The moment Evelyn fully formed from the mist, she stayed kneeling at first with one hand still resting on the bone scythe. Her breathing was steady but her shoulders were shaking. Ryan didn't move at first. He just stared at her like his brain refused to accept what his eyes were feeding it.
Evelyn's lips parted slightly, but no sound came out immediately. Her expression cracked just a little at the edges.
She dropped the scythe lightly to her side and took one step forward, then another, until she was close enough that the distance between them felt dangerously small. Ryan didn't step back. He couldn't. His body looked frozen between disbelief and something far more complicated.
Evelyn's voice came out shaky at first.
"Why are you here?"
Ryan let out a breath that sounded almost broken.
"I… I thought you were gone."
Evelyn's composure cracked completely. She turned slightly toward Greshina without fully looking away from Ryan.
"Please, my lady. Please don't take him. I'm begging you. He doesn't need to die. I— I know what I did, I know I broke the laws, I know I went too far but.I brought him into this. I was the one who stayed. I was the one who extended it. I'm the reason everything happened. So please… don't kill him."
"That's the first time in a long time," Greshina said calmly, "that I've heard you speak like that."
Evelyn flinched slightly at the tone.
"You are my third Herald. You're one of my most trusted subordinates."
Evelyn lowered her head slightly. "I know…"
"No you don't. You really thought I wouldn't notice what you were doing?"
Evelyn's grip tightened on the scythe.
"My Heralds are not isolated from me. Even when they are not present around me, I know their actions. I know their deviations. I know when they bend rules and I know when they break them."
"I'm sorry…"
Greshina didn't respond to the apology immediately. Instead, she glanced at Ryan for a moment, then back at Evelyn.
"I brought you back as a reward for him. He endured what you gave him. He was too dense, greedy and focused on avoiding death instead of understanding it. He needed correction. He's qualified to become a Herald though. The Universal Laws punished you, not me. I had to negotiate to bring you back."
Evelyn's breath hitched slightly at that.
"It was not simple. It was not cheap either. So now, you will accept your punishment from me."
Evelyn lowered her head further.
"I understand…"
"No you don't. You will complete what you refused to finish. You will kill Ryan."
"What?"
"With your scythe, you will end his life yourself in front of me."
Ryan looked between them, slowly realizing what was being said.
"This is your correction. Only then will your mistake be considered resolved."
Evelyn stepped back immediately, shaking her head.
"No. I can't. I won't."
"Then I will. And if I do, he will not become a Herald. He won't enter the system. He will not reincarnate either. He will cease to exist."
Evelyn's breathing turned uneven. Ryan, on the other hand, gave a small, broken laugh.
"So that's it, huh?"
He looked at Evelyn and instead of fear or pleading, he smiled.
"I guess I deserve worse than this."
Evelyn's expression twisted instantly.
"No, listen. I'm not saying that like I'm giving up. I just mean… I understand. Evelyn, I'm sorry for everything. For how I treated you. For what I didn't realize, for taking without understanding what it cost you, I apologize for all of it."
Evelyn's grip tightened on the scythe so hard her knuckles turned pale.
"I don't want your apology."
Evelyn's voice broke slightly as she continued.
"You don't get to stand there and apologize like that fixes anything. Do you have any idea what I endured for two hundred and fifty years?"
Ryan's expression faltered.
"I stayed because I believed in you. I kept extending your time because I thought you would finally see that you would finally understand what I was doing for you, for us, for something that wasn't just survival but you didn't! You just… kept taking it."
Evelyn's eyes were wet now, though she didn't let tears fall yet.
"I watched you live while I shortened myself. I watched you laugh, work, gorget, repeat, have sex with other women and I stayed because I told myself it meant something. And when I finally realized it didn't, it was already too late."
Ryan looked down, unable to meet her eyes now. Evelyn stepped closer until they were nearly face-to-face.
"And now you stand here and you apologize like that erases two hundred and fifty years of being unseen."
"I know it doesn't."
Evelyn's breath trembled.
"I hate you for that and I still couldn't stop loving you."
Even Greshina didn't interrupt. Evelyn stepped back, raising the scythe slightly now.
"I'm going to make your death hurt. It's not because I'm cruel. I felt every second of that pain while you lived unaware of it. And when you become a Herald, I am never letting you go again."
Ryan opened his eyes slightly, looking at her with something unreadable now.
"That's enough for you?"
Evelyn didn't answer immediately. Then, almost painfully honest, she said:
"No."
Her scythe struck Ryan.
The blade entered him with precise force, holding him in place against the rooftop. Ryan's breath broke immediately from the sudden rewrite of his bodily state under the Herald transition pressure that had already begun beneath the surface of his existence.
Evelyn did not withdraw the weapon. She drove it deeper. Ryan's hands lifted instinctively and stopped. His voice tried to form words but what came out was fragmented.
Evelyn released the scythe. Her arms closed around him immediately after, pulling him into an embrace. The contact locked him in place and whatever stability his body had been trying to regain was overridden again as Evelyn leaned in and kissed him. The action was not gentle in effect. It functioned as a conduit and through that contact the Death Energy began transferring directly into his system.
Ryan's body reacted violently as his bones were forcibly recalibrated under the dual pressure of injury and conversion. Evelyn did not loosen her hold. The embrace tightened instead, compressing him further, forcing the transition to stabilize faster than comfort would ever allow. His breathing fractured into shallow intervals as the boundary between mortal pain and Herald integration blurred completely.
The Death Energy continued to flood through him through the sustained contact. His skin began to lose its previous tone, shifting into a dull, ashen gray as his body adapted to a permanent state of Death alignment. Evelyn maintained the connection the entire time, ensuring the transition was uninterrupted until it reached completion.
When she finally pulled back, Ryan remained on the ground. His breathing was heavy but no longer mortal. A black mist began to gather around him, circling briefly before dispersing outward and fading into nothing as the Herald designation finalized.
Greshina's voice cut through the aftermath.
"He's the fifth Herald."
Ryan slowly lifted his head, still panting, and gave a weak but sincere nod.
"Thank you."
Greshina did not elaborate further. Her tone remained composed, almost detached in its efficiency.
"I am a forgiving Deity."
She shifted slightly as the mist began to gather around her and Elyonari. Before leaving, she added in a tone that was not ceremonial.
"You will take a few days. Stabilize your new condition and adjust accordingly. You can have sex you if you want. Not that I care."
Evelyn did not respond verbally, but her posture subtly changed, acknowledging the directive without disputing it. Greshina disappeared with Ely into the mist.
Evelyn turned slowly towards Ryan.
"This time, you are going to suffer for 250 years."
Ryan let out a small, nervous breath that almost resembled a laugh, but it died before it fully formed.
"Are you going to kill me?"
"No. I'm going to kill you countless times. We can't die anymore so I'm going to do it properly this time until you understand it completely. I'm going to start with choking you."
And with that, she began to choke him.