Heart on Fire

Katia panted, her eyes fixed on the demon's collapsed body. Every fiber of her being wanted to believe that the creature was finally defeated, that this brutal struggle had ended. But something was wrong. The air around the corpse began to distort, like a shadow moving too quickly to be seen.

"Renald..." she breathed, exhausted.

Beside her, Renald slowly lowered his weapon, his muscles trembling from the effort. But Katia saw the same glimmer of doubt in his eyes.

It wasn't over.

Suddenly, the demon's body vanished in a whirlwind of black smoke, dissolving like mist swept away by the wind.

This wasn't death.

"It... was just an illusion?" Renald growled, slamming his fist into the ground in frustration.