The impact was so violent that Elior crashed through a stone pillar, bringing it down in a dry, thunderous collapse. His body fell amid dust and rubble. He tried to get up immediately, but his head was spinning and the air…
the air was so cold it hurt to breathe.
"Wh-where… am I?" he coughed, feeling the cold slice through his throat. "Who the hell was that woman…? What do they want from me this time…?"
He did not finish the sentence.
A soft voice, cold like a freshly opened grave, whispered directly into his ear.
"You know who I am."
Elior jumped back on pure instinct, taking distance and assuming a guard stance, panting clouds of vapor.
"Tell me who you are!" he shouted between coughs. "Answer me!"
The woman twisted her lips into a smile.
"You are slower than I expected.
Draw your own conclusions. I have no reason to tell you anything, brat."
Elior clenched his teeth. He tensed every part of his body and launched himself forward.
But to her, his attacks were almost a game.
Every punch, every kick, every charge was dodged with insulting ease. When Elior threw a final blow aiming for her jaw, the figure simply tilted her head, vanished in an instant, and reappeared right in front of him.
Her fist sank into the boy's stomach.
The air escaped his body in a desperate gasp.
Elior dropped to his knees, unable to breathe. Then the woman kicked him with total indifference. He was sent flying several meters, rolling across the ground.
He tried to get up, slowly recovering his vision.
That was when he finally saw everything around him.
Endless ruins.
Fallen towers.
Bodies wandering as if lost.
The ground…
gray, lifeless grass that made no sound when stepped on.
Every impact echoed deeply, as if the entire domain were a hollow box.
Elior raised his head to look at the woman.
A punch struck his face before he even saw her.
He was sent flying backward again.
The woman's voice echoed, mocking.
"See? Everyone here is fragile… except me."
Her laughter froze Elior's blood.
Even so, he stood up.
And attacked again.
Faster.
More aggressive.
More ferocious.
Every second, his speed increased.
For the first time, she had to dodge with some effort. She even had to block a few strikes. But when Elior reached what seemed to be his limit, she simply stopped blocking.
She dissolved into smoke.
Passed through his body.
And grabbed him from behind by his shirt.
She threw him like a doll.
Elior rolled across the ground, gasping.
Who… who is she?
Who the hell is she?
He could not figure it out. And he had no time. Her speed did not allow it.
"Come on," she said with a twisted smile. "This should get more interesting. It's been thousands of years since anyone dared to fight me. Don't disappoint me, brat."
She removed her hood, letting it fall to the ground.
A faint light illuminated her.
Green eyes, empty.
Black hair, long and heavy, tied back.
An aura that crushed the chest just by looking at her.
She returned to her "human" form, leaving behind the dark silhouette that had surrounded her.
But something strange happened.
Elior's shadow stirred, as if trying to escape him.
A duality within him activated.
His bodily synchronization broke for a second.
And the woman took advantage of it.
The fight resumed.
Elior dodged some blows.
But he took many more.
His fists never touched her. No matter how much he analyzed, no matter how hard he tried to predict her next move.
Desperate, he ripped a massive rock from the ground and hurled it at full speed.
She appeared in front of him before he could react.
She grabbed him by the hair.
And struck.
Stomach.
Face.
Legs.
A perfect sequence of blows that would leave anyone incapacitated for days.
Elior blocked some attacks, but his body could not take any more.
Until he finally screamed,
"ENOUGH!"
And by pure instinct, he extended his hand toward her.
An invisible shockwave exploded.
Death was sent flying several meters backward.
Without Elior even touching her.
She frowned.
"Who the hell do you think you are to throw me like that?"
She approached so fast Elior barely saw her move. She drove a kick into his stomach. He rolled again across that disgusting gray ground.
Blood, pain, and desperation were clear participants in the moment.
As she approached, Elior stood up and tried to punch her.
She dodged and—
"CRACK!"
She grabbed his arm and broke it instantly.
Elior screamed from the pain. But even then, he did not give in.
He kicked Death to push her away and forced himself upright.
He kept spitting blood.
He kept staring at the mysterious woman.
