This man, who had just stepped out of a black hole scattered with white sparkles, had a face striking enough to draw eyes even in a hall full of Supernovas.
He carried himself with an elegant, unhurried composure, and though something about his bearing suggested experience far beyond his years, he was, remarkably, exactly as young as he looked. Somewhere in his twenties, no older.
There was a dignified quality to him, something pleasant and easy to look at, yet underneath it ran a current of danger that made people hesitate before approaching, and his expression right now looked closer to barely restrained anger than anything resembling calm.
This was Erik Heisenberg, the newly risen head of the Heisenberg family and one of the most talented Supernovas Lumenia had produced in years.
His eyes found Sasaki almost immediately, and his jaw tightened as something old and unpleasant surfaced behind them: the memory of Sasaki standing over him once, blood smeared across both of them, those black, lifeless eyes staring down without a trace of mercy while Erik lay on the ground too broken to even lift himself back up.
Not far from where they sat near one of the long tables, Malefic leaned toward Celestia, his eyes following Erik's every movement.
"That is Erik Heisenberg." He said it quietly, his voice a little shaky, though there was no missing the interest in his voice. "I did not expect him to be here tonight, of all people."
"You say that like everyone else was not also unexpected." Celestia kept her own gaze on Erik as well, tilting her head slightly. "Though I will admit, he does not look pleased to be standing in this hall."
"He would not be, considering who he is looking at." Malefic's mouth curved into something between a smirk and genuine sympathy. "He and Lord Sasaki have history. Bad history."
"Every Supernova Head has their own history with Lord Sasaki. He had gone and humiliated every one of them after all." Celestie said as a matter of fact.
Malefic shifted slightly closer, lowering his voice out of habit more than necessity. "Lord Erik reached Supernova young, younger than almost anyone expected, and he built his whole reputation on that. His family established the colossal walls around Lumenia generations ago, so pride runs deep in his blood, though from what I have heard, it was never the arrogant kind. He respected strength wherever he found it, even in people stronger than himself."
"That sounds almost admirable."
"It was, until Lord Sasaki's name started reaching him. Everyone was talking about this new prodigy tearing through opponents, and Erik, being who he is, could not resist a fight like that. So he sought Lord Sasaki out himself." Malefic's smirk faded into something more thoughtful. "Their first battle actually favored Erik early on. Sasaki had already fought so many people by that point that half his techniques were common knowledge, already countered before he even threw them."
"But he still lost, clearly, if the look on Erik's face means anything."
"He did not lose, not exactly. That is the interesting part." Malefic shook his head slowly. "Lord Sasaki has a technique called Cut. I have heard grown Supernovas go quiet just describing it. It very nearly killed Erik in that fight, and somehow, through sheer luck as much as skill, the whole thing ended in a tie."
"A tie against a technique like that does not sound like something to be humiliated over."
"It would not be, if the story ended there." Malefic's eyes drifted back to Erik, who still had not looked away from Sasaki. "Lord Sasaki disappeared for exactly one week after that battle. Just shut himself away, healed up, and went over every second of the fight until he found what went wrong. Then he came back and beat Erik so thoroughly there was no room left to call it close."
"And Lord Sasaki simply left after that."
"He moved right on to his next opponent, as if Erik had already stopped mattering the moment the fight ended." Malefic exhaled slowly, watching the tension still visible in Erik's shoulders even now. "I imagine that is the part that stayed with him. Not the loss itself. The way Lord Sasaki walked away from it without a second thought. I wish I would become this strong myself one day."
"I am sure you will one day," Celestia said with a slight smile, though there was no real encouragement behind it. She went quiet for a moment, studying Erik's face from across the hall. "He does not look like a man who has made peace with that."
"No," Malefic agreed. "He really does not."
...
The thought of being reduced to nothing more than a stepping stone in someone else's story sat bitterly in Erik's chest, a shame he had carried quietly since that second fight ended.
He had wanted a rematch. He had wanted it badly enough that the wanting alone had kept him sharp for months afterward, but Sasaki had simply moved on, chasing the next opponent and the one after that, never once circling back. Erik had responsibilities of his own, a family and a name that needed tending, and he could not spend his days hunting down a man who clearly had no interest in being caught.
For a brief moment, standing there watching Sasaki across the hall, the old temptation to force the issue right here rose up in him again.
He let it pass.
He was a guest tonight, not a challenger, and whatever satisfaction a fight might bring him would cost his family far more than it was worth. He would not embarrass them for the sake of his own pride, not here, not like this.
So he smoothed his expression back into something composed, straightened the black suit he wore over the pink bodysuit beneath it, and made his way up the stairs toward Sasaki with steady, deliberate steps.
Standing in front of him now, Erik still had a full head of height on Sasaki, and yet the pressure radiating off the smaller man pressed against him all the same, subtle but undeniable.
Then he noticed something else entirely.
Sasaki's eyes were not black.
Is he actually in his human form right now?
Nearly every Supernova and Hypernova in Lumenia knew about Sasaki's condition, the way he shifted between his living corpse state and his human one, and how he almost always chose the corpse form for occasions exactly like this, where the crowd alone was enough to unsettle him. Yet here he stood, human, blue-eyed, spine straight as a drawn blade, with no trace of fear anywhere on his face.
Erik studied him for a long moment, something reluctant and grudging settling behind his own eyes. He really does have more to him than I gave him credit for.
