The golden fragments of the shattered barrier still shimmered in the air like dust caught in divine wind.
Methodius staggered backward, his face pale.
"That's… impossible," he whispered. "The Sanctum Lux Custodia cannot be broken. Not without—"
"Everything," a voice interrupted, smooth and warm, "is possible with the right ambition."
The group turned.
There, at the edge of the clearing, stood two figures.
One was cloaked in lightless black, his presence bending the space around him. He had no shadow, for he was the shadow. A silver smile on perfect lips, and eyes like stars long since dead.
The other—tall, radiant, but with wings tattered and scorched, a halo broken into splinters behind his head. His golden armor was dulled with ash, his once-proud gaze now cast downward.
"Lucifer," Khoryv said softly, squinting. Then louder, more surprised: "Lucifer?! What happened to you?"
"Khroyv?"Lucifer blinked slowly. "I fell," he said simply.
"Pfft," Baba Yaha snorted. "You always were a dramatic little candle-snuffer."
Lucifer looked away in mock offense.
The other figure stepped forward, eyes gleaming.
"Don't mind him," he said. "He mourns what he once was. I, however, have fully embraced what I've become."
The Devil—not a name, but a title. A presence. He smiled, all grace and teeth, two horns in a dim light of full moon.
When he turned to Veles, the smile grew warmer.
"My child," he purred. "What a pleasure. Finally come up for air?"
Veles said nothing.
The Devil circled him slowly, like a serpent admiring a fellow predator.
"She's gone now. My daughter. And you wear her crown. But the underworld… is broken. Cracked. Disloyal. I can fix it. Give you back, son."
He extended a pale hand, even paler than Khoryv's, almost white.
"I offer power, respect… and peace. Join me, Veles. Reclaim what was once yours."
The forest held its breath.
Even Lucifer tilted his head, watching Veles with a flicker of something like hope.
Veles's answer came slowly.
He looked back—not at the Devil, but at Lybid, Kyi, Khoryv, and the broken battlefield behind them.
Then he said, quietly:
"I already chose my side. I will reclaim what's mine."
The Devil's smile thinned.
"Shame," he whispered.
He turned to the fallen angel.
"Come, old friend. They need a little more time to suffer."
Lucifer looked once at Khoryv and sighed. "Still stubborn, I see."
"Always," Khoryv replied with a grin.
Then—with a whisper of wind and a flicker of smoke, the Devil and Lucifer vanished.
The light they left behind felt colder than the dark.