Ren’s answer to the demon’s temptation was already decided.

“……”

He firmly closed his mouth and plunged the dagger into the demon’s neck.

It was an action without any hesitation.

The demon’s pupils suddenly dilated, as if not expecting to be attacked.

Touching the pierced neck with his hand, the demon sneered as he looked at the blood wetting his palm.

“……Won’t you regret it? Honestly, you’re curious. Who this woman has in her heart.”

“……”

Ren once again struck at the demon without any reply.

This time, the demon slightly dodged, causing the attack to miss.

“I know you’re curious. It’s so obvious.”

It was an obsession to a strange degree.

Whether Ren was interested in Vivian’s heart or not, it would clearly have no meaning in this situation, but the demon was demanding an answer almost to the point of coercion.

Of course, it wasn’t that Ren had no interest.

She was a woman he had held in his heart for a long time.

With Vivian alone constituting his world, how could he not be curious about who she might love in her heart.

However, eliminating that demon was the priority right now.

Regardless of who Vivian liked, Ren cared more about her being alive and well.

Of course, a demon who had never experienced love couldn’t understand such emotions.

As Ren continued to ignore and attack, the demon made a strange misunderstanding.

“Ah. You don’t want to hear it from someone else’s mouth, is that it? But what can you do? Vivian won’t have a chance to speak with you again. Death is not far from her.”

When there was no reaction this time either, the demon pouted and shook his head.

“You don’t believe me? Hmm, it’s not an exaggeration.”

Seeming to think his words lacked persuasion, she added an explanation.

“Her mind is already half collapsed. Now if she voluntarily kills herself in her dream……”

The demon made a gesture of slitting his throat with his thumb and clicked his tongue.

“She’ll die just like that.”

After stating this in a definitive tone, the demon smiled brightly.

Ren ground his teeth and for the first time answered the demon. His voice was low like a beast, filled with killing intent.

“Well, if I kill you, things might change.”

“Hahaha! Me? You…… kill me?”

The demon laughed, clapping his hands as if dumbfounded, but that was when it happened.

The demon’s ankles and wings on both sides were suddenly devoured by shadows that appeared instantly.

The demon had no way of knowing that Ren had deliberately drawn her attention to himself through conversation for this strike.

“……Huh?”

When had the shadows gotten so close? As the demon looked up with a puzzled face, Ren immediately pierced the demon’s heart with his sword.

No matter how strong, a demon who had lost mobility was no match for him.

As he pulled out the sword, the demon’s skin tissue twitched, trying to fill the hole on its own.

An amazing regenerative ability. But he couldn’t let the wound heal like that.

Ren slashed and slashed at the demon’s body, attacking until it became like a rag.

The demon still babbled on about something, but Ren blocked his ears and focused only on the fight.

At some point, as the regeneration speed slowed, the shadow swallowed the torso in one gulp. Only the head, difficult to digest, remained alone on the ground.

“Killing me won’t do any good, hehe!”

The demon mocked Ren to the end, even as his head was separated from his body and his breath was fading, and then died.

Ren, having finished the fierce battle, breathed heavily as if tired.

Worried that the demon might revive, he split the head in half to confirm the kill, then immediately ran to Vivian.

He had hoped that the hallucination cast on her would be broken since the caster of the mental attack had died, but unfortunately his expectation was shattered.

Far from improving, her condition only worsened.

She just stared into space, scratching her whole body while muttering unintelligible words.

Ren picked Vivian up in his arms and ran straight for the portal.

He thought her hallucination might ease somewhat if they went to the human world where the concentration of demonic energy was relatively weaker.

However, his prediction was wrong this time as well.

Vivian’s condition was reaching its extreme. She was gasping for breath and crying as if in agony.

Her previously incomprehensible mumbling began to become clearer.

“……Ren, please. Ren……”

The moment he heard the pitiful voice calling his name, Ren felt as if the ground beneath his feet was falling away.

Vivian, the woman he so adored, was seeing hallucinations of his death.

Unable to bear his death, her soul was breaking. So much that she could barely breathe properly from the agony.

……At some point, he had become her weakness.

Vivian was trying to strangle herself as if to kill herself, then raised her nails to scratch her entire body.

Her strength grew stronger, and with each scratch, clear wounds appeared.

Ren tightly embraced her as she writhed in pain.

Vivian’s hands, which had been trying to harm herself, were blocked against his broad back.

Her nails, still raised sharply, strongly clawed at his back. The sharp touch tore at Ren’s flesh.

