Three days passed in the Guild safe house with no sign of the Church forces Nyx had promised were approaching. The small cave system, hidden behind a waterfall on the northern cliffs, provided decent shelter but terrible company. Tensions among the group had reached a breaking point.

  "If I have to spend one more day listening to Lyria expin proper blood etiquette, I might actually stab myself," Vexera announced, pacing the main cavern while small lightning bolts crackled between her fingers.

  Lyria didn't bother looking up from the makeshift desk where she was cataloging their remaining supplies. "House Crimson's traditions are the pinnacle of demon culture. You should be grateful for the education, storm witch."

  "Both of you need to be quieter," Mara muttered from her position near the cave's entrance, where her shadow stretched out across the valley below, acting as an early warning system. "Unless you want Church Purifiers to find us before we're ready."

  "If they're even coming," Azreth said, rubbing his temples. The headache that had started the previous night was getting worse—a persistent pressure behind his eyes that made concentrating difficult.

  When he closed his eyes, strange images flickered across his mind—cosmic vistas, swirling nebue, stars being born and dying in the space of heartbeats. He'd initially attributed it to stress, but now he wasn't so sure.

  "You look like shit," Vexera observed bluntly, pausing her pacing to study him. "Worse than yesterday."

  "Thanks," Azreth grunted. "Your honesty is refreshing."

  "No, she's right," Lyria said, instantly abandoning her inventory to move closer to him. Her crimson eyes narrowed as she examined him with aristocratic precision. "Your aura's fluctuating. And there's something... extra in your energy pattern."

  Mara turned from the entrance, her entirely bck eyes fixed on Azreth. "The void taint is spreading. I noticed it this morning."

  "Void taint?" Azreth echoed. "What are you talking about?"

  Instead of answering, Mara drew a thin bde from her boot and approached him. Before he could react, she had sliced a shallow cut across his palm.

  "What the hell?" he protested.

  Lyria hissed in disapproval. "If anyone's going to bleed him, it should be—"

  "Look," Mara interrupted, pointing to the blood welling in Azreth's palm.

  They all stared as his blood formed unusual patterns—not the normal droplets, but tiny, perfect spirals that rotated slowly before settling. And within the crimson liquid, flecks of something like starlight pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.

  "That's... not normal," Vexera said unnecessarily.

  "It's Nyx," Lyria realized, her voice tightening with something between anger and fear. "Somehow, she's... inside you."

  The words triggered a cascade of realizations for Azreth. The strange dreams, the cosmic visions, the growing sense that his thoughts weren't entirely his own—it all suddenly made horrible sense.

  "She's merging with me," he said quietly. "When she visited my dreams in her domain... it wasn't just communication. She pnted something of herself in my consciousness."

  Vexera's eyes widened. "She's trying to possess you?"

  "Not exactly," came a familiar ethereal voice.

  They all whirled to see Nyx materializing in the center of the cave, her translucent form more solid than it had been at the marketpce, but still not fully present. Her star-like pupils expanded as she gazed at Azreth with unmistakable affection.

  "I prefer to think of it as achieving harmony between resonant frequencies," she continued, as if this expined everything. "Our essences are compatible across dimensional pnes. I'm simply... accelerating our inevitable conjunction."

  "You're invading his mind without permission," Lyria snapped, blood whips forming instinctively around her hands. "That's what you're doing."

  "Permission is a limited concept when souls are destined to unite," Nyx replied serenely. "I've seen it across countless timelines. Our eventual merger is a cosmic constant."

  Azreth stood, fighting against both the headache and the disorienting sensation of Nyx's presence within his thoughts. "Stop. Whatever you're doing, whatever you think is 'destined,' it needs to stop now. I never agreed to this."

  For the first time, uncertainty flickered across Nyx's otherworldly features. "You don't understand yet. The binding is necessary for what's to come. The entity that maintains the cycle has become aware of you—of us. Without my void essence merged with yours, you cannot hope to withstand its attention."

  "If he needs void essence, there are other ways to get it," Mara countered, her shadow stretching protectively toward Azreth. "Ways that don't involve mental colonization."

  "Like what?" Vexera demanded. "It's not like we can just walk into a market and buy bottled void magic after the stunt she pulled."

  An uncomfortable silence fell as they all considered their limited options. Azreth could feel Nyx's presence pulsing within his mind, expanding with each heartbeat. If it continued, how long until his thoughts were no longer distinguishable from hers?

  "There is another way," Nyx finally offered. "A journey to my inner sanctum in the void dimension. There, we could properly separate our essences while still creating the protective bond you need."

  "And we're supposed to trust you after this?" Lyria's voice dripped with aristocratic disdain. "How convenient that your solution involves bringing him deeper into your territory."

  "Not alone," Nyx crified. "All of you would come. The blood bond you share makes it possible to traverse the void safely—for a short time."

