・・・・・
KABOOOMMMM—!
‘Oh dear…’
Every time the ground trembled and clouds of dust rose, Irene stopped in her tracks, her eyes anxiously fixed on the ceiling.
What on earth were the sorcerers doing up there? She was grateful for the diversion, but she desperately hoped they wouldn’t bring the building down. She didn’t want her life to end so senselessly.
She had already been here once before, so this time she made her way smoothly to the underground prison. If she ran into Benjamin here, it would be a complete disaster. Her only goal was to reunite with Felix as quickly as possible and come up with a plan...
Just as this thought crossed her mind, someone suddenly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.
"Aaagh!"
Startled, Irene reflexively swung her fist — but froze when she saw the person’s face.
"...Fel?"
The underground interior was so dark that it was hard to make out a person’s appearance at a glance.
“Oh, it’s Larry.”
But Irene recognised him almost immediately. He had been standing silently with a blank expression, but the moment their eyes met, his Adam’s apple bobbed nervously, and he quickly looked away. Larry always showed his anxiety so plainly whenever he was in front of Irene.
"Thank goodness. You’re safe."
Irene let out a relieved sigh as she quickly scanned Larry, noticing he had no visible wounds. But since he had taken a potion, no matter how fine his outward appearance, what truly mattered was the condition of his soul.
"Is Felix… safe too?"
Since she couldn’t see the state of his soul with her own eyes, she had no choice but to ask him directly. The devil had said that Felix had used magic himself, so hopefully, the worst hadn’t happened. Still, she wouldn’t feel at ease until she confirmed it with him in person.
“Why are you Larry? Your face still looks like Leraze’s…”
If their souls were separated, shouldn’t Felix be the one controlling the body? Just like before, when he had transferred part of his soul.
"Does it take time for the souls to separate?"
Irene cautiously asked Larry, but he remained silent, staring intently at her. Somehow, the atmosphere felt off.
'He seems kind of different today…’
Strange. Ever since Irene asked for his help and suggested they face the challenges together, Larry had been actively supporting her plans. By now, he should have said at least ten more things, but instead, he kept his mouth tightly shut and gave her an odd, steady look. He seemed unusually calm, as if he had steeled himself for something serious.
‘Surely he’s not harbouring some other intentions.’
The tension was so intense that Irene quickly sensed the unease and subtly put some distance between herself and Larry.
“You know.”
When he started to speak, she replied calmly.
"...Mhm."
If she were to flat-out say that this wasn’t the time to have this kind of conversation, it seemed like it would only provoke him.
“I wanted to keep denying it, but I guess I’ve failed.”
“Failed...? What do you mean by that?”
His words came completely out of nowhere, catching her off guard.
Everything had been going smoothly.
Maybe she was just imagining things. Please, let it be nothing but that.
Irene bit her lip and looked up at Larry with a desperate gaze.
She had just started to see a true glimmer of hope — she really felt that with just one more step, happiness was within reach.
She wanted nothing more than to close her eyes in Felix’s arms as if peacefully falling asleep for the last time.
But the thought that Larry might betray her plunged her back into darkness.
He looked down at the blade of grass tied around her wrist, his gaze heavy, and continued.
“Leraze said that to become a complete devil, I had to descend to the human world. But instead of becoming whole, I’m breaking down more and more every day.”
For the first time in front of Irene, Larry revealed the true reason he had come down to the human world.
“Ever since I met you... I feel like I’ve completely fallen apart.”
There was a time when he desperately wanted to become a complete devil. It was the only thing that kept Larry, who had been cast alone into the human world, going for four thousand years. But now, that desire hardly mattered anymore. Since reuniting with Irene, the thought of becoming a devil had faded away.
‘Becoming a complete devil wouldn’t win your heart anyway.’
Let alone be by her side — he wouldn’t even be able to stay near her. So why would he continue holding on to such a useless wish? All he could do was endlessly follow her with his eyes as she walked away.
“Why are you so sure it’s a failure?”
“At least, the devils I saw in the demon realm weren’t like this.”
“So, even if I get a new body, it probably won’t mean much,” Larry added, his gaze fixed intently on Irene.
“A devil… I’m not really sure what it means to be a complete devil either. But at the very least, you can have your own body.”
