Sally released her attack.
DOOOOMMMM.
Her two sabers sliced through air and space, carving a breach in the very fabric of reality. The energy surged, screaming, toward the creature, which in turn unleashed a deluge of mana to counter it.
BOOOOM.
Two wills collided: one to impose, the other to survive. One to annihilate, the other to resist.
Sally, panting, arms outstretched, shouted through the chaos:
— Bend to the concept... and die without return. I impose upon you Death without precedent!
A screeching SWAP tore through the atmosphere.
Then the impact.
BOOM.
The creature was engulfed in the destructive maelstrom of the fused blades… Yet still, it resisted. It did not want to die. Not yet. Not like this.
Sally trembled, her energy waning, but she held firm. The entire area ignited, flooded with spectral fire.
Ramos, staggering, lifted his head.
An eye shone beneath his half-closed eyelids.
— Ultimate constraint.
BIM.
The creature froze, immobilized in space. Sally's attack finally engulfed it. The concept was imposed.
Ramos collapsed to his knees. Then to the ground.
Unconscious. He had burned his last spark.
An unreal silence fell.
Then... SWUIM.
Sally's sabers fell to the ground and disintegrated into golden dust, as if even the metal understood that everything was over.
Sally remained standing, unsteady, arms hanging, breath erratic.
She slowly turned toward Sakolomé.
Perhaps he was the only one still awake.
Perhaps he was the only one to grasp the magnitude of the sacrifice.
She advanced, clumsy, like a broken puppet.
Her body fought for every step.
She nearly fell.
Sakolomé's eyes opened wide.
He knew.
He knew.
It was too late.
She had crossed the line.
She had gone too far.
She was going to die.
Sally, with a broken voice, lips cracked by a faint smile, approached...
— Sakolomé... do you remember... that day... when I disappeared...?
Sally, tears in her eyes, kept moving forward.
Her steps were heavy, uncertain.
She smiled faintly, a smile weighted with pain, resignation...
Sakolomé, powerless, watched her fade away little by little.
He knew. He could do nothing anymore.
So she spoke. One last time. So that her memories would not vanish with her.
— I remember... I was there, sitting, waiting for you.
Because you had become everything to me. The one who had reached out, who had given me a second chance, when I had lost everything...
She took another step, wiped a tear with a trembling swipe.
— I was just there... hoping. And then, I felt their presence behind me. Steps, discreet but numerous. I had no time to react...
Her voice choked for a moment.
— They caught me. A hand over my mouth. A handkerchief... A smell...
And then... darkness.
Sakolomé, still on the ground, throat tight, wanted to scream, run to her, hold her back... but even that, he could no longer do.
His heart shattered with every word she uttered.
— When I woke up... I was in a cage.
A cage, Sakolomé...
And I was not alone. There were other children. Dozens. All as terrified as I was.
Her voice vibrated between anger and despair.
— We had been stolen, torn from our homes, from our families... and all for what?
To be sold like objects. Merchandise. Child trafficking, Sakolomé...
They brought us to Gu-Hoit, quietly, by forbidden roads, to resell us on the docks of the port city...
Her gaze lost itself for a moment in the void.
— And after the sale... what happened to us was no longer their concern.
Whether we were beaten, raped, killed, turned into guinea pigs for mad scientists... it didn't matter.
We were nothing anymore. Just human waste to them.
A heavy silence settled.
Even the air seemed to weep.
Sally, faltering, still advanced toward Sakolomé.
Her strength was leaving her, but her words were clear.
She wanted him to understand... everything.
Before it was too late.
— I was there, locked in that cage for two days...
Two days trembling, crying, hoping someone would save me... or that I would wake from this nightmare.
Her tired eyes still reflected the fear of the past.
— And then... he arrived.
A man. Disgusting. One of the worst faces I've ever seen in my life.
He had that look... sick. A predator's look. He stared at me through the bars with a twisted smile...
She shivered just thinking about it.
— I knew... I felt he was going to do horrible things to me. That kind of man... he doesn't buy you to give you a new life. He buys you to break you.
A sob caught in her throat, but she continued:
— This country is rotten, Sakolomé. Filthy to the core. There are things you see only in darkness. And I was plunged into it.
She went on, her steps bringing her closer and closer to him.
— They opened my cage. To give me to him. Like a gift... or merchandise.
I begged. I screamed at them to put me back in the cage. I would have preferred prison to that monster!
But they... all they wanted was their money.
She whispered, with icy hatred:
— "We're going to have fun, my little one... You and me..." That's what he said... And he laughed.
Sakolomé, frozen, clenched his fists mentally.
His heart bled. But he could do nothing.
