Slady sat at the desk in his library, bringing a steaming cup to his lips while his mechanical fingers wrote notes in a notebook. Shaphira, in her fox form, slept on his lap, purring softly, her black tail swaying beneath the desk.
Suddenly his gaze fixed on her, and the sight slowly dissolved into a memory from a few days before.
Sitting on the bed, he brought food to his lips, his face twisting for a moment before he swallowed. Shaphira, in front of him, propped her chest on the mattress and her face on her hands, watching every expression of his with a smile, asking what he thought. Clearing his throat, he admitted it had turned out great, but that it still needed a bit of improvement, and he promised to help her with that. Her ears drooped for a moment, but quickly perked up again, her eyes shining, and she thanked him, calling him the best master in the world before climbing into his lap and hugging him. He snorted through his nose, without smiling, but gave her gentle pats on the back.
Pulling away, she crossed her arms with a mischievous smile and declared that, since he had liked it, she deserved a reward. When he asked what it would be, she asked for clothes, wanting to try something humans wore. He questioned whether she really needed that, but, faced with her pout and her deliberately drooped ears, he ended up giving in.
Back in the present, his gaze returned to focus and, without hesitating, he lifted Shaphira's sleeping body with his mechanical arm, carrying her to the bedroom and laying her down slowly on the bed, belly up. He straightened his clothes, went to the living room, set aside a specific amount of coins, left a note on the table, drank the last sip of coffee and left.
Minutes later, Shaphira shifted uncomfortably, burying her snout in the blanket, sniffing deeply until she woke with a start, not bothering to yawn before running out of bed, hitting her face against the door on the way. She went to the desk sniffing everything, and, finding the note, her eyes went wide and she took it down to the floor, lying flat as she tried to make out the curved letters. "Going to buy your clothes". A huff through her nose sent the paper flying through the air before it landed in a corner of the library, and she hopped back onto the sofa, returning to her peaceful belly up rest.
In the city, under a sun that made sweat bead on his face, Slady tied his overcoat at the waist and walked through neighborhoods where people with East Asian features offered temaki as a relic of the Old Society. Among customs from different ethnic groups, he found a clothing shop, where he was greeted by a nervous young clerk, her voice trembling, asking how she could help him. Seeing her so shy, he lowered his voice and asked where he could find women's clothing. She offered to accompany him, asking if it was for a girlfriend, and he clarified it was just for someone he cared about.
After choosing the pieces, he set them down on the counter, and the clerk, yawning, added it all up to three hundred and twenty Lynes. He told her to keep the change and get herself a coffee. She thanked him, tucking the coins against her chest, and, before he left, the clerk touched his back to thank him for trying to put her at ease, since it was her first week there. He said it had been nothing and wished her a good day.
Out on the street, the bag steady in his hands, he hesitated before heading back and ended up walking into La Taberna.
The bell rang as he opened the door. The few customers present glanced over for a moment before turning back to their plates. At the counter, Raizer, white haired, his wrinkled skin hiding a body still strong, looked up and greeted him cheerfully, slapping the counter with his hand. Slady sat down, remarking that he seemed lively so early, and Raizer laughed, saying that being on his last legs didn't mean he'd lost all his energy, pouring him, without needing to ask, the usual sweet wine.
Slady drank the whole glass in one gulp and thanked him, asking if Elisa hadn't come to help that day. Raizer answered that she was still asleep, and that she deserved the rest. Slady called him a generous father, and Raizer returned the jab, saying the one talking was exactly the man incapable of resisting spoiling his own little creature. Slady only confirmed that she deserved it too.
They drank in silence for a while, until a door upstairs opened and Elisa came down, sleepy, greeting her father and her uncle before falling into the latter's arms, snoring against his chest. Raizer laughed at his daughter's laziness, remarking that she had never been ashamed of snuggling up to him since she was a child. Slady answered that Shaphira had the same habits, and that he was already used to it.
Raizer then remarked that he was always impressed by the fact that Slady basically had a Renkai Creature as a daughter, going against everything their people had believed for five hundred years. Slady answered that it was still a bet worth the risk. Raizer nodded and, changing the subject, said he was also impressed by how much Elisa trusted him, ever since his wife had died. He mentioned that, since losing everyone he had known, he had felt alone, and that he didn't have much time left, since Elisa still hadn't learned everything he wanted to teach her.
While Raizer kept talking, Slady's gaze fixed on emptiness, and his memories carried him back to a distant time.
***
Fifteen years before, the same glass of wine sat between his fingers, the liquid swaying with the movement of his hand. Leaning back in the armchair, he watched a middle aged couple in front of him. The woman, her belly swollen, stroked her own abdomen while her husband knelt before her, pressing his ear to her skin with a smile. She gestured for Slady to come closer, and the man, after exchanging a glance with him, gave his permission.
