The path back to the outer battlefield was long… far longer than Mia or Alia had imagined.
Zero's unconscious body was heavy—not physically, but in presence. Even without Dragon Force, even without active mana, there was sothing deeply unsettling about carrying him… as if the world itself recognized the energy sleeping inside his veins.
And feared it.
Mia and Alia trudged through a valley of collapsed stone pillars and scorched ground, their footsteps echoing against the dying sounds of distant clashes between retreating devil remnants and the final coordinated pushes of human forces.
The air still carried the stench of Aamon's dark energy—bitter, tallic, suffocating.
But compared to the choking darkness inside the palace, this was ta.
Zero's breaths were shallow, almost imperceptible. His mana pulsed in uneven waves, each one threatening to burst and consu everything around them.
Mia tightened her hold and whispered, "Hang in there… you idiot."
Her voice trembled.
Alia, limping beside her, supported herself against a cracked tree trunk. "We're almost near the southern ridge. If we circle around, we can avoid the main battlefield and reach the arena quicker."
Mia gave a short nod.
But truthfully?
She was afraid.
Not of the devils. Not of the battlefield.
She was afraid of what would happen when the humans saw Zero.
Zero, the boy who could unleash a Unison Raid with the Emperor of Destruction.
Zero, the boy whose mana terrified devils.
Zero, who had destroyed the palace.
Zero, who stood at the heart of the explosion everyone was now cheering about, thinking Mia defeated the Devil King.
If they saw him like this, unconscious yet radiating unstable shadow…
"…they'll treat him like a threat," Mia whispered.
Alia's steps faltered.
Her voice was quiet. "I know."
The two won exchanged a long, tense look—both understanding too well how the military, the guilds, the nobles, and even the clergy would react.
Zero wasn't publicly known for any great power.
He was a Rank B on paper.
A nobody.
But the mana pouring off his body right now?
That wasn't the mana of a nobody.
"That's why…" Alia took a shaky breath. "Mia, we can't show him to them yet."
Mia clenched her jaw. "Then what do you want us to do? Hide him under rubble?"
"No."
Alia reached into her robe.
Her hands shook—partly from exhaustion, partly from fear—before she finally pulled out a small, ornate pendant. Silver, etched in sacred runes, shaped like a tear.
Mia blinked. "That's—"
"Yes." Alia nodded. "The Pocket Chalice Dinsion."
A relic of the Church.
One of the holiest artifacts in the human realm—rare, sacred, strictly forbidden for use outside survival scenarios.
And it was… a pocket dinsion.
A private world that could hold exactly one living being in a suspended state.
A safety guarantee given only to high-ranking saints.
Alia's voice softened.
"The Archbishop gave it to when I was ordained. A last-resort asure if I were ever taken hostage or if… sothing happened."
Mia stared at her.
"…You're seriously going to use it for Zero? You could get excommunicated."
Alia's eyes hardened.
"I'd rather face excommunication than let them treat him like a monster."
Silence.
Heavy.
Real.
Painfully honest.
Mia's grip on Zero tightened.
"…Good," she whispered. "Because I would've fought anyone who tried to take him away."
Alia managed a faint smile. "I figured."
The two won adjusted Zero's body carefully, laying him across their combined support as Alia lifted the pendant. The runes stirred, glowing faint gold, responding to her mana even in her weakened state.
"Let do it," Alia said softly. "You're barely holding together after suppressing his mana all this ti."
Mia hesitated… then reluctantly released her frost barrier.
Imdiately, Zero's mana surged outward—dark, cold, violent.
The ground beneath him crackled with black frost.
Alia nearly buckled from the pressure, but she forced the artifact open.
The pendant split apart like blooming petals, revealing a swirling, silvery gate no larger than a hand mirror.
Mia watched closely, ready to grab Zero back if anything went wrong.
The gate expanded—spiraling into a doorway of shimring white-blue light.
"Careful…" Alia whispered.
Zero's body slowly lifted, drifting into the light like a soul being carried by the wind. Shadows peeled off him, curling upward, then dissolving the mont they touched the divine surface of the pocket dinsion.
Mia stepped closer. "Is he stable inside?"
Alia listened, eyes half-closed.
"Yes. Inside the Chalice, ti flows differently. His body will remain suspended. His mana won't leak out." She swallowed. "But we have a problem."
"What problem?"
"I can't leave him there for too long. The artifact drains my mana to keep the dinsion active. And in my current state…"
Mia nodded grimly.
"So we have limited ti to get him sowhere safe."
Alia agreed.
"We need to return to our forces. Pretend we ca out last. Pretend nothing is wrong."
The pendant collapsed back into its small form, glowing faintly as it held Zero inside.
But the mont he disappeared…
Mia felt it.
A strange emptiness in the air.
As if sothing imasurable had just been removed from the world.
And for a brief second, it frightened her to think of how attached she had beco.
Mia exhaled, shook the thought off, and supported Alia's weight again.
"Co on," she muttered. "Let's get back before soone suspects sothing."
They walked.
Through the cracked forests.
Past scorched soil.
Around devil corpses that dissolved into wisps of dark mana.
The battlefield on the other side began to co into view.
Shouts.
Cries.
It was very confusing cause they should have been celebrating
Soldiers holding their weapons high.
Devil remnants retreating into the broken canyons.
And then—
"Mia Frostine!"
"The Ice Enchan defeated the Devil King!"
Mia winced at the noise.
Alia forced a smile as soldiers rushed to greet them.
Though the cheers were loud… their hearts were sowhere else entirely.
Hidden inside a small pendant resting against Alia's collarbone—
a world where Zero lay motionless.
Mia and Alia kept walking.
Kept smiling.
Kept pretending.
While inside the pendant…
a cold, dark, swirling void surrounded Zero's unconscious form.
Ti stood still.
His chest rose faintly.
Barely.
And sowhere deep inside—
His mana began to stir again.
The calm before the next storm.
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