Lilith immediately turned toward Seraphina.

“Fly. Hurry. I’ll get him.”

Seraphina hesitated for half a second.

Then nodded.

Because Kael had bought them something impossible.

A delay.

She launched upward into the fractured sky with Elysia in her arms.

Celeste watched her leave.

The galaxies within her eyes rotated sharply.

She moved to pursue—

—and failed.

Her body suddenly jerked violently.

Refraction destabilized around the wound.

Celeste staggered.

Then was violently thrown backward into the crater wall below as the backlash from Dahu’s strike erupted through her system.

BOOOOOM—

Stone exploded behind her.

Blood sprayed from Celeste’s mouth as she crashed back into the shattered earth.

Lilith stared at her for a split second in disbelief.

“…He actually damaged her…”

Then she was moving.

She dropped beside Kael immediately, grabbing him by the shoulder.

“Kael.”

No response.

Her voice tightened.

“…Kael.”

Still nothing.

Blood pooled beneath him rapidly.

Lilith’s expression darkened instantly.

“…Don’t do this.”

She ripped Dahu free from Celeste’s shoulder with a violent pull.

Blood splattered across the crater floor.

Celeste coughed hard against the ground, her body trembling violently now as Refraction attempted to stabilize around catastrophic internal strain.

Lilith grabbed Kael fully now, forcing him over her shoulder while gripping Dahu tightly in her other hand.

Then she launched upward into the sky after Seraphina.

Below them—

Celeste tried to rise again.

One hand pressed against the ground.

The other against the wound in her shoulder.

But her body failed her.

She collapsed back into the crater instead.

Breathing hard.

Coughing blood into the shattered earth beneath the fractured heavens of Caelrith.

Far behind them, Caelrith burned beneath the fractured heavens.

The holy capital had become a distant scar against the night—collapsing towers, spreading fires, and violet fractures still threaded through the sky where Celeste’s activation had torn reality open above the kingdom.

But she no longer followed them.

Not yet.

Miles away from the capital, deep within the ruined crater outside Caelrith’s borders, silence finally settled.

Celeste knelt alone against shattered earth.

One hand pressed firmly over the wound in her upper chest.

Blood still slipped slowly between her fingers.

Dahu’s strike had not merely pierced flesh.

It had interrupted stabilization.

Refraction pulsed violently beneath her skin in uneven spirals, trying to force correction through damaged output pathways while internal strain continued building beneath the surface.

Her breathing remained steady.

Controlled.

But blood still touched the ground beneath her.

The galaxies within her eyes dimmed slightly.

Then Celeste slowly closed them.

The air around her changed immediately.

Not violently.

Inward.

Thin streams of violet light began spiraling around her body as she entered complete stillness, forcing Refraction into meditative correction. The fractured earth beneath her gradually flattened itself as mana pressure condensed inward around the wound.

Externally sealing.

Internally failing.

Far above the forests outside Caelrith—

Lilith finally slowed her ascent.

Seraphina hovered nearby with Elysia held carefully against her chest while Kael remained completely unconscious over Lilith’s shoulder.

Blood still dripped slowly from his burned hands.

Neither woman spoke at first.

The silence after survival felt heavier than the battle itself.

Wind rushed past them through the dark sky.

Below, endless forests stretched outward beneath the moonlight.

Far behind them, Caelrith still glowed.

Seraphina finally broke the silence.

“…She knew the name.”

Lilith’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“…Yeah.”

Her grip tightened unconsciously around Kael.

Seraphina looked down toward Elysia.

“…Not just Elysia.”

Her expression darkened.

“…Elysia M.”

Silence followed again.

Because both of them had seen it.

The moment the name was spoken in the cathedral—

everything changed.

Lilith exhaled slowly.

“…Who exactly is Celeste?”

Seraphina stayed quiet for several seconds.

Thinking.

Remembering.

“…I don’t know.”

That answer came honestly.

Which somehow made it worse.

“But…”

Her remaining eye shifted toward the distant fractures in the sky.

“…She reminds me of someone.”

Lilith looked toward her immediately.

Seraphina’s voice lowered slightly.

“…Lucielle Morven.”

Even the wind suddenly felt colder around them.

Lilith’s expression hardened.

“…Lucielle Morven?… ”

Seraphina nodded slowly.

“No records speak about her directly.”

Her gaze remained distant.

“…but theres a prophecy in the thorne empire that says that if she’s awaken she will cause the next eirlomanicallus”

Elysia remained strangely calm in her arms.

Watching silently.

Listening.

Seraphina continued quietly.

“There were stories about a woman who was killed for having a union with a divine being”

Lilith’s eyes narrowed further.

“…could celeste actually be Lucielle Morven she did have Yamui…”

“I don’t know if the stories were true,” Seraphina admitted. “Most historians treat them like fragmented myth.”

She hesitated briefly.

“…But the timing…”

Lilith finished the thought for her.

“…Doesn’t feel like coincidence anymore.”

Seraphina nodded once.

Slowly.

Carefully.

“…No.”

Far behind them, lightning flashed faintly above Caelrith’s fractured sky.

Lilith looked back toward the distant capital.

Toward the battlefield they had barely escaped.

“…If Celeste really is Lucielle Morven…”

Her voice lowered.

“…then what exactly did we just witness?”

Miles behind them, the crater outside Caelrith remained drowned in violet light.

Celeste still knelt at its center in absolute silence.

Refraction spiraled slowly around her body in controlled streams now, the meditative correction process gradually sealing the external wound Dahu had carved through her shoulder.

But the damage remained.

Internal instability still pulsed beneath the surface.

