Lucien arrived in Starforge’s conquered world through the teleportation disc Anvil-Horn had given him.

The old master had been unusually direct before sending him off.

"It would be better if you went alone."

Lucien had not argued.

Anvil-Horn then told him the thing that stayed with him through the entire trip. Lilith had been training without pause ever since Lucien was taken away to be revived.

That knowledge was enough to leave a quiet weight in his chest.

Anvil-Horn had also added one last request before handing him the disc.

"If you can, bring my daughter home."

Lucien had only nodded.

The journey through the corridor was fast by ordinary standards, but Lucien disliked every part of it. The transfer still carried that ugly sense of passage, that thin unpleasantness of being shoved through a route rather than cleanly placed where he meant to go.

It only made him want the instant teleportation array more.

When he emerged into the conquered world, the first thing he noticed was the silence.

The second was the feeling.

Something about this world pressed against his senses with a familiarity he could not dismiss.

Lucien narrowed his eyes slightly.

Then he extended his senses to find Lilith.

The world was not large. That part helped.

He found her quickly.

And the moment his senses touched her aura, Lucien’s eyes widened.

...

Lilith had not awakened.

After eating the fruit, she had fallen into a state deeper than sleep and harsher than ordinary meditation. It had become something like a sustained epiphany. A coma of comprehension and transformation.

Months had passed after she ate the fruit.

She remained seated where the world had taken her, unmoving, eyes closed, breath quiet, body still.

But nothing about her was static.

Her aura had been rising all this time.

Like something within her had opened and was now feeding her truth faster than normal practice had any right to allow.

Changes had taken root in her body too.

The sort that altered presence more than appearance.

Something in her had become clearer, denser, and more complete.

When Lucien finally stood before her, surprise flickered openly across his face.

The energy around her felt familiar.

It resembled the way his sapling fed him passive comprehension during meditation, except what Lilith was receiving was stronger, richer, and far more direct. It was as though some hidden source was still pouring understanding into her even now.

Lucien did not touch her.

He simply stood still and extended his senses again, this time outward.

He searched the world around her.

It did not take him long.

His awareness slipped through the terrain, passed through the outer mineral fields, and reached the hollow below.

The bark.

The moment he found it, everything clicked.

Lucien exhaled slowly.

"So that’s how it is."

His gaze sharpened.

"Another bark of the Tree of Creation."

Now the conquered world made sense.

The strange materials. The way the Abyssal Core Shards accelerated comprehension.

They had not been miraculous by coincidence.

They had been fed by the remaining pressure and lawful influence of one of the Tree of Creation’s barks.

The minerals formed here had been shaped by that presence for who knew how long, and the result was a world where even ore carried traces of something foundational enough to help practitioners deepen law itself.

Lucien almost laughed.

"No wonder," he murmured. "No wonder."

For one brief moment, he considered taking the bark.

Then immediately dismissed the thought.

This world was already producing rare and vital materials. Taking the bark too soon might cripple an entire long-term resource chain. Leaving it where it was would be far more valuable, at least for the time being.

Still, that thought gave rise to another.

And this one darkened his expression.

If this conquered world was already this absurd, then what about the others?

The first world they found with the bark had been different. It was barren in one way but incorruptible in another. This one produced extraordinary materials. That meant the remaining bark-worlds might each hold their own kind of value.

Which meant—

Lucien’s face hardened.

The Black Mass monsters controlled some of those worlds.

If those creatures still possessed access to bark-fed worlds, then sooner or later they too would gain benefits from them.

That could not be allowed to continue forever.

Lucien let out a slow breath.

He would need to speak with Seran.

Those worlds would have to be taken.

Not out of greed alone. Out of necessity.

...

Just as that thought settled, the aura before him shifted.

Lucien’s head snapped back toward Lilith.

Her entire being had begun to glow.

The pressure around her changed first, tightening into itself. Then the dense waves of power that had been building for months began to settle into a terrifyingly stable whole.

Lucien felt the result clearly.

