After some time...
In the guest room where Leda stayed.
Having finally recovered from the shock brought by Lloyd and regained her ability to think, Leda rubbed her head, feeling a dull ache as she tried to digest the information hidden in his words.
Before she could think for long, strange sounds echoed from beyond the door—
as if a fight had broken out outside.
A battle?
Leda froze for a moment, then quietly approached the door and pushed it open just a crack to peek outside.
Then—
Thud.
A severed hand, still bleeding, slammed against the doorframe, splattering dark Accursed Blood across the wood.
Before she could react, Lloyd stepped into view. He picked up the hand, a chain dangling from his other hand. Whatever was on the other end of it was breathing heavily, unseen.
After retrieving the severed hand, Lloyd handed it to the chained creature, then turned his gaze toward the eyes watching from behind the door.
Their eyes met.
Lloyd's cold stare was unfeeling, his body drenched in Accursed Blood. Drops of it fell from the hand he'd just picked up.
Leda's breath caught. Her heart skipped a beat.
"What, you planning to join in too?" Lloyd asked flatly.
"N-no, I just thought something happened outside..."
Leda quickly shut the door and rushed back to her bed.
She hadn't seen everything, but her habit of noting details had already given her the answer. The ring on that hand's ring finger told her whose hand it was.
What she couldn't understand was why—just earlier—those two had been chatting so casually, even discussing how they'd "play" with Lloyd right in front of her. And now...
Wait.
She remembered the Frenzied Flame girl complaining that the maid's "games" were... hard to describe.
Could it be that just now—
"You really don't learn, do you?"
Lloyd's voice came from outside the door.
Then came the sound of cracking bones and flesh being crushed. Thick, dark blood seeped from beneath the door, flowing into the room.
The sheer amount of blood alone told her how brutal the scene outside must be. Before she could react, another voice rasped weakly through the air.
"Cough... cough... I got a little carried away..."
The voice was hoarse and broken, like someone speaking through a crushed throat.
"Alright, I know I messed up. It's my fault. I'll do whatever you say from now on..."
Footsteps followed, growing faint.
Leda stared at the blood leaking through the door gap, speechless.
She'd always been called ruthless—cold and brutal, even among the Sacred Tree. But because of Miquella's influence, the Sacred Tree's people valued calm and mercy.
Leda's "cruelty" had always been reserved for those she deemed disloyal to Miquella, and even then, she granted them a clean death. She never humiliated or tortured anyone.
But after hearing what just happened outside, she realized she might not be as cold-blooded as she'd believed.
Compared to those two... she was pure—almost innocent.
She'd truly never seen anything like this before.
...
After waiting on the bed for what felt like ages, the noise outside finally stopped.
Then, after some time, her door opened again.
Elizabeth stood there, arms crossed, a satisfied look on her face. After a few hums, she opened her crimson eyes and looked at Leda.
"It's a bit of a mess out there. If you've got nothing better to do, come help clean up."
Leda hesitated, then nodded and followed her out—
only to see the "battlefield."
Blood spattered everywhere, congealed chunks and shattered bone scattered across the floor. Twisted limbs lay among the wreckage.
Just looking at it made Leda's body ache in sympathy.
She said nothing. After composing herself, she quietly began cleaning as Elizabeth had asked.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Chaos appeared beside Elizabeth, the Frenzied Flame flickering around her. He glanced at Leda cleaning the battlefield, then at Elizabeth, who watched her with amused interest.
"What are you scheming?"
"Nothing at all."
Elizabeth shook her head and spoke with calm honesty.
"I just think that girl's a little pitiful, so I wanted to look after her, that's all."
"Pitiful?"
"Not her current situation," Elizabeth clarified. "It's just… I can feel it. On the surface she looks strong, but deep down, there's a huge emptiness inside her. It makes you want to fill it—almost instinctively."
Chaos was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke.
"You're still hung up on the Mohg affair, aren't you?"
"Yeah," Elizabeth admitted without hesitation.
"Honestly, I never paid much attention to that child. But having her suddenly stolen away—it still irritates me a little."
"And more importantly…"
As she recalled the manifestation of Miquella's Law, Elizabeth's expression turned cold, entirely unlike the casual tone she'd had before.
"That kind of false tenderness and love… it disgusts me so much that even my very being rejects it."
"So, your plan is to steal away his followers as revenge?"
"Why not?" Elizabeth replied lightly. Her expression softened again as she turned her gaze toward Leda, who still had no idea she was being watched. A faint smile tugged at her lips.
"Besides, don't you think filling a void with genuine emotion is better than hiding it behind a blur of false affection?"
Chaos thought for a moment.
"I do like genuine emotion… but I doubt your idea of 'genuine' is the same as mine."
"You're hardly one to lecture me on that."
Elizabeth gave her a sidelong glance.
"When it comes to being extreme, I'm still far behind you."
"...That's true."
...
Time passed.
Shadow City, underground.
After completing the reincarnation of the last batch of Numen, Lloyd walked over and checked their conditions one by one. Once he confirmed there were no issues, he led them to join the others who had been reincarnated earlier.
After a brief chat and settling the newcomers, Lloyd went to find Messmer and explained the situation.
"I've finished treating everyone. They're resting for now at the spot you arranged. Send someone with food and ask for their opinions. If they all agree, when I return, I'll bring them back to my place."
Messmer nodded.
