The flames slowly died, licking the fractured stones of the ruined cathedral where Hayato stood — bloodied, barely upright, chest heaving like a wounded beast. Maggorath's body was still smoldering behind him, reduced to ash and bone by the wrath of Hayato's black fire.
Yue and Minamoto approached cautiously. They had arrived just in time to see the battle's conclusion but too late to stop Hayato from nearly burning himself out again. His sword trembled in his hand, pulsing with black light. His eyes, dark with grief and anger, barely registered their presence.
"Hayato…" Minamoto started softly, but stopped. He wasn't listening.
He stared forward, almost unblinking.
Then he said it:
"He was supposed to know something. About him."
Hayato took a step toward the demon's corpse, the fire around him dimming with each step. He raised his blade, barely able to lift it anymore.
"Talk," he muttered under his breath, knowing it was hopeless. "Tell me something. Anything..."
Then, suddenly—a flash.
From afar.
Silent.
Deadly.
A spear made of condensed demonic energy ripped through Maggorath's chest, the impact so powerful it shattered the demon's body where it lay. It wasn't flame. It wasn't dark magic. It was something else—precise. Unforgiving.
The three of them froze.
Hayato's breath caught.
The battlefield fell into an unnatural quiet. No footsteps. No echo. Not even the whisper of wind. Just… silence.
Minamoto's hand flew to her weapon. Yue looked around with sharp, darting eyes.
"What… was that?" Yue whispered.
Hayato stared at the place where Maggorath's body had been. All that was left was a blackened crater and the scent of something ancient. Something wrong.
And then they felt it.
A presence. Distant… but watching.
Not from the ground. Above.
Hayato raised his head slowly, sweat trailing down his brow.
Up there.
On the broken edge of the cathedral's collapsed dome—a figure.
Shrouded in shadow, only barely visible against the darkened sky.
Not moving.
Not breathing.
Just... watching.
Yue opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Her throat clenched instinctively.
"We should go," Minamoto said, almost inaudibly. "Now."
Hayato didn't move.
The figure stood still, unmoving. Then, in an instant—it vanished.
Not a trace.
No sound.
No sign.
Just… gone.
Hayato's fingers curled tightly around the hilt of his sword. Not in fear—but something close.
"He killed Maggorath from that far away..." Yue muttered. "Without lifting a finger. No warning. No aura."
Hayato said nothing.
But inside, something shifted.
This wasn't over.
Whoever that was… they were leagues above the kind of power Hayato had faced so far. And they weren't after him yet.
But when they were?
He needed to be ready.
He had to be.
Even if it killed him.