Yelena Gilbert.
No.
That was never her real name.
Just something she stitched together, a fragile little lie she wore so she could pass as human.
So she could sit next to Zyel.
So she could be close.
Close enough to watch him, to hear him, to exist in the same space as him without drawing attention to what she really was.
A High Demon.
Not just any demon.
A High Demon who had been obsessing over Zyel for more than eight years.
Three years longer than even her older sister, Amelia Astaroth.
Eight years of watching, memorizing, breathing him in from a distance.
Eight years of pretending she was just a girl.
Just a normal, harmless, forgettable human girl.
So she could hide what she truly was beneath it all.
Something deranged, possessive, devoted, and loving in a way that was not normal, not safe, not sane.
And now.
Now it felt like something inside her was tearing open.
Like her entire existence was about to split apart, peel back, expose everything she had buried.
The feeling clawing inside her chest, twisting tighter and tighter, threatening to turn into something dangerous.
Something inevitable. Something that might cost hundreds of lives if it slipped out of her control.
Aria Astaroth.
That was her real name.
A High Demon.
Second daughter of Lord Astaroth.
Younger sister of Amelia Astaroth.
That was what she was.
Not human.
Never human.
And yet, right now, she might as well be one because she was feeling fragile, breaking, crumbling into pieces like a fragile little human, and she could not hold herself together.
Because the only thing that ever gave her life any meaning, the only thing she ever wanted to see, to watch, to observe, to follow, to obsess over so completely and so desperately, was gone.
Gone.
Just like that.
Vanished.
Zyel Vazareth.
Eight years.
Eight entire years of orbiting him, of building herself around him, of using him as the one thing that kept her stable, the one thing that kept her thoughts from spiraling into something monstrous.
The only thing that made her feel almost sane.
And now he was gone.
And she was not.
She had already abandoned the human mask.
The name. The posture. The careful, practiced normalcy.
All of it discarded without a second thought the moment she realized he was missing.
Her hair, dark purple like Amelia's, fell just below her shoulders, uneven where she had stopped caring to maintain it.
Fringes and bangs clung messily across her forehead, brushing against her ears.
Her crimson eyes flickered, unstable, threatening to slip into something far more inhuman.
Something demonic.
"Where is he... where is he... where the hell is he..."
"Where did my Zyel go... it has been two days. Two days. I have never gone more than two hours without seeing him. Not once. So where is he?"
Her fingers tightened, clutching at her head as if she could crush the pain building inside it.
The headache pulsed, sharp and relentless, growing worse with every passing second.
"I checked his dorm. I checked the school. I checked the gaming cafe he always goes to. The flea market. Every place. Every single place I have seen him visit in the past five years..."
Her voice thinned, fraying at the edges.
"...but he is not anywhere."
Her steps faltered as she drifted into a narrow, dim alleyway, quiet and suffocating.
The kind of place no one looks twice at. The kind of place no one would notice if something went wrong.
Or if something broke.
"My Zyel... my Zyel... where did you go..."
She pressed her hand against the brick wall, leaning into it as her legs trembled, refusing to hold her up properly.
The air shifted.
No, it warped.
Heat began to pour from her skin, subtle at first, then rapidly intensifying, thick and suffocating.
The presence of a human disappeared completely.
What replaced it was something heavier. Something ancient. Something wrong.
A High Demon.
Dark smoke curled lazily from her hand, seeping out between her fingers.
For a moment it lingered, thick and heavy, before it ignited.
Her entire hand erupted into radiant dark purple flames.
They burned violently.
Hungrily.
The flames pulsed in response to her emotions, growing hotter, more unstable, more alive.
The iron pole she had grabbed onto glowed red under her grip, then warped, then began to melt, dripping slowly under the unbearable heat.
The signature ability of the Astaroth bloodline.
The purple flames.
Famously known throughout the supernatural world as The True Flames of Hell.
Beautiful. Radiant. Absolute.
The purple flames are said to be capable of burning anything.
Even gods.
The alley seemed to shrink under her presence as it expanded outward in waves, heavy, crushing, suffocating.
Like a tide that could not be stopped once it started rising.
Her breathing turned sharp, uneven.
Too fast.
Her heartbeat pounded violently in her chest, faster and faster, louder and louder, until it felt like it was drowning everything else out.
And the flames.
The flames began to spiral out of control.
Flaring wildly, spilling beyond her hand, flickering erratically as her emotions tore through whatever restraint she had left.
Uncontrolled.
Just like her.
At that very moment, just as she was about to erupt and drown everything in purple flames, burning, destroying, and turning everything into ash, something changed.
The entire world around her shifted, taking on a deep red hue.
Every presence, every life, every single living being vanished, leaving Aria Astaroth completely alone.
It was as if she had been transported into another dimension, one that perfectly mirrored reality, except for the absence of all living things.
