Kayvan’s eyes narrowed. "I’m not familiar with you daemons at all."

  She ughed, a sound both chilling and strangely familiar. "But I know you, Kayvan. I know every fragrant dream you've had, every bit of pain, anger, ament buried in your heart. Everything about you is id bare before me. 't you guess who I am? When you resisted the curse, I slipped into your soul. Everything sihen has unfolded exactly as I pnned, without a single misstep."

  Her lips curled into a smile that sent shivers down his spine. "Some call me Salish. Others call me Shalish. To some, I am the Dark Prihe ohey name Sanesh. But here, you should know me by another name—I am you. Just like two sides of the same , the curse of Chaos feeds me power, and the darkness within your heart is the soil where I thrive. I am you, Kayvan Shrike, and you are me. We are one and the same. I know all your desires, I feel your pain, ye, and your joy. I mourn when you mourn, and I revel in your madness. We are not enemies. We are kin."

  "You’re saying you’re my other side? That I have a daemon hidden inside me?" Kayvan's voice was steady, but his eyes were sharp, scrutinizing every word.

  "There’s a daemon hidden in everyone’s heart, Kayvan. It just depends on how you . Desire is part of being human. Imagine a person without any wants or needs—someone who ot love or hate, who doesn’t feel the sting of jealousy or the satisfa of victory. That person would be as cold as ice, emotionless and hollow. Could they even be sidered human? What would be the purpose of their existence?

  "You admire the so-called virtuous, don’t you? But think about it. The Emperor you revere turned you into a killing mae, a tool for his quests and grand ambitions. I, oher hand, want to help you find your true self. To be someone who knows love, who enjoys life. To bee… real."

  Kayvan’s jaw tightened. "Everyone has desires, but what matters is whether I trol them or they trol me. You’re ing, daemon, but you ’t shake my resolve. When I guard my heart, everything is decided. No matter how much you talk, it ges nothing." He stepped forward, each stride deliberate as he asded the crystal stairs leading to the throne. Bodies y scattered oher side, and blood stained his boots, but he moved forward without hesitation.

  The bck-robed woman tilted her head, her smile widening. "How ridiculous. I already told you—I am you. How you kill me? We are inseparable. Every time you pierce my chest with a bde, you weaken yourself. If I die, so do you!"

  "Then we’ll die together!" Kayvan roared, his voice eg in the vast hall. He charged up the stairs, ign the golden treasures and vish feasts that appeared in his path. Wheiful young women emerged to block his way, he didn’t hesitate, his cws slig through them like paper. Their bodies fell in pieces, staining the stairs crimson.

  But then a familiar figure stepped into his path—a beautiful woman, her face so agly familiar it stopped him in his tracks. "Kayvan! Please, stop!" she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You’re sg me. I don’t even reize you anymore. Please, e back. Be the Kayvan who loved me."

  Kayvan stared at her for a moment, his expression unreadable. Finally, he sighed. "You do look like her," he said softly. "But you’re not her." Without hesitatiohrust his cws forward, pierg her chest. His sharp talons tore through her body with brutal precision, ripping her apart as blood and flesh rained dowairs. Her severed head rolled to the ground, ing to a stop against a step.

  Kayvan didn’t even g it. He tinued upward. The woman ohrone shook her head, her expression one of mret. "Look at yourself. You killed even your lover without a sed thought. A you still think you’re different from me? Betweewo of us, who’s more like a daemon now? Turn back, Kayvan. There’s still time!"

  Her words were cut short as Kayvan lunged. His cws plunged into her eyes, tearing through her skull with relentless force. Blood spattered as he dragged the bdes downward, splitting her body from head to groin. Her form crumpled, torn apart like a grotesque work of art.

  A chilling ugh echoed. "What a pity. I really didn’t want to resort to barbarism, Kayvan. But you left me no choice."

  The corpses scattered across the ground began to stir. One by ohey rose, their forms shifting until they all resembled her—Sanesh. Eae bore a twisted on as they swarmed toward Kayva, none could match him. He moved like a storm, his cws tearing through them in a whirlwind of silver. The air filled with the sound of ripping flesh and the g of broken ons. Dismembered limbs and pools of blood painted a grim battlefield as tless versions of Sanesh fell, only for more to rise again.

  The massacre dragged on, time losing all meaning. It became aernal sughter, a never-ending nightmare. No one could say how long Kayvan fought—minutes, hours, days. It felt like forever. To ag, it seemed as though the earth itself gave rise to the dead, only for them to be cut down again.

  When it finally ended, Kayvan stood atop the mountain of corpses, his steel cws glinting in the dim light, his body drenched in blood. He looked like a daemon himself, his eyes bzing with a fierce determination. “You’ll never beat me, daemon!” he roared, his voice shaking the ground. “This is my mind, my soul, my territory! I am invincible here! I’m sick of your tricks—e out and face me!”

  "You’re insane," her voice hissed as she emerged from the mound of bodies. The once-elegant, otherworldly beauty on her face was gone, repced by feral rage and bitterness. “You think you’ve won? You ’t defeat me. I am you. I know your every move, every thought, every strength. How a ma himself?”

  Kayvan raised his cws, his grin as sharp as the ons he wielded. “Then show me how strong I really am.”

  Sanesh smiled coldly, raising her hands. Her nails grew unnaturally long, gleaming like bdes. “You’re not smart, Kayvan, but I’ll admit you’re strong.”

  The air thied with tension as they faced each other. They didn’t need words—both khat ordinary bat wouldn’t decide this fight. They were too alike, eaowing the other’s strategies and thoughts. So, they abandoned all subtlety, diving headfirst into brutal, primal violence.

  They collided like forces of nature. Kayvan's cws puhrough her chest, his fist gripping something inside as he pulled her close. At the same time, her cws pierced his ribs, holding him in an iron grip. her flihey locked themselves in a grotesque embrace, each tearing into the other without hesitation.

  His cws ripped, sliced, and gouged, turning her flesh into shredded pulp. Her cws dug and tore with equal savagery, peeling muscle from bone in an attempt to dismantle him. They struck with fists, cws, knees, and eveh, as though they were mortal enemies locked in a fight to the death. Blood spttered across the battlefield, staining their already ruined bodies.