[Part 19]

Daniel’s P.O.V

I pretty much didn’t expect Damon to get all weepy for me, but I guess my surprise visit was a real shocker to him. There was no questioning who had gotten the worst end of the stick when I died (ignoring the fact that my beautiful girlfriend was swallowed up by her ugly, evil demonic side), so I couldn’t blame Damon for getting the sissy tears in his eyes.

Still, I had him to thank for helping my girlfriend win the fight against her demonic side. Kalina’s soul was human right down to the core, but Mundus had all but suppressed that human with the seven sins of demonic power, transforming Kalina into a demon. While in my world, Kalina’s soul had fallen in love with me. Kalina’s demon was only out to kill me.

So when the demon killed me and was dragged into DMC to face down Damon, my brother had somehow helped my girlfriend’s soul win the fight.

Strange things always happened to my family; so go figure.

“Daniel,” Kalina whispered softly in my ear, mostly because she was blasted with Mundus’s power and was doing her best to keep conscious. I had intercepted her before she hit the earth, but the force had been pretty great when the both of us flew through the air. Still, my darling girlfriend had gotten the short end of the stick, and was doing pretty well holding up, considering she was just blasted with Mundus’s power not long ago. “Don’t you think you should be helping them?”

By ‘them’, she meant my brothers, who had become fast disappearing figures in the messy fight against Mundus, who didn’t seem to have much problem deflecting them. Sparda had been easily subdued once the ladies had joined in the fight, and they had the demon knocked out unconscious now, so at least things had died down temporarily. Still, Vergil and Dante weren’t in their top form.

And we weren’t even talking about Damon’s condition.

Considering the blast from Mundus’s power I’d seen him take in the sky, I was pretty surprised that he could even stand up. Then again, it was Damon Kries, my twin brother. Apparently he took the quote ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ to another level.

“Nah, they seem to be doing well on their own.” I yawned playfully, earning light smacks on my back from my sister and Kalina at the same time. It was hard to believe that they were once fighting on different ends of the war when they did everything so similar now –especially when it came to taking me into hand.

“You’ve been slacking off the past few months, Daniel! Don’t you think you should be doing something to make it all up?” Marcy pouted in a cute frown, and I shuddered to think how many times that look ever got Vergil in her pants. I entertained the embarrassing thought for a fleeting moment, then wiped the image from my mind, disgusted at myself. Yeesh, talk about a fast (dirty) mind.

“Watching the show seems like a good idea.” I grinned, tracking the projectile path as Dante was kicked in the stomach by Mundus, crashing to the floor with a curse. Lady winced, but none of the ladies dared to intervene.

“Oy!” Dante yelled, jumping up and dusting himself off as he spied me with the ladies. “Don’t be a sissy and come in, you son of a bitch!”

“Not if you bow to me.” I replied, a challenging grin hanging easy on my face.

“If Mundus weren’t a bigger bastard, I’d have punched your face in right now!” Dante shook his fists towards me, but the effect was lost when Vergil crashed into him, sending them both sliding along the destroyed earth. In an instant, Vergil was up and running back into the battlefield, leaving his brother cursing and me laughing, hugging my stomach painfully.

This time, Lady joined in the smacking fest, and I began to feel a little sore on my shoulder where all three ladies had hit me. Kalina, though weak, summoned enough strength to budge me and push me stumbling forward –though very reluctantly.

“Go, Daniel. Finish it for me, for us.”                                 

I sighed. When my girlfriend spoke, there was no way to say no at all.

“Promise me you won’t go all demon on me again. I died once; I don’t want to turn around and find another slice along my throat.” I turned around and enveloped my weak, but resilient woman in a large bear hug. Darling Kalina choked a little, but I took the tears as tears of love as I jumped down the crater to the middle of the fight.

Dante charged after me, obviously not wanting to be labelled a chicken, and soon, it was Mundus against all four of us. If Mundus dealt with below-form version of Vergil, Dante and Damon with ease, he definitely found it harder with me around. I considered myself being made a handicapped, considering I’d charged into the fight without a sword, but the odds didn’t seem to be that skewed considering I scored a few punches on the son of a bitch who ordered for me to be killed.

Understandably, the Demon King began to be pushed backtracking with the fierce force of all four of us brothers, and he got more and more desperate with the counters and blocks he put up. While he had been dealing with Damon, and toying with my brother previously, he was the one in danger now –especially with me in the mix.

