Chapter 402: Realization—Song & Abbadon
A force surged through their minds, an incomprehensible feedback loop that crashed into them with violent intensity. The shockwave sent their consciousness reeling, and before they could even process what had happened—
A sharp, wet cough escaped Yssandra Seraphine's lips. Faelan swayed slightly, his own chest tightening. A bitter taste filled their mouths.
Blood.
Instinctively, they stifled their reactions, swallowing the pain as their rings flared with a soft green glow. The healing magic surged through them, knitting their inner wounds before anyone could notice.
But the damage was done.
They had glimpsed nothing, yet suffered as if they had dared to look into something beyond reason.
How do you explain that?
How do you explain that you can look into the secrets of the most dangerous beings in existence—rulers of the realm—yet a teenage dragon had just struck them down with nothing but his mere presence?
Their minds recoiled from the implications.
They had obviously underestimated him.
The question now was—what could they do?
Tell their parents? Maybe.
At the very least, their father, the Emperor of the Elves, deserved a heads-up before his confrontation with Pyris. Because knowing him—calm, just, and composed as he was—there was one thing he would never tolerate.
Someone openly flirting with his wife.
And Pyris had done exactly that. What had started as mere curiosity led them to a shocking bitter fact.
_____
After dealing with the assassins, Song and Abaddon regrouped, stepping into a secluded location away from prying eyes. The air between them was tense but familiar—like warriors who had seen too much together to be formal but still knew their place in the hierarchy.
Song reached into his robes and pulled out a small glass ball, the surface shimmering faintly with locked energy. Without hesitation, he handed it to Abaddon.
Abaddon took it with a slight bow. Respectful. Measured.
Song's eyes twitched.
"Don't do that shit."
Abaddon blinked, straightening slightly. "Do what?"
"That. The bowing." Song crossed his arms. "You're a married man, Abaddon. What would Shez think if she saw you bowing to me? Huh?" He narrowed his eyes. "Do you want my little sister calling me a bully again?"
Abaddon almost choked on his laughter, but he managed to keep it together. "She wouldn't—"
"She would."
Abaddon exhaled, a slow, knowing sigh. "…She did once."
"Exactly." Song jabbed a finger at him. "And how long did she sulk over it?"
"…A few centuries."
"A few centuries." Song gave him a deadpan look. "And you want to go through that again?"
Abaddon chuckled, shaking his head. "While on duty, I have to bow to my superior. All family relations can come after my job is done."
"Yeah? Then why don't you tell her that when she gets mad at me?" Song smirked, watching Abaddon's face twitch slightly. "Oh wait, you don't. Because you value your life too."
The Phantoms laughed, a rare moment of levity between them.
But Song was already moving on.
He waved a dismissive hand. "Take the assassins to the lab in Sunstone Young Miss Alexa clearly has a plan for them."
Abaddon's amusement faded, replaced with his usual stoic professionalism. He nodded once before vanishing into thin air, his shadow flickering like an afterimage before completely disappearing.
Song sighed, rubbing his temple.
He didn't understand why Alexa was collecting these assassins when they should be eliminating them on sight.
But he knew better than to question a Seer's reasoning.
And besides—dealing with these pests wasn't difficult.
With a single wave of his hand, he had created a mirror dimension, nullifying the assassins' attacks before they could even reach the four royals and Pyris.
They had never stood a chance.
And now, Abaddon was delivering them to whatever fate Alexa had planned.
_____
Alexa stood at the large window of the waiting room, her golden eyes darkened as she watched everything unfold beyond the glass.
From here, high above the grand hall, she could see the enormous countdown screen dominating the far wall, its numbers ticking down with mechanical precision. The air buzzed with anticipation—developers, executives, and hand-picked elites gathered below, murmuring in hushed excitement.
Tonight was supposed to be a celebration, the culmination of years of work, the launch of the most anticipated game in Argos's history. A game that promised to change everything.
But to Alexa, this night was nothing short of a nightmare.
Her fingers curled into fists at her sides. She'd been on edge for days now, ever since she woke up from that cursed encounter with the Light Goddess. She had refused her will, and the backlash had been unlike anything she'd ever experienced.
While her body lay unconscious, her mind had been trapped in a hellscape—watching everything she loved burn, collapse, and rot before her eyes.
Pyris, the one person who had always stood strong, had fallen the hardest. She had seen him break, seen the unbearable losses that twisted him into something unrecognizable. He hadn't just ruled—he had conquered, consumed, crushed. The mortals had whispered his name in fear, their prayers empty and desperate. Even the cruelest tyrants of history would have run from the monster he became.
And it hadn't even taken the gods to push him there. He had done it himself, driven by grief and rage so deep it poisoned the very air around him.
Pyris, her Pyris, was buried beneath grief so immense that it shattered the very essence of who he was, the losses had already piled so high that nothing remained of the person she once knew. He became something else. Something monstrous.
A ruler—not just of one kingdom, but of everything. A tyrant whose reign made history's worst despots look like children playing pretend. If they had seen him, they would have fled. The thought of it, the raw weight of that vision, made her breath hitch in her throat.
And now, here she was, standing in a waiting room as the world carried on, blissfully unaware of what had been supposed to be happening right now had changed thanks to her.
She sighed.
There was more.