Belzebuth exhaled a slow breath.
— The seal holds.
— For now.
The Replacement nodded.
— He won't move anymore.
— Not in this state.
— Hm.
Belzebuth narrowed his eyes.
— And yet…
A vibration.
Infinitesimal.
Almost a heartbeat.
Both froze.
Not a word.
Not a gesture.
Just that tremor.
Muted.
Vibrating from within.
A ripple that should never have existed.
Silence cracked.
The air tightened.
The ground pulsed once.
And both understood something had just changed.
Not outside.
Inside.
They understood.
With one glance.
With one shared shiver.
This seal…
would not be enough.
They had lost the hostages.
They had lost the prey.
They had lost control.
They had no choice left.
Belzebuth raised his hand.
Slowly.
Too slowly.
As if the air refused to follow it.
— Very well… he growled.
— Then we'll use the other half.
The Replacement opened his mouth.
Just to protest.
Just enough to show fear.
Belzebuth snapped his fingers.
And the world shifted.
A rain of black stakes erupted beneath Kael.
One, then two, then four.
Lances of pure shadow, massive,
wide enough to impale an adult demon.
They rose like jaws.
Then fell.
Each impact shattered the air.
Each strike made space tremble.
And with every impalement…
Kael's screams became something else.
Not human cries.
Not cries of pain.
Howls that tore at the fabric of the world.
Vibrations that cracked space itself.
As if his soul were still struggling
despite the seal.
The Replacement stepped back.
For the first time.
By instinct.
A primitive instinct.
Flee.
Something was wrong.
Something was being born.
Or returning.
Or awakening.
He didn't know what.
But his body did.
Meanwhile, the stakes widened.
Stretched.
And closed their black rings around each of Kael's limbs:
His wrists.
His ankles.
His elbows.
His knees.
His throat.
Each snapped shut like a perfect trap.
Like a cage made to break a monster.
Or a god.
Then five hexagonal monoliths fell from above.
One for each stake.
The last for his head.
They crashed down.
Heavily.
Viscerally.
With the weight of centuries
of forbidden demonic craft.
Kael disappeared under stone.
Under noise.
Under agony.
His screams still slipped between the monoliths.
Screams that were no longer screams.
The sound of a trapped beast…
furious,
wounded,
agonizing,
but refusing to die.
A divine beast
being smothered under rock.
Belzebuth murmured:
— There.
— The complete seal.
Then.
Silence.
Not a normal silence.
A silence eaten by blood.
Under the monoliths,
something dripped.
One drop.
Thick.
Black.
Alive.
It fell on stone.
A sharp sound.
A click.
Almost… a warning.
Belzebuth tilted his head.
His pupils shrank.
The Replacement went still.
A second drop.
Heavier.
Then a third.
Kael's blood.
Escaping despite the stakes.
Sliding despite the runes.
Refusing to remain caged.
And then—
the sound arrived.
THUMP.
One beat.
One.
Muted.
Deep.
Too strong.
Too wide.
Belzebuth flinched.
Just a breath.
The Replacement stepped back.
A sharp step.
Then another.
THUMP.
Stronger.
The ground vibrated beneath their feet.
Shadows shivered.
The monoliths trembled
by a millimeter.
Just one.
But enough to make the air crack.
Belzebuth whispered:
— …no.
It was impossible.
No human heart.
No beast.
No lesser demon
could beat like that.
A red wave suddenly spread under the stones.
A blood echo.
A sweep.
A pulse that traveled through the entire hall
like a living sonar.
THUMP.
The world growled.
Under the monoliths,
Kael's blood spread.
Poured.
Spread further.
Then began…
to surge.
Lances of blood burst from the floor.
Sharp.
Raw.
Striking the monoliths in counter-rhythm.
As if someone inside
were pounding with closed fists.
THUMP.
THUMP.
THUMP.
Each beat made the stones vibrate.
Each beat lifted dust.
Each beat shook Belzebuth's aura.
The Replacement blanched.
— …Belzebuth…
— The seal…
— It's answering his heart.
