Meanwhile in the West of Edrath capital.
Lucien returned to his Dukedom in the west first thing the following morning.
The journey had been long, cold, and almost completely silent.
By the time the black towers of Arden Castle appeared through the morning mist, the Duke looked nothing like the man who had left several days earlier. His silver hair was still messy from being unkept. His face was drawn with exhaustion, and his eyes had lost the little bit of warmth they once carried.
The servants rushed forward to welcome him.
"My Lord!"
"Welcome home, Your Grace!"
"Should we prepare the eastern chambers?"
Lucien barely acknowledged them. He stepped through the great doors and stopped.
Something had changed.
The castle had always been cold. It had been built like a fortress rather than a home, with dark stone walls, narrow windows, heavy curtains, and long corridors that seemed to swallow every sound. Now it looked almost warm. Fresh flowers stood on tables. New carpets covered the floors. The old fireplaces had been cleaned and decorated. Even the dining hall had been changed; new silverware lay on the long table, and soft golden curtains had replaced the old dark ones.
Ruby had clearly spent her house arrest turning the castle into the home she had always imagined—a home for a married couple, a home for children, a home for herself and Lucien.
But Lucien didn't care. Not even slightly. His eyes moved past everything, focused on only one place: the subterranean chambers.
The servants watched him hurry toward the lower stairway.
"My Lord?"
Lucien didn't answer. He descended lower and lower until the warmth of the castle disappeared behind him. The deeper he went, the colder it became. The walls changed from polished stone to ancient black rock. The torches along the passage slowly died one after another, but Lucien didn't light them. He knew the way, having known it since childhood.
At the bottom of the stairs stood an enormous iron door, and behind it lay something that should never have been allowed to exist.
"Lucien."
He stopped. Ruby stood several steps behind him, having followed him down. Her expression was cautious.
"Husband, you are finally back," Ruby said softly.
Lucien slowly turned his head.
Ruby walked closer, her hands clasped together.
"Please tell me you have calmed down so that we can talk. At this point, I don't even care about sharing you with the prince anymore, but just don't leave me again. I will go apologize to him as well if I have to, and we will—"
"Don't bother," Lucien said, his voice completely flat.
Ruby paused. "What?"
"Cassian is not even in the Empire right now," Lucien said, turning back toward the iron door.
Ruby's face changed in confusion.
"What? Why?"
"Does it matter?"
"Lucien—"
Lucien clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Don't follow me."
His hand rested on the ancient lock.
"This is a restricted area. And by the time I come back, I expect you to be gone."
Ruby stared at his back, taking a breath. "I won't follow you. But being gone? That's an impossible request."
"After all, we are a married couple now."
Lucien didn't even look back as he opened the door.
"I have nothing to say to you."
The heavy iron door slammed shut behind him.
"What is down there that matters more than me?"
Ruby remained in the cold corridor. For several seconds, she simply stared at the solid metal, whispering to herself.
The underground prison was colder than Lucien remembered. There were no servants here, no guards, no torches—only old stone and the faint glow of holy seals carved into the walls.
At the very end of the chamber stood a massive iron cage. Something moved inside it. It was not a man, nor an animal, nor anything that belonged in the world of the living. It looked like a human shadow that had forgotten what a human body was supposed to look like. Its shape shifted constantly, sometimes with two arms, sometimes with far too many, and sometimes with a wide, empty mouth floating in the darkness.
Two pale eyes opened within the shadow, and then it laughed—a low, broken sound.
"Oh..." The shadow pressed itself against the iron bars.
"Your inner demons are finally catching up with you."
Lucien stopped several feet away but the shadow's smile widened as it sized him up from head to toes.
"And by the look of things, the dark sprout left within you is finally spreading through your body. Are you finally accepting me back, Lucien?"
Its voice turned almost playful and Lucien's jaw tightened.
"Demon."
He stepped closer.
"I hate you and I hate you for all the things that you have done and the catastrophe you always cause whenever you possess someone." Lucien's hand tightened around his sword hilt.
"Just like how you possessed me and made me cause ruin even to my own family."
"Ah..." The hideous shadow tilted its head. "Those were the unforgettable, fun days indeed."
Its voice softened mockingly.
"If I could rewind time, I would do it all over again, but too bad my power has greatly weakened."
Lucien's eyes darkened as the shadow continued.
"And my vessel..." Its smile turned monstrous as it grinned wider. "Prince Cassian. He would have been perfect if he disappeared completely."
Lucien froze.
"What?"
"Now that the impostor soul is gone from his body, and the original soul remains sealed and dormant..." Its eyes gleamed. "I can finally have his body for myself."