That was when he saw it.
The necklace she wore was unmistakable.
That symbol.
The same symbol he had seen in the books he bought a few days ago.
Her mark.
The soul collector.
The forgotten daughter.
The only one who made a pact with God to maintain balance.
Elior swallowed hard and said, gasping,
"You… you are Death, aren't you?"
She looked away, annoyed.
"It took you ten minutes to realize. Tsk.
Now we can talk about what actually matters."
She looked directly into Elior's eyes, trying to see his memories.
But she could not.
A strange blockage in Elior's soul prevented it. A recently imposed seal. To access his memories, he would have to be dead or willingly allow his mind to be touched.
"Damn it!" she snapped. "What do you have in your mind, brat? I can't see your life!"
She approached in the blink of an eye.
Elior reacted on instinct and struck her in the stomach. The impact echoed throughout the domain, but it did absolutely nothing to her.
"You are weak," she murmured. "And frankly, quite stupid if you think you can hurt me."
The next blow was devastating.
A precise strike to his ribs, and before Elior could fall, she grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the ground. She climbed on top of him and began beating his face mercilessly.
Elior could barely cover himself.
He had a broken arm.
He was exhausted.
He was losing blood uncontrollably.
Finally, she released him.
"Get up, weakling.
I'm venting all the stress you caused me these past days… for escaping from where you were supposed to be."
Elior opened one swollen, bloodied eye.
"W-what… are you saying? From where… did I escape?"
She turned toward her cloak.
"From where you belonged.
You should have died days ago.
You were mine.
You should not have come back."
Elior clenched his teeth and let his anger spill out.
"You think I wanted to come back?" he spat blood onto the ground. "I did everything I could to stay dead! They wouldn't let me! They wanted me to live!
Do you think I want to keep living?
I lost everyone I loved!
I just wanted to be with my family!"
She stopped.
Her expression changed.
That meant…
perhaps God had returned him.
Sending his family to retrieve him.
Or something even more impossible.
Satan?
No.
Mortals did not interest him.
Elior kept crying.
Crying with a pain he had not released in years.
As if everything finally shattered at once.
Death sighed, looking upward.
She approached him.
"I'm sorry, kid," she said more softly. "I completely forgot that in the end, you're just a child.
But for the record… you were the one who started hitting."
Suddenly, the flow of icy air stopped.
Elior was no longer crying.
A deep silence emanated from him as tears continued to fall down his cheeks while he stared at the dark sky.
His shadow moved on its own.
It wrapped around him.
It lifted him up.
Death instinctively stepped back.
She recognized that power.
That sensation.
The power of the ancient King of Shadows.
Elior's eyes were dull.
His veins swollen.
His breathing calm for the first time in a long while.
And he murmured, obsessively, delirious,
"You… are Death… right?"
Death frowned.
Did I hit his head too hard?
"Death is an angel… right? Yeah… of course… it's an angel, it's an angel, it's an angel, IT'S AN ANGEL!" he shouted with a laugh completely foreign to him.
Elior's eyes changed.
They did not glow.
They went dark, like a predator's.
"And I… am going to kill… all the angels," he said with a wide, twisted smile.
He lunged.
The fight turned brutal, evenly matched for the first time.
Death was hit. And although she was still superior, Elior did not retreat.
Until he managed to strike her in the stomach.
She blocked.
Elior smiled, spun, positioned himself behind her, and threw her away.
Then he appeared behind her in a blink and punched her square in the face.
She became furious.
"Damn brat… so you want to fight seriously?"
She released her cloak again.
And this time, she attacked.
Blindingly fast blows, guided by thousands of years of experience. She tried to immobilize him.
But something was wrong.
Elior broke free again and again.
As if he knew exactly what move she was about to make.
She processed the idea, recalling the beginning of the fight.
The clumsy, slow movements.
The even slower guards.
The absurd mistakes.
She reached a conclusion.
This brat… was studying me.
He used his body as a shield.
Trusting his endurance just to learn my patterns.
Annoyed, she appeared in front of him, grabbed his face, and hurled him upward with such force that the entire domain split open in a massive crack.
