DKFTI 110

Clang!

It wasn’t the simple sound of a chain breaking. It was the deafening roar of space twisting apart and something exploding.

Black demonic energy emanated from Sibel’s entire body and swept through the battlefield like a storm. It wasn’t mere energy but a storm with tangible force.

“What is this…”

Calypse raised his arm to shield his face as he faced that power directly before him.

The holy knights, who had been moving in formation, all froze at once.

Their sacred armor couldn’t withstand the demonic power, and it cracked with loud sounds that split the air. The oppressive pressure felt as if it squeezed their very souls. Even the bodies hardened by holy power sent instinctive warnings of danger.

“Ahh!”

Someone, seized by terror, dropped his sword. They had fought countless demons before, but this was the first time they felt such a cold and invasive force that seemed to dig into their flesh.

“De, Demon King…?”

Even Ruru, who was desperately holding Aizen, turned pale. His tail fur stood on end and completely stiffened. Sibel didn’t answer Ruru’s call.

From that moment on, Sibel became a completely different being and began to mercilessly attack the knights of the Holy Kingdom.

The black aura that erupted from Sibel’s back writhed like a living creature. It transformed into dozens, hundreds of pitch-black spears and blades.

“Ugh!”

“Form a defensive line!”

“I, I can’t block it! Ugh!”

It was chaos. Their holy armor, blessed with divine power, was useless. Wherever the black energy touched, the armor corroded like rotting metal, and it seeped through the gaps to tear into their flesh.

Screams filled the battlefield. Shields crumbled like decayed bark, and the holy swords in their hands lost their light, turned black and scattered into dust.

The murderous aura rushed toward the humans, intended to kill every living thing. The holy knights launched their counterattack against Sibel.

“Commander!”

The knights stepped in front of Calypse. Calypse saw the Demon King, who had seemed weak moments ago, now on the verge of rampage, and he looked around to assess the state of his men. Blood splattered everywhere, and screams echoed from every side.

“Demon King!”

Ruru realized something was wrong with Sibel and stomped his feet in panic. He worried for Sibel’s condition, but Aizen, who was barely breathing, was also in critical shape.

Ruru slapped Aizen’s cheek, urging him to wake. Aizen’s eyelids fluttered in response.

Then, from a distance, Shanti flew in and blocked Sibel’s path. The chains binding his body hindered him, so he transformed. Taking his sheep form, Shanti screamed as he saw Sibel’s state.

“Oh no! You can’t, Demon King! You can’t let the demonic power consume you!”

Shanti wrapped his body around Sibel.

“Demooon King!”

Sibel neither heard nor felt anything. He simply walked forward step by step. It was as if the only command in his mind was to kill every enemy threatening this place.

The once-peaceful Demon King’s castle was filled with the stench of blood. The sight was horrific.

“…This isn’t what our Demon King wished for…”

Tears welled in Ruru’s eyes as he shook his head. The Sibel he knew was a Demon King full of love. The flowers he had planted one by one in the garden were soaked in blood and trampled under boots. The tree they once leaned on together had fallen, and the wall they had drawn on together was riddled with holes.

The place that had been a dream of happiness had turned into hell. This wasn’t the castle their Demon King had loved.

“Demon King…”

Ruru felt that Shanti, who stood blocking Sibel’s path, must feel the same. At that moment, Aiden’s body trembled as he lay in Ruru’s arms.

“Whoa, you scared me!”

Ruru flinched when Aizen suddenly moved. Aizen slowly lifted his head as he regained consciousness. He turned his eyes toward where Sibel and the holy knights were fighting. No one knew exactly what he was seeing, but his body began to move little by little.

“Hero?”

He couldn’t even stand properly, and he struggled to rise. He crawled on the ground. Ruru couldn’t understand why he was so desperate.

Half of his body was already blackened. His arms, legs, and half his face had turned as dark as charred wood, a sight so grotesque it made anyone frown. Could he still be called human?

