Capítulo 628: …Let’s go ho.
Sapphire breathed deeply, her shoulders rising and falling unevenly. The Fla of Olympus still flickered at her extremities, weak, unstable, as if deciding whether to extinguish itself or not. Vergil, on the other hand, maintained his typical calm—or at least tried to. The blood trickling from the side of his forehead and his trembling arm betrayed the colossal effort he had also made.
For a few seconds, only the sound of rocks still falling in the distance and the echo of the destruction they left filled the silence.
Sapphire kicked a car-sized rock away, irritated.
“…that was ridiculous,” she muttered.
Vergil raised an eyebrow.
“Equaling with you will never be ridiculous.”
“That’s not it.” Sapphire rubbed her face, spreading even more blood. “What’s ridiculous is you… you, with that vacation face, flip-flops, sumr shirt… coming all the way here and putting up with this.” She gestured toward the utterly decimated scene. “You shouldn’t have succeeded.”
Vergil gave a slight, wry smile, that sa smile she always found irritating.
“Are you saying I got stronger?”
Sapphire pointed her finger at him, annoyed.
“I’m saying you got irritatingly stronger.”
Vergil took a deep breath, as if holding back laughter.
“You were at 20%.”
“So what?” Sapphire snorted. “At 20% I should still have been able to crush you into the ground until you turned to dust.”
“Almost did,” Vergil admitted, running his thumb along the crack in the Yamato. “But you weren’t exactly asuring your strength. You were fighting like soone who forgot they had a body.”
“I fought normally.”
“You fought like an earthquake with legs.”
Sapphire narrowed her eyes.
“…I don’t know if that was a complint or an insult.” “Both of them.”
She turned her face away, clearly displeased, crossing her arms. The flas diminished, but still sparked around her, reacting to the explosive emotions.
“I didn’t like that.”
“A tie?”
“You tying with .” Sapphire stamped her foot, the ground holding up by sheer miracle. “You shouldn’t have the stamina to keep up with the Fla of Olympus for even thirty seconds. And you… you cut that fla in half. In half, Vergil. Do you know what that ans?”
Vergil wiped the blood from his chin with the back of his hand.
“It ans I’m training.”
Sapphire laughed.
Not a light laugh.
An incredulous, almost offended laugh.
“Training. Of course. That’s all. You trained a little and now you cut a divine fla in half. Great. Perfect. Totally normal.”
“Are you jealous?”
Sapphire froze, as if soone had pulled the brakes on her internal defenses.
“No. I’m angry.”
She raised her voice. “It’s different.”
“It sounds like jealousy.”
She took a threatening step forward.
“Vergil. If you repeat that, I’ll bury your head in a wall.”
He raised both hands in controlled surrender.
“I take back the comnt.”
She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself… and failing miserably.
“I didn’t want… this to happen.” She made a sweeping gesture, indicating all the destruction around her. “I didn’t want you to co here and be able to face on equal terms. This ans I’m even more… screwed than I thought.”
Vergil tilted his head.
“Screwed?”
“My body.” Sapphire pounded her own chest hard. “I fought for an entire month using the fla. Without rest. Without focus. Without control. I should have collapsed after a week, but I didn’t. This isn’t good.”
Vergil approached slowly.
“You’re saying your strength increased too.”
“…it did.” Sapphire frowned, annoyed with herself. “And I didn’t want it to increase like this. I… I lost track. I lost track of ti. I lost my mind.” She looked at her own fist, still dark with dried blood. “And then you show up—wearing slippers—and match .”
Vergil looked at his own feet, as if only now rembering that he was, in fact, wearing slippers.
“…I ca quickly.”
“You ca RIDICULOUSLY,” she corrected. “And yet you managed to stand up to my flas.”
Vergil crossed his arms.
“Sapphire. If you wanted to be easy to defeat… you chose the wrong husband.”
She opened her mouth… closed it… opened it again.
