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Why did he miss her so damn much?
That thought didn’t co like a whisper. It struck him like a hamr. One mont he was quiet, steady. The next, he was shaking slightly, jaw clenched, heart thudding in his chest like it was trying to dig its way out.
Was it guilt... for touching her so casually? For teasing her like a boy poking a fla and pretending not to care if he got burned?
Was it regret—for not biting that stamp shaped on her lon-soft chest, even when his mouth had hovered above it for a breathless second?
Maybe it was when her bathrobe traced the edge of her curves, the thin cloth barely hiding the shape of her. His eyes had wandered, his instincts stirred, and his body had responded without rcy. He rembered that ache... the twitch in his muscles, the heat in his blood... the sha in pulling away before he lost control of his Ant rod.
But no. It wasn’t guilt. It wasn’t a regret. It was worse. It was fear.
Not fear of any rejection, not even fear of losing control. It was the terrifying thought that she might believe he had died.
And the cruelest part was... she would have every reason to think that.
He had escaped the desert mantis’s death trap alone. He never tried to contact her afterward. Not once. While he made love with Luna in the monarch mountain and Miryam snuggled in her warm nest, Mia sat sowhere else entirely... waiting, perhaps wondering... if he was gone for good.
Vexor had told him how she changed. Needle said she spoke less. Flint had shrugged and said she was always serious, but now her eyes didn’t light up at anything anymore. Shale admitted he’d heard her crying once, when she thought no one was listening.
She’d wept.
And Kai? He had simply moved forward / was busy with other things. Always facing challenges one after another.
He hadn’t told her he was alive. He hadn’t even tried. And perhaps the worst part of all. He had taken over her team.
Her Dawn-Blade soldiers... Vexor, Needle, Flint, Shale... they had sworn loyalty to him inside the Rift Gate. They beca his Monarch-subordinates.
If they had returned to the Ant Kingdom, maybe they could have told her. But they didn’t.
Because Kai sent them with Luna and Miryam, straight to his mountain. And Mia... she would have heard nothing.
Not even a whisper. Not a single sign that he still lived.
"Mia..." he said again, softly this ti, almost afraid the trees might hear him.
She was part of his beginning. The first to stand beside him when he was still clawing his way upward. The one who never treated him like a tool. She stood by him, challenged him, laughed at him—but never abandoned him.
He had tried not to think of her. And maybe that was the main problem.
"System," he whispered. A glow stirred deep within him, not in his body but in his soul. The core.
"Can I... talk to Mia?"
A pause.
The system replied, calm and asured as always:
[Request acknowledged.
Target identified: Mia, bearer of Luster’s Mark.
Terrain separation: Southern Forest to Eastern forest Central Ravine Highlands.
Obstructions: None
Signal clarity: Moderate
Emotional resonance: High
Establishing a Soul Core Manipulation link will consu 650 aura.
Do you wish to proceed?
Yes / No ]
Kai didn’t speak right away.
He sat still and motionless on the tree bark, while a strange silence wrapped around him. Wind brushed the side of his face like a ghost’s palm.
His eyes followed the soft arc of a leaf falling from a scorched branch. It twirled slowly as it descended, glowing faintly with fungal spores, spinning like the unanswered questions in his mind.
"What am I supposed to say to her?"
He thinks, "Hey, I survived from a predator but decided not to co back. I married soone. Later I got hurled across the world, lived through a void storm, fought ugly frog, bonded with a queen, and... missed you?
It sounded absurd even in his head. Like so desperate dream scribbled on the back of a broken mory.
His chest tightened. A silent scream that clawed at the inside of his ribs, begging for release.
He wanted to hear her voice. Just once. But he didn’t know if she’d feel the sa.
Mia had always been... strong. Stronger than most. She carried the weight of her house, her blades, her pride—and never once did she show it cracking. When she laughed, it was sharp and quick. When she fought, it was like a storm held in a blade.
And when she looked at him—That was the part he didn’t understand. There had been monts. Fleeting, fragile monts.
A smile that stayed a second longer than it should have. The way she looked at him when she thought he wasn’t watching—like she wanted to say sothing and swallow it at the sa ti.
But it was always unspoken. Maybe that was how she wanted it. Maybe he’d imagined it all.
Maybe, in her eyes, he was just a soldier who happened to impress her. A worker ant who earned her trust—but not her heart.
Or maybe he was more. But that uncertainty was paralyzing. "What if she didn’t want to talk? What if... she thought I had abandoned her?"
The thought struck like a spear. His stomach turned. His fists clenched over his knees.
He hadn’t ant to disappear from her life. But he had to. The queen mark was gone. If the return... Fate hadn’t given him a choice.
Still... He knew, What had the last month been like for her? She was searching. She was waiting. But for a soldier or her love? This wasn’t clear for Kai. He bit the inside of his cheek.
This wasn’t him. Kai didn’t hesitate. He didn’t dwell. But this... She was different.
And if he reached out now, if he bridged the gap and looked into her soul even for a few seconds, he’d know the truth.
There would be no pretending after that. His breathing was shallow. Not from fear. From longing.
A raw, unshaped need that had been buried beneath battles and duties and survival... but was now clawing to the surface.
He could see her face in his mind. That half-smile she wore when mocking him. The way her voice dipped slightly when she was worried, trying not to show it.
He rembered how she’d stood beside him, always a step behind, blades ready, eyes on the threat—but sotis, on him.
His hand trembled. "...Whatever," he whispered, voice tight. "I’ll just talk to her. Just say... hello."
He stared out at the moonlight slicing through the trees. Everything in his body was telling him to wait, to think longer, to protect his pride.
But his heart?
His heart scread her na.
"System," he said finally, breath catching in his throat, "start the connection." And the link began.
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