[Angelica’s POV]

Me and Marie were on patrolling duty together.

We walked beside each other through the village streets in silence for the most part, exchanging observations about the terror living in the eyes of every citizen we passed. This place was breathing fear from every corner.

And that’s when Marie said something that stopped me in my tracks.

"Princess, what do you think about Deculein?"

I stopped midway. The question caught me off guard more than it should have. My mind started to process, started to picture him, his face, his actions, his words from these past few days. I swallowed whatever was about to come out and said instead.

"What do you mean by that?"

Marie’s eyes carried a worry that went deeper than casual curiosity. "I just wanted to know if you’re feeling the same thing I am. Like he is a completely different person from before."

"I don’t get what you mean."

Marie hesitated before pushing forward. "Princess, I don’t know much about him personally. But I am certain something is wrong with him. It’s like I can see two souls residing in his body. And that is something I have never witnessed before in my entire life."

I knew she would catch on eventually. Her mother was gifted with the Soul Eye, a power that doesn’t see the physical world when activated. It allows the user to see the energy world instead. The mana. The soul. It helped them predict attacks during combat, track weaknesses, read the intentions of anyone in their line of sight.

Marie inherited that gift. And now she was telling me exactly what I had been suspecting but couldn’t prove.

But I couldn’t let her spiral. Not here. Not now.

"You’re just imagining things." I kept my voice calm and dismissive. "You know how things have been going from his end recently. That kind of trauma can shake a person to their core. It’s possible your gifted sight is simply malfunctioning against someone whose soul has been shattered that badly."

It was all a lie.

Because I knew she was right. I didn’t carry the same power as Marie but I knew Deculein well enough. He was never this bold. Never this arrogant and daring. The Deculein I knew would have thought ten times before taking any risk. Would have calculated every consequence before opening his mouth. But this one?

He didn’t even think about what would happen. Didn’t hesitate before threatening me in front of that crowd. Didn’t flinch when he told me not to add my head to his list.

This version of Deculein was impossible to read. It felt like I was looking at someone wearing his face but operating from a completely different place inside.

And no breakup, no betrayal, no trauma in this world changes a person so drastically that they become someone else entirely. Not just on the outside but from within.

Every word Marie was saying made sense to me because I carried my own proof. I could sense divinity from a person’s body. It was my gift from the holy bloodline. And for Deculein it had always been a bright light. Warm. Steady. Present.

But right now? When I searched for it inside him all I found was nothing. Absolute nothing. Not a single trace of divinity. But neither could I feel any darkness or demonic essence. Just a void where something should have been.

And that was what confused me the most. If he had been corrupted there should be traces. If something evil had taken over there should be a signature. But there was nothing. Like someone had erased whatever was there before and replaced it with a blank page.

But one thing I was certain of. If he was evil, he wouldn’t have shielded Aria with his own body. Wouldn’t have walked into that mana storm knowing it could kill him. Wouldn’t have stood in front of that crowd defending a starving woman he had never met.

His eyes during all of that didn’t show a single trace of malice. They held something genuine. Something I couldn’t name but couldn’t deny either.

My thoughts were broken by Marie’s voice again. More urgent this time.

"You don’t get it, Princess Angelica. The situation he is in looks really dangerous."

Her hands were fidgeting at her sides.

"It’s like a foreign soul is residing in his body. One that I can’t even identify or name. What if a demon took over his body? What if some unknown evil being is controlling him? Or maybe he was tricked into gaining power from some dark entity because of all the pain he suffered."

She looked at me with desperate eyes.

"We need to report this back to the elders. Otherwise..."

I cut her off.

"I understand your worry, Marie. But tell me honestly. Do you really believe he is being controlled by something evil?"

She opened her mouth but I didn’t let her answer.

"Ask yourself. Would you believe it? Because what I can see is that your so-called evil hasn’t hurt a single innocent person. All he has done is heal the people in his path."

I smiled softly.

"And to be honest, I noticed the change before you did. The new personality. The new Deculein. I’ve known about it for a while now."

Marie’s jaw dropped. "Then why didn’t you..."

"Because he didn’t want to speak about it. Didn’t want to open up about whatever is happening inside him." I paused and chose my next words carefully. "But that’s not all. I have a feeling that the other half of Deculein, or rather your so-called evil, might actually be the one who heals this world."

Marie was frozen now.

"He may be the fourth hero. The one the world has been trying so hard to find without any success. Maybe the reason nobody has found the fourth hero is because he had no form until now."

I looked at the sky.

"It’s just my guess. But I can see a light in him. Even when my own power is failing to find it within him."

