The morning light had barely begun to touch the rooftops of the City of Peace when Lusian appeared on the horizon.
There was no warning.No command.No signal.
His cloak devoured the pale light of dawn, and his eyes burned with a single intention:
Kill anyone who stood in his way.
The heroes riding behind him—Alejandro, Leonardo, Emily, and three others—could barely keep pace. None of them fully understood the fury driving him forward. Emily watched Lusian closely, trying to read the storm raging inside him.
At the city gates, a group of guards and mercenaries attempted to stop him.
Lusian said nothing.
He simply let his sword, Dainslein, speak for him.
Every strike was precise. Fatal. A storm of darkness cutting down anyone who breathed in his path. Umber and Thunder erupted beside him, smashing through barricades and annihilating enemies with power that felt almost apocalyptic.
The entire city trembled beneath the fury of that trio.
The heroes behind him tried to intervene, but they could not stop him. Lusian moved as if nothing else in the world existed—a savage shadow driven only by the need to reach the city.
"Lusian, stop!" Alejandro shouted, riding ahead with his sword raised."What the hell are you doing?!"
Lusian did not answer.
His eyes were fixed on the horizon, hard as tempered steel. Every muscle in his body was wound tight with restrained violence.
"Listen to me, damn it!" Leonardo snapped, grabbing a stunned guard before Umber crushed him by accident."You're killing people for no reason!"
Emily rode beside Lusian, breathing hard from the relentless pace. Her hands trembled around her staff.
She looked into his eyes.
And what she found made her shiver.
Absolute determination.
And a darkness so deep it seemed ready to devour him.
"Trust me," Lusian whispered without looking at her, his voice nearly lost beneath the thunder of hooves."I can't explain right now. Just… trust me."
It wasn't an order.
It was a plea.
The last thread of humanity held together by love.
Emily closed her eyes for a moment and nodded. It hurt—but she trusted him. Perhaps she understood… or perhaps she didn't. All she knew was that she knew him.
And sometimes trusting hurts more than doubting.
"Emily!" Alejandro roared in disbelief."You're going to let him keep doing this?!"
"Be quiet!" she snapped, her voice leaving no room for argument."I trust him."
Leonardo lowered his head, powerless.
Emily stepped closer to Lusian almost instinctively, as if her presence alone could restrain the storm devouring him.
"Lusian… nothing justifies this slaughter," she whispered, her voice trembling with both fear and devotion.
His answer was not a roar.
Not a shout.
It was calm.
Cold.
Dangerous.
"If they stand in my way… they will die."
He did not say it with rage.Nor with hatred.
He said it like someone stating a law.
It was simply a fact.
A heavy silence settled between them as he spurred his horse forward again with relentless speed. The other heroes followed behind, forced to witness Lusian's power crushing every obstacle in his path.
Unable to stop him.Unable to understand him.
Love, fury, obedience, and fear filled the air with every heartbeat.
Emily knew what he was doing was monstrous.
But she also knew him.
And if she followed him, she would understand in the end.
That was enough.
She closed her eyes briefly and nodded.
There was no other choice.
Bodies fell behind them—a river of death and destruction.
They all carry the mark…
That fracture in the aura no human could hide.
They were not innocent.
They had ceased to be the moment they surrendered their souls to the cult.
As Lusian rode forward, another thought pressed into his mind:
I should kill these tools… but it would change nothing. The gods would simply bless new heroes. Others would rise. All I would gain is the hatred of the world—and a reason for the churches to hunt me.
The interior of the City of Peace was anything but peaceful.
The sacred silence that once filled it had been replaced by a damp, metallic murmur—as if the city itself breathed death.
Statues of the God of Peace lay shattered, defaced with demonic symbols. The gardens were soaked in blood. Sacred lanterns had been twisted into nodes of corrupted mana, pulsing like living organs.
Emily felt nausea twist her stomach.
"…This isn't a city anymore," she whispered.
"It's an altar."
Then Lusian felt it.
A pulse.
A demonic heartbeat that snapped his eyes open like blades.
"It's here," he growled.
The central temple exploded open.
Dozens of cultists poured out, weapons drawn. Behind them came creatures twisted by corruption—lesser demons, summoned beasts, failed human experiments.
And deep inside the temple…
Bathed in the glow of an unfinished ritual circle…
Elizabeth.
Suspended in chains of mana.
Unconscious.
A demonic miasma seeped into her soul.
The heroes behind Lusian felt the truth hit them like a hammer.
Alejandro trembled."…Gods…"
Leonardo swallowed hard."The slaughter… it was to reach this."
Emily tightened her grip on her staff.
"Lusian… that's why…"
Lusian didn't hesitate.
Only one word left his lips.
"Die."
The demons roared and surged forward like a black tide.
Umber struck first—a whirlwind of living shadow tearing demons apart as if they were paper. His jaws crushed skulls while his darkness spread like poison, disintegrating corrupted souls.
Thunder followed like living lightning.
Every step left burning craters. Every thunderous cry scattered cultists like rag dolls.
Still—
The horde was immense.
Dozens of lesser demons emerged from summoning circles. Some towered like siege towers. Others were the size of wolves.
All drenched in infernal mana.
Alejandro barely deflected the butcher demon's axe. The infernal blade passed close enough to shear off strands of his hair.
"How many more are there?!" he roared.
Leonardo spun, finishing a black wolf-like creature.
"No idea!" he shouted back."But each one's worse than the last!"
Emily dodged a claw and blasted a corridor of light through the horde.
