Silas’s body fell on its knees with a thud.

"Haaahh... Haaahh... Haaahhh..."

Lucian, still in agony, stared at him with an exhausted look on his face, then, he forced out a smile.

"So it’s over huh..."

Vaelrith looked at him, he tried to pour more energy into his body one last time, and for a moment, the body did twitch, however the moment he tried to make it stand—

Spurt

Both of Silas’s legs simply gave way, the only remaining piece, the flesh, now split open. Vaelrith fell, lying in the puddle of Silas’s corpse’s blood.

"That is embarrassing."

Lucian grinned, ignoring his agony just so he could gloat. He had no intention of giving him the satisfaction that he hurt him.

Vaelrith tried to gather himself again but...

Silas’s body had nothing left, the chest had collapsed, the limbs were ruined, the nervous system was gone, even the flesh was now being torn apart—

The vessel was broken beyond use.

The purple light began leaking out of the corpse’s eyes, mouth, chest, and the split skin.

"This is not over, False Demon."

Vaelrith spoke in a deep voice.

Lucian looked at him one last time, as if observing him, then—

"I mean, it looks over to me."

He laughed.

"You think you have won?"

"I think you are leaving."

Lucian answered instantly.

That was when the smoke-like purple light coming out of Silas’s corpse gathered at the spot above it.

At first, it was shapeless, it looked like it was nothing more than a violent storm of demonic power but then—

The light began pulling itself together.

Shoulders formed, long arms appeared, a horned head bent forward from the smoke. Its face remained unclear, shifting and breaking apart every second, but two glowing purple eyes opened within it, looking directly at Lucian.

*Picture*

"You have touched what belongs to me."

Vaelrith’s voice echoed throughout the corridor.

"I don’t care." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Lucian answered with a cold look on his face, staring back at the terrifying entity without even the slightest trace of fear in his eyes.

"You will."

Saying those words, the purple light burst into smoke and that vile, heavy pressure in the air finally disappeared.

It was over.

Lucian won.

Though he didn’t seem very happy about it.

’To think I am in this state when he was fighting from a ruined body...’

He thought inwardly as he looked at his own condition.

His erased hand was coming back since he was using demonic energy to strengthen his regeneration, still, with the amount of damage done, he would need at least half an hour to heal completely and... he couldn’t help but feel pathetic about it.

’Greater Incubus Vaelrith...’

He repeated the name in his head, his violet eyes shone intensely.

Just then—

"N-No! This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen!!

What did you do, you bastard!!?"

The staff member who was standing near Evelyn’s machine screamed in horror as he saw everything.

Everything played out in the exact opposite way of what he imagined, the Enclave Hunters took down the guards and that monster...

He took down a demon!

How was that even possible!?

How can a demon lose!?

What will happen to him now!?

In an instant, that fear kicked in, he looked at Evelyn, he realised what he had done and he tried to stop it, to pause the process.

But...

The completion was already above 75%.

The process could no longer be paused.

"What did you do?"

Lucian looked into the staff member’s eyes and questioned.

"I..."

The staff member froze, not knowing what to say.

Lucian walked towards him, his eyes fell on the panel that was flashing continuously.

DEPENDENCY PROCESS RESUMED.

ACCELERATION ACTIVE.

COMPLETION: 80%.

And in an instant, he understood it.

"You resumed the process."

"I... I did it by mistake! I was trying to stop it permanently!"

He tried to defend himself.

Lucian of course, didn’t believe it, but still, he kept his calm.

"Pause it again."

He commanded.

"I..."

The man hesitated.

"I said pause it."

Lucian raised his voice, at this point, others had come as well. Tomas was carrying unconscious Mara, who was no longer in a life-threatening situation.

"I can’t!"

The man shook his head, his body flinching at Lucian’s shout.

"Once the completion rate reaches 75%, you cannot pause it!"

He answered.

"What...?"

Lucian spoke in a threatening tone.

"I am not lying! I swear on my life I am not lying!"

The man’s body trembled. Lucian looked at him, he heard his heartbeat and he could tell he wasn’t lying.

It really was impossible to stop it.

"Is there no way to save her?"

He asked.

The man hesitated for a moment, Lucian stepped even closer and—

"Y-You can remove her!"

"What?"

"You can remove her from the machine...

That will break the connection.

But..."

Lucian didn’t care.

The ’but’ did not matter.

He walked forward but then—

"You can’t do it."

Darius spoke with a solemn look on his face.

Lucian looked at him and frowned.

"Mara said this system has important data, if you remove her, the machine will wipe all the data."

Lucian blinked at those words.

"...are you hearing yourself?"

He questioned.

And as if on cue—

"Please...

I don’t... want..."

Evelyn, even unconscious, cried, almost as if she could sense what was happening to her.

Both Darius and Lucian looked at her, then, they looked at each other.

"You cannot, that’s an order."

Darius did not back down.

This wasn’t just about his career either, that data was vital, if they found out who Orpheus and the Patrons were, they would be able to hunt them down and erase any more such operations if they existed.

Lucian looked at Darius, then he looked at Evelyn—

"Please..."

Evelyn begged despite being unconscious, there was a frown on her face, as if her body was rejecting whatever it was that was being done to it but its resistance was slowly fading away.

Lucian looked at the panel.

94%

95%

"You truly want her to live like a slave to this Orpheus person just so you can get the data?"

"Once we have the data, we can catch Orpheus and protect her."

"I don’t think you heard clearly, she won’t just be enslaved to him, she will be conditioned to him, removing Orpheus from her life would only ruin her even furth—."

Lucian tried to explain.

But Darius—

"If we get the data, we can save thousands who might be in her place in the future."

He countered and Lucian.

He sighed and gave in.

"Alright."

"Good."

Darius nodded as well.

The tension in the corridor eased up, Tomas and Ilyra sighed. Darius too, heaved a big sigh of relief now that the battle was over and the final decision was made.

And just then—

When Darius’s attention shifted toward the broken machine—

Lucian picked Evelyn up in his arms and removed her from the machine.

DEPENDENCY FAILURE.

ANCHOR BROKEN.

ALL DATA ERASED.

"LUCIAN!!"