– Frey Starlight's Pov –
It took a full minute of silence— and everyone else—just to process what had happened, before the crowd erupted into cheers for the princess who had just delivered a breathtaking display.
"Where did all these people co from?"
Snow muttered beside , still trying to pull himself together.
None of us had suffered fatal injuries except for the deep gash across Daemon's chest ... but we were in rough shape.
The temple students who'd witnessed the match were captivated by Sansa. She had just defeated the students believed to be the strongest of their generation.
The match hadn't been broadcast to the Empire's citizens , it was limited to a handful of people .. but rumors would spread, inevitably. And without even realizing it, Sansa had just scored major points against Aegon in the race for the throne.
Speaking of the prince... he stood clapping alongside the others, a calm smile drawn across his face.
What just happened was clearly a blow to him. Because no matter how intelligent or cunning an emperor may be, those traits are aningless without overwhelming strength.
An emperor is, first and foremost, the Empire's shield and sword. Their only requirent is to be strong enough to defeat anyone.
And Sansa had just shown that kind of strength ... strength worthy of the throne.
So why are you smiling, Aegon?
Where exactly does the darkness within the Imperial family lie?
"What the hell were those shadows?"
"I couldn't cut through them… and they were ridiculously fast."
Daemon and Snow had already started breaking down what they'd just faced.
Sansa's shadow ability was vast in range, harder than steel, faster than the eye could follow, and disturbingly versatile.
It was, without exaggeration, an absurdly well-rounded power with no visible weaknesses.
You could almost call it a perfect shadow ability… if such a thing existed.
"Her darkness isn't natural. I've only felt sothing like that once in my life."
Snow was inching closer to the truth.
He had sensed this kind of power once ... during his fight with the masked man from the Ultras. The man who wielded an otherworldly black fla unlike anything he'd seen.
Sansa's shadows carried that sa energy.
It was only a matter of ti before people realized she was using a demonic ability .. if they hadn't figured it out already.
"What about you, Frey?"
Snow's voice pulled from my thoughts.
"Her shadows are definitely nothing like Ghost's."
"Obviously," Daemon muttered, sparks of lightning dancing between his fingers.
"The Valerions have always inherited light and lightning. Generation after generation."
He clenched his fist, casting a final glance toward his cousin.
"But that cursed darkness… only the gods know where it ca from."
Different opinions, but from the outside? We probably just looked like a group of losers licking their wounds.
I didn't linger long. I slipped away at the first chance, distancing myself from the roar of cheers and from Danzo's shouting as Selena continued mocking him.
I wasn't even sure how I ended up at one of the temple's private gardens.
I sat alone on a bench, staring at the system screen and the one mission that had been haunting for so ti:
– Eliminate the Darkness of the Imperial Bloodline –
Ti Remaining: 23 Days
It was difficult to grasp what exactly this mission wanted from .
If Sansa was the darkness in question… did that an I was ant to kill her?
What if the darkness was Aegon instead? Or sowhere else entirely?
Still, I doubted the system would throw against soone like Maekar ... not unless it wanted dead.
No. I was almost certain that the target this ti... was Princess Sansa.
So then what?
I had no intention of killing her. And I wasn't even sure I could.
I've always hated these kinds of missions ... ones that throw blindly into the unknown.
But this ti, I had the tools to shine a light on that uncertainty.
And that tool was one of the system's most broken abilities:
– Glimpse of the Future –
The more I thought about it, the more terrifying it seed.
It literally allowed to see the future. That kind of power broke the rules of this world.
And honestly, I had no idea why I even had access to sothing like this.
During the Victoriad, I'd avoided using it .. I was too afraid of seeing myself fail.
But now? There was no reason not to use it. Except… its cost was high. Very high.
But I had enough points saved up from completing the final mission before ...
so after a deep breath, and for the first ti in a long while, I used my cheat ability once again.
The mission Eliminate the Darkness of the imperial Bloodline had a countdown:
23 days remaining.
I didn't know what that ant exactly,
but I decided to look 23 days into the future to see how this would all unfold.
"Show the fate of that damned family… please."
It cost a full 1,000 achievent points,
but the ability activated flawlessly.
Reality tore apart around ...like soone had taken an eraser to the world...
and the colors gradually ca together to form the scene I wanted to see.
My heartbeat accelerated from how violently I was yanked out of the present.
In the past, this ability would only show a single image.
But now, what unfolded before was a moving scene .. so vivid, so real,
I felt like I had actually traveled into the future.