“I wish you were less…” She made a sweeping gesture.
“…less you.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
Sapphire turned her face away, her nose in the air, as if trying to maintain her composure.
“I’m still annoyed.”
“I noticed.”
“And you still annoy .”
“I noticed that too.”
She frowned, staring at him with that look of soone who could blow up the entire abyss again.
“But… you’ve gotten stronger. Much stronger.” She shook her head, as if that were still unpleasant to admit. “And I don’t know if I like that.”
Vergil took a small step forward.
“Sapphire.”
She looked away.
“Look at .”
She hesitated for a few seconds before facing him again.
Vergil spoke firmly, without raising his voice: “I grew stronger because I wanted to be your equal.”
Sapphire blinked, surprised. “…what?”
“I don’t want to be the demon you protect.” Vergil touched the hilt of the Yamato, still cracked. “I want to be the one who stays by your side.”
The flas around Sapphire diminished.
Her expression also changed, becoming less tense, less defensive… still angry, but different.
“…idiot.”
Vergil smiled. “Is that a complint?”
“It’s a warning.”
Vergil took another step closer. “Then accept it, Sapphire.”
She raised her face, defiant. “Accept what?”
“That you’re not carrying everything alone. Not the strength. Not the pain.” His red eyes softened, but didn’t lose intensity. “Not even Katharina.”
Sapphire opened her mouth… and said nothing.
Vergil finished: “I didn’t get stronger to humiliate you.” He gave a small smile. “I got stronger so I could reach you.”
Sapphire took a deep breath, her chest sinking and rising slowly.
The Fla of Olympus finally went out.
Only then did she murmur, softly—irritated, but sincere: “…I still hate draws.”
Vergil replied without hesitation: “Then next ti, we’ll fight when you’re at 100%.”
Sapphire stared at him with a look of pure threat. “Vergil.”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to destroy you.”
He smiled. “I want to see it.”
Sapphire breathed deeply, her body still trembling from the adrenaline that refused to leave. The golden flas around her gradually diminished, becoming just an uncomfortable glow on her burned skin.
She looked at Vergil with evident irritation.
“…You got stronger,” she muttered, crossing her arms as she looked away. “I don’t like that.”
Vergil raised an eyebrow, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“You want to stay weak just so you can feel superior?”
“I want you not to tie with when I have TWENTY PERCENT energy.” Sapphire made a sweeping gesture, pointing to the destroyed battlefield. “I used the Fla of Olympus. There’s no excuse for you to be there, breathing.”
“And you’re breathing too,” he retorted, shrugging.
Sapphire growled softly, almost childishly.
“…That should have killed you at least three tis over.” “But he didn’t kill her.”
“It shouldn’t be possible.”
“But it was.”
She rubbed her face, frustrated.
“Ugh… I hate when you gain power so quickly. It doesn’t even give ti to get used to it.”
Vergil chuckled through his nose, almost a whisper.
“Well, get used to it. Because it’s past ti we talked about serious things.”
Sapphire slowly raised her head, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
“…No.”
“Sapphire.”
“…I don’t want to.”
“It’s about Katharina.”
She closed her eyes imdiately, as if soone had plunged a knife into her chest again.
He waited. He didn’t press her. He just stood there, breathing, in his usual stubborn way.
Until she whispered, almost inaudibly: “…Okay.”
And the conversation began.
…a few hours later…
The abyss was silent. Sapphire sat on a rock that had remained intact—one of the few. Her feet swung, her head bowed, and Vergil leaned against one of the nearby walls, equally exhausted, but calm.
The tension had already lessened. Not much. But it was possible to breathe without the air feeling heavy.
Sapphire sighed.
“So… all this was a stupid misunderstanding.”
Vergil crossed his arms. “Yes.”
She squinted, as if trying to reorganize everything in her head.
“She… feels suffocated.”
“Yes.”
“And she thinks I’m invading her life too much.”
