The scene before her eyes flowed like a panorama. Even in the urgent situation where every second counted, everything passed by slowly like an eternity.

Crumble!

JeJe blankly raised her head. Right after spider web-like cracks appeared in the ceiling, large stone fragments twice the size of her body gradually filled her vision. Among the debris pouring down like a pile, a pale hand stretched out. 

Then Shahan’s sharp shout pierced through the chaotic noise and struck her ears. He grabbed her forcefully and embraced her with his whole body. 

Flashes of light sparked from all directions, and the ground rumbled as though an earthquake had occurred. In that gap, JeJe detected sharp waves bursting with enough force to cut through the air. 

Shahan’s divine power was smashing the stone walls pouring down like meteors indiscriminately. However, it wasn’t enough. No matter how excellent, one person’s divine power couldn’t support an entire collapsing temple. 

The proof was right before her eyes. JeJe looked up at Shahan, who was bleeding from his head, with trembling eyes. A considerable amount of blood flowed down his cheeks and throat, thoroughly soaking his chest.

“High Priest…”

Shahan’s embrace was still cold without a trace of warmth. However, his blood drops that spread drip by drip over JeJe’s forehead were hot like boiling lava. JeJe was afraid. 

Without even knowing what she feared, she trembled madly under Shahan’s two arms that were firmly protecting her.

“It’s okay.”

He muttered quietly through his teeth like spitting blood.

“I won’t die from this much.”

However, the next moment, when blood gushed out from his pale lips, JeJe realized something was going wrong. 

The sight of a black hook-like object piercing precisely through the center of his white, smooth abdomen was so eerily alien that it took several seconds to properly recognize the situation. 

Dark blue demonic energy was staining Shahan’s torn abdomen with black poison. At that unrealistically terrible sight, JeJe gasped for breath. She felt like she would faint.

Beyond Shahan’s stone-stiff shoulder, she saw unfocused blue pupils. The monster’s eyes that captured her face contained not even a trace of emotion or warmth. 

Like the familiar appearance of Lucifer she had known was merely one facet, what remained in place of everything Lala remembered being erased was clear murderous intent.

That k*lling intent was now unmistakably directed at JeJe. Unable to face those razor-sharp blue pupils any longer, JeJe squeezed her eyes shut. 

Shahan’s coldly cooled forehead pressed heavily against her shoulder. The smell of blood emanating from him paralyzed all living senses. She couldn’t come to her senses, submerged in the sticky sea of blood.

“Shahan… Sha, Shahan…”

She desperately shook Shahan’s shoulders, hard like wooden blocks, but there was no response. 

Dark dead eyes, lips spitting out rough metallic sounds along with blood – in the collapsing temple, he stood blocking JeJe like a corpse frozen in that position, not moving at all. He was still breathing. Even so…

Sharp stone fragments poured down like hail onto Shahan’s back. The divine power of wind that had been breaking the debris falling sharply through the air had long since lost its function.

“…Shahan.”

JeJe was scared. Even though she had once hated him enough to want him dead, she hadn’t truly wished for his death. She had never wanted to see someone spilling blood and organs before her eyes, watching their life fade away. 

She knew. 

If there was one constraint for the celestial beings who seemed to live eternal lives, it was demonic energy with properties completely opposite to divine power. 

The celestial beings who had lived numbly through unimaginably long periods of time, paradoxically, couldn’t cut their own lifeline when they wanted to. That was both their burden and their fate.

Sometime before, words Shahan had muttered to a mage who came seeking advice about an elixir of immortality flashed through her mind.

—Instead of wasting time on such pipe dreams, tell him to develop a potion for painless death. I hope it would work on celestial beings with uselessly long lifespans too.

Incomprehensibly, what was reflected in Shahan’s eyes that gradually lost their light wasn’t pain about death, attachment or regret about his past life, or even repentance.

She felt something like the liberation of one who had completed his calling.

