The echo of the broken crystal colliding against the stone was the only sound that inhabited the cavern for an endless instant.
Rias Gremory took a trembling step toward the interior. The darkness of the cave seemed to devour the crimson glow of her aura. Her eyes, accustomed to seeing Yugo as an unbreakable pillar of brute force and cold tactics, could not process the image of the skeletal man, stained with dried blood and huddled on the floor like a dying animal.
—Sensei! —shouted Issei, breaking the paralysis. The brown-haired Pawn ran toward him, ignoring the rusted swords and bloodstained bandages that crunched under his shoes.
—Oh my God, his wounds...! —Asia sobbed, running right behind Issei. The nun invoked her Twilight Healing, making a warm emerald-green glow illuminate her hands, desperate to throw a lifeline into the darkness in which the teacher was drowning.
Kiba and Akeno quickly entered, flanking Rias, but the Queen of Thunder had to bring a hand to her mouth, horrified by the metallic stench of old blood and desperation that impregnated the rock walls. Koneko clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms; her feline instincts screamed that the man before them was not dying from physical causes, but was letting himself be devoured from the inside.
Issei reached a meter from the teacher and extended his hand to help him up. Asia knelt, ready to project her healing aura over Yugo's bloodied forehead.
—Stop.
The voice was a raspy whisper, dry as sandpaper, but it carried with it an authority so raw and lethal that Issei and Asia froze on the spot.
Yugo did not raise his voice. He did not use an authoritarian teacher tone. It was a guttural sound, the death rattle of a corpse refusing to be unearthed.
He raised a trembling, bony hand covered in dirt, stopping the former nun before her emerald light could touch him. The simple act of raising his arm seemed to cost him the little vital energy he had left in his body.
—Don't touch me... —whispered Yugo, slowly raising his gaze.
His eyes, sunken in dark sockets, met Rias's, who had just stopped a few steps away. There was no warmth in that gaze. There was none of the stoicism of the Sensei who had taught them to fight, nor the sarcasm of the exploited office worker. It was a black pit, bottomless, full of an agony that the Gremory nobility had never experienced.
Rias felt a suffocating knot in her throat. —Sensei... please. We've been looking for you for days. Sona forbade us from interfering, but we couldn't leave you like this. What happened? Who did this to you? Let us help you. Let me...
—I am not what you think I am.
Yugo cut her off. His voice did not tremble. He was assuming his position in front of the firing squad, exactly as he had done in front of Sona days before.
He leaned against the stone wall of the cave, using the cold and rough surface to force himself to stand up. His legs faltered, but the stubbornness of the war veteran kept him upright. His clothes hung from his emaciated body. The watch on his left wrist seemed to weigh a ton.
The teacher scanned the young demons with his gaze. He saw Issei's loyalty, Kiba's concern, the terror in Asia's eyes. They had ignored the orders of an Underworld pillar just to search for him. They were good people. They were exactly the reason why he had not been able to pull the trigger of the apocalypse.
A bitter, twisted smile laden with self-loathing formed on his cracked lips.
—If you're looking for me... it's because Sona didn't tell you the truth —he murmured, his chest rising and falling with difficulty—. The Kaichou is too intelligent... She decided to carry the trash alone so as not to break your stupid fantasies of heroes and teachers.
—What truth, Sensei? —asked Kiba, taking a cautious step—. No matter what it is. You saved our lives. You fought against Kokabiel. You humiliated the Phoenix for the President's freedom. Nothing you say will change that.
Yugo closed his eyes for a second and let out a dry, hollow laugh that echoed gloomily in the cavern. —I appreciate it... —he said, opening his eyes and fixing an implacable and murderous gaze directly on the red-haired heiress—. But it's time for you to know about the monster in front of you.
Yugo weakly kicked the hilt of the broken sword of light lying at his feet. The metal scraped against the stone, drawing everyone's attention.
—Do you see this place? Do you see this blood on the walls? It's not from demons. It's not from fallen ones —Yugo spat, pointing at the dark stains covering the rock—. This cave is my personal slaughterhouse. It is the place where I came to kill my own soul for ten damn years.
Rias took a step back, feeling the oxygen in the cavern disappear. —Why...? —the redhead managed to articulate.
