Patricia Stoneheart and Aiden Stoneheart, siblings of Elijah Stoneheart, never truly felt at ease with Noah hovering above their heads, no matter on which side of Laeh they stood.

And that feeling only worsened when Sophie became the Crimson Empress of the Castria Empire, turning their family into nothing but a pitiful, wretched cluster of people trying to keep their heads low just to not wake up dead.

It was immensely crushing to live with such a burden. Especially when they were not used to such a lifestyle.

So even if Elijah was dead, their selfish vengeance delivered by the hand of another person, life did not get any better.

Yet they endured it.

They learned how to bend the knee when the matter involved the Vaelgrim, and how to make themselves small when other newly rising powers wished to humiliate them for the sake of ego.

Needless to say, it was agony.

But in that process, they understood how to kill their ego, making the two siblings like two sides of the same coin.

Oh, how great it was to realize that once the ego was out of the way, a relationship could flourish in a way never seen before.

They learned to live in harmony with others, not to impose their own lifestyle.

That was what happened to the Stoneheart siblings.

Patricia and Aiden leaned on each other during that ordeal, in the process understanding one another better, becoming able to do everything and anything together.

They no longer cared about their family, who had grown so fearful that life became nothing but survival. They woke up, went through the day, and when night came, they went back to sleep.

A monotonous life with no meaning.

And there was nothing more wretched than living a life with no meaning.

But Patricia and Aiden had goals. Goals of going far away and beyond, of living their lives on their own terms, forgetting everything and starting anew.

Yes, in a sense, they wished to die and be reborn again. Only for them, it was more psychological than anything else.

Considering that, it was no surprise that when information about a wider universe beyond reached them, they made no effort to take the opportunity to walk upon it.

To step outside their sphere, and take one giant step into the unknown.

Yet no matter how eager they were, they were not foolish enough to believe they were strong or talented enough.

With that understanding, they chose to become Elysiari, obtaining their unfair level of talent and breaking away.

Aiden chose to be an Elysiari under Anya, of Destruction.

Patricia, a healer at heart and in talent, chose to become Elysiari under Shadeva, of Motherhood, who held an Aspect of Life and thus of healing.

After the battle in the Shadow Realm concluded, they brought their request to Noah, who accepted without a second thought.

He had, after all, no reason to keep them. And if they wished to live their own lives, they were free to do so.

That day marked the beginning of the siblings' adventure, but also their journey of discovery, understanding, and continuous transformation.

It was euphoric for them to travel from world to world, dungeon to dungeon. Facing danger, nearly dying hundreds of times, finding interesting and unique artifacts…

All of that slowly, but surely, made the siblings improve in ways even Eric, Rouge, and Malrik — who chose to remain under Noah's shadow — would never experience.

But it all ended the day Noah's voice reached all corners of the universe, sacrificing everything of himself for victory.

And even more so when he destroyed a part of the universe, along with a Progenitor and two powerful Legacy Bearers.

They did not know what was happening. They had no understanding of the aspirations and plans of their faction…yet they were not spared when the hunt for the Elysiari began.

They were found by Vampires.

And they were killed.

The worst part was how their killers always made sure to destroy their souls in the process.

As if they were afraid of something should they fail to do so.

But Patricia succeeded in holding herself together with the help of Aiden, who took the strike in her stead, and her innate healing power.

And now here she was, in the Spirit World, inside the newly claimed territory of Noah, who stood in front of her, his eyes pensive after listening to her story.

Around him, the wives' eyes were calm and steady, yet one would be a fool to believe what they displayed.

Inside, all of them were tightly gripped by fear and apprehension, each one wondering how many of their people had already died.

Red, who had left her daughter behind, could no longer suppress her boiling worry.

"What about my daughter, Red?" she asked, her voice unknowingly trembling, "Do you know what happened to her? And also Malrik and Eric?"

Patricia's face was soaked with tears. And after shouting and crying so much about the True Death of her brother, she no longer had a voice left to speak.

Yet she did not dare refuse to answer one of Noah's wives. So with a bleeding heart, she forced her sore throat open,

"W-Where was she?" she asked.

"In the elven kingdom." Red answered immediately, "In the domain of the Worldborn. Treehouse."

At those words, Patricia's red, puffy eyes widened in obvious shock and disbelief. Apprehension flooded her expression entirely.

Her mouth opened and closed again and again, as if searching for the right words yet finding none.

Patricia began to squirm under the burning gaze of the Vaelgrim, and seeing the slowly rising fury inside Red's eyes as her silence dragged on, she bit her lips and vomited out the words stuck in her throat,

"I-I don't know much!" she cried, "But before being killed by the Vampire Faction, I heard something. I—I—!"

"Fucking spit it out!!" Red growled, her crimson eyes churning violently.

Sari, standing beside her, placed a steady hand over Red's, trying to calm the distraught mother.

Noah was like stone.

He said nothing. He did nothing. He only listened, his expression unreadable.

Yet why did everyone feel like the entire Dominion was standing on the verge of explosion?

Behind them, Tiamat shifted restlessly, sensing the deep, seething anger coiled inside Noah, choking the space itself.

But her restlessness turned into harrowing dread when Patricia's next words finally burst out,

"I heard that the Progenitor of Dragons came to aid the Worldborn!" she sobbed.

Instinctively, everyone straightened, as if unconsciously bracing themselves for disaster.

"And she killed all the Elysiari! None of them survived. And…and that includes…"

She swallowed hard, her gaze lifting to Noah's dead eyes,

"Including the First Abomination."

Dead silence.

A silence so profound that one could hear the pounding of hearts and the shallow breaths being drawn.

Everyone froze.

But Red was shattered.

Her eyes bulged, her body trembling violently as she desperately tried to hope…hope that perhaps her daughter had escaped before the Progenitor's arrival.

Yet the more she thought about it, the more she knew it was impossible.

Red knew her daughter.

And that knowledge carved a single, merciless certainty into her heart.

"M-my daughter… my daughter—!"

Her words broke as she felt the warmth of Noah's protective embrace, her face burying deep into his chest.

For a brief moment, Red was lost. Then a rasping, broken sob tore through the space.

All of the wives fell into eerie silence, their hearts grieving alongside Red.

Behind them, Tiamat felt the approach of doom in a way she had never experienced since the beginning of her existence.

Fearfully, she turned her head toward Noah, her heart nearly clawing its way out of her chest.

The man was gently caressing his wife, hiding within himself the staggering grief of losing his sister, his face shedding not a single tear.

Instead,

"It will be fine." Noah whispered to Red, who could not stop crying, as if a dam had burst open in his presence.

"Believe me," he kissed her hair softly, his voice trembling ever so slightly, "we will find a way."

Then the Prince lifted his gaze forward, doing everything in his power to keep the volatile storm of his anger from erupting.

He barely succeeded.

The Dominion trembled.

<Ascension Quest>

<Description: Find the Lake of Milk-White Soul, and take one petal of the Origin Ephemeral Flower.>

—End of Chapter 464—

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