The jet humd through the night sky, carrying its passengers toward what they all knew would be a cosmic confrontation. Parker sat in comfortable conversation with Ere and Levi, their discussion ranging from considerations to the implications of walking into traps designed by cosmic entities.
anwhile, the others had settled into their own conversations. Maya and Zhang Ruoyun were discussing soul manipulation techniques with the casual expertise of beings who’d mastered fundantal forces. Bella was reading sothing on her tablet while stealing glances at Parker, her newfound devotion still making everyone slightly uncomfortable.
Annabelle and Robert sat together, the father-daughter duo catching up on decades of lost ti with the intensity of people making up for cosmic injustices.
Helena was reviewing outside admiring the beautiful clouds, wondering how her sister ca up with sothing like this, it was nice. She with the satisfaction of soone who’d seen billions of empires.
"Umm?"
Nyxavere’s voice cut through the various conversations, carrying a tone of interested curiosity that made everyone look up from their activities.
"What is it, sweetheart?" Parker asked, pausing his discussion with Ere and Levi.
Nyxavere just smiled—that particular smile that suggested she’d discovered sothing fascinating but wasn’t quite ready to share. "Nothing important. I’ll join you all later."
"Nyxavere—" Maya started, but before anyone could say another word, Nyxavere simply... disappeared. Not teleported, not phased out—just vanished from her seat like she’d never been there.
The group exchanged looks that ranged from concern to resignation. With Nyxavere, mysterious disappearances were just another Tuesday.
"Should we be worried?" Bella asked.
"When are we not worried about sothing Nyxavere’s doing?" Zhang Ruoyun replied with the tone of soone who’d learned to accept cosmic parenting challenges.
They shrugged collectively and continued their conversations, though everyone kept glancing at the empty seat where their omniscient family mber had been.
Twenty seconds later, the Ashford estate ca into view through the jet’s windows. Even from the air, the display of wealth was staggering—fifty acres of perfectly manicured grounds, buildings that looked like they’d been designed by architects who charged by the marble column, and a private runway that could handle aircraft twice their size.
"dia empire money," Helena observed with professional appreciation. "They know how to project power."
"Sha they’re about to discover what actual power looks like," Anabelle added with amusent.
The jet began its descent toward the estate’s private airfield, the pilot’s voice crackling through the intercom with routine landing announcents. Everything was proceeding exactly as planned.
That’s when Parker felt it.
And suddenly every nerve and fiber in his being reacted like he’d been struck by cosmic lightning. His entire existence—every atom, every piece of his soul—scread in recognition of sothing that shouldn’t be possible.
It felt like the very concept of Existence had frozen.
The temperature in the cabin plumted as an aura began emanating from Parker that made arctic winds feel tropical. Everyone started shivering, not from cold but from proximity to power that existed beyond their comprehension. The air itself seed to recoil from his presence as cosmic fury built to levels that threatened to crack reality.
"Parker—" Maya started, but her voice died as she saw his expression.
His face had gone beyond anger, beyond rage, beyond any human emotion. This was the wrath of fundantal forces, the fury of existence itself given form and terrible purpose.
"PARKER!"
Tessa’s voice cut through dinsions, carrying pain and love and desperate relief, reaching him across impossible distances with the clarity of absolute connection.
The jet exploded.
Not crashed, not broke apart—exploded into constituent atoms as the force of Parker’s reaction to his woman’s voice tore through tal and physics like they were suggestions rather than laws.
"BOOOOOOOMMM!"
The sound was like thunder; the death cry of matter being unmade by powers that existed before the concept of sound. Nothing was left of the aircraft—not debris, not wreckage, not even the mory of its existence.
But none of them were hard.
They floated in the air, suspended by forces that made gravity seem quaint, shivering from proximity to power that rewrote the rules of physics as a casual side effect. The sight was impossible, magnificent, terrifying—nine of beings hanging in the sky like stars given human form, supported by nothing but the will of soone who could reshape reality with his emotions.
Maya’s hair whipped around her face as cosmic winds that didn’t exist on any scientific scale carried them toward the estate. Zhang Ruoyun’s form blazed with phoenix fire that seed dim compared to the energy radiating from Parker. Helena’s calculating mind was doing the calculations of watching soone unmake a multimillion-dollar aircraft because he was upset.
But all of their attention was focused on Parker himself.
He floated at their center like a nexus of cosmic authority, his very presence making space-ti ripple around him like water disturbed by stones. The air cracked with each breath he took, reality bending to accommodate fury that existed beyond universal law.
"YOU DARE!"
The words carried enough power to shatter continents, enough authority to make gods kneel, enough absolute finality to end argunts with fundantal forces.
Parker disappeared.
Not teleported, not moved quickly—simply ceased to exist in one location and imposed his presence in another, space folding around his will like origami made of cosmic law.
*
"You’re here..."
A voice said coolly, carrying amusent that felt like galaxies laughing at private jokes.
"Parker!"
Tessa’s voice filled his ears with relief so profound it made his chest ache, but sothing was wrong. Everything was wrong.
Everyone in the ballroom was on their knees, shivering without exception. Mundane humans and supernatural beings alike trembled before his presence like ants before a dragon—no, sothing infinitely vaster and more terrible. Right now, no matter their ranks, their power, their cosmic significance, they were all insects before the Prince of Existence.
All except the entity and Tessa. Even Whisper knelt in the grip of power that made her Origin Family heritage seem like a cosmic footnote.
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