Before I could even gather my thoughts, the giant phantom lunged toward us.
At the exact same moment, Dylan shot forward from the other side like a storm unleashed.
For one terrifying second, it felt as though my fate depended entirely on who would reach us first.
I squeezed my eyes shut in horror, bracing for the worst…
And silently praying for a miracle.
Then—
Everything crashed at once.
Dylan collided with the phantom in a violent blur of motion.
One of them grabbed Bruno.
The other grabbed me.
A thick, crushing tail wrapped tightly around my body, squeezing the breath out of me.
My eyes widened in panic.
So this was it.
I was the hostage.
I almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it.
Maybe this was my punishment for speaking when I wasn't asked.
My mother always used to say:
"Don't speak until you are spoken to."
Even the monster seemed confused.
Its glowing red eyes flickered toward Dylan, as if it had expected him to save me.
As if it believed I mattered more to him.
As if I was his woman.
But what it didn't know…
Was that Dylan could probably kill me himself if he wanted to.
I was nothing more than a vessel.
A tool he needed for this battle.
And once he got what he wanted from me…
He would discard me.
The thought stabbed deeper than the monster's tail ever could.
Then, in the exact moment the beast let its guard down—
Dylan moved.
He rushed forward with terrifying speed and drove a glowing magical dagger straight into the phantom's chest.
Right into its heart.
The beast shrieked.
A horrifying, ear-splitting howl ripped through the room as it convulsed violently in pain.
Its tail loosened around me.
And I was thrown across the room.
I slammed hard into a wooden table, pain exploding through my back.
The table shattered beneath me.
The phantom staggered, its monstrous form flickering violently before collapsing inward.
In the next second, it reverted back into the old innkeeper.
She fell to her knees, clutching her chest, struggling to rise.
"This… isn't over yet…" she rasped.
And then—
She disappeared.
Before I could even catch my breath, Dylan was suddenly beside me.
He pulled me down flat against the floor, turning me so my back faced him.
Pain shot through my body.
I gasped.
The broken wood had torn through my skin, and warm blood soaked through my clothes.
In one swift motion, Dylan tore the back of my dress open, exposing the injury.
I instinctively tried to move away, but he held me firmly in place.
"Stay still."
Then his hand pressed against my back.
A strange warmth spread through me.
I froze.
The pain began to fade.
My torn skin slowly knit itself back together beneath his touch.
He was healing me.
My breath caught.
For a brief second, I forgot the chaos around us.
Forgot the snakes.
Forgot Bruno.
Forgot everything.
Then Dylan suddenly stood.
He rushed toward the broken window and looked down.
I pushed myself up and followed his gaze.
And my blood ran cold.
We were surrounded.
Below the ruined inn, dozens of figures had gathered.
Some were in human form, cloaked head to toe in black.
Others had already taken on their serpent forms, their scales glistening under the dim light.
And standing among them…
was the old innkeeper.
Still alive.
Still smirking.
"So what now?" I asked, my voice shaking.
Dylan's eyes shifted toward Bruno's lifeless body.
"The ritual has begun," he said coldly. "We have to break the spell."
"Stay here."
He stepped onto the shattered window frame and leapt down—
Only to return a second later.
I stared at him in shock.
"What happened?"
Dylan coughed.
Blood spilled from his mouth.
My heart stopped.
"There's a barrier," he said, wiping the blood from his lips. "No one can enter. No one can leave."
My face went pale.
A barrier?
Were we really trapped here?
Were we actually going to die?
Dylan didn't answer.
Below us, the snakes had already formed a circle around the inn.
Their hands were raised in unison as they chanted in an ancient language, their voices blending into something eerie and unnatural.
The air itself seemed to tremble.
Then—
Bruno's body began to rise.
He floated slowly into the air, suspended by the power of the ritual.
My breath caught in my throat.
As the chanting grew louder, the atmosphere around Dylan changed.
A thick black smoke mixed with flashes of crimson lightning erupted around him.
Dark energy swirled violently at his feet.
His usual brown eyes deepened…
Then turned pitch black.
My body went rigid.
Large black wings burst from his back.
I stared at him in absolute horror.
He rose into the air with a single powerful beat of those wings—
And in the next moment, he shot downward like a fallen god, crashing into the middle of the chanting snakes.
The ground exploded beneath him.
The old innkeeper shrieked in rage.
Beside her, a male phantom—far larger and more terrifying than the others, clearly their leader—emerged from the shadows and lunged at Dylan.
