The system space dissolved into trembling ripples that reached the horizon's edge. The blue ocean—usually calm enough to reflect the sky perfectly—shuddered as if something massive stirred beneath its surface.
Liam felt it before the system spoke.
A pull.
A tug on his soul.
Like a thread he didn't know existed was being drawn taut—
a connection re-forming with the world he had left behind.
The floating sun dimmed, flickering like it struggled to maintain form.
**"HOST."**
The system voice, usually emotionless, now carried a faint echo of urgency.
**"RETURN SEQUENCE HAS INITIATED.
PREPARE FOR TRANSFER."**
Liam's heart pounded—not physically, but spiritually. His soul avatar trembled.
"Is it time?"
**"YES."**
Wind—something that had never existed in the system space—blew across him, carrying warmth and memory.
Years flashed before him:
His mother crying alone on the nursery balcony.
His father slaughtering demons with hollow eyes.
Soldiers fighting with no hope.
A world bleeding.
A kingdom grieving.
A kingdom that once whispered his name with hope.
Liam inhaled shakily.
"I'm ready."
The ocean surged upward in a spiraling column, forming a vortex of light around him. His soul avatar started to merge with a distant, flickering outline—his dormant infant body outside.
The last thing the system whispered was gentle:
**"WELCOME HOME, LIAM."**
The world turned white.
---
# **AELTHRYS — THE NURSERY THAT TIME COULDN'T TOUCH**
In the heart of **Aelthrys**, capital of the **Elvish Empire**, the once-grand nursery stood untouched by time. It was the quietest room in the palace, forbidden to all except the queen.
Dust never settled here.
Seraphielle ensured that.
Every day she entered and cleaned the room herself—not with magic, but with trembling hands.
The cradle…
The crescent-moon window…
The star-shaped mobile she made while pregnant…
She kept them perfect.
Because it was the last piece of him she had.
She never allowed a single change.
Not even the curtains could be moved.
She wanted the room to stay as it was on the day Liam disappeared—
as if preserving it would convince fate to return her child.
Tonight, as with every night, the nursery was cold.
Silent.
Dead.
Until—
The silence buckled.
The air compressed violently, sucking inward with such force the lantern flames in the entire wing blew out. The guards outside staggered as the mana layer in the hallway tore open like fabric.
A windless pulse, silent yet earth-shaking, burst from within the nursery.
A flash of white light—
**and the cradle ignited in silver radiance.**
The soldiers didn't scream.
They couldn't.
Their breath was stolen from their lungs as the door cracked apart under pressure.
Mana surged like a tidal wave.
Runes on the walls flickered awake though no one had touched them.
Crystalline tiles glowed from within.
Maids and guards dropped to their knees, trembling.
One whispered:
"Is this… divine magic?"
Another choked out:
"No… no elvish spell feels like this…"
The glow faded slowly.
In the cradle, wrapped in an untouched silk blanket,
a small child lay breathing.
Lian Aelthrys had returned.
---
# **THE QUEEN'S DESCENT INTO MADNESS — AND BACK OUT**
Seraphielle stood before the high council, listening without hearing as ministers debated famine relief, reconstruction efforts, and weakened wardstones.
Her eyes were empty.
Her voice mechanical.
"Yes."
"No."
"Proceed."
She responded because she had to.
But her heart was buried somewhere she couldn't reach.
She had grown thin.
Pale.
Her wings cracked from stress.
Even the glow of her hair dimmed.
When she felt the pulse—
not in her mana veins, but in her *soul*—
her entire body froze.
Her papers fell from her hands.
"Y-Your Majesty?" a minister gasped.
"Queen Seraphielle, your wings—!"
For the first time in years, her wings unfurled wide and bright, filling the hall with cold moonlight.
"I… I feel…"
She vanished in a burst of crystalline feathers.
She didn't run.
She flew.
Her wings beat the air so hard the windows shattered behind her.
She didn't slow when she reached the nursery wing.
She didn't acknowledge the terrified guards scrambling out of her way.
She didn't breathe until she saw it:
The broken door.
The glowing cradle.
The small, breathing body inside.
Her knees slammed into the floor as if her legs had given up.
"L… Liam…"
Her voice broke, the name leaving her lips for the first time with hope in years.
She crawled the last few steps.
Her trembling hands reached forward.
Touched him.
Warm.
Real.
Alive.
"L-Liam…!"
She collapsed over him, sobbing so hard her breath caught. Her wings curled around them both like a shield.
She kissed his head again and again, tears dripping onto his cheeks.
"You're back… you're back… my baby… you're back—!"
The maids outside wept quietly.
Guards pretended not to hear the queen scream from relief.
Inside the cradle, Liam blinked slowly.
