[You have been affected by the Manipulation of Reason — Origin: Lilith]

The notification flashed before his eyes, cold and bluish—a color that clashed with everything around him, like a fragment from another world.

It had been so long since he had last seen something like this that, for a second, he almost doubted his own vision.

The system.

That silent voice that guided him, that warned him, that had disappeared since the ruin of Azalith.

And now, there, in the heart of Hell, it returned.

Kael didn't react.

His eyes simply followed the floating letters until they dissipated into the thick, red air.

No pain afflicted him. No confusion.

Just… an unsettling clarity.

He slowly raised his gaze to Lilith.

Her eyes, previously a uniform red, now shimmered—not like embers, but like something alive. A pulsating, rhythmic glow that danced in shades between crimson and gold, almost human, almost hypnotic.

It was a look that invited and threatened, a look that seemed to say surrender.

Kael remained silent.

One, two seconds.

And then… he laughed.

It was a low laugh, without joy, without fear.

A hoarse laugh, laden with irony and weariness.

Lilith raised an eyebrow. "What exactly is so funny, mortal?"

Kael looked away to the ground, still laughing softly, the sound mixing with the distant echo of chains and screams from the underworld.

"How long has it been…" he murmured, almost to himself. "I thought that damned thing had abandoned me."

"That… thing?" Lilith crossed her arms, curious. "What are you talking about? Are you hearing voices?"

Kael looked up, and now there was something cold, almost disdainful on his face.

"Do you think you can manipulate something that's already broken, Lilith?" The Demon Queen smiled slightly. "Manipulate? I merely touch. The rest… the rest, mortal, is your choice."

She stepped closer, the heat around her intensifying like a blood-red sun. "And, apparently, something in you still responds to me."

Kael glanced at the ground for a moment. The seal that had brought him there—or what remained of it—still smoldered beneath the ashes.

The laughter ceased.

Silence returned, thick, almost suffocating.

Then he took a step back. "I've had enough."

Lilith blinked, surprised for an instant. "What did you say?"

Kael sheathed his sword, his movements slow, deliberate. "I said I'm leaving."

Lilith watched him, and something between disbelief and irritation crossed her face. "Do you believe you can simply leave Hell, mortal?"

Kael turned his back to her and when he looked forward… the Portal that had brought him there simply vanished.

"Damn it… you're kidding me." He said, looking at the spot…

Lilith let out a low laugh—not a laugh of mockery, but of pure satisfaction.

"Ah, Kael…" she said, her voice sounding like velvet scratching stone. "Here, nothing opens without my permission. Not even the way back."

Kael continued to stare at the emptiness where the portal should have been.

There was nothing—no stirred ashes, no trace of magical energy, not the slightest vestige of mana.

It was as if the portal had never existed.

The seal had been erased from reality.

He took a deep breath, the heavy air entering his lungs like smoke.

For a moment, he closed his eyes.

The system had not issued any new notification.

No error, no alert, no status message.

Nothing.

Silence.

When he opened his eyes again, Lilith was closer.

Very close. She moved as if the space between them wasn't real, as if the laws of the world—or whatever governed that hell—bent around her.

"Are you looking for a way out?" she asked, her voice soft, almost compassionate.

Kael didn't answer.

"Are you trying to escape from me?"

Still silence.

"Or are you trying to escape from yourself?"

That last question made him slowly turn his face.

Their eyes met—his glacial blue against her burning crimson.

Lilith smiled. "It's curious to see a mortal maintain such composure when trapped between fire and oblivion."

Kael gave a nervous half-smile. "Why don't you shut your mouth?" he questioned, still smiling.

Lilith froze for an instant.

Her expression—previously composed, elegant, and shrouded in mystery—shattered like cracking glass.

Her red eyes gleamed with something that was no longer charm, but fury.

But before the anger fully emerged, she tried to maintain her composure, still with that cold, venomous smile.

"Oh, so the little necromancer has decided to be brave, is that it?" — her voice became almost a whisper, but carried a latent threat, like the click of a blade about to move. — "Are you talking like this because you think your insolence makes you interesting?"

Kael didn't answer.