A brief laugh escaped him.
Dry, nervous, hysterical.
— Just his heart…
Belzebuth didn't answer.
He stared at the monoliths.
His smile gone.
Under the stone,
under the blood,
a muted aura rose.
Smothered.
Compressed.
But alive.
A murmur drifted through the hall.
Not a voice.
Not a word.
An instinct.
A collective shiver.
Something was waking up.
Something even Belzebuth
had not anticipated.
The monoliths vibrated.
A first time.
Slightly.
As if something beneath
was breathing.
The Replacement gritted his teeth.
— This is… not normal.
Belzebuth said nothing.
His eyes fixed on the stone.
On the blood.
On the spreading shadow.
THUMP.
The ground shook.
A thin fracture,
almost invisible,
cracked down one monolith.
Just a crack.
Nothing more.
But enough to make the Prince's aura
recoil by a millimeter.
THUMP.
Another fracture.
Longer.
Deeper.
The Replacement stepped back.
— Belzebuth…
His voice broke.
— The heart.
— His heart… it's… striking.
As if every beat
tried to break the world.
Belzebuth inhaled slowly.
Very slowly.
His breath trembled.
— That's not his heart, he said at last.
His voice had no amusement left.
None.
— Then what?!
The Replacement's panic cracked.
— What could—
— Nothing human.
Belzebuth cut him off.
— Nothing you know.
A heavy silence.
Thick.
Clotted.
And then…
A sharp sound.
A crack.
A splinter of stone.
The monolith over the left arm
shifted.
One centimeter.
One.
A centimeter that should never have existed.
Blood spurted beneath the impact.
Not a gush.
Not an explosion.
A jet.
Thin line.
Precise.
Piercing stone
like a lance.
Belzebuth narrowed his eyes.
THUMP.
The ground jumped.
Dust shook from the ceiling.
The entire seal vibrated
like a caged beast
pounding the walls.
The Replacement staggered.
His aura shrank.
— But… this isn't logical!
— NONE OF THIS IS LOGICAL!
— He should be broken!
THUMP.
The frontal monolith
lifted a breath.
A fraction of a second.
A half-breath.
A threat.
The tattoo on Kael's chest
glowed black.
Once.
Belzebuth spread his fingers.
His nails turned to claws.
— Get ready, he said bluntly.
The Replacement shook his head.
— For what?
Belzebuth looked him straight in the eye.
Without mask.
Without amusement.
— To retreat.
Silence.
Then…
The final THUMP arrived.
Slow.
Muted.
Implacable.
A pulse so deep
it vibrated their bones.
The blood on the ground lifted
as if pulled upward.
And beneath the monoliths,
something inhaled.
Once.
Deeply.
Then everything stopped.
No sound.
No breath.
No beat.
Nothing.
Fractures had spread everywhere.
In the ground.
In the monoliths.
In the air itself.
With every tremor.
Every beat.
Every blood lance.
And then…
Everything gave way.
One crack.
Sharp.
Total.
The seal disintegrated at once,
as if the stone had lost its reason to exist.
The runes split.
The glyphs shattered.
The bindings dissolved into black dust.
Belzebuth did not move.
Neither did the Replacement.
A breath passed.
Slow.
Glacial.
They looked at the ritual's center.
The place where Kael should have been.
Where his body should have remained pinned.
Impaled.
Crushed.
Broken.
There was nothing.
No stone.
No stakes.
No monoliths.
And above all—
no Kael.
Belzebuth narrowed his eyes.
A tiny wrinkle formed on his brow.
The Replacement swallowed.
Once.
Painfully.
— …Belzebuth…
— The seal…
His voice shook.
— The seal is gone…
Belzebuth murmured, very low:
— That's not the worst part.
The Replacement turned toward him.
— Then what?
Belzebuth inhaled.
His smile gone.
His voice cold.
Deeply cold.
— The worst…
— …is that he's gone too.
Silence.
A real one.
A crushing one.
The Replacement scanned the area, panicked.