I will say, I was proud to be the only person left powerful and strong against Mundus, considering Damon had already gotten a beating from Mundus, and Vergil and Dante were exhausted from fighting their father. My late arrival was actually working in our favor –though I had a general idea that Damon and Vergil would be giving me lectures about leaving them alone in the lurch in the near future.

As if sensing Damon to be one of the weakness of the bunch, Mundus tried to focus his attacks on my brother, but Dante and Vergil were always there, blocking the blows in my brother’s stead –totally stealing my job (not that it really bothered me). Something must have happened between the three of them while I wasn’t around, and no one was free enough to update me on the current relationship. What if they’d suddenly agreed to be gay and get a room?

To someone like Damon or Vergil, it would be ridiculous to be entertaining such thoughts while dealing with Mundus on a life-or-death fight, but I wasn’t Dante’s doppelganger for nothing. Blessed with the powers of the seven princes of hell, and Sparda’s power, I was as powerful as Damon was. But I wasn’t Damon; I am Daniel Kries.

A man dead and revived. Like I said: strange things always happened to my family. Go figure.

Mundus swung an especially heavy blow to Vergil, sending the man flying away from the immediate battlefield, and tried to lunge for Damon, blasting his powers in Dante’s direction and sending the other son of Sparda flying away. My brother braced himself, but it was obvious that he was weak from dealing with Mundus alone previously.

It was my time to play hero.

In a flash, I stood before Damon and put both palms up. Damon’s cry tore from his throat –probably at the fear of seeing me ever die again –but I wasn’t planning on such a course of actions. I still had Kalina to spend my life with the rest of my days; how could I die here in this stinking hellhole? Besides, I hadn’t heard Damien thank me for saving them from demons yet. When Damien, Wynter, Lady and Marcy had all been unconscious from the demons, who was the one who had stepped in to chase them all away? Who was the one who had made Kalina the demon die away; leaving my beautiful girlfriend?

Mundus let out a demonic roar, but I had other plans rather than letting myself be sliced innocently into two. I should be afraid, but at the moment, I felt ridiculously invincible as I sandwiched Mundus’s descending sword between my palms, feeling the sting on my hands as the sword cut flesh. But still I held on, and the sword stopped in mid-air.

“Daniel!” Damon gasped at the blood dripping from my palms, but I shrugged it off. Instead, I grinned at Mundus, who looked on with extreme shock while someone who was supposed to be dead let loose a torrent of demonic power. Mr. Demon King definitely didn’t expect the potency of my power, as he stumbled backwards, hands loosing grip on the hilt of his sword.

“What sorcery is this? How are you alive and controlling the power of the seven sins?” Mundus demanded, eyes wide. Ho, this must be the first time Mr. Demon King was entirely lost on something happening. Wasn’t he supposed to be all-knowing? He’d definitely made himself out to be like that, but he didn’t even know how a normal person like me came back to life?

“Shame on you, Mundus. For a demon king, you’re awfully dense about some things.” I dropped his sword, wiping the blood on my leg pants while my wounds healed almost instantly. Behind me, Damon staggered forwards but I kept him a safe distance away. Dante and Vergil silently took their places beside me too.

“Nonsense! I know everything!” Mundus declared, but it kind of did not justify the questions he asked only moments before.

“Yeah, you totally knew everyone you control will eventually turn on you, dumbass. But if you’re really dying to know, Damon brought me back. The difference between the kind of Demon King he and you will make, Mundus, is that he has a heart. He is a demon with a heart, and when demons and devils alike cry for their loved ones, miracles happen.”

“What do you mean by that?” My brother demanded from behind me, the confusion raging. But beneath the confusion was love, and brimming in those blue eyes were tears. Tears that he had shed at my death. Tears that had brought me back to life.

“You resurrected me and turned me into a half-demon, Damon.” I replied in the same voice he always used on me whenever I asked a stupid question, grinning. “When you, a demon, cried for your loved one, your tears gave me life. My soul was saved, but instead of becoming human, I was turned into a half-demon with your powers, because it was your tears that saved me. A miracle happened. You made the miracle happen.”

“He did… what?” Dante asked, face turning disgusted as if it was the worst day of his life to ever find me alive. Well, that was too bad, because I kind of looked forward to having an entire life without his annoying face in my life. Vergil and Damon; I could tolerate. But Dante? Maybe it would have been better if I just stayed dead.

