The city was still burning when they returned.
Kael opened the rift straight into the floating penthouse.
Liora stepped through first, boots leaving bloody prints on black marble.
Her combat dress was shredded at the shoulder and thigh, silver hair wild, amethyst eyes glowing like dying stars.
She looked like a goddess who had just finished killing.
Kael followed, coat gone, white shirt torn open, crimson-gold eyes brighter than the moons outside.
They stood three metres apart.
Silence.
Then Liora spoke, voice rough from screaming battle commands.
"Stellar Vanguard is gone.
Twenty-three hunters. Two fake SS-rank heroes.
All dead."
Kael poured two glasses of crimson wine without looking.
"I counted twenty-five," he said calmly.
"I let two crawl away," she answered.
"They're carrying the message: the fragment belongs to us now."
He handed her a glass.
Their fingers brushed.
The black ring burned white-hot.
<< Resonance surge detected: 38.2% → 47.1% >>
A memory hit them both at once.
A battlefield made of broken planets.
Her back pressed against his wings.
Both laughing as they carved through armies of gods.
Blood on their lips.
The taste of war and each other.
They came back to the present breathing hard.
Liora stared at him.
"I remember that fight," she whispered.
"I remember the taste."
Kael set his glass down untouched.
He crossed the distance in two steps.
One hand slid into her silver hair.
The other gripped her waist hard enough to bruise.
Then he kissed her.
Not soft.
Not gentle.
Ten billion years of starvation poured into one kiss.
She kissed back like she wanted to devour his soul and give hers in return.
Teeth clashed.
Lips bled.
Her void spear dissolved into smoke.
His wings unfolded on instinct, wrapping them both in living darkness.
When they broke apart, both were breathing fire.
Liora's voice was raw.
"Take me to bed, Kael.
Now."
He didn't speak.
He simply lifted her.
One arm under her knees, the other around her back.
She weighed nothing.
The bedroom appeared from shadow (black silk sheets, no walls, only windows showing the burning city below).
He laid her down like she was made of starlight and sin.
Clothes vanished between them (void and shadow eating fabric like it offended them).
Skin on skin for the first time in ten billion years.
Perfect.
Every scar on his body had a matching one on hers from wars they no longer remembered.
They moved like they had never forgotten.
Slow at first.
Then desperate.
Her nails carved new marks down his back.
His teeth found the place where her neck met shoulder and claimed it.
The resonance counter exploded upward.
<< 47.1% → 68.9% >>
Another memory:
A throne room of dying stars.
Her riding him while galaxies burned behind them.
Both laughing like gods who had just invented pleasure.
Present and past blurred.
When they finally collapsed, tangled in black silk and each other, the city outside had gone quiet.
Only the sound of their breathing.
Liora traced the black ring with one finger.
"I remember sealing the universe," she whispered against his throat.
"I remember telling you to live a small life."
Kael kissed her forehead.
"I tried," he said.
"It was empty without you."
She closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry it took so long."
He pulled her closer.
"We have forever now."
<< Resonance holding at 68.9% >>
<< Hidden counter: 9,999,993 >>
Outside, dawn painted the sky blood-red.
Inside, two forgotten gods slept wrapped in shadow and void.
The first night in ten billion years they were whole.
Tomorrow the real war would begin.
Tonight, they had each other.
And that was enough to burn the universe down.
To be continued…