THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS VIOLENCE THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR SOME READERS.
Damon departed Earth after ensuring proper temporary goodbyes and a promise to Natsuki to always return. However, things escalated faster on Woewyn than expected. Wayyyy faster. As soon as Damon landed on Woewyn he saw Cythera.
"Ready?" she asked. Her voice firm, carrying seriousness in dignity.
"Yeah." He replied. Cloning her tone.
THE THRONE ROOM — PRESENT (AFTER CAPTURE)
The throne room was silent.
Lady Seraphine knelt in chains, her wrists bound, her cloak shredded and streaked with soil and drying blood. The Tutors stood in their cold semicircle—Varnex tense, Thorpax unreadable, Draven carved from shadow, and Bravira like a blade sheathed by will alone.
Tolrex watched with calculating eyes. Cythera and Mirea stood at the edge, backs straight, but their expressions were tight with suppressed emotion.
Queen Thessa sat above them all. Her Light Eterna coiled in her presence like a living crown, her gaze sharp enough to peel truth from bone.
Damon stepped forward.
The Queen rested her back against the throne. "Speak, Damon. How did you find her?"
He lowered his head, and the flashback cut through him like a blade drawn from its sheath.
FLASHBACK — TWO DAYS BEFORE THE VELMIRA WAR
The school bell rang across the courtyard. Students spilled out like waves—post-festival chatter, nervous war rumors, and the hum of Eterna in the air. Damon stood alone beneath the crystal archway, eyes scanning the crowd until he spotted two familiar silhouettes: Cythera and Mirea.
He waved gently. They spotted him and walked over.
"Come with me," he said quietly.
Something in his tone made them follow without question. He led them past the gardens, past laughing students, to the old pillars—where the light dimmed and shadows wrapped the edges like a curtain.
Cythera tilted her head. "What's this about?"
Damon exhaled, steady but troubled. "When I first arrived in Woewyn… my mother told me something. There's a spy in the kingdom. A traitor, perhaps."
Both of them froze. Mirea whispered, "A spy? Here?"
Damon nodded once. "Someone who told Gamishi I was born. That's why he attacked when he did. To kill me. And the reason my father died trying to send Gamishi back."
Silence pressed in. Cythera crossed her arms. "So you want to find him?"
"Yes. But it might not be a man."
Mirea swallowed. " Why do you say so? And what do you need from us?"
"Lior."
Both girls blinked in confusion, then looked at each other.
Damon continued, "He came to sit beside us the other day, remember? But he wasn't watching us; he kept staring at Daichi." He tapped his chest lightly, and Daichi, in his small form, peeped out of his pocket. "Tolrex once told me the King's—my father's—dog-wolf bond lives in Daichi. And that ability he had… sensing intent… it might've passed on. Maybe he—"
Cythera frowned as she cut him off. "Damon, that's an extremely wild hunch. You'd need serious evidence. Accusations in Woewyn are—"
"I know." His tone didn't waver. "That's why I checked myself."
Mirea blinked. "You checked—how?"
"Bravira's currently teaching me how to become invisible during our training. Not just the body— our Ki too."
"You told her about this?" Mirea asked firmly.
He shook his head. "I didn't tell her the other reasons I wanted to learn it. I didn't lie, but… I didn't tell her it was for this. I shadowed Lior after school. He didn't sense me. And I recorded what happened."
"Recorded?" Mirea echoed. "With what?"
"Earth tech." He pulled out his phone. "It's called a phone. You can talk to people with it. And record."
He tapped the screen and a video played.
Lior was entering his home, shoulders tense. Lady Seraphine stood before a fire, her back turned, her posture too still to be humanly calm.
"Report," she said on the recording.
Lior stammered. "I—I got near the prince, but I couldn't get enough information on his bond—I—"
"You failed," she said. The words were like a blade dipped in ice. She turned water into a whip in her hand and struck him. Again and again.
Mirea covered her mouth, eyes wide. Cythera clenched her fists. Seraphine's voice hissed through the phone speakers: "If you make even the slightest noise, I'll kill her."
Cythera whispered, "Her? Who?"
"I don't know," Damon said quietly. "But there's someone else. Someone she's threatening."
Lady Seraphine continued until she stopped. Then: "If you tell anyone about this, or you fail again... I will kill you both."
The recording ended. Damon brought out a rectangular glass—the Eildon Archive he'd won from the Trineum festival. He scrolled and showed them the screen.
"Lady Seraphine was basically non-existent until my mother became pregnant. She was just a normal guard until she was suddenly promoted to protect my mother."
"Suddenly vital," Cythera said, eyes on the screen.
"Suddenly everywhere," Mirea added.
