Episode-961
Chapter : 1921
Ben Ironwood was leaning against a black pillar with his thick metal arms crossed over his chest. He tapped his foot impatiently on the floor. He looked at the scene with a mix of boredom and mild annoyance.
"Finally," Ben grumbled. His voice was deep and rough. "You took long enough, Lord Lloyd. I have seen faster pit stops during a firefight. We are wasting time."
Lloyd rolled his eyes but didn't look back. "I just performed open-heart surgery on a Demon Prince using tree roots, Ben. Give me a minute."
"It was inefficient," Ben stated flatly. He pushed himself off the pillar and walked closer, his heavy metal steps echoing in the hall. He looked down at Monalisa with a sneer. "And for what? To save a broken piece of hardware? She was petrifying because she is weak. Weakness should be discarded, not fixed."
Monalisa didn't get angry. She giggled. She floated up from her cushion, drifting through the air like a ghost until she was hovering right in front of Lloyd. She ignored Ben completely, as if he were just a noisy piece of furniture.
She reached out and ran a long, sharp fingernail down Lloyd’s cheek.
"Don't listen to the Tin Man, darling," she purred. Her green eyes were glowing with a new, intense light. "He doesn't understand art. And this? This is art."
She looked at the grey fruit in Lloyd’s hand. Her eyes widened. She could feel the power inside it. It was her power—her sickness, her weight, her burden—all condensed into one small ball.
"You took it all," she whispered, her voice full of wonder. "You reached inside me, found the bad parts, and just... pulled them out."
"I cleaned the filter," Lloyd said, his voice dropping into his usual dry, sarcastic tone. He tossed the fruit a few inches into the air and caught it. "Your mana was clogged. It was like engine sludge. I just gave you an oil change."
"An oil change..." Monalisa tasted the words. She smiled, revealing sharp teeth. "You talk like a mechanic. I like that. I like mechanics. They know how to use their hands."
She drifted closer, invading his personal space. She wasn't treating him like an enemy General anymore. She wasn't treating him like an equal, either. She was looking at him the way a collector looks at a very rare, very expensive toy that they just bought.
"You are my favorite toy now, Little Lion," she said softly. "Lucifer wants to break you. Beelzebub wants to eat you. But me? I think I want to keep you on a shelf. I want to take you out and play with you whenever I feel stiff."
Lloyd stepped back, putting some distance between them. "I'm not a toy, Monalisa. And I'm not a pet. I did this because you saved us from the fly swarm. Now we are even."
"Even?" Monalisa laughed. It was a dark, sultry sound. "Oh, darling. We are not even."
She pointed at her chest, right over her heart.
"You fixed me," she said. "But you know biology, don't you? You know how my condition works. I am the Prince of Sloth. My nature is to be stagnant. My mana wants to stop moving. It wants to turn to stone."
Lloyd froze. The engineer in his brain started running the calculations. She was right. He had cleaned out the sludge, but he hadn't changed her nature. She was still Sloth.
"It’s going to come back," Lloyd realized. "The sediment. It will build up again."
"Exactly," Monalisa whispered. She floated around him, circling him like a shark. "Maybe in a year. Maybe in ten years. But eventually, the stone will come back. My arm will get heavy. My chest will get tight. And I will start to die again."
She stopped right behind him and leaned her chin on his shoulder. Her breath was cold against his ear.
"And when that happens... who is going to fix me?" she asked. "The other demons can't do it. The humans can't do it. Only you. Only you and your strange, hungry wooden roots."
Lloyd looked at Eun-ha. His wife—the Devil Prince Leviathan—was watching them from the dais. She didn't look jealous. She looked like a CEO who had just watched her company stock go up. She gave Lloyd a small, sharp nod.
She knew. She had known from the start.
Lloyd looked back at Ben. Ben was shaking his head, looking disgusted.
Chapter : 1922
"Great," Ben muttered. "Now she is going to follow us home. Can we just shoot her? It would be faster."
"No shooting," Lloyd said. He looked at Monalisa. "So, what are you saying? You want a subscription plan?"
Monalisa giggled again. "I'm saying you can't get rid of me, mechanic. I need you. Biologically. Physically. If you die, I turn into a statue. If you leave forever, I turn into a statue."
She grabbed his arm—the one that had the Void Wood—and squeezed it.
"So you have to stay alive," she said, her voice suddenly losing its playful edge and becoming deadly serious. "You have to get strong. You have to win this war. Because if someone breaks you before I get my next treatment... I will be very, very unhappy."
Lloyd looked at the fruit in his hand. He realized he wasn't just holding a lump of magic energy. He was holding a leash. He had thought he was just doing a good deed, but he had accidentally made one of the strongest monsters in existence dependent on him for survival.
He put the fruit into his pocket—into his infinite inventory space.
"Fine," Lloyd said. "If you behave, maybe I'll come back for a check-up."
"I'll be waiting," Monalisa purred. She floated back to her cushion and lay down, stretching her limbs like a satisfied cat. "Now, run along, Little Lion. Go fight your war. Just don't get scratched."
Ben pushed himself off the wall. "Finally," he said. He walked over to Lloyd and grabbed his shoulder with a metal hand. "We are leaving. This place is making my sensors glitch. And if I have to listen to her flirt with you for one more minute, I am going to vomit. And I don't even have a stomach."
"Let's go," Lloyd agreed.
He walked toward the dais where Eun-ha was waiting. The reunion was over. The mission was done. It was time to go back to the surface.
________________________________________
Lloyd stood before the shimmering portal. On the other side, he could see the familiar stone walls of his secret underground lab back in the North. It looked dusty and safe.
He turned to Eun-ha. She stood tall and regal in her dress made of shadows and starlight. Her black horns curved elegantly from her head. She didn't look like a monster to him. She looked like the partner he had missed for sixty years.
"So," Lloyd said. "This is it for now."
"For now," Eun-ha agreed. Her voice was calm and steady. "You have the intel. You have the upgrades. You have Ben back at full capacity."
She looked at Ben.
"Ironwood," she said.
Ben straightened up. He didn't salute, but he stood with a rigid, military posture. He looked at Eun-ha with genuine respect in his mechanical red eyes. He knew who she was. She wasn't just Lloyd’s wife. In the history books of their old world—Earth—she was "The Architect." She was the scientist who wrote the code that ran the world.
"Professor," Ben said, nodding his head. It was the highest title he used for anyone other than Lloyd. "Your patch for my soul-circuitry is... adequate. My reaction time has improved by 0.4 seconds. It is acceptable work."
Eun-ha smiled. She knew Ben’s language. "Adequate" meant "Perfect."
"Keep him alive, Ben," she said. "He has a bad habit of trying to tank hits with his face."
"I am aware of his tactical deficiencies," Ben said dryly. "I will endeavor to keep his body intact. Though his brain... that might be beyond repair."
Lloyd scoffed. "Hey, I'm standing right here."
"I know," Ben said. "That is the problem."
Eun-ha reached out and took Lloyd’s hand one last time. Her skin was cold, but her grip was strong.
"Go, Evan," she said softly. "The Firefly Corporation is moving. The Lucifer Faction is waking up. You have a lot of work to do."
"I'll come back," Lloyd promised. "I'm going to build that containment suit. I'm going to find a way to bring you to the surface without the pressure killing you. I’m going to get you out of here."
"I believe you," she said. "Now go. Before I decide to keep you here and lock the door."
Lloyd squeezed her hand, then let go. He stepped back, moving toward the portal.
"Ben, move out," Lloyd ordered.
Ben walked through the portal first. He didn't look back. He just stepped through the shimmering light and vanished, ready to scout the other side.