"Are you feeling better?" Nyx asked. She poured two glasses of dark red wine. As she lifted the heavy crystal bottle, she softly cleared her throat. Her breathing caught slightly, but she quickly hid the tiny sound with a faint, adoring smile.

They had just returned to the penthouse from the Imperial Archive after spending another thirty minutes in there, watching endless holographic simulations. Zen could feel a heavy weight in Zen’s chest after all that.

Now in the luxurious bedroom, it felt like another world with its warm lighting and the soft, distant hum of the city filtering through the cracked window.

"I feel stronger," Zen said. He sat on the edge of the large bed. "My core is healing well."

"I know," Nyx replied, handing him a glass without a smile. As she extended her arm, the purple circuitry lines running up her wrist flickered dim for a fraction of a second, before snapping back to their usual steady glow. "You took more than just my mana last night, Zen."

Zen stopped moving. He looked up at her, swirling the dark wine in his glass. "What do you mean?"

"I am the Spymaster," Nyx said softly. "I see everything. I know everything that happens in my domain. And I know everything that happens inside my own body."

A few seconds of silence passed between them.

Then Zen simply replied, "You noticed."

"Of course I noticed," Nyx replied sharply as she sat next to him on the messy silk sheets. "You took a part of the Shadow Fragment."

"I had to," Zen replied firmly. "I needed the power."

"I am not angry with you," Nyx smiled sadly. "I am just sad."

"Sad?" Zen asked. "Why?"

"Because you stole it," Nyx whispered. "You tricked me. You used my physical pleasure to lower my mental shields. You thought I would fight you for it."

"Wouldn’t you?" Zen asked.

"No! No, I wouldn’t have." Nyx reached out and gently touched his cheek. "I would have given it to you. All you had to do was ask me."

"You expect me to believe that?" Zen asked. "You and the others murdered me to keep those fragments. You broke the world for them."

"That was five hundred years ago," Nyx said softly. "Things are different now."

"How are they different?" Zen asked.

"Before, you were trying to leave us forever," Nyx explained. "You were going to sacrifice your soul to the Void. Giving up the fragment then meant losing you entirely. But now? Now you are sitting right in front of me."

"So as long as I stay in your bed, you will give me what I want?" Zen asked.

"I will give you anything," Nyx declared. "I would burn my own city down if you asked me to. I just want you to trust me."

"Trust is earned, Nyx. And I just found out you buried a lie for centuries."

"I know," Nyx said, looking down at the floor. "I am sorry. But I belong to you. My power is your power. I just wish you had asked me first."

"Well, I couldn’t take that risk," Zen said. "If your subconscious mind fought back during the extraction, the magical backlash could have killed us both."

"You are right," Nyx sighed. "But your forceful extraction caused a major problem."

She was about to say more, but a sharp, sudden cough cut her off.

This time, she couldn’t hide it.

Her entire body tensed as a bright spark of purple lightning violently jumped from the circuitry lines on her neck, stinging the skin. Nyx winced in pain, her hand instantly flying to her chest as her breathing turned ragged.

"What is happening?" Zen asked, immediately putting his glass down on the nightstand.

"When you broke my internal seal, you damaged my core network," Nyx panted, her pale skin turning a shade lighter. "The Shadow Fragment acted as a central bridge for my digital pathways. Removing it broke my connection to Sector Four."

"Is it serious?" Zen asked, leaning closer.

"Yes," Nyx replied, rubbing her chest. "Sector Four is experiencing a massive power failure right now. The defense grids are down. And worse... my own internal cooling systems are failing. My mana is burning me from the inside."

"Let me see," Zen said.

"System," Zen commanded inwardly. "Analyze her mana pathways."

[Analyzing Target’s Mana Network...]

[Error found. The Shadow Fragment removal has created a void space in her core. Mana is leaking into the empty space. Severe overheating detected.]

"And you didn’t notice this before now?"

[I didn’t deem it necessary to...]

"Don’t give me that."

"I see the problem," Zen said, returning his attention to Nyx. "You are still trying to route your power through the old pathways. You are trying to send data through a bridge that does not exist anymore."

"I cannot help it." Sweat was already forming on her pale forehead as her circuitry lines flared erratically. "It hurts, Zen. My algorithms are crashing."

"Sit still," Zen ordered.

"What are you going to do?" Nyx asked.

"I am going to fix you," Zen said. "I built the original Aether foundation centuries ago. Your modern network is just a copy of my old design. I just need to create a bypass route. Relax your core."

"It is relaxed."

"Try not to fight my mana," Zen warned her. "If you resist, this will hurt a lot more."

"I will never fight you," Nyx whispered. Then she closed her eyes.

Zen placed his hands firmly on her bare shoulders, channeling his new High C-Rank mana directly into her. He could feel an intense, burning heat within her chest as he navigated through the chaotic currents of her energy to find her core.

The soul fragment wasn’t completely gone; about forty-five per cent was still securely anchored inside her.

But the violent extraction of the remaining fifty-five per cent left that piece destabilised and fractured. Her digital pathways frantically tried to route power through a broken connection, causing her massive S-Rank mana to leak heavily into the surrounding void space.

"Listen to my voice," Zen said, anchoring his own energy against the trembling fragment. "I am sending you a new command."

"I am listening," Nyx said.

"You are currently using a four-point routing system," Zen explained. "It is trying to hit the centre. It is too slow. I am changing it to a three-point star formation."

"A three-point star? Will that work?"

"It will bypass the empty space in your core completely," Zen replied. "Routing the mana now."

Zen forced the purple energy to change direction and tied the loose ends of her digital pathways together.