Lucien immediately stepped forward, his knuckles white on his hilt.
"What the hell are you talking about, Jegra?"
The shadow laughed.
"Lucien, You didn't know?" Jegra's head tilted unnaturally far to the side.
"Come on, Holy Knight. Wasn't it always suspicious?"
Lucien said nothing, his breathing growing shallow.
"The lout Prince of Edrath suddenly became a completely different person overnight," Jegra grinned. "He was possessed."
Lucien's heart stopped.
"By a foreign soul. A soul from another world."
Lucien stared at the creature in absolute silence.
"And that soul has now gone home," Jegra continued while the chamber suddenly felt even much colder. Lucien's thoughts raced back to Cassian's strange words.
["I don't belong here. There is another world waiting for me. I need to go back."]
He remembered the way Cassian sometimes looked at the stars, the way he spoke about Earth as though he had actually lived there, and how he knew things nobody in Edrath could possibly know.
Lucien's voice cracked.
"How... how is that even possible?"
Jegra shrugged. "It was partly my fault, actually."
"Explain," Lucien demanded, firmly grabbing the iron bars with both hands and Jegra sighed rolling his shadowy eyes,slowly pacing within the cage.
"I escaped my rift dungeon in the South centuries ago. I wandered for years, looking for a human body with enough affinity to contain me and as you know you were my first successful candidate."
Lucien's face hardened.
"Your power was too much for my body."
"Yes, indeed" Jegra smiled. "But you had a huge mana pool which made it possible for you to contain me, but the Church discovered me and ripped me out of you."
Lucien remembered the burning pain, the endless prayers, the heavy chains, and the years of nightmares that followed.
"And sadly enough as if to mock their efforts, they couldn't even remove all of me from you," Jegra continued, lifting one dark hand. "A small piece remained—the exact one that sprouts within you now. And when I was captured, I sent another portion of myself toward the royal family. You know how they carry dormant dark mana right?"
Lucien slowly understood. "The Valemonts."
"Yes, they were also perfect vessels for me to possess," Jegra laughed. "Especially the young prince nobody cared about."
Lucien's stomach turned. "Cassian."
"Yes, but every time his dark magic awakened, you killed him."
Lucien's face went deadly pale.
"I–...did?"
"Yes. And every time he died, I spent what little power I had left reversing time," Jegra said, his voice almost fond. "It was exhausting."
Lucien stared at the demon. "You turned time?... And in those loops, I killed him?"
"Partly," Jegra shrugged. "I just wanted his body—to awaken, survive, become strong, and become my vessel. But one time, I tried something different."
Lucien leaned closer. "What?"
"I sealed his soul before he could even awaken his dark magic," Jegra's eyes gleamed. "And then something happened that neither of us expected."
Lucien's breath caught.
"Another soul entered his body."
"A foreign soul," Jegra nodded.
"An outside interference. Someone from another world invaded his body."
The truth hit Lucien harder than any blade. Cassian had never been pretending. The person he loved had truly been a completely different soul living inside Prince Cassian Valemont's body.
Lucien's voice became barely audible.
"If he also looped because of your time rewind while he possessed the prince... then was he aware?"
"Strangely enough, yes, he was," Jegra answered.
"And in every turn, he watched as you drove a sword into him, life after life killing him with your own hands."
Lucien froze completely, the air leaving his lungs.
"So that's why–..."
"That's why he always tried to stay away from you?" Jegra watched him closely.
Lucien closed his eyes, his heart breaking into pieces.
"He knew me even before I approached him."
"And he knew you had killed him before," Jegra nodded. "Countless times, he experienced it all."
Lucien's chest tightened painfully.
"And he spent countless lives trying to avoid me." He lowered his head, his voice trembling. "All those times I was next to him... he wasn't rejecting me."
"No," Jegra smiled. "He was only terrified of you."
Lucien stood completely still, whispering softly, "I spent all this time believing that he didn't trust me."
Jegra said nothing.
"He was trying to survive," Lucien said, looking up and Jegra noted.
"Now you understand," the demon smiled, while Lucien's hand trembled, but his resolve solidified.
"Then what of the soul now?"
"Gone."
"Back to his world?"
"Yes."
Lucien stared at the stone floor for a few agonizing seconds. Then he looked up, his eyes flashing with absolute conviction.
"Then bring him back."
Jegra laughed. "I cannot."
Lucien stepped right up to the iron bars. "Then teach me how."
"Holy Knight, it seems like you don't understand a thing."
"I understand enough!" Lucien's voice hardened. "I need him back, and I need him back now. Sacrifice the original soul if you have to!"
