The man was thrown back before he could even react to Elsez’s strike.
“There’s another intruder! Protect the priestess!”
The cultists realized there was more than one intruder and quickly surrounded Elsez.
Another group began retreating down the corridor with the priestess.
Elsez frowned as she watched the priestess get farther away.
‘If I waste time on all of them, I’ll lose her.’
After a moment of thought, Elsez smirked as an idea came to her.
A black magic circle formed beneath the cultists’ feet. Above their heads, a dark magic sphere began to gather.
It was massive—so dense with energy that it made it hard to breathe.
The cultists’ eyes widened in fear as they realized what it was.
“Th-That power…!”
It was unmistakable—the power of the Demon God.
“Scatter!”
The sphere exploded, releasing hundreds of smaller magic spheres in a burst.
The small orbs sharpened into arrowheads and bounced around like rubber balls, targeting the enemies.
“Argh!”
Under the storm of magical arrows, the cultists were quickly overwhelmed.
One of the black arrows grazed the priestess’s leg.
“Priestess!”
The priestess staggered, and even her elite guards hesitated.
Elsez walked toward the fallen cultists with a cold expression and spoke.
“Yeah, I’m that ‘god’ you people resurrected. But…”
Just then, one of the fallen cultists lunged at her from behind.
Without even looking, Elsez slammed him into a wall and finished her sentence.
“But then why are you trying to kill me?”
She had deliberately used the Demon God’s power in front of them— To see how they would react.
And just as expected, even knowing who she was, they attacked her.
They didn’t worship the Demon God. They had simply revived her for their own purposes.
Which meant…
“What’s your real goal?”
The cultists hesitated under the overwhelming pressure of her power—but none of them answered.
Instead, they launched another wave of magic attacks at her.
Boom! Bang!
Their missed attacks struck the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
But beyond the dust—there was no groan, no sound, no movement.
Did we get her…?
Just as they dared to hope, a shadow appeared through the haze.
Elsez—completely unscathed.
She darted in and struck the vulnerable cultists down one by one, then resumed her pursuit of the fleeing priestess.
“Priestess!”
A man guarding the priestess rushed at Elsez with his sword drawn.
Instead of dodging, she caught the blade with her hand.
He was strong—as expected of the priestess’s close guard. Even with her strengthened grip, the blade cut into her palm.
Hngh…
Gritting her teeth, Elsez wrested the sword from him and threw it aside, then slammed him into the wall.
The priestess was already at the portal.
The portal activated as it reacted to her presence—but Elsez reached her just in time, grabbing her arm and seizing her by the collar.
“Urgh…”
As the priestess struggled, her hood slipped off, revealing brown hair cascading down.
Elsez’s eyes wavered as she looked into the dark eyes beyond the mask.
Those eyes…
Just as she reached to pull off the priestess’s mask—
A dark spell struck her arm.
“…!”
The impact made Elsez lose her grip. The priestess immediately shook her off.
Elsez blasted the dark mage with magic and turned back—but by then, the portal’s glow had already enveloped the priestess.
“Stop!”
Through the fading light, the priestess looked quietly at Elsez— Then vanished.
Elsez grabbed a strand of Baylor’s hair and threw it into the portal, but just as she suspected, the portal didn’t react.
Furious, she pounded her fist against the inactive portal.
“Damn it! I almost had her…!”
If she’d ignored the dark mage’s attack just for a second longer— She might have caught her.
If I had… maybe I could’ve ended this whole cycle once and for all.
Failure always leaves behind regret.
But if you let that regret keep dragging you back, it only leads to more failure.
Knowing that, Elsez forced down her frustration and rising rage.
Just then, she felt someone approaching from behind.
Assuming it was a straggler, she instinctively turned, ready to strike— But stopped herself.
It was Tezette, holding a sword stained with blood.
Seeing him, Elsez flinched, then quickly realized she was still wearing her mask and reached up to remove it.
But before she could—
Tezette knelt on one knee before her, eye level, and looked straight at her.
“Are you hurt?”
Elsez stared at him, caught off guard.
With that coldly beautiful face splattered in blood, and yet speaking so gently to her—he felt almost unreal.
“How… did you know it was me?”
“Your eyes. Your voice.”
His green eyes gazed deeply through her mask, into her shimmering golden irises.
Then he reached out and gently took off her mask.
“And your scent.”
