“Edlyn… you know? I want to stay by your side more than you think, like a shadow at dusk.”

Eli’s voice thinned like mist at dawn, then vanished into silent air.

Edlyn froze, a sparrow stunned mid-flight. Doubt brushed her like cold rain.

She called into the hush, mouth parted like a fish out of water. No reply came.

Silence pooled around her like ink. She bowed her head slowly, like a willow in wind.

“An illusion?” she whispered, the word rippling like a lone pebble in a lake.

Angelo sighed like a tired bell and went down on one knee. “Your Majesty. The Demon Race waits.”

Edlyn blinked, then nodded, calm as winter moonlight. “I understand.”

A round black glow bloomed under her feet, dark as new moon.

When all demons, save the Supreme Demon Ruler, awakened like rustling crows, the orb wrapped Edlyn in a giant black chrysalis.

Angelo propped his chin, reached out, and touched the cocoon like testing cold jade.

The cocoon shivered, then lifted like a midnight lantern, rose over the Abyssal River, and drifted down.

The Abyssal River swallowed the whole black chrysalis like a slow tide in the dark.

Angelo sank to one knee, shadow steady on stone.

Behind him, countless of the Demon Race knelt in unison, a field of dark reeds bowing to wind.

Fiend bodies struck earth with thunderclaps, and the abyssal gorge trembled like a drum.

“We stand here, welcoming the Demon King’s return, like thunder under night!”

“We, the Demon Race, will soon walk the mortal world again, like a storm breaking.”

In the starry endless sea, Eli lay pale on a meteor, cold as spent ash.

His limbs wouldn’t move, locked like iron under frost.

He didn’t know where Edlyn was, and fear pressed him like deep water.

That place bound laws like chains. It was terrifying, a steel cage around breath.

His split soul lingered a heartbeat too long, and the pursuing law almost crushed his star-woven soul.

Pain stabbed from his mind, needling his spirit like icy thorns.

He spasmed like a jerked cord, shivering on the meteor’s grit.

Only when nearby Stellar Power gathered like drifting snow into him did he finally ease upright.

His face stayed pale, moonlit as bone.

Eli let out a breath, thin as smoke. That thing was a monster, a mountain of shadow.

There’s still a long gap between me and that kind of existence, a ravine under fog.

He stretched, and his bones crackled like firecrackers, snap-pop along his spine.

He raised his left hand and studied himself, gaze steady as a blade on water.

“Hmm. How to say it? Being alive feels good,” he murmured, warmth like dawn on frost.

He lifted his eyes toward Edlyn’s direction, mouth tilting like a crescent moon.

“Alright, everyone, I’m back. Birand, we’ve got a debt to settle,” he said, voice like a drawn bow.

“Fiend, fiend, you’re this old already. Why still set yourself against me?” Birand frowned, patience thinning like sand.

“Do you know how annoying you are? Hm?” His left hand trembled, a leaf in gusts.

Ugillian kept that ancient slowness, a lantern guttering in dusk.

In that brief clash, Birand had eaten a small loss, like a bite of bitter herb.

He narrowed his eyes like a cat in gloom. He was just a soul-body now, a smoke shadow.

Urgent thing first: carry off what’s in the bottle, then leave like a swift at dusk.

“Since I can’t return,” Ugillian said, voice like worn wood, “then as you said, I’ll hide my name here.”

“The world’s vast. There must be places without people, or places where no one knows me,” he went on, words falling like steady rain.

Birand paused and sized up the old fiend, hawk-eyed in shade.

“If you’re tired of this life and sick of high-level scheming, then leave them,” he said, voice a cold blade.

“Go far. Find a place with no disturbance, live with your women, and guard them like a wall.”

Ugillian continued, gentler than embers. Birand finally laughed, a hard bark.

“Are you Yuris?” he asked, words sharp as flint.

“No. I’m his offspring,” Ugillian said, stroking his beard like combing winter grass.

“Then he treats you well. Told you everything,” Birand shrugged, loose as drifting smoke.

Clearly, if a great fiend called himself that old man’s offspring, the old man’s rank stood like a mountain’s silhouette.

“These are your words, aren’t they, Mr. Hero?” Ugillian smiled, eyes like crescent lids.

“Don’t call me Hero. It’s meaningless,” Birand said, a shadow of sorrow cutting his gaze.

“Since you’re his offspring, you can’t be ignorant of why I became this,” he added, voice rough as gravel.

“I know. But do you know why Angels and Fiends both try to stop you?” Ugillian sighed, like wind over graves.

“Why?” Birand sneered, a cold hook in his smile.

“You’re forcing this world toward death. Everything points that way. Do you think the Netherworld wants nothing?” Ugillian said, breath long as winter.

“What about Edward? Why did he save me?” Birand flared, fire under ice.

“I wiped out his carefully built Demon Race, killed his crafted Demon King, and wrecked his dream of breaking into the Celestial Realm like smashed glass.”

“Why save me? Isn’t it because he wants me to do all of this?” His anger beat like a drum.

“His deeds and mine are bound in cause and effect, threads knotting like vines. Without him, there’d be no me now, nor that calamity.”

“You’ve no right to speak the Abyss’s name, Hero. You can’t set yourself so high,” Ugillian said, a low bell.

“Oh? Is he something great?” Birand laughed, sharp as broken glass.

“Milan Edward. What’s so hush-hush about that name? You think I don’t know his games? Hm? Hahaha!” His laughter scattered like startled crows.

“You… have you been to the Heart of Truth?” Ugillian’s face hardened, clouding like a storm.

“Yes. Didn’t expect that, did you?” Birand’s smile turned cold, frost on steel.

“Why won’t you learn, Ascaraun? The task I gave you—why haven’t you finished it?” The voice cut like wind through reeds.

“No! You haven’t lifted—damn,” came the ragged reply, snapped like a frayed rope.