Asmodeus remained quiet, the soft body in his arms shifting as he realised that his father had passed away. Such a thought carried more force and effect on him than he realised, with a sense of loneliness, he closed his eyes with a deep, deep breath.
'You taught how to protect mother, and helped overco my impulses if even a little.'
'I didn't think knowing you were gone forever, would feel this way...'
A cold chill spread through his bones...
Even though the blizzard ended and the brilliant sun now scorched his slightly tanned skin.
"My dear?"
A concerned, quivering voice called him, "Are you alright?"
He couldn't help but curl his lips, a forlorn smile, yet this was enough for now.
The many won he loved could always sense when he wavered or beca lost and needed them.
"Vinea..."
Vinea's eyes widened, still red and swollen from the tears she tried to hide.
Yet the mont she saw Asmodeus and his wet eyes, she couldn't stop herself, grabbing Asmodea's hand, the pair of them rushed up and hugged him. Tight. Affectionate.
"My Beloved King..." Asmodea cooed like a soft bird's song. "Do not cry, we are here."
"My dear, now is not the ti to beco overwheld with grief."
They could feel the emotions of seeing soone they yearned for...
Their mother's last goodbye, a kind of relief to the sisters.
To know she didn't resent them, or their father.
"What would I do without you? I don't think I would have even left Grigor without eting you all."
"Heh, of course you would. Didn't you fall for my beauty with one look?" Asmodeus humd, teasing him as she rembered the first ti they t... when Kathryn used to stand beside her and keep her safe.
"The Ryuji I knew wouldn't have stopped because of sothing so simple, he would chase us even without the demonic blood, haha."
Vinea didn't let up, but that's when they heard a slight sound... from Lumina.
"It's strange..."
Once, she might have swooned or felt the need to chase the voice that just echoed through the air. A man she believed she loved and beca obsessed with. Yet. Now, when she saw him once again, there was nothing like that... rather, she understood clearly after eting Ryuji.
"I see, so it wasn't what I thought..." Lumina's voice sounded mature, different. Convinced.
"My dearest husband."
"What's wrong, Lumina?"
Asmodeus also noticed that she didn't react like he thought.
When they t, she almost destroyed an entire world while chasing his father. However, what changed? She didn't even speak or look his way. Instead, she seed more concerned about Asmodeus himself.
"I just wanted to call you."
Lumina's large body shimred, before returning to a humanoid form... a form that Asmodeus never saw before, pristine pale skin like snow... soft pink tips covering her chest and glistening red eyes covering her forehead.
No black legs attached to her back, but from the knee and elbow down were wrapped in a sleek and beautiful exoskeletal sheet.
Her fingers, delicate, long and narrow, wrapped in the black armour, pristine curves, and flicks that added a sense of beauty, as she strode forward with swaying hips. "It seems I have finally attained a humanoid form."
"Yeah... you look beautiful," Asmodeus muttered, while hugging Vinea and Asmodea.
"You're like a princess, Lumina."
"That exoskeleton looks graceful, but strong." Vinea's eyes shone as she responded. It seed her love for combat and becoming stronger would never vanish.
Asmodeus exhaled slowly, his chest still tight, but lighter.
He gently squeezed the arms wrapped around him, one hand brushing Asmodea's tangled crimson hair, the other resting on Vinea's shoulder as she quietly leaned in, her brow still furrowed.
"Thank you," he murmured, almost too low to hear. "For not letting grieve alone."
Asmodea pressed her lips against his chest, not as a kiss, but as a reassurance. "Your sorrow is our sorrow."
Vinea didn't speak. But the way her tail curled behind her said enough.
The silence between them grew softer, not hollow, but full. A space where nothing needed to be said. Where being present was enough.
Until Lumina stepped closer.
And the snow glistened at her feet like water turning back to life.
She approached slowly, her body shimring with an ethereal glow beneath the pale sun. Not radiant like a goddess, but natural. Whole.
For the first ti, she looked... comfortable in her skin.
No longer hiding, no longer waiting for permission to exist.
"I see you," Asmodeus said simply, his voice steady.
Lumina blinked, her lashes heavy with red frost. "I know," she whispered. "And that's enough."
She took his hand. Not demanding. Not possessive. Just... warm.
Behind them, Levia approached at last, her expression unreadable — still half-armoured, her shield dragging across the ice. Her eyes flicked from Lumina to Vinea, to Asmodea, then to him.
Asmodeus tilted his head slightly. "You alright?"
Levia nodded once. "We should move soon," she said.
