Just as everyone finally let out a breath, Aphelia—wrapped head to toe in bandages—snapped her eyes open like a trap springing, limbs thrashing like a netted beast, black pupils glossy with terror, a hoarse roar scraping out like gravel on iron.

Fear hit Lilo first, cold as river ice; then she moved. She lunged in and pinned Aphelia’s arms, careful as holding cracked porcelain. “It’s okay, it’s okay! Aphelia…”

Surprise flickered through her like a lantern in fog. Aphelia’s strength in her grip felt child-small, feather-light. Lilo subdued her with ease and pressed her back into the monolithic black coffin, like laying a storm to rest under stone.

The first frenzy ebbed. Aphelia’s breathing steadied like a tethered tide. She glanced around, saw the faces before her, and a boulder in her chest finally dropped. Her knees went loose, strings cut, and she sagged with hollow steps.

“At last… at last it’s over.”

“It’s over. It’s all over, Aphelia. You’re safe now.”

Lilo held her with a touch soft as falling ash. Not because she didn’t want to anchor her, but because the Scarlet Inferno had burned her through and through; even a breeze felt like it could reopen wounds.

Looking into those clouded, fear-drowned eyes, Lilo’s heart tightened like frost on glass. She glanced back to the two behind her, a wordless plea skimming her gaze.

“Bring her in. Things are… complicated.”

Hrok and Shilwen traded a look, then sighed together, like wind through bare boughs.

Back in the manor’s lavish guest room, Aphelia sat propped at the bedside, swaddled in bandages like winter bark, staring at her hands as if they belonged to someone else.

“Aphelia, inside that Aether ward—what happened?”

Seeing her like this, Lilo’s mind stumbled, then chose the nearest solid path. Ask about what broke her. Ever since she left that ward, Aphelia had been like this—hollow thunder in a sealed sky.

“The Aether ward… what happened?”

The question struck, and the still water shattered. Aphelia’s breath hitched, then raced like a bellows; her body trembled as if wires pulled tight. Even the Crimson Flames began to seep through the seams, a red tide threatening to become a roaring sea, Aether turbulence flooding the room like a stormfront.

Lilo reached out on reflex. Before she could touch, a bandaged hand lifted and stopped her, steady as a bar of iron.

“Don’t worry… I can hold it. What happened in there was a nightmare.”

Aphelia raised her head. The murk in her black eyes cleared, leaving a calm flat as a windless lake. She looked past Lilo to Shilwen, and a sigh left her like steam in winter air.

“You were right. I should’ve waited before going there. Then we wouldn’t have had this mess.”

“Aphelia~ some things are laid by fate like tracks in snow. We don’t always get to switch rails.”

Hearing them speak like old friends, Lilo blinked, startled, like a bird mid-flight clipped by a branch. “You two knew each other? Since when?”

“We can talk about that later. I think you want to know what I met inside the Aether ward.”

Aphelia shook her head, the motion small as a ripple. Her voice fell low, dark as a well.

“In that ward, my True God power slipped out of my hands. It didn’t feel like mine. From head to heel, every piece of me—those Aether currents felt alive. No… they were a person. They were her. The one called Brynhildr.”

“It seems my becoming a True God was a planned accident.”

Her fists tightened, knuckles creaking like ice on a branch.

“And that accident? Merlin sketched it ages ago. Even that day—when Brynhildr’s Aether left my body and showed her will for the first time.”

“She told me she was the savior of the last era. And me? I’m just the vessel forged so she can fight the Eldritch Gods in this age. The fact I woke up, that I became ‘me’ at all—that’s my misfortune.”

A crooked smile touched her lips, bitter as smoke; in her eyes, emotions braided like shadow and light.

“The memories planted in my mind? Likely so Brynhildr could take over more smoothly. Those Fallen Demon Knights I ran into that day were there to drive my body and soul to the edge, sharpen me to a peak.”

“And the Valkyrie—my master—she already knew Brynhildr. Their relationship…”

She remembered that tender, searing kiss, and a sigh left her chest like a guttering flame. She must have been chosen as the Valkyrie’s disciple because I’m the vessel, she thought; with the strength I had back then, I wouldn’t have caught such a legend’s eye.

