They had all thought it was over. The invasion on the city had been stopped, the Demon Lords and Demon King had been bested, and Xain had finally been saved from the Beast. For a moment, it had even felt real, like the aftermath of something survivable. But now that illusion had collapsed, and every one of them stood frozen in place, staring at the boy—or maybe girl—in front of them with expressions ranging from confusion to quiet dread, as if the ground itself had shifted without warning.
"Wha-what are you saying, Xain?" Zee asked, her voice small and fractured as she stepped forward unsteadily, her eyes locked onto him like she could force the truth back into place just by looking harder. "N-now's not the time for jokes, please…" Her hand twitched as if she wanted to reach out, but couldn't make herself do it.
Annie tilted her head slightly, then shook it with an almost amused sigh. "Ah~ how cute. You're on the verge of having a breakdown because of him. Now that's true love~" she said mockingly, her tone light in a way that didn't belong in this aftermath. Zee visibly flinched at the sound of it, taking an instinctive step back as if the voice itself had pushed her.
Ercale's expression hardened immediately. "Why are you out?" he asked, eyes narrowing as he stepped forward, ignoring the tension building in the air. "Why are you the one in control?" Annie simply hummed in response, not even acknowledging the question, and that silence alone was enough to sharpen his irritation. He advanced another step, voice rising. "I asked you a—"
He never finished.
Annie moved in a single instant, no warning, no visible preparation, just sudden motion cutting through space. Her leg snapped upward and the kick landed clean against Ercale's temple with enough force to rip his balance away completely. His body dropped immediately, hitting the ground hard enough that his head bounced once against the crater floor before going still. The Demon Lord, already weakened from everything before, was knocked unconscious.
For a heartbeat, nobody reacted. Then the crater shifted all at once as everyone instinctively stepped back, tension snapping into place as they prepared for another fight without even thinking about it. All except Zee and Nori, who could only stare in stunned silence at what had just happened.
"With one hit?" Prince Mark muttered under his breath, disbelief creeping into his voice. Drimus exhaled sharply, eyes fixed on the fallen body. "Lord Ercale went down…?" Amara's voice came quieter, almost disbelieving. "I couldn't even see the kick." Mae's hands slowly clenched at her sides as she watched Annie without blinking. "Still as grotesque as when she fought me."
Annie glanced down at Ercale for a moment, smiling faintly as if he were nothing more than an inconvenience cleared away. "I told you, didn't I, little warden? I'll have something for you next time~?" she giggled softly, before turning back toward the rest of them as though the interruption had already been forgotten.
"Now, you're all probably wondering what happened," she continued, clasping her hands loosely behind her back as she spoke with casual ease. "And I do know what happened. But I won't be telling any of you~"
She stuck her tongue out playfully, an expression that might have been lighthearted in another context, in another body, in another world. Here it just felt wrong. Bram's eyes narrowed as he watched her carefully, already shifting his stance subtly as he tracked her movement, calculating angles, distance, timing. *She dropped Ercale in one hit. Even weakened, that's not normal. I'll wait for an opening. When she turns her back…*
Clara's voice broke through the tension, shaky and uncertain. "Why won't you tell us? Why are you here? Why is Xain gone?" Annie shrugged lightly, as if the questions were irrelevant. "Why do you care so much?" she asked, tilting her head toward her. "That desperate for friends?"
Clara flinched immediately at the words. Lia stepped forward at once, placing herself between Clara and Annie without hesitation. "Hey! You don't have to be so mean!" she snapped. Annie paused for a brief moment, looking at Lia as if assessing her, then let out a soft exhale and smiled faintly.
"Whatever," she said, turning her attention away. "I don't care about any of you."
She turned her back to them and started walking.
"Where are you going?" Mae asked sharply, one hand dropping closer to her daggers. Annie didn't slow. "To fulfill the reason for my existence," she replied casually, continuing forward as if the conversation had already ended.
Panic snapped back into Zee's chest instantly. "No, no! Don't go! Please, Xain!" she shouted, breaking forward into a run. Annabel's voice cut through immediately. "Hey! Don't go near her!"
Zee didn't stop.
She reached out just as Annie began to turn.
The motion was instant. Too clean. Too precise. A kick whipped toward Zee's throat with lethal accuracy, and in that same moment Bram moved, shoving Zee out of the path just as he threw his arm up to intercept it. The impact landed on him instead, and the force alone was enough to snap bone cleanly through. A sharp crack echoed as his forearm broke, and he grunted in pain, staggering slightly but staying upright.
Zee hit the ground hard a short distance away, staring upward in shock, her mind refusing to process what had just happened. Not even fear had caught up yet—just disbelief. Xain wouldn't do that. Not like this. Not to her. And that realization hit harder than the strike itself, because it meant something far worse: Xain wasn't there at all.
The thought didn't settle. It spiraled. Her breathing turned sharp and uneven as panic overwhelmed her completely, and before anyone could reach her, her body gave out and she collapsed unconscious.
"Zee!" Mae shouted, immediately rushing to her twin and dropping beside her without hesitation, focusing entirely on her and nothing else in that moment. Annie, meanwhile, casually pulled her leg back as if nothing had happened at all.
"Wow~ how selfless," she said lightly, glancing over her shoulder. "But you used your sword arm to block that. Doesn't that mean you won't be able to try and knock me out when my back is turned?"
Bram said nothing. He only tightened his grip on his broken arm, eyes locked on her with cold focus as he endured the pain in silence. Annie only chuckled once, softly, and turned away again, resuming her walk without another word.
Nori tried to speak again, tried to force his voice out like last time, but nothing came. His hand trembled as it stretched toward Xain, fingers shaking as if that alone could pull him back, but Annie didn't look at him. Didn't acknowledge him. Didn't even slow. It was as if he simply wasn't there at all.
As she walked, her gaze lowered to her right hand and she slowly closed it into a fist. "This time, Joshua Ambrose…" she whispered under her breath, voice quieter now, stripped of mockery and replaced with something colder and more focused. "This time, I am going to find you."
Her grip tightened.
"And crush you."