He simply ran a hand across his face, tiredly, as if she were a talkative child.

Lilith took a step closer, and the ash-covered ground trembled.

"Do you know where you are, mortal? Do you know who you're talking to?" — her tone now sounded lower, hoarser, with the kind of anger that grows slowly, simmering beneath the skin. — "One mistake, one more word, and I can erase your existence from here. Hell will only remember your scream."

Kael, however, only took a deep breath, unfazed.

"You talk too much."

Lilith blinked, surprised by the simplicity of the insult.

"What?"

Kael finally turned to face her directly.

That cold calm he carried now was different — it wasn't blind courage, it was pure boredom.

"I said you talk too much." — he gestured with his hand, as if waving away smoke. — "Since I got here, you haven't stopped trying to impress me. First the speech about Hell, then about power, about dominance, and now… passive-aggressive drama. Seriously, are you always like this or are you trying to compensate for something?"

The redness in Lilith's eyes glowed like embers fanned by the wind.

Her laugh, short and tense, came out between clenched teeth.

"You really don't know what you're doing, do you?"

Kael tilted his head, the smile slowly returning. "I know exactly what I'm doing." — He took a half-step towards her, his gaze fixed, provocative. — "I'm ignoring you."

Lilith clenched her jaw, the smile completely disappearing.

"How dare you—"

"Are you so unloved that you have to try so hard for a man to look at you?" — he interrupted, in a light, almost lazy tone, but loaded with venom.

The sentence fell like a sharp blade.

The air around them exploded.

The ground cracked in lines of crimson fire, and the air vibrated with pure demonic energy.

Lilith didn't move, but her presence expanded like an invisible tidal wave.

Ashes rose in swirling eddies around her, and her wings — previously translucent — became solid, black as molten obsidian.

"You…" — her voice trembled, not from weakness, but from pure contained hatred. — "dare to mock me in this place?"

Kael merely crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow.

"Mocking? No. I'm just being honest. You know, Lilith, if you used half that energy to talk less and think more, maybe someone would actually like you."

Flames rose like columns.

The heat became unbearable.

Lilith took a step — just one — and the air around Kael compressed, distorting the vision.

Her voice sounded in a thousand different tones, echoing from all sides.

"You challenge me… in my domain…"

Kael looked to the side, then back at her, feigning a yawn.

"Are you going to lecture me now or are you going to do something?"

Lilith disappeared.

In the blink of an eye, she appeared behind him — her hand on his throat, claws grazing against his skin.

Her touch burned, and the smell of sulfur and iron filled the air. "You have no idea what pain is, mortal," she whispered in his ear, the words slithering like snakes. "But I can teach you. I can make you beg to feel anything other than my touch."

Kael, instead of reacting, let out a short, muffled laugh.

"Funny… I've heard that before."

Lilith lifted him a few centimeters off the ground, tightening her grip.

The shadows writhed, and Hell seemed to respond to her fury—the floating mountains trembled, the rivers of lava rose in columns.

"You are bold, but you are stupid," she snarled. "No mortal insults me and lives to tell the tale."

Kael, even while suffocating, kept his gaze fixed on her.

There was something different in that gaze now—something colder, deeper, as if the abyss within him was staring back at her.

"And you," he said, in a thin voice, "are predictable."

Lilith blinked.

And before she could react, a shadow projected itself behind Kael—alive, distorted, vibrating with the same dark tone that surrounded the original seal.

Umbra.

Not all of it, but a fragment.

The specter slid around him like smoke, severing the Demon Queen's connection.

Lilith took a step back, surprised, her eyes wide.

"What—?"

Kael landed on his feet, breathless, and cleared his throat.

"You know what, Lilith?" he said, adjusting his collar as if nothing had happened. "I'm starting to understand why even Hell gets bored with you."

Her flames roared in response.

The heat turned into light, and her voice came out like thunder:

"YOU WILL REGRET THIS, MORTAL!"

Kael stared at her, unwavering, and a cold smile crossed his face.

"I doubt it."

And for the first time…

Lilith lost control.

The entire Hell seemed to breathe with her—and deep within the world, something awakened.