Remus nodded sternly, his eyes still scanning those suspicious insects: "In any case, I will increase my guard and caution over Aunt Yuna and especially Lina.. They must not know anything about this; they have been through enough."
Wang agreed with this view and placed his hand on Remus's shoulder, saying: "This is the right thing to do. As for me, I will leave immediately to conduct my own investigations. I will try to trace the transmission source of these insects; every spying device has a receiving point."
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang blasted off like a projectile, leaving behind an aura of golden Raizo as he pierced through Earth's atmosphere, vanishing into the horizon of vast space, leaving Remus alone, staring into the distant void, as if his intuition was telling him that the storm was inevitably coming.
After a while, Lina's car appeared at the entrance of the house. She got out looking pale, with maps and files nearly slipping from her hands due to sheer exhaustion. Remus rushed toward her eagerly, and as her knees failed her and she was about to collapse from fatigue, Remus flew with lightning speed and caught her before she touched the ground, then carried her gently and placed her on the garden bench.
He asked her anxiously: "Lina! Are you okay?" She breathed a sigh of relief, closing her eyes: "Yes.. but I am just so tired from the continuous work pressure. I don't know how my father used to work like this without ever getting tired or bored.. as if his body was made of steel."
Remus smiled at her reassuringly: "It is good that you are holding together despite all these circumstances; your father would certainly be proud of you."
At that moment, Yuna looked out from the window, her warm voice filling the place: "Children.. lunch is ready, come on before it gets cold!" Lina replied with an exhausted voice: "Mom.. wait a little until I rest, I can't move my feet."
Remus did not wait for another answer; instead, he suddenly swept her up into his arms to her astonishment, and said laughing: "No room for excuses with the 'Upcoming Ruler'!" Yuna's laughter echoed from the window as she watched their playful banter, and the three entered the house to gather around the lunch table in a rare moment of peace, forgetting for a while those insects watching them from the outside.
In that dark corner of the universe, where there is neither time nor space, the stranger stood before his multiple screens that reflected every single detail of his "sector's" events. The destruction of his insects in the Sixth World drove him mad; he clenched his hand in the air as if choking fate itself, and whispered with a devilish hiss: "No matter.. destroying them changes nothing. Soon my plan will be executed, and then.. you will never taste the flavor of happiness again. I will turn your dreams into rubble beneath my feet."
Meanwhile, in the First World, silence prevailed in the grand throne room when Clarice entered with confident, regal steps, with Arios walking behind her. The stares of the officials and commanders were gnawing at him with deep-seated hatred, as if a plague had entered their palace. Arios thought bitterly to himself: "I am not surprised.. these are their true faces that the masks used to hide before."
Clarice arrived before her sister's throne, and there stood Gelius with his disfigured body, his eyes burning with malice. He shouted in Arios's face: "You.. you will pay a heavy price for what you did to me!"
Arios looked at Gelius's missing arm, and a sly, provocative smile formed on his lips: "I like your 'roasted' hand, Gelius.. it's clear that Rhinos served you such a delicious dish that it vanished completely. Did you like the taste?"
Gelius lost his mind and completely lost control of his temper. He fired a destructive Raizo blast directly at Arios, but before it could touch a single hair of his, space split open and Rhinos emerged in his dark majesty, tearing the blast apart with his bare hand as if it were a frail thread. Rhinos stood like a mountain before his master, his eyes flashing with a silent threat.
Nahira shouted at Gelius in a sharp tone: "Gelius! Leave this place immediately!" He tried to object: "But my lady.. this traitor..!" Nahira glared at him with a look that made the blood freeze in his veins, so he complied and withdrew, whispering with hatred to Arios: "Believe me.. a day will come when I will make you taste the same humiliation you made me taste." He left the hall, while Arios laughed to himself: "A big fool.. thinking he has a future to decide my fate."
Rhinos vanished, returning to the depths of Arios's consciousness, while Nahira turned to Arios with contempt and said: "So.. you are now hiding behind my sister like stray dogs? Where is your pride that you were barking with days ago?"
Clarice intervened immediately, standing between Nahira and Arios, and said with deadly coldness: "In fact, Nahira.. your condescending view of Arios will disappear right here and now." Nahira replied mockingly: "What nonsense is this? I, the great Nahira, view this 'animal' with respect? You have lost your mind, Clarice!"
