Ivy frowned. "Talk?"
"Killing you again and again doesn’t get us anywhere, does it?" Damon paused for a moment before continuing. "Help me end the quest, and I’ll help you with the ritual."
For a second, Ivy simply stared at him.
Then her frown deepened. "How do I know you won’t just end the quest and refuse to help me?"
Damon replied without skipping a beat. "Because you know me."
Ivy’s expression froze.
For the first time since their battle began, she didn’t have an answer.
As much as the Phoenix feathers she had absorbed affected her, as much as she tried to remain focused on her mission, it was hard for her not to remember their past.
Something complicated flashed across Ivy’s face. As if two forces were fighting against one another.
"No," she finally replied, though the answer seemed rather forced, even from a distance of several meters.
Damon studied her for a moment.
"You don’t sound very convinced."
Ivy’s jaw tightened, and her hand shot to the side of her temple.
"I have to do this, Damon." Her breath hitched. "I have to."
Her fingers dug into her crimson hair.
"They just won’t stop talking."
Damon’s expression changed as he slowly realised what was happening.
It wasn’t that the feathers changed something in Ivy. They created a connection between her and the fallen members of the Phoenix Clan, a connection that forced her to listen to their every cry.
"How long?"
Ivy blinked. "...what?"
"How long have you been hearing them?"
Ivy didn’t respond.
Damon began to slowly bridge the gap between them, walking across the scorched field with his arms far from any of the previous combat stances.
Noticing he was approaching her, Ivy’s hand rose up. Flames began to coalesce in front of her palm as she aimed at Damon, who simply continued walking.
"I... I have to, Damon."
Now it was his turn not to respond.
He allowed her silence and time to process her emotions. Numerous feelings flashed across her face, just as countless thoughts of fallen phoenix clan members rang in her head, trying to push her into doing their bidding.
"Do it!"
"Kill the human and use his mana!"
"That’s right! Do it!"
The voices continued to echo as Damon finally reached the palm of Ivy’s hand.
Her flames whipped across his armour before slowly flickering.
Ivy’s arm trembled slightly, but not from strain or fatigue.
"Don’t." Ivy’s voice cracked. "Fight back.."
The flames around her palm surged again.
Yet she couldn’t bring herself to release them.
A moment later, her flames diminished, then vanished, and Ivy took a defeated step toward Damon’s arms.
The tension left her body all at once as Damon’s arms caught her before she could stumble.
"I’m tired, Damon." She looked up, and only now did he see the dark circles around her eyes. "...I’m tired."
The battlefield was strangely quiet.
Not silent.
The voices in Ivy’s head were still there.
But for the first time in what felt like an eternity, she felt as though she didn’t have to listen to them.
"Do you want to save them?" Damon asked.
Ivy’s gaze lifted toward his once more, and a flicker of confusion flashed across her face.
And seeing this, Damon was fast to continue.
"...Or do you want to get rid of them?"
Something dark settled over Damon’s face.
The price of bringing every fallen member of the phoenix clan had to be great, and he wasn’t quite sure if the sacrifice of the ability itself was going to be enough. He had a strange feeling that the voices in Ivy’s head were manipulating her into something she can’t return from.
"W-What do you mean?"
"I can sever the connection between you and the voices, if that’s what you want."
Surprise flashed across Ivy’s face.
She hadn’t even thought of that as a possibility.
Then, as she slowly realised Damon was serious, her expression began to change. And as if noticing that change, the voices in her head grew louder.
Ivy’s lips parted, but no sound came out.
The voices surged instantly.
"Don’t listen to him!"
"He doesn’t understand!"
"We are all that’s left!"
Her hands clenched at her sides, and her breath hitched.
For a moment, she looked like she might snap back into their control, like she might say no, like she might retreat into the only thing that had been speaking to her for so long.
Damon didn’t move or interrupt.
He just waited.
And that silence was worse than the voices, as it didn’t demand anything from her.
It left the choice that was entirely hers.
Ivy shut her eyes.
The voices screamed again.
Their cries, however, slowly grew gentler, almost gone beneath the commotion in her head.
"Let us live."
Her eyes snapped open.
"Get rid of them," she said. "I want them all gone."
At this moment, as if her decision alone was enough to regain control, Ivy stopped listening to the screaming voices in her head.
Immediately, Damon began to act.
With Heavenly Comprehension active, he found the connection between Ivy and the fallen members of the Phoenix Clan almost instantly.
Ivy flinched as Damon’s hand landed on her abdomen, feeling the flow of mana inside the core.
"W-what are you—"
"Don’t move," he said, before moving his consciousness toward her Sea of Power.
As he entered, he saw more than just countless threads making for her abilities or class. He saw a connection between her and thousands of incorporeal beings that took quick notice of him.
"You don’t belong here!"
"Another one?"
"No! Stop! Don’t take her—"
The pressure surged violently through Ivy’s mind.
She dropped to one knee.
"Damon—!" she called, but he could no longer hear her, his mind focused entirely on reaching for that connection.
Ivy gasped, clutching her head.
A heavy pressure pushed against her mind, far stronger than the one voices had held. She grimaced in pain before suddenly something snapped.
Not inside her thoughts.
Behind them.
Like a chain pulled too tight, which finally gave way.
The resistance vanished all at once. Replaced by a weightlessness that she hadn’t felt in a long time.
One by one, the voices disappeared from her head, fading into nothingness as their last bit of existence vanished, replaced by a complete and utter silence.
And for the first time since she was forced into the world of divine beasts, her mind belonged to her.