Shin's murderous gaze remained fixed on the little demon.
Every fiber of his being wanted to chop this troublesome existence into a thousand pieces.
In the end, he stepped aside and made a call.
At that very moment, Tristan was just about to fall asleep with a supermodel after an intense workout when his phone suddenly rang.
The beauty beside him pouted sleepily. "Who's calling? Do you have to leave?"
Tristan chuckled, gently patting her head before walking into the bathroom to answer the call.
The moment he picked up, Shin's cold voice came through. "Get to the location I sent you. Immediately."
Tristan: "..."
Looking at the location, he realized it wasn't even within the city but somewhere in the Arctic.
Recalling that Yeri had gone on a graduation trip, he immediately guessed it had something to do with her and quickly arranged for a chartered flight.
Back on Shin's side, the little demon still wasn't done provoking him. Without a word, he grabbed the two floating orbs and casually stored them away.
Prince Xati's ruby eyes widened.
"Give them back!" he shrieked. "They're mine!"
"Give me the Key," Shin replied flatly.
"Never!"
He immediately began dangling his little legs, trying to kick Shin, but he couldn't even reach him.
The being from the Light Realm frowned in concern. If the demon prince had truly arrived there using the Key, then that meant he knew how to use it.
At this point, Shin couldn't be bothered with either of them. Yeri's condition came first.
He bent down, preparing to carry her away.
"Emperor Hexion," the being from the Light Realm reminded him, "if you intend to leave, lift the time pause, do not forget to restore everything to its original state."
Shin paused.
Yeri's earlier assumption that everyone in the building had fallen into a deep sleep wasn't entirely wrong.
They hadn't been sleeping, just time itself had been halted.
As his sword vanished, he chanted in the ancient demon tongue. Countless glowing runes, resembling intricate tattoos, emerged from the tip of his finger before spreading up his arm like rippling waves. As the runes expanded, the damaged surroundings began restoring themselves.
The shattered balcony reassembled piece by piece as though time itself were flowing backward.
A moment later, the wall clock resumed its steady ticking, completely unaware that reality itself had just been rewritten.
"What about this human?" the being from the Light Realm asked. "According to our agreement, demons are forbidden from harming humans or using their abilities against them."
Following his gaze, Shin looked indifferently at Calin, who lay in a miserable heap on the floor.
"That human started it!" Prince Xati answered before Shin could. "She should be grateful this prince even spared her a bit of my attention."
"The agreement only applies as long as humans do not target us first," Shin said calmly. After all, he had been the one who had reduced those armed men to nothingness. "Besides, she's still breathing."
With everything restored, Shin immediately carried Yeri out of the room and into another.
Truthfully, he had felt uneasy the moment he ended their call earlier.
Without hesitation, he had chartered a plane to reach her as quickly as possible. However, the worsening weather forced the aircraft to land in a neighboring city, leaving him no choice but to continue the journey by land.
The delay had been enough for him to arrive just in time to see a group of armed men opening fire on Yeri.
The sight ignited a fury unlike anything he had felt in centuries.
Those men hadn't even died because of any deliberate attack.
The moment his rage erupted, the passive demonic aura surrounding him had activated on its own, reducing them to nothingness.
"Ahhh! Where are you taking that human?!" Prince Xati struggled wildly against his restraints. "You mad Emperor! Tell me where Mother Empress is! Come back this instant!"
Yet no matter how violently he thrashed, he couldn't break free from the Light Realm being's bindings.
--
When Nina finally woke up, dawn had already broken.
Outside, the blizzard continued to rage relentlessly.
She stirred after hearing countless footsteps inside the room.
Opening her eyes, she found several men in black suits carefully lifting someone onto a stretcher.
"Yeri Zhi!" Nina screamed at the top of her lungs as she frantically looked around.
To her surprise, the men weren't bothered by her outburst. Instead, one of them politely apologized for disturbing her and explained that they were there on behalf of Shin Keir.
Still confused and disoriented, Nina's eyes suddenly widened when she recognized the unconscious woman lying on the stretcher.
Calin Ricci?
"Why is that woman here? Where's Yz?!"
Nina's piercing scream echoed throughout the hallway.
One by one, the doors to the other rooms opened as their classmates stepped outside to see what was happening.
"Kyahhh! Is... is that a real arm he's carrying?!" one of the girls screamed, pointing at a man who was casually holding Calin's severed arm.
Everyone instinctively turned to look.
Most of them came from wealthy, sheltered families and had never witnessed such a gruesome sight before.
Within seconds, the hallway erupted into chaos as screams and sobs filled the air, as though they had just witnessed a massacre.
