Chapter 1000: [1000] : What Was Taken

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"Listen to me," Shin said. "All of you..."

"Her body is alive. That part worked. But her soul isn’t here."

He looked at the king directly.

"Someone took it. This wasn’t natural—the soul was removed and contained somewhere outside this world. Deliberately, with enough power to make sure it stayed there."

The king sat very still.

He had expected bad news. He had told himself, on the walk down here, that he could absorb whatever the outcome was. He had been carrying grief for eleven years. He knew the shape of it.

This was different.

"Not gone," he repeated.

"Not gone," Shin confirmed. "Trapped. Which means it can be found."

The minister beside the king started to speak. The king raised one hand slightly, and the man stopped.

"I felt it when I used the technique," Shin continued. "There’s a fracture—a crack between this world and the spirit realm, thin enough that you’d never notice it unless you were looking from exactly the right angle. Her soul is on the other side of it. And based on what you just told me about the gods and the dragons—I’d bet the other spirit souls are in the same place."

He paused.

"I’m going in."

Alice’s head came up.

"Then I’m coming with you." Her voice left no room for discussion. "I have four God-Slaying Magic. Whatever is on the other side, divine, draconic, it doesn’t matter. I can hurt things that shouldn’t be hurtable." She straightened. "And I’m the Spirit King’s granddaughter. If anyone other than you has standing to walk into the spirit realm and demand answers, it’s me."

She hesitated for just a half second.

"Besides. I’m—" She stopped. Started again. "You’re..."

The words weren’t coming out right, and she clearly found that infuriating.

"I’m not staying behind," she said finally, with great finality.

A faint flush had worked its way up the side of her neck. Shin noted it and said nothing.

"Fine," he said. "You’re with me."

Something in her posture settled—the particular relaxation of someone who had been braced for a fight that didn’t happen.

"Your power is real and I’m not going to waste it," Shin added. "Just stay close and don’t engage anything without telling me first. The spirit realm operates under different rules than this world."

"I know," she said.

"Good."

The king watched this exchange with an expression that was difficult to read—part resignation, part something warmer than he probably intended to show.

"I won’t pretend the two of us parted on clean terms," he said, addressing Shin directly. "But whatever I thought before—I was working with incomplete information."

The king looked at his daughter, then back at Shin. "She hasn’t trusted anyone in a very long time. The fact that she trusts you is enough for me."

He paused.

"Bring her back. Both of them."

Shin nodded once.

"Then it’s settled—"

"I’m going too."

Every head in the room turned.

Lucy stood near the doorway, both hands at her sides, chin up—the posture of someone who had made a decision and was not interested in being talked out of it.

"Lucy," Alice said carefully.

"Don’t." Lucy’s voice was quiet, but it had an edge under it that Shin hadn’t heard from her before. "I know what you’re going to say. I know I’m less experienced. I know the risks are real. I know all of it."

She met her sister’s eyes.

"She’s my mother too. I was three years old. I don’t remember her voice. I don’t remember what she smelled like. I don’t remember a single thing she said to me. She’s right there—right there—and her soul is somewhere I can’t reach her."

Her voice didn’t break, but it came close.

"I can’t stand here and wait. I can’t do it."

Alice crossed to her and pulled her in—not gently, just directly, the way people hold on when words aren’t enough. She didn’t say anything for a moment.

Then, quietly:

"I know."

"I can’t lose you too," Alice said. "That’s what I keep coming back to. It’s not about whether you’re strong enough. It’s—" She stopped. "I’ve already lost too many things. I can’t watch you walk into something I can’t see."

"You won’t be watching," Lucy said. "You’ll be right there."

Alice didn’t answer. But she didn’t let go, either.

Shin let the moment run. He wasn’t going to rush this.

After a while, Lucy pulled back and looked at her sister clearly.

"I’m not helpless," she said. "I know you think I’m the one who got to stay safe while you were out there struggling. And maybe that’s true. But I’ve been building something of my own this whole time. Let me show you."

She reached into her coat and drew out a key.

It was old—the kind of old that accumulates meaning rather than just age, worn smooth at the grip but resonant in a way that had nothing to do with its physical condition. Shin felt it before he saw it clearly: a density of power that didn’t announce itself, just sat there, patient and very deep.

Lucy held it up.

"Star Spirits," she said. "Bronze Palace. Silver Palace. Gold Palace. Platinum Palace. Diamond Palace."

She paused.

"Twelve gates. Twenty-four. Forty-eight. Sixty."

She turned the key.

The room answered.

They came through in waves, filling the space with presences that varied in size and shape and power but shared a common quality: they were old, and they were real, and they had been waiting for exactly this. One after another, spirit after spirit, until the small hidden room held more power than most battlefields.

Alice stared.

She had seen Star Spirit magic before—every mage of any serious standing had, at some point. A Gate Key. One spirit. Maybe two, for the exceptional ones.

"That’s—those are all the Celestial Palaces," she said. "Every tier. All at once."

She looked at Lucy.

"How long have you been able to do that?"

Lucy lowered the key and looked at her sister steadily.

"Long enough," she said. "I told you. I’m not helpless."

Shin studied the assembled spirits for a moment, ran the numbers quietly in his head, and revised his earlier assessment of the situation upward considerably.

’The Spirit King’s granddaughter,’ he thought. ’Of course.’

He looked at Lucy.

"You’re coming," he said. "Get ready."

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