The house was silent.
The wind outside howled, brushing against the broken windows like a ghost begging to be let in. Dust floated in the air like dead stars, and the dim light from the flickering bulb above cast crooked shadows on the walls.
Jin Shang sat still in the darkness, perched on the edge of a wooden chair, elbows on his knees. His abyssal robe was loose, unkempt. His hair fell over his eyes. The weight of the world pressed on his shoulders, and yet his mind was fixated on just one person.
Lillian.
She was the last piece of light in his life.
And she was slipping away.
He stared at the communicator on the table. Missed call. Again.
Lillian (28 missed calls)
His hand hovered. His heart, once cold and unfeeling, trembled. What if answering meant breaking her further? What if silence was safer?
But the screen blinked once more.
Incoming Call: Lillian
He answered.
"Jin?"
Her voice—raw, breathless, and soaked in desperation—cut through him.
He stayed silent for a moment. "I'm here."
"I called you all day. Do you think you can just vanish from my life after everything?!"
"I'm trying to protect you."
Her voice froze.
"Protect me?" she laughed. "From what? From the truth? From you?"
Jin closed his eyes and sighed. "There are things you still don't understand. You're—"
"Don't say it," she snapped. "Don't talk to me in riddles again. I'm tired of you always hiding things."
He hesitated. He couldn't tell her. Not yet. Not that she was the heir. Not that monsters from beyond existence would come for her bloodline once awakened.
She didn't need prophecy. She needed peace.
"I invited you to my engagement," she said sharply. "To Chris. It's in three days."
"Lillian," Jin said, slowly standing. "This isn't the time for that. You don't understand what's coming—"
"You don't get to say that!" she snapped. "Not when you abandoned me!"
Jin told, " I am trying to protect you."
"No. You don't. You are trying to destroy my life. Oh, I see ," she snapped. "Because we're all just characters in your war, right? You get to decide what time it is for love, for peace, for living?"
Her tone grew colder.
"I should've known. This was always about you."
"Lillian—"
"No," she hissed. "Let's talk about Lia."
The name struck him like lightning.
"You loved her. And you let her die."
"I didn't—" His voice broke.
"You watched her slip through your fingers. And now you're doing the same with me."
"I tried to save her!" Jin shouted.
"But you didn't," Lillian screamed back. "You failed. And then you let Arden die. Rin. Lysander. Kaelros. They followed you into hell. And they never came back."
Each name hit like a dagger.
"You think you are carrying their burden? You don't. You are only carrying their blood."
Jin staggered, vision spinning.
"You were our hope, Jin. You were the foundation of World Guidance. But guess what?"
Her voice trembled—not with sadness, but with rage.
"You destroyed it. You let it all fall."
"I never wanted that—!"
"But you let it happen! And now you want to lecture me about what's right?! About who I can love?!"
"Chris doesn't understand what's coming," Jin barked.
"Oh, but you understand, right?" she snarled. "You, who disappear when I need you. You, who drown in guilt but never change. You, who never told me the truth!"
Jin froze.
She was right.
He hadn't told her the truth.
That she was the heir.
That she would soon awaken.
"I don't want your protection," she said with finality. "I don't want your guilt. And I sure as hell don't want you in my life."
"Lillian—"
"I'm done, Jin. This—whatever we had—is over."
Call ended.
Jin stood in place, eyes wide, heart cracking like glass.
Then—his fingers twitched. His aura ignited faintly.
He reached for her presence, using everything he had left to trace her.
A faint glow pulsed.
There.
He felt her.
And in the next instant—her gaze met his across space and spirit.
Fierce. Divine. Monarch-born.
The sheer pressure of her awakening aura struck him like a celestial hammer.
His legs buckled.
Blood erupted from his mouth, thick and black.
Then from his nose.
Then his eyes.
His vision fractured into shards of memory and screams.
He saw Lia reaching for him, her hand burning away.
He saw Arden crushed beneath the weight of a collapsing dimension.
He saw Kaelros die with a smile.
Rin whispering his name, then silence.
He saw their faces.
Their eyes.
Their disappointment.
"You let us die."
"You failed."
"You failed."
"You failed."
His heart roared. His body collapsed to the floor.
Blood pooled beneath him.
Above, the shadows formed figures—the dead gathering like vultures.
And Lillian's awakened eyes looked down on him from afar.
Not with sorrow.
But with judgment.