Peak Stage of Celestial Realm.

His breath caught.

A year ago she had still been around the middle stages of the Celestial Realm.

Now she sat at the very summit of it. Only one step away from the Eternal Realm.

That kind of progress was monstrous.

Lucien stared at her and remembered Alanthuriel’s words again.

Lilith had been destined for something. A hero. Someone who would one day matter on the scale of worlds.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"So this is what it meant," he thought.

This world had answered her.

Perhaps it had given her the road she needed to reclaim something that was supposed to be hers.

Lilith’s aura settled at last.

Then, slowly, she opened her eyes.

There was somehting different on her.

The Lilith who had once carried helplessness buried beneath pride was gone.

Her gaze was clear now. Steady in a way that made even silence around her feel sharper. There was no trace of old hesitation there.

Only resolve.

She lowered her gaze briefly and looked at her own hand, clenching it once as if testing the truth of her own strength.

Then she felt him.

Her head lifted.

Their eyes met.

And both of them went completely still.

For a few seconds, neither spoke.

Lucien took in her face. Lilith took in the fact that he was real.

Then Lucien smiled first.

"Hi."

That was all.

Lilith opened her mouth, but no voice came out.

At first, when she sensed his presence, she had thought her mind was playing some final cruelty on her. That perhaps the fruit had awakened memories, feelings, or hallucinations she could not yet control.

But no.

The fruit had changed her in many ways, and one of those changes was sight.

She could see essence now.

The deeper truth of living things.

And the person standing before her was indeed Lucien.

He extended a hand toward her.

"Sister Lilith," he said lightly, "congratulations on reaching the peak of the Celestial Realm."

That made something in her break.

Lilith took his hand and stood.

She wanted to say too much.

Wanted to ask how. Wanted to ask when. Wanted to ask whether he had suffered. Wanted to tell him what these months had been like.

But the words jammed behind the force of relief.

Only then did she realize tears were already running down her face.

Lucien froze at the sight.

For all his ability to face monstrous things, he still looked slightly lost when faced with a crying woman who cared about him.

He scratched the side of his nose, clearly buying time for his mind to arrange itself properly.

Lilith laughed weakly through her tears at that.

Then she finally managed the truth.

"It’s good that you’re alive."

Her voice trembled once, then steadied.

"I’m glad. I really am."

Lucien’s expression softened immediately.

Something warm moved through him.

The aloof, proud Lilith standing before him now looked nothing like the distant warrior she often pretended to be. She looked open in a way that felt almost intimate in its honesty.

And Lucien, for once, answered her with equal honesty.

"I should be thanking you first."

Lilith blinked.

Lucien continued.

"Beloved Bastion saved me more times than I can count in that battle. Without it, I really would have died several more times before I got to the final one."

A small grin touched his face.

"You are one of the reasons I’m still here."

Lilith stared at him.

Then the expression on her face changed so completely that Lucien felt it like a shift in the world itself.

The frustration she had buried. The insecurity she had sharpened against herself. The fear that what she gave had not been enough.

All of it loosened.

Because what she thought had failed him had, in truth, protected him again and again.

What she thought was too little had mattered.

What she built with all her pride and care had reached him.

Lilith smiled.

A real smile. Bright and unrestrained.

And in that smile, something fierce returned to her.

"Then I’ll make more," she said at once.

Lucien raised a brow.

Lilith’s eyes gleamed.

"I’ll forge something so ridiculous that no one will ever kill you properly again."

Lucien laughed out loud.

"I’m looking forward to that."

Then he gave her a look from head to toe and added, "But try not to turn me into one of those ugly Void-walkers."

Lilith laughed too.

"Don’t worry," she said. "I’ll only cover you from head to toe."

Lucien shivered exaggeratedly.

"That sentence was somehow worse."

That made her laugh harder.

And just like that, the air between them changed.

Not because all the weight was gone.

But because it was no longer crushing.

And for the first time in a long while, neither of them felt quite so far behind the other.