There was no light.
No sound.
Only a dense, suffocating darkness — like the prolonged gasp of death, stretching endlessly.
Linh Nguyet opened her eyes — or at least, she thought she did — but everything remained pitch black. Her body floated, weightless, suspended in a void that felt like a bottomless abyss.
She didn't know if she was falling… or being devoured.
But she knew one thing:
She no longer belonged to the world of the living.
A voice shattered the silence in her mind, low and echoing like it came from the depths of the earth:
"Welcome back… Nguyet."
A cold hand touched her shoulder. She turned — and faced Duong Khai Minh, his figure half-shrouded in black mist, half skeletal, a ghost twisted by centuries of hatred.
"You once chose me," he said. "Once placed your trust in me.
So why return to the one who died because of you?"
Her voice trembled. "Because I remember now… I was wrong."
"Too late." He smirked coldly. "A soul that has betrayed doesn't get a third chance."
The darkness peeled back, revealing a massive stone gate carved with blood-red symbols — the Gate of Blood, where the condemned are sealed for eternity.
"Go on," Khai Minh urged. "You signed your sentence across three lifetimes."
"No!" she backed away, heart pounding.
And then— a voice rose from the other side of the gate:
"Nguyet! I'm here!"
Luc Trac.
The Gate of Blood ignited with crimson light.
A figure was breaking through the seal — blood pouring from Luc Trac's hands, every step he took leaving flames in his wake.
Khai Minh howled: "He's not allowed here! He's dead!"
But Luc Trac kept walking. His eyes never wavered, focused solely on her:
"I let you fall once.
This time… I'll drag you back, even if I have to burn down the underworld."
The gate shattered into dust.
The ground shook. Reality cracked.
Linh Nguyet ran toward him — but Khai Minh grabbed her wrist. "You belong to me!" he snarled, his face twisted, claws digging into her skin.
Luc Trac lunged, wrapping his arms around her. Blood from his hand fused with the wound on hers.
A ring of light exploded — the blood pact reopened.
"Choose, Nguyet!" he said. "One last time."
She looked into Luc Trac's eyes — no resentment, no anger. Just waiting. And love.
Then she looked at Khai Minh — once sweet, now a vessel of hatred and emptiness.
She raised her hand…
And pushed Khai Minh into the void.
He screamed like a beast, his form shattering into fragments of mist. Every false memory he planted in her mind faded with him.
Linh Nguyet collapsed into Luc Trac's arms.
Together, they fell back into the final beam of light.
She awoke in the mansion's bedroom.
The wind rustled through the window. Moonlight spilled across the floor.
Luc Trac sat beside her, still holding her hand.
"Are we… back?" she whispered.
He nodded. His eyes still glowed red — but now, they were filled with light.
"You chose me," he said.
She smiled faintly.
"This time… I chose with no one forcing me.
No replacements. No lies. Just me."