Takumi screwed up his eyes, trying to see through Rener's expression, examining if there is something hidden between his words. What eventually caught his attention were the tiniest details, so minute that not even Rener, an evil entity, had made aware of—the rapid eye shifting and the pale mouth twitching.

"Conceivably, the second soothsayer is no human, aye?" He had to ask right away. The time's running short. They only have at least half an hour before the sun sets—before the light fades away—before Kathleen's death.

A thin line is curved on Rener's lips. "Perhaps, a human seer who had proffered its life to a certain personification," he paused to breathe. "That human is Lada Proebrazhensky and she will show herself to a friend to carry out its death."

"She's still alive?" Tomoya gasped. "But I thought she died a long time ago?"
"Bad weeds don't die easily, I suppose?"

"Will she tell her about the portal?!" Theresa snapped as though she was about to stand to face Rener, but chose to sit still.

The arch demon's silent stares indicated a positive response. Theresa swallowed, nails digging through the couch's fine fabric. "Is there any other way to stop her?!" Her voice is bloodcurdlingly attenuated, fissured from obsolescence.

"There is and to do so, you must stop meddling with the other realm," Rener's intonation expressed strong influence.

"I-I don't understand," finally, Tomoya spoke. "If this Lada tells Kathleen—the friend—," he stressed. "If she tells her about the portal, doesn't that mean that she only wanted to help us in Shane's case? How would that lead to Kathleen's death?"

Rener turned towards the open window. Seeing that the sun has started to set, he spoke. "Devils get something in return for something. Lada knows your friend's obsession with the cursed, thus, she will reveal to her the idea of how to get the cursed back and that's through a portal."

He turned back to look at Takumi. "And your friend's life is the price of that information. If she meets with Lada today, she's done for."