—Because a decade ago I discovered that the world is a chessboard ruled by beings like you, Rias —he replied, his voice gaining an unnatural strength, fueled by self-hatred—. Gods, demons, angels. Playing with humans as if we were disposable pieces. That truth fractured my mind. It filled me with such absolute disgust that I made a decision: if this was a game, I was going to burn the board. I was going to provoke a total war between the factions. A massacre so great that no alliance could stop the awakening of the Trihexa. I was going to bring the end of the world.
Issei stepped back, bumping into Akeno. The Red Dragon Emperor looked at the man he idolized, unable to process the words "end of the world" coming out of his mouth.
—But to start that war... I needed a trigger —he continued, taking an unsteady step forward, forcing Issei and Asia to instinctively step back upon feeling the immense, oppressive, and invisible pressure of his darkness—. A perfect trigger. I needed Grigori and the Underworld to tear each other apart.
Yugo raised a trembling finger and pointed directly at Rias Gremory's chest.
—You.
The word fell like a block of ice over the nobility.
—You were the target, Rias Gremory. My master plan, my life's purpose for ten years, was to assassinate the dear sister of Demon King Lucifer and leave false evidence to incriminate Azazel.
Rias felt her knees give way. Akeno quickly held her by the shoulders, her face pale as wax.
—You're lying! —shouted Issei, his voice broken, refusing to accept reality—. You protected us! You sacrificed yourself for Asia!
—Because I was a coward! —he roared, a heart-wrenching scream that made the cavern tremble, spitting blood from the effort—. I prepared myself to be an executioner! I murdered innocent humans... I strangled a priest who only wanted to help me in the rain... I stabbed, tortured, and destroyed my own body in this hole to kill my empathy. I became the perfect genocidal. I was ready to kill you all!
Yugo lost his strength and fell to his knees on the cold stone, gasping, with tears of pure misery mixing with the blood and dirt on his face.
—But when the moment came... when I met you in that stupid school... I saw you smile —sobbed the monster of Kuoh, grabbing his head with both hands, as if he wanted to tear out his own brain—. And my damn humanity, the one I tried to drown in blood for a decade, wouldn't let me do it. I failed. Everything I did, the people I massacred, my sanity... it was all for nothing. I was left without purpose. I wanted to die. I wanted to disappear.
He raised his gaze from the ground, looking at Asia and then at Rias through a curtain of tears.
—That is the man you admire. That is the Sensei you fight for. I am not a soldier, nor a mercenary, nor a god of tactics... I am a failed serial killer, an apocalyptic terrorist who broke in half. Hate me. Please... Hate me, get out of here, and let me rot in the grave I built myself.
The echo of Yugo's heart-wrenching confession slowly faded, absorbed by the cold and stained stone of the cavern. His words, laden with ten years of madness, blood, and hatred, floated in the dense and stale air, suffocating the Gremory nobility.
There were no shouts of indignation. There were no swords drawn nor magic circles preparing for execution. Only an abysmal silence, born from the inability to process that the unbreakable shield they so admired was forged with the bones of innocents and the intention to murder them.
Yugo remained on his knees. His breathing was shallow, an agonizing rattle that barely managed to inflate his lungs. The intermittent flash of madness and adrenaline that had kept him conscious during the confession began to fade. The biological reality of his body, subjected to days of starvation, severe dehydration, and psychological stress that would have killed a high-class demon, finally claimed its toll.
His vision began to blur, the edges of the cave tinting black. He could barely distinguish the crimson silhouette of Rias Gremory, who remained standing in front of him, trembling, with her eyes flooded with tears that had not yet fallen.
The monster of Kuoh raised his head one last time, using the last spark of willpower that resided in his fractured soul.
—Sona... —whispered Yugo, his voice turned into a thread of harsh and fragile air that barely brushed his vocal cords—. Sona couldn't... She didn't want to execute me...
His eyes, heavy as lead, fixed on those of the Princess of Ruin. It was a look of total submission. The executioner offering his neck to the victim he never got to sacrifice.
—So... Rias... —Yugo let out a gloomy smile, devoid of any trace of his usual tactical sarcasm—. What will you do with the man... who wanted your head... for ten years?
He did not wait for the answer.
