“I need you to go in here, Leo,” Albert said, pointing at the chest previously filled with the dresses he’d now hurled across his bed. One frilly dress remained ihe soft pink fabric crumpled to offer some padding. A bitter joke, a cruel mercy, as if cushioning the bottom made the ay less monstrous.

  Leo stared at the chest, his lips writhing, a tremor rolling through his small frame. “Why?” he asked, voice wavering, eyes wide with fusion and fear. He gnced up at his father’s face, searg for an ahat might not shatter him, for any hint of kihat had long since fled from Albert’s eyes.

  “Just do it, twink.” Albert’s voice was a low growl, and he ched a fist with a deliberate slowhat sent a jolt of panic through Leo. “Do as I tell you.” The threat lingered in the air, an unspoken promise of pain.

  Leo swallowed anxiously, his throat dry. “I-is this a game?” His words cracked as he backed away instinctively, his bare feet sliding against the rough floor, trembling hands reag out to ward off the iable.

  Albert didn’t answer. He didn’t o. His hand shot out, gripping Leo’s arm with brutal force. “Enough,” he snarled, dragging the boy forward like a ragdoll. Leo’s thrashing was weak, futile, each desperate kick absorbed without a flicker of aowledgment. He was tossed ihe chest like discarded refuse, the hollow thud of his small body colliding with wood eg through the room.

  “No!” Leo gasped, twisting, g at the edge of the chest. “Please, don’t—” His plea was cut off as the lid smmed shut with a resounding finality.

  For a moment, there was only silehen came a scraping soual sliding against metal. The lock. The realization sank into Leo’s bones, cold and paralyzing. His breath hitched, tears welling and spilling over.

  The darkness was thick, absolute. Instead of hammering at the lid or screaming, Leo curled into a ball, clutg his throbbing head. His whole body ached from the rough handling, bruises bloomih his skin, feeling his hunger gnawing. He buried his fa his knees, shoulders quaking, but his voice was a soft, broken sob, too afraid even to cry loudly.

  He listeo the sound of his father’s footsteps, eae reg further, the echoes twisting into a cruel lulby. He was alohe lock was secure. There was no escape.

  He didn’t rise, didn’t scream. There was no point. His father was right—he was safe here, wasn’t he? His father couldn’t hurt him anymore. Enclosed in darkness, where no one could reach him, where the world’s cruelty was muffled by the walls. His father had always told him what was for the best, why did it feel like drowning this time?

  The dress beh him still smelled faintly of his mother, of vender and warmth. For a moment, it was enough. He buried his fato the fabric, breathing in the st like it was life itself. Things didn’t feel so bad for a while. He could pretend. Pretend that she hadn’t left. That he wasn’t alone.

  But hunger tio gnaw at his belly, a hollow ache that grew unbearable. His stomach twisted, and soon nature called. Humiliation washed over him as he soiled the dress, the f st now tainted, ruined.

  He missed her so much. The tears started again, flowing freely, hot and bitter. He couldn’t stop shaking.

  Why had she left him?

  The st vestiges of purple light disappeared as the lid fully smmed shut, the sound reverberating like the closing of a tomb.

  Leona screamed. She screamed until her throat was raw, until her voice cracked and faltered, until her body shook with the violence of her sobs. Each cry ripped from her felt like tearing open an old wound, and still, she screamed—again and again—until nothing but a ragged wheeze was left. Her voice faded into the suffog silence, repced by shallow, trembling breaths. Eventually, she stopped, her body sagging uhe weight of exhaustion, the numbness creeping in like a cold fog.

  The darkness pressed in, thid suffog, and she returo her existence as that small child, curled up in a chest with the soiled remnants of her mother’s dress ging to her skin. The stink of humiliation mingled with the faint, fading st of vehe st trace of a love that had long since abandoned her.

  Trapped. Fotten.

