There was no sound. No warning. One moment, the space beside my bed was empty—the next, she was standing there as if she had always belonged.
Her expression was calm, almost casual, as though materializing inside someone's room was the most natural thing in the world.
She looked at me and asked,
"Ready?"
I hesitated before answering. I might be, but I wasn't certain.
Marika said that, for the moment, I should rely on guns. We would also need to hide our identities. She told me to wait a moment, adding that she would change our appearances.
She handed me a gun.Sometime between one breath and the next, I had become a tall, brown-haired young man.
Apparently, the transformation had limits.My appearance had changed. My clothes had not.
The next thing I knew, I had to steal my brother's clothes — since we weren't that rich, the only decent thing he owned was a suit.
I paused before taking it and, in my heart, apologized and prayed for him. Sorry.
She said that we wouldn't be using teleportation this time — we would have to use this.
I looked at the vehicle in front of me and blinked. A horse-drawn carriage. Really?
We climbed into the carriage, and Marika began explaining how things would go. We were supposed to attend a party — not a normal ball, she clarified.
At that ball, there was a demon. Our mission was simple in theory: defeat the demon and collect its blood. For Marika, it would be easy — she could handle it without breaking a sweat.
But to advance to the next door, I had to do everything myself. Which meant that hopeless me — armed with only a small gun — had to defeat a demon.
At last, she added, "Oh, I almost forgot—you'll be attending this ball as my boyfriend." I had completely forgotten that I was now a man. I felt more confident—after all, I was as tall as Johan and probably just as strong.
During the trip to the ball, Marika told me everything I needed to know. She showed me what the demon looked like and handed me several strange cards. She explained that the cards would begin drawing themselves toward the demon in case he changed his appearance.
She also said I didn't need to worry about people seeing her with a gun, since the other half of the mission was to execute everyone present at the ball. When I asked for the reason, she didn't reply at first. After a moment, she finally spoke.
"They're all from high‑ranking families," she said. "And they're connected to the underworld."
Still, she told me not to worry. According to our information broker, they were, at most, at the third door—hardly a threat.
Upon arriving at the ball, we had a few drinks and danced a couple of times—until Marika's expression changed, and she whispered, "He's here."
The metal cards began to shake, and a pressure pressed down on me—just as intense as the one I had felt when I first encountered the Church of Tragedy.
As we had planned, Marika set traps to block the demon's movement, and all I had to do was shoot him in his core.
But it didn't go as planned. The traps shattered the moment he stepped beside them. His pressure was overwhelming—far stronger than Soren Saskia, who had been approaching the fifth door of Zenith.
Marika ran to my side and shouted, "Change of plans!" She handed me a strange-looking device. "This will connect you to the Church," she said. "Call for backup—a fifth-door holder has appeared."
She teleported me far from the ball's location. I contacted the Church, and the moment they heard it was a fifth-door, they immediately prepared for battle. Even the playboy-looking man was serious for once—his expression hardened as he muttered, "I hope I'm not late this time."
Meanwhile, at the ball, Marika was pushing herself to surpass her limits. She only had enough strength to use her powers for a limited time.
Before she could even react, the demon teleported right behind her.
His voice was the creepiest thing to ever exist. Any non‑door holder's ears would burst from hearing it.
He said, "I heard that you and a few fools have been looking for me."
Marika teleported away, summoning a sword of light from nowhere. She attacked the demon, but to her surprise, her strikes only scratched his clothes.
"Pathetic," the demon sneered.
He decided to strike back. His attack was devastatingly strong, but thankfully, Marika had activated a light shield.
The demon, impressed, decided to take the fight seriously. With just his aura, he began obliterating everything around him.
Marika knew she wasn't strong enough to defeat him.
Marika unleashed a forbidden attack—one that would cost her three years of her life. With it, she finally tore a massive hole through the demon's body. The strike was so powerful it should have put her into a coma, yet she pushed forward, filling a container with the demon's blood.
"With this, I can move to the next door," she whispered, and then she collapsed.
Unfortunately, even Marika's strongest attack wasn't enough. The demon regenerated as if nothing had happened—except for his shredded clothes.
Just as the demon was about to finish Marika off, I was teleported back to the ball. Standing before me were Mr. Playboy, the kid-looking guy, mister Soren and the Valentina twins.
Mr. Playboy was carrying Marika like a princess. He was a holder of the Third Stasis Door, and his healing abilities were on another level. He simply reversed the changes Marika had suffered—restoring her to exactly how she had been before the fight, as if nothing had happened.
Yet somehow, he was crying.
"You lost three years again, didn't you?" he said."I told you," he continued, voice trembling, "even the Stasis Door—the strongest in terms of healing—can't bring those years back. I… I don't want to end up alone again."
Marika wiped away his tears and kissed him. Then she said, "If you're really that worried about me… you can prove it now."
That's when I learned his name: Hale Rhodes.
His rage was enough to destroy everything around him, but even that wasn't enough to defeat the demon.
Even with his playboy personality and stupid jokes, he was smart. Seeing that the demon's clothes were ripped, he immediately realized it had regenerated.
He used his door once again, forcing the demon back to the state he was in before regenerating.
The demon's body was incredibly durable, made from the demon source itself. Even so, he could regenerate at most five times in such a short period.
The Valentina twins, holders of the Third Door of Paradox, focused on sealing the demon, preventing him from moving.
While Mr. Soren used his light swords to strike him down, Mr. Hale forced the demon back to his previous state immediately after each regeneration.
The demon, who had lived for over 200 years, had never felt anything like this—it was fear. He was terrified that he might lose his life.
For the first time, the tables were turning. Each strike, each manipulation of space and time, chipped away at the ancient creature's confidence. Hale's strategy, Marika's courage, Soren's precision, and the twins' paradox seals worked together as a perfect symphony of offense and control. The demon was powerful—but even he could feel the pressure of those determined to stop him.
The demon began losing his human form, revealing his true self. He grew into an awful monster—over fifteen feet tall, massive enough to fill the entire ballroom.