Cythera looked sick. "It makes sense. But Damon, it's not enough. Just showing her beating Lior doesn't prove she was actively working with Gamishi. Besides, why would she want to know if Daichi had unlocked his true intent ability?"
"So she can keep a distance from me whenever Daichi's around," Damon explained. "If she's about to strike, she wouldn't want him to sense her."
Mirea nodded. "That is true, but we will need more."
Damon turned to her. "Mirea… Cythera and I will be fighting during the war. You're the only one who would be able to watch Lady Seraphine while we're gone."
She blinked. "Do what? How do you expect me to walk around during a war?"
Cythera stared at Damon, then realization painted itself on her face. She remembered him negotiating with Velmira. "Ah. So that's why you asked Velmira to let the war happen on the hovering planets rather than on Woewyn. So it'd be safe for Mirea to follow."
"That's one of the reasons," Damon shrugged. He gave Mirea his phone. "Track her. Record everything."
"How do I hide my Ki? I don't use light, so I can't turn invisible," Mirea questioned.
"Hiding your Ki is… it's a long and painful process to mastery. But this camera lens stretches far so you can keep a safe distance."
"Alright, Damon. I'll help." She took the phone from him.
His eyes softened. "Be careful. Lady Seraphine is at the Aegis stage."
Mirea scoffed lightly, masking her fear. "She's only one stage above me. I'll be fine."
That same night, Damon went to his mother. He stood with Queen Thessa on her balcony, the night wind brushing his hair. They talked about school today, Natsuki's birthday, how he almost killed her.
"Damon I know you can't control it, I hate that you have it at all. But please... promise me you would be careful. You had two weeks on Earth to rest I have no idea why you would train two seconds after a war."
She paused. Stared deep into his blue ocean of mirrors her son called his eyes as he turned face down and she noticed, she understood.
"Actually, I do have an idea." She admitted. Damon smiled slightly, turning his head forward, as if in response to her understanding.
Silence stretched. Then...
"I think... I think I can find the spy," Damon blurted.
"Which spy are we talking about, Damon?" she asked, turning to him.
"The one you told me about. The one who told Gamishi when I was born."
Her eyes sharpened. "I've been investigating that too."
He bowed his head. "I think I have already found them even. But I do need your permission to do anything though."
She laughed calmly. "Alright, Damon. You have it—only if you promise to give your mother hugs occasionally."
He hugged her. "Deal."
AFTER THE WAR
In Mirea's room, the three of them sat around Damon's floating archive screen. Mirea's hands trembled as she opened her recordings.
"Seraphine met with someone," she said. "A man. He looked like he was from our old history books on Inferno and the Twin Planes— Multiverse and Eternum."
"Aren't there books about Nirvana?" Damon questioned.
"No. We only know about the Eternal One from mentions of his actions in writings of Inferno and the Twin Planes." Cythera explained.
"Alright then." Damon opened Eildon. "Describe him in a couple words, Eildon will do the searching."
A page lit up. The man was tall and lean, built for precision. His skin was cracked with molten-red lines—anger sealed under glass. His crimson irises were ringed in black, like a flame caught mid-flicker. His smile like that of a jester.
From his physical attributes you could already determine his personalities, don't judge a book by the cover doesn't work here. Damon thought.
Name: Rebellion.
Function: Chronisoul. (Meaning unknown)
Status: Formerly under Kroxus. Now under Gamishi.
"Wait. Mom told me nobody was sure who ruled hell now, right? Because the only way to restore balance since Kroxus has been bound is for Gamishi to take his throne. This confirms it." Damon said.
"Not only have we found a spy but we've made an uncertainty certain." Cythera added.
Mirea played the video. Lady Seraphine meeting rebellion. She inhaled. "I couldn't get audio, but I swear I heard him say—'Thank you for your service to Inferno.' And he promised her a reward."
Cythera stood sharply. "That's enough. Lets take it to the Queen."
THE THRONE ROOM — PRE-SERAPHINE CAPTURE
Damon bowed before Bravira. "I'm sorry, Bravira. For not telling you the other reason I wanted to learned Invisibility and Hollow Aria. If you want to punish me—"
Bravira's voice was dominant. "Show us the recordings. Then we'll see."
The videos flickered to life. The whip, the threats, the meeting with Rebellion. After watching it Bravira and Queen Thessa both turned their backs, silhouettes aligned.
"He's good," Bravira whispered. "He's really good," the Queen murmured back.
They turned around. Bravira crossed her arms. "Your intentions were good. No punishment except harder training."
Queen Thessa lifted a hand. "Draven, could you bring in Lior. Quietly."
Moments later, Lior was brought in—trembling.
"I didn't do anything. What's going on here? Why—"
The Queen snapped a finger, and Lior's shirt tore, revealing fresh whip wounds. She descended the dais and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You don't have to lie," she said gently. "We know."