  Back then, there had been scraps of food, tossed to her like she was nothing more than a feral animal. But they only came when she was silent, when the screams had quieted to nothing, wheears had dried. So, she learned. She swallowed the cries, bit down on the sobs, ahe loneliness e her. Her father left her for longer and loretches, the darkness her only panion, the void her only reality.

  Now, in the present, she was ba that same pce, as though she had never left that chest. The tears burned hot as they welled, but even as they fell, they vanished into the darkness, disappearing into nothingness. No warmth. No fort. Just cold, unyielding bck.

  Is this all I am? she thought bitterly. A helpless child?

  The memories of those times, of suffog darkness, of the isotion, cwed at her mind. She trembled, fists g, nails biting into her palms. Uo keep others from doing anything they want to me? Her body shook harder. Is this who I am?

  Why did this happen? The question hung in the darkness like a noose. Did I do something to deserve this?

  The oppressive silenswered her with nothing but the echo of her own thoughts.

  Her mind twisted in on itself, trapped in a suffog spiral of doubt and rage. But then, the offer—the words Bgel had whispered—cut through the haze.

  If I accept her offer, I would have the power to prevent something like this from ever happening again. The thought took hold, cold and sharp. Except—it wouldn’t be me anymore.

  The turmoil ed within her. What do I want? Her breath hitched. What else I do?

  She ched her jaw, tears burning down her cheeks. I ’t be a victim again. Though I don’t want to hurt people like she does, I don’t want to be hurt anymore!

  Her body trembled, but her voice—silent for so long—rose within her, a fierce whisper in the dark. I won’t. Her breath came faster. I won’t. Louder now, rising with each beat of her heart. I won’t. Her voice became a roar in her mind, drowning out the silence. I WILL NOT!

  A ripple of energy surged from deep within her, raw and wild, burning like a star breaking free. The s binding her shattered into shards of nothingness, the sound like gss exploding in every dire.

  “…At st, you hear me.”

  Bgel’s voice came, but it was distant, muted.

  And then, there was light. It flooded in, blinding, searing, washing over her like fire—and she stood, trembling but unbroken.

  Sensing that something was amiss, Bgel staggered back, eyes wide with disbelief. "How!? How some pitiful Earther resist my power!?" Her voice cracked, the fiden her tone crumbling into something raw, feral. The coffin that imprisoned Leona bulged dangerously, brilliant fissures spider webbing across its surface, glowing with blinding light.

  "You’re all bck-hearted fools—weaklings—COWARDS!" Bgel screamed, her voice reverberating with desperation. "Surrender and accept that you’re mine, Leona!"

  With a deafening roar, the coffin shattered into tless shards, exploding outward like shrapnel. Leona stood, rising from the enforced supplication, her body no longer bent uhe weight of Bgel’s dominance. Her eyes bzed with fury, twin suns burning with defiance, and her entire form radiated a white-hot, searing light that ed the darkness around her. Every tremor in the air vibrated with the sheer force of her unleashed will.

  "NO!" Bgel's voice was shrill, ced with panic. She waved her hands frantically, summoning s as thid serpentine as anadas, wrought from shadow and steel. They surged forward, writhing, hissing, determio entangle and subdue Leona once more.

  But the instant the s touched her glowing form, they disied, unraveling into nothingness like ash in a firestorm. The light burhrough them, erasing every trace of Bgel's dark magic.

  "NO!!!" Bgel's shriek filled the air, her posure shattered. She cwed at the empty space where her power should have been absolute. "THERE IS NO WAY!" she howled, voice crag as the reality of her unraveling dominance sank in.

  Leona’s gaze bore into her, unwavering. She took a siep forward, her light intensifying, the glow now a blistering inferno that filled the space with a purity Bgel could not touch.

  Another voice, identical to Bgel’s but gentle, spoke sweetly as Leona stood, her radiance defleg every attempt to bihe serpentine s writhed futilely in the brilliance.

  “Leona, I will help you fight this evil within my heart. As I help you, please help me!”

