The Devil took a step back. I saw it with my own eyes. In ten thousand years, he had never stepped back from anyone, but he stepped back from Jessica. The sword in her hand was screaming and the ground under her feet was cracking. His black smoke was freezing and falling like ash around us.
"That sword was mine," he growled at her. "I forged it with a million souls. You cannot control it."
Jessica did not answer him. I was standing right behind her when I saw a tear fall from her eye. It hit the mud and did not sink. The ground split open. A huge door made of ice burst out from nowhere.
I covered my ears because millions of voices started begging from inside that door. "Let us out... please let us out..."
Jessica put her hand on the door. Her voice was shaking. "I know this place... I have been here before. They told me it was heaven."
The Devil screamed, "DO NOT OPEN IT!" He turned his whole body into a giant black hand and came to crush her. Nickolas flew in front of us and blocked it. BOOM! The impact threw me to the ground.
I had nothing left. No horns, no wings, no power. But I got up and stood in front of Jessica anyway. That was all I could do.
The ice door cracked. A small crack at first. Then a small dirty hand pushed out from inside. Not a demon hand. A human child.
Jessica froze completely. "Maya?"
The little face appeared in the crack. Small girl, maybe six years old. "Big sister? You promised you will come back for me. It is so cold here. I have been waiting."
My chest tightened. That was her sister. The one she told me died when their village burned. She did not die.
The Devil started laughing like a mad man. "Yes! Yes! That is her! I took her that night! A pure soul makes the coldest blade! Every time you cried for her, my sword became stronger! I kept her alive inside just to torture you!"
Jessica fell to her knees. She grabbed that small hand through the crack. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry Maya... I thought you died... I left you..."
Nickolas pulled me close and whispered in my ear, "Tadashi, listen. If she opens that door, all the souls inside will be free. But the sword will shatter. She will lose everything. And that girl... she is part of the sword now. If we free her, she will disappear forever."
I looked at Jessica. She heard everything. She was holding her dead sister's hand with one hand and holding the sword that tortured her sister for ten years in the other hand.
She had to choose. Keep her sister trapped and in pain forever to keep her power, or kill her sister with her own hands to set her free.
She slowly stood up. Her hands were shaking so bad I thought she would drop the sword. She raised it high above her head, above the ice door, above her sister's small hand.
She looked at me. Her eyes were begging me to decide for her.
"Tadashi... what do I do?" she whispered.
The Devil was screaming behind us. "BREAK IT AND YOU LOSE EVERYTHING! YOU WILL BE NOTHING!"
I could not speak. My throat was closed.
Jessica closed her eyes. A tear froze on her cheek.
"Break," she whispered.
And she brought the sword down with all her strength.
The ice exploded.
I thought the world ended. White light swallowed everything. I could not see Jessica. I could not see Nickolas. I could not see the Devil. Only white and cold and the sound of a million people finally breathing out at once.
The voices stopped begging. They sighed. One long sigh from a million throats.
When the light faded, the door was gone.
The sword was gone. It shattered into snow that melted before it hit the ground.
And Maya was gone too.
Jessica was on her knees where the door used to be. Her hands were empty. Her hair was black again. No more white. No more blue eyes. Just Jessica. Brown eyes, black hair, human.
She was staring at her empty hands.
"Maya?" she whispered into the cold air. No answer. Only wind.
I ran to her. I fell to my knees beside her and grabbed her shoulders. "Jessica!"
She did not look at me. She was looking at the spot where her sister's hand was.
Then a small warm light floated in front of her face. Like a firefly. It touched her cheek.
I heard a little girl's voice, but it was not from the door anymore. It was from the light. "Thank you, big sister. I can sleep now."
Jessica broke. She started crying like I had never seen her cry before. Not the cold, quiet tears of the Ice Queen. Loud, ugly, human tears. She pressed her face into my chest and screamed her sister's name.
Behind us, the Devil screamed too. But his was different. He was holding his head. The black smoke that made his body was disappearing fast.
"No! No! My sword! My million souls!" he roared. His body was shrinking. Cracking.
Nickolas walked past me, his wings still glowing. He put his hand on the Devil's head.
"You built your power on stolen souls," Nickolas said. "Now you have nothing."
The Devil looked at me. At Jessica crying in my arms. And he laughed one last time, a weak, broken laugh.
"You fools... you freed them... but you lost your weapon... how will you kill me now?"
I looked down at Jessica. Her sword was gone. Her power was gone. She was just a girl crying for her sister.
I stood up. I had no horns. No wings. No fire. But I was angry. More angry than I had ever been in my life.
I walked to the Devil. I picked up a broken piece of ice from the ground, the last piece of Jessica's sword.
"With this," I said.
And I stabbed him in the heart.