Celestine stepped closer, her boots clicking lightly against the marble, the faint heat from the earlier fight still lingering in the air between them. For the first time since she had seen him in the darkness, the tension in her shoulders eased, the wariness in her gaze softening into something warmer... relief.

Aria was still clinging to Kaiser's neck, her feet not even close to the floor. Without a word, Celestine extended her arm toward him. Kaiser's own hand came up, catching hers in a firm clasp. The pressure was steady, unshaken, and for a brief moment, neither of them looked away.

"That smile suits you far more, Princess," Kaiser remarked, his voice calm, but laced with the faintest curl of amusement.

A flicker of color touched her cheeks before she could stop it. "Don't read too much into it," she said, though her tone lacked its usual sharpness. "It's just… good to see you."

Before the moment could stretch into something more, Ivan finally strode up, brushing imaginary dust from his shoulder like a man reporting in after a mission. "Sir," he said, with an exaggerated crispness that was only half in jest, "Everything you told me to do is done exactly to plan. And I'm ready for whatever comes next."

Kaiser's smile crept upward, a slow motion. "Great job," he said simply.

The praise hit harder than Ivan would admit out loud. His posture straightened, his grin finding a shade of pride that wasn't entirely for show.

It was plain to see, to anyone watching, that this group cared for Kaiser in a way that went beyond obligation. Celestine's guarded warmth, Aria's refusal to let go, Ivan's willingness to follow his word without question, each of them anchored to him in their own way.

And Kaiser, for his part, smiled as if the sight truly pleased him. It was a wide, bright thing, the kind of smile he rarely wore, genuine enough to almost seem out of place on his face.

Unfortunately, none of that joy came from them.

Yes, he was faintly pleased by their reaction, the little confirmations of loyalty and trust, but the true spark in his chest, the real satisfaction behind that expression, had nothing to do with his companions.

For nearly an hour, Kaiser had been robbing this place blind.

Maximilian's instructions had been simple and precise. The moment Kaiser appeared on the first floor of the sprawling mansion, he set to work, methodical and swift, sweeping through every accessible room and taking anything that might be worth even a fraction of its weight. Priceless pieces, rare materials, artifacts tucked behind false panels, all of it went into his new pouch without hesitation.

Once the lower floor was stripped clean, he moved to the second, though the pickings there were thinner. Most of the works in progress were half-finished, their value gutted by incompletion. Others, while technically intact, were pale imitations of true artistry, the kind of work that only earned worth through the name of the artist, and if that name wasn't on the piece, it might as well have been firewood.

He took what was worth taking, left the rest to gather dust, and finally slipped the emergency Vizbots into his eyes. It was the faint, flickering pull of Sol that drew him toward Celestine's location, marking where she'd crossed blades with the beast he'd heard from afar.

The path wasn't empty. He'd been attacked along the way by nearly a dozen of the same creatures. But for reasons he hadn't entirely puzzled out yet, they were nothing to him. Each one had fallen faster than the last, their claws glancing uselessly from his armor, their movements far too slow to threaten him.

He could feel it, the undeniable truth of it. He was stronger. Not by a small margin, not in a way that could be dismissed as luck or sharper reflexes. Something had shifted, and the gap between what he'd been and what he was now was wide enough to make him curious.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

In all honesty, his favorite person in this world at the moment was Kaiser Dios, and not far behind, Maximilian.

It was almost amusing to him, how well this game had played out so far. Two sides, both powerful, both useful, both blind to just how comfortably he sat between them. He had no need for drastic measures, no desperate gambles forced by circumstance.

And if Maximilian asked him outright to join the Unborn?

Well… he couldn't deny that the thought would at least give him pause.

What finally pulled him out of his thoughts was a sound, the faint, irregular clank of metal against metal. He turned his head just enough to catch it in the corner of his vision, the minute tremor in Celestine's posture. Her stance was steady enough to fool most, but her knees betrayed her.

