Fenrir felt strength leave her immediately, causing her to drop the Humvee to the ground.

Slowly, she peeked at her own chest. In the middle of it, a single bloody arm peeked through, with the tips of its fingers burning with a pale orange flame.

"You really outdid yourself, Fenrir." The culprit and owner of the hand, Surtr, commented as he pulled his arm out. "To think you'd really outrun me until the last moment. What admirable diligence and effort."

"Gahack…!" She spat blood, staining her face red.

As soon as Surtr's arm was completely out, Fenrir's body crumpled to the ground with a thud. Blood pooled around her from the open wound, creating a crimson stain on the reddish-brown ground.

"I wanted to put you out of your misery if possible, but…"

Surtr continued, shrugging his shoulders. "My thirty seconds are up, so I can't really kill you now. I doubt you'll survive with your soul burned by my flames, though… a pity."

"F-Fenrir…!"

Axel, realizing that an unfamiliar voice was present, peeked out of the Humvee and gasped at the scene.

He saw a man with a bloody hand, standing still with a confident smile on his face—eyes of deep gold, glowing with innocence and power. And before him, Fenrir's body, swimming in her own pool of blood.

It didn't take him a second to realize what had happened, and he growled.

"You…! Stay away from her!"

Axel's body moved by itself, jumping out of the Humvee and rushing to Fenrir's side.

He saw a fist-sized hole through the center of her chest, and from it, he could see her heart—a large portion of it missing, yet still beating ever so feebly.

'She's still alive…!'

Axel gasped, before withdrawing a Max-Level Greater Recovery Potion and dumping it straight onto her wound.

Surtr, seeing Fenrir's fatal injury rapidly recovering, gasped in surprise.

"Oh? Is that potion… God's Blood?" He mused. "You've got some neat items with you, human… but too bad. That alone won't be enough." He slowly shook his head.

"Well, it should buy you enough time to say your goodbyes, at least. And it'd be boorish of me to stay here and listen, so I'll take my leave."

And without much ado, he vanished from existence as if he had never been there in the first place.

Axel was confused by the man's presence, his unreadable strength, and his strange arrogance. However, he still took the man's words with a grain of salt.

'So a potion alone isn't enough, huh…?!'

"M-Mas…ter…"

"Fenrir!"

Fenrir's eyes opened as feeble words escaped her lips. Axel quickly pulled her closer, listening intently. "Hang on! I definitely won't let you die so easily!" He growled, searching the shop for any healing items he could find.

Even Axel himself wasn't sure why he was so desperate.

To him, Fenrir was nothing more than a "tool" he had picked up by chance.

One he was supposed to be willing to lose without a problem. Yet now, faced with her apparent death, he couldn't stop his hands from moving, desperately searching for a way to save her.

"It's… futile, Master…" Fenrir gently placed a hand over his, pushing it aside. "My… soul is shattered. Soon, I will… die."

Surtr's flames were enough to burn the World Tree, Yggdrasil.

They weren't normal flames in any sense of the word. They were so powerful that merely being touched by them was enough to burn one's soul into ashes instantly.

Fenrir, lasting several seconds while still retaining her consciousness, was already an anomaly.

"…"

Axel gritted his teeth.

The shop didn't have any consumables on par with the Greater Potion at all—much less one capable of repairing a shattered soul.

In short, he had no cards left to play.

"S-Sir Axel… Fenrir…!"

Only then did Nina, who had finally gotten out of the car, rush to their side.

With just a single glance at Fenrir, her face paled. Her "eyes" were a little special, after all. They not only allowed her to see the flow of energy or miasma, but even glimpse someone's soul.

And Fenrir's soul, to her eyes, looked like shattered glass.

It was fragmented, with each piece slowly fading away. She knew the great, legendary wolf before her was dying.

However, the pain of a broken soul, and the fear of vanishing into nothingness… none of that showed on Fenrir's gentle expression.

She slowly reached for Axel's face, caressing it.

"With this… I've paid my debt of gratitude… A life for a life…" She whispered, barely audible.

Axel stared into her pale blue eyes as they slowly closed, and gnashed his teeth.

"No…"

And slowly, he found his voice again.

"No! My life isn't so cheap that you can pay for it with your own!" He growled, even as he realized how absurd his words sounded. "As such, you can't die just yet!"

Without hesitation, he turned to Nina. "Princess, you're a witch, right?! Then you must have a way to fix a broken soul!"

Nina gasped, but only hesitated for a brief moment. "Yes. I know of one." She nodded.

A witch worked with curses—things that entangled both the physical and metaphysical body. In short, they were experts when it came to matters of the soul. Even the "Witch's Kiss" was a pact that bound two souls together.

"…!"

Axel hadn't really expected his hunch to be correct.

"Then let's do it! Now!" He urged her, unwilling to waste another second.

Fenrir's body was growing colder by the moment. Her pulse was practically nonexistent already. She was dying faster than he could have imagined.

"Although I want to…" Nina shook her head bitterly. "I don't have the tools or items needed, nor a suitable place to conduct the ritual. This is deep in the Red Zone, and danger lurks everywhere. We can't afford to have the ritual interrupted."

"Damn…!" Axel cursed.

They had a way to save Fenrir—and yet couldn't act on it.

His mind raced, going into overdrive.

And then… he finally called for a certain hateful being.

"NAVI!" He growled. "COME OUT!"

Unlike when he was battling Fenrir, where he was on the brink of death, Navi had remained silent during the fire giant's appearance. That silence was also why Axel hadn't truly feared for his life earlier.

After all, Navi was the first to warn him if a fatal threat was nearby.

[Yes, yes~! You called?]

The fat penguin popped out, locking eyes with Axel.

"Help me heal Fenrir!" Axel cried, dropping all pretense. "I'm willing to pay any price! I'll do anything if that's what it takes!"

[You said… anything?]

The penguin showed a blank expression before he smiled sinisterly.

It was at that moment that Axel realized—

He might have struck a deal with the devil.

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