Tristan let her stare for a while without speaking.
Eventually, as if her neck had grown stiff, she turned away. Her expression dimmed, confused, faintly sad as she lowered her head.
"Ah~ look," Tristan said lightly, pointing ahead. "There's a carousel over there. Want to ride it?"
The little girl looked up again, her gloom instantly forgotten. She nodded eagerly, and they ran forward together.
Behind them, the demon realm slowly faded away.
---
Tristan walked out of the fragment with little Yeri as if he had simply stepped through a doorway.
He found himself once more before the massive shattered mirror.
Unlike before, however, the countless floating fragments were now mostly bound together by his golden thread, each piece neatly restrained.
The fragments belonging to the demon realm had been carefully separated from those of the human world.
Just as he let out a breath of relief, thinking he was nearly finished, another fragment drifted past him.
As it passed, a figure was revealed.
Ruby-red eyes glowed like fireflies in the shadows. Silver hair cascaded past her knees, flowing like liquid moonlight. Around her neck hung strands of dark gemstones, and her crimson dress shimmered with embedded crystals mirroring the pale glow of an unseen moon.
Tristan's eyes narrowed. He clicked his tongue. "Damn it."
Every person's mind was structured differently.
Within each mental world existed a key or a defense mechanism designed to protect its core.
For some, it was countless locked doors guarding sensitive memories. For others, it took the form of passing traffic, dense jungles, or endless labyrinths.
Yeri's mind manifested as this vast mirror realm.
But Tristan had never expected the key guarding that mirror to be...
A copy of Jewel.
No… not a copy. The very appearance was identical to Jewel herself.
"Who are you to invade this place?" the figure asked with a smile. "Or rather… how did you manage to enter without me noticing immediately?"
Tristan returned her smile. It was almost a shame, such a beautiful face, yet its expression was steeped in malice.
Still, her presence wasn't entirely surprising. Yeri Zhi was, after all, formed from a strand of Jewel's essence.
"Wait, I think I know you… " the figure murmured, studying him more closely. Her smile widened, eyes gleaming with interest. "… Are you Paris Helle?"
Tristan and Paris Helle were the same person, though not in appearance.
For her to recognize him so quickly meant only one thing: even as a mere strand of essence, Jewel had lived up to her reputation as the most powerful mental demon.
Tristan wasn't afraid of the entity before him.
What worried him was the little Yeri standing at his side. One careless move, one faint injury, could ruin everything he had painstakingly set in place.
"Yeri," Tristan said calmly, lowering his voice, "don't try to reclaim your past. It's impossible now. Just let me repair your memories, alright?"
The figure pouted, her ruby eyes drifting across the floating fragments wrapped in gold.
"Big bother…" little Yeri whispered, tugging at his sleeve as she hid behind him. "That big sister is very scary."
Tristan's mouth twitched. Explaining that the terrifying woman in front of them was technically another version of her, a psychotic one at that, was not a conversation he could indulge.
"So you want to seal my past as a demon~" the figure drawled, her smile stretching unnaturally.
"Yes," Tristan replied bluntly. "As you can see, your mind can't handle it. If you keep forcing it, you'll go insane."
"Why do you get to decide that for me?" the figure laughed, tilting her head. "Paris, you're really mean! But I don't think so~"
A dull throb pulsed through Tristan's temples.
Entering another person's mind had a strict time limit, and he was rapidly running out of it.
---
Outside, Shin did not leave the room. He remained on guard.
He knew that when someone entered another's mind, both the intruder and the host were left extremely vulnerable.
Any slight disturbance, no matter how small, could endanger their lives or permanently damage their mental state.
Shin Keir and Tristan would survive even the worst outcome. Even if their human bodies were destroyed, it would not mean true death for them.
But Yeri was different. She no longer possessed a demon's body.
Shin glanced at his watch. Six hours had already passed.
What was Tristan doing?
Someone like him shouldn't have this much trouble simply identifying what was preventing Yeri from waking up.
As that thought crossed his mind, he noticed something wrong.
A faint web of veins began to surface beneath Yeri's pale skin, crawling across her face like fine cracks in porcelain.
His expression hardened as he watched it spread, unnaturally fast like living vines.
The same web soon became visible along Tristan's hand, which was still holding Yeri's wrist.
Something had gone wrong.
Dark mist stirred around Shin, the seemingly dormant aura unfurled silently, coiling outward until the entire room was engulfed in thick, black fog, forming an impenetrable fortress around them.
---
Inside Yeri's mind, Tristan was running.
He carried little Yeri in his arms as countless shards of mirror fragments chased them through the air like flying blades.
