The silver moon hung full over Xelvaris.A warm night breeze swept over the rooftop observatory of the Imperial Nexus, where Caelum and Lysia sat in quiet peace. A tea flask rested between them, forgotten, as they stared up at the stars they both once dreamed of touching.
She turned to him.
"After one week… we'll be married."
Caelum blinked slowly, as though processing those words through a thousand thoughts.
Then he smiled. A rare, warm, honest smile. "Alright."
Lysia blushed faintly. "That's it?"
"You already told me your heart. You knew I wasn't good at… expressions." He reached out and gently placed his hand over hers. "But if it's with you, then yes. A thousand times, yes."
She leaned into him, her head on his shoulder.
"You're going to change the world, Cael. I just… I want to be there when you do it."
Six Days Later — In Eldwyn
The wooden gate creaked open as Caelum stepped onto the familiar cobblestone path of home.
His father looked up from the garden, startled. "Cael?"
Elienne dropped her basket and ran into her son's arms. "You actually came back! It's been nearly two years—"
Caelum wrapped his arms around her, inhaling the scent of lavender and smoke.
"I had to tell you in person," he said, voice soft. "I'm getting married."
They froze.
Then came laughter — pure, proud, and tearful.
Back in Xelvaris — Same Day
The royal court gathered in secret.
"She knows too much," one said.
"She's developed weapons beyond our control."
"And she's no longer obeying orders. She speaks of 'justice.' Of reform."
A final voice, cold and resolute:"Then label her a heretic. Frame her. Break her. And let the public watch her fall."
Day Seven — The Return
Caelum arrived just past sunset.
The floating city glowed with festival lanterns and streamers — remnants of a wedding no one had attended.
Something was wrong. Deeply, horribly wrong.
No one would meet his eyes.
Then he saw the plaza.
And everything stopped.
She was hung on a massive iron cross in the center of the Imperial Square, limbs bound by glowing chains. Her hair clung to her blood-streaked skin. Blades — a dozen of them — pierced her body, each one enchanted to keep her alive and in agony.
The citizens cheered.
"Witch!""Traitor!""She tried to destroy our empire!"
Children threw stones. Priests burned effigies. The very people she had fought to protect now rejoiced in her death.
And she was still alive when they thrust the final blade into her chest.
He saw her lips form one word before her body finally stilled.
"…Cael…"
The Breaking
Caelum didn't scream.
He didn't fall to his knees.
He simply stood there, watching the love of his life die at the hands of the people she tried to save.
A vision flashed in his mind — her last conversation.
"Cael, I want to fix this empire. I believe it can be better. People just need a chance. We'll give it to them. Together."
He turned.
And walked.
The Forbidden Lab
It had always been there.
Hidden beneath the academy. Shielded from prying eyes. The project Lysia had forbidden him from completing — a machine of living synthesis, artificial immortality drawn from sacred runes and irreversible science.
"Please, promise me you won't finish that project," she had said once. "You'll lose what makes you human."
He now stood before it in silence.
A steel chamber surrounded by pulsating veins of mana and blood-crystals. Inside, the machine waited.
He stepped in.
Pressed the switch.
The process began.
Agony erupted through his bones. Flesh unraveled. Consciousness melted into code, reforming in seconds — perfectly preserved, perfectly enhanced, no longer constrained by decay.
He emerged minutes later.
Whole.
Changed.
And cursed.
The Curse of Eternity
As he stepped from the chamber, the world darkened. Not around him — within.
A golden sigil burned into the air before him.
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere, a force deeper than time.
"You have defied fate. Twisted life. Taken what should never be taken."
"For your arrogance, I cast upon you the Curse of Eternity."
"You will not die. You will never forget. You will carry this moment forever."
The mark etched itself into his chest. A black brand shaped like a broken crown.
Then silence.
He was alone.
Forever.
The First and Last Tears
He returned to the cross in the square.
Her body was still there, untouched now, forgotten as the crowd dispersed. The air smelled of dried blood and cold wind.
He touched her hand. Still warm.
No magic. No god. No miracle had saved her.
His knees buckled. His head fell against her shoulder.
And then, for the first time since childhood—
He cried.
Not the cry of a boy.
Not even the cry of a man.
But the howl of something no longer human — something that had lost its reason to believe.
The sky didn't answer.The gods didn't speak.
Only the wind whispered.
And Caelum stopped being just a scientist.