In the dark throne hall, Sajibro stood tall upon the high steps, his gaze sweeping across his commanders.
"Kuroma, Musayuki… the kingdom won't rebuild itself. Revive the villages, launch reconstruction projects, and make the ashes of war the very stone upon which the new land is built."
The two commanders bowed in silent obedience, while Arthur gave a solemn nod—his task, far weightier.
"Arthur, the Awakened are either a new hope… or a burden. Make them the first, never allow them to become the second."
Before he departed, Sajibro turned toward Daemon and Meilis. His tone shifted.
"As for you two… head to the Demon Kingdom. I don't want a war with them—not now. Negotiate… bow, if you must. But do not draw your swords."
The missions began, and Sajibro walked toward the gate of the throne. Awaiting him was Ignus, the great dragon with blazing eyes.
He mounted the beast's back and said without looking back:
"To the Kingdom of Sages… let's see if loyalty still lives between us."
Ignus soared into the sky, slicing through the darkness with his wings, cleaving the wind as if tearing through time itself.
But midway through the journey—just before reaching the towering peaks of the Kingdom of Sages—Ignus did something no one could have predicted.
His body shuddered.
He flipped suddenly—and threw Sajibro off his back.
Sajibro plummeted at terrifying speed—but with immense control, he twisted mid-air and landed on a floating stone platform amidst the storm clouds.
Ignus descended before him, his eyes now burning with shadowed flame.
Then, in the Whisper-Tongue of Shadows—the forbidden language understood only by the few—he spoke:
"I finally have you alone… fallen king. Did you really think I was still yours to command?"
Sajibro didn't flinch. He stared back steadily, responding in the same tongue:
"You betray me? After I freed you from the shackles of oblivion?"
"I freed myself from your shackles!" roared Ignus, and lunged forward.
The battle began.
Blows shook the mountains.
Black fire tore through the sky.
Sajibro's old sword ignited the clouds with echoes of his past.
Yet in the heat of the fight, Sajibro saw something—
A black thorn embedded deep in Ignus's wing, pulsing with a sinister energy.
He closed in, eyes narrowing, voice cracking with recognition:
"Raizen…!"
It was one of the same control spikes Raizen had once used to enslave the Shadow Commanders.
As Sajibro approached, Ignus opened his jaws wide—unleashing a hellfire blast to consume everything.
Sudden cut.
The Demon Kingdom.
A blood-red sky. Cracked, scorched earth.
A towering palace made of black bone—rising like a slumbering beast.
Daemon and Meilis walked in silence, stepping cautiously under the watchful gaze of the demons scattered around them—until they reached the throne.
Upon it sat Zaramos, Lord of Bound Blood.
His eyes were slit vertically, each glowing with a deadly gleam.
He smirked with disdain.
"Sajibro sends me his old toys… to beg?"
Meilis stepped forward:
"We've come to propose a truce. War serves no one."
Zaramos laughed—a low, cold sound.
"A truce? With a kingdom that trembles? With a king who's lost his majesty?"
Before a word could be uttered, in the blink of an eye—
He severed Meilis's neck with a swift slash.
Her body collapsed to the ground—lifeless.
Daemon screamed—but didn't move in time.
A second strike—pierced through his head from the side.
Violent. Precise.
Even his eyes failed to register it.
They both fell—lifeless.
And on Zaramos's face… a cold, infernal grin.
"If Sajibro wants peace…
Let him crawl to me himself."
End of Chapter Twenty-Eight