"You're heading to the Spiral Tower, then?"
"Yeah. I'm planning to take a look. If we delay any longer, the situation in Godwyn's territory could turn bad..."
"Want me to come along?"
"No need. I've got enough people with me. You've got your own matters to handle—focus on those first."
Their conversation ended. Lloyd opened the map, but instead of teleporting directly to the Spiral Tower of the Shadow Seal, he first traveled to the Royal Capital to brief Morgott and Godwyn about the situation.
Since it concerned his brother Gouzi, Godwyn immediately said he would come along.
And because it involved his elder brother's domain, Morgott, despite his workload, chose to set his duties aside temporarily and accompany him.
After adding one man and one lamp to the group, Lloyd opened the map again and teleported to the Blood Kingdom. There, he called out to Mohg, who was in the middle of planning something, and asked if he wanted to join as well.
Since it also involved his elder brother's domain, Mohg naturally didn't refuse—but...
"Uh, Lloyd, could we maybe… not bring Morgott along this time?"
When Lloyd mentioned their destination, Mohg's expression twisted with unease.
It wasn't that he rejected his second brother or didn't want to travel with him—quite the opposite. He made the suggestion because he was worried.
"You know that place... it's the Hornsent Spiral Tower."
Having already visited the Land of Shadow and possessing a portal there, Mohg had learned quite a lot about that realm—especially the tangled history between the Hornsent and his mother.
How should one even put it...
Originally, since he and his brother had been thrown into the sewers at birth, Mohg had harbored resentment toward the mother he'd barely seen.
But after learning about the mess between the Hornsent and Marika, his opinion changed. In his words, the fact that she merely dumped them in the sewers instead of bashing their heads in with a hammer was proof enough of a mother's mercy.
But that wasn't the real problem.
The real issue was that learning the truth had hit him so hard it nearly broke him. For a time, he even came to loathe his own nature as an Omen.
And if his stubborn second brother were to find out...
"You've noticed his horns, haven't you? They weren't broken by anyone else. He cut them off himself."
"Even before learning any of this, he hated what he was—so much that he cut his own horns off, risking his life. If he learns the truth about the Hornsent... I'm afraid he might do something irreversible."
That was indeed a problem.
After talking with Mohg for a while, Lloyd thought for a moment, then used an excuse to take Godwyn-in-the-Lamp from Morgott's hands.
"I remember you saying you were planning to tell him about the Hornsent."
"I never said that," Godwyn-in-the-Lamp replied honestly.
"After we got back, he's been buried in work. And with me dodging the topic, he still has no idea about the Hornsent or the Numen."
He paused, the head inside the lantern letting out a weary sigh.
"It's not that I haven't thought about telling him the truth. But I'm just a head now—if I tell him everything and he loses control, I won't be able to stop him."
"Then this is the perfect time to tell him," Lloyd said.
"It'll probably hit him hard, but at least my situation might distract him a bit. It should help soften the blow."
And so, they agreed.
After wrapping up the discussion, Lloyd brought Mohg and Godwyn-in-the-Lamp back to Morgott, who was still looking confused. Before he could ask anything, Lloyd opened the map and teleported them all to the Shadow Seal before the Spiral Tower's entrance.
Then...
"I can feel it. My soul is inside."
After a moment's silence as he stared at the Shadow Seal, the head in the lantern spoke slowly.
"But the question is—how do we get in?"
Being older, Godwyn-in-the-Lamp knew this place well.
"I don't doubt your strength, but brute force alone won't do it. The Shadow Seal is a unified construct. Even if you open a gap, the rest will close it instantly—like water filling a hole in the sea."
"Yeah, I know," Lloyd replied calmly.
He had already studied the seal earlier and understood its nature.
Forget Godwyn—without a Fire Seed to burn through, even Elizabeth couldn't bring her physical body inside this barrier.
But...
"If brute force can't break it, that just means one thing—our strength isn't enough yet."
He motioned for the two and the lamp to step back, then equipped his main body. Residual flames flared to life across him.
As he'd mentioned before, his two sets of Law could be used simultaneously. So even after switching to his main body, the Great Rune on his hand didn't fade—it burned brighter. As his soul energy surged into it, faint ember sparks shimmered within the ring.
He then drew what looked like an ordinary gauntlet and strapped it onto his fist. After clenching his hand and testing a few swings to get the feel right, he stepped before the Shadow Seal and—
—threw a single, simple punch.
BOOM!!!
Without warning, a thunderous explosion erupted. The shockwave swept through the entire Land of Shadow, even breaching the sealed barrier so that faint echoes reached the Lands Between.
The destructive wave devoured everything in an instant, spreading outward like a relentless tide.
The ground quaked, buildings crumbled, and even the towering Shadow Tree groaned under the strain, its creaking like a mournful wail.
Before Lloyd, as he withdrew his fist, a massive hollow tunnel piercing deep into the Shadow Seal had opened.
Noticing the edges beginning to mend, Lloyd took out a talisman, fired a Sunlight Spear into it, then followed with two Twisted Light Barriers for good measure.
With that, the barrier's physical, temporal, and spatial integrity was completely shattered—what was once a sealed passage was now a warped black vortex, unable to heal itself again.
Satisfied after confirming it was stable, Lloyd nodded, then turned toward the two brothers and the lantern, all of whom were staring blankly in shock.
"See?" he said casually.
"It's open."