Kai panted heavily.

He could use the short-distance teleport endlessly, but running was draining his stamina.

It has been more than ten minutes of sprinting. Or at least, it felt that long for Kai, and there was no sign of him being able to shake off the Nightborn, or any other place he could take a refugee in.

Earlier, he tried going to Perion’s territory.

Surely the Nightborn wouldn’t dare to enter another Nightborn’s territory.

But he couldn’t.

Perion is still not responding to him, so he couldn’t find a way to go there.

Now, he was losing momentum.

Kai teleported forward, but as soon as he materialized, a forceful blow struck his side. A hiss was forced out of his mouth as he rolled across the shallow water, but quickly teleported again before he got clawed on his face.

Soon, he saw something.

Beyond the mist, there was a glowing light that drew him in.

Kai looked over his shoulder—seeing that the Nightborn was already flying at him again. He has no other choice but to go into the light. It was the only thing he had seen throughout this chase, and he could only hope that it could help him.

He ran.

Faster and faster. Moving his legs as quickly as possible.

Behind, he could feel the Nightborn closing in. Even without turning to see, he could feel its clawed hand reaching for him. Kai pushed himself to run faster and reached out his hand to grab the light.

And when he felt the brush of the sharp fingers against his back, his hand seized the light.

Light swallowed the entire world.

Everything became blinding.

Kai shielded his eyes with his arm, surprised that the entire world suddenly lit up.

And when the light dimmed back down to normal, he was met with a breathtaking sight.

"W-What is this...?"

Before him gaped a massive hole that was easily the size of a small city or even bigger. A seamless circle of brilliance carved into existence. The shiny light coming from it flowed like two-faced waterfalls, one cascade poured upward into the heavens, the other plummeted into the unseen depths.

Both flowed at once in silent, impossible columns.

Kai could feel the pulsating warmth it generated.

An uncharacteristic sweep within the House of Night, which consists of cool, muted air.

He looked down at his feet.

The shallow water was stretched toward the edge of the hole, the knee-high mist coiled across its surface, and the darkness from the night was pulled in, drawn like black currents toward the shining maw.

Above, even the night sky warped.

Its stars smeared into faint streaks that bent and spiraled down toward the light.

Like standing near a black hole, everything in the area was stretched.

Snapping out of his daze, Kai turned to look behind and staggered to see that the Nightborn was standing not too far away. It stood motionlessly in the darkness, watching him with a reluctant gaze.

And without saying anything, it simply stepped back and disappeared.

"It stopped chasing me?" Kai looked back at the hole. "Is it because of this light?"

Regardless of the reason, he was relieved that the Nightborn was finally off his back.

He dropped to the floor and lay there for a minute, catching his breath.

Noxian did say that he should run quickly whenever he encountered another Nightborn, yet he underestimated how dangerous it really was. Not to mention, the Nightborn from earlier seemed to be one of the bad ones.

It attacked and played Kai for its amusement,

Persistent, too.

But Kai learned a valuable lesson and survived, which was a good thing in the end.

After resting for five minutes, Kai sat up and took a look around.

"Is this place a domain?" He thought with a harsh gulp, fearing that the Nightborn that owned this place was something even more terrifying than the one earlier. But he saw nobody around. "No, it’s not. And I don’t think it’s dangerous here."

Kai stood up and took a look around.

Might as well check out this place while he was here.

No guarantee that he could stumble to this place again, so it wouldn’t hurt.

Considering he almost died minutes ago, continuing to explore is reckless—but Kai could not help himself. Not when this hole of light might be the key to completing the quest. "This hole is really big."

Kai had been circling the hole for at least ten minutes.

And even then, he hadn’t even covered a tenth of the entire hole.

Curious about what lay below, Kai summoned the night to anchor himself, a tether against a potential fall. But the night did not answer as it should. No, it answered him as usual, but the hole intercepted it, seized it, and pulled it in.

A problem that Kai didn’t even think was possible.

"How is that possible? This is the House of Night."

Since he couldn’t use the night, Kai backed away.

It’s not worth satiating his curiosity at the risk of falling into a deep pit of darkness.

Just as Kai was about to continue, his eyes caught sight of something in the distance.

He paused mid-track and narrowed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t only seeing things.

No, he wasn’t.

There’s someone sitting on the edge of the massive hole of light without any worry.

A woman, or something that looked like a woman.

