The escape was not quiet.
They moved through the damp tunnels of the Royal Sewers, Lyra navigating the maze using a projection from her grimoire. But Emperor Kael was efficient.
"Alert," Lyra whispered, stopping at a junction where the sewer water flowed into a larger cistern. "The Wards have triangulated the breach in the Armory. They are re-routing the Palace defenses."
"How much time do we have?" Nyx asked, shifting the heavy weight of Requiem on his shoulder.
BOOM.
The stone ceiling thirty feet behind them exploded inward.
Rubble crashed into the filthy water, sending a spray of sludge into the air. Through the hole, four figures dropped down, landing with unnatural grace on the narrow walkways.
They were not ordinary guards. They wore sleek, silver armor that covered their faces completely, and they wielded staves that glowed with blinding white light.
"Purifiers," Lyra gasped, stepping back. "One of my father's personal unit. They specialize in hunting dark creatures and magical anomalies."
"Target located," the lead Purifier announced, his voice mechanically amplified and devoid of emotion. "Void Vessel identified. Initiate Cleansing Protocol."
The four staves slammed into the stone ground in unison.
A complex magic circle formed instantly beneath their feet, illuminating the dark tunnel with searing brightness.
A wave of white light rushed down the tunnel toward Nyx. It wasn't fire, it was pure, concentrated holy mana designed to erase anything "unnatural" on a molecular level.
"Shield!" Lyra screamed, throwing up a barrier of blue light.
The white wave hit the blue barrier. Lyra's shield cracked instantly, shattering like glass under a hammer. The force of the impact threw her backward.
"I can't hold it!" Lyra cried, her boots sliding in the mud. "The output... is equal to a Solar Realm cultivator!"
Briar drew Ignis, stepping forward to cover her cousin. "I'll buy us time. Nyx, run!"
"No."
Nyx stepped past Briar. He stepped past Lyra.
He walked straight toward the wave of Holy Light.
"Nyx, are you crazy?!" Briar shouted, shielding her eyes from the glare. "That is anti-darrk magic! It will melt you!"
Nyx didn't stop. He raised Requiem.
The First Shackle in his chest was screaming. It hurt. It burned. The Holy Light felt like acid on his skin, trying to scour away the darkness that kept him alive. But beneath the pain, there was something else.
Memory.
He remembered the sensation of light. He remembered that before the Void, he was the source of all radiance.
"You dare use light against me?" Nyx smiled, he felt excited for some reason.
He swung Requiem in a horizontal arc.
"DEVOUR"
The black blade hit the white wave.
There was no explosion.
The Holy Light... bent.
It swirled, distorting like water going down a drain. The massive wave of energy was sucked into the golden crack running down the center of the sword. The blade vibrated, turning from black to blinding white, then back to pitch black as it digested the attack.
The four Purifiers froze. Their staves dimmed.
"Impossible," the leader stuttered, stepping back. "The energy... it is gone."
Nyx stood there, steam rising from his shoulders. He felt full. He felt powerful. The hunger that had been gnawing at him since he woke up was suddenly silent, sated by the massive influx of mana.
He pointed the tip of Requiem at the Purifiers.
"Tell Kael," Nyx said smiling, his voice echoing with a distorted, double-tone that sounded like a god speaking through a mortal. "I am coming for my Interest."
He slashed the air.
He didn't touch the Purifiers physically. He didn't need to. He released a fraction of the energy he had just eaten as a shockwave of pure force.
He didn't know how, he could just do it by thinking it, it's like battle instincts, instructions were etched onto his body and mind.
The four elite mages were blasted backward, slamming into the sewer walls with the force of a cannonball. Their armor crumpled like tin foil. They slumped into the water, unconscious.
"We need to move," Lyra said, shaking herself out of her shock. "That discharge will attract every mage in the city."
They ran deeper into the darkness.
An hour later, the adrenaline of the battle had faded, replaced by the heavy, sloshing rhythm of their boots in the water.
They had been walking for an hour, putting distance between themselves and the unconscious Purifiers. The adrenaline of the battle had faded, replaced by the heavy, sloshing rhythm of their boots in the water.
Nyx walked in the rear, Requiem resting easily on his shoulder. The blade hummed faintly, casting a dim, hungry light that illuminated the tunnel. He wasn't tired. The mana he had devoured from the Solar-class attack was coursing through him, knitting together his bruised muscles and quieting the First Shackle.
But his mind was loud.
He looked at the backs of the two women ahead of him. Briar, marching with her sword drawn, alert for threats. Lyra, clutching her grimoire, casting small cleaning spells on her robes every few minutes.
They were runaways now. They had betrayed their fathers, their titles, and their empire for a man they barely knew.
"The Empress," Nyx broke the silence. His voice echoed strangely in the tunnel.
Briar stiffened but didn't look back. "What about her?"
"She was the one who suggested the Vault," Nyx said slowly. "She agreed with Emperor Kael. She was willing to lock me in the dark."
He looked at the damp ceiling.
"Is she like them? Your fathers? Is she just another monster in a golden crown?"
Briar stopped. She plunged her sword into the muck and turned around. Her red eyes flashed in the gloom.
"Don't," Briar warned. "Don't talk about her like that."
"I need to know who is hunting us," Nyx said calmly. "Kael wants to experiment on me. Thorn wants to use me. What does Seraphina want?"
"She wants to survive," Lyra answered softly.