“Nothing that you can ever hope to do, so don’t bother.” I snapped back, watching the familiar offended face strike. Vergil offered nothing, but Damon’s eyes spilled with tears, blue eyes watching only me. There was no asking how badly he had suffered at my death, and I could only regret the days I could do nothing except silently watch over them, staying away and protecting them in my own way.

Our touching reunion would have been so much better if not for the stupid Demon King’s maniacal villainous laughter that brought us out of our moment, turning all the attention on him –totally stealing my limelight. Mundus laughed aloud and long, till both Dante and I were getting more than irritated. Damon and Vergil must have known something about it, because their hands landed on my forearm, as if physically restraining me from sending a punch to Mundus’s stupid face. I kindly neglected to tell them that if I really wanted to, I could easily free myself from their shackles.

“What a happy moment that you will share before your deaths! Go on, I do encourage a little more hope in your eyes. It makes killing all of you even sweeter, especially when I see the light finally die in Damon’s eyes!” Mundus declared, clapping as if he were a spectator in a play.

It became my turn to clap when three gunshots rang in the air, followed by three bullet holes appearing in Mundus’s chest. Although they didn’t make much difference to the Demon King, I clapped at the appropriate timing for the interruption, turning to see Trish with her gun standing at the top of the crater. Wynter and Damien each held Ebony and Ivory, and all three guns were smoking.

Dante muttered something vulgar about the children stealing his prized weapons, but was quickly shut up with a glare from Vergil as Wynter and Damien grinned.

“Daddy! Uncle Daniel! Can you just shut that annoying thing up? He’s spoiling my fun!” Damien yelled from the top of the crater, waving his hand high up in the air in greeting.

“I would like to go home soon too! Aunt Marcy and Lady were preparing cookies for us, and if Ms. Kalina is going to join in, I want to help in the baking process!” Wynter added, further rubbing salt on Mundus’s wound with the insults, as if he didn’t matter at all. Trish only smiled at the two children, patting their shoulders.

“HOW DARE YOU!” Mundus yelled, but none of us bothered to flinch anymore. Even as Mundus built up his power, all four of us did the same. Everyone was waiting for us, after all. Lady, Marcy and Kalina joined Trish and the children at the top of the crater on our side, cheering us on with all their hearts. Their faith and hope; it was an added power for us all as the four of us –for the first time –combined all our powers.

There was no need for instructions, only nods of affirmation at each other. This time, Damon’s power didn’t lose in contrast to Mundus’s deep black aura of amassing power. The earth rumbled and shook, as if in anticipation of the last ever fight. Damon took a step forwards, standing before us, and we knew that it was something my brother needed to do. We piled our strength with him, trusting Damon to do the right thing for us. Damon had been ruined since Day 1 that he stepped into DMC.

It was time for him to right the wrong.

“DIE!” Mundus screamed, and it was all the indication we ever needed.

Damon blasted our power forth.

There was a blinding flash that erupted when our powers hit each other, and a shockwave shook us all off our feet. Thrown to the floor, feeling as if I had been battered by an atomic bomb, I looked back towards the white glow, and realized that a shadow still stood in front of me. The figure coated Damon from top to toe, and I could only stare –along with Dante and Vergil –in surprise as my brother raised a hand against the glow, as if he hadn’t been hit by the shockwave at all.

There was a scream that didn’t sound like it came from my brother.

“Mundus, I relinquish all seven sins from your being. From this moment henceforth, you are no longer King of Hell, no longer the Demon King.” Damon’s voice echoed, and we could only watch, squinting against the white glow as Lucifer was raised.

The cliff-hanger moment came when he slashed the sword down. Immediately, the glow died down, and we blinked.

Damon stood standing –the lone soul who was still strong enough to be standing. At his feet was the dead corpse. The dead Mundus.

“What the-” Dante began to say, but swallowed the rest of his curse. I agreed with him silently, but we could all only stare in shock. Mundus was really… dead? Just like that?

It would be really inappropriate to say it aloud, but… it was kind of disappointing how Mundus died so easily. Then again, he’d weakened and wounded Vergil, Dante and Damon, so I guessed he’d put up quite a fight.

Once again, Damon raised his sword high up, tip pointing heavenwards. Mundus’s blood trickled along the blade, but Damon had other thoughts rather than just letting his sword glint with crimson blood.

“From this moment henceforth, I, Damon Kries, step forward and claim the title of the King of Hell, the Demon King! With the power of the seven sins, the power of Sparda, as well as the power of a blackened heart, I claim the title of the Ruler of all Demons, King of Hell!”

