Flames. Flames. Flames.
Everywhere he looked, towering flames burned unchecked.
The Hippogriff beneath him let out a mournful cry. Before long, it could no longer maintain its physical form and was forced back into spirit form.
"Partner!"
Astolfo fell from the Hippogriff's back. Tongues of fire licked at his cloak and began climbing upward.
Only after checking the Hippogriff's Spirit Core and confirming that it had suffered no serious damage did Astolfo spare a moment to tear off his burning cloak.
He looked around. Scorching air enveloped him, and the sea of flames on every side was slowly closing in.
It was no exaggeration to say that Astolfo now wanted to slit his own wrist and drink his blood like a glass of chilled red wine, just to quell the ever-growing, searing thirst in his throat...
No, no! That would hurt too much!
Having barely managed to calm himself, Astolfo sensed something returning to his mind.
As the emotion called "fear" resurfaced in his mind, he instantly understood the nature of Red Avenger's Noble Phantasm:
"Is this... a Reality Marble?!"
In a sense, Astolfo's rank D Personal Skill, [Reason Evaporation], was not a Personal Skill at all, but a curse.
Half of Astolfo's reason was stored on the moon. Only when there was "no moon at night"-in other words, on a moonless night-could he regain his full reason.
And fear was an emotion Astolfo could experience only when his reason was complete.
Yet tonight's sky was clear, with a bright crescent moon hanging high overhead. By all rights, Astolfo should have been incapable of feeling "fear."
That left only one possible explanation: the space he occupied had been cut off from the outside world, fulfilling the condition of "no moon at night"!
A sea of flames, a palace hall, a