Arkenis stared blankly at Suruna.
At the very least, this was not how she remembered Suruna’s last appearance.
“You—what on earth happened to you? Why are you so injured, and more than that, where is this place...?”
Having been sealed away for so long, she felt an even greater confusion at the difference between the distant past and the present.
Arkenis recalled the last sight she had seen.
The sky splitting open, and through the crack descended a withered, gnarled hand in the shape of a giant tree branch.
When that hand tried to strike down Suruna, she had thrown herself forward to save him.
“That’s right. I... was sealed.”
“Yes. And I was the one who broke that seal.”
“How long has it been?”
“I didn’t count properly, but... about a thousand years.”
Arkenis’s eyes trembled.
A thousand years.
And before her stood Suruna, covered in wounds, smiling.
Arkenis instinctively understood that countless things must have happened during the time she was sealed away.
She couldn’t tell what she should say first.
Should she greet him after such a long time? Or should she worry about his injuries first?
What had become of the world now? Did the Church still rule over everything?
Before she could settle on a thought, Suruna spoke first.
“Do you remember the bet we made?”
“The bet...”
Arkenis murmured, but she already knew what he was talking about.
The bet.
Of course she remembered.
Because she was the one who had brought it up first.
“You told me that the future given to us couldn’t be changed. And I told you that if that was so, then I would try to change it anyway.”
“Suruna...”
“I didn’t understand it then, but now I think I do. Why you looked so bitter when you said that. Why you spoke as though there would be no next time. You already knew, didn’t you? That you would bear the wrath of Lumenis in my place, and be sealed away for an eternity.”
“Suruna, I—”
“Listen to me until the end.”
The crack running along Suruna’s cheek widened slightly.
Arkenis closed her mouth.
“You must have thought this way. That the future would continue, but it would not be an ideal one. That humanity would eventually fall under Lumenis’s dominion, that all progress and advancement would vanish, and that people would live like birds in a cage—or fish in a bowl. And in the meantime, you would remain in your eternal seal, remembered by no one.”
Everything Suruna said was true.
From the moment Arkenis had fought him, she had already known this would be her ending.
She had seen that future.
It was inevitable.
And once sealed, no one would ever awaken her again. She was meant to sleep forever.
That was how it should have been.
“Look. I won, Arkenis.”
“......”
“In our bet—I won. I, who had always lost to you, finally defeated you.”
Suruna smiled.
It was the innocent smile of a child receiving a birthday present for the first time.
When he met Arkenis again, there was one thing he had always wanted to say.
That he, who had always lost to her, had come this far.
That he had finally won.
So—
“Now, live freely.”
“......”
“Forget the title of Saintess or whatever else. Just live as plain Arkenis. You used to say you wanted to live in a beautiful world. To be honest, I don’t know if the world now is all that beautiful. I’ve seen all its changes, after all. Maybe it’s even worse than our time was.”
And yet—Suruna continued speaking.
“I’m sure that from now on, this world will become more wonderful and better. That’s what I believe.”
Having said that, Suruna walked past her with heavy, dragging steps.
“Suruna? Where are you going?”
“I still have something left to do.”
“Why? It’s over now! You’re already covered in wounds! If you don’t rest, you’ll die.”
Suruna stopped walking.
Yes. What Arkenis said was true.
While fighting against Lumenis’s curse, Suruna’s body had been destroyed.
Even if he devoted himself to recovery right now, it might not be enough—throwing himself back into battle would be suicide.
And yet—
“I still have to go.”
“Why...?”
“I’ve committed too many sins to come this far. I don’t regret every choice I made, but I can’t say they were all right either. I have to pay the price. As a demon. As Zero Order, who plunged the world into chaos.”
Suruna chuckled softly. Arkenis couldn’t answer him.
She didn’t know what path Suruna had walked, but she could tell it wasn’t a clean or easy one.
No matter how tragic the reason, the sins he had committed would not vanish.
“I don’t ask for forgiveness. I don’t seek salvation. Just seeing your face before I go... that’s enough.”
Yes. That was enough.
For a demon like him, that was all he needed.
Arkenis could not reach out to stop Suruna’s receding back.
Having only just been unsealed, her power was too weak; even holding a conversation like this was exhausting.
At that moment, someone approached her.
“Lady Arkenis!”
Setadel fell to his knees, his face filled with both joy and sorrow.
“At last, I see you again. It has truly been such a long time.”
“Setadel.”
Arkenis smiled sadly as she looked at him.
For a human like Setadel to stand before her after a thousand years could only mean he had used necromantic power.
The act of transferring one’s soul into a new body.
If it went wrong, the soul could wear away and vanish. A corrupted soul could change, turning its owner into someone else entirely.
That fear—of ceasing to be oneself—was a terror beyond measure.
And yet Setadel had willingly embraced that risk.
For one reason only—to meet again the master to whom he had sworn his loyalty, Arkenis.
“You and Suruna... you’ve both been through so much.”
“I am sorry. But I—”
“I understand.”
Rumble—
The fortress shook, dust falling from the ceiling above.
“It seems the situation isn’t looking good.”
“A Holy War has begun. The Holy Sovereign is using the Authority of Brainwashing to command the armies of the continent. We must flee. Allow me to guide you somewhere safe.”
“Yes, we must... but first, we must go somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else?”
“Yes. There’s someone I must meet.”
