"I'm actually curious. What's your Authority Power?" Elyssus asked back, his voice like cold water on stone.

Dread rose like mist, and Lucimia chewed on his words like gristle.

He’d pried at her memories with small tricks, like fingers under a locked lid, yet he’d missed that Sacrificial Ritual where black robes called her Olivya.

He seemed to see only the two days after the altar, like a calendar torn to two leaves, which explained how he knew her plan.

It all clicked into place like bones setting.

"Forget it," he said when she stayed silent, his tone smooth as silk over a blade. "Once you’re fully awake, you’ll know. For now, consider working with me. Well?"

Cooperate? The word tasted like ash on her tongue, drifting like soot.

If he kept his promise, a path opened like a gate. But trust felt like thin ice ready to crack.

He was a Dark Deity steeped in deceit, a fox in moonlight, and he wanted to consume familiar souls like a furnace takes paper charms.

Maybe seeing her waver, Elyssus sweetened the bait like honey on a hook. "Worried about your parents? Fine. I won’t take their souls.

"I’ll only take the others in town, like harvest under a red moon. When I descend, I’ll use my Deception Power to fog their eyes.

"They’ll think life stayed the same, like a stage with fresh paint. No blame, no tears. How about it?"

"...Sounds... not bad..." Lucimia rasped, breath tearing like wind through reeds. "Hah... but why should I... trust you?"

"Tsk, tsk." His chuckle crawled like ants. "You’re clever. What options do you have on this chessboard?

"I’ve taken souls too, like coals fed to a forge, so I can push deeper into this world.

"If you fight me head-on, can you win, like a knife against a tide?

"I’ll build you a paradise, like a garden behind jade walls. I’ll keep your parents safe, like lanterns under glass.

"You and that pink-haired one just need to trigger Reversion a few more times, like turning an hourglass again and again.

"I’ll keep drawing the town’s souls, like nets pulling the same river. Isn’t that a win-win?"

His voice warped high and low like heated metal bending, and Lucimia’s skull throbbed like a drum.

"...Still the same... I don’t trust you..." Her words scraped like broken shells. "From your mouth... it’s... cough, cough..."

She spit froth and blood, like plum blossoms on snow, and her sight dimmed like dusk drowning a village.

She glanced at Yuna. The girl tilted her head like a bird at a snare, trying to rub her blindfold off on a nearby tentacle.

The slick limb hung just out of reach, like a star over a well.

What now? The thought hammered like rain.

She could feign consent, like grass bowing to wind, then ruin it from within, like rot in a beam.

She could stop the descent by wrecking the ritual, like dousing a brazier with rain.

There was another way—kill Elyssus, like shooting the moon with one arrow.

But could she? The doubt sat like a stone in her gut.

She’d needed everything to beat Cole, like wringing water from dry sand. Against Elyssus, odds fell like leaves.

No. Not a chance.

She could agree first, get him to release her and Yuna, then let Yuna trigger Reversion, like a fish darting upstream.

But instinct clawed at her, like a cat before a quake. Don’t nod. Don’t step.

One nod, and something foul would bloom, like poison under the tongue, and the bridge back would burn.

What if one nod turned her into an octopus puppet, like kelp on cold strings in a black tide?

What if his true words were Become an octopus, and his Deception Power painted other lines over her ears, like ink over scripture?

So she wouldn’t nod; fear knotted her throat like vines. Yet one thing nagged—why not force it?

Wait. Force?

Right. Why hadn’t Elyssus forced control on her and Yuna, like shackles snapping shut?

He could seize them, then turn Yuna into a heartless Reversion tool, like a clock wound without mercy.

But he hadn’t. That absence sat like a missing tooth.

Two possibilities. One, he truly wanted her cooperation, like a pact sealed in lacquer.

Two, his control needed a trigger, like a lock that wants a key, not whim.

There was proof. In the first loop, she fell into his illusion, like mist swallowing a path.

He tempted her to become an octopus, a siren’s whisper over black water, and when she was about to agree, the dream shattered like glass.

The more she turned it over, the clearer it gleamed, like jade under water. The chance was high.

He wasn’t kind. That mask was painted sugar, like candy over bile.

Aside from the Deceiver, he counted among Dark Deities of fraud, like wolves in priestly robes.

She was sure now. Elyssus meant no good; resolve hardened like iron from the quench. She had to force Reversion now.

Even if she couldn’t beat him, she could reset the board, like sweeping stones from a Go game.

"Yu... Yuna!" She spent her last breath like a spark, and her mana bloomed like a storm from her ribs.

Yet the tentacle speared through her chest stayed embedded, like an iron stake through a tree, unfazed by her spell.

But Yuna changed. The ring on her finger flared, a bright sun in a well, flooding Lucimia’s sight.

Light wrapped Yuna head to toe, like silk spun by spiders of dawn, and the world blinked.

In the next heartbeat, the glow died like embers under rain. Yuna was gone, air folding like water.

She vanished into nothing.

"Hm? So that ring had that function?" Elyssus sounded surprised, like a crack in marble. "Your doing?

"You can work that kind of magic? Heh. I underestimated you. When did you learn it?"

He puzzled for a heartbeat, then smoothed out like tide over sand, calm returning.

"...Cough." Lucimia bled and said nothing, her breath like smoke from a guttering wick.

She’d given Yuna that ring before Bazeroth reached the town, like a talisman sewn under a coat.

She had remade it into a Magic Array, lines coiled like vines, to keep Yuna safe.

Once Lucimia cast a spell, the ring would trigger a Teleportation Array and send Yuna away like a gull on wind.

Elyssus could read only two days of this loop, like pages torn from a book, so he never learned the Teleportation Array she’d practiced before.

In this loop she handed Yuna the ring without a word, like passing a pebble in a crowd, and he missed its use.

It caught him off guard, like a trap under leaves, and he sighed with regret thick as dew. "Ah, Lucimia.

"Why insist on fighting me, like a moth at a flame? We’d work perfectly together."

"...Save it. You’re... bewitching me," she muttered, her voice like a blade under cloth.

"Heh-heh... hahahaha." His laughter scraped like knives on glass. "Fine. I did underestimate you.

"Hurt as you are, you still think clear, like a lantern in rain. You’re dangerous, Lucimia.

"You have great potential, like a seed in black soil, and if you grow, it’s very dangerous."

Far off in safety, Yuna ripped off her blindfold, the cloth falling like a crow’s wing, and triggered Reversion.

White light flooded Lucimia’s eyes, like snow swallowing a road.

Before the Reversion took her, Elyssus spoke, words like hooks cast into night—

"Lucimia, if you want to play, I’ll play a few rounds, like drums before war.

"I promise that after a few, you’ll drown in despair, like a sailor under winter waves.

"You’ll learn what it means to defy me."

His voice thinned and faded, like smoke in wind, until it was gone.