Chapter 96: Chapter 96: A Starlit Heartbeat
Chapter 96: A Starlit Heartbeat
CLICK.
The heavy oak doors of the Rank One Apex Villa locked shut, sealing the eleven members of Strike Team Zero inside.
For three agonizing seconds, absolute silence hung in the grand foyer. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.
Then, Bram Stonehelm threw his massive arms into the air and let out a deafening, booming roar of pure joy.
"WE DID IT!" Bram bellowed, his voice shaking the crystal chandelier.
The tension instantly shattered, replaced by the explosive, euphoric adrenaline of youth. The squad erupted.
Cole tackled Lucien in a massive bear hug, nearly knocking the elegant noble off his feet.
Reina, usually the picture of icy composure, threw her head back and laughed freely, high-fiving Lyra.
Even Aegon, the disciplined Captain, leaned against the wall, a massive, uncontainable grin splitting his face.
They were teenagers who had just stood in front of the absolute apex of human authority, lied through their teeth, and walked away as the most powerful, fully-backed Vanguard team in the Academy.
"To the kitchen!" Cole shouted over the cheering.
"We are having a Party!"
The squad flooded into the massive living area, the heavy burdens of the Miasma, the Cult, and the apocalypse completely forgotten for just one night.
They were young, they were alive, and they were celebrating.
Draven stood near the doorway, watching them with a warm, genuine smile.
Suddenly, a slender hand grabbed his wrist.
Draven blinked, looking down. Estella was standing beside him.
She wasn’t smiling. Her amethyst eyes were clouded with a turbulent storm of heavy, conflicting emotions.
"Come with me," Estella requested, her voice quiet but firm.
She didn’t wait for his answer.
She pulled him away from the loud celebration, dragging him through the living room and out the glass double-doors onto the villa’s expansive, starlit balcony.
The cool night breeze immediately ruffled her silver hair. The sounds of the squad’s laughter were muffled behind the thick glass.
Estella let go of his wrist and turned to face him. Her confident, fiery facade had completely crumbled, leaving her entirely vulnerable. She looked heartbroken.
"Why? Just why did you hide it from me?," Estella said softly, her voice trembling slightly.
"Am I not trustworthy enough? Do you think I am like other women who just cannot keep a secret and go around gossiping through the neighborhood? I had my suspicions about you hiding something from but this was all too much for me to handle. What were you thinking? Being Zero and hiding it all from me? And what about the Embracing hands? Were you always a part of them? Tell me, please. I want to trust you. Do not lie to me!"
She stepped closer, looking up into his pitch-black eyes.
"When you saved me from the Cult in that dungeon... what was I to you, Draven?" she asked, the raw hurt bleeding into her words.
"Am I just a pawn in your grand plan? A piece on the board you needed to move? Why did you hide all of this from me? I thought... I thought we were partners."
Draven’s heart ached.
This was not something simple as a Lover’s quarrel. Think of it like getting caught cheating. Not exactly, but something very similar. Imagine you hid something from the person you love so much and they find out about it. It is a different matter if you tell them yourselves, but when they find out by some other means, it is a disaster.
Draven knows he cannot brush her aside. If he really cared for her, he shouldn’t. At first he had seen her as a weapon, but today their bond has grown beyond beyond that of friendship. A link was established between those two. Not a magical one, but something that is beyond magic.
They were Family.
"You are not a pawn, Estella. You never were," Draven answered softly, completely dropping any remaining walls between them.
"When I saw you in the locked up in the prison cell of the Cult, I knew I could keep you there. I saw myself in you. Shackled in chains, wanting to be free from all the suffering in the World."
He reached out, gently holding her shoulders.
"I kept it a secret because the burden is too heavy to bear, but I decided to tell it because I saw your courage and perseverance. Your eyes expressed those emotions and led me to this decision.," Draven explained, his voice thick with sincere emotion.
"I am sorry for not telling you any of this beforehand. It must have come as a shock to you. I didn’t want to drag you into the crosshairs before you were ready. I wanted to protect you."
Draven had no intention of lying to her. He was not. He cannot reveal anything about his Sign-In rewards nor can he tell them that he was behind the Astral Server and the Founder of Embracing Hands. He cannot tell them that it was all a big fat Lie. There was no God of Void, just some lies to bind them together. They were Family, but he was not stupid.
’It is all built on such a fragile strand of lie!’
Estella’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears. She closed the distance between them, stepping directly into his chest and wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.
She pressed her face against his chest, holding him like she was afraid he would disappear.
"You idiot," she whispered fiercely into his shirt.
