"Where is he?"
"I don't know," Alex said. "But my best guess is he went after those guys."
Rebecca stood beside him, arms folded, eyes flat.
They were on the highest place in the academy. The sun was already up. The world looked like it didn't know it almost ended last night.
Rebecca didn't care.
Alex spoke without looking at her. "Also… Lionhead. What are you going to do about it? I heard he killed your family in your past life. Knowing you from what Adam has been writing to me… you're still itching to have a go at him."
Rebecca let out a small laugh that wasn't a laugh. Her brow twitched.
"What good is there," she said, "if he can't die now?"
Alex glanced at her.
"He's a concept just like me," Rebecca continued, voice low. "Unkillable. What better revenge can I give him?"
Alex answered like it was obvious. "You can torture him for all eternity."
A third voice cut in.
"You can."
Rebecca and Alex turned at the same time.
A man stood there with both hands raised. Half his face looked normal. The other half looked like a skull mask that grew out of him, pale and sharp and wrong. His eyes were calm like he didn't understand fear.
"I did not receive pardon from Nonexistence to come die at the hands of Death and Existence," the man said. "I am Mor'vyre. The only sensible member of the Night Regalia. And I am here to swear my undying fealty to Death."
He looked at Rebecca first, then at Alex, and his mouth tilted on the human side.
"If I did not know any better," Mor'vyre added, "I would think you are the same person."
Alex sighed like he'd been tired since birth.
"Where is my brother?" Alex asked.
Mor'vyre shrugged lightly. "I don't know. Finishing off the Night Regalia, I assume. I told them not to aggravate him. But they thought otherwise. They thought you were normal concepts."
Rebecca stared at Mor'vyre like she was deciding which part of him to cut first.
"You came here," she said, "to kneel."
"I came here," Mor'vyre corrected, "to live."
Rebecca's eyes narrowed. "You were just with them."
"I was always with myself," Mor'vyre said calmly. "The Regalia is useful until it isn't. They became a sinking ship the moment they tried to box Nothingness."
Alex's gaze stayed sharp. "Adam doesn't box. He deletes."
Mor'vyre's skull side seemed to grin without moving. "Yes. That."
Rebecca's voice stayed steady. "Why you? Why not run and hide like the other rats?"
"Because hiding is what gets you found later," Mor'vyre replied. "And because I know what will happen next."
He lowered his hands slowly, showing he wasn't reaching for anything.
"As much as I am loyal to the Night Regalia," he said, "I don't intend to fight a losing battle and have myself erased because they refused to listen to reason. I know how to pick my battles."
Rebecca didn't blink.
"The Night Regalia has numerous enemies," Mor'vyre continued. "When word gets out that they are destroyed and I am the remaining survivor, they will come for me. And I can't take them all on my own."
Rebecca's mouth curled. "So you want to stand behind me."
Mor'vyre held her gaze. "I want to stand beside you. There's a difference."
Rebecca took one step forward. The air around her felt colder. Not dramatic. Just real. Like the world quietly remembered what she was.
"You want a shield," she said.
Mor'vyre nodded once. "I want protection. Yes. I won't lie to you."
"And what do I get?" Rebecca asked.
Mor'vyre looked at Alex for a moment, then back to her.
"You get something you're missing."
Rebecca's eyes didn't move. "I'm not missing anything."
Mor'vyre's voice stayed polite. "You are. You just don't like admitting it."
Rebecca's fingers twitched, like she was about to draw a blade that wasn't there.
Alex spoke before she did. "Talk fast."
Mor'vyre nodded. "You are Death."
Rebecca didn't react.
Mor'vyre continued anyway. "Not 'an avatar.' Not 'a wielder.' Not 'a chosen.' You are Death."
Rebecca's lip lifted. "I know what I am."
"No," Mor'vyre said, still calm. "You know what your tablet said. You know what your system whispered. But you are still wearing a human shape like it's your skin."
Rebecca's eyes sharpened.
