The memories shattered.
Her breath hitched as the demons surged, dragging her back into the present with a violent snap. Their whispers clawed at her skull, their hunger scraping against the fragile bloom inside her. She staggered, boots sinking into damp moss, the towering trees spinning around her as the forest blurred into streaks of green and shadow.
He gave you light.Let us take it.Let him go.Let him die.
"No—" Her voice cracked, barely a sound.
She fought them. She fought with everything she had, clawing her way back to herself, back to the surface, back to the faint warmth that still pulsed inside her chest. The demons roared, furious, trying to drown her in the emptiness she had lived in for so long.
But she pushed. And pushed. And pushed.
Until the darkness snapped.
Her senses slammed back into her body.
And that was when she saw him.
Mandle lay collapsed on the forest floor, half‑slumped over her legs, his body limp, his breath shallow — too shallow — his skin pale beneath the shifting canopy light. His chest barely rose. His pulse fluttered weakly under her trembling fingers.
Her heart stopped.
"Mandle…?" Her voice broke into pieces. "Mandle—!"
He didn't respond.
Panic tore through her like a blade. Her hands shook violently as she lifted his head into her lap, leaves and dirt clinging to his hair. The faint glow of divine and demonic power flickered erratically beneath his skin — unstable, fading, wrong.
"No, no, no— please—" Her voice cracked into a sob she didn't have time to feel.
She looked up, wild‑eyed, the forest spinning around her.
"HELP!" she screamed, voice raw and breaking. "SOMEONE— PLEASE!"
The forest answered.
A massive silver wolf burst through the trees, its fur shimmering like moonlight — and the moment its golden eyes landed on her, it skidded to a halt. Its ears flattened. Its tail tucked low. Its entire body trembled.
Because it remembered.
It remembered how she had thrown it like a ragdoll when the demons controlled her. How its ribs cracked against a tree. How it barely survived.
She didn't know the wolf. But the wolf knew her — and feared her.
Another figure crashed through the underbrush — a tall, broad‑shouldered man with a scarred jaw and frantic eyes. Hoj. Mandle's father. She didn't know him, but he knew her. He had been there when the demons took her body. He had seen what she became.
He rushed toward them, breathless, terrified — not of her, but of the sight of his son lying limp in her arms.
Mandle's breath slipped again — shallow, fading, barely there. Her hands trembled violently as she held him, her heart pounding so hard it hurt. Panic clawed at her chest, but she forced herself to think, to remember, to do something.
She had grown up in a palace. A place of rituals, sacrifices, and cold instruction. She knew almost nothing about healing — only scraps, fragments, whispered warnings about injury, death, and the fragile line between them.
But she used every scrap she had.
She pressed her palms against his chest, right over his heart, pushing down with all the strength she had left. Once. Twice. Again. Her arms shook. Her breath broke. She hit him harder, desperate, praying something — anything — would work.
"Come on… come on, please—!"
Nothing.
His chest barely moved.
Her throat tightened. Her eyes burned. She leaned closer, her lips hovering over his for a heartbeat — the way she had seen healers do in the palace when someone stopped breathing.
But she froze.
She couldn't do it.
Not because she didn't want to save him — but because she loved him too much to steal something so precious from him. His first kiss… she couldn't take it under the excuse of "medical necessity." She couldn't bear the thought of him waking and looking at her with confusion or regret.
"No… I can't," she whispered, voice shaking. "You'd hate me for that… I can't take something so important from you."
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
She had to find another way.
Her mind raced — and then she remembered something else. Something terrifying. Something dangerous.
Earlier, when the demons had surged inside her, she had felt her body shift — lighter, sharper, filled with a strange balance. For the first time in her life, she had felt a faint thread of divine power flicker inside her, mixing with the demonic energy she had always carried.
A forbidden combination. A deadly combination. A combination no one should ever attempt.
But she didn't care.
