My stepsisters are sexy demons, and I must protect them

Shin's devastating burst of energy tears open a gap for Hakuto. He plummets straight down above Cassian, flame sword raised high, blazing against the darkness swallowing everything.

The Avatar of the Primordial Shadow lifts his gaze. He stretches his arm upward, aiming straight at Hakuto.

«My patience is at its limit, insolent little brat!» Cassian growls. A pulsing globe of pure dark energy swells around his hand. «No one will save you from this now!»

A massive beam of abyss-black energy erupts, streaking straight toward Hakuto.

But before he can react… —SLAM!

Something slams into Hakuto's shoulder, knocking him out of the path of Cassian's dark spell.

Someone—or something—that stuns Hakuto for a moment.

It is a massive being clad head to toe in heavy plate armor, like a medieval knight. From its back spread wide wings of razor-edged feathers, like a raptor's.

But that isn't what puzzles Hakuto. The being's body is semi-transparent and pale white. Inside, streams of green fire run through it like a branching system of veins.

Velshekar…?! No doubt—he's still alive. If someone had told me yesterday I'd feel relief knowing Velshekar was alive and well, I wouldn't have believed it. And yet, here I am. He must have summoned that thing from the Realm of Forgotten Souls just before Cassian struck him down, then bound his spirit inside it. No question—that thing is damn hard to kill.

To shove Hakuto out of the beam's path, Velshekar slammed his shoulder into him midair. Now Velshekar himself stands in the beam's path.

The dark beam slams into him, but Velshekar holds. There is no trace of magical energy in his body—he is just a spirit given form. So even the devastating Shadow Magic, though still destructive, proves less effective.

«Thank you,» Hakuto mutters, his voice distant, as if the words were dragged out of him by force. Deep down he feels grateful to Velshekar, but he has no intention of letting it show—least of all to him.

«You've got nothing to thank me for! Don't think for a second I'm giving up on claiming the two hybrids just because we're fighting side by side. The moment this is over, it'll be your turn to die! You told Clarissa you'd avenge me, so quit wasting time and move!»

Hakuto nods. He's closing in on Cassian. Almost there.

The white flame sword blazes hotter and brighter than ever, a light nearly blinding.

«CASSIAN!» Hakuto roars with every breath in his lungs. «YOU HURT MY FATHER, MY FRIENDS, AND MADE MY SISTERS SUFFER! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!» He clenches the hilt of the blazing sword with all his strength.

Every muscle fiber strains. Blood gushes from his shoulder and calf wounds, burning with pain until his vision blurs. He teeters on the edge of losing consciousness.

His grip slips for a moment. He's at his limit. He can't hold on any longer.

Yuzu… Rika…

The image of his beloved sisters, smiling just as they did the last time he saw them, flickers before his eyes like a veil between him and reality.

No… those smiles… I'LL PROTECT THEM AT ANY COST!

Hakuto snaps back—his fingers clamp down on the hilt, seizing it once more. The flame sword erupts with renewed energy. Hotter. Brighter. Fiercer. More and more.

«THIS IS FOR EVERYONE YOU MADE SUFFER, YOU DAMN PIECE OF SHIT!»

The flame sword rises high, ready to crash down with all its boundless power… but the Dark Avatar's defenses have not yet fallen.

A dark tentacle, thicker and sharper than the rest, bursts from his chest—lashing straight at Hakuto, now only a breath away.

But… —SLASH!

Something slices the massive jagged appendage clean in two. A blood-red rapier, hurled from afar with desperate strength.

Hakuto doesn't even glance toward where the blade came from—he has no time. And even if he did, he wouldn't need it to know who to thank.

«Itsu…» he murmurs, a faint smile tugging at his lips, eyes brimming with tears—tears of pain, rage, and despair.

Now nothing stands between Cassian and the gigantic blade of white fire blazing just inches away.

That blinding light flares so fiercely it even illuminates the face of the Avatar of the Primordial Shadow, his features visible for only an instant.

It is the face of a young man barely past twenty, with the same hooked nose and jutting chin as Cassian. It is as if he were Cassian's younger self, as if absorbing the power of shadows had dragged him back to his prime.

But it is his eyes that make Hakuto falter. No trace of the malice or cruelty that marked Cassian in his human form remains. They are the eyes of someone terrified yet desperate, heavy with sorrow. And for a heartbeat, Hakuto thinks the Sacred Flame reflected something on Cassian's face—something that looked like tears.

«Lady Lilvyra… you promised no one would ever hurt me again… you promised…»

Those are the last whispered words Hakuto barely catches, before…

—SLASH!

The enormous flame sword crashes down with terrifying force. It drives through the skull of the Avatar of the Primordial Shadow and splits him clean in two. A violent explosion of light and darkness erupts at the point of impact.

Hakuto and the others are hurled back by the shockwave's overwhelming force, bouncing again and again across the ground like flat stones skipped over water.

At the explosion's epicenter yawns a massive crater, bodies scattered around it like dry autumn leaves. Blood coats their exhausted, battered forms, riddled with deep wounds that refuse to stop bleeding.

Hakuto tries to rise, but it's useless. He doesn't even have the strength to lift his arm, muscles shredded from pushing beyond all limits. Shin and Chantal are in the same tragic state—she's worse, already unconscious for some time.

Itsu too lies unconscious in a pool of blood, a spiral of fuchsia fire swirling around him—a defense triggered automatically by the Eye of the Fallen-One, shielding the body even when its bearer is unconscious.

Clarissa, by contrast, has fared the best. Her magic is nearly gone—the only wounds she carries are from her fight with Chantal before Cassian appeared. She drags herself with effort, struggling to tend to the wounded.

With Velshekar's financial support, she studied and graduated with good marks from Astralea's magic academy in the kingdom of Lumindor, on N'Raeth. There she learned the basics of Healing Magic—a branch of magic that, unlike Elemental Invocations or other restricted arts, can be used by anyone with magical energy.

With everyone's wounds so severe and Clarissa's magic nearly spent, there's little she can do—barely enough to keep them alive.

Meanwhile, Velshekar sits on a large boulder, watching the scene. His semi-transparent white body, shot through with streams of emerald fire, is cracked all over—like a glass sculpture ready to shatter at the slightest touch.

«Killing them now would be far too easy,» Velshekar murmurs. «But in the end they achieved the impossible—defeating one of that cult of fools' twelve high priests. I knew Cassian was terrifyingly strong, and looking back, after seeing his full power, I was a fool to think I could beat him. Even turning every human in this world into a vampire wouldn't have been enough. Leaving them alive might be a fitting reward for sparing me the trouble.»

«Don't you dare kill them after all the effort I'm putting into keeping them alive,» Clarissa mutters in sharp reproach. «So you've given up on turning our allies from the world's most powerful criminal groups into vampires? There are still plenty of bodies in storage you could take to carry on that plan.»

«Yes, but…» Velshekar lifts his eyes to the sky. «…I'm tired, Clarissa. I'm almost six hundred years old—three hundred of those spent drifting as a spirit, jumping from body to body. And this past year has been more stressful than all the others combined. I've switched bodies five times—far too many for a single year—and my spirit has paid the price. I think I'll head back to New York and get back to my business. Dealing with crime bosses there is a lot less exhausting—and far more entertaining—than fighting Monster Reapers or the Cult of the Primordial Shadow. By the way, did you warn her?»

«I'm glad you finally decided to focus on what we do best—seizing control not with brute force, but with money and influence,» Clarissa replies with a hint of relief. «Yes, she should be here any moment.»

Clarissa doesn't get to finish her sentence before the hiss of massive wings tears through the eerie stillness that had settled after the explosion.