Another mass release dedicated to all my loyal readers! This is for all your support and love. Thank you for sticking with the story so far. There is much more to come, so stay tuned!

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[Music recommendation: Eternal Eclipse - The Last Funeral]

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Valentine Residence

The storm continued to rage outside, but inside the house, everything had fallen into absolute, pin-drop silence.

It was well past two in the morning, and not a single soul was awake except for one tall figure standing beneath the shower with his head lowered, his powerful arms stretched out, while his palms rested flat against the dark bathroom tiles.

Gavriel’s eyes remained shut, his body completely still as the water continued to trickle down his rigid frame.

Yet despite his efforts, he couldn’t stop the faint tremors that kept threatening to surface, forcing him to brace himself against the wall as he struggled to regain control over what he had witnessed two hours earlier.

But more than what he had witnessed, it was what the scene had awakened within him that truly shook him to his core.

The image of Aliana lying motionless in a pool of blood had become inseparably intertwined with the memory of those torturous screams, dragging to the surface, making him relive it yet again.

For a being who had stared into the abyss countless times and emerged unscathed, the feeling clawing at his chest now was both foreign and unwelcome.

Gavriel’s hands slowly curled into tight fists as a sharp breath escaped him, and despite the cold water cascading over his body, the scene from two hours ago replayed in his mind with merciless clarity.

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Two hours ago...

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Gavriel remained utterly still in that small, blood-painted container.

Why?

Because the woman he had placed a ring on that very night was likely the one lying still on the concrete floor, her form drenched in blood, looking like nothing more than a shell without a soul. He clung to the word likely only because his mind rejected the truth.

He refused to believe the possibility of the woman being Aliana or that something had gone irreversibly wrong.

But that sight made him go blank. Utterly... blank.

There was no immediate anger in him, no piercing pain, no worries. Instead, a hollow, vacant numbness settled over him, as if a sudden force had wiped his entire consciousness completely clean.

Although Gavriel had gone numb, his body had not. The shock was pouring out of him in a far more physical form, revealing itself through the faint tremors running down his arms.

As the seconds ticked by, Gavriel’s wide eyes remained fixed on the woman’s motionless figure. But along with her image, a flood of unwanted, long-buried memories crawled to the surface of his mind.

Blood. Fire. Screams.

Wreckage stretched as far as the eye could see while a woman knelt amidst the devastation, clutching her infant against her chest as tears streamed down her face.

Yet even through her grief, she was glaring at him with pure hatred.

"I hope one day you cry tears of blood when someone precious to you is stolen from you, just like mine was, you monster!"

Those words had meant absolutely nothing to someone like him back then. And they would probably mean nothing to him now... or, at least, that was the lie he really wanted to believe. Because his mind, body, and soul seemed to disagree.

While Gavriel stood completely detached from his surroundings and the reality of the situation, Cillian had quickly made his way to the fallen woman.

When Cillian turned her over, it felt to Gavriel, for the very first time in his existence, as though someone had squeezed his heart so hard that the sheer agony made him stagger backwards.

The tremors running through his hands intensified while his breathing began to come out ragged. His wide red eyes finally confirmed what he had desperately refused to acknowledge until now.

The woman lying there was truly Aliana.

He no longer understood what was happening to his own body, but he felt himself slipping away piece by piece. He was drowning... consumed by an ancient craving he had not felt in centuries.

Destruction.

Ba-dump!

The primal urge to burn this entire world to the ground.

Ba-dump!

’Someone precious...’ his mind whispered as his heart skipped another sharp, agonising beat.

’Destroy..... destroy everything.’ His inner darkness, Bellarios, which had been as silent as a grave, finally roared back to life.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

Raw power began to leak uncontrollably from his veins as his consciousness remained trapped in a suffocating loop of haunting memories, Aliana’s lifeless form, and the need for absolute devastation.

Gavriel didn’t even notice Cillian checking for Aliana’s pulse or the way his expression shifted the moment he did.

Nor did he hear him speak.

"Gavriel, she is burning up! We need to get her out of here!" Cillian urged, looking back over his shoulder, but Gavriel was too far gone to comprehend the words.

"Gavriel!!" Cillian called out again, but destruction and ruin were the only concepts burning in the devil’s mind.

As more of Gavriel’s volatile energy leaked into the air, a torrent of fire swirled to life around him. The flames instantly illuminated the dark container, causing Cillian’s eyes to widen in sheer panic.

"Fuck!" Cillian cursed aloud. He immediately scooped Aliana up into his arms, wanting to shield her before she could be accidentally caught in Gavriel’s lethal inferno.

His eyes turned sharp and alert as he secured her against his chest before looking back at Gavriel. "Gavriel! Stop! Snap out of it! She’s alive!"

But Gavriel remained motionless.

The flames around him only grew wilder, climbing higher and higher until they licked the ceiling and spread across the container, eventually sealing off the exit completely.

Outside, Reve and Diana stared wide-eyed at the inferno erupting from within.

"Master..." Reve whispered in stunned disbelief.

Back inside, Cillian found himself trapped between two impossible choices.

He could teleport Aliana out of here first and then come back for Gavriel... or he could stay.

But if he left now, he had a feeling there would be no stopping the devil who no longer seemed present in reality at all.

’What an absolute fucking mess!’ Cillian cursed silently, his brain working furiously to think of a solution. He needed something, anything, to get through to the detached man.

Then he froze as a single, reckless idea flashed through his mind, and his eyes dropped to Aliana’s unconscious form in his arms. Gritting his teeth, he silently prayed that this reckless idea would work before lifting his eyes back to Gavriel.

Purple energy seeped from Cillian’s body and wrapped around both him and Aliana, forming a protective shield to keep them safe from the dangerous power spilling from Gavriel.

Only then did he begin walking toward him.

"This better work," he muttered under his breath.

When he finally stopped in front of the devil...