It must have been considerably painful, but Ren paid no mind and only held her more tightly.

He was embracing her with the force of covering her entire body with his presence.

“Lady Vivian, Lady Vivian…… Vivian!”

Ren, like a madman, just desperately called her name.

Please let his voice reach her. Let her escape this pain. He prayed countless times in his heart.

The demon had said that if Vivian chose death for herself in the fantasy, she would completely die in reality as well.

Please, may she not make such a choice deceived by the hallucination. Ren called her name again and again with a desperate wish.

The struggling as if trying to escape his embrace, the sharp nails digging into his skin.

Ren accepted all of her with his whole body and protected her.

Hoping that his feelings would reach her.

In the hallucination, Vivian blankly looked around.

Ah, once again, Ren was dying.

His head fell limply, unable to endure Siegfried’s abuse any longer.

When she had been enduring with the thought of wanting to live, it had been unbearably painful, but strangely, her body and mind felt at ease now that she thought she should die.

No, was it really at ease? Whether it was enlightenment or something else, she was enveloped in a sensation as if her insides had been completely emptied.

What was certain was that it was much better than before when she had been filled only with pain.

The moment she thought she should die, mysteriously, a dagger appeared before Vivian. It was as if a revelation had come down telling her to take action directly.

Despite its shabby appearance, she somehow found the dagger beautiful.

It was no wonder, as it was practically a savior that would end the hallucination that she had experienced who knows how many hundreds of times.

Vivian grasped the dagger without hesitation. The existence of a dagger that appeared right after she thought of giving up her life was clearly suspicious.

This is probably what that demon wants, for me to die like this. Even knowing this, the urge to stab herself only grew stronger.

Rather than seeing Ren suffer, she was more willing to die herself.

If her sacrifice could make the Ren in the fantasy suffer even a little less, she could die as many times as needed.

It was quite ironic. Only after going through this situation did she realize her heavy feelings for him.

‘If only I had known sooner.’

There was regret left.

If she chose death like this, she wouldn’t be able to convey her feelings to him.

So even with the dagger in her hand, she hesitated for a long time before stabbing herself.

She wanted to choose death because she couldn’t bear to see Ren suffering, but she also had lingering attachments to life because she wanted to convey her feelings to him.

Vivian, who always evaluated herself as a simple human, was surprised that she could have such complex emotions.

Of course, even that became meaningless now.

Staring blankly at Ren’s empty eyes like rotten fish, Vivian looked down at the dagger with a faint smile.

Finally, the desire to be at peace overcame what little lingering attachment remained.

“I’m sorry for making you suffer alone.”

She apologized incomprehensibly to others while looking at his limp corpse.

Now she wanted to sink into and drown in the same pain as him.

Just as she was about to stab her heart with the dagger, it happened.

“Vivi…… an!”

“……!”

It wasn’t clear, but for a moment Vivian thought she heard Ren’s voice.

Throughout the fantasy she had only heard agonized groans, but just now, though not certain, it seemed he was calling her name.

An auditory hallucination? Could it be an auditory hallucination?

Vivian swallowed and focused on the surrounding sounds, hoping to hear that voice again.

But Ren’s voice did not come again.

‘What on earth was that.’

Along with the question, she suddenly realized that the real-world Ren might be waiting for her.

In her eyes, which until just now had been filled only with thoughts of death, a faint vitality flickered for a moment.

‘No, don’t be fooled. Don’t be fooled.’

This too might be the demon’s ploy.

A wicked trick to plunge her into longer pain just when she had finally decided to find peace.

She aimed the dagger at her heart again according to her original plan, but ultimately stopped once more.

The thought that the real Ren, not the hallucination, might be desperately calling for her, nagged at her mind to the end.

To think she would become like this just from hearing a voice once that might be just an auditory hallucination.

Even while thinking her simple self was foolish, she abruptly stood up.

‘If I die…… Ren might feel the same pain I felt.’

Even if not to the extent she cherished him, Ren clearly valued her as well. But if she died like this, he too would fall into despair.

That was the last thing she wanted.

So Vivian decided to endure to the end.

Just then, the hallucination began again.

Siegfried was walking in with a lewd smile.

She had faced Belial’s madness as many times as Ren had died. The demon who was probably still enjoying this situation from afar.

At that moment, anger rose in Vivian’s heart, which had been resigned.

Holding the dagger, she recklessly rushed towards Belial.

But the moment she thought she had stabbed him, the world before her eyes began to crumble and fall apart.

When she finally came to her senses, for some reason Ren was before her eyes.