The excitement and activities of the ceremony had yet to die down, but Ethan was already making his next moves. The threat of Voriel and his Order was still looming, not forgetting Lamair’s final trial in the Underworld.

So while the empire was still bustling with activities, Ethan had called his most trusted companions... his family, including his new soulmates, to a different dimension he had requested his father to create, since one of his own creation might fall apart from what he was going to do.

The place was a mirror dimension of the Kael’Dri Estate, and they were currently in the main hall, all seated with confused and somewhat expectant expressions, waiting for Ethan to start speaking.

Speaking of family, it included everyone related to him directly or indirectly, such as his in-laws.

Harley’s parents, Clara’s, Lisa’s, Andriel’s father, Pisces’s mother, Christel’s, his grandparents... everyone.

On one of the wider sofas lounged a hazardous arrangement.

Lilith sat relaxed, one leg crossed over the other, smile lazy and knowing. Emma occupied the opposite end, posture straight, presence heavy, blue eyes sharp enough to cut silence. Between them sat Kraken, tentacles tucked in, crimson eyes glinting with predatory amusement.

And beside them, entirely too comfortable, was Xander.

Purplish-pink hair fell loosely over his eyes, black attire immaculate, lips curled in a wry, almost innocent smile. He looked like a man enjoying a play he already knew the ending to.

Regnare and Delphina did not share that sentiment.

Regnare’s stare could have carved mountains, the dormant Sin of Wrath inside him pacing like a caged god, one poor decision away from detonating. Delphina’s gaze was colder... measured and restrained, but no less lethal.

Xander felt it all and enjoyed it immensely.

And as he leaned back, fingers laced, he was already imagining and planning how best to help his elder brother fan a fire that, once lit, would not stop at burning enemies... but eras.

Close by sat two figures who felt slightly out of place, like notes from an older song carried into a new melody.

Christopher and Silver Barnes.

Children of Ethan’s old father. His half-siblings.

They were quieter than the rest.

Silver sat with her arms crossed tightly, a deep scowl carved into her face, sharp enough to make her look less like a woman and more like something that had clawed its way out of the Underworld and decided the living world was already on her nerves. Her presence was abrasive, raw, unpolished... anger simmering just beneath her skin like magma waiting for pressure.

Christopher, by contrast, was still.

Too still.

He sat upright, composed, his expression unreadable behind a pair of dark glasses that reflected nothing and revealed even less. His face was calm, cold, distant, like a man who had learned long ago that showing emotion only gave the world leverage. If Silver was an open wound, Christopher was a scar that had healed wrong.

Neither looked particularly pleased to be there.

Neither looked surprised.

And in a room filled with gods, calamities, and monsters wearing familiar faces, that quiet, restrained detachment made them just as dangerous as anyone else present.

Silence thickened the moment Ethan finally stood.

It wasn’t the dramatic kind, no aura surge, no throne-shaking pressure. Just the quiet that comes when everyone realizes the axis of the room has shifted. Conversations died. Even the calamities stopped breathing so loudly.

Ethan’s gaze moved first, not to his wives, not to his father, not to the monsters and gods seated around him, but to the far end of the hall.

To Christopher and Silver.

"I’ll start with something I should have done a long time ago," he said, voice steady, stripped of imperial weight. "Christopher. Silver."

Silver’s scowl deepened. Christopher didn’t move.

"I ignored you," Ethan continued. "I avoided you. I pretended distance was the same thing as neutrality." He paused, exhaled. "It wasn’t. It was cowardice."

That got a reaction.

Silver snapped to her feet, chair scraping loudly against the floor. "You think saying it like that fixes anything?" she shot back. Her voice cracked, not weak, but sharp, like glass under pressure. "You advanced. You built an empire. You became a god. And you left us with the wreckage."

A few people shifted uncomfortably. No one interrupted her.

"You don’t get to decide when we’re family," she went on. "And you definitely don’t get to..."

"And what I did to our father," Ethan said, cutting in, not harshly, but firmly. "I won’t justify it. I won’t dress it up as necessity or fate."

Christopher finally tilted his head slightly, attention sharpening.

"I made a choice," Ethan said. "One that ended his path. One that changed your lives forever." His jaw tightened. "I carry that. Every day."

Silver laughed bitterly. "How noble."

Then Ethan did something no one, absolutely no one, expected.

He stepped forward.

And bowed.

Not the measured dip of an emperor acknowledging allies. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

A full, unguarded bow. Head lowered. Shoulders exposed.

"I am sorry," he said. "To both of you. For my absence. For my silence. For the pain I caused and the answers I denied you." He straightened, eyes meeting theirs without flinching. "I’m not asking you to forget. I’m asking you to forgive, if you ever can. I won’t justify my reasons, no matter how true they sound. It was that man who offended Trevor and I. He used my mother and dumped her. It’s not your fault. For that... I apologize for avoiding and ignoring you."

The room felt like it might fracture.

Silver froze, anger stalling mid-breath. Christopher’s fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on the armrest.

No one spoke.

Then Ethan turned back to the rest of them, the weight of that moment still hanging in the air like an unresolved chord.

"That said," he continued, voice shifting, not colder, but sharper, more deliberate, "this gathering isn’t only about the past."

He swept his gaze across the room. Family. Calamities. Sins. Kings. Monsters. Blood and bonds tangled beyond simple names.

"Whatever I’m about to do," Ethan said slowly, "will affect all of you. Directly or indirectly. It will change the shape of this empire, and possibly the world beyond it."

A faint, dangerous smile curved his lips.

"And once I begin," he added, "there will be no room left for hesitation."

The mirror-dimension seemed to lean in, listening.