"Some hearts aren't broken. They are reforged in darkness."
---
The palace trembled.
Not from siege.
Not from armies.
But from one woman.
From Velra Noctis.
Or rather—what she had become.
---
Lucien stormed the throne chamber, cloak dragging behind him, Kaela right on his heels, blades drawn, and eyes wide with confusion and rage.
They stopped in the doorway.
And froze.
Velra stood alone in the center.
Her body was cracked with glowing black runes.
Her once-beautiful curves were now etched with frostrot veins.
Eyes—no longer violet. But black. Pitch. Endless. Dangerous.
And in her hand—
The shard of obsidian pulsed like a second heart.
---
"Velra?" Lucien whispered.
She looked at him.
And smiled.
"Lucien… you came."
Kaela hissed. "She's corrupted. Step back."
Lucien didn't move.
Velra tilted her head.
"I told you I'd bleed for you," she said gently, stepping forward.
"And I did."
She extended her hand—crimson dripping from her palm where the shard had merged into her skin.
"But it wasn't enough, was it?"
---
Suddenly—
The Queen appeared behind Lucien in a swirl of white flame, staff raised.
"MOVE!"
She blasted pure Sovereign energy forward.
Velra raised a single finger.
And shattered it.
The Queen was thrown across the room like a broken doll.
Kaela rushed to her.
Lucien stood frozen.
Velra stepped closer.
"I did everything for you. I tried to be soft. I tried to be good."
She clenched her fist. The air cracked.
"But good girls don't win your heart, do they?"
Lucien's voice cracked. "Velra, stop—"
She pressed her hand to her chest.
"I loved you. I still do. But love isn't enough to survive this world."
Darkness exploded around her like wings.
---
Elsewhere – Seris ran.
Her vision blurred. She had felt it the second Velra transformed. Her divine mark had burned like fire on her chest.
And she knew what the obsidian meant.
It was the Pale King's final seed.
And Velra had let it root.
---
Back in the throne room—
Lucien stepped forward, slowly.
He dropped his sword.
And looked into Velra's corrupted eyes.
"I don't care what you've become."
She blinked.
"I don't care what your bloodline is."
He reached forward.
"Come back to me."
---
Kaela screamed. "Lucien—don't!"
But Velra… her lips trembled.
"…You still want me?"
"Always."
---
Then—
She lunged.
Not with magic.
Not with violence.
With her lips.
And they kissed.
Fierce. Brutal. Deep.
The room lit up in spirals of black and silver.
It was not a kiss of redemption.
It was a kiss of destruction.
---
Lucien collapsed.
Magic ripped through him—searing pain in his chest, his mark bursting with unstable energy.
Velra screamed, clinging to him as he fell.
"No—NO—I didn't mean to—"
---
The Queen crawled toward them, blood at her lips.
"Get… away from him…"
Seris entered, staff blazing, divine wings unfurled.
Kaela blocked Velra's path with twin daggers.
And Velra?
Velra knelt in the center of it all—
With Lucien unconscious in her arms.
And whispered, shattered:
"I didn't want to lose him. So I broke him."
"Sometimes the heart doesn't shatter… it evolves."
---
Lucien's body didn't move.
His breath had stopped.
His silver eyes—dimmed.
Seris dropped to her knees beside him, casting healing incantations so fast she coughed blood.
Kaela stood frozen between Velra and the Queen, both radiating kill-heat.
Velra was crying now, face stained with ash and guilt, whispering:
"I didn't want this. I swear—I didn't want this."
The Queen pointed her staff.
"You touched him with corruption."
"It wasn't supposed to take him—!"
Seris screamed, "Enough! Save him—before I burn every one of you!"
---
Suddenly—Lucien's body convulsed.
The ground cracked.
His veins lit up with silver and black lightning, pulsing like a second heartbeat through him.
Velra stepped back.
The Queen's eyes widened. "No…"
Kaela dropped her weapons.
Seris fell silent.
Because this—
This wasn't Lucien anymore.
---
Then—his eyes snapped open.
But they weren't silver.
They were obsidian fire laced with starlight.
---
Lucien rose.
Effortless. Quiet. Like gravity no longer applied.
He looked at Velra. Then Seris. Then Kaela.
Then… he smiled.
But it wasn't warmth.
It was terrifying.
Like a god who'd remembered what it was to bleed… and decided never to do it again.
---
"Lucien?" Velra whispered, voice shaking.
