The orphan stronghold—deep within the Demon Lord's domain—was meant to be sacred.
A place where war-orphaned children trained, ate, laughed…
And called the Demon Lord their guardian.
Tonight, that sanctity shattered.
---
Arrival of the Third
No sound.
No warning.
Just a shadow in the moonlight, stepping through the gates.
The guards didn't even scream—just dropped, one by one, to the ground. Not dead. Not bleeding.
Just gone.
Inside, a small boy with burnt fingertips clutched his wooden sword, staring at the figure walking calmly down the hall.
> "Are… you the Demon Lord's friend?"
The Third Clone tilted her head.
> "No. I'm his replacement."
And raised her hand.
---
The Demon Lord's Fury
A howl split the sky.
The Demon Lord burst into the stronghold like a thunderstorm, eyes blazing with purple fire.
Dozens of his children lay unconscious. Some cried. Others trembled.
But none were killed.
And that told him everything.
> "She was testing me…"
He knelt beside the smallest, the one who had dared speak to her.
> "She said… she's your replacement," the boy whispered.
The Demon Lord's jaw tightened.
> "Then she's mine to end."
---
Meanwhile: The Flame Library
Far from war and blood, Serian and Kira wandered the ruins of the Flame Library—a sunken archive hidden beneath the sanctuary.
Books whispered as they passed. Light flared from glyphs when Serian approached.
Finally, they found it:
The Soul Cycle Codex.
> "Every being is a fragment of something greater," Kira read aloud. "Split. Reborn. Remade. The truest soul remembers… when it breaks."
Serian touched the page, and the glyphs shifted—revealing a symbol of balance: hero and demon, two wings on one back.
> "So it's true…" he whispered. "I'm not a person. I'm a war."
---
The Third Watches
From atop a distant spire, the Third Clone gazed at the world below.
Her orders were clear.
But inside her chest, where emptiness once lived… a flicker of something burned.
Was it regret?
Was it memory?
Or… was it him?
The one who once cried in her dreams.
---