Chapter 69: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 68: Shadows of the Past

Vora traced her fingertips gently across his jawline, sliding her hand down his skin until her fingers rested lightly over his throat. Her touch was soft, but the underlying intent was terrifyingly sharp. A wicked, unhinged smile spread across her face as she leaned in closer, her breath brushing against his ear.

"We finally meet again... hihihi..." Vora whispered, her voice dripping with dark affection.

Ren’s chest constricted violently, his pulse pounding in his ears like a muffled war drum.

’Calm down... breathe... stay still,’ he repeated mentally, locking down every muscle to keep his body slack.

A single bead of cold sweat formed near his hairline, tracing a slow line down his temple despite his best efforts to suppress the reaction.

Vora tilted her head, her pale purple eyes widening as she caught the tiny droplet reflecting the sunlight.

’Dammit... dammit, no!’ Ren cursed internally, holding his breath as he forced his eyelids to remain motionless.

Vora let out a hushed, melodic giggle. She reached out with a slender index finger, catching the stray drop of sweat from his skin. Smiling faintly, she lifted her hand and licked her fingertip clean, her dark eyes never leaving his face.

Leaning against the granite boulder a few paces away, Velista merely raised an eyebrow at the display, her folded arms remaining static across her chest as her cold, vacant gaze settled on them.

"Velista," Vora spoke up, turning her head toward the sovereign while keeping one hand rested over Ren’s chest. "Can I take him somewhere quiet? Just the two of us?"

Ren’s teeth ground together behind his closed lips. *Is this insane woman seriously trying to cart me off to her dungeon?!*

"He looks so warm out here," Vora continued, offering a sweet, predatory smile. "Look at him... he’s already breaking a sweat under the sun."

"I was the one who dragged him out of Lumiria," Velista replied, her voice flat and utterly devoid of warmth. "Which means you don’t get custody of him until I say so."

Vora’s sweet demeanor flickered, her smile instantly souring into a pout.

’What is wrong with these two...?’ Ren raged internally, feeling a cold knot of frustration tighten in his gut. ’Treating me like some trophy to be divided between them... Should I just break cover and run?’

He immediately dismissed the thought. Running meant taking on Velista—a monster who survived an armor-piercing round to the heart and possessed instantaneous spatial movement—while simultaneously dealing with Vora, who could command horde vanguards at a moment’s notice. Attempting a reckless escape with his Nyx Seal sitting at a hazardous 89% was a guaranteed path to self-destruction.

Vora clicked her tongue softly, crossing her arms as she shifted her weight. "Velista, didn’t you bring him here just to draw out the royal army and those pathetic survivors? I can hide him somewhere far more secure while you wait for them to assemble."

"Don’t misunderstand my motives, Vora," Velista said coolly, twirling a strand of her dark violet hair around her finger without looking at her subordinate. "I brought him here because I have matters to discuss with him directly. Whether Evelyn and her little garrison track us down or die in the wilderness is entirely irrelevant to me. I have nothing to fear from them."

Vora arched a slender eyebrow, her interest piqued. "Discuss something with Ren? Since when did you care about him? Didn’t you say you were helping me retrieve him as a reward for my loyal service to the Heretical Dark Faction?"

Lying motionless on the grass, Ren narrowed his mental focus, recording every word spoken above him.

’Discuss something with me...? Is this tied back to her claiming I’m a part of her?’

Velista let out a low, dry laugh that lacked any genuine humor.

"Initially, that was indeed the agreement," Velista admitted, stepping away from the granite boulder. Her boots rustled softly against the damp grass as she approached them. "When I summoned the meteor fall over the Starlight Kingdom and unchained the Aberrant hordes to wipe out the survivors, I monitored the entire collapse from the upper atmosphere."

She stopped three feet away, looking down at Ren’s still form.

"Yet something anomalous caught my eye," Velista continued, her voice dropping into a thoughtful register. "While the royal house fled toward the southern perimeter, I noticed a newly established settlement built along the valley—a territory fully equipped with high-density stone fortifications and defensive layouts that hadn’t existed twenty-four hours prior."