Blood continued dripping slowly into the shattered earth beneath her.

The fractured sky overhead reflected across the crater in dim violet hues while distant fires from Caelrith illuminated the horizon behind her.

Then—

movement.

Several armored figures rushed toward the crater edge through the smoke and broken terrain, forcing themselves forward despite the lingering pressure saturating the battlefield.

Celestial Knights.

The lead commander nearly stumbled descending into the crater itself, eyes wide at the devastation surrounding her.

“…My Lord!”

He rushed closer instinctively.

“My Lord, are you—”

Celeste slowly lifted her gaze toward him.

The commander froze instantly.

The galaxies within her eyes rotated once.

Cold.

Unreadable.

Still unstable.

The pressure in the crater deepened immediately.

The commander’s breath caught in his throat.

“…a-alright…?”

Silence.

Celeste simply stared at him.

Then—

she scowled.

Not dramatic rage.

Not explosive fury.

Displeasure.

Sharp.

Visible.

The commander immediately lowered his head further.

“M-my apologies—”

Blood suddenly slipped from Celeste’s mouth again.

A thin line trailing down her chin before striking the ground below.

The commander’s eyes widened in horror.

“…You’re injured.”

The moment the words left his mouth—

the pressure around the crater shifted violently.

Refraction pulsed outward in a brief surge strong enough to crack the ground beneath the commander’s knees.

He immediately went silent.

Celeste’s gaze turned away from him again.

Toward the distant horizon.

Toward where they had escaped.

Her hand slowly tightened over the sealed wound in her shoulder.

And for the first time since stabilization—

something almost human flickered across her expression.

Frustration.

The pressure hanging over the crater had become suffocating.

None of the Celestial Knights dared move.

None dared speak.

Their commander remained kneeling silently in the shattered earth while Celeste stood motionless ahead of them, one hand still pressed against the wound in her shoulder as violet Refraction spiraled faintly around her body.

The fractured sky above Caelrith crackled softly overhead.

Then—

“CELESTE!”

A voice cut through the battlefield.

Panicked.

Terrified.

Several knights turned immediately as footsteps rushed down the crater behind them.

A woman broke past the formation before anyone could stop her, royal garments stained with ash from the burning capital as she sprinted directly toward Celeste.

“CELESTE!”

The commander’s eyes widened instantly.

“…Your Highness—!”

The Crown Princess of Caelrith ignored him completely.

Her breathing was uneven, frantic, as she finally reached Celeste and grabbed her shoulders instinctively—

Then froze.

“…Celes—”

Her expression fell apart.

Because now she could see her clearly.

The blood.

The wound.

The fractures of violet light still moving beneath her skin.

The galaxies within her eyes.

“…My word…”

Her voice weakened immediately.

“…What happened to you…?”

Celeste remained silent.

The princess quickly placed her hand over the wound in Celeste’s shoulder.

Golden healing magic ignited instinctively beneath her palm.

“I—I can fix this—”

The light touched Celeste’s injury.

For a fraction of a second, nothing changed.

Then Celeste flinched.

Not violently.

Not dramatically.

Just enough for the entire battlefield to feel it.

A sharp breath broke from her lips as something beneath her skin reacted—like reality itself rejecting the attempt to mend her.

The princess froze.

“…Celeste?”

The violet spirals around Celeste’s body warped faintly.

Inward.

Like something inside her was resisting being rewritten.

Blood traced down from her shoulder again.

Slow. Unsteady. Real.

The commander’s voice cut through immediately.

“Your Highness—stop.”

The princess didn’t move.

“No… she’s hurt.”

“She is not responding like something that can be healed.”

That line didn’t make sense to her.

Not yet.

Her hand stayed pressed to Celeste’s shoulder anyway, like sheer intent alone could force the world to cooperate.

“…What does that mean?”

But Celeste was already moving.

Slowly, she lifted her free hand.

And instead of pushing the princess away—

she took her hand.

Not her wrist.

Her hand.

Fingers threading gently around hers, like they had done a thousand times before in a different world.

A friend’s grip.

Familiar.

Human.

The healing light between them faltered immediately, caught between two opposing truths.

The princess looked up at her.

And froze.

Because Celeste was crying.

Not quietly.

Not restrained.

Real tears, slipping down her face in silence she didn’t break.

Like she had been holding them back for far too long and finally stopped winning.

“…Celeste…”

Her hand tightened around the princess’s.

Not enough to hurt.

Enough to be felt.

Enough to be remembered.

Final.

The galaxies in her eyes turned slowly, dimming and brightening like something vast was trying not to collapse entirely inside her gaze.

The princess’s voice cracked.

“…You never cried before…”

Silence.

Celeste didn’t answer.

She didn’t need to.

Because the answer wasn’t in words.

It was in the way her hand trembled slightly while still refusing to let go.

A moment passed.

Then Celeste slowly released her hand.

Carefully.

Like letting go hurt more than the wound ever could.

She straightened.

Pain didn’t bend her posture.

Instability didn’t break her stance.

Only her expression shifted—just slightly.

A fracture in something otherwise infinite.

She looked at the princess one last time.

Fully.

Present.

Like she was trying to memorize a face she already knew too well.

Then she turned away.

The sky above Caelrith answered immediately.

BOOOOOOM—

Violet light tore upward as Celeste vanished into the fractured heavens.

The shockwave flattened the crater once more.

Wind screamed across broken stone and ash.

The princess raised her arm instinctively against the force.

“…Celeste!”

But there was nothing left to answer her.

Only the fading pressure in the air.

And the space where her hand had been held.

Empty.