He couldn't speak.
He couldn't lift his head.
But he reached a tiny hand toward her—
And she shattered all over again.
---
# **THE EMPEROR'S HEARTBREAK BREAKS OPEN**
At the northern border, Emperor Thalorien crushed a demon skull under his heel.
Blood spattered his armor.
His blade glowed with exhausted fury.
His steps were heavy.
Even victory felt hollow now.
He raised his sword to strike another blow—
And froze.
A warmth bloomed in his chest.
A presence.
Soft.
Pure.
Familiar.
Something he had felt only once—
the day his son was born.
"…No."
His starfire blade extinguished.
His soldiers called out in confusion, but their voices muffled behind a barrier of mana.
Thalorien didn't answer.
He teleported.
Once.
Twice.
Three times—
until he stood in the palace hallways, trembling.
He hesitated outside the nursery.
His hand hung inches from the doorframe.
He was afraid.
Afraid this was another dream.
Afraid he'd open the door and crush his heart again.
But Seraphielle's sobs reached him.
Real sobs.
Alive sobs.
He took one step.
Then another.
Then he saw him.
His wife cradling a small child—
their child—
as if holding the world itself.
Thalorien's breath left him like he had been stabbed.
"…Liam?"
Seraphielle turned toward him with tear-stained cheeks.
"He's back… Thalorien… he's back…"
Liam blinked at his father.
Recognition.
Memory.
Love.
A small hand reached toward him.
Thalorien broke.
For the first time since he was crowned emperor—
since he lost his child—
he fell to his knees.
He pulled them both into his arms and held them
as if afraid they would vanish again.
His shoulders shook uncontrollably.
He whispered into Liam's hair:
"I thought I lost you.
I thought I lost you forever…
my son… my star… my light…"
Liam pressed his forehead against Thalorien's chest.
He could not speak—
but he didn't need to.
The warmth was enough.
---
# **THE CONTINENT TREMBLES**
News of the mana shockwave reached all edges of the world within hours.
### **In Human Lands**
Archmages gagged as their mana cores spasmed.
"What… what *is* this pressure?!"
Libraries shook.
Spell tomes burst into flame.
The Human King demanded answers:
"Did the elves summon a god?!"
No one answered.
---
### **In Dragon Territory**
An elder dragon rose from its magma lake with a snarl.
Its scales rattled.
"Something ancient wakes in the south."
A younger dragon trembled.
"Elder… that presence… is it one of ours?"
"No.
It is something the dragons have never birthed."
The sky trembled as dragons took flight, scanning the horizon.
---
### **In the Demon Abyss**
Demonlords hissed and screeched.
"That energy—!"
"It killed Khar'Zuun four years ago…"
"It returns…"
"The elves have opened a forbidden gate!"
The Abyss boiled.
---
### **Even the world's mana veins reacted**
Trees bent in unnatural directions.
Animals fled underground.
Storms formed instantly over oceans.
Mana rivers pulsed violently, glowing brighter than ever recorded.
The planet itself felt something reborn.
Something that should not exist.
---
# **HIGH ABOVE — THE PROTECTOR RISES**
Far above the surface, the Planetary Protector felt his meditation sphere crack.
He opened his eyes slowly.
"…Impossible."
He watched as the world's mana layer rippled like a disturbed pond.
Something had reentered the physical realm.
Something that did not belong to a **lower world**.
He rose from his throne of floating crystal.
"The anomaly returns…"
He extended a hand toward Aelthrys.
He felt a signature.
Young.
Chaotic.
Pure.
Untamed.
Dangerous.
"…and it grows."
For the first time in centuries, the Protector stepped forward.
The universe was shifting.
---
# **THE FAMILY REUNITED**
Back in the nursery, Seraphielle stroked her son's hair as if afraid he would fade if she blinked.
Thalorien kissed his forehead gently, unable to stop shaking.
Liam watched them both with wide eyes.
His body was small.
Fragile.
Weak compared to what his mind had become.
But he leaned into their warmth.
He smiled faintly, exhaustion pulling at him.
Seraphielle gasped.
"He… he smiled…"
Thalorien exhaled shakily.
"Our Liam… is truly home."
Liam's eyes slowly closed.
For the first time in four years—
he slept in his mother's arms.
Protected.
Loved.
Home.
Outside the nursery door, guards knelt.
Ministers cried.
Priests praised the moons.
The Elvish Empire felt hope for the first time since the war began.
And yet—
Far beneath the palace floor,
deep within the mana layer of the world,
**a new pulse** echoed.
Quiet.
Steady.
Growing.
A heartbeat the world could not yet understand.
The prince who shouldn't exist
had returned.
And destiny trembled in response.