Sally continued, in a softer voice, almost surprised:
— But then... someone else looked at me.
A man. A stranger. Well-dressed, distinguished. Glasses. Tall, gray hair tending to black. A serene face. Elegant... He looked like an old aristocrat who never bows.
She smiled softly:
— He came to the sellers. He looked me in the eyes. He wasn't afraid of my condition. And then he whispered: "Incredible."
She paused a moment. Silence. Then resumed:
— He asked to buy me. The seller said I was already "reserved". The monster said I "belonged" to him, like property...
Sakolomé seethed with inner rage.
— But the elegant man didn't argue. He offered double my price.
Then, seeing the seller's doubt, he offered five times more. Five times, Sakolomé!
— The seller didn't resist long. The other hadn't signed yet, so... he gave in to the money.
She let out a bitter laugh.
— I was officially "his". Without even my opinion counting...
But when the seller handed him a whip saying "in case she disobeys," he gently pushed it away.
"I won't need it," he said.
A silence.
A suspended moment.
Then Sally stopped. Her body trembled. Her gaze met Sakolomé's.
Sally continued, staggering. Her voice trembled under the weight of memory.
— He was waiting for me in a car... We went there together, in silence. I understood nothing. He hadn't said a word too many. Just a look, just a breath...
She closed her eyes for a moment, as if reliving the moment.
— On the way, he stopped in a shop. He bought me new clothes. Clean. Classy. Too nice for me, back then. I wondered what he wanted from me. Who he really was.
Sakolomé listened, hanging on every word, every heartbeat.
— We arrived at his place. A huge villa, surrounded by guards. Just for him. The place oozed wealth. Excess. Control. And me, in the middle...
— He let me in, without a word. He showed me a room — vast, luxurious. Then he said: "From now on you will sleep here. Wait for me. We will talk later."
She clenched her fists.
— Then he locked the door.
A heavy silence.
— I tried to open it... nothing. Impossible. I ran to the window. Too high. Way too high. But I was ready to die rather than stay locked up. Ready for anything to find you, Sakolomé. Even if I didn't know where I was. Even if I didn't know where you were. I just wanted... just to find you.
— So I jumped.
She took a deep breath.
— I don't remember the impact. Just... darkness. And then, I woke up in the same bed. Bandages on my leg. Fracture. The man entered the room. He looked at me long, then said: "You wanted to escape? You forget I bought you?"
She grimaced with a mix of anger and shame.
— I yelled: "I'm not an object! I didn't ask for this! I was taken, torn from everything!"
— And then, he approached. Slowly. He sat on my bed... and took off his glasses.
She stopped. Tears welled in her eyes.
— For the first time, I saw his eyes. Gray. Cold. And yet...
— They looked so much like my parents'. It was disturbing. But I didn't want to go further. I didn't have the strength...
Still walking slowly toward Sakolomé, Sally resumed, her voice weaker, but each word heavier:
— He asked me: "What's your last name?"
— I answered, a little wary: "Liuly. I am Melinda Liuly."
She paused, memories overwhelming her.
— He smiled. Then he asked: "Is today your birthday?"
— I raised an eyebrow, surprised: "My birthday?"
— He continued: "When I saw you earlier at the port... I couldn't stop staring at you. And at one point, your eyes changed color. From blue to gray."
Sakolomé, lying down, listened silently, breath held.
— He added: "In the noble Liuly family, children's eyes turn gray on the exact day of their thirteenth birthday. At the precise hour of their birth."
— Then he added, as if reciting an ancestral truth: "10:09. That's the hour your eyes changed. So you were born on May 13 at 10:09."
Sally fixed Sakolomé.
— And you know what? It was true. I looked in the mirror he handed me... my eyes were no longer blue. They were gray. Just as he said. And yes... it was indeed May 13. It was my birthday...
She smiled softly, with deep sadness.
— Then he asked: "You know the Liulys are a noble, influential, very rich family... How did you end up in a cage, Melinda?"
— But I didn't understand. "Rich?" I answered. "My father and mother always lived in poverty. We lacked everything... You're talking nonsense."
— Then he asked for my parents' names. And when I told him... he smiled. Then he showed me a photo on his phone. It was them. My father and mother. But younger. They looked barely thirty...
She shuddered.
— He explained they had deserted. Fled their rank, their name, their wealth. He said they had disagreements, wanted to live away from the tensions of the high sphere. So they abandoned everything.
— And that's when I asked him what he wanted from me. Why all this?
Her voice almost a whisper.
— He said he meant me no harm. That in the Liuly family, it was frowned upon not to have children. Too many expectations, too much pressure. So he offered me a plan...
