CHAPTER 77
The translucent window floated before her like a tear-stained memory, glowing softly with ancient runes.
Aeria stood still, blood and ash clinging to her skin. The night around her was deathly silent. Her mother's voice still lingered in her ears, but it was only an echo now-one that would never answer back.
She dropped to her knees, the weight of grief finally cracking the walls she built around her heart.
Under the moonlight, Aeria wept. She wept for her mother's final breath.
For the home she lost. For the guilt that clawed at her-leaving Sorayael behind, abandoning the one person she once swore to protect.
For days, she didn't eat. Didn't speak. Just sat by the riverbank near the hollow tree they once visited as children, staring into nothing. The only thing that kept her breathing was the quiet whisper of purpose gifted by the stars.
One week later, she rose and she began to walk.
She found Sorayael again-not in the sunlight, but in the shadowed corners. Quiet, hidden, unseen. She tracked her across borders, schools, forests. She watched from rooftops and alleyways, erasing her presence as the guild master taught her.
And she was proud.
Sorayael was no longer that little girl clinging to a broken world-she was fierce, blooming. A leader. She had friends now, laughter Aeria hadn't heard in years. She even had... a crush.
???_?? - Aeria at that moment.
She rolled her eyes when she first caught on. Then smiled. But not before secretly investigating every person Sorayael spoke to. Every classmate, every noble, every heir. Aeria left no one unchecked-because she couldn't allow a second mistake.
'I don't fully trust them. Mahilig pa namang magtiwala ang isang 'to.'
She needed to be sure Sorayael was safe and no one would turn their back when Sorayael would be in danger.
But then... she found something.
A pattern. A hint in a report. A face from the archives of the old war.
One of Sorayael's friends-Silas-wasn't who he claimed to be.
'Not yet...' she thought. 'She's not awakened fully yet. If I tell her now-'
The translucent window appeared again.
"Warning. Revealing the bearer's future before full awakening will result in constellation backlash. Punishment: Power revoked. Lifeline terminated."
They would kill her.
The stars, though her allies, were not merciful. Destiny had its own cruel rules.
So she remained silent.
'I don't know why this kind of matter needs to be kept..' Even though she doesn't fully understand the constellations, she still follows them.
She buried the truth beneath grit and teeth, watching Sorayael laugh beside the one who would one day plunge a dagger into her trust.
But it wasn't just Silas. Aeria had a feeling that there was someone behind Silas' back. She requested the Guild Aletheria to investigate Silas. Aeria and the Guild kept digging and unearthed something far worse.
Alexander Franca Olinze. The former hero. The one they once admired from afar, just like the world did.
He wasn't planning to help Sorayael. In the first place, he attacked Sorayael and she found out that the person Sorayael killed isn't the real Alexander but a fake one, a clone.
'He was planning to kill her.' she thought.
She dug much deeper and realized something.
All the threads led back to him-the hushed alliances, the corrupted constellations, the early whispers in the Emperor's ear. He had been behind it all. The war. The crown. The deaths.
'It was him,' Aeria realized. 'He lit the first flame. He turned the Emperor into what he is now.'
Fury burned in her veins like molten light.
She also found out about what happened to Sorayael's parents when she stumbled upon Krios in a room with a maid and they were listening to something.
'This fcker..'
That was when she decided to help Krios. He stood in the ruins of an old battleground, fists clenched, aura burning gold-red like wildfire.
Aeria stepped out from the shadows, eyes cautious. "You want to kill him, don't you?"
Krios turned, startled-but did not raise his sword. "Who are you?"
Krios saw her face and realized it was her sister's best friend.
Krios looked away, jaw tight. "He took everything from me. From us. My mother. My sister's joy. My childhood. I want him dead."
His eyes narrowed. "Why are you helping me?"
She paused, her throat thick.
'Aunt Eira was just like my mom. They were both weak and still, she took care of us, Sorayael.'
And in that moment, the two who had both lost everything... made a silent pact.
To burn down the monster who started it all.
..........
The cold wind whistled through the shattered corridor as Aeria stood face-to-face with the man who burned her life to ash.
Now he smirked beneath the flickering torchlight. "Ah. So the shadow finally steps into the light."
She lunged.
Their clash echoed like thunder, magic striking against corrupted force. Aeria wielded her twin blades imbued with wind and flame-her constellation gifts-but Alexander, despite the soul-scar Sorayael once left him, moved like a specter, every strike precise and ruthless.
He was fast.
'Too fast.' - Aeria
Even with the power of the constellation flowing through her limbs, Aeria stumbled back, blood at the edge of her lip. "Damn it..."
Alexander chuckled. "Your rage makes you predictable."
She screamed, unleashing half of her constellation's full might. A torrent of fire surged into a cyclone, the ground cracking beneath the pressure. Alexander was pushed back-his cloak burned, his arm scorched.
But it wasn't enough.
He surged forward, slashing through her defense. Her blade flew from her hand.
But before it could fall-
Krios blocked it with his own blade, golden aura crackling violently.
'I don't know if your sister will be happy if she heard you cussed, little Krios.' Aeria thought and laughed in the back of her head.
"Tell Alexander Olinze that I'm not my sister's shadow... I'm her reckoning."
Krios watches the dog of Alexander to escape but he's too slow.
'tsk!'
KRIOS plunged his blade into Alexander's abdomen.
AERIA unleashed her flames into his chest.