“…JeJe, I…”

Shahan’s voice, whether real or a hallucination, flowed into her ears.

“Never knew how to protect my person throughout my life, …never even thought about it.”

Every time his lips slowly parted, blood poured out by the handful.

“Now that I’ve realized it, I’m… satisfied with that.”

But at the words that followed next, JeJe felt her mind, which had been hazily unfocused like being underwater, snap back sharply.

“I will live forever inside you.”

That was why she couldn’t feel sympathy or pity for this man even at the moment of his death. 

In conclusion, JeJe had received his seed by his ‘will,’ held his empty shell of a body drained of blood and soul, and Shahan met his end in the arms of the woman he loved. It was an obvious fact that all of this would remain as a terrible nightmare for JeJe. 

Shahan was a selfish human who thought only of himself even in his final moment, and he left her with wounds that would never heal, JeJe desperately thought so. If she didn’t think that way, she felt like she would go insane.

“…Hic, ugh. Sob…”

Her vision blurred with tears that rose like a flood. JeJe embraced Shahan’s corpse, covered in blood and all sorts of other terrible things she didn’t want to know about, and wailed. 

If she didn’t hold onto something, she felt like her body and soul would shatter into hundreds of pieces. What had she done wrong to suffer like this?

The blood-covered face of the dead man and his torn abdomen flickered in her dark vision. She would never forget that terrible sight even in death. Lucifer’s arm that had pierced through Shahan’s body now came rushing toward her. 

She wished she could just die like this. If only she could be as happy as she had been in pain in a place where there would be no more sadness or suffering after a moment’s pain ended. 

JeJe blankly looked up at the massive stone fragments falling at terrifying speed. There was no longer anyone in the world who would become her shield without hesitation. 

To think she would meet death on the same day as Shahan. Giving up made her feel at ease, and at the moment facing death, she even had such idle thoughts.

“Lala…”

A voice drained of vitality like a dying candle held her back. JeJe barely moved her head to look back at the owner of the voice. 

At a distance that hadn’t been narrowed, Lucifer was watching her with an expression that seemed to have cleanly carved out all emotion, yet he was shedding tears like a child. Without even knowing why he was crying, he shed tears endlessly.

“Lala, I…”

CRASH!

The moment she closed her eyes, a massive explosion echoed from outside the temple. At the same time, heavy stone fragments weighing several tons bounced up in all directions and stuck into the collapsed floor like prison bars. 

Terrible agony followed, like splitting her entire body into ninety-nine pieces. Before she could even scream, JeJe’s frail body sank between the stones along with the dust.

* * *

“This way! Hurry!”

“D*mn it, why are these demon beasts suddenly swarming…”

Unable to resist Narcissus’s strong demand, Kalat, who was heading to Moon Temple with only minimal soldiers, hastily drew his sword at the unexpected demon beast attack. Narcissus at the front of the formation and the knights following behind did the same. 

Ambushing in one place and launching joint attacks was different from the known habits of demon beasts. But right now, those creatures that had been acting independently were gathered near Moon Temple like a swarm of black clouds, ready for attack.

“Send a messenger immediately to gather the army!”

Sir Kalat gave orders to his subordinate, then quickly swung his sword to cut off the demon beast’s limbs. Starting with the formation collapsing amid bizarre cries, fierce combat between the demon beasts and the Lava Knights began. 

Meanwhile, what Narcissus was watching closely wasn’t the rampaging demon beasts, but a group of demon beasts maintaining tight formation like protecting something. Even amid the bloody fighting, they only took minimal defensive measures and didn’t leave their positions.

“Etzel, there’s something over there.”

“Your Majesty.”

Watching his lord who seemed ready to charge into the midst of demon beasts swarming like cockroaches at any moment, Etzel firmly shook his head with concern.

“It won’t be too late to investigate after the imperial army arrives.”

