"Are you okay, love?" Caelum asked softly, his eyes on Ceres.
Because time flowed differently between Earth and Solmara, no one knew how much, or how little, time had passed for Evadne and the others. They had all agreed, the ancient portal needed to be opened immediately after the five remaining Holy Beasts were awakened… even if they weren't ready for what was on the other side.
Now, all ten of Caelum's children stood at the edge of the Gilded Abyss, along with the six Holy Beasts, each beside their newly bonded master.
Ceres took a sharp breath as her gaze swept over the shimmering seal etched into the shoreline. "I'm nervous," she admitted. "What if… what if Vee isn't there when we open it? Do we wait?"
Caelum, behind his mask, gave a soft smile. "Let's cross that bridge when we get there."
With Neko's mastery over water and Vivi's dimensional portal ability, the portal had been pulled up from the deepest trench and transferred to the golden sands of the Gilded Abyss. No longer sealed away in darkness, it now glowed with opportunity… and danger.
"Your Highness, we await your command," said Captain Hugo, now bonded with Umbraeth, the Lion of Shadows.
Ceres turned to Seiryu and gave a single nod. Her signal.
Seiryu moved silently, stepping forward as each of the Holy Beasts, now in their human forms, stood atop one of the twelve ancient square plates etched like a keypad into the golden rock.
One by one, they began to glow, sigils lighting up beneath their feet. Energy surged, threads of mana connecting like lightning across the portal's body.
Together, they spoke in solemn unison…
"We answer your call, 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘦𝘯 𝘝𝘦𝘭'𝘙𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘢."
The portal hummed low, vibrating into the earth, until it began to open, a ripple in space like silk parting to reveal the other side.
At first, all they could see was darkness, the other side dim and wavering. It looked like… underwater.
But no, it was a cave. Damp. Faintly glowing. Empty.
Ceres's hands trembled. Her heart raced as she watched the entrance, waited for her sister.
But there was no one.
Seconds passed like eternities.
Then…
A flash. A body was thrown forward, flung in the direction of the portal, and immediately disintegrated upon hitting the barrier.
"What was that?" Nugget whispered, alarmed.
Then movement. Figures appeared in the shadows.
"Demons," said Comet, eyes narrowing.
Children. Elders. Dozens of them. Hesitant. Unsure whether to trust the rift before them. Until one, a gray-haired elder, stepped forward. He drew a deep breath, closed his eyes as if preparing to die, and walked through the portal.
He emerged on the shores of Solmara, whole.
"It's safe!" he cried, turning back.
More rushed forward.
Then another body was flung through the air, this one hurled above the incoming refugees, and it too disintegrated before it could touch the light of Solmara.
"Faster!" the elder shouted. Panic spread like fire among the refugees.
"There's a battle on the other side," Alpha said, grim.
And then they saw her.
Evadne. Now a few years older than the last time Ceres saw her. She no longer looks like the eighteen years old girl she just saw a year ago.
She burst into view, dodging a sword swipe from a man clad in white and gold armor. A warrior angel.
She was barefoot. Dressed only in tattered denim and a bra, her body bloodied but her eyes burning with fury. A glaive spun in her hands like it was born there.
"Vee!" Ceres screamed, already running toward the portal despite the crowd of demons still pouring through.
Evadne saw her. "No! Stay there!" she yelled, barely blocking another strike from the angel.
Then, Hades.
He lunged forward and drove a dagger through the angel's back, its blade sparking on contact with divine armor.
"Hades!" Caelum called out.
"Zeus?!" Hades turned, shocked, but the moment was fleeting. Another angel attacked, forcing him to pivot.
"They're everywhere!" another voice yelled, it was Casadin, though they couldn't see him, only hear his panic through the chaos.
"𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘦𝘯!" Evadne's voice cracked with urgency. "You have to pass through NOW!"
Ceres froze, torn. She knew something was going wrong, terribly wrong, on the other side of the portal.
Ceres couldn't bring herself to command Seiryu to help Evadne.
She knew, the moment the Holy Beasts moved from their positions, the portal would collapse.
"Master Alpha!" Cosmo suddenly shouted.
They all turned just in time to see Alpha burst through the portal. In a flash of speed and fury, his claws intercepted a divine blade that would have pierced straight through Evadne's back.