Touching her belly, Slady felt the kicks under the skin and parted his lips, drawing laughter from the couple. The husband asked his wife, Raintalya, to say if that touch was uncomfortable, and she thanked him, making room for him to continue. Sitting in front of her, Slady asked for the child's name. Elisa, she answered. He remarked that he had seen the name in a dictionary before, and thought it was beautiful. She thanked him.
The door suddenly opened, and two staggering young people came in, faces flushed, each holding a bottle. Raizer welcomed them smiling, calling them by name, Jonhye and Natasha Vick, and hugged them. The two returned the embrace and went straight to stroke Raintalya's belly, greeting Slady with a brief touch on the shoulder before turning their attention to her.
In that moment, Slady felt, for the first time, something he would later learn to call belonging, even if indirectly.
A few months later, alone in his library, he read the instructions of a recipe while enjoying the sunlight filtering through the leaves. The door opened, and Raizer and Raintalya walked in, her carrying a baby in her arms, her body trembling with sweat, announcing that Elisa had been born. He set the book down and looked at the child wrapped in the blanket, saying only that he was glad for them. Raizer rolled his eyes at the dry answer and led his wife to the sofa, offering Slady the chance to hold the girl. He accepted, saying it wouldn't hurt him, and got a warning to be careful.
Elisa stayed asleep in his mechanical arm, her face hidden against his chest, not reacting even when he rocked her lightly. Puzzled, he asked if babies were always like that, strange, which drew laughter from the couple. When Raizer came over to take her back, the girl's little hands clung to Slady's shirt, and Raintalya smiled, remarking it seemed she had taken a liking to him. Slady placed his hand over Raizer's, asking to keep holding her, and his friend agreed, sitting beside his wife, asking, leaning against her shoulder, if she still felt pain. She answered a little, but that it would get better soon.
Hours later, gathered at La Taberna, Slady drank wine in a corner while Raizer served beer to Jonhye and Natasha, who laughed and talked. Raintalya, beside them, nursed Elisa while taking a sip of her drink. In that moment, Slady felt something without a name, but that told him those memories should never come to an end.
Two years later, the world watched darkness take over the planet for a few seconds, long enough for historians to never forget the one who had nearly wiped out humanity. Krythos, the Devil who had tried to take Zyrionq's place and had been subdued, cast down to Earth as a limited human. Even so, his Renkai energy, bound to his soul rather than his body, had created the first Inferius, the Complex Inferius, reducing much of the world to ashes. His end had only come from the one who had awakened Mana, sealing him within his own creation and vanishing shortly after, leaving humanity an inheritance, a power until then confined to fiction.
In Libretanhya, humanity's last hope, the city burned in flames. Bodies of humans and demons surrounded an armed figure, his gray eye fixed on the oldest portal. For a moment, Slady turned and saw the motionless bodies of the young fighters, pierced by blades, consumed by a darkness that devoured their flesh, while others tried, in vain, to burn the shadows, freeze them, or cut them with wind. He pressed his lips together, took a deep breath and crossed through the portal.
The first thing he saw was a body being hurled toward him, and he managed to catch it with his mechanical arm. It was Raizer, unconscious, his chest rising and falling. Lifting his gaze, he found a woman whose hair, once white, was now dyed red, her long nails covered in blood, her crystalline pupils sharpening without any reaction at the sight of him. He asked what they had done to her, calling her by name, but Raintalya only conjured a spear of blood and advanced.
Slady didn't hesitate. He threw Raizer's body away from her, dodged a vertical slash and swept her leg, aiming his weapon at her face before firing. She dodged, her pupils narrowing almost to nothing, promising he would not see tomorrow. He dragged Raizer out of the portal and the clash resumed, spear against metal, gunfire and mechanical strikes answering ever more vicious cuts, bursts of energy mixing fire, electricity and her corrupted blood.
When he finally struck her heart with his mechanical arm, Raintalya staggered, coughing up blood, her eyes returning for a moment to their normal color before the red glow surged back stronger, her hair dyeing itself crimson. Slady stepped back a few paces, murmuring that he had no choice, put away his long range weapon, brought his pistols together and, as his eyepatch fell, five spiny appendages shot out from the shadows on his back. The wind cut between them, turning into a current as the two rushed at each other.
***
Red drops touched the ground. Her hands lost their strength, falling beside her body, her mouth stained with blood, her eyes returning to their brown color, pupils dilated and filled with tears. She called his name.
He stood before her, his hand inside her chest, half his face covered in blood, his expression empty. Her body slid against his, her hands gripping his shoulders, her face hiding in his neck, asking what he had done. He assured her she hadn't done anything.
