Mai's knees tremble. Blood spills down her legs, soaking the dirt. Her breathing hitches, shallow and ragged but her eyes— those burning crimson eyes— never waver for a second.
"You know why Lucil has so much mana?" she whispers through clenched teeth. Her voice is hoarse but unwavering. "It's not his body. Not his lineage. It's because he learned to turn everything into fuel."
She coughs, and more blood flecks her chin.
"I figured it out too. Not fully. Not perfectly. But enough to try. Every cell, every breath, every drop of blood, every organic matter— converted. It crushes my head. This chant but i think it's worth it."
Her hand rises— shaking, slick with her own blood— as she begins to chant, voice low and steady like a prayer with a grim smile.
When the roses wilt,
I search for an answer.
What does life offer?
Am I an angel?
A grim reaper?
The blue executioner?
No…
I am the Blue Guillotine who judges you.
Her crimson eyes lightens. Her cobalt blue hair whips in the storm of mana.
"BLOOD BREAK — ANGEL FIX!"
The battlefield answers.
From every drop of spilled blood— be it hers or her enemies' and the fallen acolyte corpses— a storm rises. Azure petals spiral from crimson pools, each one charged with violent intent. The scent of roses turns sharp, metallic. Even divine. Few of them vanish to be used as fuel for Mai's magic.
Behind her the petals begin to swirl, morphing into rose-wrought wings that burn like molten glass.
Mai grits her teeth in pain.
"I don't need mercy. I don't need saving. I WAS BORN TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE I LOVE!" she shouts
"I trade my humanity for justice. To be a mage, for the right to be a guardian. That is why I will take this step."
she says, her voice steadier. "You traded your humanity for revenge, something utterly pointless!"
For a heartbeat Ryujin sees what lurks behind her: an angel's silhouette in blue flames.
"Impossible." he rasps. "You've spent all your mana!"
Mai's lips curve somewhere between pain and fury.
"As long as you bleed… I have infinite power."
She raises one glowing hand.
"Blue Petals — Bladed Retribution"
Every fresh wound on Ryujin erupts— each crimson bead twisting into a petal that carves deeper and deeper.
"ARGH—!"
"SE TA, RA GI, BO KU!" he roars.
Crimson dust boils around him, hardening into a shell. Gashes seal in flashes of corrupted light; necrosis spreads, coating his arms like a living shadow.
Mai's glare sharpens.
"Then the real battle begins."
She lifts her sword.
He holds his spear.
In the next breath they collide.
Red dust screams against azure petals; the garden explodes in a chaos of light. Earth splits beneath their feet. Sparks streak skyward like thunder.
Ryujin's raw strength hammers her guard— bones shriek under the pressure. Necrotic rot creeps along her arms like black vines.
Crack.
Something in her hand snaps. Something in her body broke, but she will not.
"I can't lose!"
Mai braces with her rose-wrought wings, using them as counterforce— but the impact is brutal. The bones in her right arm crack even more.
"Rose Switch."
She blinks out, trading places with a single blossom behind her just as Ryujin's spear cleaves the earth. The blow is so massive the entire estate shudders, tiles rattling like teeth from a gale.
"Se Ta Vir, Ri Se!" Ryujin bellows.
Scarlet dust erupts. Ten puppet-acolytes claw their way from the haze, eyes glowing ember-red as they sprint for Mai.
A red flash detonates around her.
The explosion is deafening— raw and merciless. The shockwave rips through the ground like a wrathful quake. Chunks of earth tear free and hurl skyward. The battlefield convulses, swallowing stone, dirt and silence into chaos.
When the smoke clears, the garden grounds are scorched. A crater yawns where she stood.
And there— at the center— Mai sways.
She's still on her feet.
Barely.
Her body is trembling, her skin pale as bone and slick with sweat. Blood clings to her lips, trickling from the corner of her mouth but she does not fall. Not yet.
Her blue hair, drenched in sweat and blood, fluttering in the hot wind. The glow in her eyes has dimmed but it hasn't died out yet.
Her lips curve upward, just slightly. Not defiance. Not triumph. But endurance.
The will to keep standing— even when the world itself tells her to collapse keeps Mai resolute.
Ryujin notices the glassy sheen in her eyes and is in disbelief.
Then he sees the ground below him. A carpet of blue roses, each blossom already wilting. Panic twists his face.
"Impossible! You— you even learned that from him! What are you?"
He turns his head to where she stands. Every puppet is gone, petals drifting where they fell.
Mai's abdomen has a light gash, blood coursing down her torso— yet every drop turns to blue petals before it even reaches the grass. Crimson tears trail from her eyes.
