The faint echo of the duel still hummed in my bones. Even now, as I sat beneath the cascading glow of Avalon's sky trees — their luminous petals drifting like silver fireflies — my heart pounded with awe. My father, Han Lockhart, had transcended the very notion of victory. Gunhee had rewritten creation itself. Yet... in the silence that followed, something even deeper stirred within me.
A presence.
No, not a presence — a return.
"Little brother seems to be taking care of himself."
That voice. Soft. Familiar. Ancient.
I turned slowly. And there she stood.
Her blonde hair shimmered like strands of starlight. Emerald eyes, impossibly vivid, locked onto mine with both warmth and melancholy. She had the same gaze as our mother — sharp enough to cut, soft enough to mend. Time paused to greet her.
"…Seo-yoon…?" I whispered, my voice brittle with disbelief.
She stepped closer, and the very air around her yielded — like reality itself bowed to her return. She cupped my face gently, smiling through eyes that had clearly seen far more than I ever had. "It's been a long time, Muhan."
A floodgate of memories surged forward. Her laughter in the garden. The time she shielded me from father's strict discipline. Her disappearance. The years I spent believing she was lost forever.
"Where were you?" I managed to say. "Why didn't you come back?"
Her hand trembled slightly as she withdrew it. "…Because where I went, time forgot me."
I could tell from the weight in her tone — this wasn't exile. It was survival. It was cosmic.
"I touched something beyond comprehension, Muhan. Something... Above. I saw stories before they were written. Names that even the Supreme Pantheon dared not whisper. And I lived. Barely."
My breath caught in my throat. I could feel it — not her power, but the absence of boundaries around her. She wasn't just strong.
She was untethered.
"I came back because I saw you," she said, stepping beside me. "I saw your battle. I saw your pain. I saw the void you are destined to confront."
She turned her gaze skyward.
"And I came to offer you something no one else can."
I didn't even have to ask.
"Train me," I said.
Her lips curled slightly. "I already intended to."
---
Later That Night — Muhan & Mi-cha, Alone Beneath Avalon's Moonglass Tree
The wind whispered through the leaves, brushing past Mi-cha's golden hair as she sat beneath the moonglass tree, arms wrapped around her knees. I found her there, alone — as if she already knew what I had come to say.
Her eyes met mine. "You're leaving… aren't you?"
I sat beside her, close enough to feel her warmth. But even then, I felt the distance already growing.
"My sister… she's not just back, Mi-cha. She's… something else. Something I need to learn from."
"You think she's stronger than you?" she asked, her voice soft, strained.
"I know she is," I said without hesitation. "She offered to train me. And for the first time… I realized how far I still have to go."
She was silent for a moment, then laughed gently — a bitter, aching laugh. "You always say that. 'I have to get stronger.' Even when you're already carrying universes on your shoulders."
"I don't want to protect you by default," I said, placing a hand over hers. "I want to walk beside you — not ahead of you. Not behind you."
Tears shimmered in her eyes, reflecting the light of the twin moons above.
"So how long?" she whispered.
I hesitated.
"I don't know."
She nodded slowly, her hands tightening around mine.
"You better come back as the strongest version of yourself. Or else I'll come find you and drag you back… even if I have to break reality to do it."
I chuckled.
She leaned forward, her forehead resting gently against mine.
We sat in silence, stars swirling above like the dreams we had yet to chase.
---
And so, beneath a sky drenched in cosmic hue, I parted from the woman I loved… not in weakness, but in will. My steps were not heavy — they were honest. If I was to face what lay beyond the horizon of existence, I could not walk in borrowed strength. I had to forge my own.
With Seo-yoon's shadow ahead of me, and Mi-cha's light behind…
I walked into the unknown.
:
Raven black hair, flowing like a shadowed waterfall.
Purple-pink eyes, glowing with emotion and resolve.
Drop-dead gorgeous, yet carrying an air of unreachable grace.
---
Mi-cha's POV
One week after Muhan's departure.
The room felt too large.
The quiet too loud.
Avalon's halls still echoed with his voice, and the breeze through the window still carried the warmth of his presence. Yet he was gone — walking paths I could not follow. Not yet.
I sat by the training garden where we once sparred — where I had laughed, bled, and kissed him beneath the trembling moonlight. My fingers brushed the air, remembering the shape of his hand in mine.
"Selfish idiot…" I whispered.
The words were bitter — but not because he left.
Because he had to. And because I wasn't strong enough to follow.
I stared at my reflection in the still pond, framed by white magnolia petals. My raven-black hair framed a face too calm for what boiled underneath. My purple-pink eyes, once sparkling with mischief, now shimmered with something sharper. Resolve.
"I won't wait idly."
I stood.
The moment my feet touched the stone path, the ground beneath me rippled — not physically, but in resonance. There was something… awakening. It stirred like stardust beneath my skin, like a memory trying to remember itself. Something… older. Purer.
Gunhee watched me from afar, arms folded, expression unreadable.
"You intend to train like him?"
"No," I replied, walking past him.
"I intend to surpass the girl he left behind."
He said nothing. But his divine aura pulsed faintly — not in approval, but in recognition.
---
Midnight Training Ground — Secret Chamber of the Celestial Mirror
The chamber was cold, dark… and perfect.
A massive crystalline mirror stood before me, one that only activated under absolute isolation. Its surface pulsed with silver light, revealing not my reflection — but my true self. The power within me. Dormant. Suppressed.
I stepped forward, the air thickening as the mirror responded.
—Mi-cha Lawson, Daughter of Grace.
Celestial Vessels Detected. Initializing Seal Break.
My breath hitched.
Light surged from my chest — not blinding, but reverent.
The Grace within me awakened like a slumbering tide.
Feathers of light spiraled around me — not golden like my mother's, but amethyst and silver, fluttering with a rhythm all their own. My eyes glowed brighter — the purple-pink intensifying until the chamber bathed in their hue.
And in that light, I saw her.
A woman — regal, vast, divine — standing tall within the mirror.
She was me. The me I had yet to become.
Her voice echoed from within my own:
> "You were never meant to follow.
You were meant to rise — and reign."
---
That night, as the stars wheeled above Avalon's towers, I stood atop the garden spire, cloak billowing around me. My aura, once soft, now shimmered with unspoken promise.
I looked toward the distant horizon — where Muhan had vanished beyond even my perception.
"Train well."
I closed my eyes.
> "Because when you return,
I won't just be waiting…"
I opened them again, their amethyst glow piercing the void.
> "—I'll be ready to walk beside you. As your equal. As your Empress."