Junpyo pov
"Wife?"
The word echoed—not in the room, but in the air itself.
Junpyo laughed, a sharp, disbelieving sound, and the holographic call shattered into fragments of blue light before dissolving. The chamber around him hummed softly, runes embedded in the glass walls pulsing with corporate sigils and ancestral magic.
In a world stitched together by power grids and bloodlines, the word still carried the same weight.
He turned away from the projection window, where the skyline of Neo-Incheon hovered beneath a violet sky. Sky-bridges connected towers like veins. Airships drifted silently. Somewhere far above, the storm domes adjusted their pressure, responding to unseen commands.
Vivian had crossed realms.
That alone should have been impossible.
He dragged a hand down his face, fingers brushing the neural implant at his temple. His parents didn't ask. They never had. In this dimension, authority wasn't enforced with words alone—it was coded into systems, contracts, magic bound to family names.
He remembered his father's threat, disown you, strip your sigil, erase your access.
A fate worse than exile.
Without his name, he would be no one. Locked out of the city, the archives, the skyways. Reduced to ground-level existence.
Junpyo stopped pacing and stared at his reflection in the glass. The mark on his wrist—his House Crest—glowed faintly, reacting to the summons already spreading through the network.
Vivian is here.
Of course she was.
Vivian didn't travel. She arrived. Dimensions adjusted for her. Probability bent. Doors opened that had never been meant to exist.
She was alignment made flesh.
He clenched his fist. "You don't get to decide my future," he muttered—to his parents, to the city, to fate itself.
But the city did not answer.
Instead, his comm-brace vibrated.
Jinho.
Junpyo activated the channel. His brother's image shimmered into place, slightly distorted by static from the upper sectors.
"They contacted you too," Junpyo said flatly.
Jinho nodded. "Father triggered the Binding Clause."
Junpyo swore under his breath. "He wouldn't dare."
"He already has," Jinho replied. "The family conclave is tomorrow. Both Houses. Vivian's line and ours."
Junpyo's jaw tightened. "She crossed dimensions without clearance."
Jinho hesitated. "That means the Elders approved it."
That landed harder than any threat.
"So it's already decided," Junpyo said.
"Unless you break the lattice," Jinho said quietly.
Junpyo looked away. Breaking the lattice meant rebellion. Collapse. War between Houses.
"I won't destroy the city for her," Junpyo said.
"No," Jinho agreed softly. "You'll destroy it for yourself."
A beat passed between them.
"Will you be there?" Junpyo asked.
Jinho didn't hesitate. "Always."
The channel closed.
Junpyo activated his travel sigil and stepped onto the sky-platform. Light wrapped around him as the system scanned his crest and transported him across sectors in a surge of displaced air.
The Arrival Gate glowed like a wound in reality.
And there she was.
Vivian stood at the threshold between dimensions, her silhouette framed by shifting light, her coat woven from fabrics that didn't exist in this realm. She looked untouched by the crossing—calm, radiant, inevitable.
When she saw him, her lips curved into a slow smile.
"Junpyo," she said, voice smooth as code sliding into place. "You came."
"I was summoned," he replied coldly. "There's a difference."
She stepped forward, the Gate sealing behind her with a low hum.," she said gently, "summons are invitations wearing armor."
He met her gaze, refusing to yield ground. "This doesn't bind me."
"Oh," Vivian said softly, eyes gleaming with quiet triumph. "It already has."
She lifted her wrist.
Their crests pulsed—synchronizing.
Junpyo felt it then. The system. The city. The ancient magic threading through bloodlines and contracts, adjusting itself around her presence.
Tomorrow, the conclave would seal it.
Vivian brushed past him, heels striking the platform with decisive finality.
"Welcome to the version of reality where you stop running," she said.
Junpyo watched the sky darken, storm domes shifting uneasily.
In every dimension, some wars were unavoidable.
And this one,
Had just begun.
They both entered the estate vehicle and drive away