Royal Reboot: Level up, Your Majesty!-Chapter 105: Lucid

Astra’s twin blades parted the gloom; they sliced through a wall of shadow and felt nothing as the resistance evaporated. She came face to face with the green-eyed panther once again, blade leveled at its muzzle.

“One hundred and sixtieth dream,” she growled. “Isn’t it?”

The panther did not answer. Instead it leaped overhead. Ink blossomed from its spine and unfurled into vast butterfly wings. They beat once, eclipsing the azure sky; daylight caved in, and the world drowned in black.

A single snowflake drifted down before a gale detonated outward. A white cyclone of snow pummeled her trench coat, flecks of ice stinging her eyes. Her twin blades shielded her from the storm, their diamond surfaces engraved with her own writing:

One hundred sixtieth loom.

My dreams.

Lust plays Eydis. My blade is my anchor.

She had stabbed this creature, scorched it with light, out-thought it, and still it lived. She had already learned how to remember, yet here she was…

Trapped.

“What is this frost-bitten purgatory? I thought you haunted Mythshollow,” she shouted into the roar.

“I might explain,” Lust answered, its sultry voice arriving from everywhere at once, “provided we strike a fair bargain. Tell me how you remember.”

“Keep your bargain.” Astra rammed one blade into the snow.

The ground hissed. Violet steam curled upward, smelling of honey and ash. Lust screamed. The landscape convulsed, melted, fell away. Astra plunged through strata of turquoise sea, of molten rock, of humming stars, until she slammed onto her own mattress.

She could not move.

“Eydis” perched above her, royal blue robe slipped from one shoulder, smile sharpened by candlelight.

Warm fingers traced the length of Astra’s bare arm. Her body stayed numb, her mind very awake.

“I was only mildly curious,” Lust murmured, hips settling slowly across Astra’s abdomen. “No one’s ever remembered my dreams. Not until you.”

Slender fingers slipped beneath Astra’s white shirt, grazing the skin just above her navel.

“Hells,” Lust purred. “You’re so hot, pure fire beneath that ice. No wonder the Queen of Shadows lost her composure around you… at least in front of Adam.”

It had read Adam’s memories.

Astra’s eyes kindled. “Get lost.”

Lust bent lower instead. “Impress me just a little more.” Lips brushed the shell of Astra’s ear, “and I might share a secret meant for no other mind.”

“And you assume I’d believe you?” Astra asked.

Lust nibbled at her earlobe. “Did you know Eydis is already here?”

“In my head?” Astra scoffed. “Every word out of your mouth reeks of rot.”

“Ah, but rot fertilises truth.” A lazy grin curved Lust’s borrowed mouth. “I design your nights from stolen memories. Never yours, sadly. Your mind is a locked vault, and I loathe closed doors.”

“So you admit you cannot touch me,” Astra said. “Yet that didn’t stop you from feeding me this sloppy nonsense.”

A ripple of laughter escaped Lust. “You wound me. Most dreamers accept a bare skeleton and rush to add the flesh themselves. But you? You’re trouble. Still, you slipped.”

It tweaked the sash on its robe as proof.

Astra’s gaze never left its face. “Knowing Eydis owns that robe won’t make your show any more convincing.”

“Oh? I also know what the two of you enjoy,” it taunted. “One loop, you were both sitting on a rooftop, devouring kebabs. Romantic, if greasy. Kebab, honestly? I expected the Queen of Shadows to possess refined taste.”

A thought crossed Astra’s mind. “She always enjoys meat. You could’ve leaned into that, but instead you gave me a snowfield under a red moon. Strange choice, for someone who reads dreams.”

The Sin leaned back in genuine curiosity. “Snowfields? You did not realise they rise from your own subconscious, Astra? Perhaps I’m not the only one locked out of your memory.”

Astra kept her face smooth, but her pulse raced.

Snow.

A flake-cut pendant.

She had chosen the name Astra, thinking it meant star. What if it pointed somewhere colder?

“Oh, I touched a nerve,” Lust whispered. “Your thoughts circle that place, and always, always they circle her. I assumed you had already fucked her. I died, and died again, with that certainty. Fifty revisions later you granted me only a few extra minutes.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Its mouth hovered so close Astra felt the heat of every syllable.

“Ever wonder why she keeps postponing you?”

“Will you ever shut up?” Astra snapped. Power prickled along her fingers. Lust held her fast by wearing Eydis’s face, not by any chain.

Yet Lust could never be Eydis.

The Sin cocked its head. Soft brown waves rippled, hair moving as though underwater. “People crave sex. But her restraint, and yours, is truly something. She strings you along so delicately. But darling… I could satisfy you in her stead.”

Astra’s fingers twitched.

Lust’s tongue traced the seam of her lips. “I’ll teach you what wanting really means.” Fingers slid beneath her waistband. “Again and again. I’ll wear her face for you, and let you do everything.”

Enough.

Astra’s eyes flared red. Blades erupted into her hands, and she drove both into Lust’s chest.

The Sin shrieked. The ground folded, then unfolded, fumbling for a new lie.

“You killed the mood,” Lust spat, lunging for Astra. Then it froze, just before the sky itself screamed.

No, it was Lust who cried.

Gone was the honeyed purr; what returned was a raw howl of agony, as if something were tearing it apart. Then Astra saw her and held her breath.

From the purple haze stepped a woman who made even nightmare hush.

She moved as if time obeyed her and her alone. She wore a velvet gown the colour of midnight, amethyst edging every seam, her golden eyes sharp as judgment.

Eydis.

“Did you have to wait long?” Eydis asked. Two ravens burst from her shadow, scythes for beaks, wings eclipsing the horizon.

