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Raven felt his hand tighten slightly beneath hers just enough for her to notice, just enough to tell her something inside him had shifted. The glow in his eyes had faded, not into weakness, but into uncertainty, and that was something she almost never saw in him.
He didn't speak.
So she did.
"You're afraid," she said quietly.
Arthur's gaze lifted a fraction, surprised but he didn't argue.
Raven stepped back so she could see his face fully. He wasn't glowing with power now. He just looked… human. Almost painfully so.
"You think that if you give up your heart as you said," she continued, "you'll lose whatever pieces of yourself are still… warm." Her voice softened. "The small things. The things that make this life feel real."
Arthur's jaw tightened, just barely.
Raven took a slow breath.
"I spent my entire life trying to keep myself from becoming something I never wanted to be. Controlling every emotion because if I slipped just once, I could destroy everything." Her eyes lowered briefly. "I wanted to feel human more than anything. To be normal. To choose how I lived, instead of being shaped by what I was born from."
Arthur listened in silence, but something in his expression shifted like her words were peeling armor away he didn't know he still wore.
Raven lifted her eyes again.
"So believe me when I tell you this: losing your heart doesn't take away your humanity." Her voice was calm, steady. "You lose your humanity when you decide you don't need it anymore."
Arthur looked at her fully now no smirk, no mask, just the weight of what she'd said settling into him.
Raven moved closer, their shoulders brushing.
"You're terrified of becoming empty," she said. "Of turning into something that doesn't care, doesn't feel… something that can't love."
Arthur inhaled slowly not dramatic, just real.
"And I understand that," she added. "Because I lived that fear my entire life."
Her hand slid over his again, fingers threading gently.
"But ask yourself something, Arthur."
She waited until he met her eyes.
"Are you really the Shadow Monarch the one that commands the shadows and even death, the one that everyone fears?" she said softly.
"Or are you just a man still convinced he's one choice away from losing himself?"
The words hung there not harsh, not cruel, just true.
Arthur's breath stilled.
Raven continued, voice lowering to something warm yet still firm,
"You helped me face my father. You helped me prove that I'm more than the darkness I was born from. I wield power that could end the world, but it doesn't own me." She leaned in slightly. "I own it."
Arthur blinked slow, almost stunned.
"It's not the heart that claims you," Raven said.
"You claim it."
Silence washed over the room, deep and unmoving.
"And if you think an item or a piece of power decides whether you'll still care about... about us…" her voice softened to almost a whisper, "…then maybe you didn't deserve it or us in the first place."
Arthur stared at her, every defense he had ever worn falling away like dust.
For a moment, he didn't look like a king or a weapon or a walking force of death.
He looked like someone who had forgotten how to breathe.
Then, slowly, he lifted his hand and touched her cheek not with hunger or urgency, but with a gentleness that felt impossibly rare for him.
He leaned in and kissed her.
Not as the Shadow Monarch or some unstoppable force.
Just as Arthur.
When he pulled back, his forehead rested against hers, his voice lower than she'd ever heard it.
"I have," he murmured,
"A great woman by my side."
Raven's lips curved not into her usual smirk, but something softer.
"Good," she whispered. "Try to remember that."
Arthur sat there for a moment longer, then something shifted in his expression not dramatic, just certain. A quiet resolve.
"I know what I should do now," he said.
His voice wasn't loud.
Raven watched him rise from the bed, and she stood with him, their hands brushing briefly. There was a faint smile on her lips, the kind only she ever made only for him small, subtle and real.
"Glad I could help out," she said.
Arthur exhaled through his nose, almost amused. "I'm gonna go see what the Olympians want," he continued, rolling his shoulders as if settling back into himself. "And then, when I return, I'll go and finish this little ordeal."
Raven nodded once, approval soft in her eyes. "Now you sound like the Arthur I know."
He smirked. "Terrifying and emotionally unavailable?"
She nudged him with her shoulder. "No. Stubborn and annoyingly confident."
Arthur was about to say something back when Raven suddenly shifted her stance, arms crossing, gaze narrowing not in irritation, but in thought.
"But first," she said, "I have one request."
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "…Should I be worried?"
Raven didn't answer immediately. Instead, she stepped closer, her expression surprisingly serious for exactly three seconds.
"Let's have some fun," she said.
Arthur blinked. "Fun?"
"It's been a while," Raven replied, "We haven't gone out anywhere in… well, forever. And you're not in a hurry, right?"
For a moment, Arthur just stared at her because of all the things he expected from Raven, that was not on the list.
Then he smiled, slow and genuinely entertained.
