Mica got home while the sun was still up.

After explaining that he'd stayed a little longer at school to finish some assignments with Hugo and Cat, he managed to avoid getting grounded.

To get back in his mother's good graces, he took Alexander out for a walk as soon as he got home and promised he'd be back soon with the bread for dinner.

After they ate, his father suggested watching the latest episode of a TV series adapted from one of his favorite fantasy novels, but Mica chose to go to his room instead. Everything that had happened that afternoon had left him too distracted. He just wanted to be alone for a while.

The first thing he did was throw himself onto his unmade bed. The moment he looked at it, he thanked for not having brought Rose there.

He spent a long time staring at the ceiling, thinking about how strange their afternoon together had been and how lucky he was.

Then he thought about Cat.

Unable to keep his mind still, he sat up and looked for something to distract himself.

Playing a little Final Fantasy sounded like a good idea. But after slipping the disc into his old PlayStation, he changed his mind. Writing sounded better.

He still hadn't finished Ryoko's ending, and if he wanted Rose to read it, he ought to polish it first.

He rummaged through a drawer until he found one of his old notebooks, filled years ago with notes about one of the final scenes of Legends, then got to work.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Karo emerged from the volcanic rock and gazed upon the Inverted Castle, Ryoko's fortress.

A monstrous structure with five enormous towers hanging downward from a foundation of walls and gates surrounded by grotesque gargoyles floated high above the earth.

The arrow-shaped tips of its towers never reached the ground, so the castle hovered in the sky as though the world itself refused to bear such a place of evil.

No mortal could enter the fortress. But Karo possessed the favor of the Four Primordial Forces.

Karo was no longer an ordinary mortal.

He whispered to the wind, and it lifted him into the sky at a speed any projectile could only dream of reaching.

Curtains of lava poured from the mouths of the gargoyles. Water abandoned the storm clouds above to join him willingly, parting the molten streams before they could touch him.

The castle's walls ignored his command. They were not made of natural stone. Had they been, they would have opened at his will.

But there was still fire. With a thought, countless bolts of lightning descended from the heavens, blasting a breach large enough for an army to march through.

When Karo landed in the great hall, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Ryoko's servants stood waiting for him.

The moment they sensed his presence, those strong enough to endure it fled in terror. The rest died where they stood.

Karo was no longer an ordinary mortal.

He not only possessed the favor of the Four Primordial Forces. His soul had merged with that of an Alpha Demonius. Not just any Alpha Demonius but one of the most powerful ever born of darkness. Tolmoch. The very demon who had dwelled within his blade for his entire life.

Once, Tolmoch had manipulated him. Tormented him. For decades, he had broken him down, exploiting his strength while waiting for the chance to claim his body.

What Tolmoch had never expected was that Karo's spirit would fight back and prevail.

Now Tolmoch was him.

Karo was no longer even mortal.

But that did not make him an Alpha Demonius. At least that was what he wanted to believe.

He crossed the castle without meeting a single soul willing to stand in his way. No one dared face him.

He descended endless staircases, made his way through twisting corridors, and passed countless chambers, grand halls, and even dungeons.

He knew exactly where his destination lay. The top floor of the tallest tower. Only, in the Inverted Castle, that meant the deepest, darkest place of all.

When he arrived Ryoko was waiting.

It could not have been otherwise. A lifetime spent pursuing him. A lifetime spent foiling his plans. A lifetime spent surviving.

Karo no longer needed to survive.

The dark chamber was small. Its only source of light was a single beam pouring through a skylight that made no sense, considering there should have been nothing above that room except more of the castle itself.

Suspended within the light was Tenodecia, bound by dark chains that could only have been magical.

Beside her stood Ryoko.

"So, we finally meet face to face, swordsman."

The sinister figure was draped in a robe of black leather, dark as night. His face remained hidden beneath the shadow of a hood and concealed behind his infamous mask: enormous bulging eyes staring in opposite directions, a tiny circular mouth, no nose at all, and three long, razor-sharp horns rising from its forehead toward the heavens.

"Funny thing to say while you're still hiding behind a mask, demon."

"I assure you..." Ryoko chuckled softly. "You do not wish to see what lies beneath it. I'd wager you wouldn't even be able to fight if you did. So I'd rather keep it on. Because I most certainly intend to fight."

Karo drew the Tolmoch-Blade whose spine near the tip curved into the shape of flames. He leveled it toward Ryoko, settling into the Ochs guard.

Meanwhile, Ryoko calmly began unfastening his robe.

"One more thing you should know, swordsman. Though by now, you probably already do."

The robe slipped to the floor. Beneath it was a thin, gaunt body wrapped in leather straps. The little skin left exposed was pale, almost blue.

A pair of enormous bat-like wings burst from his back.

"I am and I am not what you see before you. This body allows me to manifest my full power. But it is nothing more than a mortal shell. I'm warning you now so you don't get too excited should you somehow manage to defeat me. No matter what you do… you will never kill me."

Karo said nothing. He already knew. And he was ready.

"I'm ready, swordsman." Ryoko's claws extended until they measured nearly half a meter, each as sharp as a needle. "You may attack."

Karo didn't move.

"Didn't you come here to fight? Attack!"

Karo didn't answer. He knew his only chance was to ignore every provocation. Every...

"Very well. I'll give you an incentive."

As the words left his mouth, Ryoko extended a single finger and drove it through Tenodecia's neck. Lost in magically induced unconsciousness, she reacted with nothing more than a faint spasm. When Ryoko withdrew his finger, a thin stream of blood began pouring from the wound. Far too quickly.

"If you wish to save her you must defeat me before she dies."

This time, Karo didn't even wait for him to finish speaking.

The last remnants of his reason screamed at him not to take the bait. To stand his ground. But seeing Tenodecia bleed was too much.

As he charged forward, dark energy engulfed his sword, then coiled around his arms in the shape of writhing tentacles. It was his rage given form through Tolmoch's power. Once, he had feared that power. Feared losing himself to madness. Now he had learned to control it. At least for a short time.

"It's good to see you again, Tolmoch. My old friend." Ryoko smiled the instant before the collision.

Karo's slash struck from Ryoko's left shoulder, cleaving through his body all the way to his right hip. Straight through the middle.

Ryoko made no attempt to dodge. In return, his claws pierced Karo in ten different places.

Though his own body had just been split cleanly in two, Ryoko laughed.

Not a simple laugh. It was euphoric. Manic. The kind of laughter that could only belong to someone who had just witnessed the funniest thing imaginable. And because he was the King of Darkness, the embodiment of all things malevolent, that laughter unsettled Karo.

Ignoring every wound he'd suffered, he acted on the only instinct that still made sense. He tore the mask from the demon's face.

In truth, Karo had never once been curious about what lay beneath it. That had never been his goal. Not while his sister bled beside him. Not while she hovered on the edge of death. But that laughter...

It compelled him. He had to see.

The mask came away, and staring back at him was a face from his past. A face stolen from him almost a lifetime ago.

Ryoko, or rather the body Ryoko had claimed, was his father.