Cetza

The battlefield lay in ruin. The once-proud Dagan estate was nothing more than scorched rubble, its grandeur reduced to smoking remnants. Golden flames still licked at the remains, their glow casting eerie shadows across the desolation, but there were no more screams. No more cries for mercy. Only silence.

The noble houses that had allied with House Dagan had been annihilated. The bodies of lords, knights, and soldiers alike were indistinguishable from the ash. Hinata Saegusa's final stand had erased them from existence, his power reshaping the land itself.

Yet, despite the devastation, there was no trace of him.

Only a scorched crater where he had made his last stand.

I felt nothing. I was still cradled in Asmodeus' arms, my body broken, my mind shattered. Words did not come. Tears did not fall. My soul had gone numb, unable to process what I had lost. Warmth pulsed from Reilan's hands as she pressed them against my ribs, her mana knitting flesh and mending torn tissue, but I wished she would stop. I wished she would let me go. The pain of staying alive was worse than the wounds themselves.

Asmodeus came to an abrupt halt, his body tense beneath me. Reilan stood beside us, her gaze locked on a single form amidst the wreckage. The moment of recognition sent a chill through all of us, freezing us in place, unable to look away.

Apollyon.

The once-feared Saint of Ruin was slumped forward, her mask cracked, her flames dimmed. Her body remained motionless, as if death had finally claimed her.

Reilan took a trembling step forward. "…It's over."

But the words felt hollow.

She didn't believe them. Neither did Asmodeus. Neither did I.

The weight of everything pressed down on us like an unrelenting force. My body was still screaming in pain, despite Reilan's magic keeping me alive. I wanted her to stop. I wanted it all to stop.

Reilan's hands shook at her sides. She had lost her sister. I had lost my mother. Asmodeus had lost his father. We had lost everything.

Asmodeus' grip on me tightened. His body trembled, but he said nothing. His golden eyes, usually so sharp and filled with defiance, were clouded with something I had never seen before—uncertainty. As if he didn't know where to go from here. As if he didn't know who he was now that his father was gone.

"We need to keep moving," he muttered, but his voice was hoarse, raw with exhaustion. "As the Feudal Lord, I—" He stopped. The words tasted foreign, heavy, wrong. His father had always told him not to worry about such things, that leadership was not something he needed to bear. But now, with Hinata gone, the title was his. And he had no idea what to do with it. His hands tightened around me, as if grounding himself in the only thing he could still hold on to.

Reilan didn't respond. Her breath was shallow, her expression unreadable. For once, she wasn't trying to be strong. She wasn't hiding behind sharp words or steel resolve. She was tired.

She was broken.

Just like me.

Just like him.

But then—the flames flickered.

Zaphkiel's voice rang in my mind, but it was different now. Gone was the detached, analytical tone. Instead, it sounded... hesitant. Almost afraid.

[You're still hurt. You need to get out of here.]

I barely heard it. My mind was too fractured, my body too weak. But even in my haze, I could feel it—wrongness seeping into the air, pressing against my skin like something alien had breached reality itself.

There was a pause before it spoke again, more insistent this time. [Master... something is wrong. There is an anomalous mana detected in the body of Apollyon. This energy signature does not match previous data logs. I don't recognize this. This entity is—]

It stopped.

Because even it didn't know what we were facing.

A cold wind swept through the ruins, sending embers swirling into the air. The golden flames that once burned so fiercely wavered, darkening into something unnatural.

Not just black—void-like, consuming even the dim light of the ruined battlefield.

Reilan froze. Her breath hitched.

Apollyon's body stirred.

Not like a warrior struggling to rise.

Not like someone regaining consciousness.

Like something inside was trying to move.

The cracks along her mask deepened, black veins spreading across the once-pristine gold.

Hinata's diamond fragments, the remnants of his last defiance, pulsed with dark energy.

Then—they disintegrated.

Apollyon's body jerked unnaturally, her limbs moving like a puppet on broken strings.

Reilan's voice barely escaped her lips. "…Sister?"

A moment of stillness. Then—the mask shattered completely.

A wave of unnatural cold rushed outward from the broken remains, swallowing the battlefield in silence.

She stood.

Or rather—something wearing her form did.

