Rener remained standing, merely raising a hand in polite refusal. “No need,” he said, his voice a low resonance that seemed to echo off the walls. “I’m only here for a little pep talk.”
“Pep talk?” Tomoya raised a brow, feigning confusion even as his mind raced, grasping for the direction of the conversation.
He knew all too well that Rener rarely appeared without purpose, and his visit now only served to confirm Tomoya’s darkest suspicions.
“What for?” he asked, his tone guarded. “And in case you’re here to see Takumi-niisan, he’s out.”
Rener shook his head slowly, his expression unchanging. “No,” he replied, his gaze sharp, “I came to speak with you personally.”
Tomoya’s guard rose, and he decided to press forward before Rener could steer the conversation further. “If you’re here to convince me to stop nii-san from opening the portal, you’ll be disappointed,” he said, his voice cool but unyielding. “Even if you’ve claimed his heart, his connection with Agatha can never be severed. Nothing will stop him from seeking her—not even the shadows of death, not even you.”
His words rang with defiance, but Rener’s face remained impassive, as though he had anticipated Tomoya’s response. The demon’s steady gaze suggested that, despite everything, he understood the depths of Tomoya’s resolve, and perhaps even respected it.
"I figured you’d say that,” Rener chuckled, a slight glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “I know that child too well. Once he’s decided on something, no force—not heaven or hell—will be able to sway him.”
His tone was light, but Tomoya sensed an underlying gravity, a weight of experience and fatalism. Rener’s casual assessment of Takumi’s resolve was unsettling, as if he had witnessed similar events spiral out of control countless times before.
“So, if you’re not here to try and stop us, then what?” Tomoya narrowed his eyes, searching for the demon’s motives. “Why bother coming to me at all?”
“To ask a favor,” Rener’s voice dropped, losing any trace of levity. There was a seriousness there, a faint hint of urgency.
Tomoya remained silent, but his raised brows betrayed his curiosity. A favor? What on earth could a demon possibly need from him? Rener’s presence alone raised too many questions, but this—this was something else.
“You may have already sensed certain… anomalies,” Rener began, his words laced with an almost maddening ambiguity. “Moments from the past might bleed into the present. A woman from your future may find herself in your past, creating fissures in time.”
His tone was laced with an arcane authority, a knowledge of the supernatural that stretched beyond what Tomoya could comprehend.
Tomoya felt a strange pressure in his mind, as though Rener’s words had unlocked a hidden corridor in his memory. It took a moment, but then it clicked—the woman he’d encountered before, the one who seemed out of place in every way.
“Dryzza?” he muttered, the name slipping from his lips before he fully realized it. Rener nodded slowly, his face grave.
“Yes. I will visit her dreams to show her a part of the past that binds us all—your past with Takumi and, to some degree, myself. I will use her to find the Mistress's grimoire for Takumi to use instead."
"So—" Tomoya tapped his chin, thinking. "The woman that was mixed with my memories is Dryzza—" he pointed to nowhere in particular yet Rener nodded. "That Dryzza? The detective Dryzza?"
Rener nodded again.
"But, how come she didn't seem to remember me? And you mentioned that you WILL appear in her dreams. Perhaps, she hasn't travelled back in time yet?"
"Exactly."
"But why am I having memories of her already? And why her exactly? You know damn well we're trying our hardest not to get too many people involved and that woman you're going involve is a goddamn officer," Tomoya hissed.
"Dryzza came from the lineage of priests and priestesses whose soul remained pure. Their prowess works in ways no demon nor human could comprehend. At the moment, she's the only one capable of facing the mistress."
Ahh! The Mistress. Tomoya could never argue to that, but still, he couldn't get the reason behind Dryzza'a involvement.
“I’m sorry… but why? What good would that do?”
He felt almost foolish asking, dwarfed by the demon’s towering presence and the weight of his words. But the stakes were too high for pride.
His mind strained under the implications of what Rener was suggesting; the event they're all involved was a twisted one, paved with secrets and bound by old oaths, and Tomoya needed to understand why Dryzza mattered now.
Rener stepped closer, looming over him like a dark omen. Tomoya, tall by any human standard, felt diminished before the former archdemon’s presence, as if his very essence shrank under the weight of ancient power.
“As I cannot deter you or Takumi from your path, I thought you might benefit from assistance—a grimoire, belonging to the Mistress Karamazov who once cared for Takumi, still buried within the ruins of your manor. Its pages hold secrets that may aid you,” Rener said.
His gaze was piercing, the subtle warning etched in every word. Tomoya's memory of the grimoire surfaced, as vivid as if it were before him now. Dryzza had been fixated on seeing it, as if it were the missing piece to a puzzle only she understood.
Rener’s tone turned ominous as he took a step closer, and Tomoya could almost feel the floor tremble beneath him, a reminder of the demonic force contained within this deceptive form.
“I believe you’re aware of the underground factions with their eyes on realms they ought not to enter,” Rener murmured, his voice chillingly low. “The portal you’re seeking to open isn’t just a door—it’s a vortex, a force that could drain everything around it. The cost, Tomoya, is unimaginable. Countless lives risk being drawn into its depths, wasted in an instant.”
Rener’s words echoed in the air, pressing against Tomoya like an unseen weight. He could barely manage a response, his mind straining to fully absorb the implications of Rener’s warning. There was a profound darkness in the demon’s tone, a knowing edge that cut through Tomoya’s resolve. He was no stranger to sacrifices, but the image Rener painted went beyond anything he had ever considered.
“The Mistress’s grimoire, though it may still bear its own risks in opening the portal, is infinitely less perilous than one forged in pure darkness."
Tomoya sighed, a weight settling over him. “So, what exactly are you proposing?”
Rener’s gaze brightened, revealing a glint of hope. “Dryzza alone has the affinity required to locate the Mistress’s grimoire; the charms within it are bound to her and her alone. But even so, only Takumi possesses the skill to open it. Once she has uncovered the book, your role will be to relieve her of it.”
“That,” Tomoya’s finger rose with clear disdain, “is downright ruthless. You can’t simply show yourself to her, reveal fragments of the past, send her to the past, and then make me seize it from her.”
Rener’s face remained unmoved, though a faint amusement shimmered in his eyes. “Collateral damage,” he murmured. “You’ll encounter her tomorrow night—wait for the right moment to reveal yourself.”
Rener took a deliberate step forward, his tall frame casting an imposing shadow over Tomoya. As his hand extended toward Tomoya’s shoulder, the air between them grew tense, thick with an almost tangible, otherworldly energy.
Tomoya stood still, caught in the weight of Rener's intense gaze, sensing the power radiating from the archdemon even before his touch made contact.
But just as Rener's fingers were about to graze Tomoya's shoulder, he began to dissolve, his form disintegrating like mist swallowed by shadows.
Dark smoke curled around his hand, spiraling upward in thin, wispy tendrils, and then burst into a fine, ethereal vapor. It hung momentarily in the air, swirling like an imprint of his presence, before dispersing into nothingness.
A chill remained where Rener had stood, as if the space itself bore traces of his dark aura. Tomoya exhaled slowly, half-expecting to hear a final word linger in the silence, but only the faint scent of something ancient and forbidden drifted through the air—a reminder of the enigmatic visitor who had vanished as if he were merely a ghost haunting the shadows.