"Tayanari, our pact—my part of the promise is fulfilled. The blood of the Sun's last heir lies before you. Savor it well."
Duke gripped the Darkin halberd with both hands and drove its blade deep into the sand stained with Sivir's blood. The instant the weapon touched the golden dunes, a thunderous roar exploded in his mind.
"Ahh… the Emperor's blood!"
"The Emperor's blood after a thousand years!!"
"The bloodline endures—while I have withered!!"
"Shurima… when will I once again fight for you!?"
The sand soaked with Sivir's blood shifted rapidly from crimson back to gold. The halberd in Duke's hands pulsed with a dark vitality, as Tayanari within drank greedily from the traces of imperial blood, tasting the essence of the Sun itself.
Within moments, every drop of Sivir's blood had been consumed. Duke felt an odd sensation through his link with the weapon—Tayanari's rage and despair, once uncontrollable and feral, seemed to ease. Like a drowning man breaking through the surface for a single breath, the imprisoned soul had found a moment's peace.
Taliyah stood nearby, uneasily watching Duke clutch the Darkin halberd. The sand at her feet trembled faintly, vibrating like dust atop a drumhead. Every thrum of Tayanari's power set the dunes quivering in rhythm.
Having long distrusted Darkin weapons, Taliyah abandoned her search for Sivir's crossblade. Instead, she readied herself to strike—prepared to sever Duke's connection to the weapon at any moment if things went wrong.
After a time, Tayanari's voice spoke again, calmer now, filled with exhaustion instead of wrath.
"Outlander… I have a favor to ask of you."
Duke's eyes narrowed slightly. "It seems you've regained your senses."
"Only for a while," Tayanari replied, his voice deep and heavy. "The blood of the Emperor has shown me new light… I can once again see the radiance of the sun."
"Oh?" Duke asked. "And what is it you want from me?"
"Protect her," Tayanari said solemnly. "Protect the Ascended bloodline—protect the blood of the Emperor!"
His tone rose, burning with passion. "Shurima needs her. We need her! For that, I will pay any price!"
Duke focused, feeling through the magical tether that linked them. He found no trace of deceit or treachery in Tayanari's soul—only a weary sincerity.
"Any price?" Duke smirked. "Even your soul?"
"Even my soul!!"
"Very well," Duke said with a nod. "Then for now, you'll serve as my creation's companion—become his weapon, and teach him your arts, your experience, your ways of war."
The Seven Deadly Sins were indeed powerful, but Duke was well aware of their greatest weakness: inexperience. Even Pride, the eldest of them, had lived little more than a year. Duke simply didn't have the time to train them all personally.
Tayanari, a Darkin with over a millennium of battle behind him, would be the perfect instructor. He could temper Pride's raw power, refine it into true mastery.
"Agreed."
Duke reversed his grip on the halberd and handed it to Pride. "Learn well. You know your weaknesses."
"Yes, Father!"
Pride grasped the halberd firmly, his eyes glinting with a strange light. Though the Darkin weapon could not corrupt him, it could communicate—and now, finally, he was ready to listen.
With that settled, Duke turned toward the Regeneration Cradle—one of the rewards he'd obtained from his earlier experiments, and his first true piece of medical equipment.
The Cradle was a marvel of hybrid science—a fusion of regenerative biology, genetic engineering, nanotech, and adaptive AI. It could mend flesh, rebuild organs, even recreate a human body from its cells.
Sivir's wounds were little more than scratches to such a machine.
Still, what intrigued Duke most wasn't her recovery—it was the revelation that the Ascended bloodline could soothe a Darkin's madness.
He hadn't expected that.
But when he thought about it more deeply, it made sense.
In Shurima's golden age, thousands of Ascended warriors had fought under the sun's banner—yet not one had rebelled or fallen to corruption. Even the most violent among them obeyed the Emperor's command without hesitation.
Perhaps the blood of the Ascended played a crucial role in keeping their divinity intact.
When Azir's Ascension failed, the imperial bloodline was severed, and Shurima crumbled—not just in body, but in spirit. The loss of that divine essence left the Ascended defenseless against the Void's corruption, twisting them into the Darkin.
