“She flew out there again?”
After confirming there was no immediate danger, Kuite's group rejoined Ethel and the others, arriving just in time to see Tia launch herself toward the demon.
“Even when that demon is clearly capable of countering her abilities, she still refuses to let us enter the battlefield?”
Ethel understood their frustration.
These people had always been the ones charging into battle first.
Now they were ordered to stand aside after the probing phase and do nothing.
It was the first time he had ever seen such defeated expressions on their faces.
In fact, if they hadn't argued so fiercely for it, even the probing phase would have been handled solely by Tia.
Sending only one person to scout an unknown Concept was simply too dangerous.
You never knew what trump card a demon might be hiding.
Moreover, every member of the First Division was an elite force user, many of them even more experienced than Tia herself. Drawing out a demon's Concept was well within their abilities.
Only after much persuasion had Tia reluctantly agreed.
And that was as far as she would compromise.
Even now, when she was clearly at a disadvantage, they still had no choice but to obey their captain's orders and watch from the sidelines.
“...Sigh.”
One after another, they sat down on the ground.
The helplessness of watching the battle while being forbidden to fight settled heavily over the group.
“Couldn't you just ignore her orders and help anyway?”
“And then we'd all be expelled from the Battle Corps.”
Seifer answered calmly.
“The regulations are very clear. Under normal circumstances, a captain's orders are absolute.”
Every battle involved Seifer.
Perhaps no one felt more powerless than he did.
“She wasn't like this before.”
The sorrow in Kuite's voice was unmistakable.
“Before... when?”
“Back when she was still just a force user. She understood teamwork better than anyone.”
He paused.
“But when forced to choose between teamwork and preventing casualties... she'd always choose the latter.”
“Because she lost someone important?”
That question struck the heart of the matter.
Silence.
Everyone simply looked at Ethel.
Even Kuite, who had been speaking moments ago, said nothing.
“As outsiders... it's not really our place to tell that story.”
Seifer finally spoke, his expression growing solemn.
“If you truly want to know, ask her yourself.”
He smiled bitterly.
“She won't answer.”
What exactly had happened to turn Tia into the person she was now?
Reducing casualties no longer felt like her dream.
It had become an obsession.
If this continued...
Something would eventually break.
Meanwhile, the battle continued.
Tia had already severed all four of the demon's limbs.
Yet even with the creature immobilized, she couldn't find a way to finish it.
Her greatest strength—light—had become useless.
Whether she condensed it into massive spheres, forged it into blazing spears, or rained countless beams from above, every attack was devoured by the demon's mouths before being reflected straight back at her.
In the end, she had no choice but to draw her weapon and engage it in close combat.
After the embarrassing incident of borrowing a weapon from one of her teammates during the previous mission, she had officially added one to her standard equipment.
Even then, she couldn't gain the upper hand.
The demon devoured the force infused into her blade, reducing the massive sword in her hands to nothing more than an ordinary piece of metal.
“What would you do in a situation like this?”
Watching even a Perfected struggle left Ethel genuinely curious.
How would ordinary force users deal with such an enemy?
Seifer smiled helplessly, as though he had already guessed what Ethel was thinking.
“Look carefully.”
“The demon only reacts to force.”
“Wherever Tia's force goes, the mouths follow.”
“In other words... it barely has any eyesight at all. It hunts entirely by sensing force.”
He continued.
“If it were us, we'd hunt it as a team.”
“We'd conceal our force while approaching, then infuse our weapons at the very last instant—just before striking—after slipping past the mouths. That should be enough to damage it.”
“Then why doesn't Captain Tia do that?”
“She has.”
Seifer watched the battlefield.
“But the demon can still pinpoint her.”
“When all it has to focus on is a single target, its reactions are fast enough.”
“But what if there were another attacker coming from a different direction?”
“And another.”
“And another.”
“Three people. Four. Five.”
“If it really could defend against all of them, then we'd simply split the roles. Some of us would completely conceal our force while the others openly released theirs to draw its attention.”
“Eventually, it'd make a mistake.”
“There are countless ways to fight something like this.”
“But right now... it only has one person to watch.”
“One direction.”
“So defending everything isn't difficult.”
“This demon is much better suited for a group hunt than a solo one.”
Kuite summarized quietly.
“And that's exactly why force users fight alongside Perfected.”