“Yes.”
Sapphire bit her lower lip.
“…But that’s her fault too. She avoids . She doesn’t call . She hides.”
Vergil nodded slowly. “That’s true too.”
She lifted her head, irritated again.
“Then why does it seem like I’m the one in the wrong in this story?!”
“Because you’re too clingy,” he said bluntly. “And she doesn’t know how to handle it.”
Sapphire huffed, tossing her hair back.
“I’m clingy because I’M THE MOTHER. IT’S NORMAL. I’ve loved that girl since the day she was born. Before she was born. Before she was a thought. I—”
She stopped. She pressed her hands between her knees.
“…I love her too much. And I can’t turn it off.”
Vergil, for the first ti since the beginning of that conversation, took a step toward her.
“And she loves you,” he said. “Very much. But you two are complete idiots.”
Sapphire lifted her head with a deadly glare.
Vergil continued.
“Katharina thinks you’re distancing yourself because you love her less. And you think she’s distancing herself because she hates you. And neither of you has spoken to each other for a year and a half.”
Sapphire clenched her jaw so hard it made a dry click.
“I didn’t distance myself because I wanted to. It was after the wedding. She started spending more ti with you… you two started getting along too well… and I…”
Her voice faltered. She hated it. She clenched her fist to hide it.
“…I was scared.”
Vergil took a deep breath.
“Scared of losing her.”
“YES!” Sapphire stamped her foot, annoyed. “Ridiculous, I know! But I felt it! I’m a demon. I destroyed half the world. I killed thousands of superior beings. I beca a Legend among demons. I faced gods, I— I—”
She sighed, defeated.
“…but I can’t handle it when it’s her. I never could.”
Vergil took another step closer.
“And she’s afraid of you. Not because of who you are, but because of what she thinks she needs to be to continue being your daughter. It’s a lot of pressure.”
Sapphire blinked slowly.
“…Pressure?”
“Yes.” Vergil crouched down and sat beside her on the rock. “She thinks she can’t et your expectations. And, honestly, you don’t make it easy.”
Sapphire opened her mouth to complain, but closed it when she realized he was right.
A year and a half… since the three of them started sharing their lives. Since the dynamic changed. Since Katharina finally found space, identity, independence.
And Sapphire saw that as a threat.
Katharina saw Sapphire as a wall.
And neither of them had the courage to admit it.
Vergil placed a hand on her shoulder.
“They’re both hurt. But neither wants to lose the other.” Sapphire fiddled with her hair, uneasy.
“…She called a horrible mother.”
“She said that angrily.”
“Said she didn’t want a mother like .”
“Sapphire.”
She bit her tongue.
“…all because I said sothing stupid while I was drunk.”
Vergil nodded.
“And you freaked out and destroyed the abyss for a month.”
She looked away.
“I needed to… let it all out.”
“But it didn’t solve anything.”
“…No.”
Vergil squeezed her shoulder.
“Then now you need to talk to her.”
Sapphire closed her eyes.
“…I’m scared.”
“She is too.”
Sapphire slowly opened her eyes, staring into the emptiness of the abyss.
“…Does she miss ?”
“Yes.”
“…Even though I’m like this?”
“Yes.”
“…Even though she thinks I invade everything?”
“Yes.”
Sapphire sighed, long and heavily.
“We’re both idiots.”
“Yes. Very.”
She gave him a light nudge with her shoulder.
Vergil smiled slightly.
“So… ready to fix this?”
Sapphire took a deep breath.
Then again.
“…I’ll try.”
Vergil stood up.
“That’s enough.”
Sapphire stood up too.
The flas around her completely disappeared.
She fixed her hair and cracked her neck, ntally preparing herself.
“…Let’s go ho.”
Vergil nodded.
They began to walk together, side by side, without haste.
The abyss behind them was completely destroyed.
But for the first ti in a month…
Sapphire no longer felt the urge to destroy anything.
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