The forest was quiet when the boys landed — too quiet.
Cyrus hit the ground first, blades out, scanning. Keuirseu followed, light trembling around his fingertips. Constant dropped last, chest rising and falling like he'd sprinted the entire way.
Nothing.
Except…
Keuirseu stepped forward and crouched. "Guys… look."
On the ground lay a thin glittering path of pink ash, shifting in the breeze like it was still alive. It shimmered faintly, giving off a weak pulse of corrupted holiness.
Ginny's signature.
Cyrus cursed under his breath. "Damn it… we missed her."
Constant knelt, touching the ash. A faint hum shot up his arm, a mix of warmth and rot. He jerked back.
"She was here," he said quietly. "And she wasn't alone. Two little footprints… and—"
His voice caught.
A huge print. Not a normal demon. Heavy. Ancient. Purposeful.
Cyrus felt his stomach drop. "Blood Reaper."
Keuirseu turned pale. "So, she's awake… and Ginny found her first."
Cyrus stood, jaw clenched. "We need to move. If she's walking the world, if she has the children…" He didn't finish.
Constant looked up at the sky, sadness flickering across his face. "Why couldn't we feel her? She's gone. Like her soul just turned off."
Keuirseu wiped his hands on his jacket. "No. Not gone."
He pointed toward the horizon, where a faint ripple of power spread across the clouds.
"She's shielded."
Cyrus gripped his blade tighter. "Or someone shielded her."
The three stood there, surrounded by the drifting pink ash, realizing the one they were supposed to protect was now a ghost moving through the world — and Ginny had met her first.
Far beneath the city, within a cathedral of molten stone and jagged obsidian pillars, Dyren stiffened.
He felt it.
A pulse.
A vibration in the fabric of creation — soft but unmistakable.
A weapon older than Hell itself had awakened.
Dyren closed his eyes, inhaling slowly.
"Glass… and starlight…" he whispered. "Ginny. You foolish child."
His eyes snapped open, glowing a deep, predatory crimson.
The staff's signature ran through him like fire and silk, intoxicating, powerful.
He wanted it.
Not for control.
Not for war.
For her.
For the moment he would finally stand face to face with Blood Reaper — the only being in the realms who might match him, break him, or join him.
His claws flexed.
"That staff belongs at her side," he murmured. "And so do I."
He rose from his throne, the shadows bowing back in fear.
Demons gathered, trembling as his aura rolled out in waves.
"She walks the world now," he said, a hungry smile cutting across his face. "And I will be the one to greet her."
A lower demon stepped forward nervously. "M-My Lord, the angels—"
Dyren's eyes flashed. "Let Heaven choke on their fear."
He vanished in a burst of black flame.
The hunt had begun.
Smoke rolled over the broken highway.
Small demons — twisted, half-formed scavengers — darted between overturned cars, ripping open doors searching for humans.
Cyrus, Keuirseu, and Constant moved fast, blades and light flashing as they cut through anything that lunged at them.
"We're close," Keuirseu whispered, breathing hard. "Her energy… it's faint, but it's here."
Cyrus nodded, eyes sharp. "Stay alert. If Blood Reaper's awakened fully, she won't be—"
He stopped.
All three did.
Because ahead, in the middle of the road, stood her.
Blood Reaper.
Tall. Terrifying. Shadow-light swirling around her skin like living ink. The ancient star-glass staff resting in her hand — glowing faintly with cosmic embers.
The two children clung to her legs, staring at the boys with huge, terrified eyes.
Demons circled behind her, ready to lunge.
But she didn't move.
She stood perfectly still, like a creature carved out of a nightmare and starlight.
Cyrus swallowed. "Holy—"
Keuirseu stepped back. "She's… different."
But Constant…
Constant froze entirely; breath caught in his throat.
Something inside him — something he didn't understand — lit on fire.
Not fear.
Not awe.
Recognition.
As if his soul knew her.
As if it had been waiting for her.
His chest burned, pulse racing, eyes locked on her face. Her dark, deadly beauty hit him like a physical force.
Cyrus grabbed his arm. "Constant? Don't. Stay behind me."
But Constant took one slow step forward anyway.
He couldn't help it.
His heart thudded so hard it hurt.
And when Blood Reaper's eyes finally shifted—
when her head turned—
when that inhuman gaze landed directly on him—
Constant felt the fire spread through every nerve.
She didn't speak.
She didn't smile.
She simply looked at him, tilting her head a fraction, studying him like she couldn't decide whether to slaughter him…
…or claim him.
The children stayed behind her legs, trembling, but Blood Reaper didn't shield them.
She didn't need to.
The small demons lurking in the shadows dared to move—
Blood Reaper didn't even turn her head.
She lifted her hand.
Shadow exploded outward, ripping the demons apart instantly, their bodies disintegrating into dust.
Constant's breath caught.
Keuirseu whispered, "Oh my God… she didn't even try."
Cyrus murmured, "She's stronger than the prophecy said."
Blood Reaper lowered her hand slowly, her eyes never leaving Constant.
The fire in his chest roared.
A pull.
A connection.
Something ancient and terrifying was waking inside him.
Cyrus sensed it and stepped in front of Constant sharply. "Don't look at her like that. She's not,"
Blood Reaper growled.
A low, rumbling warning that vibrated through the ground.
Constant stepped around Cyrus despite it. "It's okay," he whispered. "She's not attacking."
For a moment, the world held still.
Breathless.
The wind, the dust, the broken highway — everything froze between them.
Blood Reaper tilted her head again.
As if she saw something in him the others couldn't.
As if she felt the fire too.
Then—
She turned away without a word, children following her as she walked into the ruined city, shadows bending around her like living guardians.
Constant exhaled shakily, knees almost buckling.
Cyrus whispered, "What the hell was THAT?"
But Constant…
Constant already knew:
He was tied to her now.
And nothing could break it.
The moment Blood Reaper disappeared into the ruins, Cyrus shoved Constant back hard.
"What the hell was THAT?!" he snapped. "You walked toward her like—like she was your girlfriend!"
Constant shoved him right back. "I felt something—"
"Yeah," Cyrus barked, "it was called death, idiot! She could've ripped your spine out for fun!"
Keuirseu raised his hands. "Stop it! Both of you!"
But Constant's eyes were still on the direction she vanished, heat still burning in his chest.
"You didn't feel it," he murmured. "None of you did. She looked at me like—like she recognized me."
Cyrus scoffed. "She recognizes a refrigerator before she recognizes you, Const—"
"Enough!" Keuirseu snapped.
Before more could be said—
A wave of black energy rippled across the sky.
All three boys froze.
Deep in the infernal realm, Dyren's eyes snapped open.
He had seen it.
He had felt it.
Constant's soul igniting.
Blood Reaper's gaze softening.
A spark — a connection — forming between them.
Dyren growled, claws curling into the stone armrest of his throne, cracking it.
"Mine," he hissed. "She was meant to be mine."
The shadows around him trembled.
Another vision flashed through him — Blood Reaper's power swelling, drawing closer to its true form.
Dyren's lips pulled into a snarl.
"That boy…"
He tasted the word like poison.
"Constant."
He stood.
"I'll tear that bond out of him with my own hands."
His aura exploded, shaking Hell itself.
But then—
A second pulse hit him.
A darker one.
A power awakening on Earth.
Dyren's expression twisted into something hungry, furious, and delighted all at once.
"She's changing," he whispered. "Finally."