Gracia laid Lucy in a comfortable position, forming a block of ice to serve as her bed.
As soon as she had done that, she turned all her attention to Stoneheart.
He was still struggling under the enormous weight of the bridge, though she thought he would soon free himself.
Gracia closed her eyes, shutting out the battlefield’s noise from her mind. She inhaled deeply, gently drawing in the white vapor that rose with each exhale.
A mory resurfaced.
A vast expanse where endless snow was the only scenery. Her mother was teaching her to control her resonance properly.
It was a few months before she left ho to take the entrance exam for the Order.
Her mother had once insisted that she join a concept.
"I want to pass this exam on my own. I don’t want any advantage. You yourself, mother, never had any."
Her mother only smiled.
"Very well. I see you’ve grown up and disdain the advice of your poor, old mother."
That day, Gracia had to hold her ground despite her mother’s insistence, until her mother finally gave up, not without offering a last piece of advice:
"If one day you et soone you cannot defeat, and they beco an obstacle in your path... you must not charge in headfirst.
"I know, I’m not an idiot," Gracia replied, adding imdiately, "Only fools repeat the sa things, hoping it will work."
Her mother laughed.
"Though I tell you not to charge headfirst, I do not say you must give up. Fools, as you say, who repeat the sa mistakes, sotis find a miracle in their repeated failures. And that is what you must seek."
---
Back in the present, Gracia sighed.
"Miracles don’t exist, mother... but my will will achieve the impossible."
No sooner had she finished that sentence than Stoneheart cleared the debris from the bridge.
Free once more, he resud the hunt. His slow steps soon brought him face to face with Gracia. Only a ter separated them, an insignificant distance for him.
He sneered.
And Gracia struck him with a punch to the face but only her hand ended up bloody.
"Again," Stoneheart growled.
She obeyed, unleashing a storm of blows on his face, his stomach, everywhere with no effect.
Her fingers were broken; a dull pain gnawed at her.
Stoneheart smiled, revealing his teeth.
"Finished?"
Gracia nodded.
He raised his fist to crush her, but a centiter from her face, he froze.
Gracia hadn’t budged an inch, and he didn’t understand why striking her was so difficult.
Her expression betrayed nothing.
("I have no reason to satisfy this sadist.")
Gracia forced herself to mask the pain and placed her hand on Stoneheart’s chest.
Sothing clicked in him.
---
Ice... what is it?
Frozen water? Yes, but not just that.
Fruit juice can beco ice. Milk too.
In fact, most liquids can freeze.
Would blood be an exception?
Gracia didn’t know, but she tried.
With every strike, as her fingers broke, she had kept using her resonance.
When she visualized the blood in her enemy’s body, she hit a barrier. Her will to freeze it could not pierce through.
She had never believed in miracles, as her mother said. That hadn’t changed.
No, only her will allowed her, through sheer ntal effort, to finally freeze that blood.
---
Stoneheart froze.
He wasn’t cold, but he felt breathless. His blood no longer circulated properly, no longer delivering oxygen.
"Stop this!" he ordered through gritted teeth.
Gracia remained unmoved, still expressionless.
Stoneheart had had enough.
He enjoyed this ga.
He was the hunter, the one who tracked his prey not the other way around.
"I am..."
He wanted to declare that he was the only hunter, but only a growl escaped his lips.
"It’s over," declared Gracia.
She concentrated all the ether she had left into this final gesture.
She placed her hand on Stoneheart’s chest and whispered:
>
Stoneheart froze like a statue.
Exhausted, drained of all energy and will, Gracia sighed.
Without even casting a last glance at the statue behind her, she turned away... unaware that her enemy had not given up.
---
Lucy, lying on the block of ice, opened her eyes. She saw Gracia’s determination against her opponent and wanted to get up to help, but her weakness held her back.
A voice whispered in her mind.
"What will you do? None of your weapons had any effect on him. You are weak, and you will always remain so."
Lucy didn’t wonder whose voice it was. She knew it was her own.
But she couldn’t answer that truth.
The voice, amused, continued:
"You cannot escape your destiny.
You are a murderer. How many people have you killed?
Now you want to change?
Didn’t you take pleasure in eliminating those smugglers?
They were villains? And you, what are you? A good girl?
No, my dear... you are , and I am you.
I know better than anyone that there is no difference between you and the man in front of you."
Questions and answers flowed, crushing Lucy before she could refute them.
Overwheld, she began to doubt her beliefs, who she truly was.
The relentless voice insisted:
"Look at this girl. She is your friend. She saved you just a mont ago... and she will die before your eyes."
Lucy’s eyes widened.
She saw Gracia turn, and behind her... Stoneheart moved.
A finger. Then two. His entire hand ca to life.
Everything seed in slow motion.
His hand lunged toward Gracia’s back, aiming straight for her heart.
Lucy had a thought, which she imdiately tried to push away—but the voice offered no respite, exposing her thought.
"This strike will kill her. She will certainly die. And you... you will be powerless."
Lucy wanted to run, to reach out... but the voice crushed her again:
"You won’t get there in ti. And even if you do, what will you do?
Will you throw yourself to take the blow instead?
Offer your life to save her?"
Lucy remained silent.
"No, you won’t. You cannot die. Have you forgotten your promise?"
She trembled, on the edge, ready to collapse.
The voice whispered an escape:
"Did I not tell you that I am you, and you are ?
You just have to think it.
One word, and I will grant it.
My rcy is infinite."
The voice fell silent after this declaration, like a gambler having placed their bet, waiting for the dice to fall.
Lucy had always rejected this offer. But now... Gracia’s life depended on it.
She thought of yielding.
"I... I..."
But a mory resurfaced.
"No matter what happens, be yourself."
The last words of Iris, on the train station platform.
"What would she have done if she were here?" Lucy wondered.
Then she dismissed the thought.
"No. What will I do?"
And it clicked.
"I won’t abandon her. I will save her!"
The voice was surprised.
"Impossible. Without , you are nothing."
Lucy did not respond.
She did not think: that was Sirius’s specialty. She knew.
Strike first. The rest, her two best friends would handle.
>
Her vision shifted.
The battlefield disappeared. Around her, a chaotic space: rifles, handkerchiefs, gold bars, everything scattered on the ground.
It was her resonance. Her own dinsion.
>
This ti, she didn’t bring in an object.
She brought in her own body.
Here, ti didn’t flow. That’s why food never spoiled.
She froze, becoming static like the objects around her.
However, Lucy remained immobilized for only a mont; her will to save her friend broke the limits of this dinsion.
"I can do this."
A light appeared, revealing the outside world.
Lucy grabbed a grenade and ran to a precise point.
>
Her body was expelled from the dinsion.
She reappeared just in front of Stoneheart, at the mont he was about to strike Gracia.
Without hesitation, she pulled the pin from the grenade and scread in rage, releasing all her emotions.
Her hand plunged into Stoneheart’s mouth. She dropped the grenade inside, then threw herself to the ground.
A boom resounded.
A mass of flesh, blood, and stone exploded into pieces.
The fight, this ti, was truly over.
They had won the victory.
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