The heavy silence in the room dissolved. Yuki knew who was coming and desperately wanted to bury himself alive.

Out of all the people in the kingdom, it had to be her.

The air temperature inside the room spiked instantly, rising ten degrees in a single second. The subtle, pine-scented breeze blowing through the open window vanished, replaced by the suffocating, metallic tang of ash and scorched earth.

Vee and Kasumi both snapped to attention, their hands dropping instantly to their weapons as they braced for a fight. But they froze—how could anyone be entering Yuki’s room inside the Capital’s secure sector? It wasn’t a monster.

The door didn’t open. Space simply folded back on itself, bowing like stretched silk, before snapping clear to reveal a solitary figure standing at the foot of Yuki’s bed.

01. The Red Primarch.

She stood tall, wrapped in crimson plate armor that seemed to absorb the light around it. Her fiery red hair cascaded over her pauldrons like living magma, and her piercing, slit-pupiled eyes swept over the room with absolute, predatory dominance. Unlike the rest of the kingdom, there was no fog of memory manipulation in her gaze—no illusion of an "ancient archmage."

She remembered every single second. She remembered the boy stepping up to her in the snow, calling her a witch bitch, and dropping a massive, impossible mechanical contraption at her boots.

"Out," Primarch 01 commanded. Her voice was surprisingly low, carrying the heavy rumble of an active volcano ready to breach.

"We aren’t leaving him," Vee said fiercely, stepping directly between the Red Primarch and the bed, her blade half-drawn.

Primarch 01 didn’t even look at Vee. She merely flicked a gauntleted finger.

A spatial fold enveloped Vee and Kasumi simultaneously. Before either girl could protest or shout, space distorted around them, and both vanished—teleported instantly outside into the hallway. The heavy oak doors slammed shut behind them, locking with a dense spatial seal.

Left alone with the paralyzed boy, Primarch 01 walked slowly around the edge of the bed. Her armored boots struck the stone floor with a heavy, rhythmic thud... thud... thud.

She stopped right beside him, towering over his limp frame.

Yuki didn’t move his head. He couldn’t. He merely tracked her with his milky, half-blind eyes, his expression as flat and lifeless as a slate tombstone.

"The gods altered the memories of every living soul for miles, affecting the entire kingdom and all who witnessed it," 01 said softly, leaning down until her fiery face was mere inches from his. "They made them believe some long-dead archmage sealed the horde with a grand invocation. They made them forget the mountain that evaporated. But my mind remains untouched."

She reached out, grabbing Yuki by the collar of his tunic and hauling his upper body off the mattress.

Because his neck muscles were paralyzed, his head lagged backward, resting uncomfortably against his spine. He didn’t let out a single groan of pain. He just stared through her.

"Where did you get it?" she growled, her crimson eyes burning with a terrifying mix of fascination and deep, instinctual dread. "That... thing you dropped at my feet. That was no magic item. It had no mana signature, no essence core, no spell circle. It was a metal cage holding a dying star."

"A Dyson-Sphere power reactor core," Yuki rasped, his voice raw against the quiet room.

"I don’t care what gibberish you call it!" she hissed, her grip tightening until the fabric tore. "It provided enough raw, concentrated energy to force my mass-teleportation array across two hundred kilometers without burning out my soul! A power source like that doesn’t exist in this world—not even in the High Capital’s deepest vaults! How did it generate so much power in such a short time?! Why was I able to siphon it if it wasn’t mana or essence?!"

She lowered her face, her breath searing hot against his cold cheek.

"Iron is dead. Nyquella is dead. The Citadel is a glass bowl," she whispered. "And yet, a Rank 0 Inquisitor boy—a cripple who can’t even lift his own arms—holds the secret to energy that can turn an entire region to vapor in a fraction of a second... and the power of a star."

She let go of his tunic.

Yuki’s upper body collapsed back onto the mattress like a sack of stones. The sudden impact rattled his spine, sending sharp needles of agony through his paralyzed nerves, but his expression never shifted.

"I don’t have it anymore," Yuki said flatly, looking back up at the ceiling. "High Command blacklisted the blueprints. They locked my access. I couldn’t build another one even if I wanted to."

01 let out a soft, mocking chuckle, stepping back and folding her gauntleted arms across her chest.

"Do you think I care about what the gods locked?" She smiled—a sharp, dangerous expression devoid of any warmth. "You built it once, boy. Which means the knowledge exists inside your head. High Command might have broken your body, but they left you breathing. No matter how long it takes, I will find out what you know. It isn’t every day the Observers intervene in the affairs of man."

"Try all you want," Yuki rasped out. "I still don’t know anything."

"You know I’m not above torture, right?" she purred dangerously. "I will get what I want, when I want it. So listen well, Yuki: I will break you."

"Ha... I’ve been eaten, ripped apart, and buried alive," Yuki whispered dryly. "I’ve been scorched, frozen, and pummeled. I watched the people I cared about die around me. I’ve had my brains blown out. You really think you can hurt me?"

"Tsk."

She turned toward the sealed oak door, her crimson cape swishing behind her.

"Rest well, Yuki," she said over her shoulder, her voice laced with a heavy, unspoken promise. "Recover your legs. Because the moment you can stand again, you belong to me. And we are going to talk about what else is hiding inside that broken mind of yours."

Space folded around her once more. With a quiet pop, the Red Primarch vanished, leaving the room cold, quiet, and smelling faintly of ash.

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