"Did he... win against the Sword King?"

Kael's voice carried confusion and disbelief as she clutched her aching stomach, her body still protesting from Dominion's brutal assault.

"Seems like it," Selka replied from beside her, maintaining the same hunched posture, one hand pressed against her own wounds.

Cassandra simply watched with an indifferent expression, though something flickered in her emerald eyes.

A predicament that had threatened her life and the lives of her closest companions had just passed without requiring more than some blood... relatively speaking.

The sounds of blasts and cracks ending made the roars of the demon horde more audible. They were on their last leg. So was the former SBV team, exhausted from carrying the full load themselves since Rune had needed the tendrils for his fight with the Sword King.

"So... uh... do we get to leave?" Rune asked, preparing himself for another rejection. "You know, if there's no owner anymore, then there are no invaders either."

'How much time left?'

[Around ten minutes.]

'Okay, enough to have another argument.'

But then the Sword King lifted his hands, bringing his middle finger to his thumb.

Snap.

In the next instant, the horde of demons froze mid-motion. Their eyes became like preserved forms, trapped in transparent ice that materialized around each grotesque body.

Crack.

The ice began to fracture, spider-web patterns spreading across the frozen prison.

Shatter.

The ice shattered completely. So did the demons inside it, exploding into fragments that dissolved into nothing, leaving no trace they'd ever existed.

'I swear this guy is aura farming! That's MY job!'

[That's tenth-circle magic. Don't even think about doing something like that with your peak sixth-circle ass.]

'You know what? I will dedicate this life to mastering mana.'

The Sword King turned away, facing the direction where the sun was beginning to burn away the crimson shade.

"I hope His Majesty doesn't ask me for the Duchess's head."

The words were toned normally, conversationally even. But the threat inside them was obvious.

"Me too," Rune replied simply.

The Sword King's smile suggested he understood exactly what Rune meant, the mutual acknowledgment that neither of them wanted this dance to continue, at least not today.

Then he vanished like fog dispersing in wind, moving in the same direction his white hair had been dancing, until even that last trace of him faded into nothing.

The crimson shade that had infected Raven Spire like a funeral shroud slowly dispersed, peeling away layer by layer. It revealed the bright dawn light washing over the remnants of chaos that filled Starfall Enclave: broken buildings, scorched earth, the aftermath of powers that mortals were never meant to witness.

Ilya's eyes swept across the demonized corpses now turning to dust. She spotted familiar faces among them: Saint and General Kloxhan, who'd stood beside them in council meetings, who'd shared meals and strategies.

'So he didn't even spare his brother and his spy.'

She remembered how General Kloxhan had betrayed them after they'd decided to capture her to make the Sinclairs culprits of the Emperor's death. How that betrayal had led them down this path.

If Selka hadn't doubted Rune and checked his belongings in the orphanage... if Selka hadn't found and brought the ingot... if they hadn't captured Rune... if they hadn't assigned Rune to investigate the Saytans alongside Ilya...

The chain of events played through her mind like dominoes falling in perfect sequence.

'If any one of those things hadn't happened... we wouldn't be alive right now.'

It all felt like someone's game... as if someone had moved pieces at the right time to the right place. Someone who knew them better than they knew themselves.

Someone who'd lived beyond this physical world.

'Thread of fate, huh?'

Rune thought as he looked at the sun shining brightly, burning away the last traces of the crimson shade. The warmth on his face felt good after the cold press of near-death.

He lost himself in his thoughts, standing in the breeze, feeling the weight of everything that had just happened finally settling.

[Thirty-five seconds.]

Nexar's reminder brought him crashing back to reality.

Rune hurriedly walked toward the group, his steps slightly unsteady now that the adrenaline was fading.

He gave one look to the former SBV group while passing them. They were all on the ground, exhausted beyond measure.

The three souls had returned to Blood Raven, leaving Merin taking ragged breaths as she lay on her back, staring at the bright sun with an expression caught between disbelief and overwhelming relief.

