Chapter 141: The Melody of Release

Listening to Olivia’s sweet, haunting melody echoing from inside the room, Aria’s sobs only grew more frantic and uncontainable. Finally, Dion pulled Aria away, snatching Gina who was hovering nearby so they could step outside for a moment to collect themselves.

Dion shut the door tightly, while Gina perched atop Aria’s head, trying her best to comfort the grieving girl with the gentle affection of a tiny dragon. Dion wrapped his arms around the weeping Aria once more, glancing back at the closed door.

No matter what, Olivia was someone who had grown up alongside him. He, Aria, Evelyn, and Olivia, who was three years older than Dion, used to play all the time in the palace gardens. Evelyn had always been bold and delightfully reckless since childhood, while Aria was fiercely rebellious and prone to crying out of sheer frustration.

Olivia had always been the calmest and gentlest of the three princesses. Remembering those childhood days, Dion tightened his jaw and pulled Aria even closer. After Dion and Aria had calmed down enough, they turned back toward the closed door, from which the melodic humming could still be faintly heard.

"Aria, lend me your gun. Let me be the one to end Olivia," Dion offered softly.

"No... She’s my sister. Please, let me be the one to finish this... You wait here with Gina," Aria said, gently lifting Gina off her head and handing her over to Dion.

"Are you sure?" Dion asked, cradling Gina close.

Aria didn’t answer right away. She looked at Dion, offered a tear-streaked smile, and nodded. Reaching into her dimensional storage, she drew her phantom gun. Seeing this, Dion smiled gently.

"All right. I understand," Dion said.

"Thank you, Dion," Aria replied.

Dion opened the door, Aria stepped inside, and Dion closed it behind her, leaning his back against the heavy wood.

"Kyuu?" Gina chirped, turning around in Dion’s arms to look up into his face.

"I’m fine," Dion answered with a reassuring smile, gently stroking Gina’s head.

Inside the study, Aria walked slowly toward the large desk where Olivia’s severed head was rooted. She approached with her weapon hidden behind her back. Glancing down at the desk and the surrounding carpet, she realized that Olivia wasn’t just a head—her neck merged into the desk like plant roots, and the carpet covering the floor and furniture had mutated into a pulsing, living mass of flesh, though its color and texture perfectly mimicked ordinary maroon furnishings and woodwork.

When Aria stopped in front of the desk, Olivia’s head turned to look at her. The humming stopped, and an expression of stunned surprise crossed Olivia’s face. But a second later, a soft, warm smile broke out. Her wide eyes turned gentle, as if she were greeting a beloved friend she had longed to see, a sight that chilled Aria to the bone, though she forced herself to keep a steady facade.

"Aria... How have you been? Where have you been hiding? I’ve missed you so much," Olivia said, her voice carrying a haunting, distorted echo.

"I’ve been well, Big Sister. How are you holding up?" Aria asked.

"Of course I’m doing wonderfully. Weren’t you just here a moment ago with Dion? Didn’t you break off your engagement to him?" Olivia asked innocently.

"Hmm... Yeah, we actually just got engaged again, hehe... Oh, by the way, Sister, you remember that old story about a princess who slept in a palace for hundreds of years until the world forgot her, and without realizing it, turned her entire home into a domain of the living dead because they always had to serve her?" Aria prompted gently.

"Ah... that story... It’s called Garden of the Forsaken. When a brave prince finally arrives to wake her up, he discovers the princess has already turned into an undead creature fused directly with the castle. But because of the power of true love, the prince willingly stays by her side, unable to leave and prays to the goddess to turn him into an undead just so he can be with her forever. In the end, they become king and queen and live happily ever after," Olivia answered cheerfully.

"Yes, Sister, exactly. That used to be your absolute favorite book, didn’t it?" Aria asked.

"You still remember... That makes me so happy," Olivia replied.

"You know what, Sister? When I was studying at the academy, I learned that there’s a real monster that inspired the author to write that tale. It’s an SS-rank Abomination Silkie. I’m sure you know the one," Aria said, managing a fragile smile.

Hearing the name of the creature, Olivia’s smile vanished. Her eyes locked onto Aria, filled with a quiet, sorrowful understanding. A heavy silence filled the room. Then, Olivia smiled again—though this time, it was a gentle, heartbreaking smile, her eyes gazing at Aria with profound affection.

