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This wasn't the end. This was only the beginning.

This was a rather cliché phrase that could actually be used in a surprising number of situations.

Perhaps a better phrase would be ”An end is only a new beginning.”

Seiji was feeling like so right now. Even though he clearly just finished a major battle, he discovered after he woke up that bad sprouts were everywhere, as if any one of them could be ignited at any moment.

Apart from the issues with Kaho and Chiaki, Hoshi also mentioned that he had seriously thought things over and still wanted to help Lilith. He wished to fight for this mysterious elf girl.

There was also something up with Reo now. Kaede mentioned that something seemed off about Reo recently, so Seiji had a serious conversation with Reo. The result was he learned that ever since twelve days ago, starting from the night right after the tournament, she started hearing strange sounds in her dreams. These sounds were like sighing, screaming, angry roaring, or many people talking at once…

Seiji also asked Mayuzumi about this. She said that she indeed had a similar dream on the night right after the tournament, but she only had this dream once.

Seiji informed Mayuzumi about the incident surrounding Risa Kobayakawa, the third and final person affected by their Story of One Hundred Demons incident which gave Mayuzumi, Risa, and Reo mysterious powers. He asked Mayuzumi to contact him immediately if anything felt off.

Kazuko woke up and indicated that her condition had returned to normal. But now, when she opened her Domain, there was one time that she faintly felt a similar existence—another ”door opener” like her rather than a ”homeowner” like Lilith.

Hisashi reported that the illegal ”Paradise” drug was lowering its price and increasing in production. It seemed likely that the Messengers were intending to begin mass-producing this drug.

Anna detected a powerful hacker on the internet… or perhaps it was a similar existence to her that was becoming active.

Yukari mentioned that she received a beautiful picture from an unfamiliar email address. The picture was of a spider woman which gave Yukari an indescribable feeling. However, when Yukari regained her senses, the picture had automatically deleted itself.

Yukari then kept randomly thinking about this spider woman drawing and getting lost in her daydreams because of it. Although this wasn't a major problem yet, she had an ominous premonition.

Even Miyabi Ishihara mentioned a similar experience: she received a story draft from an unfamiliar email address and opened it to read it out of curiosity. It made her feel rather uncomfortable, and then the story draft deleted itself. Even though she didn't want to recall it, she couldn't restrain herself from thinking about it.

Suddenly, flames erupted at one, two, four, then eight locations… Soon, his entire field of vision was filled with flames! They all started burning at once and everything was turned to ash.

Seiji opened his eyes.

He discovered that he was sleeping on his hospital bed. Shika was sleeping next to him.

That was only a dream.

However, it reflected what he was feeling right now.

Seiji could only sigh. He then wanted to get up and drink some water.

He carefully got out of bed so as not to awaken his adopted younger sister. Only then did he suddenly notice that someone else was in his room!

A girl who wore a black jacket was sitting quietly on the sofa.

”Sister… Yui?” Seiji blinked in surprise and called out to her in a soft voice to not awaken Shika.

”I was intending to sit here and wait for you until morning,” Yui replied softly as well. ”I didn't expect that you would wake up so early.”

”Wait until morning… how come?”

”I just finished something I was dealing with, quicker than I expected. I don't feel like sleeping right now, so I came over.”

Yui indicated to Seiji that he could sit down next to her.

”How are you currently feeling?”

”Excellent… I feel perfectly fine now.”

Yui looked directly at him.

”Seiji, this is a miracle,” she spoke seriously. ”You've created a miracle, not only for the people you revived, but for yourself as well.”

”This is all thanks to you, Sister Yui.”