His brain, deprived of glucose and oxygen, shut down the system. His pupils dilated, losing focus on reality, and the weight of his own bone structure was too much for his atrophied muscles.
The man who had mastered thermonuclear fire, who had torn apart the Phoenix nobility without breaking a sweat and who possessed the most lethal weapon in the universe tied to his wrist, fell forward like a puppet whose strings had just been cut.
Plaf!
His skeletal and emaciated body collapsed heavily against the stone floor, raising a small cloud of dust and dirt. His face rested on a dry puddle of his own ancient blood, his limbs limp, completely unconscious and seconds away from multi-organ failure.
—Sensei! —Issei's heart-wrenching scream broke the silence of the cave.
The Red Dragon Emperor threw himself forward, falling to his knees beside his instructor's inert body. Asia Argento let out a muffled scream and ran behind him, ignoring the revelations of genocide and apocalypse; her primary healer instinct eclipsed any trace of fear. The emerald light of her Twilight Healing burst from her hands with desperate intensity, bathing Yugo's cold body.
But Rias Gremory did not move.
The crimson heiress remained standing, looking at the inert body of the man she loved, the man who had saved her, the man who had prepared for a decade to murder her and watch the world burn. The words of the confession kept hammering in her mind, but upon seeing that shattered figure on the ground, the rage and terror she should have felt were replaced by a sadness so deep and overwhelming that it cut off her breath.
The emerald glow of Asia Argento's Twilight Healing burst in the gloom of the cavern, desperately fighting against the dense darkness that seemed to emanate from the very blood-stained walls. The former nun cried silently, with thick tears sliding down her cheeks as she pushed every gram of her sacred and demonic power toward Yugo's fragile and emaciated body.
But the healing was not simple. Asia could close physical wounds, she could restore damaged tissues, but she could not heal severe starvation, extreme dehydration, and much less the absolute collapse of a soul that had given up on continuing to exist.
—Please, don't go! Sensei, please! —Asia pleaded, her hands trembling over the man's motionless chest. Under her palms, the heartbeat of the monster of Kuoh was so weak and erratic that it seemed like the fluttering of a dying moth.
Issei Hyoudou was kneeling on the other side, holding Yugo's head to prevent the wound on his forehead from continuing to rub against the dirty stone. The Red Dragon Emperor, the boy who dreamed of heroic feats and harems, looked at his master's cadaverous face with a mixture of terror and absolute devotion. The revelations of genocide, murders, and apocalypse had not dulled his loyalty; in fact, upon seeing the magnitude of the personal hell from which the Sensei had tried to save them, his respect had transformed into a sharp and piercing pain in his chest.
A few steps away, Rias Gremory remained petrified.
The cold of the cave seeped into her bones, but it was not a physical cold. It was the overwhelming weight of the truth. The pieces of the puzzle that formed the enigmatic and lethal teacher had finally fit together, revealing an image so Dantean and tragic that it threatened to shatter her own sanity.
«He was going to kill me», thought Rias, her breathing becoming shallow. «He built this slaughterhouse, he destroyed his hands, murdered innocents and buried his own humanity... all to be ready to cut my throat and unleash the end of the world.»
Rias lowered her gaze to the rusted swords, to the putrid bandages. Everything in that cave screamed madness. Everything in that cave was a monument to death and nihilism. If Demon King Sirzechs saw this, if the Underworld Council heard that confession, Yugo would be executed before dawn, erased from existence in the most brutal way possible.
Sona Sitri knew it. The brilliant and cold Sona had heard this same confession. She had seen the abyss in this man's eyes. And instead of calling the executioners, instead of walking away terrified, the President of the Student Council had decided to put an ice crown on him and tie him to her own destiny, lying to the entire world to protect a broken killer.
Suddenly, a wave of understanding hit Rias with the force of a tsunami. She understood the taydenita wall. She understood Yugo's desperate flight. He was not fleeing from them out of malice; he was fleeing because his own light, the blind faith his students had in him, burned him more than the flames of Raiser Phoenix. He hated himself so fiercely that he preferred to die as an exiled villain rather than stain them with his darkness.