  Azreth exchanged gnces with his companions. None of them looked thrilled with the idea, but the alternative—letting Nyx's consciousness continue merging with his—was clearly worse.

  "If we do this," he said carefully, "there need to be boundaries. Clear, explicit boundaries about our 'cosmic connection' or whatever you want to call it."

  Nyx tilted her head, the cosmic patterns visible beneath her translucent skin shifting like slow currents. "Boundaries are temporary constructs in an infinite multiverse. But... I can respect your current limitations while you evolve toward understanding."

  "That's not exactly reassuring," Vexera muttered.

  "It's the best we're going to get," Azreth sighed. "How would this journey work?"

  Nyx drifted closer, her form rippling like heat waves. "I can create a temporary passage from here. The void dimension exists parallel to physical reality, touching it at specific points. This cave happens to be near such a junction."

  "Of course it does," Mara said dryly. "How suspiciously convenient."

  "Convenient or not, we don't have much choice," Azreth pointed out, wincing as another wave of cosmic images flooded his mind. "This is getting worse by the hour."

  "Fine," Lyria conceded, but her crimson eyes fshed with warning as she addressed Nyx. "But understand this—if you harm him or try to separate him from us, House Crimson will find ways to make even a void demon suffer."

  "Same goes for storm demons," Vexera added, electricity dancing menacingly through her blue hair.

  "And the Shadow Guild has techniques for reaching beings even in non-corporeal states," Mara finished quietly, her tone making the threat far more chilling than the others'.

  Nyx regarded them with something like amusement. "Your attachments are admirable, if limited in perspective. Very well. Prepare yourselves for transition."

  She raised her arms, and the air in the cave began to ripple and distort. The stone walls seemed to become transparent, revealing swirling cosmic patterns behind what had appeared to be solid rock. A sensation of vertigo swept through the cave as gravity itself became uncertain.

  "Stay close," Azreth warned his companions, reaching out to them. Lyria grasped his right hand, Vexera his left, and Mara pressed her back against his, her shadow entwining with his.

  The cave dissolved around them, reality peeling away like yers of an onion to reveal the void dimension beneath. For a disorienting moment, they seemed to exist in multiple pces simultaneously—the cave, the space between stars, and somewhere else entirely that defied description.

  Then everything stabilized, and they found themselves standing in Nyx's inner sanctum.

  Unlike her meditation chamber in the Howling Peaks, this space existed entirely within the void. There were no walls, no ceiling, no floor—just an endless expanse of cosmic beauty stretching in all directions. Gaxies spiraled overhead and beneath their feet. Nebue bloomed like flowers at the edges of perception. Stars pulsed in rhythm with what might have been the heartbeat of reality itself.

  And yet, impossibly, they stood on something solid—a ptform of crystalline material that seemed to both exist and not exist simultaneously.

  "Welcome to my true home," Nyx said, her form now fully materialized and more substantial than they had ever seen it. Here, in her native dimension, she radiated a power that made their previous encounters seem like mere shadows of her actual presence.

  "It's..." Vexera began, for once at a loss for words.

  "Overwhelming," Lyria finished, her aristocratic composure momentarily abandoned as she stared wide-eyed at the cosmic dispy.

  "Impossible," Mara whispered, her shadow behaving strangely in this pce, stretching toward the nearest gaxy as if drawn to it.

  Azreth might have been equally awestruck if not for the uncomfortable realization that the scenery felt familiar—these were the exact visions that had been invading his mind.

  "Now you see with my eyes," Nyx said, confirming his suspicion. "Feel what I feel. Know what I know. This is the beginning of understanding."

  "It's the beginning of a headache is what it is," Azreth countered, trying to maintain his sense of self against the vastness surrounding them. "You promised separation, not more merging."

  "Yes," Nyx agreed, suddenly all business. "Follow me."

  She led them across the crystalline ptform toward what appeared to be a fountain of light rising from its center. The liquid—if it could be called that—glowed with the same starry essence they had seen in Azreth's blood.

  "My essence has been flowing into you since our dream-walking," Nyx expined. "Here, we can reverse the process while maintaining a controlled connection—one that protects rather than invades."

  "And we're supposed to just trust that you'll do it right this time?" Vexera asked skeptically.

  "You'll monitor the process," Nyx replied. "All of you. The blood bond you share with Azreth gives you a unique ability to perceive the flow of essences between us."

  Lyria frowned. "House Crimson's blood magic isn't designed for void manipution."

  "Neither is shadow magic," Mara added.

  "Or storm attunement," Vexera agreed.

  "Not individually," Nyx acknowledged. "But together, your three distinct magical signatures create a pattern that can interact with void energy. It's why you were able to enter my domain in the Howling Peaks when most visitors would have been lost in illusion forever."