According to ancient accounts, the blood of the Sun was key to balance—perhaps even the glue that once held divinity and mortality together.
Duke's eyes narrowed as he stared at Sivir lying in the Cradle.
He would keep her close—and study every secret hidden in her veins.
Taliyah stood silently by, watching Duke lost in thought. After a moment, she turned away and resumed searching for Sivir's crossblade.
Before long, she unearthed it from the sand—a massive, cross-shaped weapon glinting faintly under the sun.
"Mr. Duke, I found what you asked for!"
Taliyah staggered as she carried it over. Duke took the Chalicar from her hands, immediately feeling its tremendous weight.
"Divine weapon… chooses its master?"
He arched a brow, attempting to throw it. The blade left his hand but dropped into the sand after only a few meters.
"Interesting."
The power he had used could have leveled a small house, yet it wasn't enough to hurl the blade properly.
"So this thing only responds to Sivir, huh?"
He gestured, summoning the Chalicar back with a pulse of telekinetic force, then activated his scanning equipment.
Minutes ticked by. The Cradle soon completed its process, Sivir's wounds fully healed, though her vitals remained under monitoring.
Click.
The chamber hissed open. Sivir's eyelids fluttered before she slowly sat up, clutching her head as fragmented memories flooded back.
"Where… am I?"
Her gaze darted about—the sky, the desert, then the strange man tinkering with her weapon and the girl standing quietly beside him.
The instant she saw Duke holding her Chalicar, her pupils shrank. Like a panther, she lunged from the Cradle straight at him.
"Give that back!"
Taliyah gasped as Duke raised a hand. With a flick of his fingers, invisible force pinned Sivir mid-air.
"You see, little sparrow," he said lightly, "I told you she'd be up and bouncing again in no time."
"Mm-hm."
Taliyah nodded nervously, then hurried to Sivir's side. "Please, calm down. Mr. Duke saved your life!"
"Him?" Sivir frowned, but her gaze never left her weapon. "For all I know, you're trying to sell me off for a good price!"
"W-what?!" Taliyah stammered, completely thrown off. "No, that's not it! We found you half-dead, so we—"
"That's your problem, not mine! Now hand it over!"
She glared daggers at Duke, who only sighed and pressed a hand to her shoulder, infusing a mark of his magic into her.
Thud!
He released his telekinetic hold, tossing the Chalicar back. Sivir caught it instantly, her agitation melting into calm the moment her weapon was in hand.
Duke noticed.
"Paranoia much?" he drawled. "Do you always assume everyone's out to get you?"
"Hmph," Sivir snorted. "Plenty of people are."
"Classic persecution complex."
Duke shrugged. Sivir's sharp eyes darted between him and Taliyah—the strange scholar in white and the desert girl in short tribal garb.
"I don't care who you are or what you want," she said coldly. "I'm leaving."
But when she spotted the dismantled exosuit lying beside the Cradle, her face twisted.
"My armor!!"
She stormed over, glaring at Duke. "What did you do to it?! Damn it, that thing cost me three thousand gold coins!"
"…How much?" Duke blinked. "Three thousand? The model's retail price is five hundred. You got scammed."
"Three thousand gold! That's my life savings!" she shouted.
Duke rolled his eyes. "I set that price. I invented the thing. Whoever sold it to you conned you hard."
Sivir froze. "You made this?"
"Yup." Duke smirked. "Looks like someone took you for a fool."
"That damn merchant!" she growled. The armor had been worth every coin to her—but knowing she'd overpaid stung worse than the wounds she'd just recovered from.
"Hmph."
With an annoyed grunt, Sivir tore the sheath from the ruined armor and fastened it to her waist, sliding the folded Chalicar inside.
"Listen," she said curtly. "You saved me, but you also broke my armor. So let's call it even."
She mimed snapping a rope between her hands.
"As of now, I'm leaving."
She turned to go—but her legs suddenly felt like lead, rooted to the ground.
Duke shook his head. "Now, now… that won't do."
"I saved your life. You think I'll just let you walk away?"
"You, Sivir—are the most important person in all of Shurima right now. No exceptions."
"So be good," he said with a faint smile, "and stay put."
End of chapter....
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