She inhales, voice steady despite the tremor of pain.
"I am a rose mage, student of Lucil— future guardian— and something you can never claim to be: a true mage."
"A guardian and a mage?" Ryujin scoffs. "Mixing honor with blind ambition— MADNESS! I thought only Lucil alone suffered such delusions."
"It runs in our family."Mai's wings unfurling in a storm of cobalt light.
Blue petals rise anew, swirling like judgment as father and daughter square off once again.
Mai staggers, blood streaking her clothes, yet her smile turns devilish as she attempts to straighten up.
"Father." she says, "I'm glad you're giving it your all. Now I won't hold back. Survive this and you're welcome to kill me."
She plants her blade beside her foot and whispers a litany:
"Blue World … Angel Fix … False Reality … Merciless Reaper … Unending Blossom."
With a crisp snap of her fingers she adds, "Rose Blossom—Tact Seven: Infinitum Auris!"
Sapphire petals whirl up from the grass. The garden tilts, revolving in an endless cyclone of blooms. Vines coil, roses sprout at impossible speeds and fallen acolytes dissolve— skin, bone and grief— all into blossoms.
"Eldest!" Ryujin shouts.
The clan Elder materializes behind Mai, driving a blade for her heart— yet the steel melts into flowers, his own flesh dispersing into petals that join the storm around her.
Petals fuse to Mai's entire skin like a living armor. Her veins and sword both burn in an intense electric blue. Only her eyes remain crimson-red.
"So be it." Ryujin growls.
He channels power into his crimson spear until it crackles like a sunspot. Both charge— dust against petals. Lightning shreds the air, the earth quakes and sparks spit from shattered flagstones.
Mai meets the thrust, twists and slices open Ryujin's stomach. In the same breath she whips her blade toward his throat— yet he flickers, reappearing to her left in a burst of ash.
"Slash!" she commands.
A scythe of petals blasts the dust aside— revealing twenty fresh acolytes encircling her.
Ryujin chants, "Ha To — Hu Ou Ma!"
His muscles swell. He crashes forward again, spear cleaving Mai's shoulders. She hisses, but pivots and drives a knee into his ribs, launching him skyward. As he flies in the air, he uses the momentum to aim his spear at Mai and shouts: "HU TA, KI!" his spear glowing with mana.
Leaping after, she chants another spell, "Blue World—Apocalyptic Lucil!"
Her overhead strike meets the spear. Air itself splits; debris from the estate lifts and whirls away in a howl of wind. Fractures form in the spear before it snaps, the noise sounding as if the planets of the universe broke.
Ryujin snarls "I used my life force— yet it is weaker than your brute force." He spits a single word: "Necrosis."
Black rot races over Mai's wounded shoulder. Gritting her teeth, she cuts away the infected flesh in a single searing stroke.
"Argh!"
She exhales, hurls a petal to the ground and murmurs, "Switch."
In an instant, she vanishes— and reappears at Ryujin's flank. Before he can react, his knees give in and he drops to the ground. Blood drips from his shattered spear as he staggers, dropping into the swirling trap of blue roses that has bloomed beneath him like a net.
Petals rise like smoke. The garden darkens.
Mai watches him— chest heaving, body bruised and bloodstained. "You're wielding everything— death magic, corrosion strikes, dust-born puppets... all of it." Her voice is tight with grief. "Why?"
Ryujin offers a faint, bitter smile. "He taught you well. A true prodigy."
"Father..." Her voice wavers. "I don't want to kill you. You're hurt. Tired. You still have family— me, Lucil. Even now."
She takes one step forward, her sword lowered.
Ryujin stares petrified. In her eyes, for a single moment, he sees Rei— alive. Him forgiving. That single image pierces deeper than any blade.
He grips the ruined shaft of his weapon tighter.
"Then kill me." he says hoarsely. "Because I can't stop myself."
Mai's expression collapses— steeled with heartbreak.
"Fine." she whispers. "Then give me everything."
Petals erupt around her feet as she charges.
She surges forward, petals at her heels swirling. "Angel False—Apocalyptic Inversia!"
A blue luminescent glow erupts from her blade, flooding the garden. For a moment the world is nothing but weightless petals— then reality unravels.
The estate's stone paths dissolve, hedges collapse into azure dust and Ryujin's left arm simply ceases to exist. The spell's recoil shreds Mai's own flesh; skin rips, scattering into the same endless blossoms that devour the night.
Father and daughter stand inside a storm of vanishing color— each wounded, each unwilling to yield.