The candle's dim yellow light suddenly turned ghostly blue. As the relic's Whisper Element spread through Dorothy's body, her chest, which had still been rising and falling slightly, gradually stilled. At the same time, Dorothy's rosy complexion rapidly turned pale.
A cold wind rose inside the bedroom despite the doors and windows being shut, making Little Mia warily look around. In Shade's eyes, an extremely faint white glow radiated from Dorothy's body.
As that white glow left the "dead" body, a pure white, transparent soul appeared above it.
The soul's lower half still overlapped with the body, but its upper half sat up. Luvia, a Sixth Ring Arcanist, could not yet see a soul without resentment or contamination from special power. Only Shade could clearly see what that soul looked like.
"How does it feel?"
Shade asked Dorothy. The writer's soul was staring at her own hands in astonishment. Only when she heard him did she look up at Shade.
"You can see me? This feels so strange. It's different from an ordinary out-of-body experience. I can feel it—an instinctive urge telling me to 'keep going.' Is this death? Loneliness, coldness, and the sense of distance, as though a thick barrier stands between me and all of you."
Luvia could not hear her voice either. To Shade, it was as though they were speaking through a thick pane of glass, making Dorothy's voice sound very muffled.
"Ten seconds left."
Luvia reminded him while looking at the pocket watch in her hand. Shade held the cat in his arms tightly to stop it from running around and reminded Dorothy as well.
"You've experienced enough, right? This is enough. Come back quickly."
"Yes, yes."
The Blonde Young Lady's transparent soul smiled at Shade. But rather than lying back down, she stared into