There weren’t any more words that could have been delivered more strongly than those that my brother –my twin –spoke, and in the moment, it was like the heaven had been watching. A streak of red lighting flashed across the sky, and in the moment that my mouth took to open to issue a yell, the lightning cracked through the air and struck the tip of Lucifer. Instead of yelling, my mouth simply hung open as I watched the red lighting change into a red aura that covered my standing brother from top to toe.

It took me a moment to realize whatever that had happened, and by then Vergil had already jumped to his feet –in shock or horror, I wasn’t really bothered to find out.

“What have you done…?” Vergil whispered, and I detected a strain of horror in there –though there was awe too.

Damon slowly turned around, an expressionless emotion on his face.

“I have saved all worlds from Apocalypse. You said it. Hell needed a King, and someone who could stand his own. I am the King now.” Damon answered.

The words were struck, and the realization struck a lot harder, as Dante’s mouth open for a long bout of vulgar cuss words.

We had killed Mundus.

Damon Kries had become the Demon King.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Things are going to be different from now.” I couldn’t help but say, watching the scene unfold before me.

Damon hugged his children and his wife, as everyone else hugged their lover. When there was once where I had no one, there was a warmth at my side now, and I had to turn over and look at the beautiful woman who had conquered her demon for me.

It was still hard to remember that this amazing woman had done all of that for someone like me. Someone as ridiculous as me had a lover to call my own. Then again, even Dante had Lady, so I guess things were even now.

“You were amazing, Daniel.” Kalina squeezed me close, as if she couldn’t get any more of my presence. Even though I’d been watching over her after I died, being right here next to her was exactly where I wanted to stay for the rest of my life. Watching her from afar was never enough. Being here and holding on to her –this was where I solemnly promised myself to stay forever.

“I think I am too.” I teased with a grinned, earning the knowing giggle from Kalina. “But I think you performed the best today.”

The heterochromatic eyes of my lover turned up to look at me with confusion and embarrassment, the blush rising so beautifully on her cheeks that I couldn’t resist planting another peck on her lips.

“But why? All I did was to help you pretend to be working for Mundus and taking him by surprise.” She asked innocently, but if she understood the weightage of all that she did for me, if she knew the amount of love I carried for her just for that… it would be just amazing.

“You fought your demon for me. You won your demon for my sake, and you made her your bitch for me. You helped bring the children and Lady and Marcy to the battlefield, and most of all, you found enough power to go against your old master. You were so amazing.” With more words, the blush grew redder and deeper, until it was almost impossible for her face to get even redder in the bright sunlight shining down from clear blue skies.

“You don’t blame me? For doing all those things to your family… and you…” She bowed her head a little, but a caught a flash of tears gathering at the corner of her eyes.

“Silly. They were never you. If Damon recognized enough that none of the things that you did were you, then it’s enough. Everything was in the past. I fell in love with Kalina the human, and I won’t let you go just because of the stupid bitch demon.” I put hands on her cheeks, forcing her to look up at me again to see the firmness in my eyes. I would be damned if Damon or anyone else brought up the topic again. Kalina was my one and only –there wasn’t ever going to be anyone else even with her flaws and problems.

“You sick bastard.” Dante’s clap on my shoulder broke us out of our loving moment, and I turned a scowl to him to see him and Lady by our side. “If you can’t get my woman, you don’t have to be desperate enough to look for her doppelganger. You’ll never find the real thing.”

Lady’s face turned shocked and annoyed at Dante’s rude boast, but I only laughed. Where it would have been an insult, it didn’t work at all now. Yes, Kalina was most probably Lady’s doppelganger. But what did that matter? I loved the woman with all my heart, for all her problems and flaws. I didn’t love the woman just for her face and appearance. I loved every bit of her –even the shyness that was never part of Lady.

“Don’t come crying to me when Lady blasts you apart with her rocket launcher, and you’ll be seeing my Kalina treating me well. Sometimes, I don’t need the real thing, because the woman I fell in love with is all that I need.” I retorted, and while Dante’s face scrunched up in a search of a witty comeback to my reply, I turned away to find Kalina blushing up again. Oh, when will I ever tire of her blush?

“Daniel, Kalina,” Vergil’s serious voice intruded on our light-hearted banter, as we all turned to see Marcy propping up the elder son of Sparda up on her shoulder. Vergil must have gotten quite a beating in comparison to Dante, but seeing how Vergil had tried his best to protect his twin from many blows, it was understandable. The honorable ideals of an elder brother would never be understood by Dante nor I, and I decided that I would leave that topic entirely alone.

