"Freya?"

The name slipped out of Wang Xiao's mouth before his brain bothered to stop it.

The woman by the stone platform froze.

Not dramatically, not like a rookie.

Just a microscopic pause, muscle memory from years of drills, combat reflexes snapping awake.

Her eyes lifted, that's what caught him first.

Burnt-earth brown, layered with a thin green-blue sheen, like cold northern seas trapped under frozen soil. Eyes that had measured kill-zones, escape routes, casualty ratios.

Not ornamental elegance, but lethally soft.

Trained, alert, and dangerous.

Crimson hair spilled down her back, loosely tied, the kind of careless restraint soldiers adopt when they expect blood, not mirrors. She wore red, not silk, not vanity, fabric threaded with gold sigils, reinforcement runes sewn where arteries and joints mattered most.

Combat wear?

Queen's colors, soldier's cut.

Beautiful, yes.

But guarded to the bone.

Wang Xiao let his gaze stare a heartbeat too long, slim waist. wide hips, feet planted like she expected the ground itself to betray her.

Not the bratty Norhaven princess from old memories.

This was closer to Queen Ericka in her prime, before politics dulled her edge.

So he hadn't been wrong.

The flicker of surprise crossed her face when he spoke the name, gone instantly, replaced by razor-sharp vigilance.

"…Who are you?" she asked.

Before he could answer, the man beside her moved.

Broad shoulders. Military posture even while bleeding. A split lip crusted dark, cheek bruised purple-green. He hadn't wiped the blood, professionals didn't bother with pain unless it slowed them.

Dark green combat uniform, angelic Forces insignia, eight silver wings, half-burned but unmistakable.

Captain rank, maybe Major.

He stepped between Wang Xiao and the woman without hesitation.

"Stand back," he said calmly.

Wang Xiao raised an eyebrow, faintly amused.

It had been a while since someone tried to shield a beautiful woman from his gaze.

Behind him, Ning Xue shifted, subtle, but her eyes narrowed.

Yuriko sighed softly, already predicting how this would end.

Athlaea just watched, pupils tight with interest.

None of them acted.

They didn't need to, Wang Xiao ignored the man entirely, eyes fixed on the woman behind him.

She stiffened.

A faint frown. A heat blooming along her cheeks she absolutely hated. That gaze, too deep, too endless. Like staring into a void that noticed you back.

The man's jaw tightened.

"Major Lukas Reinhardt," he said firmly. "Angelic Forces. Northern Division."

Then, softer, without looking back,"Stay behind me, Helena."

There it was.

Helena Berg, the name settled into place like a locked mechanism clicking shut.

Wang Xiao smiled, just a little, before he could speak-

"Wang Xiao!"

A familiar voice echoed through the chamber.

A woman stumbled forward from the platform, wrists red from bindings, green eyes wide like someone waking from a nightmare into another one.

She wore a cream-colored satin nightgown, simple, and thin. Soot smudged her hem, dust streaked her skin. No makeup. No jewelry. Hair dark, slightly frizzy, still carrying the faint dampness of a rushed morning bath.

Like someone had been snatched straight out of bed.

Her skin was pale, smooth, marked only by fear and exhaustion, and somehow that made her look even more indecently alive.

Her face lit up, relief crashing over her features.

"You're real," she breathed, then laughed softly, almost hysterical. "I thought I finally lost my mind."

Bare feet slapped softly against stone as she walked to him, hands lifting unconsciously, fingers brushing his face before she realized what she was doing.

She froze.

Pulled back.

Wang Xiao looked down at her, impressed.

"Last time," he said dryly, "you were being chased by assailants."

His gaze flicked over her bound wrists, the ruined nightgown, the underground chamber.

"This time you got kidnapped, looks like you got promoted."

Aisha blinked.

Icevale(iceland) flashed through her mind, running, gunshots, Josephine screaming.

…He wasn't wrong.

She opened her mouth, then closed it, all she managed was a sheepish smile, relief still shining in her eyes.

Wang Xiao studied her.

The nightgown did a terrible job hiding her body, hips wider than before, chest fuller, curves unmistakable... Puberty hadn't been subtle with her.

He remembered her flatter, Younger.

Growth had been… generous.

Behind her hovered another man, thinner, younger, glasses cracked at the corner. Hands half-raised, unsure whether to protect her or apologize for existing.

