"Let go of me! I need to speak to the Empress! Empress!" Aurelian's voice echoed outside the grand entrance of the Black Tower, raw and desperate.
The banquet was long over. The other nobles and royals had begun to leave. But not Ceres. She wasn't coming with them.
He had been shouting for hours now, held back by the unyielding demon guards stationed at the entrance. They didn't hurt him. They didn't need to. Their presence alone made it clear, he was not welcome inside.
"Duke," Seiryu said coolly from just beyond the line of guards, arms crossed, his white suit pristine as ever. "I've told you. The Empress is resting. You should go."
"Shut up, you fucking traitor!" Aurelian snapped, eyes wide with rage and betrayal. "You lied to me! All of you! You hid this from me!"
Seiryu arched a brow, clearly unimpressed. "I owe you nothing, Duke. You seem to forget, I was loaned to you by my master. I was never yours. And if my Empress didn't want you to know her plans, who the hell am I to challenge that?"
"Fuck you!" Aurelian roared.
He wanted to lash out, to tear through the guards and storm inside. He wanted to use his magic. To teleport straight to her chambers, to drag her back if he had to.
But he couldn't.
Since the second day of their arrival in Velrathis, after the banquet, the humans had felt it. Their magic had been suppressed. Not erased, not blocked. Just… muted. As though the mana in the air rejected them. They could still feel it pulsing through the Empire, but their own abilities were shackled.
It felt familiar, like what Tuf had done once in Aquilonis. But deeper.
From a high terrace overlooking the scene, Naelira stood watching him.
She had arrived in Velrathis days ago, summoned along with the other core members of Hydra after the banquet. And that same day… she saw Aurelian.
And felt him.
The bond. The unmistakable ache of recognition, her mate.
It was rare, a demi-human bonded to a human. Not impossible, but dangerous. Humans couldn't feel the bond. Couldn't sense the pull. Their lives were short. Their emotions… fragile.
And though they crossed paths more than once, Aurelian hadn't so much as glanced her way.
But she? Every nerve in her body screamed to run to him. To protect him. To claim him.
"I warned you," Luna's voice came beside her, soft but sharp as a dagger. Naelira turned her head slowly.
"I told you," Luna continued, eyes fixed on the scene below. "That you'd regret staying by Tofu's side."
Naelira didn't answer.
"I never saw the full picture," Luna admitted. "But I saw you. Grieving. Because Tofu took something precious from you. Someone you couldn't get back."
A beat passed. The wind shifted.
"Do you feel it now? That dull, suffocating pain?" Luna's voice dropped. "That fear of your mate being taken… forever?"
Naelira swallowed hard, her nails digging into her palms.
"If Aurelian keeps pushing," Luna said with quiet finality, "Tofu will kill him."
And with that, she walked away, heels clicking softly against stone.
Down below, Aurelian continued to rage. He was shouting again, still blocked at the threshold, trembling with frustration and madness. The guards did not strike him, they didn't have to. They just stood there, silently denying him, a wall of calm to his chaos.
Finally, the doors behind them creaked open.
Legion stepped through.
"Duke," he greeted, his voice calm but heavy.
"Did you know?!" Aurelian roared, pointing an accusing finger at him. "Did you know she's not coming back to Aquilonis?!"
Legion exhaled, a weary sound.
"No. I found out when you did."
Aurelian marched forward, nearly grabbing Legion's coat.
"Then tell her. Tell her to return! The kingdom needs her!"
Legion didn't move. Because he had already tried.
When Ceres told him she would no longer return to Aquilonis, that the kingdom and its people were no longer her concern, she had released him. She stripped him of his Celestial Oath.
She hadn't done it with cruelty. She did it the way she always did everything, with cold, calm resolve.
He had been given a choice. Stay in Velrathis or return to Aquilonis. But his loyalty to her? That bond had been severed the moment she said the words.
She had warned him before, 'When you're no longer useful, I will discard you.'
And she did.
"The Empress wants me to tell you to leave now, and return to Aquilonis," Legion said firmly.
"No!" Aurelian growled, his eyes wild. "I'm not leaving without her!"
He shouted again, louder this time, "Empress!"
