Boom!

The accumulated demonic energy exploded with flashing lightning and strong gusts of wind.

Jella instinctively spread a protective barrier.

The demonic energy that poured out with the explosion hit the barrier she had formed, ricocheted in all directions, and even cut into Cain’s body.

“Ha…”

Cain exhaled a short breath, feeling the demonic energy that had filled his veins being completely consumed.

Thanks to the release, the bulging black veins began to stabilize, returning to their original color.

However, that stability was brief.

The moment he spotted Jella running toward him with a surprised face from among the ruins of the collapsed building, Cain’s face changed to a gloomy shade.

“Cain, are you alright…!”

“Please.”

Cain clenched his fingertips where a tingling sensation remained, and bowed his head deeply.

“Please don’t look at me.”

“Cain…?”

“I asked you. Because it’s hideous, don’t look at me.”

At that voice, tinged with faint resentment and moisture, Jella inhaled sharply, pausing.

Taking advantage of Jella’s bewildered gaze, Cain disappeared smoothly like smoke.

“Cain…!”

Belatedly trying to catch him, Jella reached out toward where he had been just moments ago, but grasped nothing.

Cain had vanished without a trace.

“…”

Left behind, Jella stared blankly at the empty space where he had disappeared.

Her mind was complicated by the numerous events that had rushed in over a single night. It was so dizzying that she wondered if this was really happening or if she was dreaming.

Even amid all this, the look in Cain’s eyes and the sound of his voice as he pushed her away and fled remained embedded in her heart.

Jella blinked her eyes slowly.

It was a reality that could never be a dream.

The moment she realized this, she grabbed Helasio, who had been sneaking glances at her and hiding, and confronted him.

“You demon dragon bastard!”

[Kyaaaaaaah!]

“What’s going on! What’s wrong with Cain! What did you do to him! Where did Cain go now!”

[Sa-save me!]

Helasio screamed and writhed, but Jella showed no mercy and threatened him by pretending to wring his neck.

“Why is Cain using your power, and what’s this about a contract from five years ago? Cain is in danger because of you!”

[N-no! I’m wronged! It’s all because that stupid guy brought it upon himself…]

“What?”

[Gyaaaak! Good dragon dying here!]

“You, if you don’t explain properly right now, I’ll twist your neck off!”

[H-he released it once, so he’ll be fine for a while! So please calm down and…]

“For a while? So after a while, he’ll be not fine again…!”

It was at this moment.

“Heuk…”

A painful groan was heard from the direction of the bed.

Snap.

The strength drained from the hand that had been shaking Helasio by the neck.

Jella’s face darkened as she turned toward the sound.

“Yuphe…”

Jella bit her lower lip firmly and picked up the red gem rolling on the floor.

It was a piece of his heart that had fallen to the floor when Arne’s soul was torn to shreds earlier.

She approached Yuphe with it.

Yuphe’s chest, having lost his heart, was torn open. Looking down at his blackened, decaying body, Jella closed her eyes tightly in devastation, then opened them again.

“Even if I give my heart… I won’t die… because… I’m already a dead body…”

As he had said earlier, his body was already that of a dead person.

“Why. Why did you do such a thing!”

“Because I had to save youuu…”

Yuphe had cut out his own heart to save her and had embedded the divine core in his soul because he wanted to see her just one more time.

As a result, what remained for him was a half-life of immortality, trapped in an already dead body.

“Ugh… uk…”

Yuphe’s soul, trapped in the decaying body, made painful moaning sounds but couldn’t open his eyes.

Jella placed the divine heart on his empty chest with trembling hands.

But contrary to her expectations, nothing happened.

“Why, why doesn’t it work. Why isn’t this working?”

Jella’s voice, uncharacteristically, was filled with tears.

[The core needs to be embedded in that man’s soul, not his body.]

Helasio flew cautiously to her side and explained.

[It’s impossible with your power, Jella. Only a sacred object imbued with divine power and a high-ranking priest who knows how to use it, that is, someone of papal rank or higher…]

It was while Helasio was explaining to Jella how to revive Yupheon.

Suddenly, the sound of people’s footsteps was heard not far away.

Moving her gaze blankly, she saw a group of people rushing into the collapsed residence.

They were priests from the Grand Temple, led by Johannes, and imperial soldiers brought by Niel.

Recognizing them, Jella’s lips parted softly.

“A sacred object imbued with divine power. And a priest of papal rank who can use it…”

Her gaze fixed on a man standing at the forefront of the priests.

“Oh, Yuphe…!”

Just as Johannes had immediately recognized Yupheon’s condition when they met after seven years, this time too, he recognized his son’s condition and let out a painful groan.

“Ah, how could this be…”

It was as he was embracing Yupheon’s body and sobbing.

“Lord Johannes!”

Jella grabbed Johannes’s hand firmly.

“Save Yuphe… please save Yuphe.”

Jella placed the divine core in the form of a red gem into Johannes’s palm and pleaded.

“Please give Yuphe his body back. This, this was the core that would save Yuphe…”

“You are…”

Johannes looked at Jella with a bewildered expression.

The woman with black hair and red eyes was an unfamiliar face, but he seemed to know who she was.

This was because Felitz had delivered Jella’s letter and the holy grail to him a few hours ago.

“Lady Jella…”

“I, I can’t save Yuphe with my power. So…”

Jella vigorously wiped her eyes, then grabbed Helasio by the scruff of his neck and held him out in front of Johannes.

[Eeeeeek!]

“He knows the method. He says we need to embed this core back into Yuphe’s soul. Please, I beg you, Lord Johannes.”

“…”

After looking at her for a moment, Johannes nodded, tightly gripping the divine core.

“I will do my best.”

Only then did relief bloom on Jella’s face.

“Thank you.”

“The gratitude should come from me. Because I, no less than you, wish for my son to open his eyes again.”

***

Cain, who had fled from Jella’s sight, ran through the cold night air, closing his eyes tightly and then opening them.

‘Again, such an ugly appearance.’

Recalling the recent situation, overwhelming emotions welled up and spilled over.

The black veins protruding over his skin were the price of releasing magical power to its limit.

Until now, the piece of Arne’s heart had served as a temporary vessel to contain the overflowing demonic energy, but now without it, the excess demonic energy flowed through his veins.

He remembered her shocked face upon seeing his hideous appearance. That moment was so miserable that he dared to knock away her hand.

Would she be angry at his disrespectful behavior…

Of course, Cain knew.

She wasn’t shocked because his appearance was disgusting or terrible, but because she was worried about him.

But Cain was always a man who thirsted even for a shred of her sympathy, while simultaneously being a shameless man who swallowed his miserable feelings at her sympathy.

‘I always wanted to show you my best self, too. Like those men…’

Cain recalled her fiancé, who had been the epitome of a perfect nobleman, and her longtime friend who, despite his slightly odd personality, was revered as a man beloved by the gods.

‘But I…’

As he thought of himself, infinitely shabby and plain compared to them, the remnants of magical power floating in his veins pulsed painfully.

Cain swallowed the pain while firmly suppressing the demonic energy that was about to surge again. This was originally her pain.

That curse-like pain that had tormented her throughout her life and eventually led her to death had now become his.

You kept me by your side to be freed from this pain.

Suddenly remembering the day he realized that terrible truth, Cain gritted his teeth and raced through the night air.

Far away, so that she would no longer find such a pathetic version of himself. Very far away.