“How did you understand a word he said? And what do you mean by ‘save them’?” Vernisha demanded.

  “He says he’s glad to see you’re well. And he apologized to me. Said he’s sorry. Anyway, I believe that since their body is no longer human, you can heal them, restore them to their original form without the feedback killing them.”

  She ignored Vernisha’s first question. Of course she did.

  “That can actually work? I can really save them?”

  “I think so. I’m certain they won’t die if you try.”

  “But how can you be sure?”

  “Well, if you don’t heal them, their condition will only worsen. And if I’m wrong, you’ll kill them. They’ll die one way or another.”

  “Hell...”

  “You should prepare for anything.”

  “I can’t just prepare myself to get them killed!”

  “Try, at least.”

  “Give me something. Some comfort. Anything. For god’s sake.”

  “I’m afraid of how their deaths might affect you.”

  “And what about you? How would you feel?”

  She looked at Ulah. “I’d feel terrible.”

  “You don’t sound too worried, mom. Always about me. Always me, me, me.”

  “Are you going to try to help them?”

  Vernisha took a deep breath and glanced at the doctor. Natasha waved her hand dismissively, and the doctor obeyed, shutting the door behind him.

  Her heart raced.

  Her left hand glowed red, and she stepped closer to Caren.

  She placed her hand on his face. Energy drained from her as though it were being siphoned away.

  Three seconds passed. The energy flickered, then surged back to life.

  Her control was limited, but he wasn’t moving. It didn’t matter.

  It felt like an eternity. His skin returned to a healthy tan.

  She pulled her hand back. Caren stirred, his fingers twitching, then reaching for his chest.

  Holy shit. “It worked!”

  “Ulah, next. Now,” Natasha ordered.

  Healing Ulah was smoother. His body returned to normal quickly, but Vernisha was drained.

  “It worked.”

  She sank into a chair. She had done it.

  Ferzan dressed quickly, slipping on a silver head covering, white shirt, silver pants, and a crimson sleeveless coat.

  He checked himself in the mirror. Lifting the head covering, he held it at his side.

  Katie was already dressed in the same colors. “You should wear the headscarf off to the side.”

  “In public? I want to look like a young gentleman, not some thug.”

  “A'ight.”

  He adjusted it, leaving the sides and back of his head exposed, but covering the top and front.

  He looked damn good.

  “You’re acting like you’re about to go on a date.”

  “I might see a cute girl in the capital.”

  “I thought you liked dudes.”

  “Do you just make up things and pretend they’re true?” he muttered.

  He adjusted the head covering, concealing all his hair except the sideburns.

  “I might spread a rumor about you. Save you from being married off to your cousin or aunt.”

  “Ain’t you the most caring sister?”

  “Seriously, do you think that’s why Granny wants us to have dinner tonight? So you can meet some woman twice your age?”

  “It’s for an evaluation of me as a vlandos. You should be the one worrying about that.”

  He wouldn’t need to worry about that until he was two or three times older. By then, he would likely surpass level 100.

  The higher a vlandos level, the stronger their offspring would be.

  Katie wasn’t a vlandos, but she was a second-generation descendant of a Mortal God. Her value was astronomical.

  “I’d rather jump off a cliff.”

  “Don’t say such disgusting things.”

  “I’ll kill myself.”

  Tarneisha opened the door. “Miss Abella is waiting for you two.”

  She wasn’t joining them.

  “Are you going to be okay by yourself?” Ferzan asked.

  “Yeah. I guess I’ll be playing puzzles.”

  “I’ll get you something cool in the city.”

  “Cooler puzzles.”

  They went downstairs. The Punchio servants opened the door.

  Mom’s yellow hair was styled in soft curls.

  “You look good,” Ferzan said.

  “Thank you. You’re dressed well enough.”

  “You’re supposed to say something like, I look like a handsome young man.”

  “You look very handsome.”

  “Thank you.”

  They were driven to Sundawn in an ether-powered Jeep.

  “Mom.”

  “What is it?”

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  “Nothing. Just felt like calling you.”

  “Oh. Of course.”

  “Mom.”

  “Yes?”

  Something streaked across the sky, and a shadow crashed down in front of them.

  Ferzan kicked the door open and reached to summon a monster, but nothing happened. The sanctity fields nullified his call.

  The creature standing before them was grotesque, and it rose until it towered over him.

  “Filthy… cultist…”

  Its body split, forming a duplicate.

  His mother ripped the door off the jeep. “Don’t just stare. Run!” she barked, hurling the door forward.

  It cleaved into the creature, which howled as its arm snapped toward her. She backpedaled, tore open the back door, and deflected the attack, then sent the door spinning at its neck.

