What?
The crowd around us froze.
One of the students whispered, "Wait… what's he talking about?"
Another leaned in, voice low. "Pressure? Does he an the storm… or sothing inside?"
"Is this code?" soone muttered. "Or… is he actually onto sothing?"
Marlen narrowed her eyes. "Are you saying we… detonate the blue star supply before Selene move?"
I stared at Cendric, mind racing.
His words echoed behind him as he trudged off, muttering about being soaked and needing to pee.
Most of the squad blinked, confused.
But not .
Because in that mont my mind clicked.
Of course.
"The body can't hold it anymore."
How could I have forgotten sothing so obvious?
In the original novel… there was a crucial detail about Aurelia. Her Pale God mark wasn't stable. She could barely contain it. And when the pressure built up when the situation pushed her too far she snapped.
She went berserk.
That was it. That was the trigger. If I could sohow recreate that pressure… if I could put a berserk Aurelia directly in Selene's path, then the Blue Star would have no choice but to co out of hiding and confront her.
She couldn't use proxy attacks or sabotage once Aurelia lost control.
That would force her hand.
And all because of a single line from Cendric.
I looked toward where he had disappeared.
Was he a genius?
Or did he actually just need to pee?
…No. Doesn't matter.
"Thank you," I whispered under my breath, like a prophet receiving divine revelation.
"I have an idea," I said, smiling faintly.
The others turned to , eyes wide with surprise. I could feel the shift the quiet stillness that cos when people start to hope.
"But I need ti to think it through properly," I added, already turning away.
They didn't question it. No one laughed. No sarcastic remarks. Just silence with sothing heavier.
A quiet sort of faith.
Like they believed I'd figure it out.
Like they believed in .
As I walked alone through the corridor of the base, my thoughts spun like a storm in my head.
Aurelia's Pale God mark…
It wasn't sothing she could ever control easily. Not in the novel, and certainly not now.
That mark ca from one of the most omnipotent beings ever written into this world.
The Pale God.
A being so incomprehensibly divine that if a planet looked upon him directly, it would shatter unable to bear the sheer concept of his existence.
He wiped out an entire nightmare race.
But like all things that burn too brightly… his actions echoed.
From the ashes of that massacre, a new race was born twisted from the very will and dreams of the nightmares he destroyed.
And from that race ca their father.
Evigheden.
Father of devil.
The Devil of Eternity.
Forever. Infinite. A being without beginning or end.
The Pale God's crusade had birthed his opposite, a devil forged not in hell, but in logic.
So say it was a mistake.
So say he did it on purpose.
How ironic.
While other heirs broke under the weight of divine fragnts, her inspection results always showed the Mind of the Lightbringer a symbol of clarity, stability, righteousness.
It reassured the court. Made her seem perfect for bearing the Pale God's mark.
But in truth, that was only a surface illusion.
And that… was a secret even she didn't know.
Not yet.
It was a lie. Or maybe a blindfold.
The mind she truly possessed wasn't sothing that could be asured. Not by scans. Not by the crown. Not even by herself.
Because her mind… wasn't just rare.
It was singular.
They called it: The Mind That Survives God.
No records of it existed in official archives. Only a whisper in shattered tablets, written by madn who'd looked too long into the void after the Pale God died.
A mind that couldn't be shaped, only endured.
A mind not built for greatness, or strategy, or brilliance but one that endures divine collapse. One that holds on, no matter what burns around it.
It's not a genius's mind.
It's a survivor's curse.
Aurelia's strength was never in thought. She doesn't win because she's clever. She wins because nothing in her mind ever lets go, not hate, not will, not the Pale God's hunger still echoing inside her.
And in ti, when the world begins to end again, that mind won't ask how to save it.
It'll ask:
"What's left after the divine burns out?"
And it'll smile. Because it's ready.
It always was. Even if it ant standing alone.
But then ca Arthur Valeheart.
And everything began to change.
Aurelia never looked at him at first not really. To her, he was just another noble. Another footnote in a legacy she believed belonged to her.
But kindness is a strange weapon. And Arthur wielded it like no one else.
While everyone else bowed to her rank or feared the Pale God's glow in her blood, Arthur… treated her like a person. Not a princess. Not a monster. Just soone who mattered.
She Dismissed him at first
But kindness is patient. It doesn't ask to be seen it waits.
And sowhere along the line, Aurelia began to.
Not because of his strength. Not because he stood beside her in battle, or pushed her to be better, or challenged her.
But because when she couldn't hold it in when the Pale God threatened to devour her from the inside Arthur held on.
He didn't flinch.
And she realized sothing terrifying
For the first ti in her life, she wanted to be held back.
Not by fear.
Not by power.
But by soone who cared.
In the future, they'll fight side by side not as hero and princess, not even as weapons of empire. Just two people trying to survive the fire in each other's blood.
I looked up at the ceiling and scread internally:
Arthur, your girl is insane!
Even I'm not sure my eyes can handle her!
For a mont, I almost laughed.
Almost.
But the weight of it hit just as quickly like staring too long into sothing you're not supposed to survive.
Because if Aurelia ever truly masters the Pale God's power,
if she stops breaking under it and starts wielding it…
She won't be a warrior anymore.
She'll be a force of nature.
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