The air around the mansion was no longer felt like oxygen; it was a mix of thick sulphur and heat that burning the throat. When Jahreon announced the last order, the Demon was not only taking a step. It exploded in motion beyond Human’s visual logic.

​

​The ground below its feet was not only cracked—it destroyed to dust before melting into a puddle of dark lava because of the extreme heat emanated from the Demon’s core. For Tizmilly, it was as if the time itself had slowed down, but the Demon still moved with an impossible speed. The predator knew no technique; it only knew brute force and instinct to destroy everything. When it brought its fist down to Tizmilly, it was pure physical suppression. Such simple, cruel, and effective attack.

​Tizmilly tightened her grip on Waveblade. She knew one thing; holding this attack frontally was a death sentence. When that giant fist swoop down, Tizmilly spun her wrists. She doesn’t use Waveblade as a shield, but as an energy slide. She did lateral parrying. The impact produced a deafening metallic clinking sound, followed by a wave of kinetic energy that shattered every windows of the mansion’s lower floors.

​The girl was thrown several meters to the side. The base of her arm throbbed violently. If she had been even a millisecond late in turning the angle of the attack, her humerus would have been shattered.

’Don’t worry, I can do this!’ Tizmilly encouraged herself.

Her breath felt like fire. Every breath taken brought sulfuric steam that erode her lungs. She began to feel the signs of mana exahaustion. Her vision started to blue. From afar, Jahreon raised his hand. He wouldn’t give her the rest time she needed. From his fingers, orbs of darkness was flown with a speed rivaling the speed of sound, then exploded around Tizmilly to disturb her concentration.

​"Put your weapon down, Tizmilly Fallburn. You are no longer your past self. Don’t force me to take every dignity left from you before I ends your life!" Jahreon shouted, his voice distorted by aura of darkness that had started to gather around him.

Tizmilly was cornered. The Demon attacked again, this time with a pounce that shattered a marble pillar as if it were nothing more than brittle biscuit. In this critical moment, inside the darkness that began to envelloping her consciousness, Tizmilly recalled Theo’s voice when he was helping her training. That flat, bored, but filled with authority of what was called Mana Flow.

​—"Don’t oppose the world, Tizmilly. Use what you have, then change the form. Trust me, nothing is impossible as long as you chose the right way."

Tizmilly closed her eyes for a short moment. She stopped seeing the Demon as a terrifying figure who embodied inhumane physical prowess and Abyssal flame, but as a collection of heat. She began to use her Magic, Ice Rose, and her sword, Waveblade, flawlessly, almost as if she had knew the way from the beginning. When the Demon pounced at her again to unleash its groundbreaking punch, Tizmilly pushed the tip of Waveblade toward the damp air formed by the steam.

In that instant, the steam froze, forming vines of crystalized red roses that moved like snakes, binding the Demon. Tizmilly used one of the vines as a footing and jumped to the air—fly for a moment—her sword gleamed blinding blue light that cut through the darkness as she brought it down to the Demon’s forehead. The attack failed to cut the Demon’s head, but managed to slice its metalic skin.

​

The Waveblade started to letting out ringing sound. Not the sound of steel friction, but a sound of high frequency. The sword and her soul now vubrating on the same frequency. Tizmilly landed elegantly, even though blood dropped from the side of her lips. She might not be able to call herself a knight, but at this moment, she was tranforming into something more fundamental, and not less terrifying that an existence called demon.

Jahreon was silence. His dried laughter faded, replaced by a deep frown on the forehead. He saw Tizmilly’s change. The girl who he thought was only a little candle had now producing an aura that strong enough to made him shudder. In Jahreon’s eyes, Tizmilly was no longer like a fallen noble lady. She looked like a monster who was born from the accumulation of years of pain and betrayal.

’This can’t be true,’ Jahreon thought. ’This potential... Was not something a human being can possibly have. This is definitely an anomaly that can threaten the Abyss in the future.’