Nyx gasped loudly. Her eyes snapped open.

"Do you feel that?" Zen asked.

"Yes," Nyx gasped. "The data is flowing again. It is flowing so fast."

"Check your city connections," Zen ordered.

"Sector Four is coming back online." Nyx smiled brightly. "The power is restored. The defence grids are fully active."

"And your internal cooling system?" Zen asked, pulling his hands back.

Nyx took a deep, easy breath. The painful sparks on her neck vanished. "Perfect. The burning stopped. You fixed me. You always know exactly how to fix me."

"Just do not try to access the corrupted memory sectors attached to the missing half of the fragment," Zen warned her. "If your system tries to read the extracted data, it will crash your core again."

"I understand," Nyx said happily, her breathing completely returning to normal. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, my Emperor."

Zen leaned back, thinking about the massive surge of power he had taken. "Do the other Goddesses have the same network weakness?"

"No," Nyx shook her head. "Our fragments are all different. I held your Shadow. Lyra holds your Magic Fragment, tying her to your arcane comprehension. Selene guards your Heart Fragment, giving her complete dominion over healing and life force. Aurelia kept your Mind Fragment, giving her total authority."

"And Valeria?" Zen asked.

"Valeria holds the Body Fragment," Nyx said. "It gives her that insane, unbreakable physical strength. It is tied directly to her muscles and her bones, not a digital network."

"That makes her much harder to deal with," Zen muttered.

"She is completely feral," Nyx said. "She thinks she owns you."

Suddenly, the room flashed bright red.

A loud, deafening alarm screamed from the ceiling speakers, echoing through the massive penthouse.

[CRITICAL ALERT: S-RANK CONTINENTAL SHIELD BREACH.]

"What is that?" Zen asked, standing up quickly.

"Someone just hit the city’s outer energy shield," Nyx said. Her eyes turned bright purple as she quickly accessed the live camera feeds. "It is her."

"Valeria?" Zen frowned, his mind racing. "But we just spoke and she sounded completely pacified. So why is she breaching the shield?"

Zen didn’t wait for Nyx to answer. He tapped into the Spymaster’s network using his own system access. A holographic screen popped up in front of him, showing the live feed from the city’s outer wall.

He watched in pure disbelief. Valeria had not taken a train. She was flying through the air like a golden comet, obliterating a massive hole straight through the outer defence grid with her bare hands. She was ignoring the roads and heading straight for Nyx’s tower.

Dozens of heavy combat drones swarmed her, firing suppression beams.

Valeria didn’t even slow down. She smashed right through them, turning the expensive machines into falling scrap metal.

"Are you fighting back?" Zen demanded, turning to Nyx. "Nyx, stop the drones immediately! That will only enrage her more!"

"I am shutting them down now," Nyx said quickly, her fingers swiping through the air to override the automated systems. She stood up, and her neon-purple Spymaster battle armour materialised over her body. "She is moving too fast. She is not holding anything back."

"System, what is her estimated arrival time?"

[Valeria will arrive in exactly ten seconds.]

"Brace yourself," Zen said, stepping forward.

The whole penthouse started to shake violently. The wine glasses on the nightstand rattled and fell over, shattering on the floor. The red emergency lights kept flashing.

BOOM!

The penthouse’s thick, reinforced glass window exploded inwards. Millions of sharp glass pieces rained into the room like deadly needles as a roaring wind rushed through the opening, tossing the heavy silk curtains and flipping furniture.

A terrifying surge of golden magic flooded the space, making the heat instantly unbearable.

Valeria floated right in the centre of the broken window frame. She was covered in her full golden Aegis armour, looking like a true, terrifying Goddess of War. The golden light radiating from her body was blinding.

But she was not alone.

Valeria was holding someone by the throat. It was Maya.

The silver-haired healer looked absolutely terrified. Her face was pale blue, tears streaming down her cheeks as she kicked her feet helplessly in the air.

"Maya!" Zen yelled, taking a step forward.

"Stay back!" Valeria snarled loudly.

Her golden eyes locked onto Zen, appearing completely hollow. They was no trace of love, warmth, or kindness in them... only a pure, crazy obsession and a murderous rage.

Then, Valeria slowly moved her eyes and looked at Nyx.

"You," Valeria hissed at the Spymaster. "You dirty, digital whore."

"Get out of my city, Valeria," Nyx warned her. Purple lightning sparked dangerously around her armoured fists.

Valeria let out a dark, broken, crazy laugh.

She looked back at Zen, then slowly opened her hand and dropped Maya.

She hit the glass-covered floor with a painful thud, coughing loudly and gasping for air. The healer scrambled backward, crawling away from the golden monster as fast as she could to hide behind an overturned couch.

Valeria stepped completely into the room, her heavy metal boots crunching loudly on the broken glass. The golden magic around her grew even hotter, immediately singeing the expensive carpet and starting to melt the floorboards under her feet.

"I felt your resonance in my city," Valeria snarled at Zen.

Zen did not back away. He stood his ground, his dark eyes fixed on his Vanguard.

Valeria pointed a sharp, metal finger down at Maya.

"I thought my Emperor came home to me." Her voice cracked slightly, and a single tear rolled down her pale cheek.

She took another slow step closer to them. The golden storm around her flared higher, threatening to consume the entire room.

"Instead," Valeria sneered, gesturing toward the digital terminals lining the walls. "I find your deleted records."

She pointed back at Maya, her face twisting with pure jealousy. "And I find this little rat having more connection to you than I do."

She tilted her head slightly. "Care to explain, Emperor?"