"A woman—cough!" I coughed out blood again, but I wouldn't stop. "This poison is far less potent than the one in your heart."
Roxanna's figure trembled for a second.
My throat started to ache, but I kept talking. "I am sure with that heart of yours, you don't have anyone close."
"You little!" Roxanna lost her cool for the first time.
I smiled at her reaction. But it earned me far more pain in my chest.
I clutched my chest and curled up. My lungs might be broken. No, I'm certain they are broken.
"You trash, you are asking for it."
Roxanna's chilling voice sounded and the insides of the glass tube changed.
The plain surface now had countless sharp metallic teeth.
As I tried to channel my gravity power, a blue gas filled the tube and it stopped working.
I held my breath as the glass tube shrunk.
"Cry! Beg for mercy!" Roxanna's voice sounded.
My eyes turned red, but I gritted my teeth and looked at her without a shred of fear.
"Suffer!"
With her words, the glass tube shrunk just to barely cover me.
The metallic teeth came into contact with my skin and…the glass tube started spinning.
Wheez!
The first cut was light. It only cut my skin a bit. The second one spilled my blood on the floor. The third one dug into my flesh.
By the fourth one, I couldn't help but scream in pain.
"Arghhh!"
My whole body was burning with pain. Pain that I've never even dreamt of as possible.
I bit my lip to prevent myself from screaming, but with each passing second, the glass tube spun faster and faster.
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. Due to the sheer force, blood started to flow out down my lips and joined the large puddle under my feet.
Wheez!
Wheez!
"Grehh!"
Every second was hell. But I held on. Except for a few times, I couldn't help, I remained silent.
Wheez!
The sound of the metallic teeth digging into my flesh was the only sound that continued for the whole day until I fainted.
*** *** ***
I had a dream. What happened on Varian's birthday never happened.
Amanda is still alive. I am still living with Varian.
Varian awakened and is a great genius. As a result, he too got admission to the defense academy.
Eventually, we both attend the academy.
Varian is pursuing his dream. And I grew stronger myself while being happy at his growth.
There, we meet Sarah.
It was a bit unexpected, but Varian and Sarah have complementary personalities.
So, instead of the Siarah team, we have Siaran team.
In an abyss mission, we found a treasure that could lock Sarah's second path. So, she too began to keep up with this.
Due to our synergy, we were able to take far more difficult missions and grew extremely fast.
By the time we graduated, all of us were at the peak of level 6.
We were all enlisted into Neptune. Of course, I opposed the decision a bit originally. But Varian insisted.
'Neptune is the greatest battle.'
I ended up opting for the same place and well, Sarah also joined.
Varian and I didn't want her to risk her life. But having been with her for three years, we both knew that she too had an aspiration.
'My mother and brother were killed in Pluto. I want to avenge them! Neptune is the frontier against Pluto! It is the only place I'll go to.'
Like that, the three of us ended up in Neptune.
Time flew by like a river.
Varian, Sarah, and I turned twenty-six.
We all reached level 7 and got the titles of prince and princess.
It's a bit funny, but Varian rejected the title outright.
'Come on, I want to be called Emperor. Prince is really demeaning to me.'
I laughed at his words while Sarah called him a narcissist, even though in private, she said he was likely to reach the Sovereign state in our generation.
Fifteen more years passed and Humanity has now gained a definitive edge over abyssals. The federation is gaining an unquestionable dominance in planetoids.
As for us, we three reached level 8 this year.
We are forty-one already. But we still look the same as in the twenties.
We are positive to reach level 9 in just ten years due to the treasures we won in the ruins.
But there's a far bigger problem.
Marriage.
Amanda insists she wants to hold a grandson. Whether it is from me or from Varian.
But doesn't she know…
No, I can see the amusement in her eyes when she asks me in front of Varian. "Sia, do you have any good friends who can match Varian?"
She asks this every time when Varian is drinking water. So, every time, he ends up choking.
I don't answer, but I end up laughing.
Sarah too teased him multiple times as the "Man who won't get married."
Of course, I joined her and rightfully bullied him.
He's taking too long. Or was he expecting me to take the initiative?
Nine years passed.
We reached level 9 a year before our expectations.
The planetoids are now under complete control of humanity.
The three of us hit 50 this year. For better or worse, I was the oldest of us. Followed by Sarah.
Varian is the youngest.
There's bad news though.
Sarah's father is on his death bed.
Evander, Steelheart.
A man whose fame reverberated in every corner of the federation. A man who was touted to become a Sovereign, but failed.
While Sarah cried, we noticed that there was an awkwardness between them. These two… haven't had a proper talk for decades.
Varian and I waited outside to give them private space.
Sarah came out of the emergency room in tears and called us in.
"…Take care of her." The man held Varian's hand and said his last words.
…I understood what he meant. So did Varian and Sarah.
But we didn't talk about it after that. There was a tactic silence.
The topic of marriage was also dropped.
Sarah was down for a year but with Varian's help, she was back on her feet.
…I pushed him to help her, even though we could've done it together. As for why I didn't know.
Ten more years passed by.
Humanity's conquest of the abyss fell into a stalemate.
Then one day, Varian reached the Sovereign state.
We prayed at Amanda's grave.
Varian and I cried while Sarah consoled us.
Two months after his breakthrough, humanity conquered the first abyss.
Two years later, we conquered the last abyss.
By this time, Varian grew to be the strongest.
He got the titles he always dreamed of.
Savior—the one who saves humanity from the abyssals.
Emperor—the one who'd bring the scattered governance of the solar system under a single throne.
Peerless—the strongest awakener to date.
On the day of his coronation, he kept his promise and I witnessed the ceremony at the closest possible distance.
A few decades later, we decided to travel the stars and find the secrets of my origin.
He achieved his dream and my dream began.
Or it should've.
If I didn't wake up.
The voice that woke me up sounded again.
"Day 2."
