SFX: WHUUUM… The void hums, a horizon made of nothing. —
Three days later.
The Council of Seven Stars convened above the First Ring—
in the place that had no name, no floor, no shadow.
A circle of void, one hundred kilometers wide.
Seven thrones forged from their own artificial suns.
All seven Stellar Lords present.
A sight not witnessed since the Eclipse.
The Thrones
First Throne — Leah.
Blind. Bleeding gold from both eyes.
Six wings trembling—but unbroken.
Second Throne — Kang Tae-Yul.
Eyes ticking like dying clocks.
Third Throne — Empty.
(Absent for centuries.)
Fourth Throne — The Mirror Woman.
A mosaic of reflections, face unreadable.
Fifth Throne — The Plasma Child.
A silhouette of burning white fire.
Sixth Throne — Empty.
(Lee Seo-Joon had not been seen since his descent.)
Seventh Throne — Nocturne (Lee Seo-Joon).
He appeared last, smiling with a split face filled with shifting wings.
Six cracked rings orbited him like wounded moons.
The Accused
Between the thrones—
suspended in chains of frozen time—
stood Si-Hyun.
No scarf.
Leah had sealed it inside a prayer-casket.
Only two wings now—night edged with faint dawn gold—
folded against his back.
His eyes stayed locked on Leah.
He hadn't spoken since they dragged him here.
Kang Tae-Yul raised a hand.
His voice echoed like a clock tower at the end of the world.
"The Anomaly has manifested eight wings in under one month.
Projection: full twelve within one year.
At that point, the Devourer wakes.
Vote required: immediate erasure."
— SFX: TIK. The death vote begins. —
Mirror Lord raised her hand.
The Plasma Child followed, voice crackling like a dying star.
Three votes.
Leah's voice cut the void like a blade of dawn:
"I veto."
The First Lord's veto—
breakable only by unanimous vote of the remaining six.
Kang Tae-Yul's eyes narrowed.
"Reason."
Leah stepped forward, golden blood trailing and evaporating.
"Because he is not the Devourer."
Her voice trembled—but did not waver.
"He is the scar the Devourer left
when it tried to wear a human soul and failed.
Scars can be healed.
I have already begun."
She opened her hand.
A single golden chain floated above her palm—
one link brighter than the rest.
Inside that link:
a memory.
The Memory
Si-Hyun, the night before,
kneeling in the Faith Sanctum garden,
hands shaking as he folded a red paper flower
and tucked it behind Ryeo-Won's sleeping ear.
The memory played for all seven thrones.
Lee Seo-Joon laughed—
soft, delighted, unhinged.
"Sentiment," Kang Tae-Yul said.
"Irrelevant."
He looked to the Sixth Throne, waiting.
Silence.
Then Seo-Joon—still smiling too wide—spoke from the Seventh:
"I abstain.
I want to see what happens
when the failure chooses."
Only four votes possible.
Only three cast for death.
Not enough.
Kang Tae-Yul lowered his hand a fraction.
The Compromise of the Stars
"Then we bind him.
Seal the wings.
Chain the heart.
Stasis until the Final Bite.
If the world ends, he wakes as the key.
If we find another way, he sleeps forever.
An acceptable compromise."
Leah's wings blazed—so bright the void lit like sunrise.
"No."
She stepped in front of Si-Hyun.
"You will not cage him.
You will not touch him.
If you want him—
you take him through me."
— SFX: KRRRSHHH—! BILLIONS of chains rupturing outward —
Every prayer ever spoken by the dying.
Every last hope ever whispered.
All of them erupted into the void.
The temperature spiked to solar levels.
Kang Tae-Yul stood.
— SFX: TNNNNK. Time folded.
Leah's chains rotted again—
centuries passing in seconds.
She dropped to one knee, coughing golden blood.
The Boy Moves
For the first time since the trial began—
Si-Hyun spoke.
One word.
"Stop."
His two wings unfolded.
Not eight.
Not twelve.
Two.
But changed.
Half-night.
Half-dawn.
Carved by her light.
Every chain touching them
stopped aging.
Time stuttered.
Kang Tae-Yul's eyes widened—
real shock
on a face that had forgotten how.
Si-Hyun walked to Leah.
Took her bleeding hand.
Then faced the gods.
His voice was quiet.
Exhausted.
Absolute.
**"I will not be sealed.
I will not be your key.
I will not let you hurt her.
If you want to kill me—
do it now.
All six of you.
Together.
But if even one of you hesitates,
I walk out of here with her.
And the next time we meet—
I will have twelve wings.
And a reason."**
Silence.
An absolute silence that weighed like history.
Lee Seo-Joon began clapping slowly—
cracked rings chiming like broken bells.
Kang Tae-Yul studied Si-Hyun for nine seconds—
an eternity for the master of time.
Then he sat down.
"Motion withdrawn."
The chains dissolved.
The void dimmed.
The trial ended.
Si-Hyun helped Leah stand.
She shook so hard her wings flickered.
He wrapped his half-dawn wings around her,
shielding her from the stares of gods.
Together, they walked out of the circle.
No one moved to stop them.
Far behind them,
the Second Lord stared at the space
where a boy with two wings
had just defied six Stellar Lords—
and felt, for the first time in seven centuries,
the cold, unfamiliar touch
of uncertainty.
Far below, in Cheolchi Station,
every child woke from the same dream:
A boy with wings of night and dawn
standing between them
and the end of the world.
Ryeo-Won touched the red flower behind her ear
and smiled.
"Oppa won," she whispered.
Above, in the endless dawn of the First Ring,
Si-Hyun carried Leah home.
His scars still bled—
but for the first time,
the blood was warm.