Her body rose, slow and unnatural, as if something unseen was pulling her upright. The movement was wrong, devoid of human grace or resistance.

The fractured remains of her mask reformed into something new. A featureless void—smooth, black, unreadable.

[No. No, no, no—Master, we have to leave! NOW! This isn't Apollyon anymore—this isn't anything I recognize!]

Static crackled through our connection as if the sheer wrongness of the entity before us was distorting even Zaphkiel's existence. 

[This... this doesn't make sense! Mana deviation is extreme—she's not reforming, she's converting! Something is rewriting her—corrupting her! This isn't possession—it's erasure!]

I barely heard it. My body was frozen, my mind drowning in the oppressive aura that surrounded us. But Zaphkiel's voice was raw with something I had never heard before.

Pure, unfiltered fear.

Reilan staggered back, her hands trembling. "No… No, that's not her. That's not my sister!"

The air around us grew heavier, oppressive. A feeling deeper than fear, deeper than despair—it was as if the world itself rejected what stood before us.

Asmodeus stiffened, his grip tightening around me, shielding me from whatever this was. "This… isn't normal."

I could barely breathe. My body refused to move. My mind screamed, but my voice did not come.

The figure turned toward us.

Then—it tilted its head.

Not in recognition.

In calculation.

A hollow, mechanical voice echoed from the void where Apollyon's face once was:

"This vessel is incomplete."

"More souls are required."

Reilan's eyes widened in horror. "That's not her. That's not her! We need to run. NOW."

Asmodeus did not hesitate. He hoisted me in his arms, tightening his grip as he turned away from the scene of horror.

The entity did not pursue us.

It only watched.

My throat burned as I tried to speak, but my voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.

"…Mom?"

The entity tilted its head again.

Then, in a hollow, detached voice:

"That designation is no longer applicable."

Something inside me snapped.

It wasn't just pain—it was deeper, something raw and all-consuming. A chasm opened inside me, swallowing every thought, every feeling, until all that remained was emptiness. The weight of my mother's loss, my father's sacrifice, and Hinata's final stand crushed me, pressing into my chest like a force I could no longer fight against.

I wanted to scream, but the sound never came. My body refused to obey, every limb numb, my voice trapped beneath the suffocating pressure of grief. I felt the warmth of Asmodeus' grip, the desperate way he held onto me as if I might disappear. I felt Reilan's hands trembling, her breath unsteady as she whispered my name.

But none of it reached me.

The world around me fractured, and I shattered along with it.

Asmodeus ran, Reilan by his side, our footsteps drowned by the growing roar of the shifting flames.

The city around us, once teetering on the edge of destruction, was now an inferno of black fire, twisting and warping the very air as it consumed the noble district. The destruction was absolute.

Behind us, the entity that had once been Apollyon turned away, its focus shifting elsewhere.

The noble district had been erased, the power struggles of the past reduced to meaningless embers.

The mask was whole again—void-like, without identity.

The entity lifted its hand, flexing its fingers experimentally, as if testing the limits of its new form.

Then, softly, it whispered:

"Processing…"

"More souls required."

The black flames spiraled upward, stretching toward the heavens.

And somewhere deep within, beyond the reach of the living, the echoes of Lelyah, Hinata, and the past itself—faded.

The world faded to black.

I awoke to the soft sound of crackling fire and the distant murmur of voices. My body felt heavy, weighed down by exhaustion and lingering pain. The scent of damp wood and herbal medicine filled the air, unfamiliar yet oddly grounding.

I was alive.

I didn't know how I felt about that.

A rough blanket covered me, the fabric scratchy against my skin. My breath was shallow, every inhale a reminder of my broken ribs, though the pain was duller now—muted by time and magic. Reilan had kept me alive, even when I had wanted her to stop.

Even when I still wished she had.

I shifted slightly, and immediately, a familiar presence stirred beside me.

"You're awake." Asmodeus' voice was quiet, strained. I turned my head and found him sitting near the edge of the room, his golden eyes shadowed with something unreadable. "How do you feel?"

I opened my mouth, but my throat was dry, my words failing me. Instead, I just stared at him. I didn't know how to answer that question. I didn't know if I could.

Asmodeus exhaled through his nose, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "Right. Dumb question."

The weight in my chest deepened. I could feel it in the room—how different everything was now. How empty.