Whether it was Constantine, Benjamin, or the slightly unhinged sorcerers willing to sacrifice themselves for a devil, there was no shortage of candidates to try. Of course, embedding a devil’s soul into a human body wouldn’t be easy, but there were enough potential subjects to attempt it.
She pleaded desperately, but the answers she received were pessimistic.
“I suppose so. I’d end up wandering my whole life in a human body, never truly becoming a complete devil.”
“As long as you’re alive, an opportunity will come someday. If you give up, then that’s the end.”
“I don’t want to forget you.”
At those words, Irene’s eyes widened in surprise. Only then did she realise what Larry was truly afraid of.
At first, she looked reluctant, but after squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again, she replied in a calm, steady voice.
“I won’t forget you.”
“...”
Then, in an even firmer tone, she spoke again.
“I will forever remember that a fragment of a devil named Larry loved me.”
Once the words left her lips, there was no hesitation. It wasn’t about stealing Felix’s feelings — it was her way of acknowledging that, at least, the love Larry had for her was entirely his own, even if he were to forget those feelings someday.
“Haa, you really are…”
The corners of his mouth trembled, and he let out a short, bitter laugh.
By now, he should be fed up with it all, but that gentle kindness — so simple and pure — kept giving him hope.
If she was going to push him away, she should have just killed him so that he wouldn’t even dare to hope.
She should have cursed him to self-destruct like she did when they first met.
Or at least, she shouldn’t have even given him a chance.
No matter what he did, she should have met it with utter contempt and complete indifference.
Larry had seen countless humans on the battlefield, limbs severed and organs torn out. They often complained of pain in parts of their bodies that were already gone — phantom pain, as they called it.
Phantom pain — the suffering caused by the loss of something that once existed.
But why did it hurt so much, even though he was born incomplete and never fully accepted what he had taken from others?
The pain was so intense it felt like he was dying, and he wondered if living forever clutching a burning ember wouldn’t be less painful than this.
"Hey. Could you give me even just the last year of your life before you die?"
Felix’s sky-blue eyes looked unusually distant today.
They were like the gaze of a bird that had just broken free from its shell — wandering endlessly through a world scarred by wounds, unable to return to the shattered egg.
Irene knew it was she who had inflicted endless pain on him.
But in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words he longed to hear.
She could have lied and told him she’d give him about a year.
But empty words meant only to avoid facing the truth would inevitably bring deeper wounds to everyone.
“No.”
She answered firmly,
“There’s no way I’ll ever come to love you.”
"...I see."
‘Then I guess there’s no way I’ll ever stop loving you.’
Larry came to that conclusion.
Even if he forgot all the memories and feelings of that day, if they met again, he felt he couldn’t help but love her.
Looking her in the eyes made it even clearer.
How could he not love her?
If there were a way to stop loving her, he wished someone would teach him.
Having completely missed the chance to run away with Irene, he rubbed his eyes and muttered to himself.
"Go."
"...What?"
"I said go."
‘Where would I even go? The one who needs to go to Constantine right now is you. Didn’t we both come all this way for exactly that?’
While Irene was still stunned, Larry lifted his head and stared intently down the empty hallway.
“Go hide anywhere.”
The explosions died down, and blood splattered against the walls.
The sound of a body collapsing, the scream of a soul brutally torn apart — it all echoed through the air.
A presence, familiar as home, was slowly closing in.
“I have no idea how he managed to summon that devil, but there’s absolutely no way we can defeat it.”
At the mention of “that” devil, Irene swallowed hard and looked in the same direction as Larry.
Nothing was visible except darkness.
But somehow, an intense cigarette smell — which shouldn’t have been there — seemed to brush against her nostrils.
“What do you mean we can’t win? If the souls are completely separated…”
“Even if Felix and I combined our powers, it would still be tough. That’s the level of demonic energy we’re dealing with.”
It was a despairing statement that made her heart skip a beat. Irene, with trembling eyes, parted her lips as if to speak, but then grabbed the hem of his clothes.
“Is a jester’s power really that strong?”
"...A jester?"
Larry repeated as if confused about what she meant.
“On the way here, I saw land tainted by a curse. If it were the work of a single devil, it would have to be a high-ranking devil from the demon realm with titles and a legion under their command to pull that off.”