Clarice said, raising her head with pride: "In any case.. that is not our topic now. I have an important matter to tell you immediately, a matter that will shift the balance of our lives from now on."
An absolute silence fell upon the hall, a silence heavier than mountains, broken only by Nahira's rapid breaths of anger. Nahira scoffed, saying: "And what is this great matter? Are you going to brag in front of me because you stole my treacherous dog?"
Clarice looked at her with icy coldness, tightly gripped Arios's hand, raising it before everyone, and said in a steady voice that shook the foundations of the throne: "This is not a dog.. this person has a name, and it is Arios. And this person.. will become my husband soon!"
The news fell like a thunderbolt; cups dropped from the guards' hands, and the commanders froze in their places. As for Nahira, she surged from her throne and screamed insanely: "What nonsense are you uttering?! I agreed to grant him to you to be your new toy, to break his pride.. but for you to come now and say you will marry this nobody?! This will never happen!"
At that moment, Clarice threw a strange, cold look at her sister—a look that was not merely anger, but an overflow of the superior "Ruler's Raizo" that pierces the soul. Under the weight of that gaze, Nahira found herself forced to sit back down on her throne, her tongue tied, her tone dimmed, and she remained silent in her place, clenching her fist in bewilderment.
Arios watched this scene, and in his depths, the smile of a wounded wolf beginning to smell victory emerged. He thought to himself: "Just as I expected.. Clarice is miles stronger than Nahira. If I exploit this opportunity that fell upon me from heaven, no one, not even Nahira herself, will dare lift their eyes to my face again. Clarice.. you came down like an angel to save me from the hell of these hypocritical monsters."
Then Arios decided to begin his own game, putting on a mask of simplicity and vulnerability, and looked at Clarice, saying in a calm tone: "Lady Clarice.. I.."
She turned to him with a smile overflowing with artificial tenderness: "What is it, my dear? Also.. do not say 'my lady', just say 'Clarice', or you can say 'my love'. The important thing is not to make me feel like I am a stranger to you."
Arios hid his disgust behind his simple, fabricated expression and said: "Alright.. as you wish. But I am really not comfortable being here.. can we leave this place?"
Clarice said, holding his arm with triumphant affection: "Of course we will leave.. let us go, for soon we will start preparing for our wedding date."
While Nahira sat unable to speak and everyone watched in fear, Clarice stopped at the door and turned to say her final words that shook the First World: "Announce our engagement right here and now to all the inhabitants of the entire First World. I want everyone to know who the new son-in-law of the Rulers is!"
They left the hall, leaving behind a wreckage of astonishment and hatred, and a cosmic order on the verge of explosion.
The moment Clarice and Arios stepped out, the volcano Nahira had been suppressing erupted. A resounding scream shook the palace's foundations, and Nahira began with indescribable madness to smash everything her hands could reach; the golden throne cracked under her fist, and the marble pillars crumbled as if they were made of paper.
"All of you get out! Dismiss, you scum!" she screamed at the guards and commanders who fled for their lives from the horror of what they saw. She remained, smashing artifacts while panting: "My stupid sister.. the fool! How dare she?!"
Smith approached with extreme caution, trying to calm her down: "My lady.. please, calm down, anger will not solve.." She cut him off with a terrifying look and a voice trembling with fake calmness: "I am perfectly calm, Smith.. but I am cornered now! Do you understand?"
She placed her hand on her head and continued with suppressed panic: "Arios knows the secret.. he knows how our mother died! And Clarice didn't come here out of love for me; she came to dig up graves and know the truth. If Arios opens his mouth and tells her that I was the one who caused our mother's death.. it will be the end of me! Clarice will crush me without hesitation!"
Smith took a deep breath and tried to restore logic: "My lady, breathe.. Arios is not stupid enough to utter such information anyway. Do not forget that he is entangled with us; the sacrifices used on that dark night were for the ritual of summoning him into our world a long time ago. If he speaks, he condemns himself too, being the reason for her death."
Nahira's breathing began to calm down a little, but anxiety did not leave her eyes. She adjusted her torn clothes and said in a firm tone: "I will leave now." Smith asked in surprise: "To where, my lady? The palace is in chaos and the engagement has been announced!" She replied as she headed toward the large balcony: "I have important work.. work that cannot be delayed."
