The battlefield drowned in shadows.
Hundreds of serpents writhed from Evelyn's body, their scales cracked porcelain, their eyes burning violet fire. Her scream split the air, but it wasn't human anymore — it was the sound of chains breaking inside the soul.
Damien's flames roared against the tide, incinerating snake after snake, but they only multiplied. "Damn it—there's no end!"
Clara frantically scribbled glyphs, ink glowing bright on her flying papers. "Bind! BIND!" The words rose into glowing barriers… only to melt instantly under the serpents' touch. She choked. "The truth rejects language! I—I can't hold her!"
Yurin Crimson simply stood at the center of the storm. Calm. Eyes reflecting crimson fire. Watching.
Smiling.
Evelyn's form cracked further, violet light spilling from within. Half of her face was human; the other half shattered porcelain with a yawning, fanged maw beneath.
"I… am not supposed to exist," she hissed, her voice splintering into a thousand echoes. "I was forged from a broken truth—hidden, chained, forced to wear flesh…"
Her shadow-serpents lashed outward, slamming Damien into a crater. Another swarm coiled around Clara, tearing through her scripts. She screamed as ink sprayed uselessly into the air.
Damien staggered up, bloodied but burning with fury. "Evelyn! Fight it! You're still one of us—damn it, don't let that thing in the sky own you!"
But Evelyn's porcelain half twisted into a smile that wasn't hers. "One of you? No… I was never human. I was only the fracture pretending to be."
The colossal mask above boomed with laughter.
"YES. A FRACTURED RETURNED TO HER NATURE."
Damien's flames erupted hotter than ever, wings of fire sprouting from his back. He charged Evelyn head-on, roaring with rage. "I don't care what you are! Human, Fractured, or mask-demon—I'll save you even if it kills me!"
He smashed into the serpents, burning through the storm, his fist blazing toward Evelyn's chest.
But before the blow could land—
A crimson chain of light blocked it.
Damien's eyes widened. His fist collided with a barrier of Yurin's making.
"…You?"
Yurin stood calmly, his hand raised, crimson energy flowing like a mirror of Evelyn's broken chains. His voice was cool, cutting through the chaos.
"Don't touch her."
Damien's flames flickered in disbelief. "You're… protecting her?! After what you just did to her?!"
Clara cried out, struggling against serpents as tears streamed down her face. "Yurin—why?! She can't control it, she'll kill us!"
Yurin's crimson eyes glowed brighter, his tone sharp and deliberate.
"She's not your enemy. She's proof. And I won't let you destroy proof."
Damien's jaw clenched. "Proof of what?!"
Yurin tilted his head slightly, the faintest smile on his lips.
"That none of you were ever meant to exist as you think you are."
The colossal mask roared approval, the ground trembling beneath them.
"YES. SPEAK IT. SPEAK THE FRACTURE."
Evelyn screamed, her body splitting fully. Her human half fell away in porcelain shards, leaving behind a towering figure of shadow and serpents, violet wings spreading wide.
She turned her glowing eyes toward Yurin.
"You… freed me. Why?"
Yurin stepped closer, calm in the storm of writhing shadows.
"Because your truth is closer to mine than theirs."
Damien's flames surged, his voice shaking with fury. "You bastard… you knew. You've always known!"
Clara's trembling voice whispered what Damien wouldn't say. "You're… like her. Aren't you?"
Yurin's smile widened.
But he didn't answer.
The colossal mask above began to split apart, revealing an even greater eye staring through the crack in the sky.
Evelyn, now a monstrous serpent-winged figure, lowered her head toward Yurin — not to attack. But to bow.
Damien's flames nearly sputtered out in disbelief.
Clara's papers fell lifeless to the ground.
And Yurin Crimson finally spoke, his voice carrying like a blade across the battlefield:
"Why do you think the mask called me Architect?"
The sky screamed as the fracture widened.
[Chapter Eight — End]