The air in the school's basement was thick with the smell of copper and scorched earth. Elena stood over the corpse of a Level 25 Shadow Crawler, her silver blade dripping with black ichor. She was covered in scars, her school uniform replaced by tattered leather armor she had looted from the trial's depths.
Suddenly, the world froze. The red-tinted sky outside the high windows pulsed with a rhythmic, golden light that shouldn't belong to the Night.
[WORLDWIDE ANNOUNCEMENT]
[The First 'Prince of the Eclipse' has been conceived.]
[Event: 'The New Legend' begins.]
[A bridge between the Living and the Dead has been forged in Sector 7.]
The notification didn't just appear in their vision; it echoed in their souls.
Elena's sword clattered to the stone floor. She didn't cry out this time. The violet in her eyes faded, replaced by a hollow, terrifying blankness.
"Conceived..." she whispered, the word tasting like poison. "One month. It's only been one month."
Lucas sat against a damp stone wall, his face buried in his hands. His "First Era" memories were screaming. In the original timeline, this had taken years. The bond between Leon and Carmilla was supposed to be a slow erosion of Leon's will.
"The System is accelerating," Lucas groaned, his voice cracking. "Because Leon's base stats were so high, he didn't just survive the Queen—he matched her. He's not just her consort anymore, Elena. He's her partner."
Elena turned to him, her expression so cold it made the air frost. "He's a father, Lucas. While we've been bleeding in this basement to 'save' him, he's been... he's been building a family with the woman who kidnapped him."
"It's the Covenant, Elena! You know he only did it to keep us alive!" Lucas shouted, standing up. "He's being manipulated by the Blood Moon!"
"Is he?" Elena stepped closer, her aura flaring with a dark, vengeful violet light. "Or is he just doing what Leon always does? Protecting what he thinks belongs to him? First it was the school. Now it's her. And that... that thing inside her."
The System beeped again, but this time it was a personal notification for the "Golden Trio" remnants.
[Hidden Quest Updated: The Rescue]
[New Difficulty: SSS-Rank]
[Condition: The 'Prince' must be considered in your strategy.]
Elena grabbed her sword. She didn't look like a high school girl anymore; she looked like an executioner. The love she had finally realized back in the gym hadn't died—it had curdled into something much more dangerous: a desperate, jealous wrath.
"I'm not going there to save him anymore," Elena said, her voice a low, lethal hum. "I'm going there to take him back. And if that Queen thinks a child will keep him by her side, I'll show her what a 'rival' can do when she has nothing left to lose."
Lucas watched her, a chill running down his spine. He realized that the Elena of this timeline was becoming a monster far faster than the one who died in his past life.
"We need more power, Lucas," she commanded, looking into the darkness of the deeper basement levels. "No more 'safe' leveling. Take me to the Floor of Despair. I need to be strong enough to kill a Goddess."
Back in the Crimson Spire, Leon felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest—a resonance from the school. He looked out toward the horizon, his golden eyes flickering.
For a brief second, the image of Elena's smiling face flashed in his mind, but then a tiny, golden heartbeat thrummed from Carmilla's womb, and the image shattered.
The Queen stirred in her sleep, clutching his hand. Leon looked at her, then at the moon, and he kissed on her forehead