​Fear began to creep inside the Apostle’s heart. He stopped playing. Jahreon began to chant, gathering curse on his palms. Not just a normal curse, but the more forbidden dark curse. The ground below Tizmilly’s feet throbbed. The shadow of the broken pillars suddenly became alive, elongated like dark, thick tentacles. They moved toward Tizmilly, trying to restraint her legs.

’No!’

She sensed it instinctively. That the curse was bad. Fatal, almost felt like the death itself approaching her.

’I should avoid it!’

Tizmilly tried to run, but she didn’t have any way to escape. In her front, the Demon finally able to break her bind with a deafening roar that shook the entire building’s foundation. Below, Jahreon’s curse had began to lock her movement, creeping, reaching toward her heart like a starving parasite. The viscosity of mana on the garden had became so thick that Tizmilly started to feel like she was standing inside an asphalt pond. Every moves became heavy and slow.

​The Demon ignited the purplish flame of Abyss on its palm. Jahreon pointed his finger at Tizmilly’s heart. "I will at least admire your bravery, Tizmilly Fallburn. You are indeed not a fallen lady. You are greater than anyone thought. That’s impressive. That’s why... Killing you is a must."

​The Demon pounced. Its burning, giant fist only inchies away from Tizmilly’s face. The shadow curse from Jahreon had almost reached the skin of her chest. Tizmilly shut her eyes, hugging Waveblade with her everything, prepared for a tragic end.

​Waveblade and the bangle were trying their best to chase the darkness away, but they were powerless after Tizmilly was caught by the curse.

However, the attack never came. ​Suddenly, all sound disappeared. The sound of the Devil’s burning flames, the sound of Jahreon’s evil laughter, even Tizmilly’s heartbeat seemed to stop in an unnatural silence. The world became static.

On the ground, just beside the withered flowers, Theo didn’t wake up with a heroic shout. He slowly opened his eyes. Those pupils had stopped concealing their true color, releasing the cold, flat, and furious ones. On those pupils, no warmth could be seen. At least not for the Demon and Jahreon.

​Theo didn’t have to move much. He only sat there, staring at the chaotic sight in front of him with an unsettling bored feeling.

"Now you really pissed me off, Jahreon," he said, turning his head to look at Jahreon.

The garden’s atmosphere shifted drastically. The dust was floating, blood drops from Tizmilly’s wounds stuck in the air, even stone fragments that was exploded before—everything stopped moving. Gravitation, one of the most fundamental law in the world, suddenly felt like a broken toy in Theo’s hand.

​

​"...Five minutes," Theo’s voice echoed. It was low, gravelly, and carried a weight that made Jahreon’s blood turn to ice. "I’ll give you five minutes of heaven... before I send you back to hell."

​Jahreon tried to scream, but he realized he couldn’t expand his lungs. The very composition of the air had shifted. The oxygen had become too dense to inhale, while his own body lost its tether to the earth, leaving him drifting powerlessly.

​The Demon—that apex predator of the Abyss—now looked pathetic. It flailed, its massive punches failing to connect as it bobbed up and down like a leaking balloon in the air. Without gravity to anchor its mass, its terrifying strength was useless.

​Theo raised a hand, his fingers clenching as if he were crushing the fabric of reality.

​"Realm of Levitation."

​In that heartbeat, the laws of nature were unmade. The garden was no longer part of the earth. Everything—Jahreon, the Demon, the jagged stone fragments—was swept upward in a nightmarish, weightless dance. Theo watched them with the cold, detached gaze of a scientist observing ants under a microscope.

​He turned his eyes toward Tizmilly, who stood amidst the floating debris, freed from the curse. He extended a hand toward her, his expression softening only a fraction as a cold, sharp smile touched his lips.

​"Would you join me in delivering the punishment they deserve, my lady?"

​Tizmilly stared at him, breathless, for a long beat. Then, she reached out and took his hand. A smile—fierce, beautiful, and resolute—spread across her face.

​"It would be my pleasure, Mister Roost. Please, guide me through the course."

​Theo chuckled softly, a dark, melodic sound. "As you wish, my lady."