The echoes of the arena still clung to me long after Lilith and I vanished back into the city's shadows. The blood, the cries, the sudden silence—it all pressed down on me as though I had carried the weight of that massacre on my own back. But it was necessary. Heroes like Mia, Zion, and the others could never take that path. They were bound to their role, chained by the eyes of the weak who looked up to them for protection.
I had no doubts about their strength. Three of them had already reached the level of SS rank, each one capable of overwhelming armies on their own if they wished to. Even Zion's swordsmanship had matured into something I hadn't expected to see so soon, while Mia's control over her ice was sharper, crueler, colder than ever before. If they had been free to act without restraint, they could have wiped the higher-ranking devils without me.
