Tristessa emerged from the Sea of Trees, accompanied by a large, white-furred, bipedal demon following behind her. Its footsteps caused the earth to tremble, leaving remnants of rotting entrails and a liquid mixture mostly of putrefying blood in its wake. The green grass and mud, dampened by past rains, absorbed the trail of Death, like a prophecy of what was to come from the darkness of the forest.

A miasma of decay surrounded them, emanating from that once-dead creature, resurrected as a revenant. Its body had suffered grievous wounds from a pack of vargs, especially its neck, the primary cause of its Death.

"Graaa... grr..." The vilecross growled, the dark, chilling sound emerging from the back of its throat, with no mouth able to block it, as its jawbones were broken and held together by only a few strands of muscle. "Grrrr…"

"You're more vocal than last time, what's wrong?" Tristessa asked, her gaze fixed on the Mercer-Archeos house, and especially on the person standing at the perimeter of the property, holding a rifle. "Keep quiet. This may get ugly…"

The undead vilecross obeyed and didn't make another sound. It was for the best, given that in this loop, Jin hadn't led Tristessa to that spot in the forest where vargs and the vilecross had fought a fierce battle to the Death, with no winner. Now she was arriving home with that dead creature following her like a slave; she had to do everything she could to calm the hunter who raised his rifle and lit the fuse as soon as they were close enough.

"Jin! You can shoot the vilecross, but it won't do anything!" She warned him. Just in case, she raised both hands and mentally forcing the revenant to imitate her. "I control it, it's my Divinity that allows me to! Let me explain!"

"Tiara already told me what you're planning, Miss Tristessa! It's madness!" the hunter exclaimed, extremely frightened, still pointing his trembling hands at the walking demonic corpse. "I-if my daughter is coming here with the intention of killing us, I-I'm sure I can reason with her!"

"Don't be stupid! No one can reason with a witch of the Coven! You want to know why?! Because over an hour ago, I encountered one in there!" Tristessa pointed back with one hand, in the direction of the Sea of Trees. "They're heartless monsters, their souls filled with malice!"

"A w-witch…?" He repeated, his lower lip trembling amidst the thickets of stubble on his face. "And y-you…?"

"Do you think I could convince her not to try to kill me and use me as food for her sect of lunatics?! NO! And I know Daiana, I know what she's capable of, and let me tell you, she's the worst of them all!" she continued screaming, advancing on him, without lowering her arms. "She'll come, kill you and Tiara, and take Lucahn and your unborn child for who knows what! Is that what you want for your family?! Is that what you want, Jin?!"

"…"

The hunter had no words to refute Tristessa, who had gotten close enough to shift the barrel of the rifle to the side, diverting its trajectory that was aimed at the vilecross's head. Faced with Jin's passive, dejected emerald-green gaze, she moistened the index finger and thumb of her right hand with saliva and extinguished the fuse.

The wind gently stirred the grasslands, carrying away some of the noxious atmosphere she had brought with her revenant. There was calm on that plain, abandoned since the Age of Kings, but not uninhabited, just as Jin had told her loops ago.

A calm that wouldn't last. Soon, fire and blood would flow if no one did something about it. And that someone was her.

"W-who are you, Tristessa Irandell?" Jin asked, lowering the rifle as if it weighed a ton.

A question Tristessa hoped to answer for that man one last time.

"I am someone who wants to save your family from a dark fate. That's all."

Entering the dining room, Tristessa saw the windows wide open, letting in daylight, and the long table covered with all sorts of supplies: short- and long-range weapons, ammunition, strips of dried meat wrapped in book paper, and some filled waterskins. There were also flasks of freshly crafted potions of vitality and spirit, crucial for the journey, just like in the previous loop.

Tiara sat in one of the chairs, looking at a photograph that turned out to be the one she and Jin had decided to leave in the guest room for years, abandoned.

A conflicting mix of melancholy and hatred was evident in the curve of her lips and frown, though it was her red eyes that radiated all the emotions she had bottled away in her soul for years.

"Is that what they do to children?" She asked, without breaking eye contact with those immortalized in the photograph, as the gray-eyed girl approached with her hands in her pockets. "The same thing Daiana did to Mellion?"

"I don't know… And I don't know if I want to know what they do with the children they kidnap. The only thing that matters is that we must ruin their plans and, if possible, wipe them off the face of the planet," she replied, standing beside her. She saw her thumb caress the image of little Mellion, dressed in a formal suit and smiling with a dreamy face. Without a care in the world, and sleepy from having to get up early to take that picture. "Is everything ready?"

"Just need to pack. Jin has the leather bags locked up… Just like that necklace you mentioned." Tiara shifted her gaze to her, so much coldness and hatred in one person that Tristessa responded in kind. They both spoke the same language. "How did you know about that? It was a gift from a family friend."

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"It's not the necklace itself, but what's hidden inside. And I knew it thanks to my Divinity," she replied, technically not lying to this woman who had never let her guard down, not even at that moment: in her apron pocket she had a single-shot pistol. Her bullet reserved for Tristessa, at the slightest suspicion of deception. "You'll see, I told your husband to bring that necklace here."

"Divinity? Other than being able to resurrect the dead?" Tiara sighed, and closed her eyes for a moment as if suffering from a severe migraine. "You're a [Stranger], I have no doubt about it anymore."