Irene was the one who felt puzzled at the claim that this energy couldn’t possibly belong to just a mere jester.
“But the sorcerers said that what Benjamin summoned was a jester — someone called Nivas or something.”
"Nivas?"
Larry frowned, recalling the devil he had constantly clashed with.
Far back in his distant memories, that irritating face surfaced.
Hearing this, it made sense — no wonder the energy felt so vague and unreadable; it was using illusions to mask its true identity.
The use of illusions aside, he could faintly sense the jester’s presence.
Of all the devils, it had to be Nivas.
Honestly, a sudden wave of irritation welled up inside him. He had completely forgotten about it until now.
Now that he thought about it, the memory of fiercely fighting like concubines vying for the emperor’s favour was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.
‘How did a low-ranking devil like that manage to get a legion and a title?’
But it had already been nearly four thousand years since Larry fell to the human world.
It was surprising, but if he had used any means necessary and persevered over that time, it wasn’t impossible.
Especially if Leraze had lent him power.
‘It seems He abandoned me, the failure, and chose the jester instead.’
No matter how much they look down on the jester for being weak, unlike Larry, he had a fully intact body.
‘Anything that’s alive grows.’
Having borrowed Felix's body made it even clearer. He realised just how stagnant he had become, having spent nearly his entire life confined in a bow. So it made sense that He saw greater potential in the jester than in someone like him.
It was, in many ways, truly pitiful.
But Larry knew what he had to do with the little time he had left.
He turned away and forcibly pulled Irene’s hand off the hem of his clothes, then spoke.
"Go."
The hand that had been gripping her wrist slowly went limp.
Then, as if lingering one last time, his rough fingertips brushed lightly over the back of her hand before fully letting go.
・・・・・
If I were just going to run away from here, then what the hell did I even come for?
I tried to argue like that, moving my lips, but I couldn’t say a single word.
I knew that even if I kept holding on here without any ability, I wouldn’t be of any help.
If Benjamin caught me, I’d only get in the way and be a burden instead.
Yeah, I knew that. But if even Felix and Larry together couldn’t beat Nivas, then Larry didn’t have any better plan either, did he?
He was just as reckless. If losing was so obvious, then what was the point of acting like it all meant something?
“Is this the best you can do? Seriously?”
"Don’t worry. I’ll make sure the soul you love won’t have to be sacrificed."
Larry said Felix would make it out safe.
"I can’t promise, but I’ll try."
By now, anyone could tell. It was the kind of thing only someone heading to their death would say.
“Are you trying to annihilate yourself or something?"
I wish I could cut things off clean with Larry — just say, “Well, that’s it,” and walk away. But damn it, my feet wouldn’t move.
I couldn’t bring myself to turn my back and leave him coldly. Not when he’d finally learned what regret felt like. Not when he’d finally learned how to apologise to me.
I kept giving in whenever I saw that human side of him. And now, more than ever, it felt like someone else was looking out through his eyes.
“What kind of extreme thoughts are you having? Who do you think you are, Felix?"
“Just go.”
Larry lightly pushed my forehead as I stood there, stubbornly holding my ground.
"I wish I could just walk away without ever looking back. Why the hell can't I?"
I let out an angry huff, clearly frustrated — not at him, but at myself, for ultimately failing to stay cold to the end.
Larry couldn’t help but let out a small, incredulous laugh.
"In any case, you're too sentimental."
The miasma of demonic energy thickened, rising like fog and slowly clouding my vision.
I instinctively turned toward the faint sound of something gnawing. The cold, laced with that eerie energy, seeped into the air — and the underground walls began to harden, turning pitch black in an instant.
It reminded me of that tree branch. I’d only brushed it with my hand, but it had snapped cleanly and crumbled to dust.
“W-Wait a second. Is this thing collapsing?”
I watched in horror as the building’s structural integrity deteriorated in real-time.
Why was it that every time disaster struck, I found myself facing the fear of being buried alive?
"Ugh...."
It hit me all at once. Suddenly, it felt like something had gone wrong with my lungs — I could barely breathe. The air was heavy, like I was underwater. I doubled over, gasping for breath as if I’d just been sprinting. Maybe it was because the space was so closed off.
Whatever the reason, the demonic energy was pressing in on me from all sides. I could feel it soaking into my skin, and my face had already gone pale from the exposure.
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