The subterranean chamber rattled violently. Deep, thunderous groans reverberated through the reinforced concrete foundations as the walls around them began to collapse inward.
The entire Black Chasm was being completely erased; with the colossal eye of its localised core systematically shredded into nothingness by Jacqueline before, the corrupted world simply had no anchor left to sustain its existence.
Even as the ceiling began to cave in, dropping multi-ton blocks of corrupted stone, Jacqueline remained entirely unbothered. Holding the unconscious Amon carefully and securely against her chest, she levelled her ornate runic sword.
With a single, fluid slash of her blade, she cleanly tore the very fabric of space-time wide open, creating a swirling, luminous rift. She stepped into the threshold, and the exact millisecond her heel cleared the fracture, the entire testing facility came crashing down in a catastrophic mountain of rubble.
The suffocating, dark-red pressure of the Chasm instantly evaporated.
After walking through the spatial rift, Jacqueline stepped out into the middle of a vibrant, sunlit grassland. The contrast was staggering. A gentle, cooling breeze rolled across the plains, making the lush green grass sway beautifully beneath a pristine blue sky. The ambient atmosphere felt completely serene, comforting, and rich with pure, uncorrupted magium.
In the distance, a massive estate stood silhouetted against the horizon. Jacqueline adjusted her grip on Amon and began walking toward the structure with a steady, graceful pace.
As she walked, she looked down at the battered, blood-soaked boy in her arms. A flicker of emotion crossed her mature, enchanting features. Gently, she placed her hand against his forehead.
Instantly, Amon's broken body began to glow with a faint, radiant green hue. Powerful recovery magic surged through his veins.
Beneath the soothing warmth of the light, his fractured bones snapped back into perfect alignment, his ruptured internal organs knitted themselves together, and the deep, bloody lacerations covering his skin vanished as if they hadn't existed in the first place. His ragged, painful breathing immediately stabilised, easing into a deep, peaceful sleep.
After a few minutes of navigating the serene landscape, Jacqueline finally reached the perimeter of the estate.
It was a remarkably large, modern mansion that seamlessly blended luxury with fortified privacy. The exterior featured a clean, stark-white facade contrasted beautifully by a dark, intricately tiled roof.
A prominent, elegant arched entrance led directly to the heavy front doors, situated right beneath a sweeping second-story balcony with a sprawling panoramic window.
The driveway was configured into a grand, circular paved area, curving perfectly around a central manicured garden bursting with a curated variety of exotic plants. The entire property was nestled deeply within a lush, vibrant green landscape, completely shielded from the outside world by towering ancient trees and perfectly trimmed hedges.
She walked through the grand entrance door of the mansion. The moment the heavy oak doors clicked shut behind her, the frantic, rapid patter of tiny footsteps echoed from the hallway ahead. The footsteps were light and hurried—and hearing them, a soft, genuinely warm smile bloomed across Jacqueline's face.
"I am home!" she announced, her mature voice carrying a gentle melody.
In the next moment, two little girls practically skidded around the corner. They were a striking, miniature mirror image of Jacqueline herself.
Both possessed the same long, flowing light-blue hair, the same captivating pink-red eyes, and flawlessly fair skin. Above each of their heads floated a tiny, elegant crown, from which rose six small, sleek wings studded with blinking, curious eyes. The girls wore matching, beautifully stitched dresses. Judging by their height and features, they were roughly seven years old.
"Welcome home, Mom!" both of them squealed excitedly in perfect unison.
They sprinted forward, eager to throw their arms around her waist, but they abruptly skidded to a halt a few feet away, their eyes instantly locking onto the unconscious Amon cradled securely in her arms.
"Mother, why are you carrying a guy?" one of the girls asked. Her innocent features were etched with absolute curiosity and wonder as she tilted her head, her multi-eyed wings fluttering slightly.
"Because he needed help, Nicole," Jacqueline answered gently, looking down at her child with a kind, deeply affectionate motherly smile.
"Oh!" Nicole's expression completely changed, her eyes widening as she accepted the answer instantly. She was clearly the bright, endlessly cheerful sibling, an innate optimism radiating from her that made her incredibly endearing.
