The Divine Agent staggered.
Her hand cracked—divine flesh flaking off like burnt porcelain.
She looked at Lucius not with rage.Not with fear.But something worse:
Recognition.
"You were never supposed to awaken."
Lucius's blade pulsed once.
A name etched across the steel—not his own, but someone else's.
Someone forgotten.
Someone sacred.
"And yet here I am."
His voice was low.
Not proud.Not angry.Just... resolved.
Behind him, the girls struggled to rise.
Zara had blood in her teeth.
Velda's runes flickered dangerously—she was burning too much soul just to keep Lucius's flame stabilized.
Claire clutched her side, her light magic faltering.
Lilith coughed black, divine-corrupted blood.
And yet—
None of them backed away.
Not one.
The Agent extended her hand again.
"If I cannot erase you…"
The sky pulsed.
A circle of blinding symbols opened above.
"…then I will erase them."
She pointed at Claire.
The spell struck before anyone could stop it.
A single beam of white—
Silent. Merciless.
Lucius moved too slow.
The blade screamed.
Zara screamed.
Claire didn't.
She just smiled softly and whispered:
"I'm not afraid."
Then it hit.
There was no explosion.No light.
Just… a collapse.
Like something beautiful being folded into nothing.
Claire's body arched—frozen mid-motion—her light dimming, her breath halting.
Her soul shuddered—
and cracked.
"CLAIRE—!"
Lucius's roar shattered the air.
The blade ignited with names.The runes beneath Velda exploded.Zara tore through space and steel.Lilith vanished, then reappeared above the Agent like vengeance made flesh.
The Agent turned to block—
Too late.
Lucius's blade met her ribs—
And carved through the divine.
For the first time—
she bled.
Not golden blood.Not divine ichor.
Just red.
Human.Wrong.Real.
She gasped.Her voice cracked.
"How…?"
Lucius stood over her, breathing fire through every scar.
"You thought power made you divine."
"But you forgot the one thing even gods fear—"
"Memory."
He drove the blade forward.
"And mine finally remembered how to kill you."
The Divine Agent's form twisted—fractured into glass, light, and whispers.
Then, she was gone.
Silence.
Burning ash fell like snow.
Zara dropped to her knees, choking.
Velda collapsed against the ground, hands shaking violently.
Lilith landed hard, one wing dragging like it had snapped.
Lucius turned—
And rushed to Claire.
She was still breathing.
Barely.
But her aura—her soul—was flickering like a dying star.
"Hey," he whispered. "Don't do that."
"Don't fade."
Claire blinked once.
Tears glistened.
"Sorry…"
"Didn't mean to scare you."
Lucius pressed his forehead to hers.
The blade pulsed quietly beside them.
He closed his eyes.
Dug deep.
Past Lucien.
Past Sovarion.
Into the memory that wasn't a name—
But a promise.
"She saved me first. I won't let her go second."
He exhaled—
And gave her something gods could never reclaim:
A memory too real to be erased.
A moment too true to be undone.
He whispered it into her heart:
"You were never forgettable."
"And I'm not letting you leave."
Claire's light flared.
Soft.
Warm.
Her breathing steadied.
Lucius opened his eyes.
She smiled.
And the others?
Watched in silence.
Because they'd just seen something more terrifying than god-killing:
A broken man choosing to love again—
Even if it meant breaking a little more to do it.