Fifteen years ago, the same wine glass rested between Slady's fingers, the liquid swirling with his movements. He leaned back in his armchair. In front of him were a middle-aged man and woman. The woman had a swollen belly, caressing her exposed abdomen. The man knelt before her, pressing his ear against her skin, smiling. At some point, the woman looked at Slady, gesturing for closeness. He approached, and the only eye not covered by the eye patch met the eyes of the kneeling man, who nodded and gave him permission.
He touched her belly, feeling kicks beneath the skin. Slady slightly parted his lips. Both laughed, and the man asked the woman, named Raintalya, to inform the one touching her if it was impolite, to stop him. She nodded, thanking her husband, Raizer, and giving him space to return to work.
Slady sat before her, crossing his legs. He asked the child's name. Elisa. He commented that he had seen that name in a dictionary before. He considered it beautiful. And she thanked him.
The door opened abruptly. Two young people stumbled in, a man and a woman. Their faces were red, each hand holding a bottle of drink. The older man, Raizer, smiled upon seeing them, calling them by name: Jonhye Vick and Natasha Vick. He hugged the two siblings.
They returned the gesture and soon went to Raintalya, caressing her belly. They briefly greeted Slady with a touch on his shoulder, then returned their attention to the older woman.
In his mind, Slady recalled what he felt in his chest with that group. A sensation previously unknown to him, but later told to him one day: belonging… even if indirect.
***
A few months later, he was alone in his library. A book in his hand contained instructions for a meal. However, amidst the inner silence, he appreciated the sight of sunlight filtering through the leaves of the trees, creating shadows along the way.
Suddenly, the door opened. Raizer and Raintalya entered. The woman carried a baby in her arms, her body trembling and sweat running down her face. And she smiled.
"Slady... Elisa was born."
He dropped the book and observed the baby protected by a cloth.
"Is that so? I'm happy for you."
Raizer rolled his eyes at the response and took the child, leading his wife to the sofa. Soon, he offered him the child.
"Do you want to hold her?"
"I don't think it will harm me."
"Just be careful with her."
When he took her in his mechanical arm, Elisa remained asleep, her face hidden against his chest. He gently rocked her, with no reaction from the girl. He looked at the couple with his head tilted.
"Are babies always this strange?"
The couple raised their eyebrows at the question and laughed. Raizer walked toward him and extended his arms to take Elisa. But the girl's small hands grabbed onto his shirt. At the scene, Raintalya gave a brief smile.
"I think she liked you."
With that, Slady placed his hand over Raizer's.
"You can leave her with me."
Raizer nodded. He stepped back and sat beside his wife. Raintalya rested her head on her husband's shoulder, who caressed her belly.
"Do you still feel pain, dear?"
"A little, but I'll be better soon."
The couple remained embraced.
***
A few hours later, the group met at La Taberna. Slady, sitting in a corner, drank wine. Raizer served beer to Jonhye and Natasha, who laughed and chatted. Raintalya, nearby, breastfed Elisa while also taking a sip of her drink.
The other sensation Slady could recall from that moment had no name, but told him that those memories, that moment, should never end. They should last forever.
***
After two years, the world witnessed a planet completely shrouded in darkness. The gate had opened, for a few seconds, but it was enough for historians to remember the one who almost exterminated humanity: Krythos, the Devil himself.
The one who, in ancient writings, tried to take the place of God, Zyrionq, and was subdued, cast to Earth as a human, limited.
Even so, his energy, Renkai, did not belong to a body, but to his soul. And by possessing it, he created the first Inferius, the Complex Inferius, reducing most of the world to ashes.
His "end" came with the one who awakened Mana, sealed within his own creation. And the man who imprisoned him was never seen again, leaving the human race a legacy: a power that once existed only in fiction, but now was reality.
***
Libretãnhya, The Last Hope of Humanity.
The city burned in flames. Bodies of humans and demons lay around a figure. A long-range weapon attached to his arm. The gray-colored eye fixed on the oldest portal.
For a moment, he turned. The bodies of the young lay motionless, pierced by blades and infested with darkness consuming their flesh. Men and women tried to burn the shadows with fire, stop them with ice, cut them with winds, but all that remained was to cry at each attempt.
He pressed his lips together, turning his face away. He took a deep breath and entered the portal.
***
The first thing he saw upon entering was a body being thrown against him. He managed to catch it with his mechanical arm. It was Raizer, unconscious, his lungs expanding and contracting before him.
And when he shifted his gaze, there was a woman. Her hair, once white, had turned reddish. Her nails were longer, covered in blood. And when she looked at him, there was no reaction, only her crystalline pupils sharpening.
"Raintalya... what have they done to you?"
Raintalya looked at Slady, conjured a spear of blood, and advanced.
Slady did not hesitate. He threw Raizer's body toward her. She spun the scythe in a vertical slash, but Slady ran and swept her legs, aiming the sniper at her face and firing.
She dodged, and her pupils sharpened to the point of disappearing.
"You will not live to see tomorrow."
Slady grabbed Raizer's body and threw it out of the portal. Then, the clash of blows began. Spear and metal collided. Slady dodged, retaliated with shots and strikes from his mechanical arm. Each explosion, each fragment of energy mixed fire and electricity with Raintalya's corrupted blood.
He endured cutting blows and responded with precise shots. When he finally struck her heart with the mechanical arm, Raintalya staggered and spat blood.
For an instant, her eyes returned to normal, but soon the red glow came back in full force. Her hair turned crimson, her eyes reflected the living blood flowing across the ground.
Slady stepped back a few paces.
"Then I have no choice."
He slung the sniper onto his back, joined his pistols, and prepared himself. The eyepatch fell, and from the shadows of his back, five long, spiked units began to emerge.
The wind rushed through the shadows of their bodies, becoming a current as they advanced against each other.