The Victoriad final had ended.
But it would not easily fade from the minds of those who had witnessed it.
That battle… had made everything else feel utterly meaningless.
And now, a cloud of questions loomed over the Empire ...
none larger than the mystery of the young man named Frey Starlight.
The future had become utterly unpredictable.
Maekar Valerion, the current Emperor, had seen everything with his own eyes.
"Khan, get in touch with Ivar as soon as possible. Tell him to come to me."
"Understood."
It was time to uncover the truth behind all this...
to find the real source of that overwhelming power.
Meanwhile, the current head of House Starlight wasn't sitting quietly.
She was running through the corridors, Carmen trailing close behind.
"Ada! There's no point in going now ...we won't be able to do anything!"
"..."
"Our family's healers are already taking care of him. There's no need to worry, for heaven's sake."
Ada didn't listen at all.
She simply kept running, rushing toward her brother.
Carmen sighed quietly, watching Ada disappear down the hallway.
"Young people are always so restless."
Carmen walked slowly, no longer bothering to chase after her.
After all, Frey was receiving treatment nearby.
While walking, she casually pulled out a luxurious cigar, igniting it with a flick of her fingers.
Hooof.
The elegant lady of House Starlight exhaled a cloud of smoke, leaning calmly against the wall.
She wore white trousers, a white shirt, and a black blazer, her hands covered with sleek gloves.
With that cigar in hand, she looked nothing short of striking ..powerful, composed.
She stared indifferently at the wall in front of her, lost deep in thought.
From time to time, people passed by: workers from the arena or lost spectators.
As she was about to finish her cigar,
she heard footsteps approaching.
Carmen immediately sensed the powerful aura radiating from the figure.
Yet she didn't bother to look.
After all, powerful warriors filled these stands by the hundreds.
But then the voice spoke ..
and her eyes snapped wide open.
"Still smoking as always, huh? You haven't changed a bit."
A familiar voice.
Carmen turned around, stunned ..
her face twisted in a frightening mixture of emotions.
Before her stood a young man, smiling,
his black eyes glowing faintly behind his reading glasses.
"Micah…"
"Why do you look so surprised? As if you've seen a ghost."
The young man walked casually toward her.
"How many years has it been?
I don't even remember anymore..."
He had grown.
He had grown so much that Carmen was rendered speechless.
"It's been a while... Mother."
Micah was perfectly calm, in stark contrast to Carmen's shaken state.
No matter how one looked at it,
this didn't feel like a reunion between a mother and her long-lost son.
Their eyes locked in silence for a moment.
"You've gotten much stronger... SS- rank, huh? Congratulations."
Facing Micah's casual tone, Carmen finally snapped, raising her voice in frustration ..
"What are you doing here?"
"Hmm?
Just doing my job.
I became a Bishop recently, after all."
"Why did you leave?!"
Carmen's voice trembled as she shouted.
"Why... did you abandon the family?"
At a time when House Starlight had been struggling,
their greatest talent had walked away ..
choosing instead to follow the Path of Light and join the Church.
It had been a devastating blow.
"Why did you abandon... us?"
Before the trembling Carmen,
Micah's smile widened with clear disdain in his glowing eyes.
"You can't even say it properly, can you?
What you really want to ask is why I abandoned you, Mother."
He moved closer to her, his eyes sharp.
"But you can't say that.
Because people like you...
you don't even deserve the question."
Micah leaned in closer, his face mere inches from hers.
"How dare you even ask,
you who abandoned me when I couldn't even stand on my own two feet?
Know your place, you wretched old hag."
"..."
Carmen remained silent.
Because his words carved deep into her, dredging up memories she had buried long ago.
Micah resumed walking, his usual smile returning.
"But you'll always be my mother, won't you?
Even if you're nothing more than a filthy old hag."
He turned back one last time.
"So heed my warning ..
Leave House Starlight.
If you stay... death is all that awaits you."
With those parting words, Bishop Micah Starlight walked away.
Behind him, Carmen stood frozen in place,
shattered by meeting her only son after all those long, lonely years.
For the first time in a very, very long time,
she felt a true emptiness inside her heart.
And thus ...
the final day of the Victoriad came to a end,
marking the end of an era.
...
...
...
— Frey Starlight's Pov —
Darkness.
An endless, suffocating darkness.
I clutched my body tightly, overwhelmed by an unbearable emptiness.
I knew I was dreaming again.
I dreamt of my family, my world.. just like always.
But this time, they left.
They left without saying a word.
I tried to run after them ..
but it was useless.
They simply abandoned me, drowning alone in the void.
I had always wondered...
After everything I've gone through here,
am I truly worthy of returning to that place?
Am I, the version of myself who survived in this blood-soaked world,
still fit to call them family?
I was no longer the fragile writer I once was.
I knew it better than anyone ...
how much I had changed...
into the monster I had become.
Returning to my world, to my family, was the only thing I ever wanted.
I had yearned for it so desperately that I walked through hell itself.
But now...
I was terrified.
Terrified of what would happen if they saw what I had become.
Would they really...
accept this version of me as their son?
As their brother?
As their friend?
Who even was I anymore?
I ran.
And I ran, desperately chasing after the shadows.
Despite everything ..
I really, truly, desperately...
missed them.
Stretching my hand out into the darkness,
I suddenly stumbled into a faint, misty light.
Startled, I jolted awake, gasping for breath.
Frantically, I reached out, trying to feel my surroundings.
I was lying on a bed ..
my eyes covered by a thick blindfold.
When I tore it off, I could barely see anything at all.
Pain shot through my skull.
My body was wrapped in bandages from head to toe.
Slowly, my hazy mind started to piece everything together.
I leapt up instinctively.
My vision was still blurry,
a side effect of pushing Ascension and Hawk Eyes beyond their limits for too long.
I was practically blind.
But none of that mattered.
"I won!"
I had won the Victoriad.
Those memories ..
that insane battle ..
they weren't a dream.
They were real.
I had done it.
"I did it!"
Two years of struggle.
Two years of agony.
My heart felt like it might explode inside my chest.
Immediately, I summoned my personal laptop from Balerion's storage tattoo,
my hands trembling as I held it.
I slumped to the floor, sweating so profusely it felt like I was about to lose my mind.
I opened the laptop.
"The answer..."
The answer I had waited so long to find.
The answer I had bled and suffered for.
The screen flickered on.
I couldn't see clearly ...
I had to press my face right up against it.
The Author Tools had vanished completely.
Only a few words remained on the screen.
Barely able to make them out, I read—
In bold letters across the interface:
Final Mission: Win the Victoriad (Completed)
Reward: 10,000 Achievement Points
System Question: The Author may now submit one question to the System Engineer, who must answer ... no matter what the question is.