Maxi ascended the spiraling staircase that led from the grand library to the main castle halls. Each step echoed beneath his shoes , but the silence that greeted him above was louder. None of his siblings were in sight.
He continued on, moving past the grand tapestries and cold, stone corridors until he reached the front gate. Angelina followed closely behind. Without a word, she opened the massive doors.
The moment Maxi stepped outside, he felt it.
Relief.
The pressure of the main castle—its sheer weight on his spirit—lifted off him like steam rising from a boiling pot.
He exhaled, a long sigh that seemed to stretch his very bones.
"That was more suffocating than usual," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
She didn't even give me time to adapt, he thought, glancing at Angelina, who remained quiet. Her mood didn't improve at all… but Colen's scolding seems to have tamed her just a bit.
Indeed, she walked with less fire in her steps now, her presence no longer burning the air around her. It made Maxi consider something:
In the face of true power… even the proud must bow.
He scoffed, amused at the idea of one day commanding that kind of presence. But he knew the price.
That only way he could get that kind of power was by dying and trying to pass the Test of the 1,000 Spiraling Hells.
Or becoming a puppet of the Bloodheart family.
Neither sounded appealing.
Maxi shook the thoughts from his head and looked up
and froze.
The suns were setting.
Twin celestial giants lowering in the sky:
To the north, the sun burned in hues of green and orange, like a forest in autumn's last breath.
To the south, the second sun gave off red and bluish light, soft yet hauntingly vivid.
The sight lifted Maxi's heart skyward. He felt a pulse of something divine—pride. Not his own, but from something distant… and yet close.
It felt like a smile. A gaze. Watching. Approving.
The Demon King of Pride... Maxi thought. It must be him.
With a quiet mind, Maxi descended the marble stairs from the main castle and made his way toward the smaller fortress he called home. As he walked, he passed the training fields.
Techxin was there.
Of course he was. Swinging his twin axes in fluid, brutal repetition, sweat flying from his body like war-dust.
Maxi smirked. He never misses a day, huh? Classic Techxin. Guess I should join him later.
Once inside his small castle, Maxi flopped onto his bed for a moment, letting his body sink into the sheets. The softness was bliss.
He turned his head to the bedside—
—and his face went pale.
His round glasses sat quietly on the table.
He hadn't worn them all day.
He sighed, dragging a hand over his face. "Great…" he muttered, realizing he'd been stumbling through all that storytelling and emotion without his glasses and he then thought thats why i didnt see Mōkō and Dallas faces or maybe it was because they where backs where facing him he didn't know.
Maxi stood again, dusting himself off ,put on his round glasses, and walked back out Angelina following right behind him.
The sky was still painted in twilight flame. He approached the training yard, where Techxin was now twirling his axes in a blur of lethal rhythm.
Maxi raised a hand and called out,
"Hey, big brother"
Techxin then stoped and smiked widely as he said loudly
"Hey maxi!"