The clearing was quiet again.
But it wasn't peace.
It was the breath the world takes just before screaming.
Lucius tightened his grip on the Blade of the Last Name.His palm was raw, blistered where the silver hilt burned against his skin.
Before him, the Divine Agent hovered.
No rage.No fear.
Just the cold, relentless expression of someone born to erase and never to feel.
Claire stepped to Lucius's right.
Her hands trembled, but her voice was steady.
"Lucius… tell me we're not dying today."
Lucius smirked—just barely.
"We've already died once. That quota's full."
Zara cracked her neck, blades gleaming in the dim light.
"I don't care if she's godborn. If she bleeds, I'm ending her."
Velda's fingers danced across the air, weaving runes so fast the symbols left heat trails in her wake.
Lilith?
Lilith stood a step behind Lucius, wings half-spread, gaze locked on the enemy.
For once, no sardonic smile.Just quiet, waiting wrath.
The Divine Agent raised her hand.
"Your memories are a blight."
The sky fissured above them.
Ribbons of light tore downward — not lightning, not fire, but pure erasure.
It hit.
The ground exploded.
Dirt turned to mist.Stone peeled away like skin.The air collapsed inward.
For a moment—
There was no Lucius.
No girls.
No clearing.
Just blank space.
But then—
A sound.
Soft at first.
Like someone exhaling into the dark.
Then stronger.
A pulse.A heartbeat.A crack tearing across existence.
Lucius stepped forward.
His boots dragged lines of silver fire through the earth.
The Blade of the Last Name was no longer a weapon.
It was a wound that remembered.
And it was awake.
"You should've erased me when I was still a shadow," Lucius said, voice low, rough, alive.
"Too late now."
Claire slammed her staff into the ground, summoning a shield wall of shimmering light.
Zara blurred past Lucius, blades singing through the air, leaving trails of violet energy.
Velda chanted something that tasted like broken time, runes swirling around her like stars.
Lilith—
Lilith laughed once, soft, and then was gone, streaking upward, wings blazing with vowfire.
The Divine Agent moved.
No wasted motion.
No effort.
Just divine silence.
A hand lifted—
And Zara crumpled mid-swing, slammed into the dirt by invisible force.
Claire's shield buckled, cracked, splintered.
Velda's runes shattered midair.
Lilith slammed to the ground, coughing blood.
And Lucius?
Lucius kept walking.
The Divine Agent tilted her head.
"Why do you persist?"
Lucius's smile was a blade all its own.
"Because I remember every name you erased."
"And now they're remembering me."
The air behind Lucius shimmered.
For a heartbeat, the girls felt it:
Arielle's laugh in the wind.
Old gods whispering in the grass.
Names long buried surging to the surface.
Lucius raised his blade.
And the world split.
The clash was soundless.
No roar.No shockwave.
Just light.
Light that wasn't blinding, but revealing.
For the first time, the Divine Agent hesitated.
Zara, bruised and bloody, grinned through split lips.
Claire forced herself up, fingers twitching with renewed magic.
Velda steadied her hands, a new rune igniting behind her eyes.
Lilith pushed off the ground, wings broken but burning.
Lucius exhaled.
"This is your last warning."
The Divine Agent's voice, for the first time, cracked.
"Who are you?"
Lucius met her gaze without flinching.
"I'm the one who survived being forgotten."
"And I'm not leaving alone."
The ground fractured.
The sky bent.
And as the Agent lifted her hand for the final strike—
A voice, ancient and familiar, whispered from the blade:
"Remember me, Lucien Vale."
Lucius's eyes snapped open.
Silver. Crimson. Ash.
The blade swung.
And the world remembered.