The morning should have been calm. The gardens of Deviluke's palace glistened with dew, sunlight breaking through the crystalline barrier above. Lala stirred beside me, her laughter soft as she teased Haruna about some dream. For a brief moment, there was peace.
And then it shattered.
A distortion cut through my awareness—sharp, invasive. My senses rippled outward, scanning. Too late. Haruna's warmth winked out of reach.
[LUST SYSTEM ALERT][Host Signal Disrupted – Haruna Sakurazaki][Forced Extraction Detected]
I felt it. The hand of the king himself.
He had pulled her into his grasp, teleportation sigils still humming faintly in the air where she had stood. I didn't need to see him to know his plan: leverage. The arrogance of a ruler who believed every life was a pawn.
The fury hit me in a wave.
I tore free of Lala's skin, black tendrils unraveling into my humanoid form. My voice rumbled low, venom dripping from every word.
"He dares."
The garden quaked beneath my steps as I extended my senses, following the faintest trace of Haruna's aura. It was faint, trembling—she was frightened, but alive. And she was calling, silently, through the bond I had planted within her.
The king's voice erupted across the courtyard, amplified by power."Stand down, creature. Yield yourself, or this human's life is forfeit."
His image shimmered to life above us, Haruna in his grip, a blade of alien alloy pressed against her throat.
Lala gasped, frozen between father and symbiote. "Father—please, don't!"
But I was already moving.
Tendrils lashed skyward, anchoring onto the projection sigil. My form collapsed into liquid shadow, slipping into the cracks of its energy field. Soldiers screamed as my essence swept past them, leaving their weapons useless husks.
In the throne chamber where the king had hidden, I reformed.
Haruna's eyes met mine. Wide. Afraid. But beneath the fear—trust. She knew I would come.
The king sneered. "Do you think I would not prepare for you? I am Deviluke, scourge of worlds. One woman's life means nothing—except as leverage to bend you."
"Leverage?" My body swelled with black mass, tendrils snapping against the floor like whips. My voice rose, a guttural roar. "She is mine. You don't get to touch her."
I struck.
The blade shattered as my tendrils ripped it apart atom by atom. Another wrapped Haruna, pulling her safely into my core, shielding her heartbeat against me.
The king lashed out with raw power, but I consumed it, adaptive flesh drinking the energy until his blast became nothing but ash in my veins.
"Your empire," I hissed, my form towering above him, "isn't enough to pay for this insult."
The throne room trembled. Soldiers fell back, terror replacing loyalty. And for the first time, I saw something flicker in the king's eyes. Not arrogance. Not defiance.
Recognition.
He had provoked the wrong enemy.