Marie was processing everything and honestly so was I. The words I just spoke weren’t something I had planned. They came from somewhere between logic and intuition and I wasn’t sure which one was leading.

Then we heard noises. Distant at first. Then closer. Then a scream.

We dashed toward the source. Running through the dark streets, past boarded windows and locked doors, following the sound of chaos.

When we finally reached the spot I saw something that made my stomach revolt.

Teresa. Who had been on patrolling duty with Tudar. She was laid on the ground.

Her chest had a hollow hole punched clean through it. Every internal organ in the path of whatever did this was destroyed. A pool of blood was forming beneath her body, spreading outward across the stone road.

She laid lifeless. Not even a twitch of pain. Nothing.

My brain refused to process what I was seeing. I was rejecting every detail my eyes were feeding me. Refusing to accept that she was dead.

Then the air changed.

It became so heavy that breathing turned into a struggle let alone absorbing mana from it. It felt like the air itself had been poisoned.

Then we heard footsteps.

Each one was followed by the sound of something cracking beneath whatever was making them.

CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

Both our heads turned slowly toward the sound until our eyes found the source.

And there it stood. A demon whose appearance alone could tell you everything you needed to know before even sensing its corrupted energy.

His skin was barely there. The skeleton was visible across most of his body. I was looking at what might be the most malnourished demon I had ever seen. Even his skull carried the same condition, nothing but bone and stretched grey skin and yellow teeth that poked out from receding gums.

His body looked weak. Fragile even. Like one solid hit would shatter him to pieces.

Then he took a step.

CRACK.

The stone road beneath his foot split apart from the pressure of that single step. Minimal effort. Maximum destruction.

’I was wrong about him being weak.’

Marie was shaking beside me. Her legs were trembling so badly I could hear her armor plates rattling against each other. She spoke in a voice so low it was almost lost to the heavy air.

"Princess, run away. We can’t fight this thing. I’ll buy you time so just go. Please."

Before she could lose herself completely I slapped her across the face.

SLAP.

"Snap out of it! It’s just a demon. He will be weak against a holy magic user and the same goes for your sword techniques. We can handle this."

She clenched her teeth and fists, forcing herself together. But then she said words that knocked my confidence sideways.

"You aren’t getting it again, Princess. I tried to look into his soul."

Her voice was shaking.

"And trust me. We stand no chance. His corruption energy alone far surpasses even the Calamity Serpent that is caged beneath the academy."

I steeled myself. "It won’t matter, Marie. Look at him. One solid hit is all it will take to shatter that body."

But before I could boost Marie any further, a sound cut through the air. The grinding of teeth. Loud enough to hear from this distance. When I looked at the demon his face was twisted with an absolute hatred that felt like it was directed at everything alive.

His jaw was working. Grinding. And between those yellow teeth came words that crawled into my ears.

"I will kill you. I will kill you all."

Then he ran at us.

No. Not ran. He moved so fast that it looked like he teleported. One moment he was standing twenty meters away. The next he was right in front of Marie with his fist already aimed at her face.

She went blank. Frozen. Wasn’t preparing for the hit at all.

I pulled my holy sword and swung it directly into the path of his charging fist.

CLANG.

My blade pierced through his hand. Went clean through flesh and bone. But the force behind his punch didn’t care about a sword in the way. The impact traveled through the blade and into my arms with vibrations so violent that my grip failed completely. My sword slipped from my hands and clattered across the stone.

His gaze turned to me. The rage in his hollow eyes doubled. Tripled.

He charged a punch at me. I panicked and threw up a holy shield. Golden light formed between us but the moment his fist connected with it the shield cracked like thin ice and his remaining force slammed into my gut.

I flew backward. Rolled across the ground. The pain in my stomach was blinding. My back hit a tree and I used it as support to keep from collapsing entirely.

The demon wasn’t done. He was already charging toward me again. But this time Marie appeared between us. She had entered her Sword Maiden form. Her Excalibur came down in a wide arc aimed right at his exposed chest.

But he reacted too fast. His hand caught the blade mid-swing. Grabbed it bare-handed like it was a stick being swung by a child. And his other hand, the one my sword had pierced clean through moments ago, was completely healed. Not a scratch remaining.

He grabbed Marie by her neck with that healed hand and slammed her into the ground.

THUD.

She went unconscious on impact.

His gaze found me again. And he charged.

I had no strength left. No sword. No shield. No way to fight back. Blood was filling my mouth from whatever his punch had ruptured inside me.

Through my bloodied, spitting lips I was praying. Begging. For someone, anyone, to help me.