"Of course I know that monster... Do what you have to do... Say hello to Papa, Evelyn, and Dion for me... I’m so glad I got to see you one last time, Aria. I love you," Olivia whispered softly, smiling through her tears.

Aria could no longer hold back her grief. Stepping forward, she bowed her head and wrapped her arms around Olivia’s head, sobbing openly. Then, raising her weapon, she pressed the barrel right against Olivia’s temple.

Psiuuu! Blam!

A concentrated beam of light pierced cleanly through Olivia’s head, exiting the other side before slamming into the bookshelf behind her. Aria pulled back, tears streaming down her face as she looked at Olivia, whose eyes had closed halfway in eternal stillness.

Reaching out, Aria gently pressed her fingers down to close her sister’s eyes the rest of the way. With that final gesture, the desk, the carpet, and the grotesque flesh of the room began to melt away into nothingness. Aria looked down at Olivia’s resting face and offered a final, quiet smile.

"Goodbye, Sister," she whispered.

Blam!

The door flew open. Dion rushed inside, Gina hovering close beside him, and hurried right over to Aria.

"Aria... We have to get out of here. The whole mansion is melting down," Dion urged.

"Yeah... I know," Aria replied, staring at Olivia’s resting face and wiping the remaining tears from her eyes with her sleeve.

"Gina... Do your thing," Dion called out.

"Kyuuuuu!"

Boom!

Gina expanded instantly into her massive dragon form. Dion pulled Aria up onto Gina’s back, and Gina tilted her head upward toward the ceiling, which was already beginning to liquefy and collapse.

Graaah!

Gina unleashed a torrent of cleansing flames straight up through the ceiling, blasting an opening through the roof. With a powerful beat of her wings, she vaulted straight out of the burning, melting mansion into the open sky. Once they were airborne, Dion and Aria looked down. The entire estate, having mutated into Olivia’s physical domain, was rapidly dissolving, shrinking down into a sticky, bubbling mess of decay. Within moments, nothing was left except the barren stone foundations, marking the spot where a grand mansion once stood.

Dion glanced back at Aria, who now buried her face against his back, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. Dion gently grasped Aria’s hands over his hips, then looked forward as Gina turned her head back.

"Take us straight to the capital of Thetor, Gina," Dion instructed.

Gruuuuu!

Gina responded with a low rumble, banking hard in midair before rocketing forward toward Thetor’s capital at top speed. Meanwhile, high above on the deck of the zeppelin,

"Lord Johan! We’ve spotted the vanguard of the undead army marching toward the capital," a crewman reported.

Johan, Astrid, and Takeshi rushed to the edge of the deck, gripping the wooden railing as they peered down. Stretched across the ground below were countless rows of undead soldiers, completely motionless and suddenly collapsed into massive, lifeless heaps of piled flesh and bone. At the very front of the fallen vanguard sat a half-skeleton centaur warlord, dead in its tracks with a broadsword driven deep into the earth.

"Oho... How fascinating," Takeshi remarked, stroking his beard.

"They’re all... dead," Astrid murmured in disbelief.

Johan stood in silence, knowing full well what had transpired back at the mansion to shatter the undead’s hivemind. He cast a somber glance back toward the direction of Millfrost.

"Dion... Aria... You actually pulled it off... I’m sorry I didn’t have the heart to tell you back there, and that you had to see it with your own eyes... Once again, I’m so sorry," Johan thought to himself heavily.

He then turned his attention back to the crewman. "Maintain full speed. We need to reach the capital of Thetor as fast as humanly possible," Johan ordered.

"At once, Lord Johan!" the crewman saluted crisply, spinning around to sprint back to his post.

The airship pressed on toward the capital of the Thetor Kingdom without stopping. Johan, Astrid, and Takeshi kept their eyes glued below, watching the endless ranks of undead lying entirely lifeless and still. Meanwhile, Gina soared through a different flight path.

Dion held tightly to Aria’s hand as she continued to weep softly against his back, before glancing at his Recall hologram interface floating open beside him. His Berserk Monk persona was finally off cooldown and ready for use.

"Good... I just hope we’re not too late this time," he thought to himself, staring grimly ahead into the horizon. "Faster, Gina," Dion urged.

"Gruuuu!"

Swoooosh! Gina burst with an explosive surge of speed, leaving a long, trailing plume across the sky like a cloud pulled along by her wake.