Stretching his arms languidly, Luka yawned as the violet sun rose in the sky, the immovable veil of the Sominium Vale covering every nook and alley of the city.

Luka sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes lazily. The deep sleep had been one of the best he’d ever had, but something nagged at the back of his mind. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had forgotten something important. His gaze drifted toward the window, where the misty light of dawn seemed almost surreal.

There was something oddly comforting and unsettling about having a day shrouded in night by this veil.

Suddenly, a knock on the door startled him, making him sit up straighter. The door creaked open, and Saki entered the small shack, with a pack filled with bread and a bucket full of water. With a smile, she greeted him.

“Hey there, sleepyhead. Morning’s already really underway, you know?”

Luka blinked, still a little dazed, and gave her a half-smile. "I feel like I’ve been asleep for ages," he murmured, rubbing his eyes again. "But something feels off... like I’m forgetting something important."

Saki set the bucket down with a soft clink and winked. “If you forgot about it then it must not be that important,” she said. “I brought you some water and bread from the… shop.” Her face twisted into a brief grimace as she mentioned the word, but she quickly shook it off. “Anyway, fill up because we’ve got some work today.”

Luka sat up fully now, his body still sluggish with the remnants of sleep. He glanced at the bread and water, his stomach growling faintly in protest. “Yeah… We need to help her with whatever plan she has.”

“Is it okay if I leave you alone for a while though?” Saki asked. “I need to check a few things up in the city.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Luka nodded with a piece of bread in his mouth. “I can defend myself here.”

“I know,” Saki sighed. If only he knew he could have died tonight without her help. “Still, try to be careful, okay?”

“Yeah don’t worry. I’ll go see… Huh… What’s her name again?”

Saki looked down at Luka and sheepishly glanced away. “Who knows? Perhaps she doesn’t know either…”

Luka raised an eyebrow but didn't press the matter further. “Alright, I’ll figure it out. You go do what you need to.”

Saki gave him one last concerned glance before turning and heading out, leaving Luka to finish his breakfast in peace. He chewed slowly, still pondering the feeling that something was off. Saki’s behavior was.

And somehow he had a sinking feeling in his stomach, similar to the one he had when facing Kaeris.

Finishing his bread, Luka wiped his mouth and stood up. “Time to see what I can do,” he muttered to himself.

There was no time to whine or worry too much about everything. He had one job, and he would make sure to achieve it to completion.

As he stepped out of the shack and into the misty slums of Sominium Vale, the familiar stench of decay filled his nostrils, and the knot in his stomach tightened once more.

The streets were littered with shadows, their edges bleeding into the perpetual haze that cloaked the city. The distant sounds of murmurs and faint laughter seemed to blend with the oppressive silence of the Vale, making it hard to discern what was real or imagined.

Luka’s gaze flicked to the alley to his left. His eyes narrowed as he saw a group of succubi lying on the ground, their bodies unmoving. They were scattered across the alley, their eyes empty and glazed over as if they had been drained of everything that made them who they were.

A shiver ran down his spine as he moved closer, the sickly-sweet scent of the succubi's presence mingling with the stench of the streets. These succubi were far from ordinary—something about them felt… wrong.

He crouched down near the closest one and reached out cautiously. Their skin was cold, like lifeless porcelain. Whatever had happened to them, it wasn’t normal.

Luka’s stomach churned. "What the hell happened here?" he muttered under his breath. There was no sign of struggle, no blood, just stillness.

“They died of hunger,” a familiar voice rang out from behind him. Luka looked up, startled. Standing there was the succubus they had met yesterday, still wearing her out-of-place white lab coat. Both hands were shoved into her pockets, and she regarded him with a cold, detached gaze.

“You were supposed to arrive earlier. It’s already noon.” Her voice was matter-of-fact, offering no hint of emotion.

“Oh, hi…” Luka scratched his head apologetically. “So you came looking for me in the end?”

“Right,” she nodded. “I saw your friend pass by earlier so I figured you were still alive,” then she readjusted her glasses and leaned closer, her voice dropping slightly. “I don’t know if it’s because of dumb luck or…”

Luka stepped back and shot her a determined look. “So… What do you need me for? Do you have an idea?”

With a quiet sigh, she straightened up and turned around. “Yes, let’s go back to my home. I’ll explain it to you there.”

Without waiting for his response, she began walking down the alley, her lab coat fluttering slightly in the wind. Luka hesitated for a moment, then followed. As usual, the place was gloomier than the slums but the scent of herbs and flowers made it more bearable. Luka sat on a chair near the bed and she did the same near the desk.

“For my invention, I need a few things,” she started explaining. “First off is a lot of magical energy, but that will be covered by the queen. Next is a bunch of ingredients.”

“Ingredients?”

“Right,” she continued, pulling out a small parchment from the drawer and unfolding it to reveal a list of strange and arcane materials. “I need rare components that are difficult to gather in Sominium Vale. Some of them are dangerous to obtain, but it’s the only way to make the spell work.”

“So… Your invention is a spell then?” Luka asked, his interest piqued.

The succubus glanced at him, her expression serious. “It’s a grand spell. A ritual on the scale of divine magic.”