The scholar princess turned around, her face pale in the wand-light. She looked at Briar, then at Nyx.
"You have to understand, Nyx. The Triumvirate isn't a partnership. It's a standoff."
Lyra stepped closer, lowering her voice as if the tunnel walls had ears.
"My father, Kael, and Briar's father, Thorn... they are more than a thousand years old, They are old monsters who inherited their thrones. But Seraphina?"
Lyra shook her head.
"Seraphina is only two hundred. In the cultivation world, she is practically a child. She didn't inherit her power. She clawed her way up from a minor branch in the royal family. She had to cultivate faster, fight harder, and be colder than anyone else just to sit at that table without being eaten alive."
Briar nodded, her expression softening into something painful.
"When I was sent to the Proving Grounds," Briar whispered, looking at the water swirling around her boots. "When I broke my brother's arm... my father didn't care. He walked away. But Seraphina came to the infirmary that night."
Briar touched her cheek, remembering a phantom touch.
"She healed me. She sat with me until the shaking stopped. She told me, 'Hide your fear, little one. If they see it, they will cut it out.'"
Briar looked up at Nyx, her eyes fierce.
"She isn't ruthless because she wants to be. She's ruthless because she's surrounded by sharks. She acts cold to keep Kael and Thorn from seeing her weakness. And do you know what her weakness is?"
Briar pointed at herself, then at Lyra.
"Us."
Lyra nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. "She protected us. When my father wanted to marry me off to a warlord to secure a border alliance, Seraphina vetoed it. She claimed I was 'vital to palace research'. She saved me. She's the only mother we've ever known."
Nyx went silent.
He thought of Seraphina standing in his room earlier that morning. The way she had checked his neck for injuries. The way she had whispered, "I will burn this palace to the ground before I let them take you"
He had assumed she was possessive. He hadn't realized she was desperate.
"So we left her," Nyx said, the weight of the realization settling in his chest. "We ran, and she is still there. Alone with Kael and Thorn."
"She can handle herself," Briar said, though her voice lacked conviction. "She's a Solar Realm Empress. She's strong."
"But she's trapped," Nyx murmured.
He touched the center of his chest, where the chains of his own prison lay hidden.
"She is in a cage, just like I was. Just like you were."
Briar looked at him, biting her lip. She exchanged a glance with Lyra. It was a look of shared guilt, but also of hope.
"Nyx," Lyra said, stepping forward. She clutched her book to her chest. "Can I... can we ask you something?"
"Ask," Nyx said.
"We are leaving now because we have to," Lyra said. "You need to break the shackles that Lilith spoke about. You need to become strong. We can't do that in the Capital."
She took a deep breath.
"But when you are strong... when you have the power to break chains..."
"Come back for her," Briar finished the sentence. She walked up to Nyx, grabbing his arm. Her grip was tight, desperate. "Don't let her rot in that palace with those monsters. When you're ready to flip this world upside down... promise us you'll break her cage too."
Nyx looked down at Briar's hand on his arm. Then he looked at Lyra's hopeful face.
He didn't have his memories. He didn't know who he used to be. But looking at these two women, and thinking of the crimson-clad Empress who had defied those powerful Ancestors for him, he felt a strange sense of duty, a warmth, an unexplainable emotion.
He wasn't just a Void. He was a breaker of chains.
Nyx reached out and placed his hand over Briar's.
"I promise," Nyx said. His voice was low, resonating with the hum of Requiem. "We go to the Elves. We go to the Dragons. I will eat their stars and break my locks. And when I am finished..."
He looked back toward the direction of the palace, his golden eyes glowing in the dark.
"I will come back. And I will tear that Golden Cage apart."
Briar let out a breath she seemed to have been holding for years. She nodded, smiling beautifully at him, releasing his arm.
"Okay," she said, wiping her eyes quickly before the tears could fall. "Okay. That's a deal."
"W-we should k-keep moving," Lyra said, her voice steady again but the faint blush on her cheeks betrayed her. "According to my map, the drainage output is just ahead. It dumps into the Aethel River, outside the city walls."
"Then let's go," Nyx said.
They resumed their march, but the mood had shifted. They weren't just running away from fear anymore. They were running toward a goal.
They reached the end of the tunnel ten minutes later. A massive iron grate blocked the way, rusted and slime-covered. Beyond it, the roar of a rushing river could be heard, and the pale light of the moons filtered through the bars.
"Stand back," Nyx said and the two of them nodded.
He didn't use the blade this time. He just grabbed the iron bars with his bare hands.
Clang.
The First Shackle vibrated.
Nyx pulled. The iron groaned, then shrieked. With the enhanced strength of a body that was slowly remembering its divinity, he ripped the grate out of the stone wall and tossed it aside like a twig.
He's slowly figuring out ways to use his powers now.
Fresh air rushed in. It smelled of water, pine, and freedom.
Nyx stepped out onto the riverbank. The twin moons of Myriad hung high in the sky, one silver, one violet. The capital city of the Humans loomed behind them, a mountain of black stone and magical lights.
But ahead of them, stretching into the dark, lay the wilderness.
"It smells fresh, I like being outside" Nyx smiled softly breathing.
"To the East," Lyra pointed. "The World Tree. The domain of the Elves."
"And King Aerion," Nyx added. "The man who keeps the secrets of nature."
He hefted Requiem onto his back.
"Let's go say hello."