“…wasn’t simple. Maybe part of the plan, maybe not. But Brynhildr dropped her with a flick. I’d lost my power. Then came the ‘takeover.’”

“She drained my blood, peeled my skin, pulled bone and tendon like threads. And I had to feel it all—awake—until she scooped out my eyes and wrecked my sea of consciousness. After that, the dark closed in.”

Aphelia’s voice stayed level, a smooth blade laid flat. Lilo, though, was wildfire. Golden irises flared like kindling catching, a sun beginning to burn behind her gaze.

“But I want to know more—where am I, what happened after, and what… happened to my body?”

Aphelia turned and clasped Lilo’s hands over the bandages, heat meeting heat through cloth. She tried to pull Lilo back from the brink, then looked to Shilwen.

“Let your sweetheart do the honors~”

The teasing tossed a pebble into the tense pool; ripples of warmth spread. Lilo’s cheeks pinked like dawn on snow, and she walked Aphelia through everything that had happened.

“Wait… you mean a year’s already gone?!”

Shilwen snorted, a small thunder. “Your injuries were as bad as bad gets. If not for the flame Mist Bloom left behind, we’d have stuffed you into a doll body.”

“Th-then—what about the human realm? That Brynhildr—what did she do?”

Urgency cut through Aphelia’s voice like wind through reeds. Without the Valkyrie’s leash, the Church would’ve surged back in months. Friends, and Sister Lena—she could almost see graves in fresh earth.

“About the human realm… you can stop worrying. The war’s over.”

The answer hit like clear sky after weeks of rain. How do you topple such a colossus in half a year?

Hrok raised a hand, and a projection bloomed, water-bright. Then Aphelia understood what kind of force had ended that war.

An army appeared—black-armored from head to heel, a thunderhead given iron. Not a legion, more a strike team; but the two at the front were etched into her bones. Black hair, black eyes. White hair, black eyes. The Valkyrie, and Koko.

Their posture was primed like drawn bows. Their banners snapped like ravens’ wings. Behind them, a cathedral lay in ruin, a sanctum turned to ash—two worlds split by one frame.

“This is…”

“This is the force Brynhildr forged after she claimed the Demon World’s throne,” Hrok said. “They were once vessels, prepared for her. Now they’re her sharpest blade.”

Hrok enlarged the image. On every breastplate, a sigil gleamed like a cold star.

“Brynhildr’s personal Holy Lance sigil. Wear it, and her power rides with you. And these women are vessels too—born weapons. Imagine a squad of Demigod fighters who command Aether, yet carry no domains. Imagine meeting that in a doorway.”

“What did she do after ending the war? What else?”

A strange instinct tugged at Aphelia like a tide from the moon.

“She didn’t do much,” Hrok said. “She started sending mages and magitek engineers from the Demon World to help rebuild. Once the remnants were cleared, she pulled the legion back. No move to seize the human realm.”

Hrok’s tone stayed even, a level horizon. “I’ll admit it—she did everything you wanted to do.”

“I… see. Good.” Aphelia drew a breath that tasted of iron. “What about the Demon World? Now that she’s unified it—what’s she doing?”

“Preparing for war.”

The words struck, a drumbeat. Hrok’s next words softened the echo.

“Against the Eldritch Gods.”

“She told you she took your body to fight them. That wasn’t a lie. In the last era, she truly was the hero who saved an age. And me, Shilwen, Mist Bloom—we were her comrades.”

Hrok’s voice was calm, but the bedside went unsteady. Aphelia jolted as if the floor shifted.

“What do you mean?!”

“I, Shilwen, Mist Bloom, and Brynhildr—we all survived the last civilization as powerhouses. Do I need to say it again?”

“But… if that’s true, why save me? If you were comrades, shouldn’t you be on her side?”

The words spilled sharp, but Hrok didn’t flinch. Her reply was smooth stone.

“Even comrades come to a crossroads. We aren’t her property. What she does is cold calculus, and I respect it. But now, facing the Eldritch Gods, we don’t have to live afraid like we did.”