Despite Legion and Seiryu's repeated attempts to reason with him, Aurelian kept thrashing, unhinged, desperate, deaf to everything but his own fury. The once-calm Duke of Aquilonis had all but unraveled.
Then, without warning, the demon guards tensed.
Their rigid formation shifted. The wall of bodies that blocked the entrance parted instinctively.
A pulse of energy cracked through the air, dense, suffocating. The sheer weight of it dropped the temperature, pulled at the marrow of their bones. Everyone, but Seiryu, froze.
Caelum had arrived.
His presence alone was enough to make the ground feel unsteady beneath them. The moment he stepped forward, the demons bowed without being told. Even Legion couldn't hold himself up. He dropped to one knee beside Aurelian, who, despite trying to fight it, was forced to do the same.
The pressure was unbearable.
"At ease."
The pressure lifted just enough for them to breathe.
Caelum now stood before them, his tone calm, but thick with authority. He looked down at Aurelian with disappointment, not anger.
"The first time we met, Duke," Caelum began, "I respected you. I thought you were a worthy rival."
His eyes narrowed, the air between them growing colder.
"But the way you're acting now… at least leave yourself a shred of dignity."
"This is all your fault!" Aurelian roared.
In an instant, the demon guards tensed again, their claws twitching toward their weapons.
But Caelum raised a hand, no interference.
"My fault?" he asked smoothly.
"You poisoned her mind with all of this!" Aurelian shouted, gesturing wildly at the city, the empire, the shimmering lights of Velrathis, the modern wonders, the magitech, the luxuries no other kingdom could even imagine.
Caelum's lips curled into a cruel smirk, his voice touched with mockery. "Poison?" He tilted his head. "How long were you with Ceres, Duke? And all that time, did you truly believe she was the kind of woman whose mind could be poisoned?"
He stepped closer, every movement deliberate.
"Everything you see around you, this is the world we left behind. All I did was bring it here."
"Aquilonis needs her! Her people need her!" Aurelian's voice cracked.
Caelum's gaze sharpened. He reached forward, straightening Aurelian's collar as if they were nothing more than two men sharing polite conversation.
"Stop," Caelum said coldly. "Her people are already being taken care of."
He gave a few gentle taps to Aurelian's shoulder.
"Do you really think she'd leave Aquilonis without ensuring everything she built continues without her? That her projects would be left to rot?" Caelum's voice dropped. "No. She's smarter than that. Stronger."
His eyes darkened.
"I warned you once, Duke. Don't use her compassion as a chain. Don't weaponize her love for her people to keep her bound to you."
Aurelian clenched his jaw, but Caelum wasn't done.
"The first man who held her heart made that same mistake. He twisted her empathy into shackles. Tried to cage her with her own feelings."
Caelum's voice dropped into a dangerous softness.
"She broke those chains. And when he came crawling back, begging for forgiveness? She laughed in his face."
Silence fell. Aurelian's lips parted slightly, like he'd been punched in the gut.
"So, for taking care of my wife while I wasn't with her," Caelum continued, "I'll give you one more chance, Duke. Leave now. Return to Aquilonis. Maybe, maybe, there's still a path where you and she remain friends."
"But if you insist on seeing her now… if you force her to hear the same tired pleas…"
Caelum leaned in.
"You'll lose her. Entirely. She'll see you as nothing more than an insect beneath her heel."
He stepped back, gaze cutting.
"Your choice. Comet will escort you... whichever path you take."
Then Caelum turned and walked away, back toward the tower.
Aurelian clenched his jaw. His fists. Every muscle in his body screamed at him to chase after her.
And then, he saw her.
There, in one of the upper tower balconies, stood Ceres. Silent. Regal. Watching him from a distance.
He took a step forward.
He had to see her. He had to make her understand. Aquilonis needed her. He needed her.
But as he stepped forward, a hand gripped his arm.
He turned, eyes burning, and froze when he saw who had stopped him.
"Don't, Duke," Naelira said softly. "Keep your calm."
Something in her voice, firm and raw with pain, broke through the storm inside him.
And for just a moment, Aurelian didn't know who he was anymore.