Lior broke. "Please—she'll kill my sister. You can't approach her at all. She said she'd drown her!"
"You have a sister?" Queen Thessa questioned, suprised.
"Yes. Seraphine wiped her name from birth records but please, anything you do can put my sister in danger. So please... don't approach Seraphine." Lior begged.
"She is a traitor and has threatened my blood. She will be dealt with but rest assured, we will protect your sister ," Thessa promised.
"Lior." Damon said and Lior turned to him with trembling eyes that moved as if they still needed their 3rd and 4th scopes. "I'm sorry about all this but, we still need your help if we're going to catch her, and minimise danger."
"I'll do it as long as my sister isn't hurt. I'm tired of Seraphine, I can't take her anymore." Lior confessed.
Lior was used as bait. They lured Seraphine out to the open road, where citizens hid behind whatever they could after seeing attacks and knights and Tutors surrounding her. In desperation, Seraphine held a sphere of water over a young girl's face.
"Move," she hissed, "or I'll send the water straight into her brain. Best you answer quick, as you can see she can't breath."
The Tutors seemed unbothered and strangely calm. The Queen moved like a streak of light. A crack of displaced air, and Seraphine screamed as blood burst from her eye. The girl was suddenly safe in Thessa's arms.
PRESENT — THE JUDGMENT
Seraphine knelt on the marble.
"Bring her," The Queen ordered.
Draven and Thorpax lifted Seraphine by the arms and led her toward a heavy iron door at the end of a quiet corridor. Inside, there were no torture devices. Just blank stone walls and a chair. It was a place built for Truth.
She hissed, but she didn't resist. Her composure had cracked — terror leaking through every shiver of her lips because she knew she was about to face a being far worse.
Damon watched silently. Not triumphant. Just… steady and resolute.
Draven muttered under his breath, "Sometimes I forget…"
Thorpax snorted quietly. "Forget what?"
"That the Queen has that kind of body."
Damon blinked — then understood what he meant when the door opened behind them.
Queen Thessa stepped inside. She had removed her royal robes. She wore a mythical black combat bodysuit—sleeveless, seamless, elegant. Her shoulders were carved by centuries of battle. Her silver-white hair was bound back like a comet's trail. She didn't look like the ruler of a kingdom. She looked like the blade that built it.
Even Seraphine stopped breathing for a moment.
"Chain her."
Draven and Thorpax lifted Seraphine's arms overhead, locking her wrists in the restraints. She stood trembling — not from pain, but anticipation.
"P-please…" Seraphine whispered, voice raw. "Anyone but the Queen… please… not her…"
Thessa didn't respond. She stepped in front of her. Her aura deepened — not loud, not violent — but crushingly absolute, like the cold of deep ocean water pressing from every direction.
Her hand rose— And she struck Seraphine across the face. Not to injure her. Not even to bloody. But with precision meant to shatter spirit, not a bone. A sharp crack filled the chamber — clean, controlled, echoing like a judge's gavel.
Seraphine gasped, head snapping to the side. Not bleeding. Not broken. But trembling so violently the chains rattled.
"Silence... Your terror has only begun." Thessa said. Not loud. Not emotional. Just law. Her blue eyes shun brighter.
Seraphine swallowed hard, trying to pull breath into lungs that no longer obeyed her. Thessa lifted her chin with two fingers, forcing her to meet blue eyes bright with cold, righteous fury.
"You threatened a child," the Queen said. "You betrayed your oaths. You endangered my kingdom. And you dared touch my blood." Her voice did not rise. It didn't need to. The room shrank around every word.
Seraphine shook her head wildly. "I— I didn't mean— I was promised—"
Thessa struck her again — not harder, not crueler — but with the same unyielding strength.
The air itself recoiled.
Seraphine's knees buckled, breath hitching into a panicked sob. She could feel it now — the weight of a Queen who never used her full strength, because if she did, there'd be nothing left to punish. She tried to look at Damon.
"Look at him again," Thessa said quietly, "and I will remove your privilege of sight."
Seraphine froze still as stone. The Queen stepped back, aura shifting — cold, vast, inevitable.
Damon straightened.
He knew what was coming next. Not violence. Not cruelty. It was Judgment. A verdict delivered by a mother who protects her children and her kingdom without hesitation. And no amount of begging could stop that kind of justice.
The Queen closed the door. Hours passed as screams echoed.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
What's dripping? There's no water system in there. Damon thought.
"I raised my children to be kind souls. You have learnt what happens when someone threatens that."
The door creaked open. The Queen emerged, her knuckles clean, her beauty unmatched. She still smelled of Woewyn's roses.
"Magnificent as always, My Queen," Thorpax praised, bowing with Draven.
"Come with me, Damon," Thessa said. "Let us talk."