The world snapped into place for Astra. “You came.”

“Of course.” A gentle light flickered in Eydis’s gaze. She raised one pale hand, and the ravens spiraled upward, drinking in the dream’s broken pieces. Lust’s shadow shrank with every beat of their wings.

“Show-off,” Lust growled.

“I prefer efficient,” Eydis replied.

Astra leapt, carving what remained of the nightmare, purging fear and doubt until the sky lay still.

She landed an arm’s length from Eydis and, drawn as if sleepwalking, brushed trembling fingers against hers. True warmth flooded her.

“I thought I might never see you again,” Astra whispered. “I doubted you were still real.”

“I am real. I am here. I never stopped trying.” Eydis’s words were soft and gentle.

Something unlatched inside Astra. Her knees failed, and Eydis caught her.

“You cannot imagine how many times I killed you,” Astra whispered against that shoulder.

“It’s all right.” Eydis tightened her arms. “I’m alive, am I not?”

“How did you reach my mind? This is still Lust’s territory. It isn’t safe.”

“I linked our minds together.” Eydis rested her forehead against Astra’s. “It’s over now. Come away with me.”

“Linked our minds?” Astra’s fingers locked around Eydis’s wrists. “And if you’re wounded in here, what then?”

Eydis smiled knowingly and answered without missing a beat. “My mind dies. But we beat Lust, didn’t we?”

Too fast.

A conversation with Eydis flashed through Astra’s mind, back when they were still in her study, the secret sigil Eydis kept hidden, the way she dodged every question about its function, the way she refused…

To tell her what it cost. And now she acted nonchalant, like it was nothing.

Astra lowered her head, schooling her voice to neutral. “Fine. Let’s go. I’m starving. Feels like I fought a war.”

“You and your appetite.” Eydis’s smile flashed mischievous. “Anything in particular?”

Crimson eyes shimmered. “Kebab. Our favourite.”

Eydis nodded easily. “Of course. I know a stall that does a shockingly good one.”

Astra’s grip tightened on her hilts. Then she lifted her chin, slow.

“Astra?” Concern creased Eydis’s brow, so genuine it almost fooled her. Almost.

“You feeling hungry too?” Astra asked.

“A girl’s gotta eat,” Eydis teased. “Even after armageddon.”

Astra laughed, and Eydis answered with a smile.

Yet Astra remembered how Eydis once ranted for days about smoked meat: toxic, carcinogenic, the taste of death. Astra had planted that aversion on purpose, bait in the water.

She never guessed it would unravel like this.

Eydis, hungry?

“You’re still Lust, aren’t you?”

Pain flickered in Eydis’s eyes. “Astra, I’m real,” she whispered, extending a hand. “Trust m—“

Rage and terror twisted together. Astra drove her blade into the offered palm, through cloth and flesh, straight into the heart. She braced for violet steam.

Blood greeted her instead: thick, red, human.

Eydis staggered. “You don't… trust me?” Her voice shook with disbelief, then faded all together.

Life bled out between Astra’s fingers.

Blood stained her hands, hot and slick, just like that night in the rain. Only now, it froze her from the inside out.

What if she had truly killed Eydis?

She stared at the cooling body, waiting for the illusion to ripple, for colours to smear, for the Sin to rise laughing. That had happened one hundred sixty-one times already; surely it would again.

Any second now.

“Get up.” She slammed her hand against the ground so hard it stung.

Nothing answered except the steady drop of Eydis’s temperature, the fading gleam of her golden eyes.

One blink, and they dulled further.

Another, and the light was almost gone.

Astra knelt while the sky shifted from black to burning gold. Tears blurred her sight; Eydis’s face was already slipping from memory.

“Get up…”

Her voice cracked. ƒгeewebnovёl_com

“Please.”

Then a sound bubbled up from the body beside her, delighted, indescribably wrong. It started as a giggle, then sped to a cackle. Fast, sharp, and rotten.

Eydis—no, Lust wearing her skin—sat upright. Gold irises boiled into a toxic green. “How exquisite,” it cooed. “The shape of your ruin. I could watch that moment on repeat forever.”

Astra’s blade rose, trembling, to the Sin’s throat. The dream would restart, but her blade was truth—

“How do you rate my lie?” Lust’s smile stretched until the cheeks tore, thin splinters of skin glistening. “Almost perfect? And I did not lie about the real Eydis being close.”

It clapped. Walls of light burst around them, each pane replaying Astra murdering Lust-as-Eydis: in gardens, on rooftops, even tangled in bed. Too many scenes to count.

“You wished to remember, so I oblige.” The panes rushed toward Astra’s mind. “One hundred sixty-two by my count, every time your blades found her heart without hesitation.”

Screams scraped Astra’s throat but never escaped; the memories piled thick, crushing air from her lungs.

She had been wrong.

She did not want to remember. Not this, never this.

Lust hooked an arm over her shoulders, almost tender. “I have studied you, Astra,” it whispered, lips brushing her ear. “You’re your blades. You were made to kill. And you’re so, so very good at it.”

A single tear slipped down her cheek.

It smirked. “You want freedom? Then end me. Use your weapon well. Destroy my essence. But here’s the game—”

Astra tightened her grip and struck.

The blade passed through. Lust melted into the dark between heartbeats, laughter jagged and echoing.

“Good girl. Next time we meet, I’ll wear only her face. Refuse to kill me and I’ll drown you from the inside. Strike, and pray you miss the real one. Delicious, isn’t it?”

The grin lingered an instant longer than the body.

“The real game begins now. So look closely.”

Do not blink, my Astra.

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