— He wanted me to officially become his daughter. To be presented as the hidden child he had with a woman in a distant country. A woman dead since, he said. And that he was "retrieving" me.
— In exchange... I could have everything I wanted. A life of comfort. A name. A shaped story. But... nothing true anymore.
Sally, weakly crouched before Sakolomé, voice trembling, knees bent under the weight of her past:
— I understood... that if I wanted what I desired most — to find you — then I had to accept everything.
— He wished me a "happy birthday" and... gave me a new name. Melinda became Sally. He had my hair genetically altered to become pink. And you know what? I didn't even resist.
She forced a painful smile, then continued, more slowly:
— He wanted his "daughter" to be brilliant. So I fought to prove my worth: best grades, exemplary behavior, hard work. He wasn't really a father... but I never complained.
Her hands trembled.
— But deep down... I just wanted to find you. That's all I wanted.
Her gaze darkened.
— I dug, I studied... even flirting with the forbidden. That's when I awakened Sy666. He had always slept inside me... waiting for me to call him.
— And he did: he helped me locate you. You lived in Monor City, in Monor County. I asked my "adoptive father" to send me there to study. Sy666 executed everything I asked... but on one condition: my soul.
Sakolomé, frozen, could only listen, torn between anger at this demon... and the pain of finally understanding.
— I continued my research with him. I even went into the spirit world. But I'll spare you those details...
— After three years, I finally saw you again. You were there. In my classroom. Right there, in front of me... After all those years!
She laughed weakly, a solitary tear running down her cheek.
— I wanted to jump into your arms... but I said nothing. Why? Because I was doomed.
— If I had told you who I was... you would have wanted to save me. And Sy666 would have killed me on the spot. So I decided... to live by your side without you knowing... until my last breath.
She slowly lifted her eyes to him. Her face, ravaged by emotion, was nonetheless radiant.
— I just wanted to be there, near you, as long as possible...
End of flashback. Return to reality.
Sally is kneeling before Sakolomé, their faces close, bound by the invisible.
She murmurs, tears streaming without shame:
— Everything in you is fabulous. Your father, your mother, your family... I loved them all. As if they were mine.
She lifts her eyes to the sky. Silence falls, deep, cosmic.
— Look... The moon is at its zenith, bright and solitary. It is midnight, Sakolomé.
A pause.
— It's October 9.
She turns again toward him, a gentle smile on her lips despite everything:
— It's your birthday.
Sakolomé, lying silent, unable to move, stared at Sally. His wide eyes trembled under the weight of the moment.
She leaned slowly toward him... and kissed him.
A kiss soft, light as a feather, but charged with a lifetime.
Space seemed suspended, time frozen, as if the universe itself wanted to honor this moment.
Then she straightened, lips trembling, a shy smile mingled with tears:
— I always dreamed of kissing you...
A breath.
— Happy birthday, Sakolomé.
She took a deep breath.
— I have a gift for you.
Her voice lowered, like a secret entrusted to eternity.
— In my room... under my bed, in the wardrobe. You will find a package, well wrapped. The key is on my desk... hidden in that little stuffed bird you found "cute but weird."
A soft muffled laugh.
— In that package... a book. My journal. All my experiences with Sy666. Every page is a warning... or an answer. And then...
She was about to say more, but suddenly:
BOOM.
An infernal rumble split the air. The earth trembles. A wave of wild mana saturates the atmosphere.
— Damn...
Sally's pupils dilate.
— It survived... the concept.
Before them, the creature stands again, angrier, more unstable than ever. Its cry pierces the skies:
— AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
A scream of terror. Of anger. Of pure despair.
Sally, her gaze empty of hope but full of lucidity, kneels gently near Sakolomé.
— My last advice, Sakolomé...
She whispers in his ear like a prayer:
— Never look for me again. Live for yourself. Strengthen yourself. Become more autonomous. More powerful. Because this world... whether material or spiritual... is cruel beyond measure.
One last tear. Pure.
— Goodbye, Sakolomé.
Then, she collapsed.
Her body fell slowly, without resistance, like a dead leaf...
And her heart stopped.
Silence.
Sakolomé does not scream. He cannot. He watches. Wide-eyed. Frozen. Overwhelmed.
And suddenly...
The creature roared again upon seeing Sally's body lying on the ground. It charged, in a pure act of destruction...
But a strange, red, translucent fluid emanated from Sally's body.
Sy666, finally free from his human shell, manifested.
A terrifying demon, hungry, saturated with souls and darkness, leapt onto the creature.
A titanic battle began.
Demon versus demon.
Terror versus rage.
Possession versus instinct.
Sakolomé, lying broken, watched this demonic carnage...
and in his eyes... there was only one thing left:
The void.