* * *
Ludger walked slowly through the fortress.
All around, the noise of battle echoed in the distance.
Fortunately, for now, no one had blocked his path.
But Ludger could sense it.
The reason he hadn’t met anyone was only because he had chosen the quiet routes.
Those who came directly for him were a different matter.
‘Just like right now.’
Boom!
A section of the wall before him collapsed, scattering fragments and dust into the air.
As the haze thickened, Ludger tucked the glowing Relic inside his coat.
“So you finally came.”
When the dust settled, a figure appeared through the haze.
Even amidst the debris, her radiant golden hair gleamed softly in the light.
Ludger looked calmly at the woman whose unwavering eyes met his own.
“Saintess Catherine.”
“Demon King Heathcliff.”
Catherine spoke his name with a voice full of tangled emotions.
Once, they had been friends. Yet now she stood as the one who had been left behind, betrayed. The bloodline of the Holy Sovereign—facing the man who had risen to become the Demon King.
Ludger said to her,
“You’ve grown. So much I barely recognized you.”
“It’s been twenty years.”
“Yes. Longer than the time we knew each other. We’ve been apart even longer than we were ever together.”
“Right. Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange if either of us had forgotten the other by now.”
But neither of them had ever forgotten.
In that hellish place, the one friend to whom each could bare their heart would never fade from memory, no matter how much time passed.
“Let’s end this reunion here. You’ve come to stop me, haven’t you?”
“I am the Saintess. If I appear before the Demon King, there can only be one reason.”
The old friendship was gone.
Standing here now were the Demon King who had plunged the world into chaos, and the Saintess who had come to stop him.
They both knew it well.
This twisted relationship could no longer be ignored.
One day, they were bound to clash.
And that day was now.
“I’ll make you one last offer. If you pretend you never saw me here and let me go, the disaster you fear won’t happen.”
“You know better than anyone that I can’t do that.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
Ludger murmured calmly,
“Then I won’t yield the first move.”
It was an arrogant declaration, yet Catherine didn’t refuse it.
Her entire body flared with golden holy power as she dashed toward Ludger, her golden hair streaming behind her.
A fierce one-two straight punch so fast the afterimages couldn’t be seen.
Ludger dodged by tilting his head lightly side to side, then stepped forward and pressed his foot against the ground.
Thoom!
Waves of mana spread outward as shadows rippled across the floor.
From those shadows, tendrils surged up, coiling around Catherine’s body.
She tore them apart by sheer force.
Catherine’s right hand swung.
Though her fist couldn’t reach, divine light condensed around her hand, forming a sword.
Ludger drew his swordstick, engraved with the image of a raven—his signature weapon—from the shadow at his side.
A sharp blue aura coated the elegant blade as it clashed against Catherine’s golden sword.
Flash!
Gold and blue intertwined, scattering dazzling light.
The light itself was destruction incarnate. The parts of the fortress that the radiance touched crumbled, disintegrating into dust.
It was an overwhelming, dense field of annihilation born from the collision of two powers.
Only Ludger and Catherine remained unscathed.
“You’re strong. No wonder they call you Demon King.”
“To be exact, it’s closer to me asking them to call me that.”
“Ha. Is that so? I thought it was strange that Salesin gave you such a dramatic title—it’s not like him.”
Catherine smiled bitterly.
“That’s why it’s all the more regrettable. That day, if you hadn’t left me behind... or at least if you’d taken me with you, I would have fought at your side.”
Her voice carried faint resentment, and Ludger’s eyes trembled slightly.
How could he not understand?
When he left his homeland, what he had felt was not freedom, not relief.
Only worry—worry about the girl he left behind.
But at the time, Ludger had been too weak. He couldn’t ask his teacher, Grander, to take Catherine too.
He had been too physically and mentally exhausted to even say those words.
“I kept going to that place, not knowing you were gone. Waiting for you again and again, believing someday you’d return.”
“......”
“But when I finally heard that you had left the Holy Nation, I realized how foolish I’d been. The betrayal, the despair I felt then—do you even know what that was like?”
Catherine glared at him with venomous eyes.
“So I endured it. No matter how painful or unbearable, I clenched my teeth and endured. When the Saintess’s power tore through my body, when I thought I’d be ripped apart, I held on. Even when tears came, I swallowed them. I told myself it didn’t matter—as long as you were alive somewhere in this world, that was enough.”
Ludger felt the emotion Catherine held toward him.
It was anger.
“Why—why did you come back?!”
That anger wasn’t born from betrayal.
“Why did you return to this world as it is?!”
It was anger toward his choice—to return as the Demon King, the enemy of this world.
“You could have stayed gone! You could have just forgotten everything and lived a new life!”
Boom!
Catherine’s sword bathed the world in golden light.
Ludger answered by painting the world in blue.
“You should never have come back to this horrible place!”
Boom! Boom!
The clash of power drove Ludger back step by step.
“For what reason—what reason did I endure all this for?!”
“Saintess Catherine.”
Ludger’s cold voice cut through her almost trembling cry.
“You stand in my way just to relive a handful of short memories?”
“......”
“What’s past is past. The choice I’ve made now is mine alone. Even if I were given the same chance again, I wouldn’t change it. So step aside.”
“You...”
“If you won’t move, I’ll defeat you and pass through.”
At his cold words, Catherine’s face twisted with rage—and sorrow.