“Well done. Without either of you, none of this would have happened.” Vergil didn’t smile, but he didn’t glare either, leaving Dante and me exchanging looks.

“Um… did Mundus hit you on the head a little too hard? Are you really Vergil?” I ventured to ask, and the old Vergil came back in the form of the irritated flash in his eyes. Marcy only grinned at my reply, the beaming smile reminding me of the days where Damon, Marcy and I spent in blissful unknowing.

“For whatever that happened in Hell…” Vergil pushed on, losing strength in his sentence quickly as he lost eye contact. “I apologize. I should never have left you behind. I should never have turned my back, nor let you cover my back.”

By god, this idiot was still thinking about the day I died?

It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I definitely didn’t let it pass as I extended a hand towards Vergil’s bowed head. And I flicked him once on the forehead (a very good and satisfying one).

“Stupid,” I relished in the chance of being able to insult him like this without earning that pissed off look, “I told you to go ahead. What you shouldn’t have done was probably to stay around after I died. I kind of just wanted us to go home, that’s all. If I wanted to die, I’d rather die on my homeland than that stupid hellhole.”

Vergil looked up, but the eyes of struggling blue betrayed the emotionless expression he pasted on his face. “I brought you home, but by then you stopped breathing.”

“I heard you cry my name, you sissy. I knew I was home, so I stopped holding on.” I grinned, taking my opportunity and knuckling Vergil in the forehead –because it was probably the only time in my entire life I would ever get to do it ever.

“UNCLE DANIEL!” Damien’s scream interrupted our moment, as we turned to see the children running towards us. We hadn’t had time for a great reunion when we woke them up to update them quickly on the plan before we had them pretending to be unconscious to be sent through the portal, so Damien was obviously trying to make up for lost time.

“You little bastard!” I greeted happily, tackled to the floor by two ten year old. Hands roamed all over from my hands to my chest to make sure I was alive, then Damien reached over to my face.

And that little bastard slapped me on my cheek.

“He’s alive!” Damien announced with a grin, slapping once more as if to make sure.

“Of course I am. But if you slap me once more, the person being un-alive is going to be you.” I growled, but the effect was lost when Damien laughed aloud in delight, and slapped once more. I swear…

Wynter reached over with wet eyes and planted a kiss on the cheek that Damien slapped, immediately placing a salve on whatever damage her twin had done. I swear, Wynter could be so sweet sometimes, but at other times, she was twice as evil as her twin when it came to ruthless digs made at my expense.

“I’m so glad to have you back, Uncle Daniel. I’m so glad we still have you with us.” She smiled the bright smile that must definitely had been inherited from Trish, and I couldn’t bear but to smile back, ruffling her hair even though she was already ten. Some things; I would never bore of doing them even if they weren’t my own born children.

“Things are going to be different from now.” Damon funnily repeated the exact same words I’d said, interrupting our happy reunion with a protective, territorial arm around his wife, as if he could never stand the thought of ever being away from her ever again. I grinned to know that the two of them were still stupid lovebirds even after everything that they’d gone through, watching a spark of what I could only say as utter relief and joy come to life in Damon’s eyes.

“Yeah, you’d better start by explaining why you’re the Demon King right now. Vergil’s not going to be happy if you put it off any longer, and I want my strawberry sundae. And some alone time to celebrate with Lady on the bed.” Dante put in flatly, earning loud noises of disgust from Wynter and Damien, but soft laughter from my darling Kalina.

“There is really nothing much to explain, Dante. Vergil said it; Hell needed a King to control everything. The King needed to be powerful enough to command the demons to stop them from spilling over to DMC and my world. I have the power of the seven sins. I have Sparda’s power. What else do you want from a King?”

“Umm…” I put in, since it was time for confessions, “actually I also have the power of the seven sins. You gave them to me when you resurrected me.”

“We’ll get around about that.” Damon said, eyes sending me a message saying that my previous explanation of how I was alive wouldn’t just suffice. I got the general idea that I would be put through the usual Damon-style lecture in the near future, but at the moment, after all that we’d recently been through, I would actually (never thought I would say this) enjoy it. “But I gather that you don’t want to be a Demon King?”

I snorted. “Daniel Kries? Demon King? Sure, we’ve got the same initials ‘D’ and ‘K’, but I’m not going to stay in that hellhole place controlling demons. I can’t even control a corporation in the Human World, what makes you think I can lead a whole bunch of crappy demons?”

