The wind had gone still.
Even the trees seemed afraid to move now.
Viktor stepped back slowly, slipping the dagger into his coat. His eyes never left Cade.
The so-called devil just stood there, his chest rising and falling a little too quickly for someone who used to feed on fear.
"You're quiet," Viktor said, almost amused. "That's rare for you."
Cade's jaw tightened. "You made your point."
"No," Viktor said, voice cool and steady, "if I made my point, you'd be on the ground begging. This… is just the warm-up."
He raised a hand, just slightly—no chant, no spell, no theatrics. And yet Cade's skin hissed as if touched by fire. A thin line of smoke rose from his collarbone. He jerked back, hand flying to the spot, but there was no mark. The pain was real, though.
Viktor watched him like someone watching a dog that bit too many people finally learning the leash snaps both ways.
"How does it feel?" Viktor asked, stepping closer. "To burn... just a little? Just enough to make you remember you're not untouchable."
Cade said nothing.
Sybil and Selene stood off to the side, unmoving. They were witnesses now. Just watching. Cade had brought them in as part of a show of power—two sirens meant to echo his reach. But now? Now they looked like distant shadows. Spectators who had no say in what came next.
Viktor circled Cade slowly.
"I wonder," he said, thoughtful, "when was the last time you felt pain? Real pain. Not the show you put on for others. Not the theatrics. The kind that drags something human out of you."
Cade flinched slightly, like the words were knives.
Viktor stopped behind him. The air shimmered again, heat rising in waves. Cade let out a quiet grunt, stumbling forward as his back lit up with invisible flames.
He dropped to one knee.
Viktor's voice came from above him, low and cold. "Tell me… do you remember who you were before all this?"
Cade didn't answer.
Another wave of heat slammed through him—no fire, no smoke this time—just pure agony, precise and cold. His fingers clawed at the dirt. He was being held together by pride alone now.
"You were a man once," Viktor continued. "Just a man. Before you made that twisted little pocket world of yours. Before you became... whatever this is."
Cade's teeth were clenched so tight they looked like they might crack.
"I was a man," he muttered, voice thin.
"Louder," Viktor said. "Say it."
"I was a man," Cade repeated, louder now. "A man who wanted to change the world."
Viktor nodded slowly, eyes narrowing.
"And what happened?" he asked. "Tell me how you went from that… to this."
Cade's shoulders trembled. The memories came whether he wanted them to or not.
"I was a philosopher. A healer. People came to me… lost, afraid. I tried to guide them." He laughed bitterly. "I thought I could purge darkness from the world."
Viktor crouched down beside him. "And instead, it purged you."
Cade looked up, eyes burning—not with anger, but shame.
"I was betrayed. My own people turned on me. Called me a demon for looking into their minds… for trying to show them the truth. They feared what they saw in themselves. So they burned me alive."
Sybil's breath caught. She'd heard the story before—but never from his own mouth. Never like this.
"I didn't die," Cade went on, voice flat. "Not fully. I tore my way out. Created my own realm. A world built from thought, fueled by the darkness of mankind. It listened to me. Obeyed me."
He looked up at Viktor. "You think I'm a monster, but I was made this way. I was pushed."
Viktor didn't blink.
"We've all been pushed," he said softly. "It doesn't excuse what you became."
He stood again.
"And now that world you built? It's rotting. Just like you."
Cade tried to rise, but another flare of heat wrapped around his leg like a whip and yanked him back to the ground.
Viktor didn't even move this time.
"You've fed on the worst parts of people for centuries," he said. "Whispers. Guilt. Punishment dressed as salvation. You thought you were in control. But all you ever did was mirror their pain."
Cade looked up, sweating, eyes wild. "And what about you? You kill. You burn. You're no different."
"I know exactly what I am," Viktor said. "That's the difference."
He stepped closer again, crouched in front of Cade, and looked him dead in the eyes.
"You hide behind 'order.' Behind judgment. But you never fixed anything. You just watched it all fall apart and called it justice."
He stood and turned his back on him, pacing a few steps. Then he stopped.
"Tell me something," he said. "Do you think you deserve to live?"
Cade hesitated. For a moment, the devil didn't have an answer.
"I don't know," he said finally, his voice smaller than it had ever been.
Viktor looked back over his shoulder.
"That's the first honest thing you've said."
He turned fully now, walking back toward him. Cade braced for another hit. Another burn. But it didn't come.
Instead, Viktor crouched again and held up the dagger, showing it to him.
"You came here thinking you could use this on me," he said. "But you never even considered what it would feel like when the blade turned back on you."
He twirled it once in his hand and then held it out—offering it.
Cade stared.
"I'm giving you a choice," Viktor said. "Take it. End it yourself. Or walk away, knowing what you've become. Knowing I let you live."
Sybil shifted uncomfortably. Selene was frozen.
Cade looked down at the blade… then at his hands.
His pride was gone. His power, shaken. For the first time in who knows how long, he looked… small.
He didn't reach for the dagger.
Viktor watched him a moment longer, then stood.
"Coward," he said quietly, not with anger—but with disappointment.
He turned his back and walked away. "Take him," he said to Sybil and Selene.
They didn't move right away. Sybil was the first to step forward. Cade didn't resist. He couldn't.
As she reached out to him, she paused, just briefly, and looked at Viktor.
There was something different in her eyes now. Not fear.
Respect.
Viktor vanished into the dark without another word.
The forest was quiet again. Too quiet.
But this time… it wasn't peace. It was warning.
The kind of silence that follows something impossible. Something no one would dare speak of out loud.
Not because they couldn't.
But because they knew no one would believe them anyway.
Elsewhere
[System online]
Klaus looked at the new interface of the system.
"Ahh old friend, I have missed you."
Klaus said before he could could look at his new stats, a letter suddenly appeared on the table, reading, {You are to come to New Orleans right now or face the consequences..... Jane-Anne}
"Now a witch dares to threaten me.