By the time the sky paled with early light, they reached the outer walls of a modest garrison town—stone-built, fortified, and visibly tense.
Taryn was exhausted.
Even with his undead heart keeping him from collapse, his body was still mortal. And with Xara unconscious on his back, he could feel the burden of the night’s journey deep in his bones.
More than that—his heart still ached. A pulsing pain that had begun ever since Eunuch’s explanation of the seal. He’d realized then that Xara had left a blessing within him—her sigil carved into the lock that now bound his heart stiller than water.
And the vial she gave him… it hadn’t just saved his life.
It had made him hers.
They couldn’t walk into town like this. Their Merlin Sect robes marked them as fugitives. And Eunuch, even cloaked, still bore the look of the walking dead—bandaged sockets, a slashed torso, and limbs stitched with death’s precision.
Taryn reached inward, visualizing new attire. Cosmic cloth shimmered into being from his palace realm.
In Gehonom Palace:
“Ahh!” shrieked Concubine Seventeen.
Sheba appeared in a blink, finding the girl covering herself with a pillow.
“My clothes vanished! I swear I wasn’t unfaithful!” she sobbed.
Sheba sighed. “Relax. The lord summoned them. Be honored he thought of you.”
The others snickered. Number Seventeen blinked, baffled and half-naked.
Back in the mortal realm, Taryn and Eunuch changed clothes and destroyed their robes. He dressed Xara himself with care. Eunuch wrapped his sockets in a dark cloth, leaning on a carved staff to pass as a blind wanderer.
They entered the town unnoticed. Only a few glances were cast their way—nothing more than three pitiful travelers seeking shelter.
Eunuch’s corpse still carried his cosmic credit plaque—funded, ironically, by the Sun King’s favorite concubine. With it, Taryn secured the finest room in a local inn and laid Xara to rest.
“Stay and guard her,” he told Eunuch. “Do not let her be disturbed.”
Then he left, stepping out into his first city beyond the sect.
The town buzzed with cosmic-powered life. Hovering transports pulsed past vendors. Streetlights ran on radiant stones. Cultivators advertised alchemical enhancers and low-grade sigils on portable holograms. Radios pulsed coded energy between towers. Even their phones were cosmic—tools Taryn had only read about.
He bought two. One for himself, and one for Xara.
He also stocked up on clothes and essentials. Inanimate objects were easy to store in his palace—they required no energy to summon. The phones, however—each imprinted with trace amounts of cosmic energy—drained his core every time they were reverse-summoned.
Before heading to the auction, he stopped briefly at the inn, left one of the phones with Eunuch, and gave him a quiet command to alert him immediately if Xara stirred.
Eventually, he found himself in a crowd near a gated plaza.
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“The King’s envoy is inside,” someone whispered.
“They’re hosting a private auction. Leftovers from the Merlin Sect purge.”
“Rumor is… they didn’t find what they were looking for.”
Taryn’s face darkened.
He approached a vendor.
“How do I enter?”
The man glanced at him, surprised by his youth.
“Not today, kid. Entrance fee’s a hundredfold. VIPs only.”
Taryn tapped the cosmic card.
The man’s mouth fell open.
“Right this way, honored guest!”
Inside the auction building, Taryn was escorted to a velvet-roofed booth with sound-blocking sigils.
The masked host bowed. “Welcome, Guest of Booth Seven. You may bid freely and anonymously.”
He settled in.
The stage below lit up.
“Welcome, honored guests!” the announcer called. “Today, we present select spoils from the fallen Merlin Sect—their tools, their secrets… even their bloodlines.”
Taryn’s fist clenched at the wording.
So it was the Sun Kingdom behind it all.
But his expression didn’t change.
“Our first item,” the presenter announced, “is a relic of dimensional craftsmanship. Recovered from the cold hands of a Merlin elder.”
Two attendants wheeled out a long object cloaked in black silk.
Taryn’s eyes narrowed.
That sword… it’s Grandfather’s.
“1,000 cosmic coins!”
“1,500,” Taryn said calmly.
The announcer stilled. Murmurs followed.
“Sold to Booth Seven!”
The blade was delivered to his hands.
So he’s really dead, Taryn thought. And yet I feel… nothing. Only memory.
The next item followed.
“A woman, captured alive during the Merlin Sect purge. Her presence exudes divine resonance—rare, possibly sacred.”
A chained woman stepped onto the stage.
Taryn froze.
Her silver hair. Her poise. Even in tattered robes, she looked as if she belonged among stars.
Xara’s mother.
A sharp, searing pain tore through his chest. He stifled a grunt. Blood touched his lips.
The seal… it’s reacting.
His heart writhed. The soul fragment stirred within him—resonating with its source.
I’ll die at this rate.
He shifted consciousness instantly into the palace.
In Gehenom Palace
Damion appeared at once.
“Your Majesty?”
“Summon the court. Now.”
In moments, Sheba, Ox, and Imp arrived.
Taryn stood on shaky feet.
“The seal on my heart is destabilizing. She’s here—Xara’s mother.”
They all turned to Imp.
“Well?”
She stepped forward.
“Suppress your heart. Deny what fuels the seal. Deny your love.”
“And then what?” Taryn asked coldly.
“You’ll enter a devil state. A temporary release. You’ll have maybe twenty minutes to control the situation before the seal reactivates.”
“How do I lie to my own heart?”
Imp tilted her head.
“You don’t lie. You remember.”
“She charged into the enemy line. Left you behind. She exposed herself, and that chaos led to your death.”
Taryn clenched his fists.
She chose her pain… and left me to mine.
“Thank you, Imp.”
He vanished.
Back in the auction hall:
He awoke in a breath. The pain receded. His eyes dulled, darkened.
Two faint shadows—horns—flickered above his brow.
The seal was silenced.
“The Saint Mother of the Merlin Sect,” the presenter said, “is rumored to possess miraculous traits, despite her child.”
Scoffs echoed.
“What kind of myth—”
“Immaculate conception? Ridiculous.”
“We thought you’d doubt it,” the presenter smiled. “We have proof.”
A projection flared to life.
Merlin elders gathered in a private chamber. Among them, Caelen—Taryn’s father.
“She bears the signs of the ancient physique,” he was saying. “Even if no man touched her.”
Another elder sneered.
“And you’d believe that? She embarrassed you. Left you, pregnant and proud.”
Caelen rose.
“She’s still my fiancée. Mind your tongue.”
The sect leader exhaled.
“There’s one way to know. We’ll conduct a verification.”
Taryn’s face was blank, but inside, fury brewed.
They tested her dignity for the sake of politics.
The result played clearly: she had never known a man.
A Virgin Mother.
The room fell silent.
Taryn raised his hand once more.
“100,000 cosmic coins.”