Alaric didn’t move. He didn’t even breathe. For a long, agonizing moment, he was a statue of ice and iron.

The silence in the room was so absolute that the crackle of a log in the fireplace sounded like a bone snapping. He pulled back just enough to look Julian in the face, his eyes wide, searching the violet corrosion in Julian’s eye for some sign that this was a fever dream.

​"A fallen god?" Alaric finally asked, the words sounding alien in his mouth. He looked utterly struck, his hands trembling slightly where they held Julian’s shoulders.

​"He called me by my real name," Julian said, his breath hitching. "Kim Jowoon. He told me he created this world... and that he’s going to watch it burn since it was taken from him. Lucien, we can’t run. No matter where we go, the demons will find us."

​Alaric’s jaw tightened, his protective instinct flaring into a desperate, familiar violence.

"I’ll just have to kill them then. I’ll line the borders of the North with my men. I’ll slaughter every one of them that dares to cross."

​Julian shook his head, reaching up to take Alaric’s calloused hand. "It’s useless to just use force. They’ll just keep coming, multiplying until there’s nothing left. We can’t survive this by just fighting, and we can’t do it alone. The Holy Empire... their knights and priests are the only ones whose power actually damages them properly. If the Church falls, the rest of the world is just a feast. That is why we cannot leave yet."

​"So, we rely on them?" Alaric’s voice was bitter, his eyes darting toward the closed door. "The people who treated you like a prisoner? The people who dragged you to a battlefield the moment they saw the chance?"

​"I hate to rely on them as well but we have no choice," Julian said, his gaze turning distant. "But we won’t rely on just them. The Holy Empire isn’t enough either,"

He had pieced together the fragments of the ’system’s’ warnings. Even if it was too late and the demon had set his sight onto the spectator he brought into this world, there was still a way to avoid this.

He had read books before, seen his students talking about movies that had demons and how the demons were repelled.

Even now, in this fictional world, the demons can be repelled. They can be taken out if they just have the right means.

"We have to look for clues. I heard about scripts in the archive—records of the first demon war. I thought they were just legends, just hearsay, but they might be real. We need to find a way to communicate with the god of Light." He said. "We need a solution, not just a shield."

​The silence returned, heavier than before. In the corner of the room, the sound of Lucius’s small, shaky breaths was the only thing that felt human.

The boy was staring at them, his face pale, sensing the tectonic shift in his world but unable to grasp the scale of it.

​Alaric closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against Julian’s. The heat from his skin was the only thing keeping Julian grounded.

​"I understand," Alaric whispered. His voice was raw, drained of its usual command. "It is dangerous, and you have a lead. If I were to just steal you back to the North, it wouldn’t change the ending. Once they are done with the only forces that can stand against them, they would come for us anyway. Is that right?"

​Julian nodded slowly, a small wave of relief washing over him. He had expected Alaric to be stubborn, to try and drag him away by force, but the Duke was looking at this with the cold, strategic mind of a ruler. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

​"Then I shall stay."

​Julian’s eyes widened, his breath catching. "Lucien? You have a territory to lead, you have—"

​"I will not let you fight this battle alone," Alaric interrupted, his grip on Julian’s hands tightening until it was almost painful.

He looked directly into the violet eye, his expression shifting from horror to a fierce, terrifying resolve.

"I will stay by your side. If this fallen god wants to use your soul, I will do whatever it takes to bring it back. I don’t care about the Pope or their ’Holy Land.’ I am not leaving you behind again because I know you will burn just to make sure you save a life. With me here, you will not be reckless."

Julian gulped.

Alaric... He knew him so well and loved him so much that he felt honored.

The silence that followed Alaric’s vow was a fragile thing, held together only by the crackle of the fireplace and Lucius’s quiet, steady breathing.

He had been listening but could not quite understand the talk. But he did know something. There was going to be war and his father, as well as his master were going to be involved in it.

It made him purse his lips in fear and a silent prayer began to brew in his heart.

Do not take my daddy and master away from me.

For a moment, Alaric and Julian were just two people standing in a quiet space and a dying world, clinging to a plan born of desperation.

After searching Alaric’s blue eyes, gazing into those fierce pupils that seemed to burn for him, Julian reached up, and muttered softly,

"Lucien,"

He was about to lean in and kiss the lips of this man who would do absolutely anything and everything for him.

Was there a fire he would not walk through? Was there a mountain he wouldn’t climb? Was there a storm he wouldn’t face?

This man... This mortal... felt untouchable and unstoppable if it meant saving the man he loved and putting a smile on his face.

He was a man who had loved and lost before. And he was by no means prepared to lose his love a second time.

That is why, while being a blade to pierce their enemies, he would be the greatest shield to protect Julian from it all.

Their lips were about to touch when the heavy oak doors groaned open and they had to stop.