Elior broke through the layers of the plane as if they were glass.
And fell.
Fell.
Fell.
Until he crashed into a dark, cold world.
The Kingdom of Shadows.
His own domain.
The impact that shook the Shadow Domain was so violent that the world seemed to break from within.
Dark stone structures creaked. The shadows stirred at the sound.
Many inhabitants reacted immediately. Some fled. Others hid. Others simply ran to take the children away.
Because that presence had arrived.
Death.
Her presence there never meant anything good.
Only Alice, who was traveling through the domain fulfilling her duties, ran toward the impact. Her heart pounded. She knew something terrible had happened even before seeing it.
"No…" she whispered.
Elior was embedded in a stone pillar, his body bleeding from the impact. As she approached, he fell heavily to the ground… and immediately raised a trembling hand.
"A-Alice…" he said with a broken voice. "Stay away… don't come closer…"
She did not understand anything. She was about to protest… until she saw her.
Standing a few meters away, wrapped in black, with an insulting calm, was the woman.
"Listen to your king, Alice," Death said with a gentle smile. "You wouldn't want to disobey him."
The air grew heavier.
Death turned her gaze back to Elior, who was already trying to stand again.
"Don't fight…" Alice begged. "Elior, please, stop."
She knew it.
No matter how powerful he was… he was still a child.
Still human.
His muscles were not made to endure that force.
His bones were already suffering.
If he continued, his body would simply shatter completely.
Elior's arms trembled uncontrollably… but even so, he stood and clenched his muscles, forcing them to obey.
A nervous laugh escaped his lips.
He knew he was in serious trouble.
He had known it from the beginning.
It was impossible to defeat Death.
But even so…
he had no intention of surrendering.
He had promised himself to kill all the angels.
And deep down, very deep down, that promise was nothing more than a desperate way of seeking his own death… because he did not have the courage to do it with his own hands.
Without saying another word, he launched himself into the attack.
The clash was immediate.
Both moved at such speed that even for Alice and the nearby shadows it was difficult to follow them.
Blows, impacts, shockwaves.
Some watched with their eyes wide open.
Their king… was facing Death in a one-on-one fight.
Elior was struck without pause.
Ribs, abdomen, back, face.
He tried to counterattack, but Death became mist again and again, letting the attacks pass through her before reappearing to retaliate with brutal precision.
But then…
In an instant when she grew confident in her game…
"DEMONS!"
Elior spun on himself and drove a direct kick into her ribs.
For the first time, Death was violently launched away, crashing into a nearby house and raising a massive cloud of dust and debris.
Elior was gasping.
His legs trembled.
He could not keep that pace.
All he could do was endure.
From the rubble, Death's laughter echoed.
"That was a good kick, brat. I'll give you that."
She walked out calmly, brushing dust off herself.
"But you're still weak."
Her smile widened.
"And even though you entertained me… you damaged my outfit.
So while I change… you'll play with my pets from Gehenna."
Elior clenched his teeth.
She was not tired.
Not even a little. And that annoyed him even more.
He turned his gaze toward the horizon after sensing a deeply repugnant smell.
A portal etched with red runes opened… and from it emerged around a hundred demons, running straight toward him.
"Elior!" Alice shouted, trying to approach to help him.
He raised his hand.
And his domain, his kingdom, responded. A massive wall rose up, sealing off the entrance and exit of the city where its inhabitants were, protecting them from the demons.
"Get out of here!" he shouted at her.
"Please, you have to stop!" she begged. "My lord, your body will suffer every consequence of this. Remember, your body is still human!"
Elior knew.
But he no longer had time to think. The demons were coming, and he was already exhausted.
In a moment of doubt, an idea crossed his mind.
Maybe… if I let them kill me… I can see them again.
At that moment, he was ready to give in to his thoughts. He closed his eyes.
He spread his arms.
As if saying, come… kill me.
Death watched the scene, surprised. She did not understand what the boy was doing. Was he giving up? Did he really want to die?
But just as the demons reached him… Elior's instinct reacted automatically.
He dodged the first and crushed its head with a blow.