Her anger, her fury, her overwhelming emotions had clouded her mind so completely that she could not even comprehend where she had been taken.
A Battle Space.
A separate dimension identical to the real world, but devoid of life except for those involved.
A place where supernatural beings could unleash their full power without fear of consequences.
Aria had been dragged into such a space mere moments before her flames could run wild and consume everything.
"You uncontrolled little shit, what the fuck do you think you're doing?"
Amelia appeared in front of her, her gaze fixed on her younger sister, who stood engulfed in a violent whirlwind of purple flames.
Only her glowing red eyes could be seen through the inferno.
"If I hadn't created the Battle Space in time, your presence as a high demon would have attracted a lot of trouble..."
Amelia spoke coldly, but there was no response.
The flames around Aria only continued to surge higher and higher.
Aria was no longer capable of forming coherent thoughts.
The only thing in her mind was destruction.
The world where Zyel no longer existed had no reason to remain.
Zyel stepped forward, but both he and Amelia stopped themselves from getting any closer.
Even from several meters away, the heat and intensity of the flames were overwhelming.
"Aria," Zyel called.
No response.
He took a deep breath and shouted again, this time at the top of his lungs.
"ARIA!"
This time, there was a reaction.
The spiraling flames suddenly stopped.
They did not fade, nor did they intensify.
They simply froze in place, like still water in a lifeless pond.
Slowly, Aria's glowing red eyes turned toward him.
"It's me... your Zyel. I didn't disappear. I just became a demon... like you."
A faint smile appeared on Zyel's face as he saw a figure begin to emerge from within the flames.
Aria stepped forward, walking through the inferno.
The flames clung to her, trailing behind her as if they refused to let her go, but gradually they began to recede, sinking back into her body as she regained control.
She reached him and looked up at his face.
He was different.
More beautiful, more refined, more dangerously attractive.
His features carried an unnatural elegance that made him even more captivating than before.
He was taller, more muscular, stronger, and carried a presence that made him seem far more dependable.
But none of that mattered to her.
Not how he became a demon.
Not why.
Not even Amelia standing beside him, holding his hand like she belonged there.
Without hesitation, Aria wrapped her arms around him, pressing herself against his chest, resting her head just below his neck.
Zyel gently patted her back.
"My Zyel... I thought I'd never see you again," she whispered.
Her emotions quickly settled, returning her to her usual self, a bright and lively girl deeply in love with him.
"Yeah, I'm here... and I know everything. I became a demon, after all. I know about you and your sisters too."
Zyel spoke softly, continuing to comfort her.
"How? When?" she asked, still holding onto him.
He gave her a brief explanation.
About the assassin.
About how he was nearly killed.
About how Amelia arrived and saved him by turning him into a demon, binding him to her through a soul marriage.
When he finished, Aria slowly stepped back.
She was smiling.
But it was not a warm smile.
It was dark.
And it was not directed at him.
Her gaze shifted past him, locking onto Amelia, who stood a few steps behind, fidgeting as if she had done nothing wrong.
"You performed a soul marriage with him?"
Her voice was calm, but her expression remained unsettling.
"Yeah, I mean... I saved him, so I thought why not? It's not a big deal, right?" Amelia replied casually, shrugging.
Aria's expression darkened instantly.
In the next second, she vanished.
A blur.
Bang!
Then impact.
Her fist slammed directly into Amelia's chest, sending her flying like a projectile.
Amelia crashed into the wall of a nearby building, shattering it on impact before being buried in debris.
"You bitch. We had a deal. I was supposed to marry him first. Then you could be second. Not the other way around."
Her voice echoed through the empty space, heavy with pressure.
"Argh... that actually hurt..."
Amelia groaned as she pulled herself out of the rubble, one hand on her head and the other pressing against her chest.
Her bones were already healing, the cracks mending rapidly.
She looked up and saw Aria approaching, her presence oppressive, her fists clenched.
"Oh, calm down, little sis. It doesn't matter who marries him first. And for the record, I never agreed to any deal."
Amelia brushed the dust off her clothes and cracked her neck.
"It matters to me," Aria replied coldly.
Her stance shifted, ready to strike again.
"Stand down, Aria. You and I both know how this ends. Me knocking you out. So why not skip the part where I beat you into the ground?"
Amelia tried reasoning with her, but it was pointless.
Aria was already moving.
"Fine then."
Amelia sighed, her expression turning cold as she stepped forward to meet her.
The clash began.
Meanwhile, Zyel sat on a nearby street bench, letting out a tired sigh as he watched the two sisters fight.
Each punch echoed loudly through the empty space, the force behind them enough to shake the surroundings.
But it was clear how it would go.
A one-sided fight.
Amelia was holding back, doing everything she could to avoid accidentally killing her own sister.