She couldn't believe she'd survived.

Rune left her there and stood before Cassandra. His gaze swept across the five other women gathered around her.

They all watched him in still silence, each wearing different expressions that spoke volumes.

Kael and Selka watched him with something like awe, their faces caught between physical pain and seeing Rune in an entirely new light... not as some country boy from a backwater village, but as something far more dangerous and precious.

Cassandra's expression remained indifferent on the surface, but Rune could catch the warmth in her emerald eyes: gratitude, curiosity, and something else he couldn't quite name.

Ilya was watching him with tears streaming down her face, happy that he hadn't died, confused about how he'd survived.

Lydia and Sera were watching him with narrowed eyes, sulking, their expressions clearly broadcasting their displeasure at the stunt he had pulled and being separated from him during the fight.

'Yeah, I'm definitely going to get an earful once I wake up.'

The thought brought a tired smile to his face.

A blue screen materialized in his vision, visible only to him.

[Seven seconds.]

He sheathed Blood Raven with practiced motion, the blade sliding home with a soft click.

[Five seconds.]

His body swayed slightly in the breeze, exhaustion finally catching up to him as the Emperor's aura began to fade from his circuits.

"So," he said, his voice carrying a hint of amusement despite the fatigue, "who's gonna catch me?"

"Huh?"

That was the last word he heard.

His vision blurred. His knees buckled. The world tilted sideways.

His head hit something impossibly soft... warmth and comfort that smelled faintly of flowers and fire.

Then his body fell into a warm embrace, multiple hands catching him before he could hit the ground.

He caught a glimpse of silver hair. Black hair. Red hair. All mixing together in his fading vision.

Voices overlapped: concerned, relieved, angry, loving.

"Rune!"

"Is he..."

"He's breathing..."

"You idiot, you absolute.."

"Someone check his.."

But the words faded into gentle static as consciousness slipped away from him like water through cupped hands.

Above them, the sun continued rising over Raven Spire, indifferent to the drama that had just unfolded. The dawn light painted everything in gold and crimson, casting long shadows across the broken estate.

Cassandra held Rune's upper body in her lap, one hand instinctively checking his pulse at his neck. Steady and alive.

Sera had claimed his right side, her arms wrapped around his arm, her face buried against his shoulder as tears of relief soaked into his torn shirt.

Lydia held his left side in mirror image, her fingers intertwined with his, refusing to let go even though he was unconscious.

Ilya knelt beside them, her professional assessment warring with her emotional relief.

Kael and Selka exchanged glances, then looked at the unconscious boy who'd just defeated the Sword King.

"So," Kael said slowly, carefully, "who exactly is he?"

Cassandra's fingers absently brushed a strand of dark hair away from Rune's face. The gesture was unconscious, tender, completely at odds with her usual composure.

"I don't know," she admitted quietly, her voice carrying a weight that made everyone look at her. "But I intend to find out."

She thought of ingot still tucked safely in her belongings, the proof that Rune was connected to the Netherworld, to her father's death, to mysteries that ran deeper than any of them had imagined.

But looking at his peaceful face, seeing how Sera and Lydia held him like he was the most precious thing in the world, feeling the phantom warmth of his hand helping her moments ago..

Cassandra made a decision.

"For now," she said, her voice carrying quiet authority, "he's under my protection. Anyone who wants to harm him will have to go through me first."

It was a declaration. A line drawn.

Kael and Selka nodded slowly, understanding the weight of what their Duchess had just committed to.

Ilya smiled through her tears, relief flooding through her.

And Sera and Lydia simply held him tighter, grateful that Duchess was on their side.

The sun rose higher.

And in the ruins of Starfall Enclave, surrounded by the aftermath of impossible battles and even more impossible victories, Rune slept peacefully in the arms of those who loved him.

His third life had not come to an end but one could tell it will be different from other two.

And perhaps, finally, it would be the one where he wasn't alone.

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