"…My lady, didn't you once say that you knew her personally?"
Helen's brows twitched ever so slightly beneath her black mask. "I would hardly call that single encounter a personal acquaintance."
The Empress of the Nine Paths… she had manifested only as a fragment of soul on that dreadful day, stepping forth with a threat that she would strike down the Pit of Destruction Empire if Robin or the planet Jura were to suffer any harm.
That was all.
That was the extent of Helen's so-called personal connection with Rinara.
Their exchange had been little more than a confrontation—just a handful of lines, nothing more. Words dripping with menace and warning, spoken back and forth like sharpened blades. And in the end, the golden fragment had simply vanished, leaving nothing behind, no gains for either side. Or at least, that was what Helen believed at the time…