Even from afar, Kai could see that her skin was so pale, like moonstone, bordering on being translucent. Against the light from the hole, a blue undertone spread across her skin. Her hair is impossibly long and straight, and the edge also drifts.

Swaying subtly as if it were being submerged underwater.

It reminded him of the Goddess’s hair.

Shadow-silk garment clung to the curve of her chest and the entire length of her legs, leaving the pale expanse between scandalously, deliberately bare. But considering the place she was in right now, worrying about appearances is not on her mind.

"A Nightborn?" Kai tilted his head a little. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

From a distance, this woman looked harmless.

Her figure looked too soft to hurt anyone.

But Kai knew better.

After what happened earlier, it would be foolish of him to even approach this woman.

Kai retreated slowly. Like backing off after encountering a predator with its back turned. But as he was about to turn, his gaze caught a glimpse of a mark etched into the woman’s chest. It began between her breasts and flowed downward like spilled ink, stretching all the way to her navel.

And the moment his eyes registered it, the ground beneath him shattered and gave way.

His heart dropped to his stomach.

Even through the distance, he recognized that mark.

A black mark shaped like an inverted torch.

It made Kai realize this woman isn’t a Nightborn. She’s one of the children of the Goddess!

Kai remembered what the Goddess told him. That he should steer clear of his sisters. He thought it would be hard to meet with one of them, considering the House of Night is bigger than his expectations.

Perhaps even bigger than the whole world.

But now, one of them was in his line of sight, dangling her feet at the hole in utter silence.

Kai wanted to run, but it was already too late.

The woman raised her gaze by slow degrees, as if savoring the moment of silence, and turned toward him. When their eyes met, a glacial shiver rolled down Kai’s spine. His body reacted before his mind.

He spun to run.

But she was already there, behind him, close enough for her breath to ghost across his face.

Not even a second ago, she was across the way.

Now, she was right behind him.

The Daughter of the Night regarded Kai from head to toe, her gaze unhurried and invasive as if she could see into his soul. "The light would pull you in," she murmured. Thick darkness bled from the mark so that it looked like ink. Her eyes were dark-amber, and the only way Kai could track her focus was through the direction of her face. "So why are you not pulled?"

Kai’s mind was blank.

He didn’t know what to do right now.

But survival instinct snapped him from his daze and forced him to try to survive this.

Survive the encounter.

"Because it couldn’t," Kai answered, trying to sound as imposing and calm as possible.

A glint flickered behind her eyes as she circled him.

Now that she stood so close, Kai could take a proper look at her. She was slender. Frail even. Her long limbs made her nearly his height. Her neck looked delicate, almost breakable with a simple twist, and her hands were pale and elegant.

But looks can be deceiving.

Just the fact that she could suddenly appear behind him alone made that evidently clear.

That this woman is impossibly strong.

Much stronger than him.

"And why are you wandering around?" the woman asked again. "Nightborns should stay in their dimensions."

"Because I want to stretch my legs, and I don’t listen to others well," Kai replied with the kind of words that only the strong or those who think they are the strong would say. Most of his bullies talked this way.

It’s only a hunch feeling.

But there’s a nudge in his mind that made him think the woman can smell weakness. And she would be delighted by it. He opted to take the imposing approach exactly because of that, and since he had made that decision, he couldn’t half-ass it.

He’d see this through.

"Don’t listen well? Bold." The woman smiled. "Do you know who I am?"

"Yes," Kai nodded, and his gaze dropped to the black mark. For the mark to be on her chest, evident for anyone to see, it would be suspicious for him not to recognize her. "Do you know who I am?"

"No..." Her smile widened. "And that’s a problem."

Just then, the temperature dropped.

Kai’s heart hammered against his ribs. Those dark-amber eyes that looked like two precious stones and sclera-less, were no longer the same. A ring of cold white had surfaced, encircling where the irises should be like a halo.

It was similar to pupils contracting, but it was in her own way.

Unique to only someone with her biology.

And it made her look more terrifying.

"Go on, wretched Nightborn." Slowly, deliberately, the woman moved away and floated up, spreading her arms a little right beside her thighs, gesturing for Kai to attack her. "Do what you needed to do."

"What...?" Kai was taken aback.

"You’re sent here by Skotessa. No need to hide it from me," Her body began to draw in the night, but on another dimensional-scope in comparison to Kai’s. "I’ll let you attack me once before I remove you from the house."