"I do have time," he said. "But now you don't sound like Raven. Are you sure you don't want to stay in your room and pretend the outside world doesn't exist?"
She narrowed her eyes in mock offense. "Wow. You make one request and suddenly you're getting bold."
Arthur raised both hands. "I'm just saying this is dangerously out of character. I might need photographic evidence."
Before he could finish the sentence, Raven grabbed his hand.
A portal of shimmering violet opened behind her silent, elegant, and absolutely not giving him a chance to reconsider.
"Too late," she said, pulling him forward. "Let's just go."
Arthur barely had time to laugh before the portal swallowed them both leaving the room empty, the air still warm where they'd been standing.
****
They stepped out of the portal into light not sunlight, but neon.
The ground beneath them wasn't soil or stone, but a smooth, metallic street pulsing with faint circuitry, like the entire planet was wired and breathing. Towers stretched into the sky, stacked with glowing platforms and shifting holographic signs in languages Arthur didn't recognize. Airships drifted overhead, their engines humming low.
The sky itself was the strangest part a red sun, huge and dull, hanging low enough that the entire city bathed in crimson haze.
Arthur took a slow look around, violet eyes reflecting neon and smoke.
"…Interesting place."
The smell was a mix of ozone, hot metal, and some kind of alien spice. Crowds moved past them creatures with chrome plating instead of skin, elongated heads with glowing eyes, others floating instead of walking. Music vibrated through the metal under their feet.
Before Arthur could say more, Raven snapped her fingers.
Dark magic rippled over both of them silent and seamless.
Arthur glanced down.
His coat had shifted into a sleek, dark long-coat reinforced with metallic lines tracing along his arms and spine almost like circuitry. His boots looked armored, and the shadow ring blended into a mechanical-looking gauntlet. His ashen white hair was pulled slightly back, giving him a sharper, almost augmented look.
He raised an eyebrow.
"…I look like I was manufactured."
Raven didn't answer at first mostly because he was too busy staring at her.
Her outfit had transformed into a deep-violet and black, asymmetrical coat that split at the waist, the inside lined with glowing runes like circuitry made of magic. Tight black pants tucked into knee-high boots, silver chains wrapped loosely around her belt. Her top was a fitted, sleeveless cut with dark mesh along the shoulders, and her lipstick had darkened almost black.
A perfect blend of goth and cyberpunk, dangerous and magnetic.
Arthur blinked once.
"I mean you look hot don't get me wrong but…Is this necessary?"
Raven shrugged, already walking forward.
"Not really. Different aliens come to this world all the time. Humans are rare, but no one asks questions unless you look boring."
Arthur followed, hands in his pockets.
"So where exactly are we going?"
"A party," Raven said, deadpan.
"With no Earthlings. Except for us."
Arthur almost stopped walking.
"A party."
Raven let out the flattest sigh.
"Yeah. I almost forgot… I did promise her after all."
Arthur's eyebrow rose higher.
"Her?"
"You'll see."
She lifted her hand, tracing a small circle in the air space bending into another portal.
A second later, a blonde girl stepped out.
Kara blinked once at the alien skyline, then at Arthur who immediately closed his eyes like he had predicted the universe's punchline.
"Of course, now I get it."
Kara shifted her weight, avoiding eye contact like a kid caught stealing cookies.
Arthur stared at her for a beat, then lifted a brow.
"Is this why you wanted to reach me for the past week, Kara?"
Silence.
He added, deadpan,
"Because you wanted to come here?"
Kara's lips tightened into a thin line.
"…Yes."
She finally admitted it, shoulders sinking.
Arthur blinked once.
"You and nightlife..."
Kara threw her hands up defensively.
"Look, okay... Raven promised! And I thought you were dead or something! I mean..."
She suddenly tried to float, the way she always did when flustered.
Nothing happened.
She hovered an inch off the ground then dropped right back down with a soft metallic thud.
Kara stared at her feet.
"…Right. Red sun."
Then she looked up at the crimson sky, a small, genuine smile forming.
"It's perfect, actually," she said softly.
"One of the few places where I can be… normal."
Her voice wasn't sad just honest.
Just a girl on another world.
Then she finally turned and saw Arthur and Raven properly.
Kara burst out laughing.
"Oh my god, you two look ridiculous! Arthur looks like someone welded armor onto a trench coat and Raven looks like she's about to headline a goth rock concert."
Raven lifted her chin with regal offense.
"Jealous?"
Arthur pointed at Raven without looking at her.
"Do it to her as well."
Raven's lips curved into the slowest, most wicked smile.
"Gladly."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want