Alexander screamed as his body convulsed, the soul scar reigniting and consuming him from the inside out.
He fell-burning, gasping.
Meanwhile, on the side of Sorayael..
At the heart of the Aethelgard Palace, Sorayael stepped into the light of the astral gate.
The Emperor stood at the center of the ritual circle, the summoning sigils pulsing. The Dream Magic-a volatile power from a corrupted fallen star-coiled around him like living shadows.
Lyrenna stepped beside Sorayael, eyes narrowed.
The Emperor raised a hand, calling upon the Dream Magic, tendrils reaching toward Lyrenna's mind. "Sleep, dear sister. Return to the fog and forget everything."
But Sorayael moved first. She didn't scream nor falter.
She focused her Auctoritas into the situation they were in.
Auctoritas flared like a second sun-golden light cutting through the fog, halting the Dream Magic before it reached Lyrenna.
The Emperor hissed. "No-!"
Sorayael's voice rose above the hum of power. "I trust them. The people behind me. I don't need to carry everything alone anymore."
She once thought she'd walk this path of revenge alone, fueled by anger and determination.
But with each passing day, she learned to lean on others, to trust and rely.
The weight of her quest slowly lifted, as she realized she didn't have to face it all by herself.
Someone stood beside her, sharing the burden, and together they forged a new path forward.
The Auctoritas pulsed outward-resonating across the battlefield. Even the stars above seemed to shimmer in response.
Lyrenna smiled faintly. "I suppose I owe you now."
And with a flick of her hand, Lyrenna summoned her true strength-the raw, unbridled power of the twin of the former Astral General. Her hair flared like stardust, her body glowing with celestial sigils. The ground beneath her feet cracked.
'Didn't think I would use this in the world of humans.'
From the Astral Realm's lofty heights, she gazed upon the mortal world, her curiosity piqued by the fate of her twin, cast out and left to navigate the human realm.
As she watched, she saw the beauty and ugliness of human life, the struggles and the triumphs.
Though she didn't concern herself with the affairs of mortals, one person caught her attention, Sorayael.
A spark of protectiveness ignited within her, and she decided to take action, driven by a sense of loyalty and familial bond.
Sorayael nodded and went to the emperor.
The constellation-born might against corrupted stars.
Her attacks were blinding. Her power matched his stroke for stroke. The palace shook as the two celestial beings collided-each one a force of nature.
And still, in the center of it all, Sorayael walked forward-toward the Emperor-her crown of Auctoritas gleaming brighter with every step.
Because this time, she wasn't alone.
The world trembled around them. Pillars cracked. The wind screamed like mourning spirits. Stars above dimmed in silent witness.
Sorayael stood in front of the Emperor, her body coated in dust, blood, and golden light.
Her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, her silver hair clinging to her cheeks.
In her hand, she held the blade once wielded by Velthira-a sword that shimmered with authority, forged in the ancient breath of stars.
Across from her, the Emperor's eyes gleamed with defiance, his armor cracked and blackened, the once-proud sigils of Aethelgard now scorched and fading. His hand trembled, gripping a blade of corrupted astral steel, flickering with dying embers of Dominance.
They clashed.
Steel rang against steel, but Velthira's sword sang truer. With one final breath, Sorayael disarmed him and drove the blade deep into his shoulder-pinning him to the collapsing floor. His scream echoed like thunder across the skies.
But in his last act of desperation, the Emperor reached beneath his cloak and plunged a hidden dagger straight into Sorayael's stomach.
Her breath hitched. Time seemed to stop.
Blood bloomed across her robes like crimson petals.
The Emperor grinned. "It's over."
But Sorayael didn't fall. Not yet. Her hand gripped the hilt tighter, and golden light surged from her core. Auctoritas ignited through her veins, her golden eyes burning brighter than they ever had.
And she drove the sword deeper, embedding the divine power of Auctoritas into the Emperor's very soul.
He screamed-not in pain, but in the horror of being unraveled. His body flickered, turning into dust, fragments of corrupted stardust breaking apart from the inside.
His words were cut off as his soul was erased, scattered into a place beyond life, beyond rebirth.
Sorayael dropped to her knees, coughing up blood, the world spinning around her. Her vision blurred. The power of Auctoritas surged within her, but it no longer obeyed her. She raised her hand weakly, trying to mend her wound-but nothing happened.
Then a flash of silver suddenly appeared.
A book materialized in front of her, hovering in the air.
Her eyes widened. It was that book-the one from Aethenroth Manor. The one she had once dismissed as unreadable as the book is sealed and her power isn't enough that time. Now, its pages flutter open by themselves, ancient glyphs glowing.
And then words from it are revealed only when the bearer is ready.
She read in silence, her heart sinking with every line.
Tears streamed down her face. Her hands trembled.
It was as if someone from the future had scribed her fate-warning her, mocking her, sealing her doom.
Blood slipped through her fingers. Her limbs numbed. The book snapped shut and vanished in a flicker of gold.
Her body gave out.
She collapsed onto the cold stone, eyes wide open to the ruins around her-Deimon yelling from afar, Lyrenna battling the last remnants of the Dream Magic, Reinhold looking for her from across the rubble.
She smiled faintly.
And just as everything faded into black-
She fell into the void.
A dream with no light.
A space between life and death. It's empty, cold and timeless.
·__________________________________________·
Sorayael is dead?!?!