CH345

CH344
Ren
She charged Huh. at me, the stench of desperation thick in the air. Her Celestial form glinted in the flickering blue light, grotesque and broken. Her shell was a jagged-edged mess. It was what she deserved and everything in me was calm as she barreled toward me. I lifted my sword as she drew closer, screaming at me. The blade hummed, remembering her, too.
She clawed at me and long before she could send out any sort of real attack, I swung. The strike was clean. Swift. Final. Straight through her neck like butter. Her head separated from her body in one clean arc.
Her Celestial shell shattered like glass dropped on stone.
She didn’t scream as she fell, the sound of it cut off as her head went spinning through the air, dissolving into soft blue astral water.
And the world began to stabilize. My fire rushed out to wash over everything.

Ryuu
The moment Morgan’s body hit the floor, silence fell. The blue light of her Celestial form flowed into the air.
But the silence only lasted a breath.
A shout cracked the stillness. Morgan’s father, face twisted in disbelief and rage, drew a gun from inside his jacket, screaming but he wasn’t fast enough before I had already summoned my own sword and took his head off.
“Take out everyone who resists.”
Gunfire erupted, sudden and merciless. My men had been waiting for the signal, stationed throughout the room, weapons already drawn. The Hangui affiliates who had reached for their weapons barely got their fingers near their triggers before they were riddled with bullets.
Screams. Blood. The old marble of the ballroom was stained with blood.
Someone begged. Someone ran. None of them were shot, but I paid them no thought. I didn’t blink. I didn’t flinch. I only watched as the world around us continued to change. Ren’s light washed up the platform I stood on and over me, warm and familiar.
Suddenly, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I reached up, wincing at the shortness of my hair, and wearing the same suit she’d seen me in the day before, when she was dressed as if she had barreled through space and time to get here.
She was so beautiful. I straightened my jacket and watched what she would do next.

Ren
The blue light of astral water surrounded me, flowing into my blade like a river summoned from the cosmos. Anzo’s body was still, but her soul tried to scatter and run from me, to escape. I drew it to me, listening to her desperate cries for want of freedom.
The celestial current wrapped around me, and I felt her. I felt everything. Anzos ’ambition, her madness, her longing twisted by centuries of jealousy and fear. The grip of it on Anzo’s mind was heavy. Her consciousness was heavy with this twisted sense of the word. She twisted, trying to claw free, but I set her ablaze, burning her out to nothing but a hollow, ghost of a scream.
It was over now. The light of astral water burns brighter for a second, then stilled and melded into the venomous green of her snake form, turning a gentle aqua that flowed and slithered around the core of my flame, feeding it and melding with it.
Around me, gunfire began to die down. Ryuu’s men finish what I started. The Hangui loyalists are dead or dying, slumped on the ground or sprawled across the floor. The ones who surrendered cowered in fear.
I lifted my eyes to look at Ryuu, finding him standing at the altar, staring back at me. I hesitated. My heart stuttered. What if the Tsuneo I knew—what if Tarofu was gone? What if he was just Ryuu? Would that be so bad if... if I could be just Ren?
I took one step, then another. My hands trembled as I sheathed my sword. He was walking towards me as well, matching my pace. One stride, then two. It felt like forever before he was close enough.
“Ryuu--”
His arms lashed out, pulling me against him, strong arms wrapping around me like home, and sliding his hand into my hair with a soft sigh of relief.
His breath brushes my ear as he says the words I didn’t even know I was holding my breath for.
“We found each other, my pyra.”
I melted into his arms. My eyes were burning and I was nodding.
“I’m sorry I killed her.”
He chuckled. “Between the two of us, you’ve earned it more.”
He kissed my cheek and drew back. His lips twitched.
“I seem to remember that we never quite had a formal marriage...” My eyes widened as he lowered himself onto one knee, looking up at me, holding my hand “Ren, Morgan, Pyra, will you marry me?”
I smiled, cupping his cheek. “Only... as a formality.”
He grinned and stood, drawing me back to the altar. The officiant looked like he’d rather be anywhere else, but he put on a tense smile.
“Dearly beloved...”
I took Ryuu’s hands in mine, smiling up at him as he smiled at me. The room smelled of blood and scorched magic, but it was peaceful, if a bit insane, as the real Ren believed, but she didn’t protest.
He will keep us safe when we can not.
Ryuu lifts my hand and laces our fingers together.
“I think we’ll have to get more of those made,” he said, eyeing me. “And... I’ll have to grow my hair out.”
I laughed. “Not if you don’t want to.”
The officiant skipped over something about an objection, and when he declared us husband and wife, Ryuu drew me into his arms, kissing me deeply and with every bit of passion and longing I felt.
Then, something started to change. It started at the edges of the room like wind brushing against old silk, tugging down banners and scraping away paint. The motifs were all changing again. The walls were too. The blood that had stained the ground was vanishing, seemingly absorbed by the palace.
One by one, the bodies vanished, leaving nothing but the pristine stone behind. The vibrant reds and gleaming gold raced and tumbled, twining with black, updating the borders of the palace. It was as if the Pearl Palace was completely reborn, reforged by my fire rather than restored, I was sure of that.
“Thank the fucking heavens,” Yusuke hissed, bending forward to rest his hands on his knees. Sano pat his back. “I swear... I wasn’t sure if Ara was right but... I’m damn glad she was.”
“Morgan and her father weren’t leaving the Palace alive,” Ryuu said. “Have a little more faith.”
Yusuak scoffed.
I looked over at him and smiled. “I’ll forgive her for drugging and kidnapping me.”
He flashed a grin and bowed to me. “We are eternally grateful for your leniency, Your Majesty.”
I blinked and looked at Ryuu, who hummed.
“I suppose... yes. With father gone,” he looked down at me. “You are indeed queen.”
Outside the window, I see the city skyline shift and the light of the day fade to night as it should have been. A cozy, hazy heat filled the palace. In the distance, the mountain for which my family had been named appeared.