Alex watched quietly.
Mor'vyre took a breath. "Nonexistence already crossed the line. Existence did too. Order is close. They aren't just using their Concepts anymore. They are becoming them."
Rebecca's voice came out flat. "And you're saying I'm behind."
"I'm saying you are restrained," Mor'vyre replied. "By habit. By memory. By the lie of being human."
Rebecca took another step forward.
Mor'vyre didn't move back.
"You don't know me," Rebecca said.
Mor'vyre nodded. "True."
Rebecca's jaw tightened. "So don't talk like you do."
Mor'vyre tilted his head. "Then let's speak about what I do know."
Rebecca's eyes didn't leave his. "Go on."
"I watched you fight," Mor'vyre said. "I watched you kill. I watched you resurrect two assassins and turn them into your minions. That wasn't a talent trick. That was Death acting through you."
Rebecca's voice dropped. "You were spying."
"I was surviving," Mor'vyre corrected. "And learning."
Alex cut in, impatient. "You said you can help her. How."
Mor'vyre's human side looked almost tired. "Because I've seen it happen before."
Rebecca paused. "Before? You mean—"
"Other worlds," Mor'vyre said. "Other cycles. Other 'chosen.'"
Rebecca's eyes narrowed again. "Speak clear."
Mor'vyre nodded like she was right to demand it.
"The Regalia hunts Concepts that wake up," he said. "Not because they fear them as they are now. But because they fear what they become when the human stops pretending."
Rebecca's expression didn't change, but something in her gaze shifted, like she heard a truth she didn't want to hear.
Mor'vyre continued. "A Concept can be worn like clothing, or it can be lived like a body. The second is what makes it unstoppable."
Rebecca stared at him. "Stop talking like a priest."
Mor'vyre's skull side looked amused. "Fair."
He raised one finger.
"There is a method," he said. "A shortcut. A way to force the merge."
Rebecca's eyes flashed. "And why would you give me that?"
Mor'vyre answered without hesitation. "Because if you become true Death, your existence becomes a shelter."
Rebecca snorted. "Shelter."
"Yes," Mor'vyre said. "People will hesitate to come for me. They will think twice. They will fear the idea of Death noticing them."
Rebecca's gaze hardened. "So I'm still a shield."
Mor'vyre nodded. "And you still get what you want."
Rebecca stepped closer until they were almost face to face.
"And what do I want?" she asked.
Mor'vyre didn't flinch. "You want revenge that actually matters."
Rebecca's hand moved so fast Alex barely saw it. She grabbed Mor'vyre's collar and yanked him forward.
Mor'vyre didn't fight it.
Rebecca's eyes were flat and deadly. "Don't say that word like you understand it."
Mor'vyre breathed out slow. "You asked what better revenge you can give a concept that can't die. I gave you the answer."
Rebecca's grip tightened. "Torture."
Mor'vyre nodded, calm. "Control. Ownership. You don't kill him. You keep him. You make him remember pain, even if he can't end."
Rebecca's fingers trembled once, not from weakness, from old rage.
Alex watched her. He didn't interrupt. He knew that look.
Rebecca let Mor'vyre go and stepped back.
"You're pushing too hard," Alex said quietly.
Mor'vyre glanced at him. "You think so?"
Alex's voice stayed even. "She doesn't like being used."
Mor'vyre looked back at Rebecca. "Neither do I."
Rebecca stared at him.
"Then why are you here?" she asked.
Mor'vyre answered honestly. "Because I'm tired of being hunted. Because I'm tired of following idiots into extinction. Because I'm tired of pretending I can handle what's coming."
Rebecca's eyes narrowed. "What's coming."
Mor'vyre's skull side seemed to listen to something far away.
"My hunters."
Rebecca's voice went quiet. "Tell me the method."
Mor'vyre looked at her like he was checking if she meant it.
Rebecca didn't blink. "Tell me."
Mor'vyre spoke slow, like each word mattered.
"You have to die."