"Ugh... you... what are you—" A Fallen Angel elder dangled by the throat, hoisted like a chicken.

He wore a long ash-gray robe, gloves, and a hood. A bronze mask veiled his eyes. Black hair spilled down, covering his left cheek like inked silk. Only the lower right corner of his face showed, the mouth a stark crescent.

"Not enough... still not enough." He muttered, then pinched. The elder’s neck snapped like dry twigs.

Reni gaped from a shadowed corner, breath caught like a snagged kite. She’d never known killing a Transcender could be this easy—like plucking a leaf.

Then something stranger unfolded, like frost blooming on glass. The elder’s soul lifted free, a pale wisp, and got dragged skyward.

High above, the sky split like torn silk. A withered arm reached out and seized the soul. A toothy maw opened in the void, stuffed the soul inside, ground it like grain, then swallowed.

He sighed. He eyed the Fallen Angels he’d caged like birds. He tilted his head and showed a crooked smile. "Or else... I just kill you all?"

"Damn you! You’ve gone too far!" Their clan chief, Nofiel, roared like a cornered wolf. "Who are you?! Why are you doing this?"

He looked at his left hand. Deep-blue, uncanny power leaked from it like tidewater. His brow creased. He dropped to a half-kneel, half-squatting in grit.

His right hand clamped his left, a lid on a boiling pot. Harsh breaths rasped from him, like bellows in a forge.

Then a low growl. "Behave."

Reni swallowed. She tried to peek beneath his mask, like a cat at a cracked door.

Too late. In a breath he steadied, rose, and adjusted the bronze. He patted the mask, cooled his voice. "Any last words?"

"Damn it." Nofiel ground his teeth, voice like gravel. "You really mean to wipe us out?"

He chuckled, a low tide over stone. "Then how about this. I unseal your whole tribe. You get thirty seconds. Whoever escapes, escapes. I won’t stop you. How’s that?"

"...Truly?" Nofiel jerked his head up, eyes stunned like deer in lightning.

When he’d appeared, he’d used power beyond measure. He hefted the entire remnant of the Fallen Angels—prison and pocket-space together—like moving a chess piece.

That terror told everyone the truth. He was a mountain. They were ants under heel.

He carried them overseas and set the space like a jar on a shelf. Then he sealed them with a gesture. Chains bloomed out of nowhere like cold vines. Their inner power froze. The air around them went inert, refusing to gather. Refining was a dead fire.

Hope iced over. Rebellion withered.

He vanished for a time, like a shadow slipping behind clouds.

The chains stayed, iron snakes biting skin, keeping them pinned.

The Fallen Angels were already few, stars at dawn. After this, they were a smudge on the map.

Extinction began to count.

"Of course. I’ll count to three, lift your seals, and give you thirty seconds to run. Then the hunt begins. Survive if fate favors you." His smile was winter-cold.

"One..." He raised a finger, smile uncoiling like smoke.

The surviving thousands straightened like grass in a wind.

Era’s face went ashen. She watched her people and shook her head, a leaf falling.

There was no road. He’d just vowed to kill them all.

Now he dangled this offer. A cat playing with mice.

And still they waited, foolish and blinking...

After this... would the world hold no Fallen Angel at all?

Era sighed. Light welled in her eyes, then two clear tears rolled down like glass beads.

Reni edged over, step by step, until she reached Era’s side. "Hey, hey. Era, Era. I think I can sense the Demon Race troops."

Era blinked, then eyed Reni, doubtful as a fox. "Hallucinating? These weird chains locked us down. What could you sense..."

"It’s real," Reni blurted. "I feel a huge bloodline pressure out there. It’s crushing, like a mountain under the sea."

"..." Era didn’t answer. She swept her gaze up and down Reni, then frowned. "Girl... I know it’s hopeless, but... forget it. Dead end anyway. Say what you like."

Reni pouted. Era still didn’t buy it.

But that distant force was massive, like thunder on the horizon. That bloodline pressure couldn’t be fake...

He lifted a second finger. "Two."

Throats bobbed. All eyes glued to his gloved hand, hope pooling there like dew.

