Before he could finish the thought, the heavy doors were thrown wide open. Two hulking demons grabbed him by the arms, dragging his weakened body up a winding stone staircase until they burst into the blinding light of the rooftop.
Kael squinted, looking out at the scene waiting for him. His eyes widened in sheer horror.
His parents, Sara and Drake, were standing near the ledge, bound and trembling. Absolute terror was written all over their faces.
Nyx smirked, stepping forward. "Kael… what happened?" she asked, her tone dripping with mockery. "You look a little worse for wear."
A heavy, suffocating aura began to bleed out from Kael, darkening as his anger flared.
Nyx frowned, her amusement dipping into slight irritation. "Kael, there's no need to get angry."
But Kael was completely losing his temper. He stared daggers at Nyxara Virelith, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "You messed with the wrong person."
"Oh?" She smiled, unfazed.
Watching from the side, Sara and Drake were utterly confused. They knew how demons operated—demons didn't take prisoners or start complicated conflicts. They just killed. Yet, Nyxara was intentionally keeping them alive, using them like pawns in a much bigger game.
"What do you want?" Kael demanded, his voice echoing across the rooftop.
Her smirk widened. "Your life."
A suffocating, scary silence spread across the roof. Kael broke it, his voice tight. "But why my life?"
"Because, Kael..." Nyx purred, "you possess something you shouldn't have."
Kael stood his ground, letting out a sharp breath as he processed her words. Before anyone could move, a demon soldier burst onto the roof, charging straight at Kael with a raised broadsword.
Kael didn't flinch. "Crystil," he muttered.
A blinding light flashed in his palm as a brilliant sword materialized. In a fraction of a second, Kael lunged forward. He moved like a blur, passing clean through the demon folk. For a moment, time seemed to stop—then, the demon split into two pieces, collapsing to the floor. Dark blood sprayed across the stone, staining the rooftop.
Kael turned his head slowly, giving the Demon Lord a freezing, stone-cold glare.
Realizing the danger, two other guards quickly shoved Kael's parents into an adjacent rooftop room, locking the heavy door behind them.
Inside his mind, Sara's voice echoed frantically via telepathy. 'Kael! What are you doing?!'
Kael offered a grim, faint smile in his mind. 'Ending this game that they started.'
Sara frowned deeply, her mental voice laced with panic. 'Kael, this isn't a movie or an anime where the hero always wins! This is real life! If you die here, you're gone from this world forever!'
Kael's smirk returned, though it was hollow. 'Sara, trust me. If I don't take this risk, she's going to kill them anyway.'
On the outside, Nyx tilted her head, inspecting him. "Oh… I thought there was something inherently wrong with you, Redgrave."
Kael kept his eyes locked on Nyx, but his final telepathic words to Sara were soft, heavy with unspoken grief. 'I'm doing this because I refuse to lose anyone else. Not anymore.'
As he said it, a single tear slipped from his eye, hitting the bloody stone floor.
Suddenly, Nyx lunged, launching a vicious magical strike at him. Kael sidestepped it with razor-sharp reflexes and shouted, "Replica!"
Sprinting full speed toward her, Kael raised his glowing blade. Nyx recovered instantly, counter-attacking with a lethal swing of her own weapon. This time, Kael didn't dodge. He brought his sword up, meeting her blow with a deafening clash of steel.
With their blades locked, Kael roared, "Redemption!"
Nyx's eyes widened in genuine shock. "Unbelievable… how can a mere human use Redemption?!"
Right before her eyes, Kael's blade shifted, mimicking the exact shape of the Demon Lord's own weapon. It transformed into a massive, imposing longsword enveloped in a volatile red crystal aura, its hilt a deep, dark brown.
"What are you doing?!" Nyx snarled, trying to push him back. "Why are you copying my weapon?"
But Nyx wasn't just angry about the mimicry. Horror struck her as she realized the truth—Kael hadn't just copied the form; he had unlocked the weapon's final stage.
Panic finally flared in the Demon Lord's chest as a terrifying thought crossed her mind: 'Wait… Kael is drawing out its absolute maximum potential without sacrificing a single thing… while my own mana is constantly draining just to hold it!'
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The moment the Demon Lord felt fear… the battle was already over.