Her pupils slowly dilated, her face filled with profound shock and bitter unwillingness. Blood spurted from her body, spraying everywhere as Minerva crashed to her knees, then toppled forward...
Blood stained the ground red. Her gradually cooling corpse landed with a dull, heavy thud.
Ignoring the silence of the entire audience and the sudden tension that gripped Kagura behind him, Achill withdrew his finger, then raised his hand and casually grasped at the air. Without the slightest warning, without even a ripple of magic power, a bewildered Millianna appeared in his grasp.
He reached out with his left hand and gave the stunned catgirl a firm pat on the head. "Long time no see, Millianna," Achill said softly. A faint trace of nostalgia entered his otherwise placid voice.
"Have you been doing well these past few years—"
"B-Big Brother Nameless?" Millianna had crouched down clutching her head with a meow at the pat. At his words, she looked up in astonishment, staring blankly at Achill as he gave her a slight smile.
"Big Brother Nameless, meow—!" After her brain short-circuited for a few seconds, the catgirl finally caught up and cried out. She lunged straight at Achill, wrapped her arms around his neck, and hung sideways from him like a koala. Swaying a little as she clung to him affectionately, Millianna asked curiously, "But what just happened, Big Brother Nameless?? I clearly saw Sabertooth's strongest Mage—that woman they call their big sister—charging at me with this vicious look on her face. So how... how did she suddenly..." As she spoke, she glanced at the figure lying nearby in a pool of blood, her fate unknown.
"Wander off on her own as though she'd lost her mind, right? And looking as though she had victory in the bag, too," Achill calmly