Aleric’s face went through several colors. "What? You’re supposed to be helping ! You promised—"
"I promised nothing to garbage like you," the entity interrupted, its attention shifting to Aleric with such devastating focus that he actually whimpered. "You’re less than bacteria. A cosmic joke. The only reason you’re still breathing is because killing you would stain my essence with your worthlessness."
Despite her situation, despite being pinned by cosmic forces, Tessa actually laughed. The entity’s insults were so beautifully vicious, so perfectly calibrated to destroy Aleric’s ego, that she couldn’t help herself.
"You should thank ," the entity continued, its attention returning to Tessa, "that I didn’t want an enraged Prince after my life. Otherwise, you’d be experiencing significantly more... discomfort."
Tessa managed to lift her head despite the crushing weight. "Prince?" she spat. "What Prince? The only Prince I know would burn you to ash for this."
"Indeed, he would," the entity replied with sothing that felt like a smile rippling through cosmic darkness. "The Prince of Existence. Your beloved Parker. Such a delicious complication."
The na hit the ballroom like a shockwave. Conversations died completely as five hundred minds tried to process the implications. They were talking about soone who made gods nervous, and this entity knew him personally.
"You’re confused," Thomas Wilder called out desperately from the crowd. "What Prince? We don’t know any—"
"Of course you don’t you worthless mundanes," the entity’s amusent deepened. "You’ve been blind to the cosmic truth standing right in front of you. Your daughter has been living with the most powerful being in Existence, and you thought he was just so rich boy with good connections."
Diana’s blood turned to ice as pieces clicked into place. The ten-billion-dollar deal. The personality change. Bishop’s warnings. "The man she was living with," she whispered.
"The Prince of Existence himself," the entity confird. "And while he’s been busy saving your pathetic world from threats you can’t even imagine, I’ve been moving pieces on a board he thought he controlled."
Aleric was still sputtering with rage and confusion. "What Prince? You said you’d help rule! You said—"
"I said what you needed to hear to bring her here," the entity cut him off with devastating dismissal. "You’re nothing but a useful tool, and a broken one at that. The only reason this farce was necessary was to draw the Prince out while he was... occupied with cosmic responsibilities."
The implications were staggering. This entity had orchestrated everything—the grandfather’s illness, the marriage pressure, the supernatural manipulation—not for the Five Families or human politics, but as bait for soone who could reshape reality itself.
"This was just a ssage," the entity continued, its cosmic presence growing more oppressive. "A simple greeting to let him know I’m here. All of this—" it gestured dismissively at the ballroom full of terrified billionaires, "—is nothing compared to what I actually have planned."
Tessa’s fury overrode her fear. "You’re using as bait? You cosmic piece of shit, when he gets here—"
"When he gets here, it will be exactly what I wanted," the entity interrupted with satisfaction that felt like reality bending. "But first..." Its attention shifted to Whisper with predatory focus. "I think I’ll kill at least one of you. Starting with this shadow princess who dares guard what isn’t hers to protect."
Terror flooded Whisper’s features as she felt the entity’s full attention focus on her like the weight of dying stars. This wasn’t just death—this was annihilation from sothing that existed beyond her comprehension.
"You want to protect the Prince’s woman?" the entity asked Whisper with cosmic amusent. "Then you can die with her."
The crystallized darkness sword materialized instantly—not tal, but sothing that looked like crystallized void, sharp enough to cut through the fabric of existence itself. It hung in the air for a heartbeat that felt like eternity, then launched toward Whisper with speed that made light seem sluggish.
Tessa moved.
Ti seed to slow as she threw herself forward, her body moving with desperate precision born of pure love and protective instinct. She pulled Whisper away from the sword’s trajectory while simultaneously putting herself directly in its path.
Whisper’s eyes widened in absolute shock and terror—not for herself, but for the woman who was sacrificing everything to save soone she barely knew.
"No!" she scread, but the word ca out distorted in the slowed tistream.
The sword continued its inexorable path toward Tessa’s heart.
In that stretched mont, as death approached with cosmic certainty, Tessa’s life flashed before her eyes in crystalline clarity. She saw herself eting Parker for the first ti, accusing him of being a pervert when he’d just been trying to hide himself from the world too. The mory brought a smile to her lips even as the blade drew closer.
She rembered becoming his servant in that penthouse, thinking she was just working for so rich, mysterious boy she had to pay back to after that misunderstanding. How wrong she’d been. How beautifully, impossibly wrong.
The months that followed played like a movie in fast-forward. Watching him reshape reality with casual gestures. Seeing him care for his impossible family. Witnessing power that made gods kneel and entities flee. Learning that the man she’d fallen in love with was literally the Prince of Existence itself.
She’d thought she could last with him forever. Who knew she would die like this?
The sword pierced her heart with surgical precision, sliding through skin and bone and flesh like they were made of air. The crystallized darkness felt cold beyond description, a chill that went deeper than physical sensation and touched her very soul.
Pain exploded through her chest, but it was distant sohow, muffled by shock and the strange peace that ca with accepting the inevitable.
Whisper watched in absolute horror as the blade erged from Tessa’s back, her princess instincts screaming at the cosmic injustice of watching soone die to protect her. The shock on her face was complete—she’d never expected this level of sacrifice from soone who had every reason to hate her.
The entity’s laughter echoed through dinsions, cosmic amusent at the perfect execution of its plan. "Beautiful," it said with satisfaction that made reality itself recoil. "Simply beautiful. He’ll co running now, and then—"
The laughter cut off abruptly.
The very world fractured.
Reality split along lines that shouldn’t exist, the air itself cracking like broken glass as a presence descended that made the entity’s manifestation look like a child’s shadow puppet. The ballroom’s foundations groaned under power that existed beyond physics, beyond cosmic law, beyond anything that should be possible.
"YOU DARE!"
The voice carried enough raw power to shatter continents, enough fury to burn galaxies, enough absolute authority to make gods kneel and cosmic entities reconsider their life choices. It wasn’t just heard—it was felt in every atom, every molecule, every quantum particle of existence.
"Parker!" Tessa called out as her life slipped away, her voice carrying love and relief and the absolute certainty that the world was about to burn for what had been done to her.
She could die in peace now...
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