  She gestured to three points around the fountain, forming a triangle. "Each of you will anchor a different aspect of the separation. Blood for essence, shadow for boundary, storm for catalyst."

  The three women exchanged wary gnces but took their positions. Whatever their doubts about Nyx, none of them wanted to leave Azreth's mind merged with hers.

  "And what do I do?" Azreth asked.

  "You," Nyx said, guiding him to the fountain's edge, "must immerse yourself completely while maintaining your sense of identity. I will draw back my essence, but you must actively reject it—push it out while still accepting the protective shell it can create around your consciousness."

  "That sounds contradictory," he observed.

  "Most important things are," she replied with a smile that somehow managed to show the birth and death of stars.

  Before he could protest further, Nyx pced her hands on his shoulders and gently but firmly pushed him into the fountain.

  The moment the glowing liquid touched him, Azreth's consciousness exploded outward. He was everywhere and nowhere, experiencing every possible version of himself across countless timelines. In one, he remained Kael and defeated the Demon King without betrayal. In another, he embraced corruption and became worse than any Demon King before him. In thousands more, variations pyed out—some where he died permanently, others where he achieved godhood, and everything imaginable between.

  And through it all, Nyx's presence flowed around and through him—not invasive now but supportive, showing him how to navigate the infinite possibilities without losing himself within them.

  This is what I see always, her voice echoed in his mind. Every possibility, every outcome, every version of existence pying out simultaneously. This is why I sought you—the only being whose timeline showed potential to break the cycle across all variations.

  "Get out of my head," Azreth managed to think coherently, focusing on his current identity—not Kael, not some future version, but who he was now: Azreth, the twice-lived demon with memories of being human, connected to three women whose complex attachments anchored him to this reality.

  I'm withdrawing, Nyx assured him. Feel the difference? Before, I flowed inward. Now, I flow outward, taking what's mine while leaving a protective yer—like a shell around an egg, separate but preserving.

  He could indeed feel the difference. The invasive pressure behind his eyes lessened as her consciousness receded. But something remained—a thin membrane of void essence surrounding his thoughts, shielding them from external influence without directing them.

  Outside the fountain, Lyria, Mara, and Vexera worked intuitively, each using their unique magic to stabilize the process. Lyria's blood whips had transformed into fine threads that extracted the starry essence from Azreth's blood. Mara's shadow created a boundary around his form, defining where he ended and Nyx began. Vexera's storm energy catalyzed the separation, providing the necessary force to break connections that had begun to form between their consciousness.

  After what might have been minutes or centuries, Azreth felt himself returning to normal awareness. The infinite possibilities receded, leaving only his current reality. He gasped as he broke the surface of the fountain, finding himself still in the void dimension but firmly anchored in his own identity.

  "It worked," he said, surprised.

  "Of course it worked," Nyx replied, but her voice seemed slightly less certain than before. "Though you resisted more strongly than anticipated. Your self-definition is... impressive."

  The three women rushed to Azreth's side, each checking him in their own way—Lyria examining his blood aura, Mara testing his shadow's responsiveness, Vexera sensing the electrical patterns of his thoughts.

  "He's himself again," Lyria confirmed, relief evident despite her attempt at aristocratic composure.

  "Mostly," Mara qualified, her entirely bck eyes narrowed. "There's still a void shell around his consciousness. But it's external, not internal."

  "Like armor rather than infiltration," Vexera added, sparks dancing between her fingers as she traced the edge of his aura.

  Nyx drifted to a respectful distance, watching them with an expression that might have been wistfulness. "The protective yer will shield him—all of you, through your blood bond—from the entity's attention. At least temporarily."

  "And what do you get out of this arrangement?" Lyria asked suspiciously.

  "Connection," Nyx answered simply. "Not the union I foresaw, but... a beginning. A tether across dimensional pnes that may yet develop as the timelines suggest it should."

  "About that," Azreth said, finding his footing on the crystalline ptform. "We need to talk about these 'timelines' and your expectations. I appreciate your help, but I'm not interested in any 'inevitable eternal union' or cosmic destiny."

  For a moment, something ancient and alien flickered across Nyx's features—a reminder that despite her humanoid appearance, she was fundamentally different from them, a being who experienced reality in ways they could barely comprehend.

  "Time is not linear for void demons," she said finally. "What you consider future possibilities, I experience as concurrent realities. The union I speak of exists already in many timelines. But," she added, noting his expression, "I accept that in this particur branch of possibility, you require... autonomy. Boundaries, as you called them."

  "Exactly," Azreth confirmed. "I'm grateful for your help against this entity, but that doesn't mean we're cosmically destined mates or whatever you believe."

  Nyx smiled that unsettling smile again. "I will respect your current perspective. The paths are many, but they converge eventually. For now, our alliance against the entity is sufficient."

  Something about her easy acquiescence made Azreth suspicious, but before he could press further, the void dimension around them shuddered violently.

