Melina asked Skyl how to destroy the Frenzied Flame.
"I can eradicate the Frenzied Flame simply because I'm stronger than it. You can't replicate my methods."
"Aren't you supposed to be omnipotent? Skyl, teach me. Tell me how to destroy the Frenzied Flame completely."
Melina's cheeks looked even paler and more fragile than the white frost. The traces of human warmth about her were steadily fading, making her resemble a message in a bottle drifting toward the horizon, about to vanish into the sea.
"Melina, don't burden yourself with so much responsibility. Destroying the Frenzied Flame isn't your mission."
"No one ever told me."
Melina turned to face him.
"No one ever told me how I was supposed to live my life."
"Experience the world. Explore it. Discover what it has to offer. Do whatever makes you happy."
"What would make me happy? I'd be very happy if you taught me how to destroy the Frenzied Flame."
Skyl sighed.
He didn't know what Melina was thinking, but he could see her future.
"Is this really what you want?"
He asked the question solemnly, looking into Melina's eyes with absolute seriousness.
The Kindling Maiden's gaze flickered.
At that moment, she realized that Skyl had already seen through her future. It was a strange sensation, as though she had suddenly become aware of an inescapable destiny.
"Yes. This is what I want."
"Well, what if I refuse to help you?" he countered stubbornly.
Melina smiled.
Suddenly, she began smiling with an expression of genuine relief.
She looked toward the royal capital of Leyndell, where the source of the Frenzied Flame lay hidden.
Then she nodded.
"You're right. This was always supposed to be my own path. You have absolutely no obligation to help me. I'm sorry, Skyl. It's time for me to leave."
"You're leaving already? Won't you stay a few more days?"
"Do you remember what you said when we first met? You said you wanted to give me a complete life. At the time, I simply thought you were a very strange person. Later, I discovered that you really were strange."
She continued quietly.
"You're constantly saving other people without ever asking for anything in return. I've never seen any trace of selfishness in you. You're omnipotent, standing so far above everyone else."
"I used to think someone like you couldn't possibly have feelings. But I was wrong. In truth, you're more vulnerable and ordinary than anyone else."
"And that understanding I thought we shared? It never really existed. It was nothing more than wishful thinking on my part."
"I can't keep pretending that I can stay by your side."
Skyl didn't know how to respond.
Melina drew a deep breath of the freezing air. Even the warm mist that escaped her lips crystallized into tiny particles of ice.
"My life is like a matchstick. You can't expect a match to return to its box after it's burned out, as though nothing ever happened."
"Skyl, I'm grateful to you. But I have to leave. I need to walk the final stretch of this road on my own."
"This isn't your mission. Your existence doesn't come with some predetermined obligation. The Frenzied Flame is nothing more than a speck of dust to me. I could destroy it with a wave of my hand."
"Don't believe me? I could snap my fingers or whistle right now, and the Three Fingers beneath the royal capital would be reduced to ashes."
"I believe you. Of course I do. You're omnipotent, Skyl."
Melina's reply was absentminded.
"But I'm not someone like you."
"I'm nothing. Just a phantom, an empty shell. I was born as a vessel meant to carry out a mission."
She looked out across the frost-covered world.
"In this endless expanse of white, the wind will eventually carry me away. It'll take me somewhere where there's nothing at all."
"There, I won't have to think about the future of the Lands Between anymore. I won't have to worry about my mission. I won't have to cling to some vague, impossible hope just so I can continue staying beside you."
"When that time comes, I'll finally be completely free."
Skyl sighed again.
Whatever words he might have spoken dissolved into that sigh.
Melina took out the Spectral Steed Whistle and blew it softly.
Torrent emerged from the swirling mist released by the whistle.
The spirited steed shook his head vigorously before lowering it again in his customary fashion.
The slender girl leaped into the saddle.
At that very moment, her entire demeanor changed.
She seemed invigorated, filled with renewed energy, and her face glowed as she smiled at Skyl.
There wasn't a trace of sadness in her apricot-shaped eye.
Skyl's brilliance had always been so overwhelming that Melina had seemed like a weightless appendage whenever she stood beside him.
She possessed no distinguishing presence of her own. She was constantly forgotten and overlooked.
Of course, Melina had long since grown accustomed to being forgotten and overlooked.
Her life had been that way from the very beginning.
But now, sitting tall in the saddle, she looked magnificent.
