The night was eerily quiet. After the battle with Lord Azran, Gideon and the others had made camp in the ruins of what used to be a village. The stones still smelled of old smoke, and the ground was blackened from magic fire.
Lilith slept beside Gideon, curled under his heavy cloak. Her breathing was soft, steady — but Gideon couldn't sleep. The Mark of the Void on his chest throbbed with a dull, gnawing pain. It always did after absorbing too much corrupted magic.
Selene sat across the fire, sharpening her sword with slow, deliberate strokes. Sparks leapt up now and then, but she didn't speak. Darius leaned against a broken wall, staring at the stars, silent and distant.
Gideon's fingers itched. His instincts screamed that something was wrong — but the battle had drained them all. They needed rest.
He leaned back against the cold stone and closed his eyes. Sleep came like a thief.
He dreamed.
He was standing in a sea of blood. In the distance, Lina called to him — but her voice was wrong, twisted, broken. Shadows moved around her, grabbing her arms, pulling her down.
"You failed, Papa. You failed her too."
Gideon tried to run, but his legs were heavy. Behind Lina, a tall figure watched him with burning silver eyes.
Lilith.
She opened her mouth and spoke in a voice that was not hers:
"You're not her savior, Gideon. You're her executioner."
He woke with a start, heart pounding.
The fire had died to glowing embers. Selene was gone.
Gideon stood quickly, scanning the area. Darius still sat against the wall — but his eyes were closed. He wasn't breathing.
Gideon rushed to him and grabbed his wrist. A faint pulse. He was alive, just... unconscious? Drugged?
A faint noise behind him.
Gideon spun around, sword drawn.
Selene stood there, her blade slick with blood, her eyes flat and emotionless.
"Selene?" Gideon asked, voice low.
She stared at him for a moment — then blinked. Her body trembled, and she dropped her sword with a clatter.
"I... I don't know what happened," she whispered. "I heard a voice. It told me to... to kill him."
Gideon looked closer — her wrists were marked with strange black symbols, half-faded into her skin. Residual mind control magic.
He lowered his sword slightly. "It's not your fault. Something's manipulating us."
Lilith stirred, woken by the tension. She blinked at the scene, confused.
Before Gideon could explain, the ground trembled.
From the shadows beyond the ruins, a grotesque creature slithered into view — a mass of bones and tendrils, stitched together with glowing red thread. A Cursed Flesh Warden. Mordain's last servants.
It screeched, a sound like shattering glass, and lunged.
The battle was chaos.
Gideon charged forward, sword blazing with spirit fire. Selene shook off her daze and joined him, moving like a silver ghost.
The creature was fast — too fast. It coiled around Selene, trying to crush her. Gideon hacked at its limbs, but for every one he severed, two more grew.
Lilith stood behind them, trembling. She raised her hands, summoning her spirit power — but something went wrong. Dark energy flickered at her fingertips.
"No," Gideon growled. "Not the Void!"
Lilith screamed, the power surging out of her.
The creature recoiled, parts of its body blackening and crumbling. But Lilith collapsed, unconscious.
Gideon saw it then — a faint outline around Lilith's heart, like a dark crown.
The same mark as Mordain.
"She's cursed too," Gideon realized, cold horror spreading through him.
Selene freed herself with a vicious slash. "Gideon! Focus!"
Together, they drove the creature back, blow by brutal blow. Finally, Gideon leapt high, bringing his sword down with a roar.
The creature exploded into ash.
After the battle, the camp was a graveyard of silence.
Gideon carried Lilith to a soft patch of grass and laid her down carefully. She murmured something in her sleep, tears slipping from her closed eyes.
Selene sat nearby, her face pale and stricken.
"I almost killed Darius," she said hollowly.
Gideon looked at her, weary but firm. "That wasn't you. It was whatever's hiding inside this land — maybe even Mordain's remnants."
Selene shook her head. "Or maybe it's us. Maybe we were always broken."
Neither spoke after that.
Dawn approached slowly, the sky turning from black to deep purple.
When Darius finally woke, he looked haunted.
"I saw something," he said quietly. "In my dreams. Before I passed out."
Gideon leaned in. "What did you see?"
"A gate," Darius said. "A black gate, bigger than mountains. And behind it, a throne. A throne made of bones."
He shivered.
"And sitting on it... was Lilith."
The fire crackled. No one spoke.
Lilith stirred in her sleep, whispering words that chilled them to the bone:
"The end is not yet come. The dead shall feast."
Gideon sat back, mind racing.
He had saved Lilith from the Demon Lord. He had given her a name, a life.
But had he also carried the seed of the world's destruction?
Later that day, they buried the remains of the Cursed Flesh Warden in a deep pit. Gideon marked the grave with a stone.
As they prepared to move on, Selene touched Gideon's arm.
"You know we might have to face her someday," she said, meaning Lilith.
Gideon's jaw tightened.
"Not yet," he said. "Not until I'm sure."
He looked at Lilith, who clung to his cloak, eyes wide and trusting.
Not yet.
But in the depths of his heart, a dark seed of doubt took root.
And somewhere, far beyond the veil of the living world, the true enemy — the one who had whispered into Mordain's ear, who had shaped the Void itself — stirred awake.
Watching.
Waiting.
Smiling.