Chapter 714 --714

Chapter 714: Chapter-714

"Host, what are you doing?" the System whispered, its digital voice laced with static as the crushing spiritual pressure of the room bore down on them both.

"Shut up," Heena commanded softly through gritted teeth.

Ignoring the agonizing throb in her temple, Heena pressed her hands to the polished floorboards and delivered a slow, perfectly executed, formal bow of absolute respect to the ancestral tablets.

For a terrifying moment, the heavy air in the hall seemed to stagnate, vibrating with a lethal, rejecting energy. Then, a faint, silvery light shimmered across the altar. The suffocating, battering pressure suddenly broke, receding like a retreating tide, replaced by a profound, heavy warmth.

From the corner of her eye, Heena saw it. A faint, black silhouette—a shadow in the shape of a frail, young woman in traditional robes—stepped out from behind the altar. The shadow looked at the wooden tablet Heena had just placed, turned toward Heena, and offered a deep, lingering bow of pure gratitude.

Then, the silhouette dissolved into the candlelight, vanishing completely.

"Ghost!" the System shrieked in Heena’s mind, its interface flashing a chaotic array of error warnings. "Host! Oh my god, there was a ghost! What the hell just happened?! Why are we here? What are you doing?!"

"Nothing happened," Heena said calmly, pushing herself up from the floor. She dusted off her knees, entirely unbothered by the supernatural display. "Just think about it, System. We are entities that travel through dimensions, hijacking bodies and altering the fabric of time. We are beings that are fundamentally unnatural to this world. Just like us, there are billions of mysteries in the universe that human comprehension cannot decipher. The same goes for you administrative programs. So just shut up and stop questioning every little thing."

"But why did we come here now?" the System pressed, still trembling digitally. "The mission was already done!"

Heena sneered, a cold, satisfied expression crossing her pale face. "Of course, to make absolutely sure that your ’reborn’ Empress never somehow finds a loophole to anchor herself again. This place is a supernatural dead zone. But more importantly... it was for the protection of Seera."

The System remained quiet, listening.

"Seera’s main soul has already moved on to reincarnation, yes," Heena explained, turning her back to the altar and walking slowly toward the open doors. "But her residual consciousness, her lingering grievance, was still stuck here. By placing her tablet on the altar, the Vanguard ancestors have officially accepted her as their own. They have granted her soul their divine protection. No matter where she reincarnates next, no entity, no curse, and no ’deity’ can ever touch her again. That was my last gift to her."

Heena stepped across the threshold, leaving the heavy warmth of the ancestral hall behind as she walked back out into the cool night breeze of the courtyard.

"Besides," Heena muttered, a faint smirk touching her lips, "it’s going to be incredibly interesting to see how the empire manages tomorrow. But I am quite glad I won’t have to look at that Emperor bastard’s face anymore."

She stopped at the bottom of the grand stone stairs overlooking the moonlit reflection pools. Reaching into the inner lining of her silk top for the final time, Heena pulled out a small, unadorned ceramic bottle.

"And what is that now?" the System asked, its voice dropping into a tone of creeping dread.

"Poison," Heena answered plainly.

"Poison?!" the System screamed. "Host, have you lost your mind?!"

"Are you crazy?" Heena retorted, rolling her eyes as she ran her thumb over the cork stopper. "I have less than forty minutes left on the Vitality Booster. When it expires, the suppression on my intracranial blood clot will vanish. Do you want me to die from the agonizing pain of a literal brain blast? To spend my last moments screaming on the floor as my blood vessels rupture? Do you think I am a masochist like you?"

The System stuttered. "So... what are you going to do with that?"

"This is a masterpiece from the Vanguard black market," Heena said, holding the ceramic bottle up to the moonlight. "It is completely colorless, odorless, and, most importantly, entirely painless. It shuts down the nervous system instantly. By drinking this, I will bypass the blood clot entirely and die peacefully in a single second."

"But... but don’t you want to return to the estate?" the System asked, its voice breaking with a sudden, digital sorrow. "Don’t you want to wait for... for him?"

Heena’s thumb paused on the cork. For a fraction of a second, the image of a frantic, weeping scholar in muddy white robes flashed behind her eyes. Her heart gave a painful, localized ache that had nothing to do with her illness.

"Why would I want to return to the estate?" Heena whispered softly, her eyes sweeping over the quiet, imposing beauty of the Vanguard Palace, with its silver moonflowers and silent, black-armored knights. "See how beautiful this place is. It is fitting."

She slowly sat down on the cold stone stairs. The Shadow Knights standing guard around the perimeter of the courtyard remained perfectly still, watching her. Heena didn’t order them to leave.

She let out a long, shuddering sigh, the adrenaline finally, truly leaving her bones.

"I ask you one thing," Heena called out into the quiet courtyard, addressing the statuesque guards. "If a Chosen Vanguard dies inside this palace... what do you guys do with them?"

For a long moment, there was no movement. Then, the nearest Shadow Knight slowly, rigidly raised his armored gauntlet and pointed toward the towering inner sanctum across the reflection pool.

Heena followed his gaze. Through the open archways of the sanctum, bathed in the moonlight, she could see five massive, perfectly symmetrical golden chests resting on raised stone platforms. They were the eternal tombs of the Chosen Vanguards. Next to the fifth chest was an empty, waiting platform.

Heena smiled. It was a genuine, breathtakingly peaceful smile. The Vanguard Palace claimed its own. She would never be put on display for the capital to gawk at. She would be untouchable forever.

She unsealed the cap of the ceramic poison vial.

Around the courtyard, the emotionless, immovable Shadow Knights did something they had not done in a hundred years. As Heena raised the bottle to her lips, the black iron armor of the towering guards trembled. They clenched their gauntlets, their iron visors remaining fixed forward, fighting their own rigid programming to stand calmly as they bore witness to the passing of a titan.

In one swift, fluid motion, Heena gulped the liquid down.

She dropped the empty ceramic bottle. It shattered against the stone steps. Just as promised, there was no burst of pain. There was no agonizing pressure in her skull, no choking, no blood. The moonlight simply grew impossibly bright, and then softly faded to black.

Heena laid back against the cold marble stairs, her dark hair spilling across the stone. Her eyes fluttered shut.

With a final, quiet exhale, her breath was lost to the night wind.

.

.

.

The next morning, the sun rose over an empire irrevocably shattered.

Two earth-shaking edicts were plastered across the capital gates.