The air was still trembling from what Kairo had done.
Stone smoked. The platform was cracked in wide, jagged lines, like the mountain itself had tried to pull away from him. His knees scraped against the scorched ground as he struggled to breathe, every inhale sharp and shallow.
Sereth lay several paces away.
She wasn't moving.
"Kairo…" he whispered.
The seal pulsed—slow, heavy, satisfied.
He forced himself upright and staggered toward her. Blood stained the side of her face, dark against pale skin. One arm was twisted beneath her at a wrong angle.
Panic clawed up his throat.
"Sereth," he said louder. "Please. Wake up."
Her wards flickered weakly around her body, unstable. Failing.
That was when the pressure hit.
Not from above.
From elsewhere.
Kairo froze.
Something was approaching—fast, deliberate, precise. Not wild like the demons from the village. This presence was sharp, disciplined, cold.
Hunters.
The seal tightened instinctively, as if afraid.
Sereth groaned softly, eyelids fluttering.
Relief surged through him—then shattered when he felt the second presence, closer now. Too close.
If they found him like this…
If they saw her…
Sereth's eyes opened, unfocused. "Kairo…" she breathed. "Listen to me."
"I'm here," he said desperately. "I've got you."
Her fingers tightened weakly around his sleeve. "You need to hide it. Now."
"I can help you," he said. "I can use it—just a little. I won't lose control, I swear."
She shook her head, pain flashing across her face. "No. If you unleash that power again, they won't just sense you. They'll lock onto you."
Another pulse rolled through the air.
Closer.
Kairo's chest burned. The power inside him stirred eagerly, as if it already knew the answer.
Let me out.
She is fragile.
You are not.
He clenched his teeth. "If I don't do something, they'll kill you."
Sereth forced herself upright, coughing. "If you do something… they'll kill everything."
Footsteps echoed faintly in the distance—measured, unhurried. Confident.
The Inquisitors were near.
Sereth grabbed his wrist with surprising strength. "Kairo. This is the moment that decides who you are."
His vision blurred.
All his life, he had been small. Ignored. Measured and found lacking.
Now the world was asking him to become something terrible in order to protect someone who believed in him.
The seal pulsed again.
Choose.
Kairo looked at Sereth—at the woman who had stepped into his storm without fear, who had taught him that control mattered more than strength.
Slowly, painfully, he lowered his head.
"I won't use it," he whispered.
The power recoiled, furious.
Pain ripped through his chest as he forced the seal shut—not gently, not correctly, but desperately. The backlash slammed into him, stealing his breath. Blood spilled onto the stone.
Sereth gasped. "Kairo—!"
He pressed his palm to the ground, channeling what little remained—not the Demon King's power, but his own.
The platform darkened.
The scorch marks faded. Cracks sealed. Residual energy dispersed, smeared thin and harmless, like ash scattered by wind.
His presence—his signature—collapsed inward, becoming small.
Human.
Ordinary.
The footsteps stopped.
A voice rang out from beyond the sanctuary. "The breach was here."
Another voice, colder: "No. Whatever triggered it is gone."
Silence stretched.
Then, gradually, the pressure lifted.
They had passed by.
Kairo collapsed beside Sereth, shaking violently.
She pulled him into a weak, one-armed embrace. "You hid yourself," she murmured in disbelief. "Do you know how impossible that is?"
He laughed weakly, the sound breaking into a sob. "I just… didn't want to become him."
Sereth closed her eyes. "Then remember this pain," she said softly. "Because this is what choosing humanity costs you."
The seal lay quiet now.
Not pleased.
Not amused.
But wounded.
And somewhere far away, something ancient took note—not of Kairo's power, but of his refusal.
A refusal that would one day shake the world more than any Demon King ever had.