Then another.
And another.
The massacre began.
Without mercy.
Without hesitation.
Dismemberments, pulverizations, his fists tearing through every demon nearby.
The rage he carried inside surged to the surface.
The exhaustion vanished. And with it, apparently, the desire to die.
His body moved on its own, guided by survival and fury.
Death silently watched the slaughter unfolding.
Then she remembered the brat's words.
"I will kill all the angels."
And she began to connect the pieces. Taking Elior's Book of Life, she reviewed step by step the data she could see. Through it, she also reached the life data of the people she had seen with him in purgatory. His family had been murdered in front of him. That much she already knew.
But that hatred, where it came from, how they died… and when she finished reviewing his family's data, everything fell into place.
An archangel had murdered his family while trying to kill a noble demon.
Right before his eyes.
That was where the guilt was born.
The fighting instinct.
The hatred.
Angels. Demons.
All of them.
And he was not just killing them…
He was enjoying it.
"Interesting…" Death whispered.
She reviewed the boy's book again.
This being had completely captured her attention, something that had not happened in thousands of years.
The inhabitants of the kingdom tried to help, but the wall was still there.
Elior was alone… and yet, he was abysmally strong.
Maybe he even possessed abilities he did not yet know.
"No wonder they got so nervous in Aetheris…" she murmured.
"If he keeps this up, this boy could be capable of killing them all."
"Well, that's enough."
She snapped her fingers.
The remaining demons died instantly.
Elior, seeing the demons disintegrate, glared at her furiously.
"Well, now we can talk about what matters. You passed the test," she said with a smile.
"A… test?" he roared. "You think all of this is a game?!"
His voice trembled with rage.
"You think I'm one of your toys?! I'M NOT A DAMN TOY!" he screamed with his entire being.
In Geheris, Kael had been silent for several minutes, pacing back and forth, his mind trapped in a single thought. How do I reach him?
He did not know where Elior was. He did not know how to reach him.
If Death had taken him to her domain… then it was impossible. None of them could enter there.
In another room, Seraphine and Hina had taken the children away, trying to calm them even though they themselves could not.
Lia cried uncontrollably, clinging to Hina's clothes, trembling with fear.
Aramis, on the other hand, did not cry. He walked in circles again and again, unable to stay still, as if something inside him refused to accept the wait.
"Easy, Aramis…" Seraphine said softly, though her gaze betrayed her own anguish. "He will come back. Trust me."
Aramis stopped.
He did not respond.
He remained in absolute silence, heavier than any scream.
Hina crouched in front of Lia, clumsily wiping away her tears.
"Elior will be fine," she said, trying to sound convinced. "He always pulls through… somehow."
"What was it that took him?" Lia asked between sobs.
Hina hesitated.
She did not know what to answer.
She simply hugged her again.
Seraphine, hearing those words, felt a tight knot form in her chest.
Yes, Elior was strong… but Death was angry.
He had escaped purgatory.
And no one challenged Death without paying a price.
Her heart began to pound violently.
Her hands were sweating.
A dark sensation ran through her body.
In another room, Aurora spoke quietly with Kael.
"I'll go to Aetheris," she said. "Maybe I can find something… or ask for help."
Kael immediately shook his head.
"No." His voice was firm. "They won't help. They'll only take advantage of the situation."
And then… everything changed.
The rhythm of the air shifted unnaturally.
Only Kael, Aurora, and Seraphine were able to feel it.
An instant later, all of Geheris began to tremble.
"Get down!" Hina shouted.
Hina and Seraphine shoved the children under the desk just as the shaking turned violent. No one could remain standing; everyone staggered. Glass shattered, furniture slid, the ceiling creaked alarmingly.
"What is happening?!" Hina screamed, terrified.
Seraphine struggled to keep her balance.
"Get under the desk!" she ordered.
Kael and Aurora held on as best they could.
Aurora understood immediately.
"This isn't an earthquake…" she thought. "The air doesn't change like this."
Her eyes widened in horror.
"It's a fight…" she whispered.
"A fight between colossi."
Kael clenched his teeth so hard they hurt.
