Velmora City – Moonstone Garden Terrace
The terrace lights twinkled like suspended stars, reflecting off the water features and the fine crystal glasses set on an open-air table. The Moonstone Garden was known for its exclusivity—no paparazzi, no interruptions. Just a sanctuary above the city.
Elsa sat with her back straight, dressed in a satin navy-blue dress that clung to her elegance with every breath she took. Across from her, Chess Golding—aloof as ever—seemed both present and far away. The dinner had begun as something unspoken: a test, a moment, a pause in the chaos. A chance to just... be.
"I never imagined you like this," Elsa said, gently swirling her wine.
"Like what?" Chess asked, eyes lingering over the skyline.
She gave him a small smile. "Quiet. Calm. You always seem like you're about to crush a planet."
He smirked. "Only on Tuesdays."
The quiet laughter lingered. It was rare—this softness. She didn't know where it would lead, but she liked this version of him. He looked relaxed, even human, without the usual storm brooding in his silence.
Then it happened.
A shift in the wind. A crackle in the atmosphere. Almost like lightning was trapped in a bottle and someone had uncorked it.
The air pressure dropped. The glass Elsa held trembled in her hand.
Then—
BOOM.
A streak of scarlet fire tore through the sky and landed just beyond the garden's edge with no warning, no announcement, no concern for subtlety. Guests screamed and scattered. Security scrambled.
Out of the smoke stepped a figure wrapped in crimson-and-black robes that shimmered like heated obsidian.
She walked with the kind of grace that came only from supreme confidence—or untouchable power.
Lady Yurei.
Her skin was pale like porcelain kissed by moonlight, her eyes a sharp, ethereal silver with hints of violet flame. Her long raven-black hair flowed in waves behind her, embroidered with faint traces of jade threading.
She was every inch terrifying. And beautiful.
Chess stood up slowly, his eyes narrowing, hands still by his side.
"You shouldn't be here, Yurei."
Her lips curled. "And yet here I am. Imagine that."
Elsa stood too, her instincts flaring. "Who is she?"
Yurei's gaze flicked to Elsa like one might glance at a stain on silk. "You must be the mortal wife."
Chess stepped forward. "Enough."
But Elsa was already moving, placing herself beside him. "She talks like she owns you."
Yurei chuckled, the sound smooth and venomous. "Own him? No. But I've bled with him, fought beside him, died once because of him. That kind of connection doesn't just… vanish."
Elsa's jaw tightened. "Sounds like a you problem."
Yurei's smile vanished.
"You're clever," she said softly, "for someone so… disposable."
Chess's hand twitched. He didn't summon any power, didn't raise his voice—but something in his presence grew colder.
"Back off, Yurei."
Yurei's eyes sparkled. "The Elders sent me, Chess. You broke the Covenant. You disappeared. You married outside the lineage. And now Milo Varn walks again? They think you've lost your path."
"I haven't," he said. "But I have a different war to fight now."
Yurei's lips parted slightly. For a moment, pain flashed in her gaze. "You promised we would rise together."
"That was before," he said, quietly. "Before I saw what the world really needed."
Yurei's aura pulsed with restrained fury. The stone tiles beneath her feet cracked slightly.
"Then consider this your last mercy," she whispered. "If you won't return to the Jade Flame Sect willingly, I will drag you back in chains—or leave your ashes as tribute."
In a swirl of wind and light, she vanished—leaving behind only scorched stone and a single crimson petal on the table.
Elsa stared at the empty space where the woman had stood.
"What… the hell was that?"
Chess exhaled slowly. "That," he said, "was my past. And a threat to my future."
Later That Night – Black Tower
Chess entered the control room beneath his penthouse, his face void of any expression.
Iroh Vaen appeared on the screen. "That disturbance… was it who we think it was?"
"Yurei," Chess confirmed. "The Elders are watching. And they've sent their sharpest fang."
Iroh nodded grimly. "She's not just watching, is she?"
"No," Chess replied. "She's planning. Maybe to test me. Maybe to break me."
"But you haven't shown her what you've become," Iroh said with a faint grin.
Chess's eyes glowed faintly. "Not yet."
Meanwhile – Jefferson Global Headquarters
Elsa sat at her office desk, replaying the encounter again and again.
That woman had moved like a blade of fire. No one human had that kind of power.
And Chess… he hadn't been surprised. Not one bit.
She opened her encrypted personal archive, scanning the reports she'd gathered on Chess. Every file was a dead-end. Every document clean to a fault.
"He's not from here," she whispered.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she pulled up a new research query.
And in that moment, a seed of realization bloomed in her mind.
She wasn't just falling for a mysterious billionaire.
She was falling into an entirely different world.