Outside the cave, next to the Jericho, the world seemed almost deceptively calm, as if the horrors and chaos within the cave had been sealed away behind the black mouth of the cavern. The sand whispered across the cooling dunes, stirred by the faintest breath of the night wind, and above them, the sky stretched wide and endless, a blanket of stars too distant to care for the struggles below.
Mia was curled up in a fragile heap beside the armored vehicle, her small body rising and falling in slow, steady breaths, using Ivan’s discarded shirt as a makeshift pillow, her sleep so deep that not even the grating noise of the shifting sands disturbed her. Ivan, shirtless now, was kneeling a few meters away, his muscles trembling from the strain of endless repetition as he forced himself through yet another set of sit-ups, as a second Ivan kneeled to anchor his legs into the sand.
Aria sat nearby, holding a withered stick that she used to scratch lazy circles into the dust, boredom gnawing at her with every passing second. She glanced sideways at Ivan, her lips curling into a half-frown as she watched the boy work his body into exhaustion without pause, without even the faintest acknowledgment of the pain he must have been feeling.
“How the hell are you still training?” she muttered finally, her voice a mixture of incredulity and irritation.
Ivan grunted, completing another sit-up, sweat beading across his bare back. “If I don’t train for myself,” he said, breathless but firm, “No one else will.”
Aria tossed the stick aside with a sigh, watching it tumble end over end across the sand. “You know,” she said, voice lighter now, “Last night must have been brutal. Maybe... I dunno... rest a little? Just a thought.”
He ignored her, his jaw tightening, his focus absolute.
Aria mumbled under her breath, crossing her arms against the growing chill, “That’s what I get for trying to be nice…”
The desert night had begun to creep into her bones now, the temperature dropping with every breath she took. She shivered slightly, her thin clothes doing little to fight the cold, and despite her annoyance, she could not help but glance again at Ivan, who continued to punish himself beneath the cold sky without complaint. Her cheeks puffed out in frustration, but she grudgingly admitted to herself that maybe, just maybe, he was a little tougher than she had first thought.
Then she heard footsteps. Soft at first, but growing louder, approaching them quickly.
Aria’s head snapped up, her eyes wide, heart leaping into her throat. She shot to her feet in a single motion, face lighting up with a brilliant, desperate hope she could not hide.
And then, figure stumbled out of the darkness, burdened by the weight of two unconscious bodies, one golden-haired, one green. His armor was battered beyond recognition, shattered at the joints, scorched black and split open at the seams. His breath steamed in the cold air, his steps heavy, dragging as though every fiber of his being fought against collapse. For a single, painful heartbeat, hope bloomed in Aria’s chest. She rushed forward, her heart hammering against her ribs like a caged bird desperate for freedom, and screamed into the night with all the force of her breaking soul.
"Kaiser!"
But the man who emerged was not him.
Ivan’s body tensed immediately, moving to shield his sister and Mia with instinctive precision, planting himself between them and the battered knight without hesitation. His muscles coiled, ready to strike at the slightest provocation. Mia, smaller and still pale from exhaustion, clutched at Ivan's torn sleeve with trembling fingers. She tugged urgently, her voice no louder than a frightened breath, her wide eyes fixated not on the man, but on the figure cradled against his side.
"Ivan..." she whispered, the words breaking against the chill. "That's her... that's Celestine. The princess."
Ivan's jaw tightened, his teeth grinding together, but he said nothing, his focus locked unflinchingly onto the approaching figure. The battered knight, whoever he was, reached the towering metallic flank of Jericho and, without hesitation, slammed his fist against a hidden compartment on the machine's massive left leg.
The compartment cracked open with a hiss, revealing a set of glimmering teleportation tickets. With mechanical swiftness, he withdrew two of them, pressing them into the women’s hands. In a flash of rippling light, the unconscious forms of Celestine and Elsie shimmered and vanished, teleported safely aboard the dragon.
Only after ensuring their safety did the man turn to face them fully, the exhaustion etched so deep into his battered frame that he seemed ready to collapse under its weight. His armor hung off him like a dying shell, his breathing shallow and ragged, but his presence remained commanding, carved from duty and willpower alone.
"I am Vega," he said hoarsely, his voice scraped raw by battle and despair. "Sixth Constellation of the North."
The instant she realized, the hope inside her collapsed into raw fury. She stormed toward Vega, her fists clenched and trembling, her whole body a coiled spring of questions. "Where is he?" she shouted, the desert winds tearing her voice into broken ribbons. "Where the is Kaiser?!"
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Vega didn’t answer. His battered frame stiffened, but he turned his head aside, refusing to meet her gaze, moving instead with mechanical urgency toward Jericho’s left leg again. His fist went into the hidden compartment,picking up the teleportation tickets again. He ripped three free and without a word, shoved one toward Aria.
"Take it," he barked. "Now. We don’t have time."
Aria stared at the shimmering ticket in his outstretched hand as if it were poison. Her breathing hitched, and then, with a snarl of pure defiance, she slapped the ticket from his grasp. It hit the sand with a soft whisper. She crushed it beneath her heel and screamed into his face with a fury that made even the battered knight recoil.
"I’m not going anywhere!" she howled, tears blurring her vision. "Not without Kaiser!"
