There’s no way. There’s nowhere to run in this place anyway. Satin tried to convince himself, but a strange unease twisted in his gut. His heart pounded, just like when the Demon gave his ominous introduction.
“What are you trying to do right now?”
Before Satin could even finish his sentence, Cain shoved him away. At first, he thought the Demon had attacked, but that wasn’t it. A blinding white light surged in an instant. The moment Satin’s back hit the ground, it wasn’t ice but flames that erupted. A wall of fire blazed up between Cain and Satin.
“Cain!”
A shadow moved beyond the flames.
‘No. No, that’s not right.’
‘Moved’ didn’t quite fit. The shadow ran. Cain was running forward, using the fire as a curtain.
Satin couldn’t even see Cain’s face, let alone the Demon. The wall in front of him completely blocked the view of the massive enemy beyond. Cain hadn’t even left Satin the role of a spectator.
Satin scrambled to his feet. The ground trembled with aftershocks from the earthquake the Demon had caused, making him slip on the uneven terrain. But there was no time to check for injuries. He had to stop Cain.
“Cain, no! That’s not it!”
In this tangled story, the protagonist was no longer invincible. Cain was charging at the Demon without any protection. Because he was afraid.
Afraid that Satin would try something reckless.
Afraid that Satin might disappear again.
“Cain, stop!”
Satin wanted to run through the flames and grab Cain, but the fire was too hot. He wasn’t as brave as the Satin Cain remembered.
So he had no choice but to run in the direction Cain had gone. He couldn’t see him, but Cain was definitely beyond the flames.
If a magician is shaken, their magic falters. Satin had seen Rita’s fire arrows vanish mid-air more than once. Cain would be no different. If he just waited for that moment—
‘But what if he collides with the Demon before then?’
What if, when the fire disappears, Cain is nowhere to be seen? What if he’s already rushed in with his sword toward the Demon?
Wouldn’t he be stopped—just like Edward was?
Wouldn’t he be injured and thrown across the frozen ground?
Then what should Satin do? Should he run to him in tears, like Rita did?
If Edward and Rita make it back alive, maybe they’ll get married.
But if Satin returns with Cain… what then?
He’d never once imagined a future with someone who wasn’t his sister.
His breath came short, his head spun. And then, the fire vanished.
“Cain!”
Satin immediately looked for him.
The flames surged up again. Cain hadn’t lost focus and dropped the spell—he had simply retrieved his weapon to strike the Demon.
Standing before the towering Demon, Cain looked like a child.
A small child in need of protection.
No. He was a grown man.
A man willing to risk himself to protect someone weaker.
Even though he was running, to Satin, Cain felt like he was growing farther and farther away.
‘Please.’
Even when the Demon had been smaller, Edward couldn’t land a proper strike. Rita hadn’t even been able to get close. Would Cain be different?
Satin knew there was nothing he could do—yet still, he hoped.
‘Don’t get hurt. That’s supposed to be my role. You don’t even like people. Please, don’t do anything reckless.’
No one had asked Cain to be here. He had only come because he followed Satin. Not even knowing it was all fake.
He probably never even wanted to be a hero or save people.
He was the one who once said it’d be better if everyone just died.
Hope might just be a pretty wrapper around the cold truth of probability. One in a thousand, one in ten thousand. Maybe even a bigger number. It might as well be zero—but call it hope, and suddenly, it feels like there’s a chance. Like if you just wish hard enough, it’ll come true.
The Demon bent down. Like someone picking up a small object from the floor.
—Fire really does suit humans, doesn’t it?
His black robes fluttered lightly. The flame that danced along the Demon’s hand fizzled out meaninglessly. Cain, still holding his sword, was thrown backward. His blade hadn’t even grazed the Demon’s fingertips.
“Cain!”
Satin rushed toward him in a panic, but the Demon didn’t merely watch. He straightened his bent waist and reached out his hand.
Satin saw the Demon move—but there was nothing he could do.
—Even knowing they’ll leave nothing behind, why do humans always burn and burn?
Ice surged up and rushed forward. Its jagged tips, like shards of shattered glass, angled sharply upward. The moment they collided, bodies would be riddled with holes, big and small.
Even so, Satin couldn’t avoid the icy spears. At the end of that deadly formation, Cain had collapsed. He was struggling to get back up, swaying unsteadily.
At last, Satin reached Cain. But the soulless spears of ice were faster.
“Kh….”
Cain clenched his teeth to stifle a sound, but in the end, a groan escaped. Satin dropped to his knees, lips trembling, unable to figure out what to do about the shard of ice that had pierced through Cain’s thigh.