"Jewel!" Tristan shouted, narrowly dodging a razor-sharp fragment. "Have you forgotten how you died? You were the one who wished for your end! You're different from before, you should be able to feel it yourself!"
"Shut up, invader!" the figure laughed delightedly, her hands moving as though she were a maestro conducting an orchestra.
With every elegant wave of her fingers, countless shards responded, slicing through the air in lethal arcs.
Tristan was clearly at a disadvantage. Not only was he protecting little Yeri, but this world itself was hostile, an enemy's territory that bent to Jewel's will.
When Shin opened his eyes, before him stood a massive shattered mirror, its countless fragments suspended in the air, bound together by tangled golden threads.
For a brief moment, he stood frozen. His gaze darted across the scenes playing within each fragment... memories, emotions, lives overlapping and colliding.
He told himself he would only take a glance, just enough to understand what was holding Tristan back. He knew that two people entering Yeri's mind at once was dangerous.
But then he heard it. Tristan's voice, muffled, strained. And beneath it, Laughter?
Shin's entire body went rigid. He would never mistake that laughter.
"Another one?" a soft, delicate, playful voice spoke from behind him.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The sound of his own heartbeat echoed violently in the silent world.
He slowly turned around.
The figure that had haunted him for centuries stood there, the one he had yearned for, the source of both his madness and his devotion. The existence he had chased endlessly yet could never reach. Perhaps even now, she was still beyond his grasp.
"Jewel…" Shin murmured. His lips trembled slightly as his jaw clenched, eyes burning with restrained emotion.
"Shin, what are you doing here?" Tristan appeared beside him, exasperated. "Don't get fooled by that psycho. She only looks like Jewel. The real one died long ago, don't forget, she died right in front of you. This is just the key guardian of the mind."
Tristan wasn't worried about strength. But he knew far too well, no one held more power over Emperor Hexion than Jewel ever had.
"Jewel… you've been hiding here all along?" Shin muttered.
The madness lurking within him thrashed violently, yearning to break free from the shackles restraining it.
"Hm, let me guess who you are…" the figure said with a meaningful smile, but instead of finishing her thought, she raised her hand and attacked.
Shin neither dodged nor countered. His gaze remained locked onto her, unmoving.
Tristan reacted instantly. Golden threads surged forward, forming a barrier as he grit his teeth and shoved the sobbing little Yeri toward Shin.
"Protect her. I need her to become the new key guardian, not that psycho over there."
Shin instinctively caught the small figure.
The child trembled in his arms, her face flushed red from crying, eyes clouded with fear and confusion.
Only then did a fragment of clarity return to him. "What happened?"
"I believe Yeri's subconscious is forcibly resurfacing her past as a succubus," Tristan said gravely. "In doing so, her lives as Jewel and Yeri Zhi have become entangled. She's losing control."
He met Shin's eyes, his tone firm. "I'm going to seal her memories as a demon entirely."
"No." Shin's refusal came instantly.
He understood exactly what Tristan meant, just as he had sealed the mad emperor within himself. The difference was that he could do it effortlessly. Yeri could not, and so Tristan would have to bear the burden.
"No?" Tristan let out a bitter smile. "Look around you."
More and more fragments depicting Jewel drifted through the air, intact and gleaming, while the fragments of Yeri's human life shattered further and further.
One shard fell, hit nothing and burst into fine crystal dust.
"Yeri is Jewel, and Jewel is Yeri, but they are not the same," Tristan continued quietly. "Yeri isn't hollow. She has emotions. Her mind can't withstand the malice, resentment and entirety of Jewel."
He paused, his gaze sharp and unyielding.
"I understand why you want Yeri to remember the past, those memories you shared with her. But have you ever considered if it's truly good for her to remember it?"
Shin's jaw tightened as he watched the fragments of Jewel steadily replace those of Yeri, like a cancer spreading, uncontrollable, destructive, and unwilling to coexist.
"Hexi~ hahaha!" the figure suddenly called out, laughing with unrestrained delight.
"I remember~ you're Hexi, right?"
Shin flinched. His searching gaze fixed on the distant figure, her voice, her smile, the familiar cadence of every movement.
Each detail struck him like a blade, dragging buried memories to the surface.
Tristan sneered, turning his sharp gaze on Shin. "The more fragments of the past that resurface, the more this key guardian begins to mirror the Jewel you recognize. But Shin, have you forgotten what Jewel yearned for all along? Why we even came to the human realm in the first place?"
His voice dropped, heavy with warning.
"She got what she wanted. If Yeri remembers everything again, aren't you afraid her greatest desire will be to die once more?"