The men in black and the medical staff paid them no attention as they continued carrying Calin away.
No one noticed the being whose entire body seemed to shimmer with light, nor the little demon imprisoned beside him. An invisibility spell had already concealed both of them from human eyes.
--
It was almost noon by the time Tristan arrived.
Unaware of the severe blizzard, he had followed the same route as Shin Keir, flying to a neighboring city before continuing the journey by land. Only this time, he encountered an even worse snowstorm.
To ordinary humans, it would simply be dismissed as unusually harsh weather.
But the closer Tristan got, the more he sensed lingering demonic auras and the remnants of a fierce battle.
The relentless blizzard felt less like a natural disaster and more like the realm itself protesting the presence of beings that didn't belong there.
What demon had the audacity to fight Shin Keir?
A bad feeling settled in Tristan's chest.
By the time he arrived at the hotel, the entire ground level had already been buried beneath thick snow. If not for the hotel employees tirelessly shoveling paths through it while grumbling about the unexpectedly terrible weather, the entrance would have been completely inaccessible.
-
Nina lingered outside the hallway with several of their classmates near the room where Yeri had been confined.
She had tried asking to see Yeri earlier, but Shin had refused, leaving her even more worried.
The moment Tristan appeared, the waiting students, including Nina, couldn't help but gasp, especially the girls.
First Shin Keir, now Tristan Felan.
Their cheeks instantly turned red.
Despite the sudden blizzard, this graduation trip suddenly felt more than worth it. At the same time, many couldn't help feeling both grateful for the coincidence and jealous of Yeri for somehow always ending up surrounded by such ridiculously handsome men.
"Um... is Yz alright?" Nina asked, gathering her courage as she stepped in front of Tristan.
"Yeri? I'm not sure what's going on," Tristan replied with an easy smile. "I just arrived."
Unlike Shin, whose mere presence carried an overwhelming aura that silently warned others to stay away, Tristan was approachable enough that several girls shyly gathered around to greet him as well.
"Don't worry," he continued, looking at Nina. "Shin won't let anything happen to Yeri. I'll check on her first."
Nina clenched her fingers, her eyes growing slightly red.
She desperately wanted to rush inside and see Yeri herself. Weren't they all happily spending time together just last night before going to bed?
So why had Calin Ricci suddenly appeared? Where had Yeri gone?
It was as though someone had torn an entire chapter out of a book while she was asleep.
"Last night..." Nina bit her lip. "I feel like someone hit me on the back of the head. I can't remember anything after that... Also, online..."
"Alright," Tristan said, gently patting her on the head. "I'll tell Shin."
Then he turned to the other students with his usual carefree smile.
"Aren't you all here on vacation? Try not to overthink things and enjoy the trip while you can."
One of the girls covered her mouth, nodding so enthusiastically that her ponytail bounced, her eyes shining like an excited puppy's.
Tristan smiled one last time before entering the room.
"Oh my God... I think I'm in love," one of the girls whispered, looking ready to squeal with happiness.
"Don't be delusional. He wasn't only talking to you," another girl rolled her eyes before awkwardly glancing at Nina. "Besides, we're here because we're worried about Yeri. Why are you daydreaming now?"
Just then, Nina spotted Loki and immediately pestered him for answers.
"You've seen Yz, right? How is she? What happened?"
Loki was still sulking over not getting to see the polar bears, but this sudden incident had cheered him up a little. Especially after seeing that severed arm.
What on earth could have torn it off?
One glance was enough for him to tell it hadn't been cut, it had been bitten off.
"I didn't see her," Loki answered before muttering to himself obsessively, "If it was a polar bear- no, impossible. She would've been completely devoured. Then what was it? Which animal and how?"
--
Inside the room, Tristan was just about to complain about why Shin hadn't warned him about the blizzard when his eyes landed on the two figures sitting on the sofa.
The smile on his face disappeared, replaced by shock and utter disbelief, an expression that rarely appeared on his face, especially over human affairs.
The little demon prince glared fiercely at Tristan the moment he entered.
"Hmph! Don't think you've won last time," he sneered. "I was merely distracted by your mind games and underhanded tricks."
The corner of Tristan's mouth twitched as he looked at the little prince, who was as adorable as a golden retriever but as fierce as a lion cub.
Just what kind of trouble has he caused this time?
He was certain he had sealed the dimensional rift that this little demon had opened back then.
So how had he managed to return?
Shin glanced at Tristan before silently gesturing for him to follow.
The two entered the inner room where Yeri lay asleep as Shin briefly explained everything that had happened.
The moment Tristan saw the black veins spreading beneath her skin like a web, he was left speechless once again.