Release.

Elen focuses on the power within herself.

Because she never consciously controlled it, her body never properly developed to match her strength.

She didn’t know that was the cause, but had fallen several times before, forcing her power too hard. This time, though, it’s different. Her family is here.

She realizes Ark is manipulating the ambient mana, channeling it into her, filling the gap like supplemental strength.

(Okay… I can do this…)

Something she’d never noticed while using her ability to control elements suddenly clicks. It wasn’t something she was aware of—so ordinary, it was invisible.

(I could unconsciously gather information about minerals… That means I was unconsciously using my power to read data…)

She was unconsciously handling electromagnetic waves within specific wavelengths.

Probably, to spirits, such control over their governing attributes is so routine it slips right through their awareness.

If she could manipulate electromagnetic waves, Elen thought, maybe she could even access information right where she stood.

People generate faint electricity. Every movement, every thought— it’s all driven by electrical signals from the brain.

Those signals seep out beyond the body, wrapping the whole form in an invisible veil of electricity.

(There’s a quasi-static field around people and things too. If I can read that, I should be able to interpret the curse clinging to Amiel as data.)

Read the recorded curses of her kin, treat them as data, and erase them.

(That’s why Mother said I govern existence….)

If you can tamper with a person’s memory and erase it entirely, their existence vanishes the same way.

That’s why people write things down— in books, on stone tablets— to prevent forgetting.

It’s an unconscious act. Just fear of vanishing, trying to escape it.

Amiel’s become almost indistinguishable from the curse itself. So if the curse is erased, Amiel won’t walk away unscathed.

(“Purification,” huh? What a conveniently tidy word…)

That was a word that made sense only from the goddess’s perspective. From Amiel’s point of view, Elen was the goddess of death.

The terror of erasing a single girl’s memories… and the collective cries of her people.

Even if they called it liberation, Elen’s heart didn’t ease.

But this can’t go on.

The curse is devouring everything around it—turning into a monster storm.

As Duran said, it’s a pain to have to push back this calamity. But the situation’s gotten so dire, there’s no time for regret.

Releasing the ones still trapped—this is Elen’s duty as a goddess.

Elen locked eyes with Amiel, her gaze sharp with resolve.

Elen releases her power. It appears as particles of light, wrapping around Amiel like a cocoon. Electromagnetic waves manifest as visible rays—glowing, tangible light.

‘N-no… w-what… no… no… stop…!’

Amiel’s voice comes from the center of the light.

‘G-guh!? No… no… g-gah… w-wa-da… g-gi-ji-ga… g-guh…!’

‘Kk…’

Amiel struggles, trying to push back Elen’s power.

Elen releases more force, enveloping Amiel—and the curse binding him—entirely in shimmering particles of light.

＊＊＊

To erase memories, you must first read them. It begins with the cries of her kin, and flows onward, directly into Amiel’s own memories, at the heart of it all.

Before she knows it, Elen finds herself in a pitch-black void, utterly smothered in darkness.

(…I’ve seen this before.)

The incident at the Tembarl royal palace, when Gadiel approached and the curse activated.

The memory of my kin screaming, reaching out to Elen, begging for help—just like that moment.

Felt like watching a scene from a movie.

The souls of my kin, cursed and twisted, still clinging to the Tembarl royal bloodline.

Their cries for release… somehow, now, silent.

"O… ooh… me… ga… mi… no… hi… ga… ri…"

A faint whisper, their voices drawn toward the light, stretching hands toward Elen’s radiance.

The darkness shaped itself—skeletal, pitch-black forms, their hands clawing desperately toward the light Elen emitted.

"...Gaeri… da… i… da… i…"

As if pulled by their weeping, the light crept closer, wrapping into the dark.

Then, the darkness thinned—dissolving into particles, scattering like dust.

"O… ooh…"

The light was soft, faint, slipping away into the dark, and I could tell it was fading.

I could feel the curse, coiled and spiraling, unraveling bit by bit.

The mass of darkness swirling around Amiel dissolved one piece at a time, and finally, Elen saw what remained.

***

There was something I’d been searching for—forever, it felt like.

I’d turned my face away from the truth: the warmth I’d always known, my mother’s embrace, had long since grown cold. I kept lying to myself, pretending it was still warm.

That was the work of that wretched man. Mother was just another victim. Not my fault.

It wasn’t my fault. None of them were to blame. I didn’t do anything wrong.

If I could hate them, then I wasn’t the one at fault. I could escape this place. I could go back to being a happy family again...

Fumbling through memories from when I was impossibly young.

That memory of being warm, wrapped in something safe.

‘O… a… ma… s-sorry… w-where…?’

“O-douza… ma… do… go…?…”

Amiel’s soul was crumbling, worn thin by the curse.

Pieces missing here and there, still clinging to fragments of family, desperately reaching out.

“Why…?”

Why had Amiel been driven to this?

Amiel’s memories flow into Elen.

Just like Raffilia back then—so small, the whole world was her mother.

The more Agiel selfishly acted, the more Sauvel condemned him, the more Amiel saw him as an enemy.

Because Agiel had taught her that this was normal, that this was how things worked—too young to know any better.

Twisted by the false beliefs implanted so deeply, this was the result.

All because of selfish adults’ convenience. This is where we ended up.

Elen found out that Amiel had called Lovell "Father" since childhood—because Agiel had drilled it into her head—and she couldn’t stop crying.

She realized that Amiel had simply wanted love from family, nothing more.

“This child just wanted love from family…!!”

Duval had seized on that, and now look where they were.

Elen couldn’t stop crying.

It hurt even more because she’d received all that love from Lovell and Origin—so she could feel just how cruelly Amiel had been treated.

She knew full well she had no right to pity or mourn.

Elen roughly wiped her tears and held her hands out toward Amiel.

That was the moment she tried to release everything—Amiel’s painful memories too.

“H-huh… a-ah… z-zama…?”

Amiel said that, reaching out toward Elen.