Reilan entered before I could dwell on it further, carrying a bowl of water and a bundle of herbs. Her face was pale, her movements methodical, as if she was operating purely on instinct. When she saw me awake, her breath hitched, and for the briefest moment, relief flickered in her crimson eyes. Then, just as quickly, it was gone.

She knelt beside me, pressing cool fingers against my forehead. "You're still feverish. Don't move too much."

I didn't respond. I just watched her. She was trying so hard to keep herself together—to be the reliable one, to act like everything was fine—but I saw the way her hands trembled, the exhaustion carved into the lines of her face.

She had lost just as much as I had.

No one spoke for a long moment. The fire crackled. The wind howled faintly outside the walls of whatever shelter we had found. The silence was suffocating.

Then, finally, Reilan spoke. "We're safe. For now. We made it to a safe house outside the city." A pause. "No one followed us."

The unspoken words lingered between us. No one could have followed us. There was no one left.

Asmodeus leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. "We have to figure out our next move." His voice was flat, but there was something beneath it. Something raw. "I don't know what comes next. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do now."

He hesitated, glancing at me. "But I know we can't stay here forever."

I swallowed, my throat burning. The weight of everything was still crushing me, but I forced myself to whisper, "What… happened?"

Reilan and Asmodeus exchanged a glance, and for the first time since waking, I realized something else.

They looked afraid.

Reilan lowered her gaze. "We don't know."

Asmodeus' hands curled into fists. "That thing… it didn't follow us. It didn't hunt us. It just… let us go. Like we weren't even worth its time."

I felt something deep in my gut twist, a cold pit forming in my stomach.

Zaphkiel stirred weakly in the back of my mind, its voice hoarse, drained. 

[Something has changed, Master. We are no longer dealing with Apollyon. This is beyond my calculations.]

I clenched the blanket beneath my fingers, my pulse echoing in my ears.

We had escaped. We were alive.

But we hadn't won.

I swallowed hard, my voice barely above a whisper. "Where... are we?"

Before either of them could respond, the door creaked open, and two familiar figures stepped inside. Celeste Fontaine and Eldric Albrecht. Their gazes immediately landed on me, a mixture of relief and exhaustion crossing their faces.

Celeste exhaled, shaking her head slightly. "You're awake... Thank the heavens."

Eldric studied me for a moment before turning to the other two. "You both need to rest."

Reilan's composure shattered in an instant. With a strangled sob, she dropped to her knees beside me, pulling me into a tight embrace. "Chiori..." Her voice broke completely, and for the first time since everything had fallen apart, she let herself grieve. She sobbed into my shoulder, her entire body shaking as if the weight she had been holding back had finally crushed her.

Asmodeus stood frozen, his jaw clenched so tightly it looked like it might break. Then, without a word, he vanished in a flicker of lightning, teleporting away from the room.

I barely reacted.

I simply lay there, staring at the ceiling, my eyes blank, my body empty.

The world had crumbled, and I had nothing left to hold on to.

Celeste and Eldric remained standing, watching over us, their faces lined with exhaustion. The silence stretched between us before Celeste finally spoke.

"House Fontaine still stands," Celeste said, but there was no pride in her voice, only exhaustion. "But it won't be for long. We lost too much in the coup. Our stronghold remains, but with Tomaszewski gone, we have no protection. House Dagan's failure has left us vulnerable, and those who opposed them will now turn their attention to us. The other noble houses will see us as easy prey."

Eldric exhaled sharply, crossing his arms. "House Albrecht is in no better condition. The coup failed, but the damage is irreversible. We stood with Tomaszewski, and now that Tomaszewski is gone, we're isolated. Our allies are either dead or in hiding. If we stay, we'll be hunted."

Reilan pulled back from me, wiping her eyes, her voice shaking. "Then… what do we do now?"

Celeste hesitated before answering. "We leave. All of us. Fontaine and Albrecht are finished here. We can't fight a war we've already lost."

The weight of her words settled over the room. It was a truth none of us wanted to face, but there was no denying it.

Asmodeus was gone. Reilan was still crying. And I...

I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, eyes empty.

There was no House Tomaszewski anymore. No Fontaine. No Albrecht. No Saegusa.

We weren't survivors.

We were remnants of a world that no longer existed.