"A day before the siege, that valley was empty wilderness," Velista said, her purple eyes gleaming with quiet intrigue. "I planted my eyes and ears inside the refugee camps shortly after. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the mastermind behind this impossible sanctuary was a young man named Ren."

Vora’s brow creased into a tight, puzzled frown. "So what if he built a town? What does that have to do with your sudden interest in him?"

Ren kept his posture completely relaxed, though every nerve in his body felt stretched to its breaking point under the weight of Velista’s gaze.

’She’s been spying on Lumiria since day one... She knew about the construction speed before I even finished the inner ward.’

"Vora, use your head," Velista chided softly, pointing a pale finger toward Ren’s chest. "A nameless youth manifests an entire fortressed city out of thin air in less than a month. He introduces mechanized long-range ballistics that don’t require mana, and his second-in-command wields a hand-held iron weapon capable of piercing my heart nexus from fifty yards away."

Velista leaned down slightly, her dark aura faint but heavy. "Who else could have designed those unnatural concepts if not the soul sitting right in front of us?"

Vora remained quiet for a moment, her gaze falling back onto Ren’s face as if trying to process the scale of his abilities.

"So you just want to interrogate him about his weapons?" Vora asked, turning back to Velista.

Velista shook her head smoothly. "No. Because I know he wouldn’t offer genuine answers even under torture."

Vora stood up straight, smoothing down her skirt with an irritated sigh. She glanced down at Ren, her cheeks flushing with a faint, unnatural rose tint as her expression shifted from anger to a strange, nostalgic warmth.

"If you don’t have an urgent execution planned, then give me some time alone with him first," Vora requested, her tone turning soft and overly persuasive. "Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this, Velista? Ever since Evelyn and her little band broke my spatial domain and dragged him away, I’ve been forced to wait. I’ve held these feelings back for years!"

Her voice strained with a sudden spike of emotion as she looked down at Ren with wide, desperate eyes. "I just want to spend a quiet moment with the Ren I used to know... the one who was so kind to me, the one who actually cared about me before everything went wrong."

Velista watched Vora’s emotional display with an unreadable, icy expression, letting out a soft sigh.

Ren’s mind recoiled in utter disbelief.

’Years...? The Ren of this world was with her for years?!’

A flood of tactical calculations rushed through his head as he analyzed Vora’s confession. The original soul inhabiting this vessel shared a deep, complex history with Vora before he ever crossed over.

’They weren’t just random acquaintances,’ Ren reasoned, dissecting her words. ’If Vora speaks about him with that level of obsession, they must have shared a close bond during their youth—friends, companions, or something deeper. But if they were that close, why did they part ways? How did a girl who once knew the original Ren end up becoming an executive under the Heretical Dark Faction?’

The lack of memories from the vessel’s past left him blind to the exact timeline, but the structural dynamic was clear: Vora was clinging to the ghost of a person who no longer existed, entirely unaware that the soul currently lying before her was a transmigrator from another world.

"Control yourself, Vora," Velista said, her tone cold and unyielding. "I still have primary business with him. Once I have extracted what I need, you may take whatever is left."

Vora’s shoulders slumped, a dark, petulant scowl darkening her face. However, sensing the subtle spike of dark aura radiating from Velista, she didn’t dare press the issue further.

"Fine..." Vora muttered, crossing her arms tightly. "But you promised me, Velista. You owe me this much for maintaining the vanguard lines."

Velista offered a faint, chilling smile. "Indeed."

With Vora stepping back, Velista leaned down, her face stopping inches from Ren’s cheek. The intense, oppressive weight of her dark energy washed over his skin, colder than ice.

"At long last..." Velista whispered softly, her hand reaching down to lightly brush her fingers against his temple as her dark smile broadened into something truly monstrous. "I’ve finally retrieved you... my other half."