I looked over Riku’s shoulder and saw the state Belzagus was in.

He never broke eye contact with Riku.

Thankfully, we had hospital gowns that covered the backside.

“Riku,” Belzagus said. “You’ve wanted to kill me ever since I was born.”

A wicked smile spread across his face.

His pitch-black eyes analyzed every inch of Riku’s body, searching for a way to take him down.

“You’ve been keeping up with your training, I see.”

The dark sheen coming off his wings looked too royal for someone crawling across my hospital ceiling.

Then Bel caught my gaze.

His face shifted.

For one second, that crazed killer mask softened into my humble brother.

“There she is!”

Nira chimed in on the current situation.

And she was clearly trying to piss me off again.

“You need to handle that.”

I looked at her like she wasn’t hiding the fact that she used to be the Calamity Princess and was now flying around as a tiny fairy.

Nah.

I had to put her in her place once and for all.

“Excuse me, first of all—”

I raised one finger toward her face and watched her expression completely change from smug fairy to shocked pixie.

“You still haven’t told me why the hell you’re the Calamity Princess!”

Nira gasped.

Then she bolted toward my face and grabbed both my lips with her tiny hands, forcing my mouth shut.

Her expression turned paranoid fast.

Sweat rolled down her forehead.

“Let’s talk about this later, alright?!”

She looked around the room and noticed Riku and Bel staring at her like I had just exposed her entire existence.

Then she slowly turned back toward my angry expression.

My brows tightened together.

And since I couldn’t talk, I let my body language speak for me.

I planted one hand on my hip and gave her the nastiest look I could manage.

Nira sighed and closed her eyes.

“Why do you always have to be so extreme?!”

She pushed my face away softly before finally letting go of my lips.

I immediately walked back up to her with my arms crossed.

“Who do you think you are?”

Both of us opened our mouths at the same time and immediately started arguing over each other like we were somehow the exact same person.

“At least I can heal demons!” I snapped.

Nira retaliated instantly.

“If you weren’t so airheaded, we wouldn’t even be in this situation, little MISS DEMONIC SAINT!”

Words started flying.

Fingers were being pointed.

Nira grabbed my cheek with both hands again and tried to shut me up.

“Just shut up and fix your lunatic brother already!”

The back of her wings flapped wildly as she tried pulling herself away from me.

“You need to come clean, or I’m calling the Evil Goddess with a 1-800 number!”

I tugged harder.

Nira pinched my cheek harder with her mosquito-sized grip.

As we continued our farce, the Ledger popped up beside our faces.

But this time, it didn’t show words.

The Evil Goddess spoke through it like a police radio.

“You both need to calm down.”

She sighed, and the annoyed sound crackled through the Ledger.

I let go of Nira’s wings.

Nira let go of my cheek.

She flapped her wings in midair, trying to get the feeling back into them.

I rubbed my cheek with my hand.

And what do you know?

She left a bruise.

“I will explain everything when the time comes,” the Evil Goddess said. “But right now, your brother needs your help. Use the damn stone before he kills Riku.”

Her voice turned earnest.

Like time really wasn’t on our side.

“The goddesses in Heaven caught wind that I’ve been reincarnating souls without their approval. They can’t take you out of this world directly, but they can guide Ragalia. They’re preparing him for the next two years.”

Her voice became raspier.

More annoyed.

Especially when she mentioned my father.

“Didn’t Malphas tell you about this already?”

The Ledger closed like an old television.

Before Nira and I could even turn back toward Riku and Bel—

Riku crashed into me.

Bel had attacked him the moment he let his guard down.

Madina shot to her feet and grabbed Bel from behind.

“Bel, please!” she cried. “Just stop this already! Come back to me!”

She closed her eyes as tears fell down her cheeks.

“Let’s go home to Mom already. I know you miss her. BEL!”

Her hair fell over her face each time she yanked him back.

But Bel was built like a bull.

And Riku knew that deep down to his core.

“What has your mother been feeding you?”

Even without his weapon, Bel’s hands were as hard as stone.