She resembled a knight setting out on a grand adventure, her romantic heroism shining even more brightly than Don Quixote charging at his windmills.
Melina gently touched her tightly closed left eye.
The beast-claw seal surrounding the eye socket resembled an unusual tattoo.
The hidden eye contained the divine power of Death, and it would become the final blow with which she intended to pierce the Frenzied Flame.
"Don't do anything foolish, Melina."
"You might consider my mission foolish, but I don't."
"I'm not talking about your mission. I'm talking about what you're planning to do after you've completed it."
She hesitated in the saddle.
After a moment of contemplation, she gave Skyl the most beautiful, radiant smile he had ever seen.
"So that's my future."
"Thank you, Skyl. I don't think we'll ever see each other again. I wish you happiness and good health forever."
"And one more thing. Actually, I've always..."
The beautiful, spirited Melina gave the reins a gentle flick.
Her unfinished words scattered beneath the thunder of galloping hooves, fading into the growing distance until they could no longer be distinguished.
Torrent galloped away.
"Hey!" little Moli shouted. "Where are you going?"
Melina neither turned her head nor slowed down.
Millicent hurried back to Skyl's side, looking bewildered.
Something about his silent posture immediately told her that something was wrong.
"Where's Melina going?"
"She's going to fulfill her mission."
"Should we go help her?"
"Why should we?"
Skyl's tone was rather cold.
Millicent was momentarily taken aback.
She wasn't angry. Instead, her concern deepened.
"What exactly happened?"
"She's going to die. She's deliberately walking to her death."
Skyl spoke without expression.
"She'll destroy the Frenzied Flame and then die deep in the sewers beneath the royal capital. Her body will gradually decay. A year from now, all that will remain will be a skeleton, a head of pink hair, and a sky-blue eyeball."
"Then why don't you stop her?"
"I'm not omnipotent," Skyl replied coldly. "I can't make someone who's determined to take their own life regain the will to live."
"Not even with magic?"
"Once someone stops believing, they stop believing. Magic crumbles in the face of doubt."
"But aren't you a god? Can't you prevent that future?"
"Yes, I am a god."
Skyl's voice remained detached.
"I could erase her memories. I could reshape her entire life. I could even resurrect her corpse."
"But no matter what I do, she believes she's already dead. Even if I kept her alive, what remained would be nothing more than an empty shell."
"Melina's personality is too unyielding. She won't compromise."
Millicent shook her head.
"No, Skyl. As long as she's alive, there's still hope. Keeping her alive is more important than anything else."
"If you can't persuade her, then let me try."
Skyl waved his hand.
"Go ahead, then. I wish you success."
Millicent watched in disbelief as he turned and walked away.
She hurried after him.
"Skyl!"
"What?"
"Why have you become so cold? Is this really you?"
"You think I'm cold? Then what am I supposed to do? I've already told you that I can't persuade her to choose life. This is the course fate has laid out for her."
"Is fate the only thing you believe in? What about miracles? You said there would be miracles!"
Skyl replied calmly.
"Miracles can only answer those who believe in them."
"From my perspective, every moment of your existence has already been engraved into the records of history. I can load those memories whenever I wish and change the course of your lives."
"Everyone will eventually leave me. Some will remain longer than others, but in a history that can be rewritten, the difference between a long time and a short time is ultimately meaningless."
"Then am I the same to you?"
Millicent stared at him.
"Just another toy of fate?"
"You're precisely the reason I can't save Melina. Do you know why?"
Skyl looked at her.
"Because you're the only person I love."
"I won't pretend to be in love with Melina just to save her. That's why her ending cannot be changed."
Millicent's face instantly turned deathly pale.
"Then... is there a timeline where you fell in love with Melina instead of me?"
"No. There is no such timeline."
Skyl's words were tender, but his voice remained cold.
"Across the infinite destinies of countless worlds and timelines, if I were given the choice, I would choose you and you alone."
"What kind of man do you take me for? Do you really think I'd make up excuses just so I could have an affair?"
"I don't mind."
Millicent spoke through clenched emotions.
"Go ahead and fall in love with Melina. Or fall in love with anyone else. I don't mind."
"Don't let me be the reason you hold yourself back."
"But I mind."
Skyl looked at her steadily.
"If I can't be honest with my own heart, wouldn't my entire existence become one enormous lie?"
Millicent gritted her teeth.
Then she turned around and sprinted in the direction Melina had disappeared.
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