Chapter 124: Andromeda Constellation (Bonus 100 PS)

"You gain access to the second floor," Noxian crossed his arms. "But that does not mean you can traverse through it right away."

"Harghh..." Kai vomited a mouthful of blood. He had only been exposed to the second floor’s presence for a second, and yet he was already bleeding from almost every orifice. "I’ve figured that’s the case, but I didn’t expect I couldn’t withstand the pressure for even a second."

He called the night.

It was harder to do, but it eventually came and started healing him.

"Come back to the second floor when you’ve reached the Aspirant rank," Noxian advised, as Kai climbed back to his feet while wiping the blood smeared all over his face. "Before reaching that rank, you should stick to the first floor."

"Copy that," Kai coughed a couple of times. "But shouldn’t you warn me harder?"

"Oftentimes, lessons will only be learned through consequences."

"Is that really necessary?"

"You’re stubborn, son of the final night. So, yes, it’s necessary."

Kai rolled his eyes as he sat back down on the shallow water and then focused again.

He activated both his Primordial Locks, fueling them with the night, and returned to the first floor of the House of Night. Just the full moon above alone made it easy to know whether he succeeded in returning to the first floor or not.

"Cassiopeia or Andromeda Constellations, right?"

"Good luck."

Not even wasting a single second, Kai dragged his body out of Noxian’s domain and looked up. He stared at the Cassiopeia Constellation that is shaped like the letter M—or many would say like a throne. And then his focus darted to the Andromeda Constellation, shaped like the letter V, or many would say like a chained maiden.

Inside, he was deliberating which one he should pick.

But since he has no idea about what each one represented, he decided to go with his gut.

"Andromeda it is," Kai closed his eyes for a second and inhaled deeply. "Sister, help me pick a Nightborn once again."

Once he said that, he began his walk, following the Andromeda Constellation.

Kai knew about the story of Andromeda, which earned her a constellation. Her own mother, Cassopeia, boasted about her and her daughter’s beauty, claiming that even the Nereids—the attendants of Poseidon are inferior to their beauty.

Such an arrogant claim angered the Gods.

And as a result, the God of the Sea, Poseidon, sent a wicked sea monster, Cetus, to destroy the kingdom of Aethiopia, which ended with Andromeda being sacrificed to stop the sea monster before Perseus rescued her by killing Cetus.

He knew the story well enough, but the Nightborns tied to the Andromeda Constellation were another matter entirely. Still, he reasoned, there’s a part of Andromeda that hated her mother for dragging her down because of pride.

A Nightborn must’ve had an ending that embodied Andromeda’s spite and hate.

Such Nightborn would be perfect for him to use in case Mallory asked about his ending.

It was the second time Kai walked like this through the House of Night.

Initially, he thought the second time would be easier as he had already experienced the pure exhaustion from the first walk, but he was wrong. Just like the first time, it was a hazardously long process to exhaust his mind and body.

As a matter of fact, he reckoned it would take longer for him to reach that exhausted state.

Or maybe it was only his pessimistic mind talking.

Nothing ever changed within the House of Night. No matter how far he walked, the scenery remained unchanged. No landmark. No shift in the sky. Not even a sense of time. And such a relentless sameness pulled at his mind like a slow, constant weight.

By Kai’s internal count, he had been walking for more than a month.

It was probably really wrong, but at least the guess made it easier for his mind.

He still counted the seconds, but even that felt slippery now, hard to hold onto.

Splash...

Kai stumbled and fell on one knee, feeling the burn in his legs was becoming unbearable.

However, this made him smile as this meant he was getting close.

Just have to keep going for a bit longer.

Bella had been right beside him, talking about old times. She was as bubbly as he remembered, but there was something odd about her face. Her hair was paler in color, not the usual blazing blonde that it had always been.

It must be the House of Night.

Or at least, that’s what Kai blamed it on as he kept walking.

Once she ran out of things to say, with the land of the dead having nothing much happening, he called out Perion. Kai was reserved in what he talked about, starting with what he was feeling at the moment.

Soon enough, that changed quickly.

Kai started talking extensively about what he missed from the surface. The honest ache of a courier’s work. Movie nights with Bella that always ended with her falling asleep mid-movie. Even the noisy neighbours he’d once cursed.

But as desperation crept in and his mind began to fracture, the words spilled faster.

He poured everything he felt.

Complain about the situation at the Eventide Academy and the discrimination he endured.

About the fact that he still hasn’t made any progress in finding the Demon Man.

Everything.