Luka leaned in to examine the list. There was something he didn’t like about all of this. “And this spell… what exactly is it supposed to do?”

The succubus paused for a moment, her expression flickering with something that might have been uncertainty. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared. She met Luka’s gaze, and for the first time, there was a hint of discomfort in her demeanor.

“It helps succubi restore their mana,” she said finally, her voice steady but with a touch of hesitation.

“How?” Luka raised an eyebrow unconvinced.

The succubus sighed, her eyes briefly darting away as if trying to collect her thoughts. “This is a secret,” she muttered, clearly frustrated. “I am still an inventor at heart. I don’t go around and share every detail.”

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Luka chuckled slightly, amused by this change in her attitude. “Fair enough,” he said. “I will help with whatever I can.”

“You’re okay with that answer?”

“You’re going to explain it to me?”

“No.”

“Then I said I was going to help, so I will,” Luka replied with a confident smile.

The succubus studied him for a moment, then shook her head. “You shouldn’t trust people so easily,” she muttered, but there was a faint amused edge to her voice now. “I’ll also need your magic to create the spell. Your trait is Control, right?”

“Yup,” Luka nodded.

“For the first time, I feel like the stars are aligned. I’ve been looking for someone like you for a while,” she smirked. “If you are good enough, I might be able to complete it soon.”

With that, she turned around and began fidgeting with her flasks full of different liquids. Luka watched her intently but his mind was wandering to different possibilities.

What was she going to create, exactly? He had no clue. But if she were to succeed then perhaps she could save the succubi that are starving to death in these slums.

His gaze shifted to the list of ingredients still sitting on the worn desk. They were quite simple and could easily be found in his world but it seemed in that one, they were rare. All of them alluded to flowers, usually those used in perfumes.

He shook his head slightly, clearing the doubts from his thoughts. Doubting never got him far but he knew to trust his instincts. For now, he would simply observe and help the best he could. After all, this could end up beneficial for the war against the demons in the long term.

“Alright,” Luka said aloud, standing and rolling up his sleeves slightly. “Tell me what you need me to do.”

The succubus glanced back at him over her shoulder, her expression unreadable for a moment before she turned fully to face him with eyebrows raised. “I will need to gauge how precise your Control magic is. But…” she looked intently at his arms and readjusted her glasses. “What… Is that?”

“What is what?” Luka asked, his gaze following hers. When he saw where her attention had landed, he instinctively yanked his sleeves back down, hiding the talismans clinging to his skin. He had completely forgotten he had those talismans sticking to his body and was so used to having them here that he didn’t feel them anymore.

The succubus crossed her arms, her mauve eyes narrowing. “Those talismans. What are they for?”

Luka hesitated, he couldn’t reveal her their true purpose. Mainly to defend himself. But without trust, where could he go?

“These are insurance,” he said finally. “I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a trick I learned to use spells stronger than I can produce naturally.”

Her gaze remained fixed on him, assessing, calculating. After a moment, she gave a small nod, as though she had come to some private conclusion. Without another word, she turned away and walked over to her bed. There, she crouched, opening the drawer of the bedside table.

From within, she pulled out a small, timeworn talisman. Its edges were frayed, and the inscriptions on its surface had faded with age. She held it delicately, almost reverently, as she straightened and walked back to Luka.

“I found this a long time ago,” she said, her voice quieter now, tinged with a faint trace of something softer. “It’s old, worn, and probably useless by now, but…” She extended the talisman toward him. “Here. As a token of gratitude for helping me.”

Luka blinked in surprise, caught off guard by the gesture. He reached out and took the talisman. “I… Huh… Thank you.”

She shrugged. “Don’t read too much into it. I was… mistaken about you earlier.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What I’m saying is, you’re not a mage,” she sighed. “But a magic user. Those are different. You do not pursue the secrets of magic for themselves but to gain power. For survival.”

Luka’s lips turned into a line. “Are you making fun of me?”

“No,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “It’s just an observation. Magic users are just different, that’s all. But I must say…”

She frowned and gazed at him from head to toe. “You don’t look that used to fighting. You’re physically weak too. I know a lot of succubi who could arm wrestle you and win.”

“I didn’t need that. Really.”

“And you clearly lack confidence,” she continued, undeterred. “The way you carry yourself—it’s hesitant, unsure. You—”

“Do you ever shut up?”

The succubus stopped mid-sentence, startled. She took a step back, adjusting her glasses as her gaze darted to the floor. “S-Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Luka sighed, running a hand through his hair. “No, it’s my bad. But seriously, you should stop saying everything that goes through your head.”

“It helps me focus,” she explained. “I know a lot of my peers don’t like me because of it, but when I notice something, I can’t help but explain it.”

“I… See… You look all gloomy but you’re a real chatterbox, aren’t you?”

“Only if there’s something substantial to say,” she replied matter-of-factly, nodding as though her habit was perfectly reasonable.

Luka chuckled softly and shook his head. “Can we go back to the task at hand then? We have work, right?”

“Right,” she nodded. “Let me see your hand, I want you to use Control magic.

