With Jade forbidding Satou from marrying Nef, Alabaster suggests they depart for now. The Abyss King’s forces are massing and time is of the essence: Satou needs to collect them most rings as efficiently as possible. They can always come back and try again. Satou doesn’t like it, but defers to Alabaster’s reasoning.
But then an Abyss Knight opens a hole in the barrier large enough for his minions to flow through, and just like that Jade’s status quo is off the table. He tries his best to fight the Knight, but is woefully underpowered. When Satou tries to fight with just the Light Ring, it’s not enough, even with Alabaster, Marse, and the Elder supporting him.
Hime hates how she’s not enough on her own to provide the Ring King with sufficient power to defeat a Abyss Knight, but she hurries to Nef’s room and explains the situation. Satou isn’t putting his life on the line because it’s his duty as Ring King; he’s trying to protect Nef’s home. But he can only succeed if Nef inherits the ring and marries him.
Hime returns to the battle with Nef, both of them brandishing a giant warhammer they use to smash her petrified parents and free the wind rings. Nef dons her ring, then leaps onto Satou, kisses him, and slips the ring on his hand. While the wind barrier falls, with the power of light and wind Satou is able to destroy all of the minions and defeat the Abyss Knight.
He comes to flanked by his two wives, and soon meets Smaragdi, Nef’s aunt who left the village. Turns out the Abyss King used a black wind ring to trick her into becoming one of his knights, and Satou freed her. His reward is an awkward bath in the village’s healing springs, where Nef and the Elder almost convince Hime to make love to Satou right in front of them.
As for Smaragdi’s human lover of fifty years ago, it was Alabaster! He returns to her a necklace she gave him back then, but lies and says her lover is somewhere far away living comfortably. Either Alabaster feels he’s too old (despite Smaragdi being far older), or he’s too busy accompanying the Ring King to rekindle their romance.
Jade finally grows up and sees Nef off with a hug, and Nef joins Satou’s party as his second wife, a fact both Hime and Satou will probably continue to struggle with. On to the next princess!