“H-Hold on, just wait a second, someone will—”
Satin glanced around instinctively. But of course, there was no one who could help. Rita was still unconscious, and Edward, though looking their way, couldn’t even lift his body. The others in the distance? They were nothing more than part of the background.
Nothing changed even after a moment passed. No one was going to come, no matter how long they waited.
—Get up. This time, it is your turn.
Satin obeyed the voice. He took the sword from Cain’s hand.
“Don’t listen. That… grh…”
“I’ll be right back.”
“Run instead…”
“I really will be back. Trust me.”
The Demon was right. Fire suits humans. Powerless humans always cling to fleeting embers, desperately trying to burn away the darkness. In a world where he couldn’t hope for anyone’s help, Satin chose to become fire—for Cain.
Cain tried to grab him, but he couldn’t even rise, let alone hold him back. Satin shook off Cain’s hand and walked away. Over and over, he repeated to himself:
‘This is all just a play. I can end this play.’
He had to believe that. One in a thousand? One in ten thousand? This was a hope far greater than that.
With his back to Cain, Satin stood before the Demon. The massive shadow loomed over him. Behind the Demon, the sunset glowed red like a halo—a fitting backdrop for anything but the one playing the role most distant from holiness.
Satin gripped the sword in both hands. He raised it above his head and struck forward, mimicking a stance he’d seen somewhere before.
At that moment, the Demon leapt like a bird. His black hair and robes scattered like smoke. There was no ice this time.
Satin’s sword clashed against the Demon’s long claws. A thunderous crash rang out, but the longsword—bought at full price—didn’t break. Oddly, blue flames crackled out from the impact.
His palms felt like they were being torn open. His muscles screamed. At this rate, the sword would shatter, and his body would be ripped apart by those black claws.
‘Is this how I die?’
Just then, the Demon whispered:
—Use fire magic.
Satin froze for a beat. Then quickly grasped the situation.
“You son of a bitch… you cheating bastard…”
The curse spilled from Satin’s lips. He had never spoken to anyone like that in his life—but in that moment, he couldn’t help it.
And yet, that was all he had. Satin didn’t know many curses. This wasn’t the time to be making a scene either—not with so many eyes watching.
Grinding his teeth in frustration, Satin glared at the Demon. The Demon didn’t look embarrassed in the slightest. He simply whispered again, as if for an audience, his expression as eerie as ever.
—Come now, use fire magic.
“I’m not a magician, you fucking con artist.”
—You are a magician.
“I’m not a—”
Suddenly, Satin remembered. Satin from the Dark Age was a magician.
A Black Magician who summoned the Demon King to avenge his master. He couldn’t have awakened magic after his master died. If that had been the case, he wouldn’t have called him ‘Master’ in the first place.
—Quickly!
Urged again by the Demon, Satin cried out reflexively:
“Volcanic ash! Nine! Oats!”
Could he really cast a spell? He wasn’t even sure. What he’d shouted was the incantation for Rita’s fire arrow spell—a spell they already knew didn’t work on the Demon.
He was already about to regret following instructions when light suddenly began to gather—from far away. It was mana.
‘Wait, what the hell…?’
An overwhelming amount of mana gathered—enough to cover the entire world and still spill over. It was the same phenomenon as when Rita formed fire arrows or Cain raised the wall of flames—but the scale was entirely different. The sky, which had begun to darken, now turned so white it was almost blinding.
That sheer amount of mana couldn’t possibly create just a single fire arrow. Meteor-like fireballs began raining down in a torrent.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
As flaming boulders crashed into the clearing from all sides, the previously dormant Long thrashed and roared. Even the Demon hastily retreated and shouted:
—How dare a mere human—!
‘No, it’s not me. I didn’t do this…’
—NO!
Satin was too stunned to even speak. Suddenly, the Demon let out a scream and curled in on himself.
At that moment, between the falling fireballs, a white light beamed down. It was a pure white so intense that no modern TV screen could ever reproduce it. It could only be described as divine.
Satin forgot to even lower his sword and looked up at the sky.
—NOOOOOOO!
The Demon’s massive body slowly shrank. Like a balloon deflating. In the end, he became even smaller than he had been when he first appeared.
—KRAAAAAGH!
He turned into smoke—and plunged straight into Satin’s arms. Or, more precisely, into the inner pocket where Satin had stored the slightly-too-expensive Sacred Relics.
Da fuck wazz dat?
Istg this gives me enough second-hand embarrassment for the next whole year 🤣