Chapter 115: Block

Ephnel stared at Uzuki Saori and spoke softly.

“What makes you… think that…” Saori swung her arm, and an orb of light shot out.

She yelled, “Even I… with everything I have…”

“Because I’ve been through it! This is the most important lesson my sister taught me!”

Ephnel spun the spear in her hand.

To Uzuki Saori’s astonishment, she dodged the orb of light by turning sideways, then slammed her spear violently into the ground.

The ground exploded with a roar, collapsing downwards.

In an instant, thick clouds of dust concealed both of their figures.

“!?”

If she hadn’t become an Apostle and gained the ability to fly, that last attack would have left Uzuki Saori without a foothold, putting her at an immediate disadvantage.

But now, her vision was completely obscured by the thick dust, and she couldn’t see a thing.

She knew that Ephnel had begun her counterattack.

Without hesitation, Saori pushed orbs of light out to her sides with one hand and retreated backward.

Ephnel had destroyed the terrain to create a blind spot, undoubtedly to weaken Uzuki Saori’s advantage as an Apostle.

Saori knew that if she wanted to win, she couldn’t let herself get pinned down here.

Otherwise, given Ephnel’s strength, she would be on the defensive for the rest of the fight, leading to a crushing defeat.

But in the next moment, an icy chill surged up from below.

Though it was just a small point, she could clearly see the sharp spear blade above her.

Saori quickly raised her hand, her four fingers slightly curled.

As if pulled by countless threads, white light gathered in front of her, rising up to form a golden fortress wall that flew up to meet the spear shooting down from above.

A miraculous ability to manipulate energy, as if creating something from nothing—this was the most powerful “weapon” of an Apostle.

But in the next second, Uzuki Saori’s heart suddenly sank.

Immediately after, a piercing tremor, like the tolling of a great bell, exploded by her ears.

The silver spear tip pierced through the wall.

Cracks spread inch by inch across the golden surface.

A tangible shockwave rolled out, and even from behind the wall, the violent impact sent Saori flying backward several meters, smashing her through the already crumbling floor and down to the level below.

She pushed herself up and raised her gaze.

The spear was stuck in the wall, just a short distance away.

The sight of the gleaming spear tip made her heart pound with fear.

In that brief exchange, this sturdy commercial building had already had an entire floor pierced through.

If they kept fighting, it was possible the whole building would collapse.

Saori suddenly remembered the order Ephnel had shouted into her comms when she first entered the building.

‘Maintain distance?’

‘Had Ephnel planned this all along?’

But this was no time to be thinking about such things.

Pushing a golden orb of light from her hand, Saori quickly moved through the rising dust and hid behind a load-bearing pillar, pulling a syringe from her clothes.

This was the injector the man had given Saori before he left.

Just from the man’s mocking expression, Saori knew it was nothing good, but since it was a tool for the mission, its effect would surely be potent.

Saori tilted her chin up slightly and forcefully plunged the injector down.

But at that very instant, the spear suddenly pierced the air, precisely flicking the syringe from Saori’s hand.

The youthful figure appeared before her eyes.

It was Ephnel.

“What is this?”

Under Uzuki Saori’s tense gaze, Ephnel raised the syringe in her hand to eye level.

Saori’s eyes narrowed, and she threw a swift punch forward, wreathed in a blinding orb of light.

Ephnel pinched the injector in one hand, grabbed the end of her spear, and whipped it out, but Saori forcefully blocked the blow.

Even for Ephnel, her strength was limited when she wasn’t using a charged technique.

And in front of an “Apostle-fied” Saori, this difference in strength became Ephnel’s “flaw.”

Saori bent her elbow slightly, her body moving past the spear’s attack range as she thrust a straight punch towards Ephnel’s armpit.

But to her surprise, Ephnel neither retreated nor dodged.

Instead, she let go of her spear.

Meeting the eerie red glint deep in Ephnel’s eyes, Saori’s heart skipped a beat.

In the next second, with a speed far greater than Saori’s, Ephnel’s legs shot into a full split.

One foot kicked away Saori’s incoming fist.

At the same time, a silver light flashed, and the spear appeared back in Ephnel’s hand.

She pulled it to her waist and thrust it at Saori like an arrow.

Saori only had time to raise her arm to defend.

But in that instant, Ephnel changed her move.

Her skirt flared as she spun around.

The spear at her waist also swiveled one hundred and eighty degrees.

She swung it horizontally with the butt end, striking Saori squarely in her side.

Saori let out a muffled grunt and flew sideways like a sandbag, crashing through a wall.

“Cough, cough…”

A tearing pain ripped through her side, and Uzuki Saori couldn’t stop coughing.

From where she had fallen, she could see the dark night outside the building.

The searchlight of a distant helicopter swept past.

The cool night wind brought a hint of moisture.

The sound of light footsteps approached, and Ephnel’s figure once again appeared in her line of sight.

“I have to apologize to you, Saori. It was my failure as a senior not to have understood your pain. I’m sorry. But at this point, all I can do is stop you.”

Uzuki Saori propped herself up on her arms and staggered to her feet.

A blinding orb of light gathered in her palm.

But the next second, a sharp pain shot through her abdomen again, and her body was sent flying uncontrollably, tumbling across the ground.

“Kuh…”

Her gasps were mixed with coughs, and Saori’s vision blurred.

Her stomach felt as if it had been hollowed out.

Although she still had plenty of power left in her body, a profound sense of powerlessness welled up from the bottom of Uzuki Saori’s heart.

It wasn’t because of the pain, but because she had lost the will to continue fighting.

Uzuki Saori knew very well that there was absolutely no way she could escape from Ephnel’s grasp, even as an Apostle.

Her mission had ended the moment she saw Ephnel.

Or perhaps, she had brought all of this upon herself.

If she had killed Nishizaki Yuuki back then, maybe the plan would have already succeeded.

But was that really the right thing to do?

When she saw Ephnel on the helicopter, confusion had crept into her heart… Was this choice right or wrong?

The words Ephnel had said kept echoing in her mind, gnawing at her inch by inch.

There was a voice in her heart.

‘You were wrong.’

It repeated over and over in her mind.

“It seems they’ve found Rin. You’ve completely lost, Saori. Give up.”

Ephnel’s voice reached her.

Lying on the ground, Uzuki Saori lifted her head, her gaze traveling up from the spear tip resting lightly on the floor to Ephnel’s profile.

Her gaze passed through the destroyed outer wall to a corner of a distant building.

That was where the basement Uzuki Saori had hidden in was located.

Now, it was surrounded by soldiers.

Under the helicopter’s searchlight, a young girl appeared in her vision, being supported by others.

“Rin…”

Saori pushed herself up with all her might.

The night wind lifted her hair as she softly called the girl’s name.

The girl reached a hand out in her direction, her lips moving.

Communications were being jammed by the Apostle’s power, so Uzuki Saori couldn’t hear anything.

But the pain and disappointment in Rin’s dim eyes were reflected, without exception, deep in Saori’s own pupils.