There was nothing they could do.
They were completely helpless.
"Please…" he murmured.
"Son… you can do it."
"Come back…"
The shaking stopped abruptly.
A heavy silence fell over the house, broken only by the car alarms outside.
The children ran to Kael, still trembling. Hina and Seraphine followed them. The adults assured them everything would be fine, though they themselves were not sure. If the tremors continued, it would be fatal for humans.
Seraphine placed a hand on her chest.
Something was wrong.
She did not know if it was her bond with Elior… or if her power was reacting to the fear flooding Geheris.
If it was the latter, then it meant only one thing.
Her power was growing.
Aurora was the only one who noticed. And seeing her, she knew something was happening to her, but they could not address that now. Elior's situation was more urgent. They had to resolve it immediately.
Elior's scream tore through the Shadow Domain.
His eyes shone with unnatural intensity, and at the same time, something answered.
The ground cracked.
The shadows rose like living tides.
And far away, Geheris began to tremble.
Death raised an eyebrow, genuinely intrigued for the first time.
"Oh…"
Elior disappeared. It was not speed. It was absence itself, as if he had never been there.
Death twisted her body on instinct, and the blow grazed her cheek, tearing a thread of black blood that evaporated before touching the ground.
"…interesting."
The next impact came from below.
Then from behind.
Then from all sides.
Elior attacked without stopping, his body moving in perfect synchrony with his shadow, which covered more and more of him. Each blow made space vibrate, each clash resounded like distant thunder.
Death blocked.
Once.
Twice.
She stepped back half a step.
Not because she could not endure it…
but because it was the first time in centuries that someone forced her to do so. The first time in centuries that someone made her enjoy a fight this much.
"So this is your strength…" she murmured. "Now I understand."
Elior did not respond.
He could no longer speak. His energy was focused solely on fighting.
His veins burned, his breathing was an irregular gasp, and yet he did not stop. His body was breaking little by little, but his will pushed him forward.
A direct blow struck Death's ribs.
The ground collapsed for kilometers.
The shadows exploded into the sky.
And in Geheris, entire buildings groaned.
For an instant…
just an instant…
Death was pushed backward.
Her feet carved grooves into the black ground of the domain.
"Tch…"
Elior appeared in front of her, his hand wrapped in pure darkness, and unleashed another blow.
Death raised her arm and stopped the attack with an open palm.
The collision was brutal.
The air compressed, the domain folded in on itself, and the echo of the impact crossed every possible plane.
"Enough."
With a simple flick of her wrist, Death released an invisible pressure.
Elior's body bent as if pierced by a mountain.
He spat blood.
His bones cracked.
Even so, on the ground, he was trying to get back up.
"No…" he gasped. "No… I am not…"
Death grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her.
Her green eyes, empty and eternal, locked onto his.
"You are not a toy," she admitted.
"But do not think you are my equal."
She lifted him off the ground with one hand.
Elior tried to move.
He could not.
His shadow responded…
but his body no longer did.
"You have crossed limits that even angels dare not touch," she continued. "You have forced the balance to look at you."
At last, after trying, she was able to enter Elior's mind. The moment when the archangel fought the demon and the blood of both entered him. But within that moment, Death recognized that archangel, even though he no longer held that title. He had been cast out after that battle.
"Azhael…?" Death whispered as she understood everything.
Azhael was indeed a powerful archangel, but far too unstable. To him, humans were nothing more than cannon fodder, flesh shields, useless beings. After that battle, his wings were torn away, and for survival he forged a pact with one of the princes of Gehenna. His whereabouts were completely unknown.
"Poor child. In the end, your blood mixed with two demons… you are cursed."
Elior could not hear what she whispered. He only saw how, without the slightest effort, she lifted him as if he weighed nothing.
Death slammed him into the ground with such violence that space itself fractured.
The impact extinguished the shadows.
The domain fell silent.
Elior lay there, barely conscious, his chest rising and falling irregularly.
Death watched him for a few seconds longer.
"You survived.
That is already a problem."
She turned away, her cloak rippling like mist.
"Rest, King of Shadows," she said without looking at him.
