Dawn brought no light.Only a thick haze of mana rippling over the ruins like a diseased ocean.
What had once been the heart of the Douglas Duchy…was no longer a place for humans.
The nearby mountains had split at impossible angles, as if divine hands had reshaped them through sheer force.Twisted trees breathed mana.Stones pulsed like dead hearts.And the air…
The air was so saturated with magic it burned the skin.
No one could live there.Not today.Not tomorrow.Perhaps not ever again.
Lusian watched in silence.For the first time, his face showed not strength… but exhaustion.
Albert approached through the remains of the road.
"My lord," he said gravely. "Everything has been arranged. The caravans will depart before noon."
Behind him, thousands of soldiers and civilians gathered, carrying what little remained.A fractured sea of people—yet still willing to follow.
One of the generals stepped forward.
"Duke Douglas… let us follow you. Wherever you go, we will go."
Lusian lowered his gaze.
The general didn't understand.Or perhaps he did.
A thought opened within him like a wound:
Why don't they hate me…?I'm the one who caused the fall of this place.
Albert looked at him with the unyielding honesty only he could afford.
"My lord, I know what you're thinking… but listen to me."
He gestured toward the ruins, the fractured sky, the trembling lines of mana stretching across the ground.
"The Duchy does not exist because of land. Nor because of walls.It exists to serve you. That is—and has always been—our reason for being."
Lusian closed his eyes.He felt the weight of divine power within him… and in his heart, a fire he could not extinguish.
He exhaled.
"Very well…" he said in a low voice. "Find a new place. Somewhere the mana is tolerable. Somewhere the beasts won't follow.Albert… guide them."
"Yes, my lord."
The general pressed on:
"And you? Will you come with us?"
Lusian slowly shook his head.
He looked toward the horizon, where the sky remained fractured by the battle of the gods.
"The gods will not accept what I am," he said with cutting honesty. "They will send heroes. They will send monsters. They will try everything.And I cannot allow half a million people to die just for standing at my side."
He took a step back.The mana-laden wind made his cloak ripple as if the land itself rejected him.
"Moving alone is the only way to keep them alive.While you search for a home… I will disappear from the map."
Albert swallowed, hiding his pain.
"When we find a safe place," he said, "when we raise new walls… you will return, won't you?"
Lusian met his gaze.
"Yes.When you are safe.When the gods can no longer use you to reach me… I will return."
Albert bowed his head in a farewell he knew might last months… or years.
The drums sounded.The caravans began to move.
An entire duchy set out on an exodus that would be remembered for generations.
Lusian, alone in the dead land, watched them leave.
And only when the last Douglas banner vanished into the mana fog did his expression change.
"Let the gods come…" he murmured."This time, I won't be waiting here."
The wind roared, dragging dust and distorted light around his boots.
Lusian took a step toward the fractured horizon…
…when he heard footsteps behind him.
Not soldiers.Not Albert.Not a divine herald.
It was them.
Elizabeth stepped forward, her hips swaying slightly, her gaze fixed on the man she had chosen.
"If you thought we'd let you walk into death alone," she said, a tired but resolute smile on her lips, "then you still don't know me."
Emily arrived next, drawing a steady breath, her eyes unbreakable.
"I told you once," she whispered. "No matter where you go… I'll go with you."
Kara followed, her greatsword wrapped in cloth to contain the residual energy still pulsing within it.
"Besides," she added with a sharp tone, "who's going to get you out of trouble when you act like an idiot hero? Because you will. You always do."
Isabella walked forward with her head held high, her red eyes burning like embers.
"Are you going to abandon me?" she asked, a mix of guilt and defiance in her voice. "You promised you'd always protect me… or was that just to get me into your bed?My path is bound to yours, Lusian. Until the end."
Adela stepped forward in silence, her white tiger at her side. Her presence was warm—a refuge—despite the cold aura emanating from him.
"We are not burdens," she murmured, touching his arm. "We are your strength.And you are ours."
Dayana was the last to appear, descending from a fractured rock with her usual defiant air. Her eyes lingered on Lusian's neck; she licked her lips, her fangs briefly visible.
"I have no home," she said softly. "And besides…" she smiled, "if I help you, you'll give me a little, won't you?I promise I'll obey. Just give me a taste of you."
Lusian looked at them.
Six women who had survived the war.
"You don't understand what's coming," he said at last. "I can't allow—"
Elizabeth cut him off with a firm step forward.
"You don't get to decide for us."
Emily held back tears.Kara smiled as if it were all a game, ready to follow him even against his will.Isabella burned.Adela radiated calm.Dayana looked ready to beg… or bite.
Lusian closed his eyes.
It was impossible to protect them.Impossible to stop them.
And deep down, he knew:
They were the last part of his humanity.
He opened his eyes.
And accepted his fate…and theirs.
"Then," he said, "we walk together."
The mana surged again, lifting spirals of violet light.
Lusian moved forward.Elizabeth at his left.Emily at his right.Kara leaping onto a broken stone.Isabella stepping like living fire.Adela behind, a silent guardian.Dayana ahead, defying the storm.
Seven figures.
One purpose.
The world had lost a duchy.The gods had gained an enemy.
And soon, the entire continent would learn a new truth:
When a demigod walks with companions…there is no sky that can contain him.
And so…
began the war even the gods had never foreseen.