“No matter how powerful a Perfected is, there are always enemies one person can't handle alone.”
“The more teammates you have, the more options you have.”
“That's the whole point of creating the Battle Corps.”
He looked toward Tia.
“But none of that matters to her anymore.”
At that moment, Tia hovered silently in the sky, searching for a solution.
The demon's arms had regenerated and reached toward her once more.
She maintained just enough altitude to keep its attention without allowing it to catch her.
Its sensitivity to force was absurd.
Even when she created several light spheres as decoys before attacking from another angle at maximum speed, it still reacted in time to devour every strike.
She took a slow, deep breath.
As though she had finally reached a decision.
Her voice came through their earpieces.
“I'm releasing my Concept.”
“Fall back to a safer distance.”
“Are you certain it'll kill it this time?”
Seifer asked immediately.
“I will.”
The transmission ended.
Though clearly unwilling, Seifer led everyone into retreat.
“Is she using Supernova?”
Ethel asked.
“No.”
“If it were Supernova, she wouldn't tell us to retreat.”
“She can control its range well enough to avoid hitting us.”
“Just like the first mission.”
“So... there's another form?”
“I thought Concept Release only had one.”
“It does.”
Seifer nodded.
“But it can emphasize different aspects.”
“Tia's Concept Release—Radiance Incarnate—turns her into the sun itself.”
“She can release overwhelming heat to incinerate her enemies.”
“That's the attack you call Supernova.”
“But she can also focus on the sunlight itself.”
“By completely merging with light... she gains unimaginable speed.”
Ethel remembered the battle against the demon with Concept: Imprisonment.
She had ordered them to retreat then as well.
He simply hadn't seen what happened afterward.
“This should be far enough.”
Seifer stopped atop a distant hill.
The demon's enormous body was still visible from here.
Tia, however, had become nothing more than a tiny point of light.
“Concept Release: Radiance Incarnate.”
“Solar Flash.”
The battle ended in an instant.
To anyone else, it looked as though countless holes had suddenly appeared throughout the demon's body.
Through his Heart's Eye, Ethel barely managed to follow what had actually happened.
Tia herself had become the weapon.
She had pierced through the demon again and again at unimaginable speed, each pass leaving another hole in its flesh.
The demon's limbs collapsed beneath it.
Its massive body crashed heavily onto the ground.
It never moved again.
Just to be certain, Tia condensed one final colossal sphere of light.
Only after the demon's body had been completely reduced to ash did she descend to the ground and release her force enhancement.
“The extermination is complete.”
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“She pushed herself too far again.”
As Seifer drove them back toward Sunblaze City, he spoke to Ethel.
“It isn't the first time, but it never stops being worrying.”
“With Supernova, she's still in control.”
“But Solar Flash is different.”
“It clearly exceeds what she can safely handle.”
“No human body was ever meant to withstand that kind of speed.”
After the mission, Tia had regrouped with them.
Even at a glance, she looked exhausted.
She had spent far too much force wearing down the demon before unleashing a finishing move that even she could not fully control.
For perhaps the first time since Ethel had met her, the calm composure she always carried had begun to crack.
“So that's why she ordered us to retreat?”
“Because she couldn't fully control Solar Flash?”
“Exactly.”
Seifer nodded.
“If she lost control for even a split second, she'd crash straight into those of us watching from nearby.”
“That's why she ordered us farther away.”
He sighed.
“It could've ended much sooner if she'd simply let us fight alongside her.”
“Instead, she'd rather destroy her own body than risk even the slightest chance of one of us getting hurt.”
“Honestly...”
His voice trailed off.
This wasn't the kind of battle any of them wanted.
Yet no one had ever succeeded in changing Tia's mind.
Even after Ethel had joined them, the only thing that had changed was the amount of time spent identifying a demon's Concept.
The real battle...
She still insisted on fighting it alone.
It was torture.
For Tia.
And for every member of the First Division.
“We've gotten used to it.”
Before they parted ways, Seifer forced a faint smile.
And so another extermination ended beneath a chorus of quiet sighs.
Years of repeating the same cycle had slowly numbed everyone.
The desire for change had never completely vanished, but only a few dying embers remained, barely keeping the fire alive.
What they needed...
...was a spark.
Sooner or later, that spark would come.
Whether it would ignite the fire of hope—
or the flames of despair—
no one knew.
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