Lexanna tilted her head upward, eyes tracing the starlight as if they were listening in on his words. The atmosphere was heavy—not with fear, but with the weight of something unspoken. A promise. A fate neither of them had chosen, but now had to walk together.
Her hand tightened around his. "Then don't let go. No matter what happens next."
Nico nodded, but a cold breeze brushed his neck. Something shifted in the sky. A ripple in space, so thin it looked like a wrinkle in reality itself. Lexanna noticed it too.
"That's not a star," she whispered.
From the distant sky, a dark streak fell—like a meteor, but too precise. It pierced through the cloud cover without sound, heading not toward the city but toward them.
Nico grabbed her wrist. "Run."
They didn't make it far before the air warped ahead of them. A figure materialized—cloaked in black with silver trim, hovering inches above the ground. His presence was suffocating, like a black hole cloaked in human skin.
"Astral Core bearer," the figure intoned, his voice neither young nor old. "By order of the Galactic Cultivation Council, you are to be seized and sealed."
Lexanna stood between Nico and the stranger. "Over my dead body."
The man didn't even blink. "As you wish."
He moved.
So fast Nico barely saw it.
But Lexanna moved faster.
Her blade—Moontear—flashed into being, parrying the strike with a ring of silver light. Sparks scattered across the ruins as their weapons met, carving grooves into the stone.
"Lex, don't—" Nico began.
She turned her head slightly, her eyes calm and fierce. "You said you wouldn't let them take me."
Now she smiled faintly.
"I won't let them take you either."
She moved like moonlight—gentle, fluid, untouchable. Her sword danced through the air in arcs of lunar qi, forming a protective web around Nico. The figure adjusted his stance, now treating her as a true threat.
"Lunar lineage confirmed. Daughter of House Liora. You are interfering in galactic jurisdiction."
"I don't give a damn about your jurisdiction," Lexanna hissed. "He's mine."
The man reached behind his back, and suddenly the stars above seemed to dim. A black glaive unfolded from nothingness, coated in void qi.
Lexanna didn't hesitate.
They clashed.
Light and darkness. Moon and abyss. The collision of their auras shattered the remnants of the observatory around them. Nico, caught in the pressure of their duel, struggled to even stay conscious.
He knew it in his bones—if this went on, Lexanna would die.
And he would lose everything.
He forced his hands together, forming the crude starlight array she'd helped him learn. His body screamed. His core twisted, unstable and volatile. The last time he tapped into this power, it nearly ripped him apart.
But love wasn't safe.
And it was never quiet.
The air cracked.
His body lifted off the ground slightly, eyes glowing a soft silver. Starlight surged from his veins, painting constellations in midair. The Astral Core responded—not to fear, not to rage, but to his desire to protect.
Lexanna noticed it mid-strike. "Nico, don't!"
"I promised," he whispered. "I won't let the world take you away."
He clapped his hands together.
Time stopped.
Or rather, slowed. The stars above bent, and a shimmering field spread out from him—an ancient spell lost for millennia. The Seeker froze mid-strike, his glaive trapped mid-air in a loop of stillness.
Nico fell to his knees.
Blood trickled from his nose. "I... I can't hold him long."
Lexanna didn't hesitate. She raised her sword, gathered the full force of her lunar qi, and drove it into the frozen Seeker's core.
A shockwave tore through the observatory.
When the light faded, the Seeker was gone—disintegrated into particles of dark matter. Only his glaive remained, embedded in the ground, humming with forbidden energy.
Lexanna collapsed beside Nico, breathing heavily. "Idiot. You were supposed to let me protect you."
"You did," he whispered, his vision blurry. "But I had to keep my promise too."
Her fingers brushed his cheek. "You almost died."
"I almost lost you. That would've been worse."
They sat in silence for a while, their bodies bruised, their qi drained, but their hands never parting.
Above them, the stars flickered once more—then shifted. A constellation realigned, forming a new symbol.
A sign.
And far away, on a hidden moon where ancient machines slumbered, something stirred.
A pair of glowing eyes blinked awake.
"Stardust Protocol: Phase One complete. Initiating Phase Two—Core Ascension Trials."
Back in Neo-Singara, news of the Astral Awakening spread like wildfire. The Council denied involvement. House Liora issued a statement of neutrality. Kael Vireon, furious at being upstaged, vowed to "personally cleanse the abomination corrupting the youth."
But in a quiet crater far from the city, Nico and Lexanna sat beneath the stars, wrapped in a shared cloak, surrounded by quiet and cosmic destiny.
"Lex," Nico murmured.
"Yeah?"
"If I die, I want it to be with you next to me."
She leaned her head against his shoulder. "You're not dying."
He smiled, weakly. "Just saying."
She kissed his temple. "Then let me say something too."
He turned to look at her.
"I want to live," she said softly, "in a world where you get to be the greatest. Not the strongest. Just... the one who made it matter."
His throat tightened. "Then I'll build that world for you."
A star shot across the sky.
And far beyond Earth's orbit, an ancient gate opened for the first time in ten thousand years—silver, infinite, and waiting for its heir.