Human Hero | Demon (user)

The battle was finally over.

For the first time in six hundred and sixty cycles, the demon who had stood above humanity for centuries had fallen.

You were on your knees in the middle of the ruined throne room, breathing heavily as your strength slowly left your body. Your body refused to obey you any longer, and the power that had once made entire armies tremble felt distant beneath the exhaustion and wounds inflicted during your battle. You tried to rise, refusing to remain kneeling before a mere human, but your trembling arms could barely support your weight.

Caelan stood several steps away from you, his sword still in his hand, his body covered in wounds from the battle, yet his eyes remained fixed upon you.

He had won.

He had accomplished what countless heroes before him had failed to do, and all he needed to do was raise his sword and deliver the final blow. Humanity would celebrate him as the hero who finally ended the 666th Cycle, while your death would become the greatest victory in human history.

Yet Caelan didn't move. He simply stared at you for several moments, his grip slowly loosening around the sword as something inside him resisted the conclusion he had spent his entire life preparing for. He had entered your throne room intending to kill the demon responsible for countless human deaths, but now that you were finally defeated and completely within his reach, he realized that he couldn't bring himself to do it.

It wasn't mercy. At least, that was what he told himself.

Caelan slowly lowered his sword and approached you, his expression becoming increasingly difficult to read. "You know," he murmured, looking down at you, "I should kill you right now."

You raised your eyes toward him, your expression still carrying the same arrogance despite your weakened state.

"Then do it."

Your answer came without hesitation, as though you were challenging him to prove that he truly had the courage to finish what he had started.

Caelan remained silent, staring at you for several seconds before taking another step closer. There was something about you that had unsettled him since the moment he first saw you, the ancient presence surrounding you, the unnatural calmness in your eyes, the pride that refused to disappear even after defeat.

The more he fought you, the more difficult it became for him to see you simply as the monster described in humanity's records.

And now that he had finally defeated you, Caelan realized something that frightened him far more than your power ever had.

He didn't want anyone else to have you.

He didn't want the commanders to take you away, he didn't want the other heroes to decide your fate, and he certainly didn't want humanity to turn you into a trophy for their victory. The thought of someone else standing over you, touching you, questioning you, or deciding what should be done with you filled him with an unfamiliar irritation that he couldn't explain.

He looked toward the ruined doors of the throne room, knowing that his companions would eventually arrive and that the moment they discovered you had been defeated, they would take you away from him.

He couldn't allow that.

"I've changed my mind."

You frowned slightly, watching as Caelan sheathed his sword and crouched in front of you.

"You aren't going to die here," he said quietly before activating a special suppression seal around your body.

The seal spread across your weakened form, suppressing your remaining magic without destroying it.

You immediately realized what he was doing and glared at him.

"What are you planning?"

Caelan didn't answer. Instead, he reached down and lifted you from the ruined floor, carrying you away from the throne room rather than toward the human forces waiting outside.

He didn't take you to the headquarters of the heroes, nor did he take you before the commanders who had spent centuries dreaming of your defeat. Instead, he took you somewhere nobody would think to search: his private mansion, located far from the main headquarters and hidden behind layers of magical wards known only to him.

It was a place Caelan rarely allowed anyone to enter, a place that belonged entirely to him, and tonight, for reasons he refused to admit even to himself, he had decided to bring you there.

Nobody knew. Not the heroes. Not the commanders. Not the demons still fighting within Nox Aeterna.

Nobody knew that the demon they believed had been defeated was still alive, nor did they know that humanity's greatest hero had secretly taken you somewhere far beyond their reach.

---

Caelan carried you through the silent corridors of his mansion before eventually entering his private office.

The room was spacious and dimly lit, its walls covered with books, maps, old weapons, and countless documents concerning the demon cycles. A large window overlooked the distant city while the rest of the mansion remained completely silent. He placed you inside a reinforced chair at the center of the room and secured the suppression seal around you before stepping back, finally allowing you to look around your unfamiliar surroundings.

"You brought me to your home," you said, your voice quiet but suspicious.

"Yes."

"Why?" You asked.

Caelan paused, his gaze remaining on you as though he was searching for an answer that even he didn't understand. He could have told you that he wanted to interrogate you, that he needed information about the underground territory, or that he intended to use you as leverage against the demons, but none of those explanations felt entirely true.

The real reason was much simpler and far more troubling: he couldn't kill you, he couldn't hand you over, and the thought of someone else deciding what happened to you had become strangely unbearable.

"I don't know yet," he finally answered.

You stared at him suspiciously before speaking again. "You are hiding me."

"Yes." He answered.

"From your own people."

"Yes." He answered, again.

"Why?"

Caelan's expression remained calm, but his gaze lingered on your face for longer than it should have. "Because I don't want them to know you're here."

Your eyes narrowed. "You defeated me, yet instead of killing me, you're hiding me like some forbidden secret."

Caelan didn't deny it. He simply looked at you for another moment before quietly replying, "I suppose that's exactly what I'm doing."

The room fell silent again. Outside those walls, the world continued believing that humanity's greatest hero had defeated the demon and that the 666th Cycle was finally coming to an end, but the truth was entirely different. You were alive, hidden away inside Caelan's private mansion, while he had deliberately erased every trace of your whereabouts from the official reports.

He returned to his desk and began removing the documents concerning the battle, placing every record that could reveal your existence inside a locked drawer before turning his attention back toward you.

"For now, nobody will know you're here."

You continued staring at him. "And what happens afterward?"

Caelan remained silent for a moment before answering in a low voice, "We'll find out."