She took a trembling breath. "rging isn’t just about power. It’s about the soul. When a divine beast is rged, it binds to the host’s spirit completely. That ans... if Es ever dies, or if she ever loses all connection—all attachnt—to this world... the Black Dragon will consu her soul entirely."
Her voice cracked.
"That day, the Black Dragon vanished from this world. And not long after... Es woke up."
A breath passed.
"From that mont on... Es beca nearly invincible. She didn’t get sick. Even when she suffered terrible injuries, her body healed. But slowly... that dragon began to take sothing else from her—her emotions."
She looked away for a second, steadying herself.
"As decided, Beom was connected to Es later on. But..."
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"There’s a cost. A divine beast lives off its owner’s life force. That’s how Divine Wish functions. And under normal conditions, it would never accept a second owner while the original one lives."
Her eyes narrowed.
"But ours did. Even while we’re alive, our beasts no longer listen to us. They’ve grown obsessed with Es. With her soul. With claiming her completely."
She glanced at her husband. "He lost control over the Black Dragon entirely. And I... I lost Beom too. Though not fully. I could still contain it, keep it away from her... for a while."
Her next words ca slow, filled with the ache of betrayal.
"Then ca the accident. The one my sister planned."
Her voice turned cold. "I died. Or rather... to the world, I had to."
"I lived, but my body was too damaged. Too broken. So I disappeared. And in doing so... my final connection with Beom snapped. It was released—free to do what it wished."
She exhaled shakily.
"And so... it turned to Es."
"One divine beast is already overwhelming. But two? It ans they feed on her. Drain her faster than her body can replenish."
She fell quiet for a beat.
"Everything was still holding together... until the sun ca."
Her voice trembled.
"When Es fell into that coma again, the Black Dragon stirred. And as it awakened, it began to rge itself with Beom. Trying to dominate it. And in doing so... it began overtaking Es’s body completely."
Her words hit like ice.
"It accelerated the draining. Her life force is burning out faster now."
And then—soft, final, broken:
"As you already know... she has at most six or seven months left."
Ray stood frozen, completely stunned. He didn’t know how to react. It was too much—too many revelations, too fast. But maybe it was because life had already thrown so much at him that his mind didn’t crumble under the weight... not yet. Still, sothing didn’t sit right.
A thought struck him like lightning, sharp and undeniable. His eyes snapped toward his children. He rushed over, scanning their hands, their faces—searching for sothing he hadn’t thought to question before. Then, slowly, his gaze turned toward Es.
"Wait... Es." His voice trembled, laced with disbelief and suspicion. "You said it yourself—divine beasts. If a single family has two, they fight over dominance. But between us... you have two, we have one. That makes three divine beasts tied to one bloodline. Then why haven’t they ever fought over my children?"
He took a shaky breath, rembering. "From what I can recall, only Es ring appear on my daughter’s hand. And nothing ever happened to her. Not a surge, not a reaction. She’s bonded to a divine being, yet... she’s never triggered a Beom. Never once. Why?"
Ray’s eyes darkened, the fire of betrayal flashing in them. "Would you mind explaining that, Es?"
Hatred—raw, cold, and absolute—dripped from his voice as he stared at her. In this mont, anger wasn’t even a strong enough word. Rage clawed at his chest. Betrayal twisted in his gut. The realization that Es—soone they trusted—had hidden so much from them made his blood boil.
He wanted to shout, to break sothing, to scream until the walls cracked under the weight of his fury. But instead, he stood there, trembling with everything he couldn’t say, couldn’t scream.
How could she?
How could anyone—just a normal person—harbor so much truth and choose silence?
Suddenly, the little boy lying in bed jolted awake. His small chest rose with sharp, uneven breaths as his wide eyes locked onto his father—eyes that now held a terrifying, unsettling intensity.
Ray froze.
The child’s gaze was not just frightened—it was accusing, hurt, broken. Ray felt a shiver crawl down his spine, and for a mont, he closed his eyes. He had never—never—raised his voice at his children. Not once in all these years. Yet in just a matter of days, everything had changed. He had lost control, snapped, shown them parts of himself he had buried deep—his rage, his cruelty, his weakness.
He loathed himself.
And instead of soothing his son, instead of kneeling down and embracing him, Ray turned—eyes ablaze—and shouted at Es again, louder, harsher. His voice thundered in the room, edged with fury that had nowhere else to go.
The boy flinched, retreating slightly, but his eyes never left his father’s. That haunting look pierced Ray to his core.
Ryan and Jay moved quickly. They scooped the children into their arms, holding them tightly, trying to hush their trembling sobs with soft whispers and gentle hands. Walking to the farthest corner of the room, they tried to shield the little ones, to wrap them in sothing quieter, sothing safer.
Es’s voice broke the tense air, calm yet hollow. "It’s because they are bonded to my soul. Completely."
The others turned.
"They won’t co after you," Es continued, her eyes unreadable. "Not as long as I’m alive... not as long as my soul stays whole. The Black Dragon is rging with . And unless my soul is torn apart—shattered beyond repair—they’ll stay away."
A heavy silence followed, broken only by the soft sniffles of the children.
"As for Beom," Es added after a mont, "I was the one who sent him to protect our daughter. But after I woke up... he returned to completely. So no, neither of them would ever co near our children."
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