The Crimson Flame cut through Lilo’s defense like a blade through silk, sweeping away her vast dragon might in a heartbeat and snapping her awake.

“I’m sorry! Please, stop!”

She shouted with everything she had. The Crimson Flame halted before it could ignite her, leaving Lilo on the brink of draconic change, panic flooding her face as she sagged in place.

She gulped air in ragged breaths. The Crimson Flame hung inches away; cold sweat had soaked her mage’s robe like a chill rain she never felt.

“You’re already my vassal deity. What, you still can’t hold your power?”

The Valkyrie wore the same frost she had at their first meeting. Her glacial stare pricked Lilo like needles, and heat rose in Lilo’s cheeks.

Lilo wasn’t a zealot for power. Yet who doesn’t want to reach True God early? Especially when her future promised a rise no less than a True God who carved their own path.

A god who ascends by Source never picks a weak first vassal. The Valkyrie’s power hung before Lilo like ripe fruit within reach; how could she stifle the urge to take it?

More so, she didn’t want to be the third wheel between the Valkyrie and Aphelia. Seizing strength felt like the wisest move.

She hadn’t expected to drown in that power’s undertow, nor to let the Crimson Dragon Source creep in like ivy, shaping her into a half-draconic form.

“I’m truly sorry…”

“If you’re sorry, then do your job.”

Seeing the Valkyrie let it go, Lilo exhaled like wind leaving her shoulders. She glanced at Aphelia seated to the side and nodded.

“Of course, only for the next year. I won’t need you forever. Escort Aphelia to find that man, and your task is done.”

She shifted her gaze, voice dropping cold.

“Do you need a contract, too?”

As if to reassure her, the Valkyrie’s tone carried a sliver of disdain. Lilo’s cheeks burned hotter, and she couldn’t meet eyes cold as winter glass.

“No, no, Lady Valkyrie, I just…”

Lilo fumbled for words, cursing inside. Her little scheme had rubbed the Valkyrie wrong.

Called out so cleanly, Lilo could hardly lift her head. She couldn’t help doubting the one who gifted godhood’s seed. In the Demon World, where the weak are prey, a Demigod rises by grit and guile.

A stranger hands you the world’s peak of power—who wouldn’t harbor suspicion?

Worse, the price looked trifling, threads thin as spider silk. The difference lies in what the recipient chooses to do.

“I don’t mind your little thoughts. But if you act on them, I won’t mind stretching my limbs.”

Lilo shook her head at once, trembling like a leaf, promising no extra designs.

The Valkyrie said nothing more. She conjured the image again and flicked it toward Lilo like a card sliding across a table.

Lilo caught it in a hurry. She studied the portrait, inked lines swallowing her gaze, and murmured.

“So we’re to seek that lord… Rest assured, Lady Valkyrie. I’ll stay with Aphelia until we find him!”

For all Lilo’s eager pledge, the Valkyrie ignored her and left her hanging. She turned to Aphelia instead, voice soft, winter shifting to spring.

“She’ll help you find him. I hope, next we meet, you’ve reached this height…”

“Master… thank you so much!”

With everything said, the Valkyrie quietly withdrew the ring of Crimson Flame, embers fading like a tide at dusk. Then she tore space open with a rip and a whoosh, stepping out of the Demon World.

As the room settled, a soft knock tapped at the door.

“Pardon the intrusion. May I come in?”

Nero’s voice sounded from outside, hoarse and edged with haste. Inside, Aphelia and Lilo traded a look, then nodded.

“Please, come in, Your Highness Nero.”

With Aphelia’s leave, Lilo answered softly and slipped behind her, a pine-dark shadow guarding her side.

Nero hesitated, then eased the door open and walked in with Zhe. As he stepped in, Zhe slapped a scroll onto the wood; deep violet light draped the door like a veil.

“What does this mean, Your Highness?”

Lilo glided a step forward, shielding Aphelia. Her golden slit-pupils gleamed with dragon might, a man-eating beast baring claws. One wrong move, and the hot sparks circling her hand would swallow them whole.

“Please, be calm, Senior Lilo. I mean no harm. I only seek an audience with the Valkyrie.”

Nero, wrapped head to toe in bandages, hurried forward and dropped to one knee. His hoarse voice bled plea and urgency; he bowed, forgetting his crown-to-be.

His sudden humility startled Aphelia. Yet his request clearly couldn’t be met.

“I’m sorry, Nero. The Valkyrie has already left, and I don’t know where.”

Aphelia spoke calmly, eyeing the kneeling prince, wondering what could drive an heir to beg for a glimpse of the Valkyrie, a crown bent to the floor.

Was it the pursuit of True God’s power?

Under the Valkyrie’s hand, Lilo now held the seed to become a True God; that was plain to see. Nero, an heir locked in a struggle for the throne, lacked the strength to match. Hoping the Valkyrie would grant him godhood wasn’t impossible.

The thought soured Aphelia at once. Before, Nero had helped her become a Titleholder only to use her as expendable—a stone under someone else’s boot.

“How… could this be…”

Even with most of his face wrapped, Aphelia saw the blow in Nero’s eyes—disappointment tipping into despair, embers gone to ash.

So drunk on power, treating everyone as tools—it was downright sickening.

As Aphelia thought that, Zhe stepped forward, bowed to Lilo and Aphelia with an apology, then offered Nero a hand to help him up.

Nero slapped it away, surged to his feet, and staggered toward Aphelia like a man in a storm.

Lilo, guarding Aphelia, twitched to strike. His status stayed her hand. She flicked her wrist, welding the sparks into a barrier that pushed Nero back.

“Please…”

“Your Highness, please don’t go too far.”

Lilo’s voice cooled. Then the dragon might she’d been holding snapped loose, storm-wind sweeping the room in an instant. Nero reeled again and again. Zhe rushed in to steady him.

“Lady Valkyrie has left. I don’t think Aphelia or I need to repeat that. Aphelia is an honored guest of our Crimson Dragon Clan. Even as crown prince, weigh your place.”

Lilo stood before Aphelia, voice cold. Her golden eyes poured the pressure of a superior. Nero swallowed his words and went ashen.

He stopped struggling, let Zhe hold him, and his gaze toward them lost its light, stars snuffed behind cloud.

Zhe watched in silence. He lifted Nero, bowed once more, and led the dim-eyed prince out.

As the door clicked shut, Aphelia glanced at Nero. In those ash-gray eyes lurked a malice, like the day she learned the Church persecuted her friends—fire buried under cinders.

“Miss Aphelia, when shall we depart?”

Watching Nero and Zhe leave, Lilo let out a breath, turned to Aphelia, and bowed to ask.

She’d paid for power, but Lilo had no plans to slack. Her sense of duty, and the importance of the one they sought in the Demon World, said she must walk a blade’s edge.

“Ah… right, let’s set out this afternoon. Since the Valkyrie put you in charge, please make the arrangements. As for the Demon World, I’m clueless~”

Still haunted by that look, Aphelia paused, then smiled.

“Then please rest a bit. I’ll liaise with the family, and the teleportation array will be ready at once. We’ll also contact that lord for you in advance. How’s that?”

Aphelia found no fault in Lilo’s plan. She nodded quietly and said,

“If possible, could you tell me a bit about the Demon World’s history? I’m very interested~”

She now had a solid companion—by the sound of it, a member of a major house in the Demon World. The road ahead felt paved smoother than thorns, far faster than propping up Nero. And thanks to the Valkyrie, there’d be little Lilo dared hide from her.