"----"
As Roswaal's emotions fluctuated, the atmosphere around them changed at once.
An immensely oppressive surge of magic power rippled from Roswaal's body, parting the wind and snow around him.
"Ugh..."
Ram seemed to let out a pained groan.
Being exposed to that oppressive magical pressure at such close range to Roswaal seemed far too much for an Oni God who had lost her horn.
Even so, Ram gritted her teeth and stood firmly at Roswaal's side as though declaring her position, refusing to leave him by even a step.
Unfortunately, Roswaal no longer had Ram in his eyes.
The eyes he fixed on Fang Li were already bloodshot.
"It shouldn't have been like this... It shouldn't have been like this..."
Roswaal continued to mutter words like curses, his expression growing increasingly deranged.
"If you didn't make a contract with Echidna, then everything I've done until now has been meaningless! All of it!"
If Fang Li had already made a contract with Echidna during the first trial, then passed every trial that same night and liberated the "Sanctuary," then Roswaal's subsequent actions would have had meaning.
The reason he hired Elsa to infiltrate the mansion had not been to kill everyone inside, but to have Fang Li defeat Elsa and bring her into his camp, letting her handle dirty work that could not be done openly, thereby creating a favorable situation for Emilia in the Royal Selection.
The reason he made it snow in the "Sanctuary" was to freeze the place over, turning the Witch of Greed's testing ground into forbidden territory that no one could approach. This would prevent political enemies or the Witch Cult from investigating the suddenly appearing residents of the "Sanctuary," tracing them back here, and finding grounds to accuse him of having ties to a