Bel gripped Riku’s blade with his bare hands and pushed it down toward Riku’s chest.

“She feeds me very well, elder brother,” Bel said. “You should come over sometime. Remember when you first came over? The good old days, right?”

Blood dripped from his hands.

Not enough to be life-threatening.

But enough to make my stomach twist.

Riku groaned as he tried to push Bel off him.

“Yeah,” Riku said. “And your mother lured adventurers into her home and cooked them for dinner. Thanks, but no thanks.”

Riku tried to move his feet.

But Bel had already planted his knees on top of him.

The back of the blade started cutting into Riku’s shirt.

I sighed and looked at Nira.

Nira looked back at me with an annoyed expression.

We both nodded.

A silent ceasefire.

“Nira, go find Noxx,” I said. “I’ll detain Bel.”

She flew out of the room.

I walked to Bel’s side as he continued trying to kill our older brother with his own katana.

“Don’t hate me for this, okay?” I said. “I just learned this.”

I reached my hand toward Bel and looked at him with a serious expression.

Like I was starting to take action instead of standing there as just a doctor.

“I’m warning you once, Bel,” I said. “Get off Riku this instant!”

Bel ignored me.

He focused only on killing Riku.

He pushed the back of the blade deeper against Riku’s chest, like he was about to break skin.

Riku looked at me with a twisted, painful expression as his younger brother overpowered him.

“Do it… already.”

I focused and thought about the new skill I had used earlier on the civilians outside.

Hopefully, they didn’t hate me for what I did.

My eyes flared with a purple haze.

My horns hummed as if they were concentrating my Umbral Grace and obeying my command.

“I worked in a psych ward once,” I said softly.

My fingers twitched.

“I hated that place.”

Not the children.

The place.

The walls.

The noise.

The fear sitting in every room.

I pictured the skill I had used outside.

Then the words escaped my lips.

“Straitjacket Sentence.”

[ STRAITJACKET SENTENCE ]

Black ice rapidly encased my hand.

It reached all the way to my palm.

I didn’t care.

And I didn’t stop.

[ F-CRACK—SHHH—KR-SHHH—CLINK—CLANK—THUD ]

Purple chains wrapped around Bel’s hands.

His face shifted from crazed killer to shocked little brother.

“What is this?!” Bel snapped. “Unhand me! I almost finally killed him!”

Madina let him go as the chains wrapped around his neck.

She stumbled backward toward the bathroom and leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath.

“Don’t hurt him, okay?”

I reached out with my other hand and poured more Umbral Grace into the skill.

Umbral ice began to encase that hand too.

Halfway up.

“Yeah,” I said through my teeth. “I don’t think he’s the one you need to be worried about here.”

A heavy purple hospital gown formed around Bel’s body like a restraint.

Sweat rolled down my face.

Pain twisted through me like I was wrestling a bull.

And clearly…

I was.

“Like, why do you have to be so damn built for a ten-year-old kid?” I snapped. “Demons sure are amazing!”

Bel’s grip finally released from Riku’s katana as the chains squeezed tighter each time he resisted.

“You’re hurting me, Sophia!” Bel yelled. “Stop it!”

Riku moved away as Bel became fully encased in the straitjacket.

He rose to his feet and dusted off his shirt.

But he never took his eyes off Bel.

Not even when he felt the torn fabric with one hand.

“You really are annoying,” Riku said. “Ever since you came out of your mother.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Why couldn’t you just be a normal demon? Not something carrying the end of the world in his shadow.”

Riku sat down in the chair and finally looked down at his shirt with a serious expression.

Then he looked at me.

Like I was growing right before his eyes.

“Maybe she can fix that.”

He sighed and looked back down at his shirt.

This was Syrin’s favorite shirt.

“She’s the one who’s actually gonna kill me.”

I raised Bel into the air as I controlled the straitjacket.

He flailed and twisted, grunting and yelling at me.

“I protected you!”

He strained against the bindings, trying to break free.

But the straitjacket squeezed tighter every time he resisted.

“Not that damn brother-killer you’re defending!”