"Next time… I will not play."
And as her presence faded, in Geheris the trembling finally ceased.
Elior did not move. His body no longer allowed it.
Back in her domain, Death sighed.
"What a difficult boy…"
She took a few steps through the eternal mist and, out of habit, brought a hand to her cheek.
The cut was still there.
It was not closing.
She frowned.
Something similar had happened when she burned her hands on that light that protected him in purgatory.
A strange power.
Not divine… but not demonic either.
"Tch…"
That boy's strike had interfered with her regeneration.
"Next time, we'll talk seriously," she murmured, disappearing into the shadows.
In the Shadow Domain, the wall Elior had raised finally collapsed.
The shadows retreated.
Elior lay on the ground.
Defeated.
Exhausted.
Unable to move.
His eyes were bleeding, thin crimson trails running down his face from the extreme pressure of the battle. His breathing was irregular, shallow, as if his body was unsure whether it wanted to keep functioning.
"Elior!"
Alice ran to him and knelt at his side.
"Elior, answer me… please…"
There was no response.
His gaze was lost, fixed on a nonexistent point. He had fought with everything he had… and yet, Death had stopped his blows with an open palm.
It was not enough…
I am not enough…
"Elior!" she shouted again.
Then… he blinked.
His eyes finally focused on her.
"Ah… Alice…"
She helped him sit up. Everything around them was chaos, destroyed structures, agitated inhabitants, the kingdom marked by the battle.
Elior's clothes were shredded, soaked in blood, demon blood and his own. His appearance was completely worn down.
With Alice's help, he walked with difficulty to the fountain and washed his face. The water turned red… but it did little. The blood kept flowing.
His wounds were no longer regenerating.
Not like before.
Suddenly, Elior stopped.
He straightened his back.
He turned around… and bowed deeply to the inhabitants of the kingdom.
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice low but firm.
"I exposed you unnecessarily. That was irresponsible of me."
"I truly… regret it."
The silence was absolute. The shadows only watched him, not with annoyance, but with admiration. They understood then that their king was extraordinarily strong despite being so young, and that even so, he was capable of protecting them no matter what.
He was exhausted physically and emotionally. He needed rest, ice, time. Alice asked him, almost begged him, to stay.
Elior was about to accept.
But then he remembered.
Death breaking into his home.
The terror of Hina's children, of Seraphine. Just thinking about having to explain everything to her exhausted him even more.
"I can't," he finally said.
"They must be scared… especially them. I need to see them."
He leaned against the wall to stay upright.
"I'll come back tomorrow. No matter what."
"Sorry for worrying you."
"You're a lost cause, my lord…" Alice murmured with a strained smile. "See you tomorrow, and please take care of yourself."
She was deeply worried. The wounds were not healing… and there was something different about him. Something she could not name.
"I'm leaving."
When Alice was about to ask how he would return this time, Elior was no longer listening.
He walked into nothingness. And crossed a portal that opened in front of him.
Alice remained frozen.
That… should not have been possible yet. Even exhausted, even with his body destroyed, Elior had learned to use planar crossing. He had adapted quickly to the domain.
"Incredible…" she whispered.
In Geheris, the children were already with Kael and Aurora after the tremor.
The atmosphere was still heavy.
Then, the air changed again.
"Another tremor…?" Hina whispered.
But it did not happen.
Instead, the fireplace darkened.
A portal opened.
Everyone instinctively stepped back.
Kael positioned himself in front of the children and Hina. Aurora and Seraphine tensed.
And then… their eyes saw what came through it.
Elior emerged from the portal, staggering.
Covered in dried blood.
Clothes destroyed.
Bruises, open cuts, wounds still bleeding.
He looked like more blood than person.
"Elior…" Kael murmured.
"Son… are you okay?"
No one approached.
There was something… disturbing in his gaze. It was not empty. It was not furious.
It was cold. Distant. As if he had left something behind.
Elior noticed how they were looking at him. He did not like it at all.
He slowly raised his head and looked at them one by one, eyes half-lidded. And as if he did not care at all, he said…
"What?"