"Mom... is he going to be alright?" the other little girl asked. Her voice was much quieter, calm but laced with a deep, curious concern.
"He will be, Nancy," Jacqueline said, turning her warm gaze toward her other daughter and offering a soft, deeply reassuring smile.
"I see, Mother..." Nancy murmured, instantly looking down at the polished floorboards the moment she received her answer. Unlike her sister, she was a profoundly shy, reserved girl, and that quiet vulnerability instantly invoked an intense sense of protectiveness in anyone who looked at her.
"I will be taking our guest upstairs to rest," Jacqueline said softly.
She leaned down slightly, giving both of her daughters affectionate headpats that made their tiny halos hum with a faint, happy light, before she stepped past them and approached the grand winding staircase.
. . .
Amon slowly opened his eyes, the soft morning light filtering through the large windows of the luxurious guest room. He pushed himself up against the plush headboard, his body feeling remarkably light and entirely devoid of the catastrophic pain he had endured just hours prior.
Beside the bed, resting quietly in an elegant armchair, sat Jacqueline. Her head was tilted slightly to the side, softly asleep.
Glancing around the immaculate, white-walled room and taking note of the peaceful atmosphere, his sharp mind easily pieced together the sequence of events.
"So, I am in her private estate," Amon thought, his gaze drifting back to settle on the sleeping Succubus Queen.
Up close, without the chaotic distortion of the Black Chasm or the blinding flashes of her runic sword, he couldn't help but appreciate how genuinely gorgeous she looked.
Amon had encountered an elite tier of beautiful women throughout his journey—including high-ranking nobles and imperial heirs—and he had long considered Masha to be the absolute pinnacle of visual perfection.
But Jacqueline completely rewrote his baseline. Her presence was entirely different. Her beauty was an exquisite, seamless contradiction—a perfect blend of otherworldly demonic allure and untouchable, divine grace.
"Good morning," Jacqueline spoke gently, her voice instantly breaking the quiet room with a warm, comforting cadence.
She opened her mesmerising pink-red eyes, turning her head to meet Amon's gaze, offering him a kind, deeply motherly smile.
"Did you have a good rest?"
"I did," Amon replied. His voice was calm and still a little raspy from the previous exhaustion, but he smoothly pulled his polite, well-mannered prodigy mask back into place, offering her a soft, respectful smile in return.
"Thank you for the hospitality, Ma'am," Amon said, bowing his head slightly with practised aristocratic grace.
"Ah, you don't have to be so formal," Jacqueline chuckled, her multi-eyed angelic wings giving a soft, relaxed flutter behind her. "In fact, I should be the one thanking you. You saved me from that absolute hell, and you very nearly lost your life by doing so."
She stood up from her armchair and stepped closer to the bed, leaning in to embrace him gently. She didn't hold him with the crushing grip of a high-tier warrior, but with a soft, protective warmth that completely caught him off guard.
"I truly cannot express how profoundly thankful I am to you, Amon," she spoke softly near his ear.
"A woman will only ever hug a man if she trusts him implicitly... and to think that Jacqueline trusts me this much already..." Amon thought. For all his calculated plotting and stream metrics, a sudden blush crept onto his cheeks, leaving him a little flustered. Still, he composed his nerves and politely returned her hug.
A moment later, Jacqueline stepped back, breaking the embrace but keeping her kind gaze locked onto him.
"Let me introduce myself properly," Jacqueline said, clearing her throat to transition into a more formal tone. "My name is Jacqueline Augustus, and I am the 4th Champion of the Demon Champion Order."
"It makes perfect sense that she's affiliated with the Champions, especially considering her strength," Amon mentally noted, his analytical gears turning.
The Demon Champion Order was the direct political and military equivalent of the Prosecutors of the Riversong Empire. Much like his own faction back home, the Order's primary mandate was to safeguard the absolute peace and sovereignty of the Solathian Empire. They were universally hailed as the "Chosen Ones" by the demon populace, a legendary circle where only the absolute best of the elite could ever hope to claim a seat.
"My name is Amon Von Crown, and I am a Prosecutor," Amon introduced himself, matching her transition with flawless formality. "It is an absolute honour to meet such a capable and renowned individual like you, Miss Jacqueline."