And throughout it all, Perion remained silent.

He listened to everything Kai said like a silent sentinel, a loyal companion.

If anyone from the real world saw him right now, they would probably be scared. But all he really needed right now was stimulation. Something that could help break this trance of utter sameness that is driving him crazy.

And that exact thing happened.

"I feel... heavy," Kai blinked and snapped out of his stupor.

He realized, dimly, that his pace had slowed to a crawl—each step a deliberate drag, one foot hauled forward at a time. Exhaustion had long since claimed him, but this strange heaviness was more than mere fatigue.

Kai looked over his shoulder and saw something latching onto his ankles.

Iron chains.

A frown crept to his face as he tried touching the iron chains, but his hand passed through them. And it was then that he saw that he also had iron chains wrapping around his wrists. "Since when were these chains on me?"

Kai turned to Perion, and he shrugged his shoulders, also not knowing when.

Regardless, this was completely new.

Back when he was following the Draco Constellation, he didn’t experience anything like this.

All he experienced were the whisperers that assaulted his mind, and those whisperers are the ones Kai had been waiting for throughout this entire walk. However, it seemed he was wrong to assume that following the Draco Constellation would be exactly the same as following the Andromeda Constellation.

Kai pressed on.

His mind was now completely awake as, finally, something changed.

At this point, the exhaustion was already unbearable.

Kai could feel his legs shaking under his own weight, and even his eyelids were growing heavier by the second. And like the end of the Draco Constellation, the Nightborns appeared, announcing their presence.

But not through whisperers.

It’s different this time.

Kai’s breath misted, though the cold was not a thing of temperature but of presence.

Across, he saw something moving that made him stop. A figure manifested in a silent, sudden coalescence of shadow and light. Its body was seething. A corona of dark energy writhed from its shoulders like black flames.

And as it got closer, Kai noticed its body was wrong.

It was almost entirely made of water.

Kai froze mid-track; his heart pounded inside his chest as he noticed something stranger as the figure approached. Around its water wrists and ankles coiled chains—the same kind that were on him right now.

He inspected further and found the figure was his height, exact to the inch.

Its shoulders squared with the same exhaustion-weary tension, and its posture was a mirror of Kai’s own. And the black hair that fell across its brows was also exactly the same as Kai’s. It didn’t take long before Kai realized the truth.

The truth that this figure was also him.

A reflection, or something that mimicked his appearance.

One thing that the figure refused to copy or couldn’t are his eyes. Kai’s own were voids—pits of abyssal black that consumed the moonlight whole. But the figure’s blazed back at him, a cold, glowing white that felt like the heart of a dying star.

They weren’t staring at him, and the intent behind them was unreadable.

It stepped forward.

Even though it seemed to be stomping, the sound it made was nothing compared to the clink of its iron chains. It didn’t speak, and it didn’t even look at Kai. It simply bumped into him—shoulder to shoulder.

A contact that caught Kai off guard.

And then came more.

More figures materialized from everywhere, bleeding out of thin air—like a fractured prism. Reflections of himself from every conceivable angle. But their eyes were distinctively different from one another.

It was almost like they were all him from different timelines.

His spectres that came across the original.

Just like the first one, they bumped into him. One bumped against his shoulder hard. Another only grazed his back. And then another pushed him back, forcing him to get out of its way. It was a bizarre situation.

And with each new contact, Kai felt heavier.

Only then did he realize the chains were growing heavier.

A groan escaped his lips as another bumped into him, and now, the chains were pulling his entire body down. Even his feet were sinking into the shallow water. Kai snapped out of it as he realized he was being devoured.

Back then, had he not picked a Nightborn for another minute, his mind would’ve been broken.

It was the same thing with this one; the only difference was that instead of his mind being assaulted by the whisperers, he was now being weighed down into the shallow water by the iron chains. He was Andromeda, drowning in slow motion, swallowed by the ocean, had Perseus not come to rescue her. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Kai gritted his teeth and called in the night.

Since he now has two Primordial Locks, he decided to make an effort to choose first.

Bella would have the final say, but before that, he should check these Nightborns one by one.

Surprisingly, the night heeded his call and enveloped the Nightborns around him. One by one, glowing stars began to appear above their heads, signifying their path and also fragments. It was something he learned from Noxian, checking the Nightborns’ ending.

His eyes swept across dozens of glowing stars, trying to find something that caught his eye.

Several of them did.

But Bella’s voice made him focus on a bright, glowing golden star with a wheel inside of it.

"That one!"