Nyx stared at him. Her eyes were burning with the fury of a dying sun, yet her face remained terrifyingly calm.
"Let's end it here," she whispered.
A heavy vibration rippled from the ground beneath Kai's boots all the way to the crown of his head.
Nyx slowly closed her eyes.
Motion died in the throat of the world, leaving behind a hollow, suffocating silence.
Then, a mystic voice echoed from the depths of the abyss, vibrating through the fabric of reality itself.
"Divine Resonance."
Nyx opened her eyes, her lips curling into a cruel, hollow smile.
"Womb of Astral Radiance."
Space inverted. A massive, pitch-black sphere consumed them both, replacing the Dreamscape with a terrifying pocket dimension of infinite cosmic radiation.
Kai remained motionless, paralyzed as if his brain had forgotten how to command his legs.
The air itself turned heavy and toxic. His hands felt clumsy. The dazzling white blade of condensed energy he was holding began to sizzle and melt into nothingness.
Then, the radiation hit his skin.
Kai's body began to deteriorate. It wasn't just burning; he was being erased. His skin peeled back into digital static.
As he forced his jaw open to speak, a sickening crack echoed in his own ears.
Several of his teeth loosened and fell from his gums, dissolving into ash before they even hit the floor.
He watched in helpless horror as the fingers on his left hand melted away, leaving behind glowing, decaying bone.
Nyx stood in the center of the sphere, her eyes fixed on him, completely immune. She didn't attack. She just watched him suffer.
The normal sword was gone. Only the Admin weapon remained.
The Harpe. It clattered to the floor as Kai's dissolving hand lost its grip. Using the last ounce of his willpower, Kai threw his decaying body forward.
His three remaining fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sickle-sword just as the skin on his arm began to turn to dust.
As the Harpe came into contact with his deteriorating flesh, something inside his chest violently awakened.
[ RESONANCE DETECTED ]
The Violet Shard embedded in Kai's heart began to beat frantically, syncing with the dimension-cutting power of the Harpe.
A violent clash of energies erupted. The cosmic radiation tried to erase him, while the Violet Shard aggressively forced his cells to reform.
He screamed until his vocal cords tore—
and screamed again as they healed. It was the agony of being unmade and remade a thousand times a second.
Nyx watched with cold amusement. She wanted him to feel this. She wanted the boy who mocked her son's death to beg for the end.
As Kai's body fully healed, panting and covered in cold sweat, Nyx finally took a step forward. A blade of pure starlight formed in her hand.
"Let's end your misery, boy," she said, thrusting the blade directly at his throat.
Kai didn't dodge. He looked up at her, letting his eyes soften, completely abandoning his cold, Developer persona.
"Mother," Kai choked out.
The starlight blade stopped abruptly, scratching the skin of Kai's neck.
A single drop of crimson blood trailed down his collarbone. But the blade went no further.
Nyx froze, her eyes widening in absolute shock.
"Did you lose your mind, boy?"
Kai let a tear slip down his cheek. He slumped forward, his voice trembling perfectly, mimicking the exact pitch and cadence of the transmission from Chapter 33.
"Mother... my body is tearing..." Kai cried, his voice small and fragile.
"It's itching... it hurts..."
Nyx's breathing stopped. The grief of losing her child shattered her divine logic.
Kai looked up at her, forcing a weak, agonizing smile.
"It's an honor to see you again... Mother."
Nyx's hand trembled. She flicked her wrist, and the massive sphere of the Womb of Astral Radiance began to crack, dissolving into harmless light.
The deadly cosmic radiation vanished.
Even as suspicion flickered in her divine instincts, she chose hope. Nyx dropped to her knees.
"My son... Iyad? Is this you?"
Kai's eyes mirrored the exact fearful devotion of a loyal son.
"My Queen... it's me."
Nyx pulled him into a desperate, crushing embrace. She wept openly, burying her face into his shoulder.
"I remember everything... your sacrifice... your bravery..." Her face was swollen with tears as she pulled back, gently cupping Kai's cheeks.
"Never perform such a hideous act again. Do not leave me."
"I won't," Kai whispered, letting his head rest gently on Nyx's thigh, looking up at her like a child seeking comfort.
He kept his right hand hidden beneath the folds of his coat.
"My Queen," Kai asked, his voice full of innocent curiosity. "What was that terrifying sphere?"
Nyx smiled softly, running her fingers through Kai's hair. The Goddess of the night had been reduced to a grieving mother clinging to a ghost.
"It was my Divine Resonance, little one," Nyx explained, her voice soothing.
"Inside my Resonance, nothing can harm me. I am untouchable. Even fate bends."
She stroked his cheek, completely lowering her divine aura.
"But how did you return to me? How are you in this human's body?"
Kai smiled warmly.
"This boy was a fool, Mother. He thought he could consume my soul without paying the price. I took his body from the inside."
Nyx beamed with pride, a laugh bubbling up through her tears. "My little Iyad... you have become so smart."
"Yes," Kai whispered. "I have."
Nyx looked down, her eyes suddenly catching a glint of silver near her stomach. She witnessed Kai's hand shifting beneath his coat.
He was holding the Harpe.
Nyx's eyes widened, shock paralyzing her as the world seemed to fall apart in slow motion.
For a fraction of a second, the warmth of her embrace almost felt real.
Then he drove the blade upward.
Before her divine reflexes could react—before she could raise her domain or summon her starlight—Kai drove the blade upward.
Shhhk.
The sound was not flesh tearing.
It was something older — like a constellation being ripped from the sky.
The dimension-cutting blade pierced cleanly through Nyx's immortal heart, pinning her to the ground.
Nyx gasped, blood spilling from her lips as she looked down at the boy on her lap.
For the first time in millennia, Nyx understood fear.
Kai didn't drop his act. Heavy tears
cascaded from his dark eyes, splashing onto Nyx's trembling hands.
But beneath the tears, a bright, terrifyingly cold smile stretched across his face.
He twisted the blade.
"I will miss you, Mother," Kai whispered.