Hot, copper-scented blood sprayed across Yulia's cheek. She wiped it away with a sleeve, her eyes locking onto the Black Dragon.

The other girls scrambled into the corners, their bodies shaking so hard their teeth rattled against each other.

The legends said the God of Radiance had sealed the dragon deep within the Temple of Abyss. They expected a prisoner, not an awake, hungry apex predator.

Caerus shifted, his black scales scraping against the marble with a sound like grinding metal. He moved with a heavy, lethargic grace.

"If you want to meet your God of Radiance right now, keep screaming," he rumbled.

The girls clamped their hands over their mouths. Some bit their lips until they bled just to stay quiet.

Caerus's golden eyes burned with a fresh surge of irritation. Even in the silence, his talons flexed, gouging deep furrows into the stone floor.

He didn't hear silence. He heard a million voices—prayers, screams, and pleas—hammering against his skull from every corner of the Empire.

Stupid. Annoying. Make them stop.

His gaze swept the room and locked onto the tall girl who had tried to save Yulia.

"You." Caerus spread his wings, the gust of wind throwing the girls against the walls like ragdolls.

He pinned the tall girl to the floor. "The loudest one. Didn't you hear me?"

"Please... help..." she gasped, her hands clawing at the massive obsidian scales. No one moved to help her.

Caerus leaned down, his snout inches from her face. "You want to sacrifice your soul to bring back a god?"

He let out a dry, hacking laugh that sounded like falling rock.

"Dream on. Even a god has standards for what he picks out of the trash."

The girl's eyes went wide.

"Besides," Caerus whispered, his voice cold enough to freeze the blood in her veins.

"The God of Radiance is extinct. You could sacrifice the whole world, and he still wouldn't come back".

The red-haired girl had insisted that The Lost Hymn would bridge the gap to the divine. She promised that if their faith was strong enough, The God of Radiance would hear them.

"The Hymn?" Caerus rumbled, his voice vibrating through the stone floor.

He looked down at the shivering girls with a terrifying, calm indifference. "You think a few muttered verses can reach across the void? Humans haven't improved in a century."

His massive obsidian claw began to close around the girl pinned to the floor.

"Stop!" Yulia screamed from her pillar.

The other girls stared at her as if she'd already grown a second head. Yulia's teeth chattered, her knuckles white against the cold iron of her chains.

"Let her go," Yulia stammered, forcing her voice to stay level. "You want to kill someone? Kill me."

She wasn't being a martyr. She was looking for the fastest exit out of this game. A heroic sacrifice for a "Bad Ending" seemed like a perfect ticket home.

Ten seconds passed in a heavy, suffocating silence. Caerus didn't move.

Yulia gritted her teeth. Is he deaf? She took a breath and doubled down on the insults.

"I'm not afraid of you! Let my friend go! We are children of The God of Radiance! When he hears what you've done to his followers, he'll tear you apart, you bastard!"

The hall went cold. The other girls looked ready to faint.

Caerus didn't growl. Instead, a dry, seismic chuckle rattled in his throat.

He tossed the tall girl aside like a ragdoll. Within a heartbeat, his massive wings swept forward, wrapping around Yulia and the pillar, plunging her into a private, dark cocoon.

His golden slit eyes burned in the shadows, glowing like molten lava.

"Liar," he whispered. His tone was smooth, laced with a strange, dark amusement. "You don't believe in any god."

A single, razor-sharp claw extended, hovering just over her heart. The moment the tip brushed her skin, the world changed.

The endless, screaming roar of millions of prayers—the noise that had tortured him for centuries—vanished. The silence was absolute.

Caerus froze. For the first time in an age, the world was quiet.

Caerus hadn't known true silence since the end of the Divine Wars. The prayers of the faithful were a curse that hammered against his skull day and night.

He had gone into a forced slumber in the Temple of Abyss just to survive the mental overload. He had even tolerated the "Sacrificial Brides" the foolish priests sent his way, viewing them as nothing more than background noise.

But now, the noise was gone.

He flicked his claw, snapping the iron chains around Yulia as if they were made of dry straw. He lifted her into his palm, examining her like a rare, impossible specimen.

"I... I wasn't lying," Yulia whispered, her voice trembling as she looked into those golden eyes.

She was terrified, but she was still fishing for a death sentence. "If I hadn't broken the Divine Statue, I'd be the Candidate of the Holy Saintess by now. You should be shaking!"

Why isn't he killing me? The suspense was worse than the execution.

"Oh?" Caerus tilted his head. "You destroyed the statue? Good."

Yulia blinked. That's the part you like?

"Leave her alone!" A voice cracked from across the hall.

The tall girl Yulia had "saved" scrambled to her feet, her eyes red with tears. She grabbed her own hair and yanked—hard.

A brown wig flew through the air, hitting the dragon's scales before falling to the floor. The "bride" stood there with short, messy hair, a visible Adam's apple, and a chest as flat as a board.

"Take me instead!" the boy shouted, his voice cracking with a sudden, desperate bravery.

Yulia stared at him. A cross-dresser? These sacrifices are getting a bit suspicious.

Giotto stood his ground, trembling. He couldn't let a lady die for him, even if he was a coward at heart.

Caerus didn't even look at him. "Who said I was killing her?"

Giotto froze, his heroic pose collapsing into confusion.

"She has something you don't," the Black Dragon rumbled, his gaze fixed on Yulia.

"I need her to sleep with me. Do you think you can manage that?"

The hall went silent. Yulia and Giotto stared at the dragon, their mouths hanging open.

The other girls looked at the massive, terrifying dragon, then at the tiny, fragile princess.

She... doesn't look like she could survive that.