His arrival was brutal, timed with the precision of a predator.
Cosmo didn't hesitate. He followed instantly, guarding Alpha's back as the air grew thick with blood and holy light.
On Solmara's side, demons were still flooding through the portal, panicked, shrieking, children screaming, elders stumbling. The air was full of the smell of iron and ozone, the hum of raw mana vibrating through the bones of those watching.
"Bear!"
"Milo!"
"Vivi!"
The others shouted as Orso, Milo, and Vivi crossed the threshold without hesitation, joining the battle to defend their people.
"Tofu, no!" Caelum roared, grabbing Tuf's arm just as he was about to follow. "Stay with Luna!"
Tuf gritted his teeth, his eyes burning with rage, but he obeyed.
Neko, Peanut, and Nugget worked furiously, assisting the incoming demons, guiding the weak, shielding the injured, and forming a barrier to protect them as they crossed.
"Lyxaria! Pass through now! He's coming!" Evadne screamed mid-combat, swinging her glaive in a brutal arc that forced back a warrior angel.
Ceres turned sharply. A demoness with firelit eyes was sprinting across the battlefield, clutching a child close to her chest. Three other demons surrounded her, taking the hits, shielding her from angelic spears.
The child.
That was who they were after.
Lyxaria dashed across the boundary, through the portal. The child in her arms was silent but survived.
Her guardians remained behind. Still fighting. Still bleeding.
"Close the portal now!" Evadne shouted.
"What?! No!" Ceres cried out in horror, stepping forward, hands trembling. She and Caelum now stood directly in front of the shimmering rift, watching the chaos unfold in real time.
"Go!" Evadne screamed toward Alpha and the others, urging them to return.
But the battlefield was swarming now. More angels, their white and gold armor glowing like celestial fire. Dozens more demons had fallen.
"Vee! Come now!" Ceres called to her sister. Evadne's body was bloodied, her bra torn, her denim stained with dirt and blood, but she still fought. Still stood.
Orso had multiplied, a hundred versions of himself now flooding the battlefield, each one grappling an angel in brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Milo and Vivi moved with deadly synergy. Milo would slow time around an angel, freezing them just long enough for Vivi to appear from nowhere, her chakram slicing through divine armor like silk.
Occasionally, she would open a portal beneath a stunned angel and drop it into Milo's blades.
Alpha, rune magic blazing from his skin, unleashed wave after wave of barrier spells and death runes, Cosmo covering him like a second skin. Together, they carved a path of carnage.
"You need to go now!" Casadin yelled amid the clash of metal and light. He was bleeding, battered, but relentless as he fought beside Hades and Evadne.
But none of Caelum's children retreated. Not one.
They stayed.
They fought.
They chose to bleed beside Evadne.
"Close the portal!" Evadne shouted again, her voice shaking with something deeper than urgency, dread.
Ceres blinked.
And then she felt it too.
Ceres sensed something.
Someone.
An approaching force so terrifying, so powerful, that even warrior angels paled in comparison.
Ceres understood in that moment, this one, whoever they were, wasn't bound by the same rules. The other angels disintegrated when they touched the portal.
But he would not.
"Vee, come in! Please!" Ceres sobbed, reaching toward the glowing tear between worlds.
"I can't!" Evadne cried, driving her glaive into an angel's throat and watching him vanish into white smoke.
Her eyes locked with Ceres. "Hades and Casadin, they can't pass through. I won't leave them. So close it, sis."
Tears streamed down Ceres's face. She clenched her fists, her lips trembling. She wanted to fight. She wanted to scream. But Evadne's eyes… they weren't pleading. They were commanding. This wasn't her battle.
It was Evadne's.
"Alpha. Bear. Milo. Vivi," Ceres called, her voice breaking.
Each one turned briefly.
And smiled.
Then they turned back and threw themselves once more into the fight.
"Close the portal, Mother," Alpha said, clear and unwavering.
Ceres felt Caelum's hand tighten gently on her shoulder. Even he understood, the battle on the other side was not theirs to fight. Their war… was here, in Solmara.
"Close it," Ceres whispered, then louder, firmer, "Close it!" she commanded Seiryu, her voice firm despite the tremble in her chest.
The Holy Beasts ceased channeling their energy into the portal. Slowly, the glowing symbols dimmed, and the swirling gate began to close.
