The mysterious woman, Alice, explains Sleigh Beggies are valuable because they continuously generate magical power, but the strain it puts on the body results in an early death. Renfred offers to free Chise but she chooses to stay with Elias. Elias keeps the two sorcerers away while Chise performs the cleansing spell. Inside Matthews’s memories Chise sees him ask a sorcerer to cure Mina. The sorcerer teaches Matthew how to make a potion that steals cats’ nine lives to make Mina healthy. They force Mina to drink, but instead of curing her it dissolves her body, killing her. The sorcerer had used Mina to test his soul manipulation spell, which had failed. Matthew was then killed by the Cat King. Mina had wanted Chise to erase her and Matthew from existence, since the corruption prevented them finding their way to the afterlife, condemning them to eternity in the darkness. The Cat King offers her ninth life to act as their guide. Chise instead uses the fairies power over wind to carry Mina and Matthew to the afterlife where they happily reunite after so long apart. As she watches them Chise can’t help but wonder how many years she has left.