Nahira took off, flying like a black meteor, piercing the atmosphere of the First Planet at tremendous speed, heading toward the depths of space, toward an "unknown" place that no one but her knew. Smith stood watching the trace of her energy fade into the horizon, whispering to himself anxiously: "This is the first time I see her this worried and agitated.. it seems that 'this engagement' written by fate has begun to take a dark turn for everyone."
In Clarice's room, the atmosphere overflowed with an eerie quiet and suffocating luxury. She sat on the edge of her silk bed, resting her hand under her chin, observing Arios with strange looks—a mixture of infatuation and possessiveness, while he sat directly in front of her, trying to read what was going on in the mind of this mysterious woman.
Arios broke the silence, saying: "So.. all this time since you came here, you were just fond of me?" She looked at him deeply and replied in a calm voice: "Yes.. from the moment I saw you, my heart beat wildly, as if fate dragged me from my distant worlds just to return here and find you present, waiting for me."
Arios frowned and asked: "And since when did that happen exactly?" Clarice laughed softly, sending a shiver through his body, and said: "From the moment you laughed when I belittled Nahira upon my arrival in front of everyone. In truth.. I was pretending that I didn't know you, and that I wasn't interested in you at all before them, but inside, I desperately wanted to embrace you."
Arios looked at her with suspicion and decided to confront her: "It seems you are lying to me.. and as soon as the right time comes, you will kill me just like her sister did." Suddenly, at that critical moment, the system screen flashed before Arios's eyes alone, showing him data and intent analysis.. the screen blinked green, confirming that Clarice's intentions were entirely genuine.
The screen vanished, and Arios swallowed hard, thinking in panic: "Damn it.. she isn't lying! She truly loves me!" He tried to soften the mood a bit to absorb his shock, so he said in a gentler tone: "In fact.. I liked your playing once."
Clarice stopped humming and said in surprise: "My playing?" Arios nodded: "Yes.. I was passing through one of the corridors one day, and I heard you in the music room playing a very sad melody, but it was magnificent. And when you were about to see me, I hid away, and you came out then and found no one."
Clarice's eyes gleamed with a strange spark, and she approached him slowly, whispering: "It was you then.. I used to feel a strange aura behind the door, but I thought it was just illusions from my grief over my mother. For you to know this little secret of mine.. makes me want you even more, Arios."
Arios said in a tone he tried to keep steady: "Heh.. it seems you are not joking at all."
Clarice drew close to his face to the point where he felt her breath, and said with a voice full of certainty: "And do I look like I am joking?" He looked into her wide, unblinking eyes, and replied briefly: "No."
Then Arios decided to test his new freedom, so he made a strange request of her: "If you would allow me.. I want to go visit my friend Ramin. He works here in the capital, and it seems he is at his home now with his family, I want to check on him."
Clarice burst into a soft laugh that carried a tone of pity: "Hahaha.. if I were in your place, I would never do such a thing." Arios was surprised, feeling the erosion of his ideal image of his friends: "Why? He is my close friend, why shouldn't I see him?"
Clarice held Arios's face between her palms and said with eerie tenderness: "Ah, my love.. you are a very kind person, perhaps even too kind." Then she took his hand and pulled him toward a secret passage behind her massive bookshelf. They entered an isolated, locked room centered around a massive "surveillance system" screen.
He asked her with trepidation: "What is this place? And why did we come here?" She answered him, pointing to a comfortable seat: "Sit and rest.. and see for yourself."
Clarice pressed the power button, and life surged into the screen. Ramin appeared with absolute clarity; he was not that loyal friend Arios knew, but was bowing with reverence and servitude before Nahira in a secret hall. Ramin began to speak in a treacherous voice: "My lady Nahira.. I have gathered all the information for you regarding the revolutionary army's movements. I have succeeded in infiltrating them for long months, and my relationship with 'Kane' is excellent; he trusts me as an old friend, and this made it easy for me to know the locations of their warehouses and the hideouts of children and women."
The blood froze in Arios's veins. Every word coming out of Ramin's mouth was like a dagger ripping through their memories together. Ramin, the person he used to laugh with and share food with, was the very one who betrayed Kane, and the one who gave Nahira the coordinates that were bombed in the previous massacre.
