Chapter 411: _Life And Death’s Endless Dance

St. Malachi’s General Hospital, Aurelia

The corridors were quiet as nurses walked from ward to ward, checking in on the patients for the night.

Sobbing came from one ward where a mother was told her child couldn’t make it.

In another ward, a man stayed up beside his girlfriend, caressing her fingers as he watched her sleep.

The atmosphere in human hospitals was... unlike any other. So much pain. Regret. Sorrow. Hope. The burning will to survive.

All these contrasting emotions gathered in one place were absolutely riveting to a timeless being who’s seen civilisations rise and fall.

Ramona stood before the door of a man she’s come to discover one of Ambrose’s partners has a complicated relationship with.

She was invisible to the naked eye, phasing past the door like a phantom.

There he was.

Lying on his bed was Mr Silverstone, his breathing even. The constant beep of the machines around him was an indicator that he was stable.

He had his eyes on the ceiling, thoughts adrift.

’That boy...’ A soft smile stretched his lips against his will as he thought about Gabriel. ’God. Despite everything, he’s still such a good man. If only... if only he wasn’t the way he was. Wasn’t... gay...’

His eyelids fluttered. ’... We would’ve had such a good relationship. I’ve always wondered why he avoided me sometimes. I never realised I was the one pushing my own son away. Yet, he’s the one paying for my treatment. For my care.’

A single tear dropped down his eye.

Unbeknownst to him, Ramona stood right beside his bed, viewing his thoughts with zero emotion.

Just curiosity.

There were two contrasting emotions in the man’s heart right now.

Love.

And fear.

’Humanity spends most of their lives worried about beliefs that hold them back while separating them,’ she said, shaking her head. ’Such a perfect example...’

She raised a single hand.

Instantly, the man’s condition worsened.

His chest seized.

What began as a shallow cough violently escalated into something far harsher, blood speckling the corner of his lips as the monitor beside him erupted into frantic alarms. His body curled instinctively against the pain, fingers clawing at the hospital sheets while every breath became a battle.

"Hhk—!" His lungs refused to cooperate.

The cancer already eating away at his body suddenly spread with terrifying speed, invisible to everyone except the Archon standing beside him. Diseased tissue multiplied. Healthy cells withered. Aether poisoning that should have taken days accelerated into mere seconds.

Mr Silverstone gasped, his vision swimming.

"...Nurse!" His voice barely escaped his throat.

He reached weakly toward the emergency call button before another fit of coughing wracked his frail body.

That’s when he felt it.

Someone... Standing beside him.

His cloudy eyes shifted toward the space near the bed.

There was nobody there.

Yet every instinct screaming inside him insisted otherwise.

"Who’s..." His breathing hitched painfully. "...Who’s there...?"

Ramona didn’t answer.

She simply stared at him for another heartbeat before turning away, already losing interest now that she’d accomplished what she came to do.

Behind her, the monitor’s beeping became one long, shrill cry.

The ward door burst open.

"Mr Silverstone!"

Two nurses rushed inside, followed closely by a doctor.

"His oxygen saturation is crashing!"

"Blood pressure’s dropping!"

"Call Dr Hernandez! Now!"

The room instantly dissolved into practised chaos as they surrounded the bed, adjusting oxygen, checking pupils, barking orders over one another while machines screamed louder with every passing second.

Ramona walked calmly through them all.

No one noticed the woman phasing through their bodies like mist. No one noticed her leave.

The corridor remained exactly as she’d found it.

People still cried.

Families still prayed.

Life and death continued their endless dance as the Archon quietly disappeared into the night.

★★★★★

Hale-Ferguson Residence

Conversation had only just begun to settle after the revelation surrounding Orion when Gabriel’s phone vibrated inside his pocket.

He frowned.

The number wasn’t saved.

"Excuse me."

Stepping away from everyone, he answered almost absentmindedly.

"Hello?"

The living room continued buzzing behind him.

Apollo had started asking Ambrose questions regarding Aether Hybrids while Wukong argued that Orion should probably be assigned at least three S-Ranks around the clock.

Gabriel barely heard any of it.

"Hunter Gabriel Silverstone?"

His posture straightened. "Yes."

"This is St. Malachi’s General Hospital."

Something cold slid into his stomach.

"We’re calling regarding your father."

The world seemed to grow strangely quiet.

"What happened?"

There was a pause.

"I’m... very sorry." The nurse’s voice softened. "We did everything we could."

Gabriel stopped breathing. "...No."

"His condition deteriorated unexpectedly. The doctors attempted resuscitation, but..."

The rest of the sentence faded into meaningless noise.

His fingers slowly loosened around the phone, ending the call.

For several long seconds Gabriel simply stood there, staring blankly at the dark screen.

He didn’t move, blink or speak.

It was Devon who noticed first.

"Gabriel?"

No response.

Valentine frowned. "Gabriel."

Slowly, the space god lowered the phone to his side.

His expression hadn’t changed.

If anything, it had become emptier.

Ambrose felt unease crawl beneath his skin. "What happened?"

Gabriel swallowed.

"My dad." Another swallow. "...He’s gone."

★★★★★

Orion dreamed of stars.

They drifted lazily across an endless midnight sky, each one glowing with impossible colours as tiny planets floated around him like oversized balloons.

He laughed, hopping from one little world to another while galaxies spiralled beneath his feet as though the universe itself had become the biggest playground imaginable.

"Daddy!" He waved excitedly.

Far away, Ambrose and Devon stood smiling at him.

"Higher!" Orion jumped.

The stars caught him, pulling another giggle from him.

Everything felt warm.

Then—

The laughter stopped.

One by one, the stars dimmed.

The colours drained from the cosmos until only cold shades of grey remained. The tiny planets cracked apart without making a sound.

Ambrose vanished. Then Devon.

The silence became absolute.

Orion looked around nervously.

"Daddy? Papa?"

Nothing answered.

A ripple spread through the darkness.

The space between the dying stars split open like fabric being gently pulled apart.

Someone stepped through.

Ramona’s human appearance lasted only a moment before her skin peeled away in shimmering fragments of white light, falling apart like a discarded shell.

Something else stood beneath.

A being sculpted from living starlight and endless night, its outline constantly shifting as though reality itself struggled to decide what it was seeing. Brilliant white eyes opened where no face should exist, countless ribbons of luminous energy drifting behind her like wings woven from galaxies.

Orion instinctively stepped backwards.

"W-Who are you?"

She smiled almost gently.

With a simple lift of her hand, the darkness around them came alive, showing images that further confused Orion.

Gabriel collapsing beside a hospital bed.

Ambrose kneeling in blood.

Devon disappearing beneath roaring flames.

Viktor stabbed violently by a broadsword.

Valentine’s shadow swallowed him whole.

Each vision lasted only an instant before another replaced it.

"You love them," the Archon said softly.

Orion’s lower lip trembled, but he didn’t answer.

"You do not wish to watch them suffer."

He shook his head so hard that tears escaped his eyes. "No..."

"They will." Her smile widened. "They will again. And again."

Her voice never rose.

It remained impossibly calm.

"Until you understand," She extended a glowing hand toward him, "that you cannot protect them."

The visions surrounded Orion from every direction, each one more painful than the last.

"But we can." Her fingertips stopped inches from his forehead. "Sooner or later, little one... you will come to us willingly."

Orion stumbled backwards with a frightened cry—and jolted upright in bed.

"DADDY!!"