  The voice wasn’t pleading but sincere, vulnerable, and somehow, Leona knew she could trust it. This voice wasn’t Bgel’s cruelty masked iness; it was something deeper, older, and filled with deep sorrow. It was the power now c through her veins, repelling every dark strike.

  Leona nodded, her jaw ched as righteous fury ed within her. She balled her fist, her knuckles glowing with pure energy. Without hesitation, she luhrough the swirling serpents of shadow, her body a et tearing through darkness. Her fist puhrough the thickest, most monstrous serpent, the sinewy darkness disiing into ash as she drove straight into Bgel’s jaw with a siing crack.

  Bgel flew backward, her head snapping to the side, mouth twisted in shod pain. Leona didn’t relent. She surged forward, her every step shaking the crumbling mausoleum. She swung wildly, each strike crashing into Bgel like a hammer, her fists glowing brighter with each hit.

  "You’ll never trol me again!" Leona roared, her voice eg with power. Each punch shattered the stones around them, cracks rippling through the floor as if the entire mausoleum were unraveling, turning to dust uhe weight of her fury.

  Bgel shrieked, blood curling, summoning s over and over, but they dissolved on tact with the burning light that emanated from Leona. “You i wretch! I am power itself!” she howled, summoning the st of her strength.

  Leona dodged one final writhing and drove her ko Bgel’s stomach, the impact f the air from the vilin in a gasping wail. Bgel staggered, and Leona seized the moment, bringing her leg up in a brutal arc. Her foot ected with Bgel’s , sending her careening through the air with a deafening boom. The mausoleum colpsed entirely, the walls falling away like brittle paper.

  Leona found herself in the open sky above the cemetery, the cold wind tearing through the smoke and debris. Bgel hovered before her, ebony wings spread wide, her eyes wild with hatred.

  “ENOUGH!” Bgel shrieked, her voice ripping through the air as she asded higher, her form dark and imposing against the jagged mountains. “No more fig leaves! I will not be denied! You will be my vessel, Leo Walker! MINE!” In an instant, she was cloaked in an aura of pure darkness, vast and suffog, like the weight of aire mountain.

  But amidst the storm e, a soft, calm voice echoed through the chaos, unwavering.

  “Leona, you must accept me.”

  The words didn’t demand; they were a quiet plea, ge insistent. “All will be revealed in time. I will always be with you. Trust may be too much to ask, but please... take a leap of faith.” The voice shimmered with warmth and siy, a bea of hope in the midst of the swirling dark power.

  Leona’s heart pounded in her chest, her breath shallow, as doubt and fear cwed at her. But she knew. Without fully uanding why, she reached out, her hand trembling, and called the orb that Bgel had tried to force upon her before. It materialized in her palm, pulsing with light, bright and pure, a stark trast to the suffog shadows surrounding Bgel.

  “No!” Bgel screamed, diving faster than Leona could prehend, but Leona had ation. She thrust the orb into her ow, pain ng through her body as light ed her.

  Bgel’s talons raked across Leona’s skin, but the moment the orb fused with Leona’s heart, an explosion of light erupted. Bgel was flung back, hissing as her flesh burned. She spiraled through the air, g tain trol, shadows leaking from her like smoke.

  “NO! You should be gone!” she shrieked, wings barely catg her fall. She beat them furiously, rising again, fury ing her face. “YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! CURSE YOU!”

  Leona hovered, glowing with rerength. Bgel charged again, summoning every ounce of her dark power, her wings trembling with effort.

  “Look upon me, Leona!” she bellowed, her voice crag with fury. “You are mine! You’ve let me in, even just by a sliver. You ARE MINE!”

  Leona, her voice steady, her resolve unshakable, replied, “That’s not for you to decide.”

  They collided midair, white and bergy crashing together in an explosion of light and shadow. In a blinding fsh, the world was silent, and everything vanished.