A shadow fell across Aizen as he crawled on the ground.

“…I did warn you.”

Ramiel descended from the sky and looked down at Aizen, who lay prostrate at his feet, then sighed.

He lowered his long lashes, and his persistent gaze, the one Aizen had always found unpleasant, traced over Aizen’s body.

“If I leave you like this, you’ll die.”

His voice was calm and indifferent, as if he was talking about a flying insect’s life or death.

Aizen’s hand grasped Ramiel’s ankle. Aizen forced his eyes to focus and glared at him.

“Did you foresee this too?”

When Aizen’s tainted hand touched Ramiel’s skin, white light flared from that spot. Smoke rose from Aizen’s hand that held his ankle.

“That’s why you should have listened to me, your ally.”

Ramiel shook his head and reached out toward Aizen. The instant his long white fingers touched Aizen’s shoulder, white wings unfurled from Ramiel’s back. White feathers fell and brushed past Aizen’s eyes.

“Your divine punishment won’t disappear. Aizen, what you become will depend only on your own choice.”

White light emanated from Ramiel’s hand. His power spread through Aizen’s body, which had already turned mostly black.

A warm, gentle energy flowed through him. The black aura that had wrapped around Aizen’s body gathered in one place as it fled from Ramiel’s power. Aizen’s mind gradually began to clear. Life returned to his once-clouded eyes.

“Cough.”

He vomited black blood. The curse that had been devouring his body condensed and gathered around his heart. His heart ached unpleasantly, but at least his condition was better than before, since he could still keep his humanity.

“Why are you helping me?”

He spoke in a rough, cracked voice.

“The mark won’t vanish. I only wish to give you time.”

Aizen still couldn’t understand Ramiel’s true intention. He only knew that what Ramiel did didn’t seem to be out of concern for him.

“Did you grow attached to me after spending a short time together?”

Ramiel gave an ambiguous smile.

“A joke. Unlike you, I act strictly by God’s will.”

Ramiel withdrew his hand, his eyes already cold again.

“From now on, your heart will gradually harden. If you ever try to use holy power again, you’ll die instantly.”

At those words, Aizen clenched and opened his hand to check if his nerves were intact.

“So if I want to survive as an ordinary human, I should avoid danger…”

“Then that means I can use it once more.”

Aizen stood up. It happened in an instant.

He ran past Ramiel without hesitation.

Startled, Ramiel turned around, but Aizen was already leaping into the sky. Sibel was there.

Sibel’s state was like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode and annihilate everything nearby at any moment.

If it continued, not only the army of the Holy Kingdom but every living being in the Demon King’s castle, the place he loved, would be reduced to ashes. Aizen seemed to have realized that already.

He threw himself forward and embraced the immense black aura emanating from Sibel’s body.

“…I told you not to.”

Ramiel shook his head as he watched. He had foreseen this day when he came here, but he hadn’t anticipated Aizen’s recklessness.

“Demon King! Hero!”

Ruru, who witnessed everything, was dumbfounded. But he had no time to care about Ramiel.

Before his eyes, Sibel’s demonic power and Aizen’s holy exploded and covered the sky.

“Retreat!”

The army of the Holy Kingdom had already sensed the danger and was withdrawing. They were leaving the Demon King’s castle as quickly as they had first invaded.

“Demon King!”

The sky turned pitch-black and then exploded into blinding white light again and again. It was as if the entire heavens were covered with shifting patterns like a kaleidoscope.

Fragments of shattered holy power and demonic power rained down like a storm. The shards of the two forces, which could never merge, scattered brilliantly like the remnants of fireworks marking the end of a festival.

It was a strange sight. It was so breathtakingly beautiful that it stole their breath away.

Ruru, who had been staring at the sky with his mouth open, finally came to his senses. Shanti, who had been rolling on the ground ahead, also stood up in alarm.

“They…they’re falling!”

In an instant, Shanti transformed into his dragon form and spread his massive wings. The two bodies fell onto those outstretched wings.