Page 114 of Demon Monster's Little Human

The air around us shudders, thick with a presence that should not exist. A cruel, mocking laughter slithers through the ruins, curling around me like the whisper of death itself.

"She played right into my hands."

The voice seeps through the cracks in reality, ancient and gloating.

"You were always so blind, Dain. Did you think she would ever be anything but a curse?"

I can’t move. My claws dig into her skin, desperate, furious.Liora. Damn it, Liora.She should have fought harder. She should have stayed. She should have never made that choice.

A thin trickle of blood slips from the corner of her mouth, her lips parted like she had been whispering something at the moment she severed herself from me.

"She severed you, but not me."

The voice twists with satisfaction.

"Without your bond, she has no protection. She is open to me. I will take her. I will finish what I began with Amara."

Rage claws through me, cold and unbearable.

I should let her go.

I should let fate claim her, let the artifact finish its work. The cycle will end. She will be gone. And I will finally be free.

But the second that thought crosses my mind, something splinters inside me.

The silence. The emptiness. The void where she should be.

I can’t.

I can’t let her go.

The realization hits like a blade between my ribs.

I spent so many lifetimes hating Amara. So many centuries holding onto that hatred like it was the only thing keeping me alive. And yet here I am,willing to burn everything downto pull Liora back.

It doesn’t matter what Amara did.

It doesn’t matter that Liora is her reincarnation.

It doesn’t matter what curses run through her blood or what darkness lives inside her.

She is mine.

I will not let her go.

The laughter falters. It knows.

"You’re a fool, Dain. If you go after her, you will never escape me."

A part of me agrees.

A part of me doesn’t care.

If she’s trapped in the abyss, then I will go after her.

I lift Liora’s lifeless body, my arms locking around her. My wings unfurl, and I push off the ground, rising into the broken sky but I land back, my strength faltering. I grit my teeth.

I don’t care where the artifact has her.

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