"I-I'm Evan Morales," he blurted. "Graduate researcher. I helped untie her."

Aisha turned, shot him an annoyed look.

"You don't have to announce it."

Evan flushed but didn't retreat.

Major Reinhardt finally eased his stance slightly, eyes flicking between Wang Xiao and the three women behind him.

"…You know him?" he asked Helena quietly.

Helena never took her eyes off Wang Xiao.

"I recognise his name," she said carefully. "That's all." Then, bitterly, "And you probably know it too."

She shook her head, as if the worst possibility had just walked in wearing a familiar face.

Lukas frowned.

Wang Xiao got the situation quickly. He didn't care, but Aisha did. And she talked when scared.

So he let her.

South Africa... University expedition... Aether revival experiments... Early morning. Black-robed figures... No warnings.

No negotiations, outright abduction!

Evan chased, got beaten, both dumped here.

Wang Xiao glanced at the skinny researcher.

Her taste in men is awful.

The kid met his gaze, visibly terrified, but didn't step back.

Well, at least he had a spine.

Josephine had tracked Aisha's last signal to Egypt. Asked Helena, mid-training nearby, to investigate.

Helena arrived with Lukas.

Then the pyramids erupted.

Undead everywhere, overwhelming force, they ran inside, and got captured as well.

No escape.

Until... just before Wang Xiao arrived... everything stopped.

Enemies vanished.

Like the hunt was over.

"…Their bait worked," Wang Xiao murmured, lips curling. "So they packed up and left."

Aisha stiffened. "So… this was all to lure you?"

Wang Xiao didn't answer, they hadn't wanted fight, but a loyal puppet leader.

Until he provoked the Yang faction great lord.

Until he absorbed Yanyan and Yinyue at the last moment.

Until he stepped into Great Lord territory and crushed the table they were bargaining on.

Aisha pointed at the wall in the left, voice shaky. "They went that way. There's a hole, shouldn't we chase them?"

Wang Xiao shook his head.

"No point."

She frowned. "Why?"

He looked at her.

Then at the chamber.

Then, past stone, past aether, past the thin lie people called reality.

"Because," Wang Xiao said calmly, "we're already in the Netherworld."

Aisha blinked. "Nether… what?"

He didn't bother explaining.

Some truths were not meant to be told, they were meant to be seen.

Instead, his gaze slid toward the far corner of the chamber.

Two figures had quietly retreated there, whispering like people who suddenly realized they were standing too close to a god.

His hearing caught everything.

In the shadows, Helena had dragged Lukas by the arm, yanking him behind a broken pillar.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lukas hissed, annoyed. "I'm sure that woman is the Human Empress of the Xuan Dynasty. I just wanted to greet her-"

He pointed, openly, stupidly.

Ning Xue stood there without saying a word.

She didn't need to.

Even standing still, she radiated something unbearable, an invisible pressure that scraped at the conscience. Around her, Yuriko and Athlaea looked like living myths, beautiful beyond reason, untouchable in a way that killed lust at the root.

You could admire them.

You could fear them.

But thinking filthy thoughts?

Your mind simply… refused.

This was what absolute power did.

Wang Xiao never felt it.

Everyone else drowned in it.

Helena slapped Lukas's hand down.

"Lukas," she snapped under her breath, "listen to me. Do you even know who that man is?"

Her eyes flicked, just once, toward Wang Xiao.

Even from a distance, his presence made her skin prickle.

Lukas frowned. "The Empress matters more right now-"

"Idiot," Helena whispered fiercely. "He's your boss."

That finally shut him up.

For half a second.

Lukas Reinhardt wasn't stupid.

Just… politically illiterate.

He'd always been like that.

A year older than Helena. When the aether descended and aptitude testing swept through universities, Helena was a first-year student. He was a second-year, already tall, already strong, already allergic to politics.

Both were selected.

Both drafted into the Angelic Forces, the EU's elite taskforce, created to act in place of the Guardian of Europe when she couldn't intervene directly.

Five years of brutal training followed.

Five years where bones broke, ideals shattered, and the weak disappeared.

Lukas graduated last year. Major rank, Instructor.

Helena was supposed to finish next week.

He was supervising her final phase.

Everything had been perfect.

Marriage in a month.

Quiet happiness.

No courts... No crowns.

Until today.

Helena felt it twist in her stomach.

'I shouldn't have picked up Josephine's call.'