It was nightti. I floated like a ghost in the sky,
watching from above the Royal District ..
a place I had only seen before in photographs.
It was a region brimming with majestic castles and towering palaces.
Among them, three massive castles stood above the rest .. which I assud belonged to Maekar and his sons.
Everything was eerily quiet.
Just another crisp, uneventful autumn night.
Seconds ticked by. Then minutes.
And I began to think I had just wasted a thousand achievent points for nothing.
But of course, that was just the calm before the storm.
How strange, how easily the world can shift ...
as if soone were tampering with my vision and senses.
BOOOOOOM!
With a deafening explosion, one of the three castles erupted in flas.
Screams echoed through the night.
From beneath the rubble, pitch-black tendrils tore into the sky,
as fire and shadow swallowed everything.
I watched those black tentacles shred through anything in their path,
while sothing crawled through that cursed darkness.
"Aha… AhahahahahaHAHAHA!!!"
And at the center of it all,
a creature—a demon—laughed maniacally
as it slaughtered every soul in its way, painting the land with blood.
It slithered across the ground like a plague,
bringing destruction and death in its wake.
And it had only one target:
From the Imperial Castle, Maekar erged...
carrying a colossal spear in hand.
His face and golden eyes were cold as ever.
Serpents of lightning coiled through the sky, illuminating the night as the Emperor hurled his weapon at the thing crawling toward him.
The bolt of lightning ...an attack worthy of an SS entity clashed with the cursed shadows,
unleashing waves of destructive power.
I was thrown from that twisted reality and woke up, back on the garden bench—
drenched in sweat, with a cold hand on my shoulder.
I could feel the sweat crawling across my skin.
My breathing was erratic.
My heart pounded against my ribs like it was trying to escape my chest.
I turned to see whose hand it was ...
and within monts, I had my answer.
"...Sansa?"
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"How long have you been here?"
It took everything I had to keep my composure, trying to et her gaze while silencing the primal instinct inside screaming to get away.
Sansa, ever observant,
was already watching closely.
I had to lock down my expression fast ...or she'd see right through .
"I've been here for a while. I called your na a few tis but got no answer."
"Ah… I guess I got lost in thought again."
"There's nothing wrong with that.
It's actually nice to see you acting like yourself again."
"What do you an?"
I asked. Her reply wasn't what I expected.
"You've looked… empty, ever since you ca back."
Such a sharp insight, as always, from the princess.
"Empty, huh? …Now that you ntion it, we haven't really talked like this in a while."
Every ti I tried to find her, sothing would get in the way.
But when she ca looking for ? Nothing stopped her.
"Yeah… It wasn't easy sneaking away from all those students earlier."
"Can't bla them. You did just wipe the floor with , Snow, and Daemon."
"…"
She didn't respond imdiately.
Maybe she was thinking about sothing.
But I didn't give her ti ..I followed with another question:
"How have you been lately?"
Sansa tilted her head and looked at .
"I'm fine… nothing out of the ordinary."
"What about your power? Those shadows…"
The mont I added that last question and studied her expression ..it lasted for less than a second .. but even though she tried to hide it gracefully, I noticed the faint crease in her brow before she smoothed it away.
She was incredibly skilled at controlling her facial expressions.
I assud it was one of those habits she'd mastered over ti, likely due to her status as a princess.
Because of that, I couldn't tell if I was imagining things, or if I'd really seen it.
In response, she simply raised her hand ... allowing thin strands of shadow aura to swirl around her fingers.
"I've recently reached the point where I can manipulate it freely."
Sansa began shaping her shadow aura into different forms.
She started simple—circles, squares—while continuing to speak.
"Little by little, this power has beco an inseparable part of ."
Slowly, the shapes beca more complex: a three-dinsional sword, a spear ford entirely from shadow.
The way she controlled it ..so swift, so precise ..felt almost instinctive.
"Your control is amazing," I comnted as she put on the display.
The princess smiled softly.
"Yes. I have it under control now, so there's no need to worry."
"Right…"
No need to worry?
Truthfully, I wouldn't have worried.
That level of aura manipulation proved how deeply she'd mastered it.
But…
That glimpse I saw of the future still haunted .
Because that thing ...the shadowed monstrosity that attacked Maekar ...
I saw it.
For a fleeting second, I recognized the figure within that darkness.
That creature, that nightmare that had risen from nowhere…
Even if she looked slightly different ..
it was still you, Sansa.
That abomination .. one more terrifying than any demon I've seen…
Was that really you?
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