"Hehe…"
The sound slipped out of Shivaya's beak before she could stop it.
The pond beside her was still settling from earlier madness. Water that had hung in the air like it was waiting for applause had finally remembered gravity and crashed down with a roar. Wet petals clung to the grass. Even the insects sounded hesitant, as if they weren't sure the world wouldn't suddenly crack again for dramatic effect.
She sat at the pond's edge in her usual posture, wings folded, feathers neat, gaze half-lidded looking like an enlightened hen meditating on the nature of existence.
In reality, she was reliving a single image on loop.
A stupid rooster with a stupid comb and even more stupid swagger.
And her future, glorious, long-overdue moment of stomping him into a shape even his mother hen wouldn't recognize.
"Hehe…"
Her beak tilted. Her eyes gleamed.
Then.
RUSTLE.
A hurried footstep came from the hill, tearing through petals like someone didn't care what they trampled.
Something was coming through the flowers toward the pond.
Shivaya's smile widened. Naturally, she could guess who it was.
Perfect timing.
She pushed herself up, feathers lifting slightly, the grin sharpening into a weapon. She turned, ready to beat the stupid rooster up.
Her grin however... froze mid-formation.
Because it wasn't the proud stupid rooster she imagined, chest puffed high like he owned the world.
What came into her view was instead… a bloody mess of a rooster.
His wounds were visible even from a distance, tearing wider each step as he rushed, as if he didn't care at all that his flesh was splitting in his hurry. Like the only thing that mattered was getting here.
Richard stumbled into view. His feathers, usually flamboyant and annoyingly proud, were matted dark with blood. His comb drooped low, heavy, almost gray at the edges. His chest rose and fell unevenly, and each breath sounded like it scraped his throat on the way out.
Shivaya's brain short-circuited.
It went quiet.
Her body, however, did the opposite.
Before she noticed herself moving, she had already crossed the distance between them.
Her claws hit the dirt hard enough to snap a stem. The air around her trembled with the sudden shift of pressure, and the pond's surface rippled.
She caught him before he could collapse.
His weight hit her like reality.
Warm blood smeared across her feathers.
His heartbeat was frantic under her wing.
Shivaya stared at him up close, beak slightly parted, eyes locked on the torn flesh beneath his feathers and the faint tremor that ran through his body every time he tried to stand.
Her chest tightened.
Her mind searched for an explanation.
Otherworlders?
No.
Impossible.
According to the historical records… according to every myth-tablet she had ever read… otherworlders, right after descent, started at the bottom of the food chain, early-stage common creatures with stats not higher than E.
Even if they attacked this rooster all day, they shouldn't have been able to do this.
So then…
Her gaze sharpened. Her voice came out like ice.
"Who did this to you?"
Fury laced her tone she hadn't even noticed.
Her voice wasn't loud.
It was quiet.
So quiet that Richard who was barely holding on couldn't even hear it.
Shivaya didn't even realize her body was trembling as she spoke.
Richard blinked at her.
His eyes were dull with exhaustion, but when he saw her, something eased in his expression.
Relief.
Pure, stupid relief.
He let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh, then immediately regretted it as pain stabbed his ribs and made him cough.
Blood dotted his beak.
Not hearing her, he didn't answer her question.
Instead, he spoke with a shaky voice.
"I'm… glad… you're safe," he rasped, voice hoarse.
Then, with a ridiculous tenderness that didn't belong on someone bleeding this much, he added:
"…my beloved hen."
Shivaya's eyes widened a fraction as they trembled.
Her beak opened.
Closed.
Opened again.
But no sound came out.
Richard's eyelids drooped as if the moment he confirmed she was alive and well, his body which had gotten worse in his rush decided it was finally allowed to shut down.
His head sagged toward her wing.
He coughed again, blood splattered, smaller this time, like his lungs were too tired to even be dramatic.
Shivaya tightened her hold without thinking.
"You-"
The sentence died before it finished.
Her heart started racing harder, like an engine trying to escape her chest.
Her mind was going blank.
She couldn't tell what was going on with him, what was going on with her… why her claws felt cold, why her chest hurt, why she suddenly wanted to…
Without a word she made up her mind as something inside her snapped.
A surge of energy spreads out from Shivaya's body, something impossible for a common creature.
It rolled across the pond.
Across the grass.
Across the flower hill.
For a heartbeat, everything seized like the continent itself had inhaled and forgotten how to exhale.
Creatures who had finally begun to relax after the earlier anomaly froze again mid-motion.
Rabbits paused mid-bite, ears straight up like antennae.
Snakes stopped slithering, coils stiff as rope.
Lizards lifted their heads, throats rumbling, eyes wide.
Far away, in places Shivaya couldn't see, powerful creatures opened their eyes yet again with sudden, wary attention… as if trying to find the culprit.
But the burst vanished as quickly as it came.
…
Back at the flower hill
A massive red ink-like substance began to form in the air.
Thick, ancient, and heavy, like it had been drawn from the concept of authority itself.
It spread across the sky in slow strokes, carving characters so enormous they could be seen from the other side of the region. Each line shimmered like fresh calligraphy written on the world's skin.
Shivaya's pupils contracted as she felt it.
The air trembled.
Then suddenly.
Chains manifested around the red characters.
They slammed down from nowhere, wrapping around them with ruthless efficiency.