He chuckled. "How amusing. Hope gathers so easily."

They stared at one another, lost as drifting leaves. What did that mean...

He shook his head, then, slower, raised a third finger. "Three."

The word fell. The chains around everyone shattered like ice under a hammer.

They bolted in all directions, a flock exploded from brush.

He didn’t lift a hand to stop them. He stood smiling, a scarecrow in the wind.

"Thirty."

"Twenty-nine."

Reni hauled the lifeless-faced Era and shot into the distance like an arrow.

He didn’t turn. He kept the slow murmur, a drum in fog.

"Twenty-eight."

"Twenty-seven."

"Twenty-six."

...

"Three."

"Two."

His smile sharpened, catlike. He spoke the final word, savoring it like wine.

"One."

"Heh. Offerings... come back."

He spread his arms.

Deep-blue power whooshed out like a vast fishing net. It fell over the sky and closed.

Reni grit her teeth. The bloodline pressure ahead swelled like a tide. She swallowed. "Just... a little more!"

She reached out, fingers for that blurred silhouette, a lighthouse in storm.

The net cinched. It bound her and Era like fish in mesh, dragging them back toward the center.

Despair hit. Her inner sea went dry. No power answered her call.

She looked back. In the net’s heart stood the man. Terror crawled inside her like frost.

He stood like the world’s axis. He felt like the end of all rivers.

She was drowning in that thought when—

A figure wrapped in pale blue light dropped from the heavens like a falling star. He carved a blue arc through the air. His fist crashed into the man’s face.

Boom!

The impact tunneled straight in, no shockwave wasted, as if the sky clenched a hammer.

The man didn’t fall.

But—

Crack.

The sound of his mask breaking cut the hush like a twig snapping.

"...Not bad. You’re strong." He looked at the fist’s owner and smiled, thin as a blade.

"Hey."

...............................................................

Roll time back to when Birand’s avatar had just been driven off by Eli and Edlyn.

Eli scooped Edlyn up in a princess carry, warm as a cloak, and headed into the Abyss.

Edlyn said nothing. She curled in his arms like a shy cat. Her toes tensed. Her head stayed down, burning.

Eli’s grin turned wicked. He dipped his head and planted a kiss on her soft cheek, a drop of honey on snow.

Edlyn trembled, a ripple across still water. She still didn’t raise her face.

He laughed, bright as flint. Then he straightened her, shifted to a child-carry, and strolled toward the gathering of Fiends.

"Hero, you’re back?" A Fiend girl blinked, bounced forward like a spring.

With her bounce, two mounds on her chest wobbled like jelly.

Here, the Demon Race barely bothered with gender. Clothes hung loose, like wind on reeds.

Eli’s eyes went wide. He snapped his gaze forward, a spear aimed at the throne.

Edlyn noticed. She wriggled to peek out of his arms. Then, with the majesty of the Demonic Lord, she addressed the Fiends. "Listen up. Outside, dress properly. Especially those of you with two big mounds on your chest. Go to the corner and reflect."

The busty Fiends stared at one another, baffled as owls. What sin?

Edlyn slapped Eli’s arm, cheeks hot. "You! Don’t look! Close your eyes."

Eli obeyed at once, eyelids clenched like shutters.

Edlyn fumed, teeth on edge, and pointed at the Demon Race. "You—you—think! In battle, lugging two big mounds on your chest throws off your balance. It ruins your center of gravity. It’s all bad for fighting. Now get to the corner and reflect!"

The Fiends scattered, faces covered, fleeing like spooked rabbits.

Edlyn held her stern face. The joy of seeing Eli again popped like a bubble. Her mood curdled.

She’d had a hundred things to tell him, a string of lanterns.

Now, nothing.

Eli hesitated, then lightly patted the Demonic Lord’s pert butt, a mischievous breeze.

She whipped him a glare. "Pervert. What do you think you’re doing?!"

"I—I—emmm... ahem. Edlyn, I love you," Eli said, mouth twitching. He put on his most earnest face, pressed his nose to her dainty one, and nuzzled.