The ruins of the abandoned building were quiet, lit only by the occasional flicker of dying embers scattered from the last campfire. The survivors—Eve, Adam, Xiao Ling, Dr. Jin, and a handful of soldiers—sat in grim silence. The air reeked of blood, sweat, and the choking scent of burnt dreams.
Dr. Jin stood by a broken window, eyes scanning a cracked tablet, trying to reroute satellite feeds. Xiao Ling sat sharpening her blade, silent, haunted. Adam leaned against the wall, arms crossed, cold as stone. He hadn't spoken a word since they fled. Eve sat nearby, her head bowed, her fists clenched around a bloodied cloth.
Then everything changed.
A sharp crack echoed through the air, followed by the sudden collapse of the building's northern wall. Dust and debris exploded outward as something tore through concrete and steel as if they were paper.
Victoria had arrived.
Her presence was unmistakable—a crimson blur, standing amid the smoke in a dress soaked in gore. Her eyes gleamed with psychotic delight, hair wild and red like the blood she'd bathed in. Her skin was flawless, radiant even—mocking the horror that followed her.
Without a word—without hesitation—she moved.
Eve barely had time to turn before Victoria was on her. A blur of speed, a flash of crimson, and Eve was launched backward through a column of stone, her body cracking it in two.
Victoria giggled, skipping forward slowly like a child in a field of flowers.
"I always wanted to see what angels look like when they break," she sang.
Dr. Jin pulled his sidearm, firing shots that tore through empty air. Victoria vanished mid-movement, reappearing behind him. With a swipe of her hand, she knocked him into a pillar with enough force to break bone.
Xiao Ling charged, blade glowing with fury, screaming Eve's name. Their swords clashed—her divine blade against Victoria's claws—but the demoness danced through the strikes, mocking her with every parry.
Adam didn't move.
He just stared.
Victoria: "You're awfully quiet, murder-boy. Still holding onto that mask of apathy?"
She blurred away before Xiao Ling's sword could reach her, appearing in front of Eve's battered body, dragging her up by the hair.
Victoria whispered, "Remember Zadkiel? He adored your brother's screams. Let's see if you're louder."
Just as her claw began to glow with demonic energy—
Eve grabbed her wrist.
Bleeding, broken, but defiant.
"You're not taking another one from me."
A burst of holy energy flared out from Eve's body, knocking Victoria back through the air, for the first time genuinely stunned.
The survivors scrambled, gathering what strength they could.
Dr. Jin groaned, "She's toying with us… We need to get out—NOW."
But Victoria was already standing again, laughing manically, arms stretched wide.
"RUN, LITTLE RATS! RUN! But it doesn't matter—"
Her voice dropped into a whisper.
"There's nowhere left to hide."
Victoria's voice dripped with venomous amusement as she slowly stepped closer to Eve, who was still trying to stand upright, her body battered, wings bloodied, and eyes locked with the monster in front of her.
Victoria:
"Remember what I told you, Eve? I said I would kill you the next time we met."
Her smile widened, revealing sharp, glinting teeth.
"You executed someone precious to me… my favorite toy."
Eve's breath caught. Blood trickled down her chin as her fingers tightened into fists. She remembered that moment—the one where she struck down Zadkiel with divine judgment, fully knowing who he was. Her voice cracked out through the blood and pain:
Eve:
"He stopped being my brother the moment he sided with demons… the moment he slaughtered the innocent."
Victoria's smile twisted, sick and rage-filled.
Victoria:
"Pfft… Innocence is a fairy tale, sweetheart. He played with lives because it made eternity bearable. He danced, he screamed, and he laughed—all for me."
She tilted her head.
"Hard to believe, huh? That you—'Saint Eve'—his oh-so-pure big sister, executed your own brother. Tch… You should've hugged him instead. Maybe then he wouldn't have died sobbing in the dirt like a dog."
Eve staggered forward, pain etched into her face, but her voice carried the fury of heaven.
Eve:
"He died because he betrayed everything we stood for."
Victoria's expression snapped into unhinged rage, the gleam in her eyes flickering like wildfire.
Victoria:
"No. He died because you're a cold, self-righteous killer... Just like me."
Her voice dropped to a whisper, laced with madness.
"And now… I'm going to rip your wings off and hang them over his grave."
In a flash of crimson, she lunged forward, claws aimed at Eve's chest, her face a twisted portrait of grief, obsession, and hate.
Victoria:
"Betrayal? He didn't betray anyone. He was betrayed—by his brother Adam. Abandoned by his so-called family twice… Left behind by everyone who ever claimed to love him."
Her eyes burned with rage as tears welled, unfallen.
"Let me ask you this—Eve, holy executioner of Paradise…"
She leaned close, her breath hot with venom, eyes boring into Eve's soul:
Victoria:
"In all those seven thousand years…
Did you ever search for him?
Even once?"
The words struck like a thunderclap.
Eve stood frozen—her divine aura flickering, the strength in her knees faltering for just a heartbeat. Her lips parted, but no sound came.
Because the truth clawed at her memory:
She had searched for peace.
She had sought justice.
But Zadkiel?
She had let go.
Victoria:
"He waited for you… For a sister. He cried for you in that forsaken world you left behind. But you never came. No one ever came."
Her voice cracked into a sob, then twisted back into a deranged cackle.
"So he came to me. And I gave him a reason to live again!"
Victoria suddenly let out a scream, not from pain—but from something raw and ancient, then raised her hand again.
