"Kael?"

His skin glowed faintly with dark sigils etched along his arms. His scarlet eyes burned, two curved horns jutted from his head, and behind him, leathery bat-like wings folded and stretched lazily.

Even the air around him distorted, vibrating with demonic power.

Alice trembled.

"W-What…?" she whispered. "This energy… this aura…"

Her fingers tightened around her staff, trying to summon more power instinctively.

Kael took another step.

Shiera, still weak from her torture, barely managed to lift her head. Her vision blurred, but what she saw made her heart lurch. "Kael…?" She was just as shocked as Alice. "How?"

Kael looked at Alice, no longer the mild man caught in the middle of two powerful women. There was no fear in his eyes. Only absolute calmness.

He raised a hand, and Sith's body vanished in a swirl of shadows, whisked away.

Alice's hand trembled, her fingers twitching near her staff. Her glowing white eyes narrowed as she studied the figure before her.

"What… are you?" she asked, voice lower, hesitant, laced with disbelief.

Kael's eyes didn't blink. His voice was like a blade sheathed in frost as he replied. "Why does that matter?"

Alice's lip quivered for the briefest second. Then she tried again. "Since when… did you start suspecting me?"

Kael's gaze didn't falter as he replied with the same words. "Why does that matter?"

His words struck harder than any spell. Alice flinched.

She inhaled shakily, her voice turning gentler, almost pleading. "I didn't want you to see this side of me, Kael. I kept you away on purpose… I never planned to harm you. If you hadn't flown off, I would've knocked you unconscious—kept you safe. I swear…"

Kael interrupted her with a cold, final murmur. "Why. Does. That. Matter?"

Alice's voice choked in her throat at those words. She stared at him, her eyes widened, and a long silence passed.

Then she shook her head, laughing bitterly. "Yeah… I guess none of it matters."

Kael stepped forward, fire gathering at his fingertips. His voice echoed like the tolling of judgment. "You're right. It doesn't. Your intentions… Your story… Your pain… Your justifications…"

His wings extended outward, casting a great shadow behind him, like blocking the moonlight as he continued.

"None of it changes the fact that you killed thousands of innocents, taking them away from their loved ones, destroying their peace, and much worse, you even cut off their path to reincarnation. And now, you want to sacrifice my wife to feed your twisted goals."

He pointed at her with a single, clawed finger, glowing red. "Those truths alone… are enough for me to cut you down."

Alice's breath hitched. She stumbled a step back, as if the words themselves pushed her. "I guess you've changed, Kael… a lot more than I expected," she whispered. "Never thought of you as someone who cares about strangers or the ones that actually hate you."

She looked down. Her hand clenched tightly around her staff.

Then, after a pause, her voice trembled again, this time not in fear, but in old yearning. "But tell me… Kael, why were you supporting the humans?"

"I'm a fallen angel... and you're a demon. If anything, we belong to the same world. We share the same curse and the same pain."

Her eyes lifted, desperate, hopeful. "Why are you doing this? For that woman?" She pointed at Shiera.

Her expression changed, and she almost growled, her voice raised. "Are you going against me for a person who hates you? For a person who never acknowledged you as her husband? For a person who looked down on you? For someone whom you only married to get your family out of debt?"

Kael stood in silence for a moment. The fire around his body dimmed ever so slightly. His expression did not soften. But his voice did.

"Yes."

Alice's body jolted at that simple word.

Kael then said. "What she feels for me is her feeling, Alice. But what I feel is my feeling. I might not love her, but she is still my wife. To protect her is my utmost duty. But that is not why I'm killing you."

The next second, a flash of steel tore through the air as he turned into a blur.

SLASH—SLASH!

Two brilliant arcs of crimson light carved an X across Alice's abdomen. Time itself seemed to halt. Blood sprayed in slow motion, glinting in the moonlight like rubies scattered across the air.

Alice staggered back, gasping for breath. She didn't even see the attack. It just happened instantaneously.

Her staff dropped from her hand, clattering against the broken stone of the graveyard floor. Her trembling fingers instinctively touched the wound, the deep, brutal cross-shaped slash searing through her torso.

"N-No…" she gasped, looking down in disbelief.

Then her eyes fell on Kael, or more specifically, his hands. In each hand, he held curved daggers, made of elerium.

Alice's eyes widened. Her lips quivered as recognition dawned upon her. "Those daggers… with the skull… the curved edge…"

She coughed, and blood spilled down her chin.

"You're… him… K… The guardian angel of Imperial City…"

Kael's gaze remained cold as he said. "Now you understand, Alice. Why don't we belong in the same world? And why must I kill you?"

His wings curled slightly inward, continuing, "You murder. Scheme. Consume thousands for your selfish desires. For vengeance."

He took another step forward.

"And this…" he looked down briefly at Shiera, imprisoned and barely conscious, "this has nothing to do with her or my personal feelings. It's because killing individuals like you is my duty."

Alice's knees buckled. She fell, barely catching herself on one hand.

The pain was unbearable. The slashes had cut deep, not just flesh, but even through her veins. Her wings shriveled as the power bled from her. She couldn't even muster up her mana.

Tears welled up in her eyes, not from fear, not from pain, but from sorrow.

"Brother…" she whispered, turning her head slowly to the black stone statue that towered behind her. "I'm sorry…" she choked, her voice barely audible.

"Even in this life… I couldn't save you. I failed… again."

Her body slumped to the ground.

The wind picked up, whistling through the graveyard.

Kael watched in silence. His expression turned softer as he stared at Alice's body, rapidly losing her life force.

Letting out a sigh of pity, slowly, he walked toward Shiera, whose breath was shallow and eyes fluttering. But before he could speak, the statue behind Alice pulsed, just once.

A low hum reverberated through the ground, all of a sudden.

A breathless silence followed.

Kael narrowed his eyes. "Hmm?"

The black stone statue of Azazel… cracked.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface of the ancient statue as dark light surged through the runes engraved into its stone skin. With a thunderous CRACK, shards exploded outward, and from within the cocoon of petrified darkness, a figure emerged.

Long obsidian hair tumbled down his shoulders, his pale body covered only in tattered remnants of ceremonial robes.

Feathered black wings unfurled with a gust of wind that blew the ash and silence away. His eyes scanned the world that had changed in his slumber.

He blinked once, adjusting to the light, and then his gaze fell squarely on Kael.

"Satan…?" he muttered, his voice raspy, ancient, and powerful. "How… are you still alive?"