"Brother," Vivian’s voice broke, "please help Mother and Father."

There was no hesitation in her.

Only the certainty that if anyone in this world still had even a chance of reaching through this and dragging Virel and Aniel back from the edge, it would be Lucien.

Lucien did not answer with comfort first.

He answered with action.

He stepped closer to the jade beds and forced himself to breathe once before moving. Then he drew Breathglass Film from his Inventory.

He unfolded the thin transparent sheet between his fingers, and held it before his eyes.

The world beyond it changed.

The deeper channels of power beneath the visible body came into sharp relief.

Lucien stared.

Then his jaw tightened.

Virel and Aniel’s internal pathways were in terrible condition.

Their divine vessels were not merely strained. They were damaged.

He almost cursed aloud.

Then he remembered.

The East Continent.

And causality.

The correction that had once been aimed at him.

They had stood in front of it.

He turned sharply toward the Celestials standing nearby.

"What happened that day?" he asked. "Please tell me everything you still remember."

The lead Celestial guard hesitated.

Then his expression darkened.

"That is the strangest part," he said. "We do not remember everything."

Lucien nodded. He expected that.

The guard continued carefully, as though even now the memory resisted clear form.

"We went to the East Continent to protect someone. That much we know. They said they had to stand there personally. They said the matter could not be delegated."

He frowned.

"It is difficult to describe. More difficult still because I cannot remember who we were protecting."

Lucien went completely still.

The guard looked ashamed of his own uncertainty.

"I know that sounds absurd," he said. "But the absence is real. Every time we reach for the person at the center of it, the thought becomes mist."

Lucien said nothing.

The guard drew a steadying breath and continued.

"The East was already unstable then. Old enemies moved. Factions that had never forgiven the Celestial Race for its old authority seized the chance. They laid siege to us."

Another Celestial lowered her eyes.

"They did not yield. They held and bought time. And then, at some point, they seemed to realize that the purpose had been fulfilled. They ordered the retreat. They stabilized what they could. They gave instructions."

His voice softened.

"And then they fell into sleep."

Vivian covered her mouth with one hand as tears fell more freely now.

Lucien looked back at Virel and Aniel.

The more he understood, the tighter his chest became.

He closed his eyes once, then opened them again and dismissed the Breathglass Film.

Lucien activated Structural Insight.

The world turned into strings.

And there—

he saw it.

The damage was worse than the vessels alone suggested.

Their divine vessels were fractured and unstable, yes. But that was only the outer injury. The real danger lay deeper.

The pillar-strings of their existence had been strained nearly to the point of failure. Whole sequences in their lawful identity bore the marks of impact, overload, suppression, and hostile binding. Worse still, several foreign laws had latched onto those strings and continued to erode them even now.

Lucien’s expression hardened.

Those enemies had not merely wounded them.

They had chosen laws meant to counter the Celestials at the deepest possible level.

Anti-harmonic laws. Rotting laws. Dissonant laws. Things meant to foul light, destabilize sanctified channels, and eat at divine coherence from within.

That was why the Celestial healers had failed.

This was not a matter of pouring more light into broken systems.

The harm itself had been designed against light.

Lucien let Structural Insight fade and stepped back slowly.

Vivian looked at him immediately.

The Celestials did too.

No one asked the question aloud, because all of them were already afraid of the answer.

Lucien exhaled once.

There was good news.

There was bad news.

He hated that pattern.

Finally, he said, "They can be cured."

Vivian’s knees nearly gave out from relief alone.

The Celestials visibly straightened.

Then Lucien continued, because false hope would have been cruelty.

"But not quickly."

The room tightened again.

Lucien looked at Virel and Aniel as he spoke.

"Their divine vessels are damaged badly enough that ordinary restoration won’t solve it. Even if I make medicine to rebuild the vessels, that only fixes part of the problem. Their deeper existence are also under strain, and hostile laws are still attached to them. If their existence continue degrading and one of the main supports breaks..." He stopped there.

He did not need to finish.

Everyone understood.

The lead guard’s face went pale.

"How long?" he asked.

Lucien thought for a moment.

Then answered honestly. "To cure them completely from scratch with only my present means, too long."

Vivian lowered her head, but only for a moment.

Then she looked back up, desperate and trying not to be.

Lucien saw it and added, "I know a doctor who can help me accelerate this. A real one. With her law and skills, we can theorize much faster and create a proper cure instead of fumbling toward one."

Vivian blinked.

The Celestials stared.

The older guard spoke first. "You know someone who can help our leaders?"

Lucien nodded.

"I do."

Hope moved through the room like something too fragile to call by name yet.

Lucien did not feed it carelessly.

Instead he said, "I need your permission to bring her here."

That shook them more than the promise itself.

The Celestial healers had tried for years and failed. Some among them had likely already accepted, privately, that their leaders might never wake again. So the idea that an outsider not only believed they could be saved, but already had someone in mind who might help do it—

that was no small thing.

The lead guard bowed his head immediately.

"You have it."

