Above the vast city of walls and rows of buildings surrounding multi-towered gray stone castles that ruled dominions, there stood an individual on substantiated nothingness. In a sky painted dark yellow.

After having recovered from the Spine, she donned a ragged white cape that covered her bandit's outfit. Yet, while the sky winds tore at her cape and made her hair rage, her gaze remained steadily downcast.

Tens of thousands of soldiers in uniform units rushed into formations along walls and tried to find ways to reach her through Spaces and long-range weaponry all intent on her death.

She let her eyelids fall upon her eyes as she spread her arms and made a cross of herself before letting her feet go through. Her body tensed and her stomach shot up as she fell through the air, air whistling past.

Once her eyes shot open, her pupils contracted into dots, revealing the fire of her irises before her hands clasped. Instantaneously, the world of hers became one of mutated color and ferocious sensation.

Paralyze the centers of power with efficiency so rough it grated the brain like sandpaper. In a way that made no sense to these men of blood. But to her, born of rock and sunlight, it was all she knew.

It was her perfection.

***

Inu sprinted through the Royal Keep after learning the news.

"Jakaan, the ca—" he burst into Jakaan's quarters only to find it empty, drapery blowing out of the open window. Inu's face went red. "Jakaan!"

He rushed to jump out of the window and froze to find a fall the length of tens of Jakaans. When he landed, he barely felt it, though. He looked around the wall he had landed on, but without an active danger signal to his brain, he lacked access to any supernatural speeds he could use to search the premises. The boy could've been anywhere.

Soldiers came from the sides in an effort to evacuate but froze as Inu turned to them in a fury. "The prince is missing. We must find him and bring him to the bunker! NOW!"

The soldiers obeyed in recognition of him.

Inu had checked with the king first, but he didn't know the whereabouts of his son. He was alright keeping the boy out of the bunker. If he got harmed while outside, it would likely mean that the capital had gone into such a state where the king's life would be forfeit.

Such a father he was. His son's life was no matter when his own was at risk.

But the bunker was still the safest place in the capital. Unknown and impenetrable. He had to bring Jakaan there before Liv unleashed the Shadow.

So in a frenzy, he scoured the entire Royal Keep, starting with the gardens and ending with the armory without so much as a sign of the boy. Then a soldier came to inform him.

***

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Liv walked away from the head dominion's main defense line that had been turned into just a line of the maimed, moaning, and shitless. Then she disappeared only to be assaulted again. Uncaring to dispose of the soldiers, she teleported once more into the air where she observed the rocky hill on which the Royal Keep lay like a fortress of spikes and flags, surrounded by needlessly many wriggly brown walls and homes of the noble and innocent.

She could see as the large-eyed boys and girls in garments and dresses peered at her with endless fear of myths. But they hadn't seen anything yet. They hadn't seen THAT yet.

She blurred into the vast folds of space and was again in the middle of chaos. This time as its ruler.

***

"Jakaan," Inu almost roared as he shoved his way into the estate beside the Royal Keep. He turned to a servant and grabbed him by the collar. "Where is the prince?!"

The servant's jaw shook in something Inu recognized as a sort of reverence. Then he turned his head to see Jakaan. Holding onto him from behind was a blonde girl his age in an illustrious jade dress that complimented her innocent eyes.

'He didn't tell me about a girl. Is she his...' Inu couldn't finish the thought as Jakaan opened his mouth.

"Inu, what is it? Why are you looking for me?"

Inu let the servant go and marched toward Jakaan. "The capital is under siege by Liv. I have to get you into the bunker."

The girl held more tightly onto Jakaan the closer Inu came. Jakaan put a hand on hers while visibly doing his best to maintain a level head. "Did my father send you?"

Inu turned his head, seething before quickly cooling himself. "I am here for your safety."

"You needn't to be. I am here for my betrothed."

"Listen, Jakaan, we need to get you to your father's bunker. The possibility of the Shadow of Quinheart coming to the capital is real." Inu's hands moved up and down in a rigid manner as he explained. "Even the Shadow can't penetrate slumber stone. We will be safe there," Inu elaborated in a panic. It was true. As far as anyone knew, the Shadow's destructive abilities worked on a Matter level as much as Body. And no Matter had historically been able to affect slumber stone.

Jakaan puffed oit his chest. "I am with my people."

"Your presence in the bunker could make the difference between the Shadow coming or not!" Inu yelled, losing control. He gestured sharply with his pointed index finger as servants hustled inside the estate. Inu guessed the estate belonged to a duke, but as even he didn't have a spot in the bunker, he had no choice but to fight, evacuate, or hide in a place of his own.

"How do you suppose that?"

"Liv wants to exchange words with royalty and look the ones who ordered her fate in the eyes before she ordered theirs. If she can't reach you or your father, she may not do it," Inu stretched the truth.

Jakaan had to live for there to be any chance of avoiding the complete crumbling of the entire nation.

Jakaan's expression faltered and he whispered something to the girl who nodded with her lips pursed and tears in her eyes. Then he looked at Inu and gritted his teeth. "Close your eyes, Claude," he said to the girl. Then he blinked, grabbed a hold of Inu and they were gone.

They made their way back to the Royal Keep faster than Inu thought possible and descended into the underground with Jakaan's authority. They wandered through a long, silent darkness that was beyond any guard's authority and ended up knocking on a wall, hoping it wasn't all just a rumor leading to a dead end.

"Something's wrong," Jakaan whispered, his hand trembling. Claude whimpered probably as quietly as he could by his side as she grasped his hand tightly.

Then the wall moved. It took eternal moments for the wall to be retracted and for them to be let inside a square chamber of gray stone riddled with black spots

Inu spared a glance at the downcast eyes of the members of the King's Guard who let them in and shuddered. They seemed resigned. As if they were already dead inside and were wondering what their body was still doing breathing.

With slow steps and clacking echoes, Inu, Jakaan, and Claude entered in the center of the chamber that held within a throne of skulls and swords on one end where Jakaan's father sat with an expression of stone. On the other end, there were... corpses. Almost half the King's Guard including one who Inu recognized as their commander.

Standing coolly above it all, with a white cape soaked in blood and eyes like no other, was Liv.