However, perhaps because Kouna was unable to use her full power, the sorcery didn't disappear completely. It continued trying to disrupt the world's balance.
“You've bought us some time, at least,” Perserque said with relief before glancing down at the woman’s hand. “But Kouna, what's that you're holding?”
“This? It seems to be a dimensional pearl.”
“Hmm?”
“You know, the pearl that can form in a dimension with a very low probability of success.”
It looked like a simple glowing orb, but the power contained within it was vast.
Perserque was dumbfounded. “I can’t believe that one actually exists in this place! How did you manage to find it?”
“I don't know. I heard a voice asking for help and went to check... and then there it was.”
“I see...” Perserque remarked, finding it plausible. She then asked, “Did it acknowledge you as its owner?”
“I'm not sure. But either way, a huge amount of power is flowing out of it.” Kouna, her eyes glowing with a sky-blue light, said, “There's not much else I can do.”
She reached out toward Perserque with the hand holding the orb, and a strange power immediately enveloped the demon woman’s body. As the power ran over her, she felt like her body was reverting to before she had frantically cast so many spells.
“This is crazy... That's a ridiculously unbelievable power! I never even imagined that could be possible.”
The power Kouna wielded was truly astonishing for those who experienced it firsthand.
Their group had luckily averted the worst-case scenario, preventing the clashing of dimensions, but the situation still wasn't over for them.
“I can't last much longer either,” Kouna told her with a wry grin. “The speed at which the rift is opening is faster than my restoration power can handle.”
Perserque could tell as much. “Until the root problem is solved, we—”
Boom!!
“Ugh! Seriously, I don't think I can hold on much longer.”
They had put out the biggest blaze, but a forest fire didn’t go out easily just by throwing a bucket of water on it. Still, the mere fact that Kouna had managed to activate her power again was huge.
Crack. Crack!!
The rate of collapse continued accelerating, speeding up until it finally became faster than the sealing could keep up with. Both Kouna and Perserque's expressions hardened.
CRACKK!!!!!
The earth began to split, and more rifts appeared.
Just then, the battered giant thumped over and tried to put the splitting earth back together.
“I've got this!”
“I'll glue that shut!”
It was like a praying mantis trying to stop a freight train; like David going against Goliath. It was hopelessly outmatched. Ultimately, its struggles were meaningless no matter how much it tried. It was only so strong at its core, and it wasn’t even in its best condition.
It desperately exerted its power, even though it knew its body was breaking apart in real-time.
It had clearly reached its limit.
“UOOOHHH!!!”
“Seriously, I don't know what we’re gonna do about this.”
They still needed to hold out for another thirty minutes to meet the time Davey had predicted. So, Perserque prepared to do what she could.
She solemnly asked, “Kouna, can you keep restoring my body over and over again?”
“No, I can't. Your strength would keep coming back, but you'd be mentally exhausted with each repetition.”
“We've gotta try. Davey trusted us.”
Hearing that, Kouna realized she wasn't in a position to talk. “Okay. Let’s try it.”
“Good. Let's start with blocking the biggest one.”
Just as Perserque was about to draw on her power.
“Oof!?”
Suddenly, someone pressed down on her shoulder.
“Thanks, Per.”
It was a voice she had desperately wanted to hear the entire time they'd spent struggling against the apocalypse.
She gave a sigh of relief and said, “Davey...”
“It took a little longer because I had to deal with the twisting of the dimension itself, not just dispelling the sorcery.”
Not only had he dispelled the large-scale sorcery in less than thirty minutes, but he had also improved upon it.
She let out a breath of disbelief, and he grinned before pulling a large stack of talismans from his Pocket Plane and tossing them into the air.
The talismans began to fly upward without any further manipulation, seemingly alive.
“Hmm.”
Davey spread his index and middle fingers and pointed them toward the sky. A massive amount of qi then spread out and seeped into the talismans.
Like paper dissolving in water, they vanished into the air.
Whummm!!
Spreading intangible energy, they cast a thin, transparent barrier across the dimension’s sky.
“The dimension was already unstable. Twisting that singularity in the dimension caused a catastrophe beyond the sorcery's effect, and that's what I had to deal with.”
With his hands tucked into his pockets, Davey let out a faint chuckle as he looked up at the sky, which was slowly returning to normal. He smiled and complimented, “Good job, Perserque.”
“I did a great job, so I should get a reward,” she replied with a smirk.
He smirked back before turning to the side. “And Kouna, you did good too. Thanks for going along with my stubbornness.”
Sure, he could have simply abandoned the dimension. Even so, neither of them had asked why he was suddenly acting that way when he had done the opposite in the past.
“I... worked really hard...” Kouna came forward, tearfully, and handed the large, glowing orb she held to Davey. “It's a dimensional pearl, and it holds immense power. Take it.”
He shook his head. “You should be the one to use it.”
“Me?”
“It belongs to you, after all. You found it, so it's yours.”
* * *
Solomonia seemed to have started anchoring the dimension to the void, as the previously unstable dimension was clearly becoming steadier. With the necrotic part of the dimension taken care of, the dimension itself was as good as stabilized.
“Uuuh. Ugh.”
The giant was in terrible condition after throwing itself into the effort to stop the collapsing dimension, completely disregarding the strain on its own body in the process.