  The head came clean off.

  Katie scrambled out. “Mom…”

  “It’s okay,” she murmured, staring at the corpse.

  The driver stood beside Ferzan, trembling.

  "How is there a monster here?!" he demanded.

  "I don't know." His mother’s voice was calm, the way it always was in public.

  She rolled her shoulders, a familiar motion she made when the pain from her illness clawed at her bones. A flicker crossed her face, then her gaze snapped upward, and without hesitation she drove her foot into the jeep beside her, sending the vehicle hurtling forward.

  The creature’s ruined neck bulged as flesh twisted and ruptured, another head beginning to force its way out, but the jeep slammed into it before the growth could finish, the impact launching the mass of flesh backward across the street.

  The body hit the ground hard, shuddered violently, and then split again, dividing into more distorted forms.

  His mother let out a sharp breath and reached into her personal space, drawing out a blue and silver lance just as the duplicates roared and charged her together.

  Ferzan did not hesitate. He seized Katie and the driver and pulled them away, running hard while the clash behind them erupted into the sound of tearing metal and cracking pavement.

  The original creature did not pursue them. Instead, its warped gaze swept the area as if searching, its body going rigid the moment it fixed on something in the distance.

  Ferzan followed its line of sight and saw the small doctor’s office, the same one where he had met Vernisha, now reduced to wreckage.

  She could be near.

  He swallowed, dropped to the ground, and crossed his legs, forcing his breathing to steady.

  Focus. Focus.

  He pictured the Mortal Goddess in his mind and reached for her power.

  With quiet certainty, he whispered, "Wanda Starlight, reveal your starlight upon what is unknown to me. Show me, where is Vernisha Holinestone?"

  A dim hush fell over the world, the sky above pulsing faintly as his mother’s lance swept in broad arcs of silver and blue, holding back the growing swarm. She turned her head toward him, sensing the shift in the air.

  A single yellow star ignited above, and a narrow beam of light descended, marking the ruined doctor’s office.

  Just great.

  He exhaled. "Thank you for your light."

  The glow faded, and the world returned to its usual color.

  "Katie," he said, pointing toward the beam’s last location. "When Mom's done, tell her I’m heading over there."

  "Why the hell would you do that?! Leave it to the Knights!"

  "Someone I know might be in danger."

  He was already moving before she could argue, breaking into a run toward the wreckage.

  A sudden wave of cold swept across his back, sharp enough to steal his breath, and when he turned he saw the monstrous mass frozen solid, transformed into a towering sculpture of ice. His mother sat before it with her lance resting beside her, her eyes already shifting toward another distant surge of creatures.

  Everything had happened too fast.

  Vernisha lay across broken concrete, the sharp edges biting into her back while a jagged iron pole protruded from her stomach. Even as blood seeped around her, her thoughts dragged her back to what had just happened.

  The crash of collapsing buildings, the screams, the wet sound of tearing flesh filled the air, yet none of it drowned out Caren’s voice, his words looping again and again in her mind.

  She had healed them. She had watched them come back.

  A couple of minutes ago.

  Ulah had run to Natasha, clutching her and sobbing into her chest, while Caren had lifted his hands and turned them over as though they belonged to someone else, flexing his fingers in disbelief before slowly sitting up.

  "Where are we?"

  "A private doctor’s office," Vernisha had said. "You were all very sick."

  "Oh." He frowned, rubbing his temple. "I remember being insanely hungry. Thirsty."

  His hand moved to his stomach before his eyes settled on her.

  "You look a bit dirty. Were you working on the farm?"

  She had forced a weak smile. "I just ended up falling a lot."

  He had laughed softly, but the smile did not last. His gaze drifted to Natasha, his hands tightening as if bracing himself.

  "Natasha, you look good. Are you well?"

  "I think I am. You?"

  "I’m okay. A little weird still, but okay." He drew in a breath. "I just want to say I’m sorry. I never appreciated you. I was stupid. I didn’t understand why you’d be with someone like me, and that made me frustrated. I’ll treat you better. I mean that."

  Natasha had given a small nod.

  Caren had looked back at Vernisha. "What’s on your mind?"

  She had met his eyes. "Just so you know, it was a Vlandos doctor who saved you."

  He had smirked faintly. "Of course, that’s what you’d say…"

  "Thank Vernisha," Natasha had said. "If it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t be here, healed."

  The surprise on his face had been real, his hands trembling as he looked at Ulah.

  "And because of that, Ulah is okay…"

  His voice had grown rough. "I was the old fool, huh? It’s good you ignored me back then. If Ulah had died because of what I told you, that would have broken me. Thank you, Vernisha. Thank you for saving your brother and me."

