LOGINLandon smiled. "Go ahead. I'm listening."Aria took a deep breath and slowly lifted her head. When she met his gaze, she saw warmth reflected in his indifferent gaze. The dam she had held inside her heart for so long finally began to crack. Her voice was soft, with a faint rasp, as if it carried a whisper from a distant past. Every word was heavy with pain."I've been hiding from you for a long time. My identity isn't as simple as it seems. I wasn't born into the Carver family in this life. I was reborn."When she finished, she watched his face closely, searching for even a hint of shock or doubt. But his expression barely shifted. His gaze flickered for a moment, and his fingers shifted slightly toward her, as calm as ever. Landon didn't interrupt her, merely gesturing for her to continue.Memories from her past life surged into her mind—the misty Mount Hollowlight, fields of rare spiritual herbs and flowers, her fellow apprentices' smiling faces, and her mentor's kind guidanc
Aria no longer felt weak and disoriented. Instead, she had a tangle of questions and fixations she'd been sitting on for a long time. Her thoughts kept circling back to her past life and the deep bond she'd shared with her fellow apprentices from Hollowlight Sect. And underneath all of it sat a theory so unbelievable she hadn't dared look at it head-on, even though she knew she had to. Her gaze drifted to the branches swaying outside the window, but she wasn't seeing any of it. Her mind had already gone back to a few days ago. She had just found out that Fergus and Elijah, who'd woken up remembering everything, were the same fellow apprentices who had once shielded her with their lives. It stirred up a complicated knot of emotions in her chest. Memories she'd buried for ages came flooding back all at once. Back on the peak of Mount Hollowlight, there was the wooden lodge Tobias had built with his own hands. Her fellow apprentices had gathered around her and taught her swordwork
Just as Landon was sure he'd dissolve completely and lose even that last thread of awareness, the invisible force tearing his soul apart stopped cold. The fading silhouette that hung in the air suddenly held firm, and the unraveling froze in place. In the end, heaven's will stayed its hand. It didn't erase him or scatter his soul beyond any hope of return. Those words Landon had spoken about the hearts of the people, about fairness, about a world that actually cared—they'd left a mark somewhere deep inside heaven's cold and ancient core, and that mark wouldn't fade. The punishment had been about authority. But it had let Landon live because of its own doubt. Immediately after, a gentle but irresistible wave of energy wrapped itself around the scattered fragments of Landon's essence before they could drift apart for good. The pale gold specks floating through the air reversed course all at once, pulling back toward him from every direction. His body started filling back in. His
Heaven had never had to think before. It simply had to make decisions. This was the first time, in all the ages since its birth, that it set aside its absolute authority. It had never allowed a single word of dissent. But for the first time, it genuinely asked itself whether the order it upheld so rigidly was the foundation holding the world together—or the wall keeping it shut out from every living thing in it. Countless eons of memories surfaced. There were many beings who fell to their knees in their darkest moments, screaming at heaven and begging to know why things were so unfair. The loyal ones were framed and ruined, while the good ones were dragged through suffering they didn't deserve. Eventually, their eyes had turned cold, hollow, and hopeless. It remembered the ages when corruption ran unchecked, when the cruel held power, and the world was drowning in grief and fury. Heaven had treated all those emotions and cries like nothing. It never cared. But now, spoken thr
The concern in Sam's eyes melted Aria's heart on the spot. She turned her head with effort and gave him a gentle smile. She then said softly, "I'm fine." Sam nodded hard, his shoulders trembling as he sobbed. His fingers were still clenched tight around the edge of her blanket. "As long as you're okay, Boss! You scared me half to death." Outside the room, Zane felt his heart jump when he heard the noise. He walked quickly to the door and peered through the glass window. When he saw Aria with her eyes open, talking to Landon and Sam, the anxiety he'd been carrying for two solid days was finally gone. He turned and gave a firm nod to the Special Missions Unit members waiting at the end of the hallway. But he kept his voice barely above a whisper. "Boss is awake." Those few words hit every one of them at once. Tears welled up in their eyes, and they swallowed back their cheers. With fists clenched tight, their faces were full of joy and relief. Their boss—Aria, who always charged
The steady beep of the heart monitor broke the silence in the room, and for Landon, it was the only sound that brought him any peace. He sat with a straight back in the lone leather chair beside the bed. In fact, he sat so still that the chair itself might as well have been rooted to the floor. It was as though he and the cold hospital room had become one and the same. His eyes never left Aria's face. That gaze was deep and impossibly still, the kind that only came from living far too long. And buried somewhere behind it was a tenderness no one was ever meant to see. His gaze drifted slowly across her brow, tracing the furrow that lingered there even in unconsciousness. Even now, she carried a tension she couldn't let go of. It was as if some part of her was still standing on the battlefield in Soul Lock Grove, facing Nunzio down and shielding everyone behind her. As he raised his hand, his fingertip hovered just slightly above the crease between her brows. He was so careful it
At the same time, a young woman was leaning on the desk in a villa with a wooden doll in her arms. "I think my luck has gotten incredibly good ever since I found you. At first, I planned on making my father invest in a television drama, so I could be the female lead. But I didn't need to do that a
Aria was also thinking about keeping Landon's identity hidden, so she smiled gently. "I'll handle the deity's idol. He's just a mortal, so he can't make decisions about this stuff." Hearing this, Hela looked at Aria and then at Landon. Her expression was hard to describe. Finally, Landon spoke up
Tobias immediately opened the door, only to see a man in black vanishing into the distance, leaving behind a single piece of paper. He bent down, picked it up, and shut the door before slowly unfolding the paper to read its contents."Very few can activate the Divine Sight now. I'm honored to hav
With Zane's command, everyone began to pick their locations. They couldn't afford to let their guard down—Farshya was at stake.Initially, Zane had been suspicious of the map. If it were a decoy planted by their enemies, the consequences could be catastrophic. Still, he chose to trust Aria.After