Victoria:
"You didn't just kill him, Eve.
You finished what Paradise started—
You proved he was never worth loving to begin with!"
Victoria's smirk faltered for a split second as Adam stepped forward—cold, expressionless, his footsteps echoing through the hollow air like death itself approaching.
Victoria (sneering, venom in her voice):
"Well, look who it is… The worst of the worst. The butcher of Paradise. The boy who slaughtered his kin and lit the spark of the Eternal War—millions dead, entire realms in ruin… All because you couldn't handle being second to anyone."
She hoisted Eve higher by the collar, as if presenting her to the accuser.
Victoria:
"You're the reason Zadkiel broke in the first place. Your betrayal poisoned him! And yet here you stand—without remorse, without guilt."
Adam (calm, heartless):
"Shut up."
Victoria blinked.
Adam (stepping closer, voice low and ice cold):
"I'm sick of your screeching. You act like I care about family, love, or the millions I killed. I don't."
He looked at her with complete emotional detachment, his eyes like black holes.
"I didn't come to argue, or mourn, or seek redemption.
I came because I heard enough."
Victoria's eyes narrowed, her grip on Eve loosening ever so slightly.
Adam didn't stop.
Adam:
"You want vengeance?
Fine.
But don't mistake your grief for justice, and don't think for a moment that your pain makes you special.
Zadkiel was a mad dog, and I would've killed him myself if Eve hadn't."
Victoria (growling):
"You're lying."
Adam (still emotionless):
"Am I?"
The tension crackled like lightning.
Eve dropped from Victoria's loosened grip, crumpling to the ground, gasping for breath.
Victoria's madness reignited.
Her voice split with rage and heartbreak:
Victoria:
"You both deserve to suffer! You took everything from me!"
Her aura erupted—a hurricane of raw demonic fury—
But Adam didn't flinch.
He slowly drew his blackened blade from his side, as a warning.
Adam (coldly):
"Then stop whining like a bitch and fight."
The air stood still. Even the wind seemed to silence itself in the weight of Adam's words.
Adam stood firm, his gaze piercing, unfaltering—cold as the grave.
Adam:
"I make a very clear distinction between what's important to me…
And what's of no consequence."
His voice was calm, but it carried a blade's edge.
Adam:
"As people go through life, they collect more things that have value to them.
They find love.
They make friends.
They fight for justice.
They build connections—meaningful to them."
He looked away for a moment, almost lost in thought, before locking eyes with Victoria once more.
Adam:
"And when I discarded all of those…
All I had left was what I absolutely can't do without."
Victoria tilted her head, a twisted smile slowly spreading.
Victoria:
"So what is it that you truly care about then?"
Adam's eyes darkened. His answer was absolute.
Adam:
"My goals.
My ambition.
And that's all you need to know."
A heavy silence followed.
Even Eve, still recovering on the ground, felt the gravity of his truth.
Victoria:
"You killed so many innocent people…
Just for that?"
Her voice was quieter now, but razor-sharp, venom curling around each word.
"You burned down cities.
Left children crying beside corpses.
Tore entire bloodlines from the world.
And all for some shallow, selfish ambition?"
Adam didn't flinch.
His eyes were empty, his posture unmoved.
Adam:
"Innocent? No one's hands are clean, Victoria.
Some just hide the blood better than others."
He stepped forward, just once. A motion that carried more weight than a war drum.
Adam:
"Besides…
Their lives were never part of my equation.
Collateral to something greater."
Victoria's smile returned—slow, twitching, rabid.
Victoria:
"Greater?
You sound just like him…
Like Zadkiel."
She dropped Eve, letting her crash to the ground.
Victoria:
"You and your brother were always two sides of the same rotting coin.
But at least Zadkiel felt pain.
At least he wept when it rained."
She leaned in, inches from Adam's face, eyes burning with madness.
Victoria:
"But you?
You're a hollow beast wearing a man's face."
Adam didn't blink.
Adam:
"Then it's fitting…
that a monster like me will be the one to bury you and aren't you a monster yourself as well."
The air grew colder the moment Victoria's voice dropped to a purr, her crimson eyes flicking across the blood-stained survivors.
Victoria:
"Lucky for you…"
Her tone was soft, but laced with the kind of malice that sent chills down spines.
"Including everyone here… I only came to play. Because killing you isn't my task."
She let that hang for a breath. The silence pressed down like a storm cloud.
Victoria turned her back on them, walking a few steps before pausing.
Her head tilted back, long red hair flowing like a devil's flame in the wind.
Victoria:
"But soon…"
She glanced over her shoulder, and something changed in her face—
No longer playful. No longer psychotic.
Now?
Dead serious.
Victoria:
"…Another will come."
She slowly turned, locking eyes with Adam… then Alexander, then Eve.
Victoria:
"If he finds you still resisting… still clinging to that foolish belief in your so-called 'destiny'...
He will demonstrate the errors of your ways."
Her voice cracked like thunder at the word errors.
Victoria raised her hand and pointed skyward.
Victoria:
"And this whole world…
Will pay the price."
Everyone was frozen. Breathing quietly. Waiting for what came next.
Then she turned again—this time, straight toward Eve.
Her innocent expression curled into a twisted grin.
Victoria (softly):
"I pray you come to your senses before then.
For all your sakes… especially yours, sister of the forsaken."
Without another word, her form shattered into a mist of black petals and crimson fire—
leaving only scorched earth where she stood.