"Wait... you are a Prosecutor?" Jacqueline's eyes widened slightly, her mature composure breaking into genuine surprise. "But... you are just a child..."
"I am eighteen years old. I'll have you know," Amon replied with a faint, amused chuckle, leaning back slightly against his pillows. "And I assure you, I passed the Trials of Worthiness with flying colours."
Amon's analytical mind paused for a fraction of a second as the guest room door swung wide open. Two little girls walked right in, instantly capturing his attention and catching him completely off guard.
"Mom, when are we gonna play— Oh..." Nicole cut herself off, skidding to a halt as her pink-red eyes widened, realising Amon was sitting up and awake. Nancy stood right beside her, peeking out from behind her sister's shoulder.
"We are going to play very soon, but first, introduce yourselves to our guest," Jacqueline said, turning toward her daughters with a radiant, gentle motherly warmth.
Hearing their mother's instructions, both of the girls carefully approached the bedside, their tiny, multi-eyed Seraphim wings fluttering with a mix of excitement and hesitation.
"Hello, mister! My name is Nicole!" Nicole burst out energetically, offering a bright, toothy grin. "It's super nice to meet you!"
"Hello... My name is Nancy...." Nancy followed up, her voice barely a whisper. She nervously gripped the hem of her cute dress, her eyes darting to the floorboards the moment she finished speaking.
"She... has kids...?" Amon thought, his internal processors wildly spinning as he tried to recover from the sudden domestic revelation mentally.
<< "Correct. The little girls are the direct biological children of Jacqueline Augustus, and they both possess the active genetic markers of a Succubus Queen. Jacqueline conceived them entirely without a male partner through the biological mechanism of Parthenogenesis—essentially, a virgin birth." >>
"...What in the actual fuck?" Amon's mind suffered a complete, devastating short circuit. The flawless mastermind persona momentarily disintegrated into pure, unadulterated bewilderment. "How is that even mathematically or magically possible in this world…?!"
<< "The individual, Jacqueline Augustus, is a unique genetic and cosmic anomaly. Her biological father is a high-ranking Seraphim Angel, and her mother is a pureblood Succubus Queen. Structurally, Angels and Demons are fundamentally incompatible and rarely coexist, let alone wed. However, two centuries prior, her parents broke the divine decree, fell in love, and conceived Jacqueline. As a result, she possesses a perfect hybrid integration of both Seraphim Angel and Succubus Queen traits. Because Seraphim Angels possess the intrinsic divine authority to propagate their lineage without a partner, Jacqueline inherited that exact conceptual trait from her father's bloodline." >>
Amon's blood-red eyes widened as the pieces of the world's deepest hidden lore violently snapped into place inside his brain.
"...What in the plot twist? Is that the real, hidden reason why the Heavenly Empire and the Solathian Empire abruptly halted their catastrophic clashes two hundred years ago and signed the non-aggression pact to co-exist?!"
<< "Precisely. The birth of Jacqueline Augustus served as the living bridge that neutralised the eternal holy war." >>
"Why didn't you tell me that when I was studying History regarding the Solathian Empire...?" Amon asked internally, trying to wrap his head around such a revelation.
<< "It's because the user didn't ask me." >>
Amon's internal processors flatlined.
For a person who was usually so composed and clear, he felt entirely paralysed by the sheer, unbothered sass of his own system core.
He stared blankly ahead, his glinting blood-red eyes fixed on the ornate pattern of the bedsheet while his brain desperately tried to reboot. "Because the user didn't ask me." The sentence echoed in his mind like a mocking laugh.
"Mister Amon?" Nicole's energetic voice broke through his existential crisis. She had stepped closer, her tiny, multi-eyed Seraphim wings giving a curious flutter as she leaned over the edge of the mattress. "Are you broken? Your face looks really still."
Nancy gave a tiny, panicked tug on the back of Nicole's dress, trying to pull her sister away. "N-Nicole, don't stare... It's rude..." she whispered, her cheeks flushing pink as she tried to hide entirely behind her sibling's silhouette.
