The mont Ren held her hand, the entire world beca silent.
Black lightning stopped moving. The crimson sky froze in place. Even the endless chaos surrounding the ruined city seed to hold its breath.
The Queen stared at him blankly. Like she couldn’t process what had just happened. Hundreds of tilines. Hundreds of deaths. Yet never once had he reacted like this.
"You..." Her lips trembled slightly. "You’re not afraid of ?"
Ren looked directly into her crimson eyes.
"I am."
The Queen’s expression darkened slightly. But Ren continued without looking away.
"Still... I understand now."
Silence.
Then she hugged him. Tightly. So tightly that Ren almost lost his balance entirely. Her trembling fingers grabbed the back of his shirt desperately, like she was terrified he would disappear again if she loosened her grip even slightly.
"I finally found you again..." she whispered weakly against his shoulder.
The terrifying Queen. The woman feared across hundreds of tilines and multiple worlds. She sounded fragile right now. Broken in a way that power couldn’t fix and destruction couldn’t hide.
Ren slowly raised his hand awkwardly. Then gently patted her head.
The Queen froze completely. Her crimson eyes widened.
Kaiser nearly choked sowhere behind them.
"Impossible..."
Even the winged woman looked genuinely shocked, her cold composure slipping for the first ti without violence being involved.
Because this was the first ti the Queen had allowed soone to touch her willingly. And that person was Ren.
The Queen slowly buried her face against his chest without saying anything.
"You sll the sa."
Ren blinked.
"That sounds creepy."
"Good."
"..."
"You belong to ."
"Okay THAT was creepy."
A small smile appeared on Ren’s face despite everything. And strangely, impossibly, the Queen smiled too.
---
But the peaceful mont didn’t last long.
BOOOOOOOM!!
A massive explosion shook the city. Ren imdiately looked toward the horizon. Far away a gigantic black gate slowly opened in the sky, dark creatures crawling out from it endlessly like sothing had punctured a wound in the world itself.
The winged woman’s expression changed instantly.
"The Void Gate opened early?!"
Kaiser cursed beside her.
"That shouldn’t happen for another month!"
The Queen imdiately pulled Ren behind her protectively. Her aura exploded outward violently. But then the System appeared without being asked.
[Ergency Quest Activated.]
[Survive the Void Catastrophe.]
[Reward: Tiline Fragnts.]
[Failure: Permanent Death.]
Ren’s eyes narrowed.
"Permanent death?"
[If Host dies inside a Void Collapse Zone, tiline resurrection becos impossible.]
The Queen’s face instantly lost color. Every bit of it.
"No."
The System continued without acknowledging her.
[Additional Warning.]
[The Void Beings have detected the existence of the Tiline Queen.]
[Priority Target: Ren Arclight.]
The Queen’s aura beca sothing beyond terrifying. The entire city trembled violently beneath the pressure of it.
"They’re targeting him?"
Kaiser slowly summoned his massive black spear with the expression of soone who had already accepted that today was going to be extrely unpleasant.
"This is bad."
The winged woman looked toward the dark gate with visible unease.
"They probably sensed his existence through the tiline distortions."
Ren looked between all of them slowly.
"So basically... everyone wants dead?"
"Yes," Kaiser answered imdiately.
"Great."
A horrifying scream echoed across the sky without warning. Then a giant creature descended from the gate. Its body was humanoid but completely wrong in every way. Dozens of arms extending from its torso at impossible angles. No face. Only a giant mouth covering where its head should have been.
And inside that mouth, thousands of human eyes moved endlessly, blinking at different tis, all of them looking in different directions at once.
Ren felt sick just looking at it.
[Void Apostle Detected.]
[Threat Level: Catastrophic.]
The monster turned toward Ren slowly. Then smiled with every single eye inside its mouth staring directly at him at the sa mont.
The Queen stepped forward instantly.
"Don’t look at him."
The creature laughed in a sound that didn’t belong in any natural throat.
"Found... you..."
BOOOOOOOOM!!
The Queen vanished from where she stood. A crimson explosion shattered half the sky as her fist smashed directly into the monster’s face. The impact alone destroyed the buildings imdiately behind it.
But the monster regenerated instantly, its body knitting itself back together without slowing down.
Then it spoke again.
"She... killed... worlds... for... you..."
Ren froze.
The creature laughed louder, its eyes blinking in different patterns like sothing communicating in a language nobody wanted to understand.
"She beca... death itself..."
The Queen’s eyes turned murderous.
"Shut up."
The monster stretched its arms toward Ren.
"She loves you so much..."
Its voice beca distorted and layered, like multiple voices speaking through the sa broken throat.
"That she destroys every woman who gets close to you."
Silence.
Ren blinked slowly. Then turned toward the Queen.
The Queen imdiately looked away.
Kaiser coughed awkwardly. The winged woman sighed and studied the horizon with sudden intense interest.
Ren narrowed his eyes.
"You do WHAT?"
The Queen avoided eye contact with the dedication of soone who had decided that a specific patch of ruined concrete was extrely fascinating.
"They were annoying."
"YOU KILLED THEM?!"
"They touched your hand."
"THAT’S NOT A GOOD REASON!"
The Queen crossed her arms stubbornly.
"They knew the risks."
Ren looked completely horrified.
"How many?!"
Silence stretched between them.
"Queen."
More silence.
Kaiser slowly backed away from both of them with the practiced casualness of a man who had learned when not to be nearby.
The winged woman pretended to not exist.
Finally the Queen answered quietly.
"Thirty-two."
Ren almost collapsed.
"THIRTY-TWO?!"
"They flirted aggressively."
"That doesn’t justify murder!"
"They smiled at you."
Ren pressed both hands against his head.
"This woman is completely insane."
The Queen grabbed his arm possessively.
"But I’m YOUR insane woman."
"...That sohow made it worse."
The giant Void Apostle scread furiously after being ignored through an entire argunt. Then charged toward Ren at monstrous speed with every arm extended.
But before it could touch him, crimson chains exploded from the ground without warning and pierced the creature from every direction simultaneously. Thousands of chains wrapped around its body violently, freezing it mid-charge.
The Queen’s smile slowly returned. Cold. Beautiful. Terrifying.
"You interrupted our conversation."
The creature scread while struggling desperately against the chains. Its thousands of eyes all turned toward her at once with sothing that looked almost like fear.
The Queen raised her hand calmly.
Then crushed it.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The Void Apostle exploded into blood and darkness without any further drama. The shockwave rolled outward across the ruined city and silence followed imdiately after.
Ren stared at where it had been standing a mont ago.
The Queen turned back toward him with an expression that sohow looked completely innocent given what had just happened.
"Are you angry?"
"...I’m terrified."
Her expression beca slightly sad, the smallest dimming behind her crimson eyes.
"But you’re still here."
Ren looked at her for a long mont. Then sighed deeply from sowhere exhausted inside his chest.
"Yeah."
The Queen smiled again. A genuinely happy smile this ti, unguarded and real in a way that was sohow more disarming than everything else about her combined.
Then the System appeared again.
[Hidden Quest Triggered.]
[The Queen’s Heart.]
[Objective: Make the Tiline Queen genuinely blush.]
[Reward: Unknown.]
[Penalty for failure: None.]
Ren stared at the notification for a long mont.
Then slowly looked toward the Queen. She tilted her head curiously, her crimson eyes watching him with that sa quiet focus she gave everything that involved him.
"...What?"
Ren’s expression beca deeply complicated.
Because sohow, standing in the middle of a ruined city surrounded by collapsing reality and monsters falling from black gates in the sky, this quest felt far more dangerous than any of it.....
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