He held her face to look at her, and she smiled weakly before the gesture broke into a sob, asking him to tell her the truth, if she had really been taken over by that thing. He confirmed she had, that she had attacked her own husband, nearly killing him, but that he had managed to pull him away in time, and he hoped he was alright. She let out a low lament, pressing her face into his chest, apologizing for something she hadn't meant to do. He denied there was any reason to apologize, saying it was he who had condemned her, that he had arrived too late. She insisted she had been weak, that she should have fought harder, and asked about her brother and sister.
His silence was answer enough. She let out a stifled "why", her grip on his skin tightening before slowly loosening. She apologized for everything, one last time, and fell beside him.
Silence. A silence that seemed to last hours.
A clap of hands interrupted him. He turned and saw a naked woman, her body covered in shadow over her private parts, a wide smile showing sharp teeth, and, beside her, a masculine figure dressed in pure darkness, white eyes fixed on him without looking away. She remarked, cheerfully, that the woman had put up a good fight, what a shame about those two pretty siblings, holding hands as if they had known their fate, and asked if he too was ready for what was coming.
Slady clenched his fists and lunged forward at superhuman speed, but shadows rose from the ground, pinning his arms. She approached, free, touching his face, her lips almost brushing his, saying she was holding herself back, that this body, this presence, were too interesting to waste, but that he could go ahead, gesturing toward the figure beside her as if he were a brother.
The masculine figure pressed the hilt of his blade against Slady's chest. The impact came sharp, blood gushing from his mouth, his eyes wide. The shadows released him, and he fell to his knees before collapsing face down on the ground. He tried to lift his head, but the creature's foot pressed his face into the ground, and its voice echoed inside his mind, telling him to live with that truth. The last thing he saw was the leg rising before everything went dark.
The news announced, in a flat and mournful tone, the death of Raintalya, a man found unconscious near her, the siblings Natasha and Jonhye dead, and the sole survivor, Raizer Fainer, in critical condition.
That was the very news Raizer heard, lying in a hospital bed, motionless, breathing in halting gasps, tears streaming as every attempt to give in to the pain pulled a groan from him. The door opened, and a nurse with a warm smile let him know someone wanted to see him, asking permission. He nodded slowly.
Slady walked in, one eye covered by a white bandage. He sat beside the bed in silence, until finally murmuring that he couldn't, that he was sorry, that he had arrived late, that he had been trapped in another hell, and that he had no right to ask forgiveness. But he felt a squeeze on his hand, Raizer's hand holding his, his friend's eyes filling with tears. The other hand pulled him by the arm, and, even groaning in pain, hugged him. Slady froze for a moment, his body tense, but little by little he relaxed, though never completely.
In front of a mansion, beside the vineyard swaying in the wind, Slady knocked on the wooden door. A maid opened it and, recognizing him, hugged him at once, thanking him for being alive, telling him it had been terrible, that Elisa had cried so much while demons flew across the sky, and that she had feared she wouldn't survive. He said what mattered was that she was alive, resting his hand on her head. She stepped back, holding his hands, remarking that she had seen the news, unable to imagine how Raizer must be, and grieving for the deaths of Raintalya and her siblings, who hadn't deserved that.
Slady listened to every word in silence, his gaze distant, until, abruptly, he told her to go take a bath and go home, since her parents must be waiting. Surprised, she asked how he knew they were alright, and he admitted he didn't, that he had just said it. She went off to the bathroom, and he made his way to the room where Elisa slept protected under a blanket, rocking the crib slowly, his gaze fixed on the girl.
Later, the maid, already changed, asked if he needed any help. He said no, but that he wanted to tell her something. He stepped closer and, his face near hers, said she should never come back there, never again. Confused, she asked how he could say that, and he insisted he wouldn't repeat himself, that she should live her own life, find a good job, but never again involve herself with people like him or Raizer.
She looked at Elisa, her chest tightening, and remembered that she had given her own blood for that girl, that she had lived in fear of losing her parents that day, and now watched Slady come back nearly unharmed, hidden behind that eye that never revealed anything, only to send her away. He didn't answer, turning back to the crib. Angry, she called him a monster, saying he didn't even seem to care about the deaths, and stormed out, her footsteps echoing down the hallway, her crying fading with them. Slady gripped the wood of the crib with his mechanical hand, crushing it.
***
Raizer's voice brought him back to the "present", asking if he had heard what he'd just said. Slady woke from his daydream, little Elisa still asleep in his lap, and asked him to repeat it. Raizer, hands clasped over his knees, voice hoarse, told him they had found Renkai Energy in his heart, that it wouldn't turn him into a Destroyer, but would weaken him little by little, until any effort would cost him his life. He asked for only one thing, that Slady adopt Elisa when he died. Slady agreed, in a mix of hesitation and certainty.
A slap brought him back to reality. Elisa was still lying against him, but now grown. Raizer, smiling, remarked that he had seemed to shut down completely, and asked what had happened. Slady only answered that it had been nothing.