Kiba Yuto took a hesitant step, unsheathing a couple of centimeters of his sword, not to attack, but out of pure nervousness. He looked at his King, waiting for an order. —Buchou... —murmured the blond Knight, his voice laden with a deep sadness upon seeing the man who had taught him about tactics and survival reduced to rubble—. What do we do? He... he is a cataclysmic class threat. If what he said is true...
—It is not, Yuto.
Rias Gremory's voice cut through the air. She no longer trembled. There were no doubts or fear in her tone. It was the voice of the Princess of Ruin, the heiress of an Original Pillar who had just made the most important decision of her immortal life.
Rias advanced with firm steps, the echo of her shoes resonating against the bloodied stone. She ignored the stench of death, ignored the ghosts of Yugo's crimes that seemed to lurk in the shadows. She stopped in front of her instructor's inert body and dropped to her knees directly on the earth and dried blood, staining the skirt of her impeccable school uniform without caring in the slightest.
Akeno Himejima, who observed the scene in silence, felt her own eyes crystallize. She knew self-hatred. She knew the weight of cursed blood and the desire to disappear. Upon seeing the teacher, she did not see a terrorist; she saw a terrified child who had put on the armor of a monster because the world had seemed too cruel to face it naked.
Rias extended both hands. With infinite delicacy that contrasted with her enormous destructive power, she brushed aside the matted and dirty hair from Yugo's forehead. Her fingers traced the pale scars, the marked dark circles, the protruding bones of his cheeks.
—He asked what I would do with the man who wanted my head for ten years —whispered Rias, her blue eyes shining with a fierce and unbreakable determination in the gloom of the cave.
She looked at Issei, then at Asia, and finally at the rest of her nobility.
—My answer is simple. I will do nothing against that man... because that man no longer exists. The assassin, the executioner who planned the apocalypse, died the day he decided to protect us. He died the day he stepped between Asia and that spear of light.
Rias leaned forward, pressing her forehead against Yugo's cold and feverish forehead. The tears she had been holding back finally fell, mixing with the dried blood on the teacher's face.
—You gave up ten years of your own life, you shattered your sanity and accepted eternal agony just so we wouldn't cry —Rias whispered to the unconscious man, her voice trembling with overwhelming love and pain—. You think you are an unworthy monster. You think your empathy is dead. But you are the most human and compassionate being I have known in my two lives.
The redhead straightened up, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand and turning toward her nobility. Her crimson aura reignited, but this time it was not threatening; it was warm, protective, enveloping the cave like a royal mantle.
—Listen to me well, all of you —ordered Rias Gremory, and her voice left no room for replies—. This man is not a criminal in front of our House. His sins are his own, and his hell is deep, but he chose us over the end of the world. Sona Sitri decided to protect him with bureaucracy and political contracts. I will protect him with my own blood if necessary.
Kiba immediately sheathed his sword and nodded, his loyalty renewed upon understanding the magnitude of the teacher's sacrifice. Koneko advanced silently, crouching beside Yugo's legs to help carry him.
Akeno smiled, a soft and maternal smile, devoid of malice. —Ara, ara... I suppose we will have to teach our Sensei that the world can also be a kind place. It will take a long time to clean all this darkness.
—We have eternity, Akeno —Rias sentenced, sliding her arms under Yugo's emaciated back and shoulders—. Issei, Koneko, help me lift him carefully. His bones are weak. Asia, don't stop, keep your magic flowing to his heart until we reach a safe place.
The Red Dragon Emperor nodded fiercely, taking the teacher by the torso with extreme delicacy. Together, the Gremory nobility lifted the man who had tried to destroy them. He weighed alarmingly little. The alien watch on his wrist lightly clashed against Issei's armor, emitting a faint emerald glow, almost as if the device thanked the intervention before turning off again in power-saving mode.
Rias walked toward the exit of the cave, leading the way. They left behind the broken swords, the dried blood, and the invisible chains that Yugo had forged for a decade. The cold mountain wind hit them as they stepped outside, but the first rays of dawn were beginning to peek over the horizon, tinting the Kuoh sky with a pale and hopeful orange.
«You are not alone, Sensei», thought Rias, feeling the man's weak heartbeat against her chest as they descended the mountain. «You thought you would flip the board to destroy us... but you ended up becoming our most valuable piece. Sona may have the signed paper, but I swear I will return to you the life you think you have lost.»