The Great Library of Oros was a graveyard of knowledge. As the dust settled from the destruction of the First Paladin, Valerius stood over the withered form of Elara. The air around him distorted—50% of his power was a turbulent sea of dark mana that his physical vessel, resurrected only recently, struggled to contain.
"My King!" Ignis landed on the balcony, his blue flames flickering with agitation. "The dragons are restless. The Holy City's 'Divine Pulse' is radiating from the horizon. They can feel the ritual beginning."
Valerius did not answer immediately. He looked at his own reflection in a shattered shard of enchanted glass. His eyes, once purely authoritative, now held a flickering void. Elara's words echoed in his mind: The part of you that was human... she is a prisoner.
"Vorgath," Valerius called out. The stone giant climbed the side of the tower, his massive hands crushing the marble.
"Panginoon?"
"Elara says my soul was split. That the 'Light' within me was harvested. Is this why I feel nothing but the hunger of the Void?"
Vorgath bowed his heavy head. "That night... the Sages used the Blade of Severance. We thought they destroyed your spirit, but if Elara speaks truth, they did worse. They kept your mercy, your love, and your mortality as a battery for their 'God'."
Valerius gripped the Void Eater. The sword pulsed, sensing its master's inner turmoil. At 50% power, he was a god of destruction, but he was hollow. To strike the Holy City now was to risk his own existence; without his "Human" half to anchor his mana, the 100% release of his power would likely incinerate his own body along with the world.
"We go to the Valley of Whispering Tombs first," Valerius commanded, his voice cold as the abyss.
"But the Holy City—!" Ignis started, then went silent under Valerius's gaze.
"If I storm the Holy City now, I am merely a monster they can slay again," Valerius said. "To truly reclaim my throne, I must be whole. The Valley holds the Mirror of Souls. I will use it to bridge the gap between here and the Crystal Tower. I will talk to... 'her'."
The flight to the Valley of Whispering Tombs was short but somber. This was the ancient burial ground of the Demon Kings of old. As Valerius stepped onto the gray, ashen soil, the spirits of his ancestors wailed in recognition.
In the center of the valley stood a monolith of obsidian—the Mirror of Souls.
Valerius approached it alone. He placed his hand on the cold surface and poured 50% of his mana into the stone. The obsidian rippled like water, turning from black to a blinding, pure white.
An image appeared.
It was a girl, no older than nineteen, trapped inside a pillar of amber crystal. She wore a simple white dress, and her hair was the color of pale moonlight. She looked exactly like the woman Valerius had loved before he became the Demon King—his own humanity, manifested.
She opened her eyes. They were the same shape as Valerius's, but instead of red and black, they were a soft, morning gold.
"Valerius?" she whispered, her voice vibrating through the mirror and into his very bones. "Is it really you? Or is this another trick of the High Sage?"
"It is I," Valerius replied, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "I have returned for you, Lyra."
"No!" she cried out, pressing her hands against the inside of the amber. "Stay away! The High Sage... he hasn't just imprisoned me. He has linked my life to the foundations of the Holy City. If you destroy the city, you kill me. If you reclaim your power, I fade away."
Valerius felt a pang in his chest—a sensation he hadn't felt in a thousand years. Pain.
"They used my own heart to build a cage for me," Valerius hissed, his mana flaring and cracking the ground beneath him.
"He wants you to come," Lyra warned, tears falling like liquid gold. "He is waiting for you at 100% power. He needs your darkness to merge with my light to create the Avatar of the New World. He wants to use us to restart the universe... without demons, and without humans. Only 'Pure' beings."
"A world of puppets," Valerius sneered.
Suddenly, the mirror began to crack. A golden spear of light shot through the vision from Lyra's side, shattering the connection.
"VALERIUS!" Lyra's scream cut off as the mirror exploded into a thousand shards.
Standing in the clearing was not a Sage, but a projection of the High Sage, Solomon. He looked ancient, his eyes hidden behind a blindfold of white silk.
"The reunion was touching, Demon King," Solomon's projection said, his voice like grinding stones. "But the girl is right. She is the anchor. Come to the Holy City. Bring your darkness. Complete the cycle, or watch as I drain her dry to power my paradise."
The projection vanished.
Valerius stood in the silence of the tombs. His shadow began to move independently, twisting into horrific, jagged shapes.
"Ignis. Vorgath. Aurelia," Valerius said, his voice no longer human. It was the roar of the Void itself.
"Gather every demon, every dragon, and every shadow that still crawls in this world. We are not going to the Holy City to reclaim a soul."
He raised the Void Eater, and for the first time, the blade turned white with a cold, terrifying fire.
"We are going there to commit Deicide."