"Ah—forgive me," Amon quickly recovered, forcing his facial muscles to relax into his signature, polished smile. "It is an absolute pleasure to meet you both, Nicole, Nancy. I was simply momentarily astonished by how much you both resemble your beautiful mother."
Jacqueline's eyes softened, a faint, amused hum vibrating in her throat. She clearly noticed his brief slip into utter bewilderment, but she gracefully chose not to call him out on it.
. . .
Emilia burst through the heavy double doors of the Headmistress's Office, a localised blizzard howling in her wake. The oak doors slammed against the walls with a deafening crack as she stormed across the room, her eyes locked onto the woman sitting behind the grand mahogany desk. Before Victoria could even raise an eyebrow, Emilia lunged across the desk and violently seized the Headmistress by the collar of her pristine uniform.
"How dare you send my son into a suicide zone?!"
Emilia's voice shook with an unbridled, primitive fury. The atmospheric temperature within the office plummeted instantly, dropping so severely that a dense layer of jagged, frosted ice began violently crackling across the mahogany surface, snaking up the walls, and encasing the glass windows.
"What on earth are you talking about, Em-Em?" Victoria questioned, her expression momentarily twisting into a look of genuine puzzle. She didn't struggle against the grip, maintaining her poise. "He is currently undertaking the third phase of his entrance examination. The coordinates are completely standardised."
"Don't fuck around with me, Victoria."
Emilia's grip tightened, her knuckles turning white as thick, razor-sharp veins of deep-glacial ice rapidly formed over the fabric where she held Victoria pinned. "My son is currently breathing the air of a damn Black Chasm. The same localised hellscape where one of the Solathian Champions went missing some time ago! And you were the one who personally calibrated the spatial terminal to drop him there!"
Victoria fell entirely silent. For a few long, agonising moments, the only sound in the room was the low, eerie hum of freezing air. Finally, the bewilderment faded from her face, replaced by a terrifyingly calm, calculated expression.
"Yeah," Victoria murmured, looking directly into the eyes of the raging mother. "What about it?"
The moment those words left Victoria's lips, the entire room froze completely. A violent, concussive wave of absolute-zero energy erupted from Emilia's silhouette, instantly locking the furniture, the bookshelves, and the air itself into a dead, suffocating freeze.
"It's about time this Academy gets a new Headmistress."
Emilia's voice was no longer a roar; it had warped into a shaking, hollow whisper of cold fury. The ice creeping up Victoria's neck began to aggressively corrode her skin, the extreme cellular frostbite threatening to blacken and shatter her flesh on contact.
"I only deployed him there because I am entirely confident that he can rescue Jacqueline... and besides, aren't you overreacting just a little bit, Em-Em?" Victoria smiled. It was a calm, almost manic smile, maintained purely through sheer political willpower despite the agonising, flesh-melting cold burning through her throat. "Your son survived an encounter with the Red King when he was a mere eight-year-old child. And just recently, he managed to survive a coordinated ambush by three high-tier Aimus Harbingers. Do you honestly believe a prodigy capable of pulling off cosmic anomalies like that is going to get bested by a standard Black Chasm?"
"I do not give a single, solitary fuck, Victoria."
In a flash of brilliant, terrifying light, a jagged ice-blade materialised directly in Emilia's hand. The crystalline blade hummed with an ominous, pulsing black-and-blue energy—the unmistakable signature of deep-abyssal glacial magic. She levelled the tip directly at Victoria's throat.
"You have overstepped your boundaries for the last time," Emilia hissed, the dark energy of the blade causing the surrounding reality to warp and crack. "And for that, you're going to die right here."
At that exact millisecond, a razor-sharp spatial crack tore open the air directly behind Victoria's desk.
The ambient frost in the room violently rippled as the fracture widened, and stepping out from the void came Amon, entirely physically sound, flanked by Jacqueline and her two children. Amon was quietly holding a shy, downcast Nancy by the hand, while Jacqueline securely held a wide-eyed, curious Nicole.
"So, I cleared the Chasm and saved Miss Jacqueline," Amon announced, his sophisticated voice cutting through the frozen silence of the room.
