Chiron was still smiling when he turned toward Silmarien.
"So," he said calmly, wiping the thin line of blood from his finger, "where did Gadan and Arianna run off to?"
As if summoned by the question itself, the air above them rippled.
Two figures descended from the broken skyline and landed several ters away.
Stone cracked beneath their feet.
Gadan arrived first, wings folding back into his semi-human form, his bare skin still faintly glowing with draconic heat. Arianna followed beside him, light on her feet, golden knife already in hand.
For a mont, neither of them spoke.
Gadan inhaled.
His nostrils flared.
The sll hit him.
Death.
Not the fresh kind.
Not blood.
But sothing ancient, heavy, soaked into the very ground. The residue of an entire city extinguished and bound.
His eyes swept the ruins… then the kneeling figure behind Chiron… then finally settled on Chiron himself.
The battle had lasted barely an hour.
And in that ti, Chiron had subdued a Finger of Solitude.
A battle between two fingers of Solitude could have... no... should have lasted several days.
That was just the kind of power that they commanded.
A man who had slaughtered an entire city before anyone even understood what was happening.
In this world, power was law.
And this… this was terrifying power.
Gadan's gaze sharpened.
This human was not prey.
He was a calamity.
Arianna felt it too.
The subtle tension in her shoulders, the way her grip tightened on her blade—both of them were wary now.
Good.
Chiron began to walk toward them.
Not threatening.
Not hurried.
Just a relaxed stroll, hands behind his back, boots crunching softly on bone-littered stone.
Gadan instantly stepped forward, claws sliding out, flas whispering along his arms as he took a battle stance.
The air thickened.
Chiron stopped.
Then he spoke, plainly, without flourish.
"I'll go straight to the point."
His eyes lifted, calm and sharp.
"I am going to kill the Seer."
Silence.
"And I need your help."
For a heartbeat, the world did not move.
Gadan and Arianna stared at him.
Shock rippled across both their faces.
Kill… the Seer?
The representative of Fate.
The hidden sovereign behind the Holy Church.
The woman even the Zodiac Families avoided crossing.
They slowly turned to look at each other.
And in that exchange of glances, the unspoken thought was clear.
This man… was either insane.
Or he truly intended to overturn heaven itself.
Arianna stared at Chiron for a heartbeat.
Then she giggled.
A soft, musical sound—completely out of place amid the corpses and ruin.
"Just because you defeated a Finger of Solitude," she said lightly, tilting her head, "doesn't an you can defeat the Seer."
Her eyes shimred with amusent. "You humans are always so bold when you survive sothing impossible."
Chiron only smiled.
A calm, patient smile.
"Forgive ," he said gently. "I did not introduce myself properly."
He straightened, placing one hand over his chest in a formal gesture that belonged to an age long forgotten.
"My na is Chiron."
A pause.
"Chiron Chivalry… of the Dead Chikitsa Clan."
The air changed.
Arianna's smile vanished.
Her brows drew together slowly.
Dead Chikitsa.
That na…
Her heartbeat skipped.
Just because she had hidden herself underground in a lover's sanctuary did not an she was ignorant of the world.
This city was information itself.
Secrets flowed here more freely than wine.
And lately… there had been only one na spoken more often than war.
Chiron.
The man who had wounded the Seer.
The man who had slaughtered hundreds of Gold-rank cultivators and replenished the world's energy through their deaths.
The man who destroyed a continent beneath the Veil.
The man who killed Manu Madayaki — truly killed him.
The man whose very existence had tilted the balance between the Holy Church and the Zodiac Families.
The man rumored to have exterminated his own tribe.
And now…
He stood here, before them.
Polite.
Calm.
Introducing himself with a clan na whispered like a curse. A curse he destroyed with his own hands.
Arianna's breath grew shallow.
This was not arrogance.
This was… restraint.
The amount of conquest behind this man was obscene.
With him…
It was actually possible.
Chiron continued, voice steady.
"Whether you join or not… it no longer matters much."
He gestured around them.
"The Seer will hear of what happened here."
His gaze lifted, distant.
"She will co."
Then his eyes shifted—slowly—to Arianna.
"She will co for both of you."
Arianna stiffened.
"Or rather…" Chiron corrected softly, pointing at her, "for you."
Then his finger moved.
Toward Gadan.
"And Brother Shadow… is currently on a hunting spree for dragons."
Gadan's pupils shrank.
"He will co for you."
Silence fell like a blade.
The wind stirred ash across broken stone.
Three powerful beings stood facing one another, the future of nations balanced on breath.
Chiron opened his hands.
"So."
"I already have the Elves."
His eyes burned quietly.
"Will you join us?"
The city, dead and hollow, waited for their answer.
Gadan was the first to break the silence.
His voice was deep, heavy, carrying the weight of centuries.
"It seems…" he said slowly, eyes never leaving Chiron, "that you know quite a lot about us."
He exhaled through his nose, smoke faintly trailing from his lips.
"But there is sothing you do not know."
He looked around at the shattered city, at the broken towers and drowned streets of blood.
"Before we ever built this place to hide our… indulgence, it took us many, many years to find ground that neither the Holy Church nor the Zodiac Families would imdiately erase."
His jaw tightened.
"And now…"
"There is nowhere left in this world for us to stay."
For the first ti, sothing fragile crept into the dragon's eyes.
He turned.
Reached out.
Took Arianna's hand.
Not possessively.
Lovingly.
Their fingers interlaced, firm and unwavering.
"If the Seer cos," Gadan said quietly, "we will die together."
Arianna squeezed his hand, nodding once.
No fear.
Only resolve.
Chiron watched them for a mont.
Then… he shook his head.
Slowly.
"No," he said.
"I already thought of that."
They looked back at him.
"You do not need to die."
"You will co with ."
Before they could respond, Chiron lifted a hand.
Space twisted.
Blood-red runes unfolded in the air, folding into one another like living veins.
With a low, humming pulse, a portal tore open beside him — deep, dark, and layered with unfamiliar laws.
Wind howled from its depths.
Gadan and Arianna instinctively stepped back.
Their instincts scread danger.
Unknown territory.
Unknown fate.
Chiron glanced over his shoulder at them.
"This place is beyond the reach of the Seer."
"Beyond the Zodiac."
"And far beyond Brother Shadow's hunting grounds."
A pause.
"For now."
They hesitated.
Only a heartbeat.
Then Gadan tightened his grip on Arianna's hand.
And together…
They stepped forward.
Crossing the threshold after Chiron.
The portal folded shut behind them.
And the dead city was left behind.
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