In a space so dark it seemed devoid of time itself, one girl clutched the shoulders of another, shaking her persistently.

  "Oi! you at least say something?"

  The girl demanded, her voice cutting through the silence.

  A feeling of dejavu washed over her—this situatio eerily familiar. Yes, it was something from thousands of years ago, back when they’d been face-to-face with an overwhelming swarm of is. Back then, she’d spoken to her panion in almost the exact same way.

  Except, now, only one of them remembered.

  The other had fotten, and only now was the memory beginning to resurface, maing in this bizarre state.

  "This is worse than amnesia… You're even more of ay shell than before. At this rate, I ’t tell who’s supposed to be the devil here."

  The girl—no, the Heart Devil—gazed at her terpart, who looked identical to her, albeit drained of all emotion. No light flickered in those eyes, no spark of life, nor even the fai reition of the world around them. Not a single aowledgement of the Heart Devil herself.

  As a being formed from the ive emotions and darkest desires of her terpart, the Heart Devil uood what this meant—utter despair, the loss of all hope.

  "I should be thrilled seeing her like this…"

  She should’ve been. After all, her very purpose as a Heart Devil was to devour her terpart and take her pce. Her terpart's surreo despair recisely what she had been waiting for—an easy path to victory, to total trol.

  A, staring into this broken figure before her, a strange feeling stirred within her chest.

  It all began to go awry after that battle with the swarm, didn’t it? Ever sihen, things had grown increasingly peculiar. Especially after her terpart, suffering from amnesia, came to her… and apologized. Of all things, an apology! And to her, the very threat to her existence!

  The Heart Devil had accepted it too, which was even more absurd.

  At first, she had thought her terpart was mog her, treating her like a non-threateniy. But then, a strange warmth had filled her—almost as if an enemy bowing before her felt satisfying, yet somehow… different.

  “Tch! This is maddening!”

  The Heart Devil, a being born from nothing but darkness and spite, had never ed herself with positive emotions. From the moment she gained sentience, she fed only on her terpart’s ive emotions, striving to repce her. But now, this… What was this?

  She reached out and grabbed the face of her terpart, expressionless and still as a doll, with a sharp, resounding cp.

  "Still stunning, I’ll give you that. Not a surprise, seeing as you look exactly like me."

  If there were any visible differeweewo, it was in the expressions—or rather, the ck thereof. The Heart Devil’s face still bore various emotions, while the terpart’s was bnk, hollow, a mere shell.

  And of course, the terpart was missing her right arm, now nothing more than a limp, empty sleeve.

  With a glint in her eye, the Heart Devil began moulding her terpart’s face, pulling the cheeks into a forced smile, then twisting it into a grimace of sorrow, and finally an expression e.

  "Hmm… still doesn’t feel right."

  Though the girl's appearance was as beautiful as ever, even with the Heart Devil’s teasing, something was amiss. Her expression was too lifeless. The Heart Devil couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but it g her.

  "What’s happening outside, I wonder?"

  She shifted her gaze to her terpart’s field of vision, peering through the eyes they shared. As the sciousness lurking within, the Heart Devil could see what her terpart saw in the real world.

  A dark, malevolent energy was ing everything in sight, even causing space itself to fracture. Above them, a tiny light glimmered, steadily growing brighter.

  “That light… Ah, it’s the dragon, isn’t it?”

  The Heart Devil knew what was happening. She rivy to everything her terpart experienced, and in her ‘brilliant’ mind, she swiftly dised the dragon’s iion.

  "Why does this all feel so bloody familiar?!"

  The same despair. The same pleading for a respohe same loomih. Was she nothing more than a tool for her terpart’s growth?

  Annoyance fred within her, but there was little she could do. If the body died, both the terpart and the Heart Devil would perish. And she had no iion of letting that happen.

  “Damn it! Wake up, or we’re both going to die!”

  Frantically, the Heart Devil wracked her brain for a solution. Could she forcefully take trol of the body? No. Her terpart’s hatred now far surpassed the Heart Devil’s power. She couldn’t devour her terpart, nor wrestle trol away.

  Maybe she could iate with the dragon? No ce. With her terpart in this berserk state, the dragon would have no choice but to elimihe threat. And there was no guarahe Heart Devil could even reach the dragon in time.

  “Ugh… think, think!”

  Suddenly, a metaphorical lightbulb flickered above her head. She seized her terpart by the shoulders once more.

  "You want revenge? Fet it! You’re not even willing to grind their bones into dust. You’re just going to die here, while they live out their days in peace, praised and celebrated!"

  In that instant, a fsh of red pierced through the void, swiftly spreading, turning the bed spato a crimson sea.

  "Finally… awake, are we?"

  The Heart Devil smirked, remembering how she had used taunting words during their battle with the swarm. Her mockery had woken her terpart back then, pushing her into a.

  Even if it had ended… questionably for her.

  Now, both the scious and subscious were fully awake, though in a state of frenzy. But at least, it was a start.

  With all her strength, the Heart Devil braced against the wild storm of emotion, suppressing the fear bubbling up inside her.

  “Oi! You! Are you really giving up like this?!”

  “…”

  A pair of eyes, filled with endless despair and insanity, turoward her, aowledging her for the first time.

  “Urk!”

  Fear surged through the Heart Devil, pushierror to its peak. If she had a heart, it would surely be pounding so loudly that anyone could hear. But she was the Heart Devil, born from the darkest depths of her terpart's soul. She couldn’t let fear stop her.

  "No one ever said eight thousand years was enough of a timespan for things to stay the same! Time ges nothing on its own!"

  “…”

  "And don’t you remember? Just before you learned 'A Dragon Tongue', you said yourself—'how would I know if I didn’t try?' Did you fet that already?!"

  Time seemed to freeze. The chaos around them halted as if the storm had been suspended in mid-air.

  “Finally…”

  The Heart Devil let out a sigh of relief. Her tension gave way, and she colpsed, her body crumpling to the ground. Just before she lost sciousness, she felt something soft catch her fall.

  And then—nothing.