Chapter 57 – The True Demon King

The shadows trembled as Lucifer’s figure slowly emerged from the cracked ice. His silhouette, elegant yet mocking, looked as if it were carved from liquid darkness.

Behind him, Ren opened a dimensional portal. He glanced at Makoto, still unconscious, and gently pushed him inside.

“Goodbye, old friend. We’ll meet again in the next life… or at least, that’s what I want to believe.”

The portal closed with a flash. Then, a slow clap echoed through the hall.

“Bravo, bravo…” Lucifer’s voice dripped venom. “My sister Lilith’s best friend, showing compassion for an old man… who would’ve thought?”

Ren lifted his gaze, unshaken.

“And you? You didn’t even try to save your king. You just watched while he died.”

Lucifer arched a brow and smiled with childlike cruelty.

“That old husk was useless to me. Withered flesh only gets in the way. I need youth, vitality… power. His daughters are the future. The rest… nothing but trash to be disposed of.”

He bent theatrically, spreading his arms wide like an actor on stage.

“That’s how the world works, didn’t you know? Everything is disposable.”

Ren tightened his grip on Wisteria.

“That ends now, Lucifer. This world doesn’t belong to you.”

The demon burst out laughing — a crazed laughter that rang through the empty throne room.

“Ah, how adorable! You still don’t understand? It doesn’t matter what you do — my plans never die.”

“Today, tomorrow, a thousand years from now… humans will always be the same.”

“Hatred, greed, betrayal. And do you know what their true worth is?”

From his gauntlet, he let a handful of golden coins fall. They clattered against the frozen marble, their chime echoing like death itself.

“In these useless trinkets. Gold. Power. The price of their souls.”

Ren grit his teeth.

“Do you even know how many families you’ve destroyed for your greed?”

Lucifer placed a hand on his chest, feigning surprise.

“Families? Well, well… when did you become such a moralist?” His eyes gleamed with cruelty. “You’ve killed husbands, sons, mothers… all in the name of your ‘justice.’ Did you ever once think that they, too, had someone to mourn them?”

The words cut into Ren like invisible blades. For an instant, his mask cracked.

“No…” he muttered, sheathing his katana and shifting into the Aseina stance. “Don’t try to confuse me, demon.”

With a snap of his fingers, a crimson rapier appeared in Lucifer’s hand — slender as a needle, pulsing with vile power.

“Good? Evil? Just words. In the end, you and I are the same.”

Ren held his gaze. Doubt gnawed at his chest, but his voice rose firm.

“Maybe history will forget me. Maybe all of this is fleeting. But if every judgment I pass brings us even a little closer to peace… then I’ll keep cutting, even if it costs me my life.”

“A wise decision. Foolish, if you ask me.” Lucifer assumed a duelist’s stance, smiling with theatrical flair. “Well then. You’ll just be another stain on my plans.”

Ren felt the sting of mockery, but he did not waver.

“Aseina Style… Hidden Slash!”

Wisteria sliced the air, unleashing a freezing blade that skimmed forward, sharp as shattered crystal on the wind. It shot out fast, lethal… and Lucifer didn’t so much as flinch. With a lazy motion, he diverted the strike; the sound of impact reverberated like a broken heartbeat.

“Interesting. So you’ve mastered the techniques of Yuri’s bloodline,” the demon mused — then vanished into darkness in the blink of an eye, like spilled ink soaking into the floor.

Ren leapt back on instinct. Lucifer’s smile materialized before him, faster than his eyes could follow. Too fast, he thought, blood pounding in his neck.

“Too bad I’m far stronger than Lilith.” Lucifer swung his crimson rapier, thrusting in a dazzling flurry — needles of shadow raining with surgical precision.

Phantom blocked with Wisteria, parried, dodged; even so, some thrusts grazed his flesh and armor, leaving cuts that burned with venom. His defenses weren’t enough.

If this keeps up, I’ll fall, Ren thought. I need speed. I need… more.

He closed his eyes, cultivating cold around his body. The air grew heavy, the snow at his feet stirred, rose in spirals, and compacted beneath him as though the very earth were lifting him higher.

“SNOW AVALANCHE!”

A frozen wall surged against Lucifer with the force of a glacier.

But the demon didn’t retreat — he drove his rapier into the ground and, with a gesture, tore open a blazing gate beneath him.

“Inferno Gate!”

The portal devoured the avalanche, swallowing the ice in fire as though hell itself had claimed its prey. Ren seized the opening — appearing behind Lucifer — and unleashed his arsenal.

“Dimensional Cut! Silent Winter!”

The technique sliced through space with the sound of ice shattering, striking Lucifer at the side. For a second, he seemed wounded — his unshakable façade faltering.

“Damn… brat—” the demon snarled. But before he could recover, a tide of near-invisible threads tightened around him.

“Die, damn demon! Threads of Death!”

The countless wires Ren had laid across the hall snapped taut, binding Lucifer in a sacrificial net. For a heartbeat, Ren smiled. He had him.

Lucifer only laughed, as if the trap were nothing. His skin began to split like a discarded husk, the wires creaking under the surge of power inside him. Then the shell shattered completely, revealing his true form.

“I was getting tired of that look anyway,” he murmured.

A crimson flame swept over his body, burning away the threads. Black wings erupted from his back — blades folding and unfolding, tearing apart the very concept of hope.

Ren looked down at his hand. Only three flames remained. Every strike, every breath, cost him his life.

The moon over Solmara bled red, and even the snow seemed soaked in blood.

“Now you’ll see… the true power of a Demon King.”

His crimson rapier blazed with fury. Phantom raised Wisteria for one last strike.

“Aseina Style… Dimensional Cut! Winter Judgment!”

Ren drew his katana slowly from its sheath, pouring every ounce of power into a single decisive blow. He couldn’t afford to trade strikes with a monster like this.

“You want to dance? Then let’s dance,” Lucifer said, his tone dripping with irony.

“Rose Waltz… Crimson FINALE!”

He didn’t even give Ren the chance to release his final strike. The rapier danced with impossible speed. Ren had no time to block, no time to breathe. Thrust after thrust shredded him without mercy — a waltz of death that pierced both flesh and soul.

Phantom’s mask began to crack, splintering until it shattered into a thousand fragments. The transformation dissolved, leaving only Ren Sinclair — defenseless against the crimson storm.

He fell to his knees, gasping, blood dripping onto the snow. His trembling hand flickered with just one flame left, dim and frail, ready to vanish.

“Impossible… I…”

Lucifer looked down on him with scorn.

“I warned you, ‘phantom.’ I’m not Lilith. I don’t play games. Now die already.”

Yura cradled Yukina in her arms, trying to soothe the child’s cries even as her own tears soaked through her kimono. Suddenly, an icy emptiness pierced her chest, as if part of her soul had been ripped away.

“Ren…” she whispered, lifting her gaze toward Solmara, her voice trembling.

Far away, in the Schubert mansion, Ada sat with the others, waiting for news from the front. Without warning, a chill coursed through her entire body. She froze, as if the world itself had shifted color.

“Something’s wrong…” she murmured, her eyes wide. “Something terrible has happened to Ren.”

The silence that followed weighed heavier than any answer.

A final slash across his chest struck him down. Ren collapsed to his knees in the snow, his katana dissolving into shards of frost and light. The cold wrapped around him. Blood blended into the snowfall, erasing his trail.

Phantom was dead.