The video continued, with Ramin adding coldly: "As for Arios.. I will continue to play the role of the loyal friend until you order me to finish him off."
Arios slumped into his seat, feeling nauseous as rage gnawed at his chest, while Clarice watched his reaction in silence, as if she wanted him to shatter completely so that nothing would remain for him in this universe but her.
The screen displayed the naked truth like a blade slowly slaughtering Arios's soul. Ramin continued speaking in a mocking tone Arios had never known in him: "My lady, I am truly bored of this role.. we know that the 'fool' Arios is looking for the illusionary spy sent to us by the revolutionary army, yet neither he nor Kane has a shred of doubt that we killed the real spies long ago, and that we are sending them our own spies!"
Nahira laughed coldly in the video, saying: "In any case.. Arios currently suspects everyone present except you, of course, so try to mislead him as much as possible."
Here, Ramin burst out laughing, tilting his head as if recalling a pleasant memory: "My lady, that fool is very stupid! Do you remember when I sneaked up to him disguised as that little girl 'Rouge'? I claimed I was lost and needed help, and the 'fool' believed everything with his usual kind heart! On top of that, he led us to the revolutionary army's site himself.. the plan succeeded completely because of him!"
Nahira replied while drinking from her cup: "Even so, we faced a lot of problems before that happened, especially since Kane, despite you being his friend, used to meet you in distant and isolated places.. and this proves they are not naturally foolish, but just... trust the wrong people."
The laughter of Nahira and Ramin echoed in the clip, laughter that resonated in Arios's ears like hammers hitting an anvil. He watched while seated, his hands trembling over his knees, his eyes wide from the intensity of oppression and betrayal. Every beautiful memory, every moment of danger he crossed with Ramin, every tear Kane shed fearing for little "Rouge".. was just a filthy play starred by the person he used to trust with his back.
The video stopped suddenly, and a very heavy silence loomed over the room. Clarice turned toward Arios, her eyes gleaming with a desire to possess this human wreckage sitting before her, and said in a soft, frightening voice: "Now, Arios.. do you know why I told you I wouldn't do that if I were in your place? The world you were defending, my love.. was just a dungeon of lies made for you."
Arios rose slowly, his hair covering his eyes, but the "Raizo" energy began to leak from his pores unstably, and his breathing became so heavy it almost shook the walls of the secret room. He no longer felt his physical wounds; rather, he felt only one thing: a desire to erase "Ramin" from existence.
Clarice said, placing her hand on his trembling shoulder: "Calm down, my dear, for anger now will not help, especially since this Ramin is not currently on the planet.. but soon he will return, and when you see him, I will allow you to kill him without effort, but be patient.. for haste ruins the pleasure of revenge."
She stroked his hair with eerie tenderness and completed: "But in any case, I have good news that might cool the fire of your heart a little." Arios raised his head, burdened with worries, and asked her: "And what is it?"
Clarice smiled broadly and said: "His whole family is with me.. his wife and his two children, they are now at my mercy in one of the secret wings."
Arios's eyes widened in shock, and despite all the oppression he felt, his principles did not budge. He said sharply: "No! Look.. that person may be vile and a villain, but his family has nothing to do with that! They bear no blame for his filth."
Clarice shot him a look of surprise and said: "They are our winning card, Arios, to hold that villain from the hand that hurts him, and make him crawl beneath your feet."
Arios shook his head in absolute refusal and shouted: "Don't you dare! Despite everything, an innocent woman and children have nothing to do with filthy acts like these. Please.. do not mistreat them, I do not want to turn into a monster like Nahira."
Clarice sighed in resignation while looking at him with admiring gazes: "Fine.. as you wish, I will keep them alive and well solely for your sake. But remember, if you order me at any moment to cut them to pieces, I will do it without hesitation."
Arios looked at her with eyes filled with wreckage and said: "All I want is to catch that villain.. to stand before him and ask him: Why? Why did you do this to us, Ramin?"
Clarice approached his ear and whispered with her terrifying hiss: "No.. do not ask him, for traitors possess no justifications worth listening to. Instead, retaliate against him! The traitor must be killed.. just as Nahira falsely described you as a traitor .