  Leona found herself in another dark pce, but this time, she wasn’t naked or vulnerable. Around her body, a nimbus of pure light shimmered, amorphous and indistinct, yet warm like an embrace. There was no mali the surrounding darkness, only peace. The oppressive chill was gone, repced by calm.

  Bgel was gone. Leona didn’t know how she k was simply a fact, as certain as breathing.

  Stars began to flicker ience, one by oheir soft glow illuminating her. No longer cold or weak, she floated among them, bathing in their light. Each twinkling point seemed to sing, and as their energy washed over her, she felt whole.

  Leona threw her head bad ughed, the sound ringing out like music. The warmth, the light—each star gazed at her, and she felt their silent aowledgment, as if she beloo this celestial tapestry. She closed her eyes, letting herself be cradled by the universe.

  She wasn’t alone anymore.

  When she opened her eyes, a figure stood before her, identical to Bgel yet entirely different. Leona’s initial instinct to hardeed as she studied the woman before her. Her features were the same, but everything else was transformed.

  Bronze-gold skin gleamed softly, and pristine white wings folded gracefully at her back. Tears glistened in her eyes, overflowing as she spoke. “It’s exactly as you suppose.” Her voice trembled, a mixture of relief and sorrow.

  “I am the vestige of the true woman within the one you know as Bgel,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “I am who she was before she gave herself to darkness. I am the part of her that refused the temptation of power and loo be free. Both of our essences were in the angel’s down that your friend obtained for you. I wish to atone for my crimes—what I have done, and what my people have surely doo others across the universe.”

  She stepped closer, her luminous tears trailing like stardust, each drop shimmering in the air before vanishing into nothingness. “I must apologize,” she tinued, her voice thick with emotion, crag with vulnerability. “I helped my dark side reach out to you. Although it was the only time I ever assisted her, it had to be… all for this moment.” Her gaze softened, her eyes brimming with sorrow. “Ever sihe moment she sensed you—briefly toug your mind—I’ve had you in my thoughts. After our death at the hands of Mistral, when Bgel’s soul and mind fixated on you, I was determio protect you. I helped her so that this moment could exist, believing in you. With your own power, your own willpower, you showed me that you beat her.” She paused, her chest rising with the weight of her words, and the sileween them felt heavy, den with unspoken truths. “You are strohan she ever realized. Strohan I ever believed and strohan I ever was. Know that it was you that defeated her, not I.”

  Leona’s breath caught as the womaly touched her cheek. Unlike Bgel’s touch, this was warm, soothing, filled with serenity.

  “Please,” the leaded, her voice like a whisper of light, ge insistent. “Accept me. I will grant you the power of an Empyrean. It will awaken what already exists within you and give you what you want and need. Your heart, fed in pain and loss, is also the heart of a hero. It will steel you against her temptations, against everything she has tried to make you bee. The heroic feats you will achieve will redeem the evil I have been a part of, and in doing so, your world will gain a true champion of justi Empyrean who is unyielding, unbroken, and free.” Her eyes shoh an ear iy, pleading silently for Leona to trust her, to accept what could finally bring ao this endless struggle.

  Her hand cradled Leona’s face, her smile tender and full of hope. “Accept this kiss,” she said softly, liftiher hand to hold Leona’s head. “Please, share it with me. You will fully gain our essence. You will have our power. But it will be your power. You shall be whomever you wish to be.”

  Leona’s heart swelled with uanding. She saw truth in the woman’s eyes, felt the siy iouch. With ation, she accepted.

  The kiss was like nothing Leona had ever known—warmth surged into her very core, spreading through every fiber of her being. The light exploded outward, filling the universe with brilliance, engulfing everything.

  When she opened her eyes again, the good side of Bgel was fading, her form being translut, ephemeral. Leona’s heart twisted, and tears welled up as she watched the woman vanish.

  The fading figure smiled through her tears, rivers of light streaming from her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered as she dissolved into the stars.

  Leona cried, the loss cutting deep, even as warmth lingered in her chest. Then, all at once, everything cut out, and there was only light.