Kafka arrived without ceremony.
Two Cloud Knights escorted her across the terrace with measured steps, spears held at ease but never lowered. The golden binding around her wrists glowed softly, etched with sigils that pulsed in time with her heartbeat. It wasn't a shackle meant to hurt. It was a promise. A declaration that resistance had already been accounted for.
Sunny had straightened the moment he sensed her approach.
The Shadow Chair creaked quietly as he leaned forward, forearms resting on his thighs, attention fixed ahead. March followed his gaze, her earlier banter evaporating the instant Kafka came into view.
Fu Xuan snapped out of her stupor like a blade being drawn.
The absent haze vanished from her eyes, replaced by a focus so sharp it was almost unsettling. Where moments ago she had looked like a scholar lost in numbers, now she looked like a judge staring down a verdict she did not like but intended to deliver anyway.
Kafka noticed immediately.
She smiled.
It was the same empty, pleasant expression she always wore, eyes calm, posture relaxed despite the restraints. As she was guided closer to the Matrix, her gaze flicked briefly across the gathered observers before settling on Fu Xuan.
"Is this really necessary?"
Her voice was light, almost amused.
"I did promise to cooperate."
Fu Xuan stared at her.
She stared past the smile, past the voice, past the body standing in front of her, as though trying to see the shape of something hidden behind it all. Disbelief crossed her face, slow and genuine.
Then she shook her head.
"Only an amateur would believe that, true or not."
The Cloud Knights brought Kafka to a stop directly beneath the Matrix of Prescience. The jade rings above them continued their silent rotations, runes shifting without pause. Standing beneath it made Kafka look small.
Sunny felt it then.
A chill crept along his spine, subtle but unmistakable. The air thickened, pressure building without any visible cause. It wasn't hostile, not exactly, but it was invasive. Like standing too close to a deep body of water and realizing it was aware of you.
Kafka exhaled softly.
"How nostalgic."
She lifted her chin, eyes locking with Fu Xuan's.
"Go on, then. Witness my Destiny."
The Matrix answered.
Light surged through the jade rings as they accelerated, rotations tightening into complex harmonics that made Sunny's vision blur if he focused too long. Above Kafka, constellations blinked into existence, geometric and artificial, forming and collapsing in rapid succession.
Kafka rose.
It wasn't dramatic. No burst of force, no violent pull. She simply lifted off the ground as though gravity had quietly let go of her. The golden binding glowed brighter, anchoring her in place as threads of light descended from the Matrix and wrapped loosely around her form.
Her eyes never left Fu Xuan.
Inside Fu Xuan's mind, the world fractured.
Information flooded in, streams of probability and recorded causality converging into a tapestry so dense it threatened to overwhelm her. Kafka's history unfolded in layers, branching timelines, intersecting choices…
And then, gaps.
Entire segments of Kafka's existence were simply not there. Her life before becoming a Stellaron Hunter terminated into blankness, as if someone had taken a blade to the record and excised it cleanly. The identities of Mongrel and SAM appeared as outlines with nothing inside them, variables deliberately left unresolved.
Fu Xuan felt a prickle crawl up her neck.
This was not resistance.
This was editing.
Worse still, the sensation crept in slowly, insidiously, until she could no longer ignore it.
She was being watched.
Fu Xuan tightened her grip on her composure and pushed past the missing data. Whatever had been removed was not the objective. She redirected the Matrix's focus, issuing a new directive through sheer force of will.
Divine the Stellaron crisis on the Luofu.
The Matrix responded instantly.
The constellations shifted, collapsing inward before reforming into a new configuration. The pressure spiked. Fu Xuan's breath caught in her throat as the answer took shape.
Then she gasped.
A short, sharp sound that escaped her before she could stop it.
The tension broke.
Fu Xuan let out a small, incredulous chuckle.
"Who would have thought?"
Welt stepped forward, concern creasing his expression.
"Did something go wrong?"
Fu Xuan blinked.
She looked around, as if only just remembering they were not alone. Her eyes flicked to Welt, then to March, then briefly to Sunny before returning to Kafka.
She exhaled, long and measured.
"Kafka was not involved in the Stellaron crisis on the Luofu. Her presence here was… unrelated. Whatever her purpose was, it did not concern the Stellaron."
A ripple of surprise moved through the group.
March frowned.
"Wait, seriously?"
Kafka's smile deepened, just a fraction.
Fu Xuan continued.
"As for her motives… it's best if you ask her yourselves. I have to inform the General about this…"
As she stepped aside, Sunny finally exhaled.
He hadn't realized he had been holding his breath.
The eerie pressure receded, leaving behind a faint echo that lingered uncomfortably in the back of his mind. He watched Kafka carefully, eyes narrowed, thoughts racing despite himself.
Something about what he had felt bothered him.