A few hours passed, the sun commencing its descent slowly but surely to announce the end of the day. Luka had to pass a whole battery of tests specifically designed by the succubus to test the wide range of his abilities.

Once finished, she turned back to her occupation, carefully writing on a piece of paper with ink and feathers while Luka began to do his daily routine.

“Do you really have to do this?” she asked, glancing over from her work to watch Luka’s form rise and fall with each movement.

Luka paused, taking a moment to catch his breath, sweat starting to bead on his forehead. “If I don’t do this, Kanami will scold me once I see her again.”

“Kanami?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.

“She’s a friend,” Luka replied quickly, not wanting to delve into details. “Don’t worry about it.”

The succubus nodded in acknowledgment, her gaze returning to her paper. “Alright, I won’t pry. Still, it truly is inconvenient that you humans need to do exercise to stay in shape.”

Luka, now stretching his arms above his head, shot her a surprised look. “What? You don’t need to?”

“No,” she said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “We succubi only need magical energy to survive. The more we have, the stronger we become.”

Luka blinked at her. “That’s… kind of unfair, don’t you think?”

“To you, it seems that way, but…” she sighed. “You saw the slums, right?”

She was right. In theory, it sounded far simpler to survive than humans but when he thought about it, the only way they had to gain mana was through humans. His chest tightened slightly as he remembered the state of the city and he couldn’t help but ask her about it.

“Aren’t you angry that a lot of your peers are dying while others are just getting everything?”

The succubus didn’t immediately respond. She stared at the paper in front of her, almost as if she were reading it, but Luka could tell her mind was elsewhere. After a long silence, she finally spoke, her voice quieter.

“Aren’t you angry to see your peers used like cattle here?” she finally asked, her eyes glancing at him.

“That’s…” Luka sighed. “Complicated.”

The succubus raised an eyebrow, watching him closely. “Complicated? Is it really?”

Luka shifted uncomfortably, trying to find the right words. “Yes, it is. If I were to say that what you’re doing is wrong, then that would make me a hypocrite. Where I come from, it’s far worse for animals, if you see what I mean.”

“And you would rather not be a hypocrite than be angry?”

Luka’s gaze faltered, his eyes fixed on the floor for a moment as he searched for the right way to express the complex emotions stirring inside him. “It’s not just about being a hypocrite,” he began. “It’s about seeing the bigger picture. Yeah, it’s hard. It’s painful even, watching what’s happening here to humans. But… Everyone suffers. It’s not just us, but you as well. And it’s not just demons or succubi exploiting humans, we do it to ourselves too.”

The succubus sat quietly for a moment, her fingers still poised above her paper but not writing, taking in his words. Finally, she looked up at him, her gaze intense. “So, you’re saying that because suffering is universal, you’re okay with it?”

Luka bit his lips and remained steady. “I think it’s inevitable.”

“Inevitable, huh…” she echoed in a whisper, her gaze returning to the paper.

She hated it but he was right. Although, she wasn’t wrong either. That man would rather suffer and accept the harsh reality rather than fight it.

Somehow, being a hypocrite was far worse for him than fighting for his people.

“So, you are okay with succubi living with humans,” she concluded.

Luka didn’t answer.

“We cannot live with one another,” she continued. “We are in a relationship that is completely at odds on both sides. Succubi cannot live without feeding off humans, and humans cannot survive knowing that they are prey.”

“Are you sure? Saki is capable of feeding without killing, you know?”

She turned around and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well… She just takes what she want and then just leave. At least that’s what she told me, and I believe her since I never heard of a guy dying when she was there.”

The succubus studied him for a long time, her eyes narrowing as she weighed his words. She was searching for any sign of deception, any flicker of uncertainty in his expression. But Luka remained calm, his face open, offering no hint of falsehood. Finally, with a long, defeated sigh, she dropped her gaze and rubbed her temples as though to stave off an approaching headache.

“I see…” she muttered, as if the idea were difficult to accept. She paused, contemplating. “Well, let’s just say you are lucky to have found her.”

Or perhaps he wasn’t lucky at all, she thought. That succubus, why was she following him in the first place? But now she was clear on one thing with what he just said, she was not normal.

Feeding without killing would amount to nothing to them. It only delayed the inevitable by only a few hours at best. It was not a sustainable way to survive, the succubus would end up starving to death anyway.

“Anyway, you should go away for now. You did everything I needed. If you could look for the ingredients, I would appreciate it.”

“On it!” Luka stood up, stretching his limbs.

As he left, the succubus remained seated, her fingers absentmindedly tracing the edge of her paper. The dull sensation in her feet had returned and she sighed. In a way, she found the young human admirable. Being able to stay here without losing it was far more impressive than he would let on. Not many could have the composure he had.

On the corner of her eyes stood a hidden paper beneath a stack. She took it and looked at it longly. It was the plan to realize the spell.

Before he arrived, she didn’t think much of it but now something ached deep inside her just by looking at it.

In this city where the strong eat the weak based on bloodlines, it was her last chance to save the succubi of the slums. There was no need for sadness or remorse in this task.

Just like him, she would find the will to survive, no matter the cost.

For her lost sisters.

For the succubi like her… who were given no name.