Another added, quieter, "If there is a real chance, then we would be fools to stand in its way."

Lucien nodded once.

Then another problem arrived at once.

The Void Disc.

He looked down at it in his hand.

It was nearly drained.

It would not be enough for another leap of that magnitude any time soon.

So there was only one correct solution.

He raised his head and asked, "If I create an instant teleportation array here connected to my territory, will you allow it?"

That drew brief silence.

The Celestials looked at one another.

They did not know of Lootwell’s broader systems. They knew nothing of the communication web, the branch network, or the true reach Lucien had already begun spreading across the world.

But they knew one thing.

He did not mean them harm.

They could feel it.

And right now their leaders’ lives outweighed suspicion.

So the answer came quickly.

"Yes." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Lucien nodded.

"Then please give me a chamber."

They did.

What followed was one of the more unreasonable uses of exhaustion Lucien had ever willingly embraced.

He entered the chamber, checked its geometry once, and began immediately.

This time he did not work alone.

Split Body unfolded.

Dozens of mini Luciens appeared.

Parallel Thoughts divided cleanly across them. Each mind-thread took on a different layer of the array’s architecture.

Light flooded the chamber in layered circles.

Dozens of mini Luciens moved with exact rhythm, each one laying lines, symbols, anchors, and lawful agreements with almost machine-like precision while the original controlled the whole with overriding awareness.

The Celestials watching from the threshold did not interrupt.

They were too busy revising their understanding of what counted as possible.

Lucien pushed himself hard.

Harder than he usually preferred for this kind of work.

But speed mattered now.

By the time more than an hour had passed, the chamber was already finished.

The final binding clicked into place.

The array shone once, linked cleanly to Lootwell’s main node, and then settled.

Done.

Lucien absorbed the split bodies back.

Then he turned toward Vivian and the assembled Celestials.

"I’m going to fetch the doctor," he said.

Vivian nodded immediately.

There was trust in her gaze even through the tears.

Lucien stepped onto the array and activated it.

He passed first through Lootwell, because all connected arrays nested ultimately through the core network there.

Then, without wasting even a full breath, he leapt again toward the East Continent and arrived directly within Seraphine’s clinic.

He found her almost immediately.

There was no teasing this time.

Lucien came to her with urgency written all over him and explained everything in one breath.

"My mother and father needed healing. I need your help."

Seraphine did not ask for proof. She did not ask him to repeat himself.

She simply stared at him once, saw what kind of urgency lived in his face, and answered at once.

"I’m coming."

Then she turned and began issuing orders to the staff with brisk terrifying efficiency.

The clinic branch shifted around her words immediately. Senior healers were given temporary authority. Information channels were reassigned. Supply responsibilities were passed down. No one dared waste her time with foolish questions.

Within minutes, she was ready.

Then the two of them stepped through the array toward Lootwell.

•••

When Lucien left, Marie felt the fluctuation.

She was already near the main internal transport hall, so naturally she came to inspect it.

And what she saw left her silent for several full breaths.

Lucien stood there.

Beside him was a woman Marie had never seen before.

A beautiful one. Sharp, elegant, and clearly close to him.

Before Marie could ask a single question, the two of them activated the array again and vanished.

Marie remained where she was, staring at the space they had just left.

Then slowly, very slowly, her mouth fell open.

She turned at once and marched out with the determined speed of a woman carrying catastrophic social news of possible national importance.

Her best friends needed to hear this.

•••

Meanwhile, Lucien and Seraphine arrived inside the Celestial Dominion.

He did not waste time.

He led her directly through the palace corridors toward the healing chamber where Virel and Aniel slept.

The moment they entered, every eye in the room turned.

Vivian was there. The Celestial guards were there. The sleeping forms of Virel and Aniel lay unchanged beneath the ward-light.

Lucien drew one breath and said, "Sis. This is Seraphine. The best doctor I know."

Then, after the smallest pause, he added with absolute shameless honesty,

"And... she is my woman."

That line hit the room like a dropped star.

Seraphine, who had entered ready for medicine, composure, and work, visibly blushed.

Vivian’s eyes widened.

For one dangerous moment, she simply stared.

Her pupils dilated. Her mind clearly attempted to move in three directions at once. Shock. Recognition. Rapid emotional recalculation.

Seraphine stood very still.

Nervous, for perhaps the first time that day.

Then Vivian moved.

She crossed the distance between them quickly and clasped Seraphine’s hands in both of hers.

"Please," Vivian said. Her voice trembled but steadied through force alone. "Help Mother and Father."

That was all.

There was no accusation, no coldness, and no testing hostility like Seraphine expected.

Just desperate sincerity.

Seraphine’s expression changed at once.

All the earlier blush and private nerves vanished beneath the clean seriousness of her profession.

Her eyes sharpened. Her mind settled.

She nodded once.

Then looked toward the jade beds.

Lucien moved with her immediately.

The two of them approached Virel and Aniel together beneath the silent gaze of Celestials who had waited too long for hope to dare speak loudly.

Now the work would begin.