"The seed has fully rged with his body. Now... it’s only a matter of ti before the will inside it awakens. All I can do is suppress it for as long as possible."
Apparently, Sansa had already snuck into where Danzo was resting.
Using her powers, all she could manage was to keep his human side alive for as long as she could.
But when the ti ca, Danzo was destined to beco that monster.
In that instant, I finally understood where the one-month ti limit had co from.
It was her.
Sansa looked at with quiet sadness.
Danzo had been a rare kind of friend .. even for her, soone who hadn’t spoken with him much until recently.
"I think you already know... but when the ti is up, we’ll have no choice but to—"
"I know."
I cut her off before she could finish.
Maybe she went to see him intending to end it, but she just couldn’t bring herself to kill him.
Instead, she gave him as much ti as possible to live on as the Danzo we all knew.
In the blink of an eye, a small spark of hope had appeared .. then died just as quickly.
I didn’t know if she sensed my disappointnt... or sothing else.
But then Sansa stood, pulling into a tight embrace, burying my face against her chest.
Her grip was too strong for to break, even if I tried.
So, I let myself go with the flow.
Her body was incredibly strong... yet impossibly soft.
A strange contradiction.
I had deliberately avoided her gaze, yet she kept staring at even now.
Then, silence fell.
Sansa no longer had a human heart, so the only sound in the room was my own heartbeat.
A few seconds later, she broke the silence again.
"When I turned into a demon, I think a part of rejected it. That’s why I tried to kill myself on the battlefield... to end the disgusting thing I’d beco."
She was recalling the end of our battle against the Ultras.
I rembered how she had fought Beatrice and Gavid Lindman alone, acting like she was having the ti of her life.
But who would’ve thought those kinds of thoughts were swirling inside her all along?
"I knew a demon couldn’t live among humans. Even Oliver gave that look of pity the mont he saw ."
Maybe his mask had hidden his expression, but Sansa could read those feelings through his eyes alone.
The sa eyes that now looked at her like she was a monster.
"And yet, you’re the only one who didn’t look at that way... I want to know why."
"Why didn’t I treat you like a monster?"
I chuckled softly, recalling everything.
It wasn’t like I did it on purpose.
"I could never treat you like that, Sansa. After all... the real monster here is ."
If she was a demon, then this body of mine was far from human too.
With bizarre powers... and the looming presence of so otherworldly being inside .
If anything, I fit the title of ’monster’ better than she did.
That alone was why I never changed the way I treated her.
Because I simply didn’t have the right to.
I didn’t know how much of that Sansa understood from my thoughts, but she didn’t ask.
Maybe she was waiting for the day I’d tell her myself.
So we left it at that embrace.
For a brief mont, it felt like sothing else was about to happen .. especially when our eyes t again.
But neither of us moved.
Not with everything at stake.
I guess she was being considerate, otherwise she would’ve done whatever she pleased.
Then, after a mont of awkward silence, she finally let go.
To break the silence, I spoke up, realizing she’d been here far too long already.
"I’ll talk to my sister about it later. You can stay here for now."
Given that she was probably being hunted by Sir Alon right now, it seed right to hide her in the Starlight Estate for the ti being.
"Are you sure about that? You might end up on the receiving end of my grandfather’s wrath if he finds here."
She laughed again, regaining that playful tone of hers, but I wasn’t particularly concerned about Sir Alon.
When the Demon King himself was already breathing down my neck, what difference would adding one more threat make?
"I’ll worry about that when it happens."
"I see. Then I guess I should thank you."
"For what? All I’m doing is giving you a room in this house."
The mont I said that, Sansa narrowed her eyes mischievously.
"Hmm... a separate room, huh?"
"Yes, a separate room," I said firmly.
Realizing what she was trying to do, I quickly pulled away.
After all, if I stayed with her in the sa room any longer, even I wouldn’t be able to control myself, and things would escalate far beyond a re embrace...
We both wanted it .. that much was clear. But this wasn’t the right ti. Not with everything I was dealing with right now. I couldn’t afford to think about Sansa properly. Not yet, at least.
Until then... it was better to draw the line.
"Alright then."
With a wide grin, she stood up, the darkness thickening around her until it swallowed her whole.
"But rember, Frey .. walls don’t an much to ~"
And just like that, she vanished completely into the shadows.
Placing a hand over my face, I sighed quietly.
"She really picked up an annoying ability..."
Lying back on my bed, far too large for one person, I realized just how late it had gotten after spending so many hours with the demon princess.
So I closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep, knowing full well how much awaited in the days to co.
That night, for the first ti in a while, I managed to fall into a deep sleep .. sothing that had eluded recently.
Her presence, oddly enough, had been comforting.
And so, another long day ca to an end.
---
Final Deadline: 27 Days Left.
...
...
...
The days passed quickly after that.
I kept visiting Danzo whenever I had the chance.
But no matter how many tis I looked at him...
He was no longer the sa person.
The energetic, explosive man I knew had turned into a quiet, frail figure .. confined to his bed, drained of his strength.
As painful as it was for Danzo himself, it was equally painful for to witness.
Still, I tried my best to hide those feelings from him, while preparing myself for the final plan my mind could co up with.
I waited until my body fully recovered, and in the blink of an eye, another five days flew by.
But now that I was back at my peak, it was ti to take the next step.
Fully equipped and ard with a dinsional ring packed with everything I could carry, I stood alone atop the eastern peaks of the Oaklas Mountains, overlooking the Nightmare Lands ahead.
After exhausting every option I had on this planet, I ca to a bitter realization.
The answer I sought didn’t exist among humans.
To save Danzo, I needed a power far beyond anything found here.
A power that existed on another world entirely.
Staring at the system interface, I confird what I was about to do.
"You won’t tell how to save Danzo... but you will show the way to leave this planet."
Spending all my achievent points, I steeled myself for a journey into the unknown, a quest that might lead to Danzo’s salvation.
Ti moved much slower here on Earth than on other planets .. that was sothing I’d already learned during our trip to Londor.
So I wasn’t too worried about the countdown.
I had found a way to bend the system’s rules to my favor.
With that, I ventured alone into the Nightmare Forests, heading toward the Shadow Sect .. the starting point of my journey.
Whatever answer I was searching for...
I was certain I would find it there.
And with all my heart, I prayed that the future waiting for ... would be just a little less dark than the one fate had written in stone.
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