"You don’t have to carry the end of the world alone. We are partners. You promised you will never leave me. I want to promise you that I will not be a burden to you as well. I will grow stronger. Strong enough to stand beside you! You’re my Family!"
Draven’s breath caught in his throat. He slowly wrapped his arms around her, returning the hug.
It was quiet. The wind blew softly across the balcony. Pressed together, Draven could clearly feel the rapid thumping of their heartbeats.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Estella slowly tilted her head up. Her face was flushed, her amethyst eyes locked onto his. The space between them felt highly charged, crackling with an intimate gravity.
Draven looked down at her soft, trembling lips. He leaned in, closing his eyes, letting his heart entirely take the wheel.
Estella fluttered her eyes shut, rising slightly on her tiptoes.
Their lips were mere millimeters apart-
VWOOM-PULSE!
A blinding surge of pure, warm light suddenly erupted from Draven’s spatial ring, violently breaking the intimate tension.
Draven and Estella jumped back, gasping in shock as the ambient mana on the balcony suddenly spiraled out of control. The air filled with swirling stardust and a rich, emerald glow.
"What... what is that?!" Estella stammered, her face the color of a ripe tomato.
Draven was equally flustered, his heart hammering against his ribs.
He quickly reached into his spatial ring and pulled out the massive, crystalline Corrupted World Tree Spirit Egg.
Only, it wasn’t corrupted anymore.
Draven had purified the Egg with the help of the World Tree Leaf, but right now, it was reacting violently to the intense, intimate surge of Draven’s telekinetic mana and Estella’s ambient star mana that had intertwined during their near-kiss.
CRACK.
A deep fracture appeared down the center of the glowing shell.
"It’s hatching!" Draven said, his eyes widening in pure, unfiltered surprise. He quickly set the heavy egg down on the balcony floor.
Estella instantly dropped to her knees beside him, the awkwardness forgotten, replaced by pure wonder.
CRACK! SHATTER!
The emerald shell exploded into harmless, beautiful particles of light.
Sitting in the center of the fading starlight was the most impossibly cute creature either of them had ever seen.
It was a tiny, chubby baby dragon.
Instead of hard scales, its body was composed of soft, shimmering emerald leaves that glowed with a faint silver light.
Its tiny wings were made of pure, interwoven stardust.
It blinked its massive, expressive golden eyes, looking curiously around the massive balcony.
"Oh my god..." Estella whispered, completely mesmerized.
"It is the cutest thing in the world."
The tiny leaf-dragon shook the remaining stardust off its wings. It let out a soft, musical chirp.
It waddled forward on its wobbly little legs, bumping its tiny snout affectionately against Draven’s knee.
"Papa!" a small, cheerful telepathic voice chimed in Draven’s mind.
Draven completely froze. He stared down at the tiny, glowing baby dragon.
A massive smile broke across his face.
Genuine happiness swelled in his chest. He reached out and gently scratched the creature under its chin. It purred, a sound like wind chimes.
The baby dragon then turned. It hopped up, fluttering its starlight wings, and landed clumsily in Estella’s lap, nuzzling its soft head against her stomach.
"Mama!" the voice chimed again.
Estella gasped, her hands hovering over the creature as if afraid to break it.
"It called me Mama!! Oh my Gosh!!"
She looked up at Draven, her face beaming with a joy so bright it rivaled the stars above them. She was on the seventh sky.
DING!
A golden System screen cascaded in front of Draven’s eyes.
[System Alert: Mythical Entity Hatched!]
[Scanning Bloodline...]
[Species: Astral-Kin World Tree Spirit (Dragon Form)]
[Bloodline Tier: King (Mythical)]
[Special Notice: The ambient intimacy and synchronization of the Host’s and Partner’s mana cores during the hatching process has mutated the creature’s origin!]
[Creature Status:]
[Name: Unnamed]
[Level: 1]
[Type: King-Tier Companion]
[Attributes:]
[- Telekinesis (Inherited from Papa / Draven)]
[- Star Magic (Inherited from Mama / Estella)]
[- Nature Purification (Innate World Tree Trait)]
Draven read the screen and chuckled softly. The baby dragon had literally absorbed the magic from their almost-kiss, permanently binding its elements to both of them.
"It seems," Draven smiled warmly, looking from the System screen to the incredibly happy girl sitting on the floor,
"we have a new addition to the family. Let’s call him Astraxion."
Estella gently picked up the baby dragon, cradling it in her arms. She looked at Draven, her heart incredibly full.
The apocalypse was coming, but looking at the tiny life in her arms and the boy she loved sitting beside her, she wasn’t afraid anymore.