If it could save him — even if it destroyed her — she would do it.
Her hands hovered over his chest again, trembling.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I don't know if this will help… but I can't lose you. I won't."
She closed her eyes.
She reached inward.
She pulled on the demonic power that writhed in her veins — dark, cold, sharp. She pulled on the divine spark that flickered faintly inside her — warm, trembling, fragile.
And she forced them together.
The forest air shuddered. The wolf whimpered and backed away. Hoj's eyes widened in horror.
Light and shadow twisted around her hands, swirling violently, unstable, dangerous.
She pressed her palms to Mandle's chest.
"From the heavens…" she whispered.
The divine spark flared.
"…and from the hells…"
The demonic power surged.
"…come back to me."
She released everything.
and then she called forth the ancient incantations, powerful enough to shake the leaves from the trees and send a pulse of energy rippling through the forest.
— Meanwhile, in the City —
The first sign was the light.
A blinding gold flare tore across the sky, so bright it washed out the sun. People in the marketplace froze mid‑step, shading their eyes as the heavens split open with a roar that shook the rooftops.
Then came the second sign.
A deep, violent purple glow erupted from the earth beneath the distant forest, spreading like cracks of lightning across the ground. The stones trembled. The wells rippled. The air tasted of metal and storm.
Two seals. One above. One below.
Both ancient. Both forbidden. Both impossible.
The city erupted into chaos.
"Is that— the Heaven Seal?!" "No—look! The Ground Seal too!" "Who could summon both?!" "Run! RUN!"
Merchants abandoned their stalls. Children screamed and clung to their mothers. Priests dropped to their knees, chanting prayers they barely remembered. Hunters grabbed their weapons, unsure whether to flee or fight.
And then the City Lord appeared.
The man stumbled out of his palace balcony, trembling in his silk robes, eyes bulging as he stared at the twin seals blazing in the sky. His face drained of color so fast he nearly fainted on the spot.
His voice cracked like breaking glass.
"C‑call the guards! All of them! No—call the neighboring city too! I'm not going in there—just go! GO!"
He spun around so fast his robe tangled around his legs. He tripped. He fell. He scrambled back up, shaking so violently his crown slipped sideways, hanging off one ear like a child's toy.
Instead of leading his soldiers, he hid behind them, clutching the nearest guard's armor with both hands.
"Move! MOVE! Why are you all standing there?! Go investigate! I'll… supervise… from here!"
— Back in the Forest —
The Heaven Seal blazed above the treetops like a second sun, its golden symbols spinning with violent speed. The Ground Seal beneath Mandle pulsed in deep purple, cracking the soil as if the underworld itself were pushing upward.
The forest shook. Animals fled. The air vibrated with ancient power.
And at the center of it all— she hovered above the ground, her body glowing with a terrifying blend of gold and violet.
She knew the entire world could see this. She knew she had exposed them. She knew hunters, priests, nobles, and monsters would come.
But she didn't care.
Mandle wasn't breathing.
Her voice rose into a chant, ancient and forbidden, the words scraping her throat as she forced them out. The seals responded instantly—Heaven's golden thunder gathering above her like a storm of light, Hell's purple thunder swirling beneath her like a vortex of shadows.
She reached inward, toward the demons inside her.
They stirred, hissing, waiting.
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"Now I own you. Take me. Use me."
The demons surged forward, reclaiming her body with brutal speed—but this time, she didn't resist. She surrendered. She let them in. She let them take her.
Her body snapped upright, possessed yet controlled, her aura exploding outward in a violent wave that shook the trees.
The wolf whimpered and backed away, remembering too well how she had nearly killed it before. Hoj shielded his face from the blinding light, fear and hope warring in his eyes.
She lifted her hands.
Heaven's golden thunder answered. Hell's purple thunder roared.
And with a single, devastating command—
both thunders descended at once,colliding at one point:Mandle's heart.
The forest erupted in blinding light