It no longer seemed to have any power left in its system. It was dying, pushed past the point of being recoverable by ordinary means.
“Fairy... Lady... The sky... blue.”
“Idiot... Sky... always blue.”
It was ridiculous for it to say such a thing while dying.
“Don't talk. I'll heal you.” Kouna placed her hand on the fallen giant and tried to activate her power.
With the dimensional pearl, she should’ve been able to draw on her strength again. Yet, despite her power activating, the giant didn’t get better.
“Your power itself is amazing, but there seem to be rules,” Davey remarked.
“Rules?”
“Yeah. There's no way there wouldn't be practical limitations to restoring things as if you were reversing time on a whim. Besides, with your current level of skill and precision, you can't heal this guy.”
She grew anxious and flustered at Davey’s explanation. Then, as if something occurred to her, she pulled out a stone from her pocket. A faint flame flickered within the palm-sized stone.
Davey was shocked, shouting, “Kouna!”
“I want to save it,” she declared with resolve.
He gave a wry smile. “That's your life insurance. Are you going to give it up?”
“I can't just let it die. It helped us so much.”
“...Fine. If that's what you want.”
Perserque didn't agree. “Davey!”
“Let her do what she wants,” he insisted. “I've already handed it over, and it’s up to her how she wants to use it.”
What she was trying to do was a sacrifice, in a way.
Kouna, having made her decision, handed her Lasting Ember over to the giant. A massive power seeped into its body, and it abruptly began to recover. Its dying skin regained its original color, and its bulging veins disappeared back into its skin.
While the power of the ember was different from Kouna’s power, it was perfectly suited for healing the dying giant they'd fought beside to save the dimension.
“Truly amazing... Imagine if you could get an infinite supply of those,” Perserque marveled.
Davey said with a serious expression, “It’s not easy making Lasting Embers. I've only managed to create a few, even after all this time.”
“Well, that's settled,” Perserque remarked before turning back to Davey. “It's time to tell me. Who was... Who did you fight?”
He fell silent for a moment. Then, as if he'd made up his mind, he told her, “It's Darian. I’m certain.”
She figured she must've heard him wrong. “Hmm? Who?”
“Darian. It was our son, Darian O'Rowane.”
Her head tilted to the side, still unable to understand. Her reaction was understandable, as the figure she’d seen was completely different from the Darian she knew.
“Wait... what are you talking about?”
“I'm saying Darian caused this mess. He snuck into the unstable dimension, twisted the dimension's vertebrae to create this disaster, and even laid down the black swamp.”
“Darian’s a child! How could he even be here, let alone do such a thing?”
“That's what we have to find out. Willow once told me that she felt divine power from him. After this event too, it seems he’s holding onto something big.”
He and Perserque both couldn’t help but wonder why all of their children were turning out like such aberrations.
“First, let's just go back then. I have a bad feeling.”
“But the giant hasn't recovered yet...”
“Uuuh, me good, Fairy Lady! Me all better now!”
“Me strong now!”
Kouna looked worriedly at the giant which had leaped to its feet. “Are you really okay?”
It pat its chest with confidence.
“Yeah! Me strong!”
“Meat make me better! But Fairy Lady go back now?”
“We have to go,” Kouna told it. “Back to where we belong.”
The giant’s two heads looked at each other and showed their disappointment.
“Again come visit! Me wait here!”
“Fairy Lady, again visit! Me save up many delicious meat!”
Kouna nodded slowly at its farewell, though still somewhat worried about its condition. Then, she reached out her small hand and touched its finger.
“I'll come back next time,” she assured it. “Take care until then.”
“Fairy Lady, you save me! Me definitely repay for kindness!”
“Okay.”
She shook its massive finger as if they were shaking hands, then hugged the egg-sized white orb tightly and asked her companions, “But what am I supposed to do with this?”
Turning to her, Davey looked the dimensional pearl up and down. “We won't know for sure until we talk to Willow, but it's something that appears with an incredibly low probability when a dimension is born. I guess it's called a pearl because it's similar to a clam's pearl.”
“Right? I thought that too when I first saw it.”
“It might even vastly extend your lifespan if you absorb it. It could maybe even boost your power.”
Her eyes sparkled at the idea. That would mean she could live a long, long time and keep an eye on Davey!
She hugged the precious pearl tightly to her chest.
* * *
After Davey, Perserque, and Kouna left, the giant looked around the devastated forest and said, “Lonely! Fairy Lady gone!”
“Me know! Too quiet!”
“Me wanna go too! To where Fairy Lady lives!”
Though they said that, there was no way for them to actually do so.
“Just eat meat! Let’s go!”
“Me get tasty part this time! You chew on leg!”
“Like hell!! Me gonna eat tasty part!”
The two were huffing and puffing, on the verge of fighting each other again. Suddenly, the giant, who had jumped to its feet ready to brawl, suddenly froze as a terrible smell hit it.
“Smell. Blood.”
“Too strong.”
It stood up and thumped over to the source of the smell. Once it reached the spot, its eyes widened instantly.
“Hey... I'm seriously about to lose my temper here, okay?”
The giant saw a young man trampling a small being whose entire body was covered in black flames.
The overwhelming pressure, as if it had been plunged into the deep sea where no light could even reach, made the giant freeze up like a deer in the headlights.
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