Sasaki had never been the kind of talent who succeeded effortlessly from the start. He was the kind who fell, again and again, and simply refused to stay down long enough for it to matter. A life shaped by hardship and strange, difficult circumstances had built him into exactly the man now standing in front of Erik, unshaken.
Erik let a wide, easy smile spread across his face. "Lord Sasaki, it brings me great pleasure to witness the future of Lumenia finally take a wife. May your bloodline dominate this universe for generations to come."
He pressed his right fist against his left bicep and bowed slightly, and Sasaki returned the gesture in kind.
"I am equally grateful for your presence at my humble wedding, Lord Erik. I hope our two families can continue cooperating, on equal footing, for a long time to come."
Something flickered sharp and knowing behind Erik's eyes at that last phrase, the meaning beneath it landing exactly as intended, though his smile never once wavered.
Sasaki glanced past him toward the entrance. "Where is Mr. Ether?"
"My grandfather has taken ill and could not make the journey tonight. He asked me to pass along these pink jade stones as his apology." Erik held out a small leather pouch, no larger than a fist, though its enchantment meant it could hold far more than its size suggested, keeping anything inside from decaying no matter how long it sat.
"That is unfortunate. I had hoped to speak with him about several matters."
Erik's eyelid twitched, almost too faintly to notice. Is this truly the same Sasaki Alberich, or has some actor from the Beauty and Deception Pathway taken his place for the evening? The real one has never sounded so smooth in his life.
He bowed once more and turned to follow the four Hypernovas already waiting to guide him toward his assigned room, his expression settling back into something calm and unreadable as he walked.
...
"Four Hypernovas, just to welcome Erik Heisenberg. That says everything about where the Heisenberg family stands among the eight most powerful royal houses." The dragonman Hypernova murmured to the two subordinates flanking him.
"Quite the number, for one guest." Salvia turned the thought over quietly in her own mind, watching the four Hypernovas fall into step around Erik.
A short distance away, Malefic kept his eyes fixed on Erik's retreating figure, something close to admiration written plainly across his face.
Sasaki watched him go as well, though his thoughts had already drifted somewhere far heavier.
The first, second, third, and fifth are currently on Earth. I am the fourth. The sixth, seventh, and ninth remain here in Lumenia. The eighth has been taken in by the Organization, being personally shaped by their True Supernova into their next one.
Eric Heisenberg is the third. Erik's uncle's son, born six years after Erik himself. The family head at the time, Erik and Eric's grandfather, sensed something in the boy and used it as an excuse to exile his own younger son's entire family to Earth twenty years ago. He orchestrated their deaths not long after, though he let Eric live. I was not even born yet when it happened, and even now, thinking about it only leaves me more suspicious than certain.
It was only a few months ago that my family learned the truth: that Adrian, Eric, and Max were the first, second, and third. That old man had already begun arranging to bring Eric back into the fold, most likely intending to wait until the Paris operation ran its course and every last benefit had been wrung from Eric's time on Earth first. A patient scheme, and a cruel one.
He even planted a spy among the people he trusted most. Fortunately, my family moved quickly once we understood what was happening, and now both the Blackbell and Heisenberg families are competing openly to claim Eric for themselves. I managed to get Edward sent in my place, working with Excalibur to justify it through the excuse of Edward being the sixth, tied to Eric, Max, and Adrian by little more than fate and convenient timing.
Young as he was, Sasaki had spent years negotiating far harder rooms than this one. He had led the Prison Association during his teenage years, one of the ten most influential associations in all of Lumenia, and that experience had shaped him into someone far more dangerous at the negotiating table than his age suggested. He had not yet been formally named head of the Blackbell family, but the actual weight of running it had already settled onto his shoulders while his adoptive parents enjoyed a quieter, easier life back at the estate.
It will not be long before the other families piece together the same clues we did and start competing as well. Even the other three great powers have mostly caught on by now, simply waiting for the right moment to move.
It is not that I lacked the will to end this cleanly. Supernovas are forbidden from interfering in the Paris operation directly, and…
A familiar weight settled over him as he remembered the letter, sent to him personally by Alexander Blackbell, the current Meditation Master of Lumenia.
Alexander had been explicit in it, instructing Sasaki again and again to protect Adrian, Max, and Eric, to preserve their lives by whatever means he could, to pull them free of danger wherever possible, and to bring them into Lumenia's fold if the opportunity arose. He had been just as explicit about the Paris operation itself, forbidding Sasaki from interfering there at all, promising he would handle that matter personally.
Our Meditation Master is already in Paris, then. I have little left to worry about there, since he has clearly chosen to act on this himself.
Sasaki exhaled slowly, the memory of his last fight with Alexander surfacing before he could stop it.
Defeated in three moves. I am still far too weak.
The thought settled into him like a stone, heavier than he wanted to admit even to himself, and he let it sit there a moment longer than he should have before forcing his attention back to the door.
A few minutes passed in silence before a meditation aura threaded with purple particles began pouring into the hall like a rising tide, gathering thicker and faster than anything that had come before it. A beautiful woman stepped through the surge, her eyes and long, dark purple hair catching the light in a way that made half the hall forget to breathe.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Several faces went pale in an instant.
"The daughter of the second Meditation Master has finally arrived."
Sasaki's brows drew together the moment his eyes found her, the calm he had only just managed to piece back together already beginning to fray at the edges.
She was, in every sense that mattered tonight, the largest obstacle standing in his way.