— Impossible…
— He was here.
— He was UNDER the stones.
— I saw him…
— I SAW HIM!
Belzebuth cut him off.
— Such is the nature of monsters.
A shiver climbed the Replacement's spine.
His nails scraped the stone.
— W–where… where is he? he stammered.
Belzebuth smiled.
Slowly.
Without kindness.
— Maybe everywhere.
A breath.
— Maybe nowhere.
A second breath.
— Maybe… right behind you.
The Replacement froze.
The room vibrated one last time.
Very faintly.
Like a distant heartbeat.
Indefinable.
Then nothing.
A void.
A chasm.
An absence worth all the monsters in the world.
Kael had vanished.
The seal was gone.
The stones gone.
Kael gone.
Only blood remained.
And a silence too heavy to be normal.
Belzebuth narrowed his eyes.
— He's not dead.
The Replacement shook his head.
— He can't move… even he—
A tremor.
Light.
Deeply organic.
Not in the floor.
In the air.
Both demons froze.
A second tremor.
Closer.
Colder.
The smell of blood changed.
More metallic.
Fresher.
As if it had been spilled… elsewhere.
Belzebuth took a step.
One.
The shadow behind him pulsed.
Once.
— Stop… whispered the Replacement.
— He's watching us.
Belzebuth said nothing.
A sound slid across the hall.
A scrape.
A breath.
A tiny shift.
But fast.
Too fast.
Something moved behind them.
Invisible.
Alive.
Hungry.
The Replacement raised a trembling hand.
The runes around his palm blurred.
— I can't see him.
— I can't FEEL him.
— That's why he's dangerous, Belzebuth replied.
His voice held no arrogance anymore.
— Because he doesn't exist… unless he wills it.
The ground breathed.
A heavier tremor.
Slower.
THUMP.
A heartbeat.
Not human.
Not logical.
A beat that resonated in their ribcages.
THUMP.
The Replacement leapt back.
— Hey… Belzebuth…
— He's right there.
— Yes, the Prince said.
— And he's waiting.
Silence.
A drop of blood fell between them.
From the ceiling.
Fresh.
Dark red.
Belzebuth opened his mouth to speak—
Too late.
Something surged behind him,
so fast no shadow formed.
A mass.
A silent scream.
A flood of blood.
A beast born of darkness.
A hand clamped against his throat.
An impossible force slammed him backward,
dragged him across several meters,
and crushed him against a pillar.
Belzebuth barely had time
to widen his eyes.
— You…? he breathed.
There, in the darkness,
Kael's face appeared.
Not a human face.
Not a living face.
A white mask.
Eyes stretched wide to breaking.
An aura rising in circles,
a pit swallowing the room whole.
Kael leaned in.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
His jaw unhinged by a millimeter.
Belzebuth tried to speak.
Only a breath escaped.
Kael whispered one word:
— Too late.
His teeth clamped.
A sharp sound.
A tearing.
A burst of black blood.
Belzebuth screamed.
A Prince's scream.
A forbidden scream.
A scream that made the entire Tower tremble.
Kael tore out his jugular.
In one strike.
Clean.
Without hesitation.
The Prince's blood poured.
Thick.
Viscous.
Ancient.
Kael grabbed it.
Held it.
Drank it.
One pull.
One instant.
And his aura exploded.
Blood erupted from the floor.
Shadows climbed to the ceiling.
The hall became a cyclone of red and black.
The walls howled under the pressure.
The Replacement stumbled back.
He choked.
— He…
— He never should have…
— This is impossible…
Belzebuth, kneeling,
one hand pressed to his ravaged throat,
stared at Kael with dilated eyes.
Incomprehension.
Rage.
Fear.
All at once.
Kael lifted his head slowly.
His gaze was no longer a gaze.
Just emptiness.
Just a white pit.
Just hunger.
Then—
A heartbeat.
One.
Stronger than all the others.
THUMP.
The ground fractured up to the walls.
Blood rose.
Shadows contracted.
And the Tower…
trembled.