But before the portal could fully seal, Ceres saw him, the one Evadne meant.
An Archangel.
His armor was regal, more ornate than the other warrior angels, glowing with divine fire. His wings were vast and edged in gold, and he carried a sword that pulsed with celestial wrath.
And then…
He saw her.
His eyes met Ceres's through the veil of dimensions. And in a blinding flash of light, he surged forward, sword raised, moving faster than her eyes could follow, straight for her.
The portal hadn't yet closed.
"Vee!!!!" Ceres screamed, watching in horror as her sister threw herself in front of the attack.
Caelum's eyes widened in disbelief, watching as the blade pierced straight through Evadne's chest, blood spraying across the air, before the portal sealed shut forever.
"NO!!!" Ceres collapsed to her knees, her scream tearing through the shores of the Gilded Abyss. "Open it back! Please!" she cried to Seiryu, desperation raw in her voice.
But it was too late.
The ancient portal pulsed one last time and then collapsed in on itself, vanishing as if it had never been, as if to tell them, its purpose has been fulfilled.
Ceres collapsed into the sand, sobbing uncontrollably.
She had seen Evadne, bleeding, shielding her to the very end, and now she was gone.
But she wasn't the only one crying.
Caelum's eyes glistened with tears, pain carved into his features, for Evadne, for Hades, for Casadin… and for the four of his children who had chosen to stay behind and fight beside them.
He didn't know what fate awaited them now.
In Solmara, his children were immortal, as long as he lived. But on Earth? Against divine beings never meant to enter Solmara's balance? That protection may not hold. They were now part of a war where the rules were different.
Around them, the newly arrived demons wept too, children clung to elders, mothers sobbed for husbands or sons left behind to buy them time. The cries of the displaced echoed like a hymn of grief across the shore.
Among the mourners were Caelum's remaining children. Tuf, Luna, Nugget, Peanut, Neko, and Pixie.
And it was Pixie's wail that broke everyone's heart.
Held tightly in Delphine's arms, the youngest child sobbed louder than any of them, her tiny fists beating against Delphine's chest. For the first time in her life, Alpha, her closest sibling, her protector, her shadow, was gone.
Alpha had always been her constant. When Velrathis stabilized, when their siblings were sent off on missions, when Caelum had retreated into isolation with Luna, Milo, and Vivi… Alpha had stayed with her. The one who never left her behind. The one who promised he never would.
And now, he was gone.
"Are you Ceres?"
The quiet question drew Ceres's attention.
She looked up to see the demoness Lyxaria, finally composed after shepherding her people through chaos. Ceres gripped Caelum's hand to pull herself upright and gave a silent nod.
"I am Lyxaria of the Noir bloodline," the demoness said softly. Then she stepped aside, revealing a girl who had been hiding behind her.
And suddenly, Seiryu and the five other Holy Beasts moved.
As if pulled by an invisible thread, they approached the child without hesitation, their expressions vacant, like beings in a trance.
"Seiryu?" Ceres asked, confused. "What's going on?"
He didn't answer.
None of them did.
Instead, the six Holy Beasts placed their hands on the child's small form. Their energy surged, intertwining, flowing like streams of magic into her body.
And before their eyes, she transformed.
She grew, taller, regal, her features matured into that of a young adult demoness. Her skin glowed with a quiet inner power. Her eyes, once innocent, now held the weight of eons.
"I am 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘦𝘯 𝘝𝘦𝘭'𝘙𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘢," she said, bowing deeply to both Ceres and Caelum. Then she turned to the six Holy Beasts, voice calm and commanding. "You have been released from your oath to answer my call."
A shiver ran through them.
They felt it. The bond was severed. From this moment forward, they were no longer bound by ancient law to answer her, they now belonged solely to their current Masters.
Lissaen turned to Caelum next, her tone formal.
"You are the Demon Lord?"
Caelum gave her a single solemn nod.
She reached into her robes and retrieved a small box, simple, but made of pure obsidian. Carved into its lid was a single sigil, a heart encircled by fire.
"This is for you," she said. "A package from my Lord… Samael."
She placed the box in Caelum's hands.
Whatever was inside, it was the reason Evadne had fought so hard. The reason so many had stayed behind.
And now it was in his hands.