Jegra's eyes narrowed, a little amusement playing on his bleak form.
"What a holy knight you are. Sacrificing your prince's soul out of a personal whim?"
"He was a lout and a hated one at that. No one will miss him, as long as they don't know."
"You will also have to use dark magic, you know?"
"I know."
"You could also lose yourself."
"And I am prepared for that."
"You could become exactly what you once swore to destroy when you vowed to walk the path of light," Jegra taunted, a smirk forming in the air.
Lucien's jaw only tightened.
"I know."
Jegra fell silent, staring at him before smiling wickedly.
"You could become a monster, and everyone might turn against you."
Lucien looked directly into the shadow's pale eyes, he didn't even flinch or waver from his resolve.
"I have sacrificed my values for him before. And I will gladly do it again."
"Is he really worth that much?"
"Yes he is."
A long silence filled the cold vault. Lucien reached toward the holy lock securing the cage door.
Jegra's smile only widened.
"So just take me instead," Lucien commanded. "Take my body and help me bring him back. I know how powerful you are Jegra. You are truly capable."
*CRACK!*
A thin black line spread across the glowing rune on the lock as Lucien broke the seal and unlocked the cage. The iron door swung open.
For the first time in years, Jegra stepped outside, stretching as its shadow spread across the floor like spilled ink.
"Don't blame me if things don't go your way, Holy Knight."
"Just do it," Lucien said his fists tightening up with determination.
Just then Jegra lunged forward, and the entire chamber went jet-black.
Lucien screamed as darkness rushed into his body through his chest, his mouth, and his eyes. He collapsed to his knees while memories exploded through his mind—his childhood, the first time he held a sword, his family's faces, his first battlefield, the blood, and the screams.
And then came Cassian.
Cassian smiling, Cassian crying, Cassian sleeping against his chest, Cassian whispering his name, and Cassian telling him he loved him.
Jegra fed on every painful memory inside his mind. Feasting on his sorrows.
"Give me your body!"
Lucien's fingers dug into the hard stone floor. "No!"
"Give me your mind!"
"No!"
"Then, give me your soul!"
Lucien screamed with everything he had. "NEVER!"
The darkness inside him twisted violently. The veins in his arms turned black beneath his skin, and his blue eyes flashed with deep violet light.
Jegra laughed inside his mind.
"You cannot defeat a being like me with your measly human mentality!"
"As you are, you are weak Jegra!" Lucien ground out through clenched teeth.
"You are already mine!" the demon snarled.
Lucien slowly raised his head, blood running from his nose. His breathing was ragged, but his eyes were clear. "No." He pressed his hand firmly against his chest. "This is my body."
The darkness surged again, making him scream through the unbearable pain.
"And this..." Lucien's fingers tightened over his heart.
"...—is my mind I won't let you have it!"
Jegra roared in fury as Lucien's holy mana exploded from his body, colliding directly with the dark power. The entire underground chamber shook, stone walls cracked, ancient seals shattered, and heavy dust rained from the ceiling.
For several agonizing seconds, light and darkness fought wildly within his frame.
Then silence fell.
Lucien collapsed forward, his palms striking the floor as he gasped for air. His whole body trembled, and the black veins on his arms slowly faded. But when he looked up, his eyes had changed—one remained a piercing blue, while the other held a faint, glowing violet. A thin black mark now ran from his collarbone up toward his neck.
Jegra's voice whispered faintly inside his mind.
"You survived."
Lucien wiped the blood from his nose.
"I told you. You can't overwhelm me in my own body."
Jegra laughed quietly. "But I am inside you now."
Lucien looked toward the staircase leading back to the surface. "Then we'll work together... until we find him."
He picked up his sword, his grip steady and his expression cold. Behind that calm face burned a dangerous, unstoppable hope.
Looking up toward the ceiling, Lucien whispered softly,
"Wait for me, Cassian."
The violet glow in his eye flickered.
"I don't care how many worlds stand between us. I will cross every one of them."
Jegra whispered from deep within his mind, "And if the road kills you?"
Lucien stopped at the base of the stairs, a faint, bitter smile touching his lips. "Then I'll die walking toward him. It might take years—many years. But if it means seeing him in the end, then I don't mind."
Lucien continued his walk upward. Behind him, the ancient underground chamber fell into quiet darkness.
Something ancient had awakened beneath Arden Castle, something that had not walked the surface world for years. The Holy Knight of the West was no longer entirely human, and for the first time in his life, Lucien Arden was no longer afraid of becoming a monster.
Because somewhere beyond the stars, Cassian was waiting for him.
*****