Chapter Seventy-Six

Amid the carnage at Charm Beach, Mikail presents Aeri a dagger and asks her to kill him so she can take the Water Scepter and Flaming Sword, become the Dragon Lord, and save Gaya. He argues they have lost the beach and cannot defeat the arriving fleet, framing his death as the only path to protect their people and rescue Sora.

Royo furiously objects, insisting Aeri would die from bearing multiple relics. Aeri looks over the slaughter below and accepts the grim logic that with the relics in play, endless war awaits; she resolves to choose sacrifice over letting everyone die. Royo pleads, and the two confess their love—Aeri imagining a life together she knows they cannot have—before she reaffirms the necessity of the choice.

As Mikail and Aeri prepare to act, Royo recalls Aeri’s own drowning and revival. He realizes the condition is that Mikail’s heart must stop, not that Mikail must die. Seizing on this loophole, Royo halts the fatal plan and proposes stopping Mikail’s heart and then reviving him, preserving Mikail while still enabling Aeri to claim the relics if needed.