  She had been stunned, her chest aching in a way she had never associated with him.

  She had nodded slowly, the unfamiliar warmth in her chest catching her off guard as she fought to keep her composure. "Yeah…"

  She had bitten her lip, holding back tears.

  Then Ulah had jerked violently, hands flying to his throat as his sobs turned into strangled gasps, his skin swelling and darkening into a sickly green.

  Natasha’s expression had shifted only for an instant before settling into cold neutrality.

  Panic had taken Vernisha. She had rushed to Ulah, pressing her hands to him and pouring healing energy into his body, forcing the change back as his limbs convulsed in her grip. Slowly, his skin had returned to normal, and he had collapsed against her, drained.

  Caren had seen it all.

  She had not had time to hide anything.

  "Natasha, Mom," she said, her voice shaking. "How sure are you really?"

  The realization pressed in on her. If their bodies were changing at the core, then what was her power actually doing?

  "I'm not sure anymore," Natasha said.

  "How can you say that? Why were you so confident before?!"

  Caren stepped forward, fear creeping into his voice. "That red energy. Vernisha… What have you done?"

  "This is different!" she shouted. "It heals! I healed you and him!"

  His pupils split as his skin pulled tight over his face, stretching in unnatural ways while his limbs swelled, as though something inside him were pushing outward, desperate to break free.

  "The entire time… you were like that? You could—" His eyes dropped to her left hand, to the bandages wrapped tightly around it. "Remove that."

  "No."

  "Remove it!"

  "I said—"

  "He’s going to die anyway," Natasha cut in, her voice flat and cold. "Show him."

  Vernisha hesitated, her gaze moving between them, before she drew in a sharp breath and ripped the bandages free, letting the cloth fall to the floor.

  She raised her left hand and opened her palm.

  The black spider symbol stared back.

  Caren’s breath caught. He began to shake his head slowly, his entire body trembling. "No… No… NO!"

  His scream tore through the room.

  "NATASHA! You knew?! You knew she was a Darsean cultist?!"

  "I am not a Darsean cultist!" Vernisha shouted. "I just have the same seal. That’s all!"

  Natasha did not move, her expression unreadable.

  Caren’s face contorted as his body swelled further, the mutations overtaking him in waves. "You… are a devil. No wonder you loved me. No, you never loved me. You aren’t even human."

  Then his body expanded in a violent surge.

  Skin stretched, muscle bulged, and his form pushed past human limits as the floor cracked beneath him and the walls groaned under the pressure. Ulah’s body reacted as well, the transformation spreading in a chain reaction that warped the air and space around them.

  "I will kill you!"

  His voice echoed, the last words she heard from him, carving themselves into her mind.

  She had wanted him dead once, yet hearing him say the same thing still hurt.

  She had prepared herself for his hatred if he learned she was Vlandos, but this was worse. He believed she was a Darsean cultist.

  And that cut deeper.

  Now.

  Vernisha lay pinned beneath debris, the iron pole still lodged in her stomach.

  Above her, Caren’s monstrous form twisted and split into more unnatural copies.

  She wondered if killing the original would end them all, though she doubted it would be so simple.

  The creatures towered more than five meters tall, their movements uneven. One of them finally saw her face.

  “You…”

  Shit.

  She clenched her teeth and tried to shove the rubble off her body, but the slabs of concrete and twisted metal weighed far too much.

  She tried to summon her monster, but only a weak black glow flickered from her seal before fading.

  Huh…

  Huh…?!

  Something was blocking it.

  The footsteps of the henious creature grew heavier. Each step sent tremors through the ground and into her bones.

  She forced every bit of strength into her limbs, trying to break free.

  “Argh!” she screamed at the pieces of concrete. “Just get off me!”

  A shadow fell across her.

  “You freak…” Caren stood barely a meter away.

  She froze.

  “Fuck… you,” she said, her voice breaking. “I am your daughter, Caren!”

  The words spilled out before she could stop them. She had always hated him, yet the betrayal still cut.

  “Are you really going to kill me?! How can you think I’m a Darsean cultist? I’m just twelve! A little girl!”

  He stepped closer, his presence crushing, the ground trembling beneath his weight. She felt the vibration through the metal impaled in her body.

  “I am your DAUGHTER!” she screamed, her throat burning.

  Without speaking, he grabbed the massive debris pinning her and threw it aside as if it weighed nothing. Then his hands closed around her.

  “You are not my daughter.” His grip tightened, her ribs straining under the pressure. “You’re just a freak… something that should've never existed.”