The letter in her hands felt heavier than it should. Her grip tightened as she read, the ground beneath her threatening to give way. She didn't even know who this Varyon was—nor the sender, whose words had never reached their intended recipient.
Still, the ink on the page carried a weight she couldn't ignore.
To,My dear Varyon,
It's been a long time, hasn't it? How have you been? And your son? I hope you haven't changed much—if you have, maybe I wouldn't feel half as miserable as I do now.
To be honest...
I miss you two.
The reason for this letter is pretty simple, you know?
Kaia's fingers clenched around the fragile paper. Her pulse drummed in her ears, a storm rising in her chest.
What is this…?
She forced herself to read on.
The time has come.
We are about to sacrifice Yona.
Our children are now old enough—capable of holding the power of Luminara.
Kaia's breath hitched. Yona?
Why her name is here? What do they want?
The ink seemed to darken as she read further, the words clawing into her mind.
Well, to be exact... it's just as I told you ages ago.
Remember our talks about Luminara Halcyon? One of the Ashen Heralds?
I spent years searching, experimenting, trying—and I succeeded. At last.
But...
During the extraction, the Luminara manifested itself—in the form of a four-year-old girl.
I raised her for two years. By myself.
And finally, I brought her to my Luminara production farm.
Kaia felt the world tilt.
A farm?
Her stomach twisted violently.
The letter continued, its tone eerily casual.
Did you fall out of your seat or something? I can already imagine it.
.
.
.
.
Kaia's fingers trembled as she reached the final lines.
And then—there it was.
A name.
A name that had been burned into her mind for as long as she could remember.
Your lovingly,Uriel…
Kaia's thoughts churned as she looked at Zareth, who stood stiffly, his gaze flickering with unease. Slowly, she rose to her feet, deliberate in her movements, as if savouring the weight of the moment.
Zareth's shoulders tensed, but Yona still had him in her grasp.
Luminara Halcyon. That was who Yona truly was.
He and Solomon had never known.
Kaia walked past him, and something in the air shifted. It was subtle, but Zareth felt it. An unnatural stillness settled over everything, thick and oppressive, as if the very space around them was holding its breath. His eyes locked onto Kaia, watching as she ascended the stairs, her crimson gaze glinting under the dim, flickering light.
Then, with a slow, measured grace, she reached the throne and sat. Her fingers curled under her temple, her leg crossed over the other, exuding nothing but absolute control.
The moment she settled into place, the world responded.
The walls groaned before splintering apart, cracks slithering across the surface like living veins. The blue flames that had illuminated the throne room flickered violently, twisting and writhing—then, without warning, they shifted.
Blue turned to red.
The fire bled into an ominous crimson, licking the crumbling stone with a slow, deliberate hunger. The throne room itself distorted, the space stretching and warping as if something far beyond human comprehension was pressing against the fabric of reality.
Then, everything fell away. Just the throne left.
Zareth's breath caught as he turned, his wings half-spread as his mind tried to grasp what was happening. The throne room was gone. In its place, an endless barren wasteland stretched into the abyss, jagged cliffs rising like the ribs of some ancient, long-dead beast. The air grew thick with something unseen, something unnatural.
And then—he saw them.
Dark figures, hundreds, no—thousands of them, lurking in the distance. Giants, grotesquely tall with skeletal frames and unnaturally long limbs, their bodies bent and contorted in ways that defied nature. They weren't there before. They stood motionless, their heads tilted at angles that shouldn't be possible, their jagged teeth barely visible behind stretched, skinless lips.
They weren't the only ones.
Beasts slithered between them, their eyes glowing with swirling black voids, their forms shifting in and out of focus, as if they weren't entirely bound to this plane. Some had too many limbs. Others had none at all. Their very existence felt wrong.
And all of them had illuminating bodies, glowing with soft white glow, perfectly synchronising with the midnight blue background.
Zareth swallowed hard, the weight of their silent presence crawling beneath his skin.
"What… are they?" he muttered.
The words barely left his lips before Kaia's voice cut through the suffocating air.
"Zareth."
His heart jerked violently in his chest. He turned, but Kaia wasn't looking at him. Her gaze was distant, calm—too calm.
"The reason you weren't told to kill Yona here was—"
Before she could finish, a whisper curled against his ear.
"Because that sword… or whatever weapons you people forged…"
Yona's voice was gentle, almost teasing, but something about it made his stomach twist. Her fingers traced along his wings, her presence far too close.
"They're useless here."
A slow smile tugged at her lips, her shadowed eyes glinting with something unreadable.
"Those weapons can't overpower the real powers of the Luminara within this domain."
Zareth's instincts screamed at him to move. He didn't think—his wings snapped open, and he launched himself backward, putting as much distance as he could between himself and Yona.
"This isn't fair!"
The words tore from his throat, frustration rising in him like bile. But as soon as he spoke—
Kaia raised her hand.
Zareth barely registered the motion—then everything changed.
A presence. No—many.
A weight crushed the air around him, thick and suffocating. His lungs clenched, struggling to pull in breath.
Something was here.
Something was close.
His pulse slammed against his ribs as he forced himself to turn, his breath caught somewhere between his throat and his lungs.
They were there.
Right behind him.
His vision blurred. His mind recoiled.
No. No, no, no.
They had been far away. He had seen them—he had watched them stand at a distance. He knew exactly where they had been.
Yet now—without a single sound, without a single shadow shifting—
They had reached him.
He couldn't move. His body refused. His wings twitched, but his limbs were locked in place, frozen by the sheer, indescribable horror sinking its claws into his mind.
Then—he heard it.
Breathing.
Soft. Quiet.
But not his own.
His vision darted to the side, catching the slightest movement in his periphery. One of them—a creature with an elongated, black spiralling face, its mouth stretching far too wide—
It was breathing in time with him.
Mimicking him.
They all were.
A slow exhale, perfectly synchronized. A delicate rise and fall of their grotesque forms, as if they had only just stopped moving the moment Kaia had lifted her hand.
The realization came crashing down.
They hadn't suddenly appeared.
They had always been moving.
But they were so fast, so silent, so impossibly precise that his mind had failed to register them.
If Kaia hadn't stopped them, they would have—
His pulse nearly stopped.
His eyes darted wildly, searching for Solomon, for anyone—
But Solomon was gone.
That bastard had escaped.
And Zareth had not.