The silence that reigned in the elf princess’s bedroom, disturbed only by the residual humming of the magical barrier surrounding the residence.

The air, once saturated with the acrid smell of sulfur and demonic mana, was slowly beginning to purify, although an oppressive heaviness remained in every corner of the room. On the bed, Sierra Del Luna’s body was shaken by a violent shudder, as if an electric shock had just passed through her nerves.

Suddenly, Sierra opened her eyes abruptly. Her moon-like pupils, once obscured by the darkness of Shaytan, instantly regained their characteristic silvery glow, although they were veiled by extreme confusion.

For her, the last ten years spent in the meanders of her own mind were not a dream, but an exhausting reality. She expected to see the red sky and the scorched plains of her mental domain, but she encountered only the sculpted ceiling of a bedroom and the dim light of the mana crystals.

Patriarch Ingram, who had not left his daughter’s bedside for a single second, jumped from his chair. His face, marked by months of anguish and sleepless nights, broke into an expression mixing disbelief and a tearing relief.

He ran toward her, his trembling hands hesitating to touch his child’s so pale skin, afraid she might vanish like an illusion. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Sierra! Are you okay?" asked the Patriarch in a voice choked with emotion.

Sierra blinked several times, trying to synchronize her memories with the physical reality of her senses. Her throat was dry, and the weight of her own body felt foreign after so much time spent in an ethereal form. She felt the warmth of her father’s hand on her forehead, a real contact that finished bringing her back to the world of mortals.

"Yes, I’m just a little tired..." she replied in a weak whisper, her voice barely more than a breath.

She let her head fall back against the pillow, her gaze wandering around the room. The fatigue she spoke of was not only physical; it was the exhaustion of a soul that had fought for more than a decade.

Diavolo remained silent as he watched the scene, his arms crossed.

He showed no apparent joy, contenting himself with observing the flows of mana stabilizing around the young elf. He adjusted his cowboy hat.

Sierra, although weak, felt immense joy upon seeing her father’s face again. She remembered the tears she had shed in her mental domain, thinking she would never be able to hold him in her arms again.

However, this joy was short-lived, swept away by a sudden worry that gripped her heart. She sat up slightly, searching with her eyes for the silhouette that had accompanied her during all those years of exile.

"Where is Klein?" she asked abruptly, her voice gaining strength under the effect of the rising panic.

Her father did not answer immediately, his gaze fleeing to the floor. Sierra then turned her head toward the opposite side of the bed. That’s where she saw him.

He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, still asleep.

But what froze Sierra’s blood were the marks that scarred his skin. Black veins, sinuous and charged with corrupted mana, were beginning to appear on his body, snaking along his neck and climbing toward his temples.

"Klein!" exclaimed Sierra.

Ignoring her own weakness, she tried to get out of bed. Her legs, numb from months of inactivity, buckled under her weight as soon as they touched the carpet. She toppled forward, staggering, nearly collapsing heavily.

"Be careful Sierra!" cried Ingram as he caught her just in time.

"Let me go!" she replied with unusual firmness, freeing herself from her father’s grip to almost crawl toward the unconscious man.

She reached Kaiser and placed her hand on his cold arm. The contact sent a shiver of terror through her; she could feel the demonic mana of Sloth rumbling under the exorcist’s skin. She raised her eyes toward Diavolo, the only one who seemed to understand the metaphysical gravity of what was happening.

"Why hasn’t Klein woken up?" she asked, tears in her eyes. "The fight is over, we are out... Why is he in this state?"

Diavolo advanced slowly. He stopped above them, observing his disciple’s face with a neutral expression, devoid of any visible emotion.

"It seems he sacrificed himself to contain her,"

Sierra frowned, not understanding. "Contain her? But I am free! Shaytan is..."

"Shaytan does not let herself be evicted so easily, little elf," Diavolo cut in, crossing his hands behind his back.

"To allow you to cross the fissure and reintegrate your body without bringing the parasite with you, Klein had to make a choice. He used his own body and his own mind as a substitute prison. He drew upon himself all the corruption of the Princess of Sloth at the moment of the domain’s collapse."

Sierra remained speechless, her hand still placed on Klein’s arm. She remembered his smile just before she was projected into the light. It was not the smile of a man who planned to come out unscathed.

"He spent ten years protecting me there..." she murmured to herself, the guilt she thought she had overcome returning to haunt her with multiplied force. "All that just to end up like this?"

Ingram, who was listening to the conversation, felt a deep respect mix with his worry. A human had risked the annihilation of his soul to save an elf he had not even known a few days earlier. The Patriarch realized that the Luna clan’s debt to this man could never be fully repaid with gold or titles.

"Can we save him?" asked Ingram.

Diavolo sketched a mocking smile, showing his golden teeth. "What is happening inside him is a war of wills. Shaytan is trying to transform him into her new permanent vessel, and Kaiser is fighting to keep her locked in the abysses of his own consciousness."

***

Klein was sitting in the middle of a mist of demonic mana so intense that reality itself was beginning to distort, projecting shards of memories and fragmented visions onto the walls of his tired mind.

A few years ago, he would never have sacrificed himself for anyone. Kaiser saw himself in his youth, manipulating Jessica Karlton, Evelyn and many others to achieve his ends. Yet, as he felt his essence dissipating into this void, he felt no bitterness. He truly felt that he had improved. The man who had spent ten years in this labyrinth to protect an elf he did not know was radically different from the selfish predator of Paragon County.

"I think mother would be proud of me..." he murmured to himself.

Dying to protect a life, wasn’t that the only way to redeem an existence built on lies?

"You think that with such a stupid decision you will become a good guy?"

The voice echoed... The mist tore brutally to make way for Shaytan. She released a wave of demonic mana so pure that Kaiser’s soul began to blacken more and more, each second of contact eroding his will.

Kaiser was no longer fighting.

"I think this is the end... It’s not so bad..." he thought as he closed his eyes.