The air crackled like a storm ready to break.The King's aura pressed against me, trying to crush, erase, obliterate.But I held form.
Not because I was stronger.But because I refused to kneel.
"You dare manifest in front of me?" Gid's voice was thunder, every syllable shaking the courtyard."I dare exist," I replied calmly, my voice echoing not just in the air but in the Hivemind itself. "And I dare question: what does a King fear, that he brings an army against one symbiote?"
The soldiers stiffened. His aura spiked.But I did not move.
"I don't fear," Gid snarled. "I erase."
"You erase what you don't understand," I countered, a slow smile tugging at my lips. "But your daughter does. She accepts. That's something your fists cannot destroy."
A tremor ran through the soldiers at my words.Haruna gasped softly.Yami muttered under her breath: "He's provoking him…"
Lala stood between us, trembling, tears at the edges of her eyes."Papa, please! He's not hurting me—he's—"
"Silence, Lala!" the King roared, and the world seemed to shake.Her voice broke. She fell quiet.
For a heartbeat, it was just us. Predator and intruder. King and parasite."I will not allow you to root into my bloodline," he hissed."And I will not allow you to rip from me what is already mine," I answered, voice steel.
The air was moments from tearing apart—when another voice split it first.
"ENOUGH!"
The courtyard froze.A new aura—fierce, sharp, distinctly feminine—cut through the weight of Gid's.
Sephie Michaela Deviluke.
She appeared in a shimmer of warp-light, her heels striking the ground like judgment. Her eyes burned as bright as any weapon.And her glare was not at me.
It was at him.
"You mobilized a war fleet into Earth's orbit without telling me?"Her voice was low, but dripping with restrained fury."Do you realize the diplomatic chaos you've just ignited? Do you realize what this looks like?"
For the first time, Gid hesitated. His soldiers faltered, uncertain.
Sephie stepped forward, hands clenched at her sides."You speak of parasites. You speak of danger. But the true danger is you—charging into a fragile world with cannons blazing like a child throwing a tantrum!"
Lala gasped. Haruna looked on in shock. Even Yami's eyes widened.
The King's jaw tightened, but he did not strike back.And I?
I smiled.
Because for the first time, his wrath wasn't focused solely on me.
And now I had seen something new:The Queen's fury was a force even the King of Deviluke could not easily silence."