The moment the sound of blood dissolving into air ceased, a cold silence spread.
No wind. The scent of ash still lingered.
Lioren lowered his head, breath ragged.
The Chaos in his eyes faded, dissolving like morning mist. His hands still trembled.
> "Lyre…"
A voice came from behind — not loud, not soft — but unmistakably human.
Lioren turned around.
A man stood amidst the scorched hallway, his cloak black as rusted iron, blood still staining his left shoulder.
His gaze struck like iron nails into memory: pale, emotionless, but behind it... a silent hell.
Geal.
He didn't ask. Didn't scream. Didn't draw his weapon.
He simply walked forward, slowly — as if stepping on the final moments of something lost.
He looked at the empty space where Lyre had vanished.
His eyes brushed the air — as though he could still see her curly hair, her silly laugh, her childlike gaze.
> "She… loved reading." "She suffered... so much."
Lioren clenched his fists, but said nothing.
> "She once asked me: 'If I die… would the world cry for me?'…"
> "I didn't know. I couldn't answer her.
And now she's dead…"
He raised his head. His gaze pierced through Lioren's eyes like a blunt blade — dull, but still painful.
> "Can you answer in my place?" "Will the world… cry for her?"
Lioren opened his mouth. But his throat was dry. The words he wanted to say burned away in his chest.
> "...No." "The world doesn't cry for monsters."
Lioren spoke, but before his words could fade completely into the air—
A voice echoed, quiet but cold:
> "Geal…"
Both Lioren and Geal turned at once.
The black blood splattered from the battle suddenly gathered, twisting and bubbling.
A crack echoed like an eggshell breaking.
Lyre was reborn.
She stood, skin pure white, hair soaked, golden eyes gleaming coldly.
Her body, perfectly restored — like a nightmare resurrected.
> "Geal… you finally came." – Lyre smiled softly, stepping closer.
She hadn't even finished her sentence before moving toward him.
But Lioren didn't let that happen.
He clenched his hand, focused every element within himself — then launched forward.
A blast of earth, flame, and lightning surged together into a devastating blow.
The attack struck Lyre with immense force.
She was hurled away, a broken fragment through the air, crashing through the academy—
> BOOM!
She smashed into the city below, leaving a deep crater in the stone ground.
Lioren stood still, breath heavy, hands trembling.
Geal stared at him, wide-eyed, shaken.
> "That… was Lyre…?"
---
Lyre's body was flung from the sky, crashing through red-tiled roofs, piercing a crumbling academy tower, and slamming into the capital's main street.
THUD!
The ground shattered. A deep crater in human shape formed in the stone.
Smoke and dust rose like the remnants of an unfinished blood ritual.
Nearby citizens turned, staring at the impact. Confusion reflected in every eye — no one understood what had just happened.
A little girl dropped her teddy bear.
A mother pulled her child back.
A guard tightened his grip on his spear.
Then she stood.
Lyre's body was broken in many places, black blood oozing from her joints.
But her flesh regenerated. Blood flowed backward into her heart.
Then she opened her eyes — golden pupils like molten metal, empty.
She was no longer Lyre.
---
Black blood spilled from her hand, twisting into a scythe.
She began to kill — with no reason.
First, a child.
One clean slash through the belly of the mother shielding her.
Then the guard.
Then the merchant.
Then the fleeing, the begging.
But the strangest part — no more illusions.
No more childish laughter echoing with every fight.
No more dancing mannequins, no more "little family," no strange greetings or bizarre games.
Only screaming. The sound of blood hitting stone. The stench of burning flesh.
In Lyre's eyes, the world was still a garden where everyone danced.
But deep inside her — a small, trembling part of her soul — saw everything.
> "What am I doing...?
Why can't my hands stop...?
Why isn't anyone laughing anymore...?
Why are they... looking at me like that...?"
She couldn't control her body.
She could only witness.
And the blood wouldn't stop.
---
From the academy, Lioren and Geal were racing toward the street with blinding speed.
Wind whipped against their faces like needles, and the screams echoed like death bells.
> "My name is Lioren."
Geal gritted his teeth, eyes wide with panic:
> "Lioren! What the hell is happening to Lyre?!"
Lioren didn't look at him. His voice deepened:
> "She's being controlled by a Light Leech — a genetically modified creature, altered by someone named Veyrion — a hybrid of light and demon."
> "Originally, these leeches amplify light magic…
But once mutated, they begin devouring humans to fuel their bodies.
And then… they lay eggs."
Geal went pale.
> "If we don't kill it now… this entire city… will become a mass grave."
---
They arrived.
The scene before them looked like hell drawn in human blood.
Burnt, curled corpses of children lay in the streets.
A mother, split in half, still holding her lifeless child.
A guard missing an arm, his blade tossed in a thick pool of blood.
A man pinned to a wall — by his own bones.
Every death was in terror. In hopelessness. In fear.
Lioren walked past the corpses, eyes like ice:
> "We still have time… but very little.
If she gets enough nourishment…
The eggs will hatch.
And then… it won't be just one Lyre."