A young man’s profile appeared on-screen. Kaiden Grey. She read quietly for a mont.
"No, I don’t live under a rock," she finally replied to Lazarus without looking up, "but saying I’ve been living inside dungeons would be accurate."
Her crimson gaze drifted from the tablet, drawn to another corner of the conference room.
Sitting in polished silence, the very shadow of authority, was Vespera Ashborn. The Shadow Monarch. Draped in black, her presence alone cooled the air.
Beside her sat a tall man with a dark, well-trimd beard, his fra filling the suit he wore as though it were molded around him. He looked every bit the gentleman. Handso, refined, yet radiating a weight that would silence almost anyone.
Vespera’s husband. Kaiden’s father. Magnus Ashborn. Together, they were the twin pillars of New Dawn, the rciless guild that balanced Vespera’s incredible strength and cruel persona with his excellent expertise at leadership.
Scarlet studied Vespera for a good while with a slightly tilted head. "Do you have anything to say about this?"
It wasn’t an idle question. The boy on the tablet, the rising na already stirring whispers in every corner of the awakened world, was their kid, no doubt about it.
Even if she hadn’t had insider information about the Ashborn household and hence knew about their son who didn’t awaken, it wasn’t exactly an outlandish conclusion to draw. He inherited his mother’s overwhelming eyes and father’s handso features.
Vespera’s gaze did not waver. She remained silent, her expression as cold and impossible to approach as always.
The tense silence pressed down on the table.
That was Vespera. An antisocial murder machine of the highest caliber.
While Scarlet inspired people with her victories, lighting a fire in ordinary hearts, Vespera inspired nothing but fear. She was proof that awakened stood above mankind, untouchable and terrible. They were equals in power, but their auras could not have been more different. One a beacon. The other a shadow.
And in that silence, no one dared to speak Kaiden Grey’s na.
Or rather, that would’ve been a case were it an ordinary conference room.
But today, it was filled with so of the biggest nas in the United States of Arica.
"That’s your runt, isn’t he?"
A voice cut through the hostile air of Vespera as if it didn’t exist at all.
It ca from one of the delegates from the third pillar of the great trinity of guilds:
The Radiant Order
Where Crimson Dominion embodied chaos, and New Dawn played things in a rather orderly manner, abiding by laws and rarely stretching them—save for when Vespera or Alice were let loose—the Radiant Order stood for discipline and power under righteous banners. Their leaders were paragons, beloved by people, feared by enemies.
Raziel and Evangeline.
The man was handso, blond, and spotless in white-gold armor that glimred with runic scripture. Tall and broad-shouldered, his presence filled the room like sunlight. His ability was Conviction Manifestation, the power to turn ideals and faith into tangible constructs. Shields, weapons, radiant chains. His "belief" was a weapon as strong as steel.
The woman, anwhile, sat at his side with crossed legs. Evangelina sported brilliant blond hair as well, her features utterly gorgeous and feminine. Together with the healer Elysia, she was often referred to as a human who ascended to angelhood.
Dressed in immaculate ceremonial garb etched with silver filigree and a large golden necklace, she could draw anyone’s eyes without even trying.
Her power was Judicator’s Scales, the ability to weigh an opponent’s sins, lies, or contradictions and "punish" them accordingly. Her strikes grew heavier the more unjust the foe was judged to be.
Unlike the leaders of New Dawn, they were not in a relationship. Rather, they were brother and sister.
Together, they were known as the Twin Pillars of Judgnt, the awakened combatants who made anyone think twice before crossing them and their Radiant Order.
"That is no son of mine!" Magnus’s jaw clenched so hard the sound of grinding teeth nearly drowned out the tense silence. The mighty head of the Ashborn family was shaking from fury he could no longer contain.
His broad fra trembled, hands hitting the table, veins bulging along his arms. Rage boiled inside him, caged only by the threat posed by the horrible creature sitting next to him.
Evangeline smiled sweetly, leaning in just enough for her voice to drip like venom in honey.
"Are you sure? On the way here, I watched Kaiden Ashborn—ah, forgive , Kaiden Grey—slam his balls deep into a tanned monster girl who was moaning and screaming obscenities as if her life depended on it. Her colorful vocabulary made blush. And, I must admit that I understand now why they’re climbing ranks so quickly. It was quite the performance."
A few muffled laughs spread through the hall. Raziel remained expressionless, but his sister’s words carried the intended sting.
"THAT MAN IS NO SON OF MINE!!!" Magnus roared, the walls shuddering with the force of it.
He turned his burning glare on Vespera, eyes bloodshot, voice hoarse with betrayal. Every soul in the room saw it: the unmasked hatred, the desire to crush Kaiden into dust.
But Vespera had already cut the chain that bound them.
By stripping Kaiden of the Ashborn na, she had exiled him from his princely birthright of wealth and power. On the surface, it was punishnt, robbing him of his status as a modern-day prince.
But in truth, it was protection. With her action ca a second decree, in which she forbade Magnus, her twin sons, Calix, Cassion, and her eldest child, Selena, from avenging their family’s sha. Because, as she reasoned, the Ashborn na would not be tarnished further, no matter what Kaiden Grey did.
Magnus’s body shook with the force of a predator denied its prey. The desire to kill his son was written across every trembling muscle of his, but Vespera’s ruling left him helpless.
Across the table, Evangeline’s giggle rang like silver bells. Victorious. Mocking. Exactly what she wanted.
She decided to add fuel to the fire.
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