He remembered the scent from the day she fell asleep on his shoulder in the library—
The fragrance that had tickled his neck as she breathed.
My scent? I didn’t even know I had one…
Elsez tilted her head slightly, then noticed his gaze shift to her hand. She quickly hid her injury.
And activated her bracelet to heal it.
If he finds out I’m hurt, he’ll insist I go see a priest. That’d be a disaster.
With her hand fully healed, she lowered it casually and asked,
“Are you hurt anywhere, Your Grace?”
“No.”
“Then… how did you even get here?”
“Because I was worried about you.”
He hadn’t even been wounded, but Tezette couldn’t stop staring at her face.
Elsez gave him a look of disbelief.
I meant how—not why you came…
But at this point, it didn’t really matter.
“There’s blood on your face… Let me clean it.”
She reached out, asking for permission, and Tezette let her wipe his face without protest.
It was hard to believe this was the same man who had just slaughtered an entire cult hideout.
At that moment, she saw a cultist creeping up behind him.
“Your Grace—behind you!”
Before she could finish speaking, Tezette flung his sword— And struck the man dead on.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he turned calmly back to Elsez.
Watching this, Elsez suddenly remembered something and asked,
“By any chance… did you spare anyone on your way in?”
****
Though the priestess had slipped away, Elsez had still gained something important from all of this.
She stood quietly, gazing at the child floating inside the tank—Reti’s true body.
They had stolen it from the demon cult’s hideout.
After losing the priestess, Elsez and Tezette searched for any surviving members of the cult.
Thankfully, one had survived—and Elsez recognized his face.
A priest…?
She didn’t know his name, but she had seen him several times around the temple.
When Tezette held his sword to the man’s throat, he confessed how Reti’s body was being preserved.
“I-It’s holy power! The water inside the tank is a special solution designed to hold the effects of divine energy. The priests inject divine power into it daily!”
So that was why Priest Baylor had frequently visited the chamber with Reti’s body—to administer the divine power.
Upon hearing this, Elsez’s face hardened.
The fact that many priests were involved in this meant that the demon cult had far deeper roots in the temple than she had expected.
Holding the priest hostage, Elsez had the tank containing Reti’s body moved to the Ever Guild.
The temple was already too infested with spies to be safe.
Reti sat motionless in front of the tank, unable to take her eyes off her real body.
Elsez stood nearby, looking at both Reti and the girl in the tank, lost in thought.
“Reti’s body being of the same bloodline as mine… it must be connected to how I ended up in Elsez’s body.”
There was too much overlap for it to be mere coincidence.
“Maybe the closer the genetic match, the easier it is for a soul to possess the body…”
But that raised another question.
“Then why bring me back in Elsez’s body when Reti’s own body was right there?”
Elsez thought of the one person who might have all the answers—
The woman called the priestess.
Those eyes… Could it be? No, that’s impossible.
When she’d seen those dark eyes beyond the mask, someone familiar had come to mind.
But Elsez immediately rejected the thought.
Because if the priestess was that person… it defied all logic.
*****
After showering, Tezette entered the room where the tank was kept.
His hair was still damp, a towel thrown over it, and he wore no shirt.
His well-toned body was marked with scars—wounds left untreated at the time they were received.
He glanced around the room and spotted Elsez curled up asleep, leaning against the wall.
Tezette approached quietly and sat beside her in the same posture, watching her sleep.
Her eyes were softly closed atop her pulled-up knees, and her lips parted ever so slightly.
Gentle, steady breaths slipped out from between them.
He reached out and lightly touched a strand of her sunlit hair.
It tangled softly around his fingers.
Beside her, he noticed her delicate, pale hand—small and slender, almost too fragile to believe it could possess such strength.
“If I hold her hand… would she hate it?”
Tezette hesitated, unable to bring himself to touch it.
He had never once worried about how others felt. He always acted on his own emotions.
But when he was with Ruel, her feelings always mattered to him.
He’d wanted her focus to stay only on him. But his approach had always been wrong, and it had only hurt her.
This time, he didn’t want to repeat that.
“I don’t want you to hate me.”
After a brief inner conflict, he let his hand fall.
Instead of touching her, he simply sat there, gently brushing her hair and watching her sleep.
He held back the urge to reach for her, to pull her into an embrace.
And he simply watched.
For a long, long time.
“…Mmm…”
Elsez’s eyelashes fluttered— And soon, amber-colored eyes shimmered open.
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