at the unjust world thinking I deserve somethier than what I have.’

  Emboldened magic eled down her arm. ‘Shouting is all I do. I’m selfish after all. I want the impossible. What I ’t have. But I won’t stop, I told myself that day.’ An azure infered ihe water, causing bubbles and steam to appear.

  ‘I made a promise. A promise to myself.’ Fumiko squeezed her hand. The fmes bsted out pletely throwing off the water. Her arm leapt out for the water doll burning it to ash with her fme. ‘I told myself. You were dead. I couldn’t fix it. No wishes would ge death.’

  Released from the water, Fumiko fell back to the ground. She nded with ease. ‘If I couldn’t ge death...’ Fumiko slowly rose to her full stature. Blue fmes started to form around her hand, fed by threads of magic spun down her arm. ‘I’d just have to stop death’s dark designs!’

  All three vile dolls flew at Fumiko, realizing she reparing an attabsp; A magic circle drew out across the ground, as threads wound down her legs. The white o for the first strike to rob Fumiko of her senses again, but three blue fireballs k out before it could get anything off. As the two remaining dolls charged in blue fmes erupted from the ground pletely engulfing them. Nothing could escape.

  Blue fmes surrounded Fumiko making her disappear from their tall n. A moment ter, Fumiko walked heroically out of the fmes. Fmes danced around her palm. “I’m not allowed to die yet, which means I must defeat you.”

  The vilin jumped around a little, g her hands together. “Oh, you’ve made that decision? But is that really something you make happen?” The dolls destroyed moments before resurfaced, but had even more along with them. It was like a flock of birds, all in formation.

  Fmes grew and merged on Fumiko’s palm. She sprinted forward straight for the dolls. Fumiko threw her fist out wide, growing her fme, wielding it like a club. The frontline burst in fmes, crumbling to ash. She broke through the line a flykeria.

  Fumiko’s hand nearly eclipsed Glykeria’s tiny head, as she palmed her like a basketball and threw her into the ground. Blue fmes erupted lykeria’s entire body as magineled iabsp; “I’m already a murderer and one more adult is hardly enough to weigh my sce down any further! This is reality!”

  It looked like it was over. Fumiko kept her magic going to ehe kill. However, she heard a voice that wasn’t familiar ing from under her fme. “Reality really is cruel.” The voice was almost self-attag and soaked in self-pity. Fn and unknown. Beh her fingers, blue hair appeared amongst the fme.