[Music recommendation: Eternal Eclipse - Providence]

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Just a couple of minutes before the incident...

Right outside the abandoned dock, three figures materialised at once.

One of them wore a grim expression, while the other didn’t look human at all.

His terrifying, murderous gaze was locked onto a black, doom-like structure that only his kind could perceive. The bloodlust rolling off him was so suffocating that even Cillian remained well out of his reach.

Meanwhile, the woman kneeling beside the devil, tightly bound in writhing strands of dark energy, continued to tremble and sob silently. Her lips moved, but no sound escaped them, her mouth having been sealed shut long ago.

Diana was a pitiful sight.

Back in her original form with her nose missing, she looked even more wretched than before.

All of her previous confidence and vile intentions had utterly vanished, especially after the hand wearing Aliana’s stolen ruby engagement ring had been brutally ripped from her body by Gavriel.

She knew her fate had already been sealed.

The only reason she was still breathing was because Cillian had stepped in right before Gavriel could shred her to pieces.

It wasn’t mercy that had spared her... in fact, it was far from it.

She remained alive for two reasons... that she would lead them to Aliana. The very woman she had so confidently teleported away and abandoned to her fate, believing she would take her place forever.

Second, death was a mercy she could no longer wish for.

The hope that had burned so brightly inside her when she had slipped Aliana’s ring onto her finger... died the moment Gavriel had ripped her arm from her body without the slightest hesitation.

And yet, even while bleeding from the severed limb and hovering on the edge of death, a poisonous part of her refused to let go.

If she was doomed, then she wanted Aliana to suffer too. She desperately prayed that Jacob had succeeded in defiling the woman who had stolen her lord from her.

Suddenly, as if hearing her dark thoughts, Gavriel’s malicious powers pulsed and coiled tighter around her body, rapidly melting her skin. Excruciating pain wracked her frame, forcing another muffled, agonising scream to escape her bound mouth.

The two men, however, couldn’t care less.

Gavriel held out his palm, and a small orb of crackling black-and-red lightning materialised before it. The sphere pulsed with destructive energy for a brief moment before shooting forward and slamming directly into the black, doom-like structure surrounding the dock.

The instant it made contact, a massive explosion erupted through the air.

The surface of the dark barrier cracked violently before shattering apart completely, lifting the oppressive veil that had hung over the entire area.

Cillian was forced to raise an arm to shield his face from the intensity of the blast, while Gavriel remained utterly unfazed, his gaze fixed on the collapsing barrier.

As soon as the barrier fell, Cillian lowered his hand, and all three of them immediately sensed it.

An overwhelming pressure surged from somewhere within the dockyard, carrying with it the unmistakable presence of something powerful.

Gavriel’s eyes darkened, and without looking back, he spoke to Cillian in an absolute tone. "Keep her with you," he commanded.

In the next blink of an eye, he vanished into thin air, materialising directly in front of the exact storage container where he felt the explosive surge of power originating.

With effortless strength, Gavriel wasted no time blasting the flimsy container door off its hinges before finally stepping inside.

The moment the sound of his shoes echoed through the cramped, dark container, he came to an abrupt halt.

Blood thrummed hard and fast through his veins, and for the very first time in his existence, a tremor ran through the devil’s body.

In front of him lay a grotesque scene.

Blood coated the walls and floor, painting the entire container in crimson as though countless buckets had been emptied across every surface.

When his glowing red eyes caught sight of scattered chunks of flesh and shattered bone littering the room, he realised they were nothing more than the physical remains of a human body.

Slowly, when his gaze drifted toward the far corner of the container... he froze.

A feeling he had never known before wrapped its icy fingers around his heart as his eyes landed on a motionless shape lying amidst the sea of blood.

For a long moment, he simply stared... then the shape became a figure.

The figure was lying so unnaturally still on the floor and so thoroughly drenched in blood that it almost blended into the crimson cloth wrapped around it.

Ba-dum!

Gavriel’s heart slammed violently against his ribs.

In a state of utter, paralysing shock, his feet forced themselves to take slow, heavy steps closer to the fallen figure.

When he finally reached there, he froze completely upon catching a glimpse of golden hair. The beautiful strands were heavily marred with blood, falling carelessly over the woman’s face.

He didn’t reach out. He didn’t call her name... nor did he lean over to lift her up to check if she was still breathing. He simply stood there, an unmoving statue, his wide eyes fixed entirely on her still form.

Outside, thunder continued to rumble across the sky while rain battered the dockyard without mercy, yet the sounds felt distant and muted compared to the deafening roar of blood rushing through his ears.

Only after several seconds did hurried footsteps echo into the container, but even those footsteps slowed upon entering as the newcomer took in the horrifying carnage splattered across the room before his gaze inevitably landed upon the blood-covered woman lying at Gavriel’s feet.

Cillian was shocked, to say the least, taking in the bloodied scene in absolute horror.

After leaving Diana under Reve’s strict custody, he had hurried directly behind Gavriel. Knowing the depth of the devil’s wrath, he knew anything could go wrong, so he had followed him without a second thought despite his order.

But this... this was nothing like he could have ever imagined. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Upon seeing the blood and mangled remains scattered across the concrete floor, his first thought was to wonder if Gavriel had already done this.

But if so, where was Aliana?

He found his answer when he vaguely made out a slumped figure lying at the very end of the room, right where Gavriel stood.

Without a word, Cillian snapped out of his shock and rushed toward the figure on the ground.

He wished with everything inside his soul for it not to be Aliana. And if it were her... he prayed desperately for her to be alive and breathing.

Carefully, Cillian came to stand right next to him, and it was then that he noticed the tremors running down Gavriel’s hands as he continued to stare down with wide, unblinking eyes.

It was a sight Cillian had never witnessed before.

Swallowing hard, he finally crouched down and carefully turned the motionless figure over.

The moment Aliana’s blood-covered face came into view, a sharp breath caught in his throat.

Ignoring the cold dread creeping through him, Cillian lifted a shaky hand and pressed two fingers against the side of her neck in search of a pulse.

The second he touched her, his brows drew together.