“Whatever the demon beasts are protecting could be the key to defeating them. There isn’t much time. With our current forces, we can barely maintain a defensive stance. The longer the battle drags on, the more disadvantageous it becomes for our side.”

“But…”

“With the temple’s influence, manifesting divine power won’t be difficult, so we can move with a barrier. Etzel, you stay and take charge of commanding the soldiers.”

“How can I just watch Your Majesty charge alone into danger? I’ll go too.”

Normally, Narcissus would never tolerate risking one’s life out of loyalty, but the situation was so urgent that even time for argument was precious. Instead of answering, Narcissus turned his horse’s head and rushed forward like the wind.

Slash!

Dozens of demon beast arms split sharp like coniferous trees rushed toward them from all directions. Demon flocks with poisonous wings wrapped in thin membranes, tails heavy like maces, and sharp fangs covered the sky in black. 

Narcissus maintained an oval barrier constructed with divine power while swiftly eliminating the demon beasts blocking his path. Etzel followed, supporting him from behind. 

There were several dangerous moments along the way, but thanks to the Lava Elite Unit and imperial army that arrived at the right time after receiving Sir Kalat’s message, the demon beasts’ attention was dispersed and they could escape safely.

“Your Majesty, look over there.”

It wasn’t close enough to eliminate the source. However, Narcissus’s eyes also began to see what the demon beasts were protecting through the gaps between the creatures gathered like a swarm of bees.

‘A person…?’

A boy kneeling and embracing something unidentifiable wrapped in white cloth came into view. 

He thought it was a person because the form was human-shaped, but the boy’s skin was dark blue like it had been poisoned.

The crouching boy’s back heaved roughly.

“Etzel, what does that look like to you? What the boy is holding in his arms.”

Etzel’s expression gradually turned pale as he calmly watched the direction Narcissus pointed to.

“Something like a person’s legs is sticking out from the cloth.”

As he said, what was revealed outside the thin cloth that looked like a bed sheet was white, thin legs of a woman. The other side was hidden by the boy’s body and couldn’t be seen properly. 

But the next moment, something familiar caught his lowered gaze, and at the same time, Narcissus’s breath stopped like a lie.

Waving long silver hair. Like the Milky Way embroidered on the ground, it was still beautifully sparkling just like when Narcissus first saw Arcana.

“…”

Why are you, who should definitely be alive and breathing somewhere here, wrapped in something like a shroud covering a corpse?

His thoughts cut off abruptly. Narcissus roughly shook off Etzel, who was trying to stop him, and rushed toward the demon beasts guarding the two figures like a fortress.

The monster-like boy’s blue eyes turned toward Narcissus. They stopped breathing and stared at Narcissus with completely hollow, blackened pupils. 

At that chilling gaze, Narcissus pulled his horse’s reins and gripped his sword tighter. But contrary to expectations of an immediate fierce attack, the boy remained still like death, guarding that spot.

“Arcana…!”

At the sharp shout, Lucifer’s hardened eyes flinched slightly. His expressionless face began to be marked with dozens of cracks. His hands supporting the white cloth trembled terrifyingly as he embraced what he held with his whole body. 

The boy who had been breathing heavily and panting pressed his wet cheeks against the dead girl’s face and wailed. He cried out in grief like the world had collapsed. 

The boy who had completely realized the tragedy and pain of what he had done began crying in incomprehensible demon language, screaming, and spewing dark blue demonic energy in all directions. 

The earth’s axis shook and the entire space forming the forest violently rattled and vibrated like a cart loaded with stones. Fierce explosive sounds that seemed to tear eardrums wrapped around the rampaging demon beast’s body and spread in all directions.

“Lala, Lala… Arcana, Arcana…”

Around the boy who muttered endlessly like someone whose soul had left, dark blue flashes clumped like a black hole burst, and finally scattered into ninety-nine pieces. The demon beasts’ screams, blood, and torn flesh covered the sky and soaked the ground. 

Thus it came to an end.

The surroundings were completely engulfed in darkness.