His eyes traveled upward, and that was when he saw it, the golden shine in her irises, brighter than nature would allow. Sol sight. And for a fraction of a moment, she was frozen. Not in fear of him, not exactly, but in… he had no idea how to describe it.

Kaiser's brow lifted, just enough to invite her to speak, though he said nothing.

Her voice was low, edged with a kind of nervous awe. "What… happened to you?"

He tilted his head, a faint smile playing at the edge of his lips. "Nothing too substantial."

That answer didn't land. Her hand flexed at her side, the light in her eyes flaring just slightly before dimming again. "Your core," she said finally. "It's—Kaiser, it's beginning to evolve."

That caught even his own interest. "Is it?"

"Don't play coy," she muttered, but her gaze never left him. "I can see it. Little bursts of orange leaking through your Sol. You're close… far closer than you should be."

The grin that spread across his face this time had nothing to do with Maximilian, or the pouch at his side. This was personal. This was his.

"I suppose killing that Unborn did more than I expected," he said, his tone almost casual, though inside, the satisfaction burned hot. 'Even if Maximilian… helped keep the worst of it from touching me.'

Her lips parted just enough to take in a steady breath, the kind someone drew when they were turning a thought over from every angle before committing it to words. At last, she gave a slow, measured nod, as though she were tucking the revelation away for a time when it might matter even more.

"Your core…" she began, her voice low, almost reluctant, "Was already sitting at roughly eighty percent of its maximum efficiency before this Tale even started. That last twenty percent…" She trailed off, her eyes holding his like she wanted to make sure he understood the weight of what she was saying. "For most Liberators, closing that gap is the hardest part of the journey. It's a climb that takes years, even for the gifted."

Kaiser's gaze sharpened. "And you?"

A faint breath escaped her, not quite a sigh, not quite a laugh, and she admitted, without the slightest hint of vanity, "One month. And that was considered… really fast."

His smirk spread. "Then you should already know," he said, voice low but edged with certainty, "I'm not like most people. And if what you've just told me is true…" He tilted his head slightly, eyes never leaving hers. "Then you should understand exactly what that means."

Ivan, who had been unusually quiet, now looked at him like he was seeing something carved from legend. Whatever thoughts he'd had about Kaiser before, this was different... More reverent, almost grudgingly impressed.

Kaiser finally glanced toward Aria, though her face was hidden against the curve of his neck. "You all right?"

Her voice came muffled. "Ignore me for a little longer."

He gave a single, accepting nod as if that was the most natural request in the world, and patted her back once.

His tone sharpened, though it still carried the edge of amusement. "Lets not focus on that for much longer. As soon as you used Sol sight, you must have noticed it, that sickening yellow trail. And if I'm not mistaken, it isn't Sol, it's more like pure… energy. Coming from somewhere in this house."

Celestine inclined her head, confirming without words.

Ivan's reaction, however, was anything but measured. "Yellow? You're telling me it's yellow? That's Angel Sol." His voice pitched higher, the easy confidence cracking. "You're saying an Angel's here?"

Kaiser shook his head slowly, the motion making Aria sway slightly where she hung. "That's why I said energy, not Sol."

Celestine crossed her arms, the thoughtful frown returning. "It's… unnatural. Wrong in a way that doesn't feel like corruption, but…" She glanced down the empty corridor, the sound of their breathing the only thing left between the walls. "This house is too strange. If someone above Saint was here, the whole place would be drowning in their Sol. You'd feel it before you even crossed the threshold."

Her eyes flicked to Kaiser. "Even you're swallowing this part of the hallway with your Sol right now, it's everywhere. But this…" She shook her head. "This is a thread, and it's leading somewhere."

He could see it too. Faint, like a filament stretched taut, pulling them forward through the unseen.

Neither of them said it out loud, but the question was already forming between them: why? Why had the death of an Unborn left this behind, and why had it led them here?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.