That’s when the scene materialized.
Not a projection, not an illusion—actual captured mory, preserved in crystallized ti and displayed with perfect clarity. Nyxavere found herself watching her father, Maya, and Zhang Ruoyun in what looked like their private study, voices hushed but carrying clearly across dinsions.
"We can’t let Nyxavere discover what we chose," Maya was saying, her expression heavy with guilt that seed to age her features. "If she learns that we had to pick between Chione and—"
"She can never know," her father interrupted, his voice carrying pain that made Nyxavere’s chest tighten. "The decision we made, the price we paid... if she found out we let Chione die..."
"That would destroy her," Zhang Ruoyun added, phoenix fire dimming with sorrow. "And the anger would destroy everything else."
No. No, this has to be fake. This has to be—
"How did you obtain this?" Nyxavere demanded, her voice cracking as tears began to stream down her face. "My father, Maya, Zhang Ruoyun—they could kill you before you even thought about spying on them."
The woman’s laugh carried eons of accumulated wisdom and barely contained power. "Girl, I have lived for billions of years. I was ancient when your father was still discovering his abilities, when Maya was learning to manipulate souls, when the Phoenix of Balance was just another force without form."
Billions of years. That would make her older than almost everything.
"I was there when the choice was made," the woman continued, her voice dropping to a whisper that sohow carried more weight than shouting. "I watched your parents weigh the options: save Chione and risk losing their precious treasure or sacrifice her to preserve what they valued most."
"You’re lying!" Nyxavere’s power exploded outward like a nuclear detonation made of pure will. Reality warped around her, the mansion’s foundations cracking as dinsional energy poured from her form in waves that made space itself scream. Stones began to float as gravity forgot how to function properly near her, and the air itself caught fire from proximity to her unleashed abilities.
Aunt Chione couldn’t be dead. Her family wouldn’t lie to her. They wouldn’t sacrifice soone they loved.
"They chose sothing else over her, little princess," the woman said, her voice cutting through the chaos of Nyxavere’s power display like a knife through silk.
"They let your aunt die rather than risk their treasure being obtained by the Olympian gods! They watched as the combination of darkness, death, divine seas, golden lightning wrap around Chione as she stood desperately on her last legs on an elevated icy platform until she died! But they didn’t feel a thing, after all she could reincarnate, right? As long as they saved what mattered, as long as Frozen Eclipse survived landing in hands of gods her death then would be worthy it!"
"NO!" The word tore from Nyxavere’s throat as her power surge intensified, reality bending so severely that the mansion began to phase in and out of existence. Windows shattered in sequences that defied physics, walls rippled like water, and the very concept of ’up’ beca negotiable.
But even as she denied it, part of her mind was already processing the horrible logic. The way they changed subjects when she asked about Chione. The look in their eyes mase sense to her now. The overprotectiveness they administered when she thought they were just trying to stop her from missing her so much until she ca back. The way her daddy assured she would et her soon.
"Why do you think they’ve been so careful with you?" the woman pressed, stepping closer despite the reality-warping chaos surrounding them. "Why do you think they’ve kept you from the divine conflicts, from anything that might make you ask uncomfortable questions about your missing aunt?"
"Because..." Nyxavere’s voice faltered as mories clicked into place with awful clarity. "Because they love ."
"Because they’re guilty," the woman corrected gently. "Because every ti they look at you, they rember what they sacrificed to keep safe Frozen Eclipse."
The conversations... The way Dad’s expression darkened whenever she ntioned wanting to help with the champion crisis. Maya’s sudden interest in changing topics whenever Chione’s na ca up.
"You want proof?" the woman asked, waving her hand again. "Here’s what your beloved family has been hiding from you."
Another mory crystallized in the air—this one showing her father standing over what looked like a strategic map, discussing casualty projections with Maya and Zhang Ruoyun.
"If we intervene to save Chione," Maya was saying, "Nyxavere will be right in the center of it. The collateral damage..."
"Then we don’t intervene," her father replied, his voice heavy with the weight of impossible choices. "Chione would understand. She always said family cos first."
"But she IS family," Zhang Ruoyun protested.
"Not like Nyxavere is," Parker said quietly. "Not like our daughter is."
Family cos first. But Chione was family too.
Nyxavere collapsed to her knees as the full weight of the revelation crashed over her. Her aunt had been dead. Had been dead this whole ti until gods brought her back. And her family—the people she trusted more than existence itself—had chosen to let it happen.
Was this his father was fighting the gods? Was he blaming them for killing her when he was the one who sacrificed her? That was hypocrisy! Or was he blaming them to being her when ’ti’ wasn’t right? because he hadn’t cooked a good lie to manipulate his own daughter for his old sin?
Or was he fighting them because....
The reasons and excuses her father could co up with to bully gods were endless... Was she even omniscient, else how co she’d been fooled.
Trust. she’d trusted them so much, that’s how she’d been fooled!
"Tell everything," she whispered, tears streaming down her face as her power continued to warp reality around them. "Tell every detail you know about what they did to her."
The woman’s smile widened with satisfaction that made reality itself seem to recoil. "Happy to be of service, Princess."
And in that mont, Nyxavere realized she was no longer just the Prince of Existence’s beloved daughter.
She was a weapon that had just discovered she’d been betrayed by the people she loved most.
The two figures vanished from the mansion’s courtyard, leaving behind only cracked stonework, floating debris, and the lingering scent of grief that would haunt those walls for eons to co.
The ga had just moved into its most dangerous phase. And this was just the beginning.
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