Damon smiled, as if he had missed my way of speaking. My brother had definitely changed a lot since the last time I met him alive, and I was pretty sure most of the serene happiness that he had inside –it was built from having lost something in his heart, having suffered grief and loss. If Damon was powerful after his return from servitude in Hell, my brother was at the peak of his power at the moment –now that he knew what made him so different and so much more superior as compared to Mundus as a Demon King.

“Then we have things settled.” Damon nodded in satisfaction at my reply, looking around at all of us –his family.

“To all of you here…” Damon started, his voice going soft and gentle as if he couldn’t bear speaking louder just in case his heart couldn’t take the emotions running through him, “Thank you so much. You are all my family, right down to the bottom of my soul. Even if I am a demon king, I am Damon Kries before all that. I am a family member above being a King of Hell, and I will put myself on the line no matter what comes to protect you all.”

Marcy’s eye began to fill with touched tears, but Vergil smiled and wiped them from the corner of her eyes.

“E-Even m-me?” My darling Kalina whispered from beside me meekly, as if she didn’t dare to bring the attention to her, my murderer and my killer. I had forgiven her easily for killing me because of how much I loved her, but would my family accept her? Especially Damon, after all that he suffered after my death?

The smiles that came all around were genuine, none of the smiles hiding dark intentions behind them all. Even Lady smiled at her doppelganger –though I gather it was probably a weird thing, considering I ended up in an almost-fight with Dante the first time we met each other. The smile that meant most to me, however, were Damon’s and Trish’s smile.

They had tried to warn me about Kalina before I died, in my world, but I had refused to listen to them and ended up dead. But now that the truth was out; now that Kalina’s demon had been entirely squelched, and left my darling Kalina in her stead –would they accept my love? I fully intended to marry this hell (the pun) of a woman, and if Damon or Trish said no, I had to prepare a whole load of arguments, which I wasn’t looking forward to.

Damon and Trish stepped forwards, and each of them extended a hand towards my darling woman, who automatically accepted both at once with shocked eyes. My brother and sister-in-law smiled, and my heart leapt.

“Even you, Kalina. You are my brother’s lover, and no one will change Daniel like you do. You are family, demon or human.” Damon spoke, and the tears immediately sprang to her eyes. I couldn’t help my grin, even as Dante gave me a lighthearted congratulatory punch on the shoulder.

The light hearted air going around was interrupted with a crack of lightning and thunder through the clear skies of blue, and all of us looked up instinctively, sensing something off –something different. We couldn’t find nothing, but we knew that something was up, as silence filled our previous conversation, giving each other confused looks. Even Vergil seemed perplex.

Then all eyes turned on Damon, whose expression had suddenly become schooled to an emotionless slate.

“Dad?” Damien ventured to ask as Damon let go of Kalina’s hand, stepping back one step and letting his eyes sweep over all of us.

“I really wish I can stay here longer, but please understand.” Damon spoke pleadingly. “I need to go back down to Hell as a Demon King. I promise I will come back soon. I promise I’ll make up for everything. I promise I’ll explain everything. But before that, I must change Hell. That place will always be home for demons, but I must change that place, to let them know that Mundus is no longer in control. Things are going to be different from now.”

“But how long will you be gone?” Trish asked quickly, worried all over again, but Damon did his best to send a reassuring gaze.

“I will be back before you know it, dear. This time, I promise that I will be back, no matter what. You won’t have to wait for too long.”

“But, Daddy!” Wynter protested, but there was nothing she could protest about when her father scooped her in a tight promising hug.

“I’m so sorry, Wynter, but I’m a Demon King now. I need to sort out Hell before I let anyone visit that place ever again. I promise I’ll be back once I’m done with work.” Damon whispered, and all our hearts broke again to know that Damon was leaving us again.

But at least there was a promise for things to be done.

And my brother had never failed any promises. Damon Kries was my brother who would never let his family down, no matter the challenges he ever faced. He always bounced back up, and he always returned to our side, no matter whatever the world tried to throw at him.

I stepped forwards and claimed my brother in the tightest hug since I came back to life, thumping his back to show my support.

“Then go and change that hellhole for us. I’d better see flower decorations and a red carpet for me the next time I go down there.” I urged, and felt Damon nod against my shoulder.

Bidding his goodbyes, he stepped backwards, slashed a portal open.

And then he was gone again.

But he would be back.

Damon Kries always came back.