Her tone was even, but he saw the slight tremor in her fingers. She was holding herself together — like always — until they reached the end.
He respected that.
"Yeah," he murmured. He looked toward the black citadel in the distance.
But before he did, he pushed closer and pulled Levia's hand, grasping her broken armour and exoskeleton enough that it shattered like porcelain, her warmth and soft flesh pressing against his chest. "My Lord...!?"
"Let enjoy your warmth... Levia."
Levia fought harder than most from the mont they reached the north—she never stopped.
Even when wounded or suffering from agonising pain, she continued pushing. Asmodeus noticed, but couldn't shun her efforts and instead ended up failing to protect her. "You are no different from them... all of you are my future wives"
Her lips parted, trembling — then closed again. She couldn't speak. Not now. Not through the thudding pulse in her chest or the burn in her eyes.
So instead, she leaned into him.
That was answer enough.
And then, when the mont passed, he let her go.
Not pushed away — released, like sothing treasured being set carefully into its rightful place.
The five of them stood together, wind wrapping around their legs, the citadel ahead.
Black. Towering. Waiting.
And this ti… they stepped forward as one.
However... that was when they sensed a strange distortion in the distance, magic... and familiar auras blooming one by one.
——
The wind had changed.
It wasn't sharp anymore.
Just cold.
Clean.
Kathryn stepped through the last ripple of the portal and felt her boots land on snow.
Real snow. Not cursed. Not corrupt.
It crunched like it was supposed to — not like bone, or ice twisted by magic.
She exhaled.
"North…" she whispered.
The portal closed behind them, its magic dimming with a fading hum. Marduk's handiwork. Still the best, even after all these years. She'd thank him — if she lived long enough to return. His old bones must have almost crumbled performing so many ancient spells in a row.
The fox twins stepped out next, Yumiko and Yuina. Both adjusted their cloaks against the wind, ears flicking, twin tails dancing in the breeze.
Thanks to the magic of Marduk, the king of Grigor, summoned all the won linked to Asmodeus, from his beloved Ciela, who went to the west to help her mother and father, but Yumiko, Yuina who were in the beast kingdoms, all directed by Velvet and Alice who wanted to gather everyone.
"Can you sll that sister?" Yuina, the empress of all beasts, murmured.
"It slls like darling," Yumiko replied. "And sothing nasty."
"Master's scent is so strong here..."
The land was full of broken ice, land and deep craters.
Where the demon emperor and the other won helped him defeat the teeth and Riel.
"Oh? I can sll Riel too... and everyone else!"
Erika looked at Sariel, who seed more vibrant than she rembered, more sensual and mature. She no longer looked like the childish Sariel that they had t almost a year before.
A few days after the event known as the 'Return of Souls', which King Avandar nad, Marduk received a communication from the elven capital, and after learning of a new prophecy, they summoned the won together at Grigor...
It was surprising that Sariel brought the empress and her sister...
Especially since they only gave birth less than a week before, Aki left back in the beast empire to care for the children... four females and one male.
But with no news from Asmodeus for many days, and the changes in the demon empire with the land was filled with beautiful greenery, fauna and life as the snow vanished, leaving a paradise.
The group of won and a huge army gazed at the massive black citadel.
Behind them, Velvet stepped forward in full plate, her long braid catching the wind. Beside her, Alice held her staff close, her expression tight.
"No monsters?" Velvet asked.
Kathryn squinted toward the horizon. The sky was bruised violet. But she could see it — smoke in the distance, curling around a black silhouette carved into the mountains.
"That must be Zar'Kaleth," she said. "The citadel."
"And him?" Alice asked quietly.
Kathryn didn't answer.
Because she felt it too.
A familiar pull, distant but undeniable... the vibrations and feeling of his aura pulsing through the air from the distant palace.... the castle half destroyed during this.
He was there.
Asmodeus.
Still fighting without reinforcents.
The one who turned a princess into a warrior and saved their continent from certain doom.
She clenched her gauntleted hand and looked toward the path.
"I was late before," she said, almost to herself.
"This ti…"
Yumiko looked at her, tails swaying.
"You want to say it, don't you?"
Kathryn smiled — a rare thing.
"Yes."
She stepped forward, each boot sinking into soft snow.
"I swear it now," she said, voice rising. "This ti, I will not fail my princess. Or my prince."
Velvet raised her fists, her eyes shimring in the sunlight.
"Then we march."
No war horns sounded.
No cheers followed.
Only the wind.
And the footprints of six won… and thousands of knights, from all nations
Carved their way to the end.
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