He tilted his head. "That name feels… soft."
"Lucien," Seris repeated, her holy aura trembling. "You're still in there. You have to be."
He turned his gaze to her—and she felt her spirit magic tremble.
Lucien whispered, "I remember you."
A pause.
"But I don't need you."
---
Kaela stepped forward, trembling but unyielding.
"You kiss like a devil," she growled, "but if you take another step toward her, I'll bury steel in your ribs."
Lucien's smile widened. "I always liked your fire, Kaela."
Then—
He vanished.
---
Outside – Palace Garden
He reappeared in a burst of frost and shadow.
Alone.
Hand over his chest.
Something inside him moved—a second soul. Twisting. Hissing. Laughing.
Velra's shard had fused with his mark.
The Pale King's seed had sprouted in him.
---
But Lucien?
He wasn't surrendering.
He clenched his jaw.
"I'll burn it out of me. Even if it takes the world with it."
---
Back in the palace—
The Queen collapsed to one knee.
"Velra… what did you do?"
Velra stood in the center of the carnage, hair wild, eyes broken.
"I… made him love me."
"And now?" Kaela spat. "You've made him something else."
---
Far Beyond – Pale King's Fortress
He felt it.
The bond. The corruption. The awakening.
And he laughed.
"Good. Let the boy drown in her sin."
His skeletal fingers curled around his warstaff.
"Then let the girls who love him... try to save what's left."
"To save the one you love, sometimes you must stab him first."
---
Night fell.
But Lucien hadn't returned.
Only whispers did.
Whispers of him—seen walking across frozen lakes with no reflection.
Whispers of black fire in the sky.
Of wild animals dropping dead in his path.
He was alive.
But not as Lucien Frostveil anymore.
---
Seris stood before the altar. Alone.
The sacred tome trembled in her arms.
The pages she had sworn never to open—forbidden rites, punishable by divine erasure—were glowing now.
Because this time, she wasn't praying for the kingdom.
She was praying for him.
---
The spell was ancient.
A soul-binding chain.
A curse-eater.
A divine tether between hearts.
But the price?
The caster had to offer their soul as collateral.
If Lucien couldn't fight the corruption—
She'd be dragged into it with him.
And lost forever.
---
She didn't flinch.
Seris knelt at the altar, blooding her palms, pressing her heart against the sigil, and whispered:
"Take me to him."
The world shattered.
---
Inside Lucien's Mind – The Soulstorm
She landed in a blizzard of stars and screams.
Not sky.
Not ground.
Just shards of memory spinning through the dark void.
"Lucien!" she shouted. "I'm here!"
No answer.
Only laughter.
Then—
She turned.
And there he was.
But not just him.
---
Lucien stood in a field of floating frost petals, shirtless, glowing veins of black and white light spiraling across his torso.
Eyes—split between obsidian and silver.
He stared at her.
No recognition.
"Seris?" he asked.
She stepped forward. "Yes. It's me."
He blinked. Then smiled. Sadly.
"You shouldn't have come here."
---
The void shook.
A second Lucien stepped out of him.
Darker. Taller. The twisted version—the Obsidian Entity.
"You brought her here," it growled. "Weakness."
The real Lucien turned to Seris. "You need to leave."
"I'm not leaving you!"
The dark version roared forward, claws forming—
Seris blocked it. With nothing but prayer.
---
"You remember me," she whispered. "You remember the first night. The first kiss. The warmth I gave you when your world was cold."
Lucien's hand twitched.
"Stop," the shadow snarled. "She's not your light anymore. I am."
Seris stepped closer.
Tears streaming. Power radiating from her soul.
Then she did the one thing Lucien hadn't expected.
She kissed him.
---
And everything stopped.
---
The world lit up.
The soulstorm froze mid-blizzard.
Lucien gasped.
The shadow screamed.
But it was too late.
The kiss bound them.
The light surged from Seris's lips into his.
Burning out the corruption—
But setting her soul on fire.
---
Back in the physical world—
Seris convulsed.
Velra rushed in. "What is she doing?!"
The Queen screamed, "She's sacrificing herself!"
Kaela ran to her side, voice breaking. "NO. NO. NO—"
---
Lucien woke up.
Eyes pure silver.
The curse—gone.
His soul—free.
But Seris?
Still in his arms.
Limp.
---
He whispered her name.
And she didn't answer.
Not right away.
Until her lips cracked… and a weak whisper escaped:
"…Worth it."