---
"He stepped through the broken mirror, and the dream blinked. Not in fear—
but in confusion."
---
The palace gates did not close behind him.
They melted.
Sunlight fell over his shoulders like judgment. Too warm. Too gold. It felt fake.
Leonas didn't flinch. Didn't pause.
The square was still there—clean, immaculate, a theater of peace. And the people were still clapping, their hands red not from applause but from the blood they refused to remember.
Children laughed. Couples kissed. The same merchant sold the same olives with the same smile.
He had been gone mere minutes. And yet—
The world was wrong.
---
He stepped down the marble stairs, each footfall sounding like a verdict.
A man looked up at him. Recognition sparked. Then confusion. Then grief.
The man collapsed, clutching his chest.
"You—You died. I watched you die—why do I—why do I remember twice?"
Leonas said nothing.
Another woman screamed, covering her face.
A child cried, "Mama, he was fire! He was fire!"
The illusion twisted.
The sky dimmed—not like sunset. Like sickness.
Above, Chaldea watched from the boundary.
Mash's face went pale. Ritsuka gripped the railing.
Da Vinci whispered, "He's breaking the singularity."
Holmes stood utterly still. "No. He's unmasking it."
---
The utopia began to twitch.
A baker forgot how to knead bread.
A bride saw her groom as a corpse.
Laughter echoed where there was no one left to laugh.
The streets curled at the edges, like burnt parchment.
The air smelled like roses dipped in oil—and then set ablaze.
---
Leonas walked into the heart of the city—his city—his ruined, resurrected, redacted Akrytos.
He passed the house where a girl had once starved clutching her brother's hand.
Now it was a flower shop.
He stepped inside.
The woman behind the counter blinked at him.
"Would you like lilies, Your Majesty?" she asked.
"You always loved lilies."
He stared at her. Her eyes were glass.
Her hands trembled.
"What was your brother's name?" he asked.
She froze.
"Wh—What?"
"The one you buried in the slums. The one whose ribs you could count. What was his name?"
Her lips moved. No sound came.
She dropped the bouquet.
The lilies burst into flame the moment they touched the floor.
---
He left her there, kneeling in the ashes of fake beauty.
And still the sky wept gold.
---
Children ran from him now. Not because he threatened them—he hadn't raised a hand.
But because they remembered.
Memory was clawing its way back into their bones.
Not all at once. Not like lightning. But like fever.
They remembered the fire.
They remembered the screams.
They remembered him.
Not the saint.
Not the smiling puppet in white robes.
But the King with the Crown of Iron. The boy-tyrant who carved a city from rot.
A little girl pointed.
"Mama," she said, voice shaking. "Why do I know his face when I don't know Papa's?"
Her mother held her tighter, eyes wide.
"Don't look," she whispered. "Don't look at him."
But it was too late.
---
The city stuttered.
The fountain began spewing saltwater.
Petals rotted mid-air.
And somewhere far above, the false stars blinked out.
---
Holmes pressed a finger to his earpiece.
"Sion. Confirm. Is the Beast aware?"
A long pause.
"...She's waking."
Da Vinci stepped back from the monitor. "Leonas broke the final anchor."
Ritsuka turned, horror dawning. "The copy—?"
"—wasn't just a lie," Holmes said quietly.
"It was a seal."
---
In the center of the square, Leonas stopped.
Dozens had gathered. Kneeling now. Not cheering. Not praying.
Remembering.
A young man sobbed openly.
An old priest whispered apologies to gods he had forsaken.
Someone tried to sing a hymn, but the notes came out wrong.
Leonas looked at them all.
And said, almost kindly:
"Stand up."
No one moved.
"I don't need your worship. Just your memory."
"Don't let them steal it again."
The sky cracked.
A sound like weeping thunder rolled across the heavens.
And then—
She arrived.
---
A wind that wasn't wind swept through the city.
Every flower turned to look.
A figure appeared at the edge of sight—cloaked in silk and sorrow.
Veiled. Crowned in thorned roses. Carrying a book that bled from its spine.
Beast IV/L.
The Crown of Echoes.
She wept with a thousand mouths.
She whispered peace in a thousand voices.
But Leonas only saw the cage beneath her mercy.
"You took their fire," he said.
"Now I'll give it back."
She opened her arms.
The city screamed.
---