"No. Impossible." Kiliad trembled, eyes fixed on his severed right hand lying nearby like a frostbitten branch snapped from a tree.
Ahead, a figure drenched in blood hovered with a sword, breath ragged like bellows in a storm.
"I couldn't be beaten this easily by you!" Kiliad grit his teeth; his octopus whiskers hung limp, like dried squid on his chin.
The blood-slick figure panted hard. He dragged his still-pristine longsword, step by step toward the fallen, filthy Kiliad.
"This is the last time. Rest, wraith." The bloodied figure spoke, mouth stained crimson, a warrior at the end of a spent bow.
But Kiliad lay there, unable to summon even a ripple of resistance, like a net without wind.
"Damn it." His pupils dilated, widening like dark moons.
He watched the holy white blade pierce his body, its sacred light sinking in like dawn through mist.
With that strike, his life thinned, fading like embers under rain.
Birand hovered in silence and watched, head bowed. He sighed long, then nodded with weary relief.
"In a way, you surpassed me back then. It took you six tries, but on the last, you did what I couldn't. You cut him down."
"..." Eli lifted his head. The fatigue he had banked spilled all at once, like a tide breaking a dam.
His legs had no strength to bear him. Dizziness swirled like smoke, and at Birand’s words he let out a breath.
He toppled straight backward, like a felled pine.
He slipped into a brief faint.
Birand smiled. "All right. Now this killing intent truly belongs to you."
"What follows depends on you. This is as far as I can go."
At once, Eli’s body slackened at the crown of the World Tree, and he pitched downward like rain.
The World Tree flung out its branches, coiling around him like green serpents, then laid him gently on the ground.
Edlyn, who had been sitting aside and wolfing down snacks the Elf Race sent, froze mid-bite and near choked on a pastry.
She patted her chest, breath fluttering like a startled bird, and steadied herself.
Then she stood, little steps thudding, and trotted to Eli’s side like a quick fawn.
He kept his eyes shut tight. His breathing was even, a tranquil sleep sinking to the soul’s roots.
Edlyn studied him for a moment, then snorted a laugh. "Like a child."
She eased to her knees on the grass. She lifted his head from the ground, and set it upon her lap, a sly smile playing at her lips.
"Mm, I know. You’ve wanted me to do this for ages, haven’t you? Too bad—you can’t feel a thing right now."
By the World Tree’s judgment of Edlyn and Eli, the Elf Race labeled these two unknowns as guests.
They did their best not to disturb them.
Raphael was brought by the elders of the Elf Race into the World Tree’s inner space for a deep ‘discussion.’
So now, within the vast barrier of this divine tree, only the Demon King and the Hero remained.
"You worked hard." A mild voice drifted down from the sky, like mist over water.
Edlyn glanced around, blank and alert. There was no hostility in that tone, only a regret soft as autumn.
"Who’s there?"
To slip in without a ripple spoke of considerable skill, a shadow moving like a cat through leaves.
The Abyss tipped a small vial from his breast and poured out a black energy.
"If you want to defeat that one, you can’t be in a crippled state." He lifted his hand, and the energy streamed into Edlyn below like ink into water.
"This is what you lost—the true core of your Demon King power. I don’t want to tear you two apart, but I won’t let all be erased."
"What happens next is up to you."
The Abyss sighed. His outline faded, like twilight dissolving into night.
What Zero awakened was only the main body’s consciousness, a candlelit echo.
He strengthened the Celestial God’s seal and subdued the two Angels, like chains tightened around wings.
He dragged the Demon King’s missing origin from the past back to now, burning through that fragment of power.
Now, even this flicker of awareness must return to the body, like a moth to a quiet flame.
His emotions will be suppressed again. He will return to being the Abyss asleep in an endless cage.
Edlyn suddenly felt a hand pat her shoulder, a touch like rain tapping a leaf.
She went still, the world pausing around her.
A summons tugged at her, thin as a thread of moonlight. She squinted toward a point, then looked down at Eli on her lap.
He sensed her presence and nuzzled lightly, a motion soft as grass brushing wind. It sent Edlyn drifting into a haze.
After a breath, she bit her lip. She lowered her head and kissed Eli’s forehead, light as a moth’s wing.
A single tear fell onto his face. "I must go."
"Take care. Next time we meet, we may not get to talk again, my destined foe."
She slid his head from her lap, slow as setting down porcelain.
She dusted her skirt with a few soft pats, like tapping off dew.
At once, black armor covered her body in a full set, closing over her like midnight scales.
"I... depart."
