The next morning, Kael walked into a small corner café that smelled of cheap coffee and burnt sugar.
He wore a simple black coat over a white shirt, collar open, no tie.
The Eclipse Genesis Suit was completely hidden, just thin black gloves and the ring.
Aria was already there, sitting at the back table, green eyes wide and worried.
She stood up the moment she saw him.
"Kael… you're really alive."
He gave her the smallest, gentlest smile he was capable of.
"Sit. I'm buying."
They ordered two coffees.
Aria kept staring at the faint scars on his knuckles.
"What happened?" she whispered.
"Someone tried to kill me," he said calmly.
"They failed. I won't let it happen again."
She reached across the table and touched his hand.
Her healing power, weak D-rank, flowed over him like warm water.
Kael let her.
He felt nothing physically, but something old and tired inside him relaxed for three seconds.
"Thank you, Aria," he said.
"You were always the only decent person in my old life."
She blushed and pulled her hand back.
He slid a black credit chip across the table, 5 million credits.
"For the trouble I'm about to cause everyone who knew the old me.
Leave the city tonight. Take your little brother. Start somewhere new."
Aria stared at the chip, then at him.
"You're different," she said quietly.
"Yes," Kael answered.
"The old Kael is dead.
I just borrowed his face."
She left twenty minutes later with tears in her eyes and a promise to disappear before sunset.
Kael finished his coffee alone.
Nyx's voice purred inside his skull, soft and jealous.
<< She smelled like cheap flowers.
You will never touch anyone again except the one who smells like night cereus and frost. >>
Kael stood up.
"Tonight I meet her," he said aloud.
The ring on his finger burned, hot enough to hurt.
8:00 p.m.
Sector 9 Underground Auction.
Kael arrived in a plain black hover-car, no plates, no driver.
He wore a midnight-black tuxedo that cost more than most houses, cut perfectly to hide weapons.
The mask was simple, black silk, covering only the area around his eyes.
Two S-rank guards at the entrance felt the air change when he walked past.
They didn't ask for invitation.
Inside, the hall was a cathedral of shadows and red spotlights.
Hundreds of the richest, most dangerous people on Eos-7 sat in darkness.
Kael took a private box on the second floor, alone.
He did not bid on anything until Item 77.
A tiny crystal floating inside black chains.
The auctioneer's voice trembled.
"Fragment of the erased 13th Universe.
Starting bid, 800 million credits."
Paddles rose fast.
1.2 billion.
1.8 billion.
2.4 billion.
Kael waited.
When the price hit 2.9 billion, he pressed his button once.
"Three billion."
Silence.
Every head turned.
A woman's voice, cold and beautiful, came from the highest box.
"Four billion."
Kael looked up.
Liora.
Silver hair like liquid moonlight.
Amethyst eyes glowing faintly.
Black combat dress hugging every deadly curve.
The temperature in the hall dropped five degrees.
People started sweating anyway.
Kael smiled behind his mask.
"Five billion."
Liora's eyes narrowed.
She stood slowly, one hand resting on a void spear that appeared from nowhere.
"Six billion," she said.
The entire hall held its breath.
Kael stood too.
He took off the mask.
Crimson-gold eyes met amethyst across the darkness.
The black ring on his finger burned white-hot.
He spoke, voice calm, carrying to every corner.
"Ten billion."
Gasps.
Someone dropped a glass.
Liora stared at him for three full seconds.
Then she smiled, small, dangerous, beautiful.
"Eleven."
Kael felt the scent hit him like a drug.
Night-blooming cereus.
Cosmic frost.
A trace of ancient blood.
His heart forgot how to beat.
He pressed the button one last time.
"Twenty billion."
The auctioneer almost fainted.
"Twenty billion going once… twice…"
Liora lowered her spear.
She did not bid again.
"Sold! To the gentleman in box twelve."
Kael walked down the stairs.
Every guard stepped aside without being asked.
He reached the stage, took the crystal with two fingers.
The moment his skin touched it, the black ring screamed.
A memory that wasn't his flashed, silver hair tangled in his hands, her mouth on his throat, two gods destroying stars together.
Then it was gone.
Kael closed his fist around the crystal.
He looked up at Liora's box.
She was already gone.
But her scent lingered in the air, thick, intoxicating, impossible to ignore.
Nyx whispered, voice trembling with something like fear.
<< She remembers nothing yet.
But her blood remembers you.
Be careful, my Eternal Night.
She will try to kill you before she remembers she once loved you. >>
Kael walked out of the hall with twenty billion credits less and the most dangerous woman in twelve universes now hunting his scent.
He smiled into the dark.
Good.
Let the real game begin.
To be continued…