Chapter 967

“So, my sister truly did die in that dungeon.” Carmine sighed. “I suppose that explains you.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Salicia narrowed her eyes.

“Your obsessive personality. Your despisal of the church. Your conflicting actions. Take your pick. Dungeons are only the lore of a real story, but they become corrupted with time. It is similar for those created by the dungeon. The true Salicia died in a dungeon, and all of her strongest feelings were remade into you. You’re a parody of the sister I once had.”

“Don’t feel sorry for me.” Salicia sneered. “I’ve become more powerful than your sister ever was. I was able to achieve her dreams where she failed.”

“I don’t feel sorry for you. Quite the opposite. It makes it far easier to kill you!” Carmine leaped forward, slashing down with her sword.

“As if you can!” Salicia caught it with her own blade, a black cutlass that she had acquired in a dungeon at some point.

The two exchanged several blows. It quickly became clear that Salicia was faster and the better with the blade. Carmine threw a wide strike, and then Salicia struck her. However, she might as well have been fighting the wall. Carmine caught every strike on her shield, and even tossed up the shield, throwing Salicia off balance. She leaped back, opening up space between them.

“You won’t be able to get through my defense.”

“Heh… you forgot, the last time we truly compared my offensive ability with your defenses, it took the support of Master’s entire party just to keep you standing, and you still ended up passing out in the end. What makes you think things have changed now?”

“I’m not the same woman I was back then,” Carmine responded. “Being Master’s woman, it has changed me. You’ll find I’m not so simple anymore.”

“Oh? Funny. I was going to say the same thing!” Salicia laughed. “Then, how about it. Let’s see if you can handle it this time.”

Salicia held out her hands in a familiar position. This was the same skill she had once used on Carmine when they were chasing after them in Terra’s dungeon in what seemed like forever ago. This was a beam attack using darkness. Salicia’s magic wasn’t technically miasma like Astria’s was. Astria was a dark fairy, with a mana body that had been corrupted into miasma, making it a miasma body. Her techniques were different from Salicia and Shao. Shao used shadow and demonic magic, while Salicia used darkness.

The difference between miasma, demonic shadow magic, and darkness magic would be like the differences between mana, holy, and light magic. To the inexperienced eye, they’d seem interchangeable, but what they were and how to use them was fundamentally different for each girl. Although Carmine worked for the church, her magic was inherently light-based, which put her closer to Deek’s White Mage job than a priest. Darkness magic was a direct counter to light. That was to say it had an inherent property of decay. In short, where light was the fundamental of healing, darkness was the concept of destruction!

The two sisters couldn’t be more apart. One was born from this world, and the other was born from a dungeon. One was high defense. The other was a high offense. One favored rapid regeneration and high armor offered by light magic, while the other favored the destructive properties of darkness.

As a beam of darkness shot out from Salicia, a light exploded out around Carmine. The two strikes collided, causing the ground to rumble and the very world to both simultaneously darken and brighten, blinding everyone present. Salicia put everything into the strike, holding nothing back, just like the time in that dungeon. Meanwhile, Carmine remained steadfast, holding off the darkness with her shining light.

“Sister…” Although the power exploded out in the flurry, the darkness and light didn’t create a sound, so Carmine’s voice carried over to Salicia.

Salicia shook when she heard that voice. “S-sister?”

“When I lost my family, I joined the church to find a new one. Ultimately, my presence there was always a shallow one.” Carmine spoke calmly, even while resisting the dark attack. “When I found Deek, I didn’t just find my place in this world. I found a family where I would no longer be lonely.”

“Carmine…” Salicia’s mouth fell open and her strength wavered.

“I’ve never once stopped seeing you as family. You’ve been there with me from the beginning, and even after death, you’ve remained by my side. You are, and you always will be, my sister.”

Salicia’s beam of darkness died away. “S-sister… sister!”

She let out a cry and then ran for her sister, her arms held out, tears running down her face. Carmine gave a welcoming smile. Just as Salicia leaped out at her, Carmine raised her shield and then bashed the other woman on the head. To anyone watching, it’d look like Salicia leaped into Carmine’s shield face first with her arms out and a dumb smile on her face while laughing.

Salicia collapsed to the ground in a heap. Even though she was unconscious with a bump forming on her head, she had a smile on her face. It was filled with relief and happiness. Carmine looked down at her.

“Only you would fall for such a trick. You really are my stupid sister.” Carmine let out a sigh, but there was a slight smile on her lips too.