He started kicking.

I chained down his feet just in time before he broke another piece of expensive hospital equipment.

“Riku just sat in the trial while me—your brother—actually came to help you before Ragalia tried to kill you!”

He finally got fed up with not being able to move.

I didn’t bind his mouth.

Because he was right.

He was there before Scorin.

“Demon Saint?” Bel snapped. “More like a demon who can’t even fight. Ha!”

His pitch-black eyes locked onto mine.

“Next time, I won’t come help. Matter of fact, I’ll just watch you die!”

He kept calling me names.

But I knew this wasn’t him.

He was splitting apart emotionally, like whatever Riku said was living inside his shadow and pulling at him.

“Listen to me, Bel!”

I looked at him like I had known him for a long time.

And yeah—

I had been in this kind of scenario more than once.

This wasn’t my first rodeo with emotionally distressed children.

“You need to come back to normal, and then we can talk about this peacefully!”

It sounded like Bel really wanted to connect with his siblings.

But he carried such a heavy burden that it overwhelmed him.

Still, I needed to detain him before he hurt himself.

“I understand you care about me,” I said. “But look at what you’re doing to Madina.”

I continued lowering him onto the bed.

His head hit the pillow hard.

Nira and Noxx finally showed up after I had already handled the hard work.

I looked at Noxx and gave him a look.

Like he already knew what I was about to say.

He ran back out of the room quickly and grabbed my fancy purse.

The one that said:

[ SOPHIA’S SPECIAL SYRINGES ]

Noxx dropped the purse on the floor and opened the flap with his mouth.

Then he looked at me, waiting for orders.

Veins started forming around my temples.

My eyes strained from exhaustion and sheer willpower.

“Give me the Demon Anesthesia syringe!”

Noxx buried his face in my purse and started sniffing through all the syringes.

I had all kinds in there.

Too many to count.

One of them said:

[ DEMON BANE ]

Noxx yelped when he saw that one.

Then he found the syringe I was asking for.

Noxx grabbed it with his mouth, pulled his face out of my purse, and showed the syringe to Nira.

“After this, give it to Madina.”

Nira pulled the cap off the needle fast.

Then Noxx ran over to Riku.

I looked at him.

Why didn’t he give it to Madina?

He clearly gave the green light to someone who had a history of raising his sword against Bel.

“Noxx, now’s not the time to play games,” I said. “Give it to Madina.”

Before Noxx could run toward Madina, Riku grabbed his tail and lifted him high into the air.

He placed his katana on the chair and looked at Noxx with a sinister grin, like he had wanted to do this ever since Bel was born.

“Hand it over.”

Noxx didn’t even think about it.

He opened his mouth and dropped the syringe into Riku’s hand.

Riku dropped Noxx onto the floor.

Right on his head.

“I didn’t know you always stayed this prepared, little sister.”

Riku gripped the syringe properly and held it near his face.

He pushed the plunger slightly.

Medicine squirted from the needle.

“I’ll be your nurse, Doctor Sophia.”

He walked toward Bel like he had a weapon in his hand.

I looked at him and pleaded.

“Please… don’t do anything drastic, Riku.”

Madina ran forward and tried to put herself in front of him.

Riku didn’t care.

He ducked cleanly under her arm, dodged her strike, and swept her legs out from under her.

Madina hit the floor on her butt.

“You sit there for a little bit, wolf girl.”

He turned the syringe in his hand.

I couldn’t stop him.

I was too busy holding Bel down.

“Riku… slow down.”

Riku drove the syringe into Bel’s back so hard that Bel didn’t yell.

He cursed Riku out instead.

“You always wanted to hurt me!” Bel shouted. “You even had Sophia detain me!”

Riku pushed the plunger down and released the anesthesia into Bel’s back.

“Good night… little brother.”

Bel’s words began to slur between sentences.

Yeah.

That stuff had been trial and error for a while.

Looks like I finally made the perfect one.

“So… So… Sophia,” Bel mumbled. “I don’t… mean… what… I… said.”

And just like that—

he was out like a light.