The ink shuddered, resisting… to no avail.
The air clicked, not a sound, but a correction. Like the world had just rejected her command and was forcefully rewriting reality back into what it's supposed to be.
CRACK.
The characters cracked.
And the moment they broke, Shivaya turned pale.
A violent cough tore out of her throat.
Blood splattered onto the grass.
Her beak clenched so hard a sharp crack echoed.
Pain shot through her jaw.
Her vision swam.
It felt like her own body was screaming at her to stop.
And not just her body.
Even the world seemed to be telling her to stop.
The world did not tolerate what she was trying to do… and she didn't even have enough life energy to sustain it.
Shivaya's wings shook.
But her eyes didn't move from Richard.
The red ink above the flower hill trembled again… then began to shrink.
Slowly and reluctantly.
Like a god being forced to kneel.
The massive script collapsed inward, folding into itself until it became a much smaller swarm of floating crimson strokes.
Then it drifted down, hovering beside Shivaya like a loyal blade waiting for an order.
It swirled once.
Twice.
And then, with a slow inevitability, the ink wrote itself into a character in the air beside her.
Her status panel at the edge of her vision exploded, flashing so rapidly it looked like it was panicking.
[Talent: The Authority of Imperial Edict - Activated]
[Warning: Your talent usage far exceeds your current tier.]
[Warning: Continuing may result in serious backlash.]
[Warning: Possibility of death: High.]
[Title: Error of the World has been activated]
[Correction Protocol: Initiating…]
[Title: Error of the World deems your talent beyond current world tolerance.]
[Your talent has been forcibly suppressed.]
[…]
[Talent: The Authority of Imperial Edict - Activated]
[Warning…]
[Title…]
[…]
[Talent usage successful.]
Shivaya didn't pay attention to her status panel. From beginning to end, her focus was only on one thing.
Her vision blurred at the edges, dark spots blooming like bruises across her sight. Her chest burned from coughing. Every heartbeat was so loud it felt like it was about to burst.
Her life energy was vanishing at an astonishing rate.
Like something was draining it.
And yet..
She didn't stop.
The crimson character pulsed once, as if acknowledging her will.
Then a voice echoed, not spoken aloud, but written into reality itself, carried by the weight of the ink.
[By the Mandate of Heaven
the Imperial one proclaims:
The being before her is forbidden to suffer injury.
Those who break the Imperial Edict
shall be punished by immediate restoration.]
The air around Richard shuddered.
His blood, mid-drip, stuttered.
Then the wounds on his body began to close at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Torn flesh knit together.
Cracked bones settled with soft, sickening clicks.
The tremor in his breathing eased.
The gray at the edges of his comb faded.
Color and warmth returned.
Richard's chest rose, fuller this time.
A real breath.
A breath that didn't sound like it might be his last.
Shivaya stared at him, panting, wings trembling, legs weak.
Her status panel flickered again.
[Notice: Imperial Edict has been established.]
[Effect: Permanent until revoked.]
[Trigger: Injury inflicted upon the designated target.]
[Punishment: Immediate healing.]
[Warning: Each activation consumes your life energy.]
[You may revoke the edict at any time.]
Shivaya's beak quivered.
Her throat tightened.
She coughed again, smaller, weaker, as her body tried to remind her that she was still just a chicken.
A late-stage common creature with no real standing nor abundant life energy.
And yet she had just written a law onto the rooster's existence.
She lowered her head slightly, pressing her forehead against Richard's feathers without thinking.
He was warm.
Still alive and breathing.
She couldn't help but sigh in relief as she let herself enjoy this familiar warmth.
Her eyes stung.
She didn't understand why.
Her mind tried to summon hatred like it always did.
Stupid rooster.
Annoying rooster.
Arrogant rooster.
But her memories, those cursed memories she tried so hard to bury rose anyway.
The flower field.
The pond.
The hill.
The very first time she saw this ridiculous rooster.
The very first time he tried courting her.
Her coldness.
His patience.
More memories surged, as if they had been waiting for a crack in her defenses.
How aloof she had been.
How she pushed him away again and again.
How he kept coming back anyway, persistent like a curse.
The way, little by little, she had let him come closer… year after year…
And finally… how she had finally allowed him to…
Shivaya jerked her head up sharply, as if she could shake the past out of her feathers.
No.
That wasn't her.
That was before she awakened her memories.
Before she remembered who she really was.
Before she became…
Her vision tilted.
The world swayed.
Her thoughts tangled as confusion filled her mind.
The memories of her past life were certainly real.
But the memories of her life within the flower field were certainly just as real…
'So…who am I really…?'
Is she the hen in those memories…
Or the Phoenix Empress who stood at the top of the world?
Her breath came uneven.
Her hold on Richard loosened slightly as her strength drained out like water through cracks.
The pond beside them blurred into a smear of silver.
The flower field turned into soft shapes.
Her eyes tried to stay open.
But her body didn't care about what she wanted.
Her wings sagged.
Her head dipped.
And the last thing she saw, through fading sight, was Richard's annoying peaceful face.
Her eyes closed as she collapsed sideways, confusion and relief flooding her mind.
On the grass beside the pond, beneath the mist of a world that had almost cracked apart…
The hen and the rooster lay side by side.
And above them, unseen by naked eyes, the crimson character hovered quietly and eternal as if waiting for the next injury to dare exist.