"Lusian! This is madness!"
"It doesn't matter how many there are," he growled without turning."If we don't kill them all, Elizabeth dies!"
The heroes exchanged a glance.
One second to hesitate.
One second to decide.
Then they charged after him with a unified roar.
Lusian cut his way toward the altar like an unstoppable specter.
Every thrust of his blade was perfect.
Deadly.
A dance of death.
Emily moved at his back, shining with pure light.
She did not kill.
She destroyed corruption itself.
Every ray of light from her staff purified demons into ash. Every step she took behind Lusian strengthened the ground he walked on.
Light and darkness.
Destruction and purification.
An impossible symphony.
The cultists staggered backward in terror.
"The bearer of the sacred flame!""The chosen of the abyss!""They're an abomination!"
Lusian answered only with steel.
At last they reached the ritual.
Elizabeth hung in chains surrounded by bloody sigils. The bodies of unconscious women and children lay around the circle.
Lusian felt horror twist his chest.
But there was no time for grief.
With a roar he shattered the demonic seal while Emily unleashed a beam of purifying light.
The temple shook violently.
From the ritual circle emerged a colossal figure.
An armored demon.
Obsidian skin.
A voice like thunder.
"SHE IS OUR OFFERING."
"HER SOUL WILL COMPLETE THE RITUAL."
The demon charged Lusian with a sword the size of a tree.
"LUSIAN, LOOK OUT!" Emily screamed.
The impact shook the entire temple.
Lusian deflected it by inches.
The demon staggered back.
Lusian raised his head.
And the fire in his eyes was something none of the heroes had ever seen before.
"She will not die," he said quietly.
"You will."
The battle that followed shook the temple like a collapsing world.
Umber attacked first with a roar of fury and loyalty, leaping for the demon's throat. His claws ripped through obsidian armor while dark energy scorched his body.
Each attack was a sacrifice.
Each strike an offering of his life for Lusian.
Thunder slammed into the demon's legs, shattering impossible bones while Emily's light burned into its exposed weakness.
Lusian advanced through the chaos.
Dainslein blazing with dark mana.
When he saw the demon falter, he knew there was only one chance.
Pierce its infernal heart.
He struck.
Perfectly.
All his power in a single thrust.
The demon's final roar exploded into a burst of black light that blinded everything.
And in that moment—
Lusian felt something tear inside his soul.
The world went silent.
Even the demons stopped.
It was not death he saw in Umber's eyes.
It was farewell.
The magical beast his mother had entrusted to him—his childhood companion—collapsed beside him.
Its body stiffened.
But its eyes still held love.
Understanding.
Sacrifice.
"No… no…" Lusian whispered as he cradled the wolf.
Then he felt it.
A pulse.
Pure mana beating within Umber's core.
Even in death, the wolf offered him something more than life.
Its essence floated before him—soft blue light.
And then it merged with him.
Power surged through Lusian's body.
Umber's strength.
His bond with life and death.
Everything they had shared condensed into a final burst of energy.
For one brief moment, the darkness of the battlefield receded.
As if the wolf's sacrifice had created sacred ground.
The ritual circle collapsed.
The mana chains shattered.
Elizabeth fell.
Lusian caught her before she hit the ground.
She was pale.
Her breathing weak.
Demonic miasma still coiled around her chest.
Emily knelt beside them, placing a trembling hand on the princess.
"…I don't know if I can purify this," she whispered."It's too much…"
Lusian held Elizabeth tighter.
"As long as I live," he said softly, his voice breaking for the first time since the massacre began,
"No one will ever touch her again."
Alejandro, Leonardo, and the others stood frozen.
Now they understood everything.
The fury.The slaughter.The urgency.
Before them was not a mad killer.
Not a monster.
But a man who had watched hell open its eyes—
And decided to stare back.
The temple collapsed behind them.
Stone and corrupted mana rained down.
Lusian carried Elizabeth through the ruins while Emily ran beside him, channeling healing light.
"Stay with us, Princess!" Emily cried.
Elizabeth groaned faintly.
"The mana… it's still inside her…" Emily gasped. "I can't neutralize it completely."
Lusian clenched his teeth.
"Then do what you can. Just… don't lose her."
Emily nodded.
Battle after battle.
Obstacle after obstacle.
Until they finally reached the shattered outskirts of the city.
Buildings lay in ruins.
Bodies scattered across the streets.
Corrupted mana pulsed through the air.
Emily tried again to heal Elizabeth.
But the demonic energy writhed like living serpents.
"It's impossible!" Emily gasped."It's like something is trying to devour her soul!"
Lusian closed his eyes.
His controlled dark aura wrapped around Elizabeth, forming a barrier that contained the demonic mana.
Not healing.
Balance.
Containment.
"You can do it, Emily," he whispered.
She poured her light into the spaces he held open.
For a moment—
Elizabeth's breathing stabilized.
Just barely.
But enough to live.
War drums echoed in the distance.
Imperial and royal armies arrived.
Albert led thousands of soldiers into the ruined city.
One soldier fell to his knees.
"By the gods… what happened here?"
Among the ruins, Deidara appeared.
Her eyes moved across the devastation.
Then stopped on Lusian.
And the massacre surrounding him.
Her voice trembled.
"What… what have you done?"
Lusian said nothing.
He simply held Elizabeth and walked past her.
The silence of his answer weighed more than any explanation.
Around him, the exhausted heroes gathered.
The battle was over.
But everyone understood one thing.
The consequences…
had only just begun.