Chapter 995: I Will not Pay The Debt I Do Not Owe
Chapter 995 – I Will not Pay The Debt I Do Not Owe
She rushed forward, healing light already blooming in both hands, but Sira caught her by the arm before she could break formation.
Ely struggled. "Let me go!"
Sira’s face was tight.
Not arrogant.
Solemn.
She shook her head once. "No."
Ely’s eyes widened, wounded and furious. "He’s—"
"I know."
Ely froze.
Gula was silent.
Lullaby stood still too, pillow-hammer lowered, sleepy eyes wide and wet.
Yue’s face had gone unreadable, but her spear hand trembled once.
Only once.
Lux’s body sagged.
The root pulled free from his abdomen with a wet, ugly sound as the surrounding vines recoiled against the shadow tendrils holding them back.
His knees gave out.
The first elf caught him.
Or maybe he fell into her arms because his body no longer understood pride.
For one impossible moment, the ancient first elf, newly torn from the tree, held the demon who had robbed her from her debt.
He looked bad.
So bad.
No.
He looked dying.
His battle form flickered. The glow dimmed around him. His blades slipped from his hands and hit the floor with a soft metallic ring.
The first elf’s arms tightened around him before she realized she had done it. "Lux..."
She said the name carefully.
As if testing whether it belonged to him.
"Right?"
Lux’s eyelids lowered. He gave the tiniest nod. "Yes..."
The word was weak.
Too weak.
The first elf looked down at him.
Her eyes, opened fully now, reflected the demon’s blood, the broken roots, the fading light of the shrine, and something inside herself she had not prepared for.
"I will..."
Her voice caught.
She did not like that.
She tried again.
"I will search for the truth."
Lux’s eyes barely opened.
The first elf’s face hardened, not in anger this time, but in resolve.
"I will not pay the debt I do not owe."
Lux’s mouth curved.
Soft.
Satisfied.
"I’m happy..."
His breath hitched.
"For you."
Then he flinched.
Hard.
A groan broke from him, raw and low, not the controlled sound of a man pretending pain was beneath him. Real pain. The kind that stripped elegance from the body and left only nerve, blood, and the awful honesty of survival.
His eyes closed.
The first elf went still.
Around them, the shrine seemed to dim.
She stared at his face.
At the demon who had argued with her. Mocked her prison. Torn out the fraud inside her oath. Taken the wound meant to erase her.
Her hand rose slowly to his cheek.
She did not know what one was supposed to say.
She had forgotten rituals for death that were not wrapped in ash.
So she said the only thing that came.
"Rest in peace, young demon."
Lux’s eyes opened. "What do you mean by rest in peace?"
The first elf froze.
Lux’s voice was still weak, but now offended. "I’m not dead. My Abyssal Grasp clearly still holds those vines or roots or whatever."
The first elf stared at him.
Slowly, very slowly, she turned her head.
And saw it.
Behind Lux’s half-curled wings, the shrine was still a warzone.
Abyssal shadow tendrils had erupted from the lower void around the chamber, thick black limbs spearing through roots, coiling around vines, crushing oath-thorn branches before they could reach the center. Some tendrils had pierced the floor. Others wrapped around the ceiling roots like monstrous serpents, dragging them back with brutal force.
[Abyssal Grasp Active]
[Shadow Tendrils: Sustained]
[Enemy Restraint: Partial]
[Terror Status: Ineffective Against Shrine Defense]
[Crushing Pressure: Active]
Lux had not been simply shielding her.
He had been holding back half the shrine while looking pitiful in her arms.
And the girls...
The first elf blinked.
The girls were fighting like absolute menaces.
Yue moved through the chaos, her spear returned to her grip, every thrust piercing joints where root connected to oath-script. She did not waste motion. She did not rage. She dismantled.
Sira, however, absolutely raged.
Her claws carved demonic arcs through the air, each slash tearing vines apart with elegant violence. She looked furious in a way that was almost beautiful, Pride glowing in every movement.
"Touch him again!" Sira snapped, shredding a root into ribbons. "I dare this overgrown furniture to touch him again!"
Gula had both hands on her fork-spear, teeth bared, using it less like a spear and more like a royal eating utensil designed by a war criminal. She hooked roots, tore them from the floor, and stomped on the writhing pieces with personal offense.
"I said I didn’t want to eat sad roots!" Gula shouted. "Stop making me consider it!"
Lullaby swung her pillow-hammer with sleepy brutality. Every impact slowed clusters of vines, making them sag just long enough for Sira or Yue to cut them apart.
"Too noisy," she mumbled, bonking a root so hard it folded into the floor.
Ely stood behind them with both hands raised, healing light pouring across the group in warm waves. Cuts closed. Bruises faded. Exhaustion softened. Her face was wet with tears, but her voice stayed steady as she supported them.
"Hold! I’ve got you!"
The first elf turned back to Lux.
Deadpan.
Absolutely, perfectly deadpan.
Lux coughed. Then winced. "Dark Healing..."
Demonic energy crawled over his wound, black and red and gold at the edges. It covered the hole in his abdomen, knitting flesh with infernal force. The wound looked better.
Better, not fully healed.
His regeneration took over after that, slow but sure. The bleeding lessened. His breathing steadied by a fraction. Color returned to his face, but only a little.
The first elf looked at the wound.
Then at the shadow tendrils.
Then at the girls destroying the shrine’s remaining defense with coordinated brutality.
Then at Lux again.
Her expression became flatter.
"You were not dying."
Lux gave her the most pitiful look a demon with blood on his mouth and Greed in his soul could manage. It was criminally effective.
"I was ’kind of’ dying."
"You closed your eyes."
"I was resting them. I’m tired."
Her lips parted.
No words came.