There was a town that didn't exist on maps.
No one dared speak its name—not since the firestorm, not since the bones were buried under salt and ash.
Serenya Vale walked through it anyway.
"Why are we here?" Veylan asked. His cuffs still clinked as he followed, but now he didn't drag his feet.
"To pick a fight," she said. "And make a point."
---
At the town square, a statue stood untouched by time:
A holy figure draped in robes of judgment, blade raised skyward.
The God-Slain Saint.
Once worshipped. Now nothing but a corpse turned monument.
Serenya stared up at it.
"He killed my mother in the last timeline," she murmured.
Veylan stilled.
"What?"
"She was accused of harboring a demon-touched child." She looked at her palm, at the faint Hellmark glowing under the skin. "They were right."
---
She drew Vowbreaker.
No theatrics. No monologue.
Just a clean, devastating slash of cursed steel across holy stone.
The statue shattered.
"There," she whispered. "Now they'll feel it."
And they did.
Far above, in the temples of the sky, bells screamed like dying angels.
The High Pantheon was watching now.
---
The backlash came fast. A ripple of divine magic thundered across the square.
And descending with it: a Herald. Golden wings. Spear of judgment. Eyes that saw the soul.
"Blasphemer," the Herald thundered. "Your name is erased from the Book of Light."
Serenya just tilted her head.
"Cute."
---
The duel was short.
Holy light met demonic steel.
Grace versus vengeance.
The ground cracked. Veylan was thrown back. The sky split open like paper.
And in the center of it all....Serenya standing with the Herald's heart still pulsing on her blade.
"Send another," she snarled to the heavens. "Send them all."
The winds stilled.
The silence afterward wasn't peace.
It was fear.
---
Later, by the fire, Veylan said nothing. He just watched her hands—still trembling.
"You okay?" he asked, softly.
She didn't answer.
Because she wasn't.
---
In the dark, far from the flame, the Demon King whispered into the void:
"She's begun."
And deep in the ground, the chains of Hell shifted.