He paused, his blood-red eyes darting from his mother's glowing abyssal blade to the blackened frostbite creeping up Victoria's neck, a look of rare, genuine bewilderment framing his face. "And... Mother, why exactly do you look like you are about to brutally assassinate the Headmistress?"
The entire office plunged into a stunned, dead silence.
Both Victoria and Emilia froze, looking utterly and completely shocked by the sudden manifestation. The calculated mathematical gamble and the primitive motherly rage both ground to a screeching halt.
Emilia's eyes widened as they locked onto her son's perfectly healed, pristine silhouette. The ominous black-and-blue ice-blade in her hand instantly shattered into a harmless shower of glittering frost particles. She abruptly released her iron grip on Victoria's collar, completely abandoning her execution attempt as she lunged forward.
She threw her arms around Amon, pulling him into a desperate, crushing embrace that threatened to squeeze the remaining breath right out of his lungs.
"Thank goodness... You're alright..." Emilia whispered, her voice trembling violently with a profound, raw surge of relief and overwhelming gratitude.
"Mother... I can't breathe..." Amon's voice was thoroughly strained as he gently tapped his mother's shoulder.
Sensing her son's genuine breathing difficulties, Emilia quickly let go of him, her fierce expression instantly softening into one of deep worry. "Ah—forgive me, my child. I simply... lost my composure."
"Thank you..." Amon took a deep, unrestricted breath, breathing a massive sigh of relief as his oxygen intake finally stabilised.
With his mother's death-grip neutralised, Jacqueline stepped forward, her elegant Seraphim wings shifting gracefully behind her robe as she formally addressed the freezing room. "It is an honour to meet you, Grand Duchess Crown," she greeted Emilia with flawless aristocratic decorum, bowing her head slightly. "My name is Jacqueline Augustus."
"And those two are Nancy and Nicole, her children," Amon fluidly added, gesturing toward the two little girls. Following their mother's impeccable example, both twins politely bowed their heads toward the Grand Duchess.
"How..."
Behind the grand desk, Victoria looked utterly, completely bewildered. She stared blankly at the two miniature, multi-eyed Seraphim-succubus hybrids, and then at Jacqueline. Suddenly, her demeanour shifted violently. It was as if a profound, ground-shattering realisation had just struck her mind.
"It can't be... Jacqueline...!" Victoria gasped dramatically, pressing a hand against her chest as if she had just been physically stabbed. "How could you so ruthlessly betray your little sister?! You swore an absolute oath to me that you would only get married after I did!"
To Amon, who was watching this entire performance with a completely deadpan expression, it was glaringly obvious that the Headmistress was being an unhinged drama queen.
"And to go behind my back and get married to such a phenomenally cute guy like Amon?!" Victoria lamented loudly, pointing a trembling, accusatory finger at the teenage Prosecutor while looking entirely, hilariously overdramatic. "It's not fair! It's simply not fair, Jackie!"
Jacqueline's face instantly flushed a brilliant crimson at Victoria's wild accusations. Her composure shattered entirely, her mouth opening and closing as she struggled to find words to refute the sheer absurdity of Victoria's claims.
Beside her, Amon didn't even bother trying to explain. He simply pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long, thoroughly exhausted internal sigh.
"Mister Amon... what is that strange lady lamenting about?" Nancy asked, her voice quiet and laced with genuine, innocent curiosity. She looked up at him, her tiny, multi-eyed Seraphim wings fluttering in confusion.
"Don't worry too much about it, Nancy," Amon murmured. He leaned down and gently caressed Nancy's head, his touch incredibly tender and reassuring. Nancy leaned into his hand, her cheeks dusting with a faint pink hue as she went quiet.
Across the room, the lingering frost in the air suddenly sharpened.
"Victoria," Emilia spoke. Her voice was terrifyingly calm, entirely devoid of the roaring rage from before, which only made it infinitely more menacing. She didn't even turn her head to look at the Headmistress, her eyes remaining fixed protectively on her son and the children. "Say one more solitary word... and I will not hesitate to permanently mangle you."
The absolute stillness that followed her statement made it glaringly obvious that the Grand Duchess was not speaking in hyperbole. If Victoria so much as breathed a syllable again, the office would be flattened.