  "What was that?" Vexera demanded, instinctively gathering storm energy around herself.

  "Time flows differently here," Nyx expined, suddenly urgent. "While we've been separating our essences, events have progressed in your realm. The Church forces have arrived at the Gray Market."

  "How long have we been gone?" Lyria asked sharply.

  "In your time? Nearly two days."

  "Two days!" Azreth excimed. "You said this would be a short journey!"

  "It was," Nyx insisted. "Void transitions typically take weeks of subjective time. I accelerated the process considerably."

  Another violent shudder ran through the dimension, and far in the cosmic distance, something like a shadow passed across several gaxies.

  "It senses you," Nyx said, genuine fear flickering across her features. "Even with the protection, your presence here is too noticeable. We must return you immediately."

  "The entity? It can reach us here?" Mara asked, her professional calm slipping.

  "Not directly. But its influence extends into all connected realms. The void is not as separate as most believe." Nyx began weaving complex patterns in the air, opening what appeared to be a tear in the fabric of the void dimension. "Quickly. Through here."

  Azreth hesitated. "You're not coming with us?"

  "I cannot maintain physical form in your realm for long periods," Nyx reminded him. "But I will watch, and when you need me most, I will find a way to help."

  "Just try not to 'help' like you did at the marketpce," Vexera muttered.

  Nyx either didn't hear or chose to ignore the comment. "One st thing before you go. The entity is vulnerable during the Mountain Trials."

  "The what?" Azreth asked.

  "An ancient ritual held in the Central Peaks every seventh void tide. Demon champions face challenges that test their worthiness to ascend beyond normal limitations. During the Trials, the barriers between realms thin naturally, and the entity must extend itself to maintain separation. It becomes... stretched. Vulnerable."

  "And when are these Trials?" Lyria pressed.

  "They begin in seven days," Nyx replied. "You must participate. Win. Gain the power offered to champions while simultaneously positioning yourselves to strike at the entity when it's most exposed."

  The dimensional tear pulsed urgently, and beyond it, Azreth could make out their cave hideout—now dusty and seemingly abandoned after their two-day absence.

  "Go," Nyx urged. "The Church forces are scattered throughout the Gray Market, searching. Some are moving toward the northern cliffs. You have little time."

  One by one, they stepped through the tear—first Mara to scout for danger, then Vexera and Lyria. As Azreth prepared to follow, Nyx caught his hand. Her touch was strangely substantial for a being who had seemed so ethereal before.

  "Our paths will cross again," she said softly. "The timelines demand it."

  "I make my own path," Azreth replied, gently but firmly removing his hand from hers.

  "Yes," she agreed with that star-filled smile. "That's precisely why the timelines converge around you."

  Before he could respond to this cryptic statement, she pushed him through the tear. The void dimension colpsed behind him, and he found himself standing in the cave with his three companions, his head clear for the first time in days.

  "Well," Vexera said, breaking the silence, "that was weird as hell. Even by our standards."

  "At least your brain is your own again," Lyria pointed out, carefully examining him with her crimson eyes. "Mostly."

  "And we have a new destination," Mara added practically. "These Mountain Trials sound like our best chance to gain an advantage against whatever this entity is."

  Azreth nodded, sorting through everything they'd learned. "First, we need to avoid the Church forces searching for us. Then find out more about these Trials and how to enter them."

  "Seven days isn't much time," Vexera observed.

  "It's all we have," Azreth replied. He could still feel the thin protective yer of void essence surrounding his consciousness—Nyx's parting gift. Despite her talk of inevitable union and cosmic destiny, she had helped them, even respected his boundaries when pressed.

  "Do you trust her?" Lyria asked suddenly, as if reading his thoughts.

  Azreth considered the question carefully. "I trust that she wants the cycle broken. Beyond that..." He shrugged. "Let's just say I'll be checking for void taint in my blood regurly."

  "Smart," Mara approved. "Now let's move before those Church Purifiers find us. I hear the Mountain Trials are quite spectacur—if you survive them."

  "Comforting as always," Vexera muttered, but there was a gleam of excitement in her storm-cloud eyes. "Trial champions gain significant power. If we're going to face an interdimensional entity, we could use every advantage."

  As they quickly gathered their supplies and prepared to leave the cave, Azreth cast one st gnce at the spot where the dimensional tear had closed. For just a moment, he thought he saw a flicker of starlight—Nyx, watching from her void dimension.

  Her words echoed in his mind: The paths are many, but they converge eventually.

  "We'll see about that," he murmured, before turning to join his companions.

  They had seven days to reach the Central Peaks, find a way to enter the Trials, and prepare to confront not just whatever challenges the ancient ritual presented, but an entity powerful enough to maintain the separation of entire realms.

  Just another week in the life of a twice-lived demon with a harem of extremely dangerous women.

  At least his headache was gone.