Night had fallen over the camp with a silence too deep to feel natural. The campfires, reduced to orange embers, gave off a faint glow that barely managed to push the darkness back toward the edges of the forest. Beyond that boundary, the shadows seemed to breathe.
For hours now, the night had completely swallowed the forest. The wind stirred the branches above the camp, but Lusian barely paid them any attention. Ever since they had set out toward the Empire, a persistent unease had refused to leave him. Elizabeth was heading straight toward the heart of the conflict… and he couldn't shake the feeling that she was walking directly into a trap laid by the gods.
Then the night wind carried with it a strange murmur, a slight fracture in the stillness.
Lusian stopped.
He didn't need to look back.
The shadow appeared soundlessly between the trees.
Lusian felt it before he saw it.
—You're drifting farther away again.
He didn't stop walking.
—I didn't know I needed permission to walk.
Kheris remained silent for a moment. Then he stepped forward through the darkness, and the shadows of the forest seemed to part around him.
—You keep moving like someone trying to run away.
—And what if I am?
—Then you'd already be on your way back to the duchy.
That made Lusian let out a low, empty laugh.
The duchy.
Lusian released a long sigh. That place was, without question, a good refuge. He needed to prepare for whatever was coming… but he would not lose another person important to him.
Kheris took another step.
—You can still go back. The Heralds won't look for you there. For now, no one will. You can live.
Lusian finally stopped.
The night wind stirred the branches above them.
—"For now," huh… live?
The word sounded strange in his mouth.
—That's what you said the first time too.
Kheris barely frowned.
—You don't understand the scale of this. What's coming is… far too dangerous. Go back.
—No. —Lusian looked at him over his shoulder—. You're the one who doesn't understand.
The shadow around the god shifted faintly.
—You're walking straight toward your death for a woman.
There was no mockery in his voice.
There was confusion.
The kind of confusion born when someone stares at something they simply cannot comprehend. To him, humans had always been creatures too small to truly understand.
And yet… he was trying to understand.
—No, —Lusian said.
This time, he turned fully toward him.
—Elizabeth is a tool for the gods, isn't she? They want to use her for their stupid plans.
His eyes hardened.
—I won't allow it.
Silence fell between them.
Kheris didn't answer.
Lusian took a step toward him.
—You killed me. You tore me away from my world because I was useful to you. Because you needed something from me. You never cared about what I wanted.
His voice never rose.
And that was exactly why it struck harder.
—Now her.
For an instant, something shifted in Kheris' expression.
Very slightly.
But enough.
—Elizabeth doesn't even understand what they're planning to do to her. They want to turn her into a monster, into something that will bring chaos and destruction… just so humanity will beg the gods again.
Lusian clenched his jaw.
—And you're telling me to stand there and watch.
Kheris watched him in silence for a moment.
—You don't want to live. You're willing to sacrifice yourself for that woman… why?
There was genuine confusion in his voice.
—You're human. There will be other women, won't there? Just… find another one.
—That's how you see us, isn't it?
His eyes never left Kheris.
—As replaceable things.
Kheris opened his mouth… but didn't answer.
Because he had no answer a human could accept.
Living hidden away. Breathing for a few more years. Waiting.
That was enough for a god.
But not for someone who had already lost everything once.
—If you return to the duchy, you can keep your life —Kheris insisted—. You still have that chance.
Lusian stared at him for a few seconds.
Then he slowly shook his head.
—My life. My choice.
Lusian held his gaze without stepping back.
—"I am free," wasn't that what you said?
He stepped forward.
—Then as a free man… I choose to protect the woman I love.
Kheris lunged toward him.
The darkness around his body surged violently.
—Fool!
The entire forest trembled.
Kheris rarely lost control, but in that moment fear cut through his voice. His plans could collapse… and he still needed Lusian.
But Lusian did not step back.
—It's my decision.
Lusian never looked away.
—And I won't change it.
Kheris stood motionless.
He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, the darkness around him slowly reformed, wrapping around Lusian like an invisible veil. It wasn't a barrier, but a silent seal of concealment. If anyone watched from the capital, the Heralds would not sense his essence.
—I can't allow you to die, —Kheris said, as though that truth itself was unbearable to him.
And then he vanished.
Without a sound.
As if the night itself had swallowed him whole.
Lusian returned to the camp without feeling victorious.
Nor relieved.
Only with the bitter certainty that, for the first time since arriving in that world…
he was moving forward because of a decision that was completely his own.