Vega’s patience, already threadbare and torn by grief, snapped. He seized her by the collar of her shirt, dragging her close enough that she could see the blood in the whites of his broken, exhausted eyes. His voice was a thunderclap, raw and terrible. "He's holding the damn line!" Vega roared. "He and my brother are buying you time—buying us all time—against something that wants to rip your souls apart!"
Ivan's head jerked up at the words, his fists clenching. "Then we go back," he growled. "We help them."
But Vega turned on him like a storm unleashed, his voice rising to a near shout, each word burning with the agony of truth. "It's Chaos!" he barked. "Chaos himself! And you three are nothing to him! He'd crush you like ants! I don't know who the hell you all are, or why Regulus gave his life for you, but he did! And he made me swear to make sure you survived! So get on that goddamn Jericho, and make his sacrifice mean something!"
The desert fell into a stunned, breathless silence, broken only by the ragged gasps tearing themselves free from Aria’s throat as she stared at the mouth of the cave, at the darkness that had swallowed the only person she loved. She didn't even hesitate—her body moved on instinct, sprinting toward the cave entrance, her boots kicking up bursts of sand behind her. She didn’t care. She didn’t think. She was going to get him. Kaiser needed her. That was all that mattered.
But a battered gauntlet clamped around her arm like a vice, yanking her back so hard she almost hit the ground. She whirled on Vega, eyes wild, teeth bared like a cornered beast. She struggled against him, throwing her weight forward, kicking, clawing, desperate to break free, but Vega's grip didn't falter, even as she screamed at him with all the fury of a wounded animal.
"LET ME GO!" she roared, voice cracking. "HE'S STILL IN THERE!"
Vega's expression, strained and broken as it was, turned even grimmer. His voice was a harsh bark, each word jagged and brutal. "You’ll die! You’ll get all of us killed!" he shouted back, dragging her bodily away from the cave, toward Jericho's open boarding compartment where the teleportation tickets shimmered like dying embers in the sand. "We have to go! NOW!"
Ivan, seeing Aria being manhandled, surged forward without thinking, fists clenched, fire burning in his chest. "Get your damn hands off her!" he shouted, about to lunge at Vega, ready to fight if he had to—but a small, trembling hand grabbed his wrist, stopping him cold. He turned, expecting resistance, expecting a fight, but found Mia staring up at him with wide, broken eyes.
For a second, she said nothing. Just held his wrist in a grip so tight it almost hurt. The wind caught her hair, whipping it into her face, but she didn’t move to fix it. She just stood there, shaking slightly, her voice barely more than a whisper when it finally came.
"He said Chaos was inside…" Mia trembled, each word cutting through Ivan’s fury like a cold blade. "We don’t even know Kaiser that well…"
Ivan’s heart twisted. He shook her hand off roughly, not out of anger at her, but at the impossibility of what he was hearing, the betrayal of giving up so easily. "I don’t care!" he shouted back at her, voice raw with frustration and something deeper, something almost like heartbreak. "Someone needs saving! I don't care how little I know him! I don't care if it’s impossible! I'm not leaving him behind!"
Mia flinched at the ferocity in his voice, stepping back, her small frame trembling under the crushing weight of fear and guilt. But she didn’t say anything else. She couldn’t. Because deep down, she knew Ivan wasn’t wrong. She just didn’t know how to face the truth that they might already be too late.
Vega didn't wait. His patience was gone. With a grunt of effort, he physically dragged Aria toward the hidden compartment, slammed his bloody palm against the release plate, and snatched the teleportation tickets free. He shoved them into Ivan’s chest with a force that almost knocked the boy off balance.
"Use them!" Vega barked, his voice like a hammer against iron. "Teleport inside! We will use the Jericho to escape!"
Aria struggled again, tears blinding her, her fists pounding uselessly against Vega's armor. She didn’t even realize she was screaming until her throat felt like it was tearing open. "I don't care! I don't care! I'M NOT LEAVING HIM!"
"You’re not leaving him behind!" Vega roared. "You’re living because of him!"
With a grimace of pain and finality, he seized her wrist and forcefully pressed her trembling finger against the smooth surface of one of the teleportation tickets. It activated instantly, flashing with blinding light, wrapping around her body in a cocoon of magic. Aria barely had time to scream before she was ripped away, her body vanishing into the belly of the metallic beast.
Without hesitation, Ivan pressed one firmly into Mia’s hand, ignoring the way she flinched and looked up at him with wide eyes. "You first."
Mia hesitated, just for a breath, her small frame frozen in terror—but then she squeezed the ticket tight, her lips moving in a silent prayer, and activated it. The teleportation seized her, twisting her away into the dragon's belly.
Next was Ivan, and he repeated what his sister did, pressing his finger onto the ticket. The world twisted, light and smoke engulfed him, and he was gone.
Outside, alone beneath the cold, pitiless stars, Vega stood, the teleportation ticket clutched in his trembling hand. His entire body shuddered, nerves fraying, muscles rebelling. He tried once. Twice. Thrice—to activate the ticket, but his fingers missed each time, slipping uselessly off the activation point. His breath came in ragged, desperate gasps, his body finally starting to shut down under the unbearable weight of what he had already endured.
And then—he froze.