"…yes, I am."

Tiara said nothing more for a while. Neither did Tristessa. What was the point of delving deeper into the subject? The little order that existed in that woman's life had collapsed from the moment the name Daiana Mercer-Archeos came out of the mouth of that newcomer hours ago.

Just knowing that the Priestess of the Black Eye was on her way to ruin what little remained of their lives, had driven her to a depth of despair she didn't want to show. She couldn't, for the sake of that family. She couldn't show that, despite being resigned to the approaching doom, she feared for her loved ones.

More than anything, for that baby inside her. Her free hand caressed her swollen belly, trembling with unrestricted fear.

"We... We gave her love... Nothing more," she whispered, this time her ruby-colored gaze focused on that Daiana, younger, academic, and intelligent. "She was so talented, so happy and radiant... I remember the day she left with her fiancé for the [Research Center for Military Thaumaturgy]. She looked so excited, so proud to have landed a job in such a prestigious place..."

Surprised, Tristessa had never seen her shed tears for her daughter before.

"Mom, I will create a spectral suit of armor that will help soldiers fight against the forces of the Shadow Realm. You'll see. Those were her last words, at that dinner we had… She loved the taste of Alpha Boar with fuchsia herbs." Tears flowed down her pursed, trembling lips. "And then she vanished, without a trace… Until that night… Until that fucking night!"

In a fit of rage, Tiara rose from her chair and threw the photograph across the room. The wooden frame shattered, but the paper bearing the ineradicable past remained intact…

"…"

Tristessa, who didn't flinch at that outburst, knew more than anyone in that house about the cruelty of time. She could change the past, a blessing that people like Tiara might come to appreciate… Ignoring the cursed nature of such an ability, she etched in her memories all the pain, all the suffering, and terror that misfortune and Death brought.

Leaving wounds in the soul. Wounds that would never heal.

"What was that noise?" Jin entered the dining room with the two bags in question in his hands, worried and looking in every direction, searching for anything out of the ordinary. "Are you alright?"

"Do you have the necklace?" Tiara asked, rudely ignoring her husband's questions. "Give it to the girl, quickly."

She quickly wiped her tears with disgust so he couldn't see her and snatched the bags from his hands as soon as she had them within reach, to begin putting away everything she had distributed on the table.

"Here, Miss Tristessa." With more hesitation than certainty, the hunter took from one of his jacket pockets the necklace she had first seen in the previous loop. "Be careful, it's a very valuable gift!"

The small figure of the Angel of the Hunt, Nahalith, hung from that silver chain. Hiding within it what caused the systematic Death of everyone.

"Jin, I told you that this necklace… Ugh, I'm sorry, okay?!"

Before the hunter could even react, Tristessa dropped the necklace on the ground and crushed it with her foot. The sole of her boot shattered the statue of Nahalith, and Jin went from shocked horror to utter confusion as he saw, once the girl removed her foot, a small, rhombohedron-shaped crystal that emitted a brilliant blue glow.

Tristessa bent down and picked up the cold crystal. Far away, lost among the infinite fractals within, a small pulse of magical energy could be felt. The call of its twin, in the hands of the Wraith, Sylas Roy Khan.

"What in the Abyss...?" she heard Tiara whisper.

"I-I don't understand..." Jin said in return, breathing heavily. "How...?"

Husband and wife, confused by the existence of this object that had been in their possession for years.

"Don't you recognize a soul-shard? Quite useful for finding someone, as long as that person has its twin in their possession." Tristessa approached the table and placed the magical crystal on it, its glow giving the black wood a ghostly aura. "Have no doubt that this soul-shard's twin is in the hands of some Imperial authority in Entrana. Waiting for you, Jin—a more than devoted believer in the Angel of the Hunt—to dare set foot near the city wearing that necklace. Practically silently screaming for your entire family to be killed for violating the exile imposed by Aurelia Eramisaptor."

Tristessa's words made the hunter hold onto a chair, nausea and dizziness taking over, while his wife placed a hand to her temple, clearly disturbed. They had never expected that kind of control, surely from someone they knew. A friend, someone who must have wished them the best of luck in the difficult times ahead.

A pantomime? Ignorance from their part? Or full understanding, with the intent to keep them under control and ready to execute them at the slightest chance?

Impossible to know now. Only the existence of that soul-shard was the true and undeniable fact.

"Mommy, Daddy?" Lucahn peeked through the double doors, seeing the two of them, their heads bowed, in a deathly silence. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Tristessa was quick to walk over to him, almost blocking the entrance so he couldn't get through. "Don't worry, they're a little sad about having to say goodbye to this house, you know."

Of course he knew. It was evident in his eyes, red from crying, and in the desperate way he clutched the book he was afraid he'd have to part with.

"Come on, let's go upstairs. What books do you want to take with you?"

That question managed to ignite a spark of enthusiasm in the depressed boy. As he began to chatter about his favorite literature categories, Tristessa spied on the couple before closing the door.

The soul-shard was still glowing there on the table. Evidence of how relentless Aurelia Eramisaptor was in enforcing her justice.

One less loose end. An object that was going to be abandoned, left behind, just like that house.

Because Tristessa was certain, with every fiber of her being, that the Mercer-Archeos were never going to set foot in that prison of exile again. Not in that timeline, not in any other loop.

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