They attacked him together.
The battle that followed was beyond anything I had ever seen.
Dark magic collided with monstrous force.
The old innkeeper struck from one side, the male phantom from the other.
Dylan moved like death itself.
For what felt like forever, the battle raged.
The snakes hissed and scattered.
The ground cracked.
Trees split apart.
Magic tore through the air like blades.
At one point, Dylan slammed the innkeeper into the ruins of the wall she had built her trap around.
Already weakened from the dagger wound, she couldn't recover.
With one brutal strike, he ended her.
She collapsed, lifeless.
But the male phantom remained.
Now they stood facing each other.
Monster against monster.
Dylan raised his sword.
Dark magic coiled around the blade like living smoke.
The phantom roared.
Then both of them lunged at the same time.
My heart stopped.
A single flash of black and silver cut through the darkness—
And the next second…
The phantom's body split cleanly in two.
Silence fell.
I stared down at Dylan from above, trembling.
What… was he?
At that moment, he looked like the devil himself.
And for the first time…
I wondered if the man I knew as Dylan had ever truly been just a man at all.
The barrier shattered.
The surviving snakes froze in terror.
The moment they realized their leader had fallen, the rest fled into the forest, disappearing into the night.
Dylan rose into the air again and flew back up toward the ruined room.
The black wings vanished.
His eyes returned to their usual color.
And when he landed in front of me, he looked so calm… so composed…
As if he hadn't just massacred an entire serpent clan.
"There's no time," he said, thrusting the Book of Evil into my hands. "You have to save him now."
I looked from the book to Bruno.
"I can't," I said, stepping back. "You should do it."
"I wish I could," Dylan replied, his voice sharp. "But right now, I can't see the spells written in that book."
I frowned.
"To me, it looks like nothing more than an ordinary fairy tale."
My eyes widened.
"What?"
"Ellen placed a spell on it," he continued. "So that even if demons found the Book of Evil, they wouldn't recognize it for what it truly is."
He stepped closer.
"We are not seeing the same words, Clover."
I looked down at the book in my trembling hands.
"If anyone can save him," Dylan said, his voice low and deadly serious, "it's you."
He glanced at Bruno.
"We only have thirty minutes."
My hands shook as I dropped to my knees beside the book.
I opened it.
The strange symbols seemed to shift before my eyes.
Then the spell came into focus.
I swallowed hard.
And whispered:
"불안한 재의 아홉 겹 진혼곡…"
Nothing happened.
I frowned.
I tried again.
"불안한 재의 아홉 겹 진혼곡…"
Still nothing.
Panic rose in my chest.
I gritted my teeth and tried a third time.
"불안한 재의 아홉 겹 진혼곡… 더 큰 부활."
Nothing.
Again.
"불안한 재의 아홉 겹 진혼곡… 더 큰 부활!"
Still nothing.
Time kept slipping away.
Minutes bled into more minutes.
My breathing grew ragged.
Sweat dripped down my face.
My hands trembled harder.
I could feel the pressure crushing me.
"We only have seven minutes left," Dylan said.
Seven minutes.
Something inside me snapped.
With a cry of frustration, I hurled the book across the floor.
It slammed against the broken wood.
"Pick it up," Dylan ordered.
I turned on him furiously.
"And why should I obey you?" I snapped. "I've been trying for over twenty minutes and nothing is working!"
My chest rose and fell violently.
"I guess you expected too much from me," I spat. "Well, sorry to disappoint you!"
Dylan's expression turned cold.
Cruel.
"No wonder your life is such a mess," he said.
I froze.
"You can't even do one simple thing right."
His voice cut deeper than any blade.
"I guess bringing you here was a mistake."
My breath hitched.
"When you don't even have an atom of faith in yourself…"
He took one step closer.
"You're nothing but a loser, Clover."
The room went silent.
His words echoed inside my head.
Again.
And again.
And again.
A loser?
My hands clenched.
My vision darkened.
Rage exploded through my veins.
I stormed across the room, snatched the book from the floor, and glared at him with burning eyes.
"And who exactly said I'm a loser?!"
The words tore out of me like a challenge.
The symbols on the page suddenly glowed.
The air around me trembled.
And this time, I shouted the spell with everything in me—
"불안한 재의 아홉 겹 진혼곡… 더 큰 부활!"
A violent burst of dark light exploded from the Book of Evil.
The entire room shook.
Bruno's body arched upward—
And then he sprang back to life, coughing violently.