Night had fallen quietly over the city. The streets were settled into a deep calm, bathed in the soft glow of yellow streetlamps while a cool breeze swept through the empty roads. Arnold and Kale walked side by side, their fingers interlaced. There was a strange, fragile peace in the air, as if time had slowed down just to give them this final moment of quiet. Tomorrow was the mission. The Secret Dungeon awaited. Neither of them knew what lay ahead, but for now, they clung to this small, precious piece of a normal life.
Kale looked at Arnold, her eyes shimmering with thoughts she had been suppressing all evening. She bit her lip, her expression soft but heavy with a lingering worry.
"Tell me something," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Why did you fall for me so quickly?"
Arnold glanced at her, caught off guard by the sudden question. He stayed silent for a moment, searching for the right words.
"I mean," Kale continued, her voice trembling slightly as she looked toward the pavement. "I never thought I would be the wife of the strongest man in the world. Sometimes, Arnold, it honestly scares me. I feel like one day the world will just decide it needs you more than I do, and you will be taken away from me. And I," she paused, her grip on his hand tightening until her knuckles turned white, "I can't survive without you."
Arnold stopped walking. He turned toward her, a calm smile resting on his lips, but behind his eyes was a flicker of ancient pain. It was the kind of grief he never allowed the world to see.
"You know," he said softly, "my favorite superhero, Spider-Man, he had a saying."
Kale looked up at him, waiting, her breath hitched in her throat.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
He took a deep breath, looking past her at the flickering city lights.
"After my family died, everything I knew was wiped away. My life became something I never asked for. There was darkness everywhere. Pain in every shadow. I didn't choose this path because I felt strong, Kale." He looked down, his voice dropping an octave. "I chose it because I had to. Because there was no one else."
Kale's eyes slowly welled with tears.
"I wanted to protect this world," Arnold whispered, "so that no one else would ever have to stand in the ruins of their life and feel what I felt."
A heavy silence settled between them for a few heartbeats. Arnold reached out, his thumb gently brushing a stray tear from her cheek.
"Kale, I'm so sorry if you have ever been hurt because of the life I lead."
Kale started to shake her head, ready to protest, but Arnold didn't let her.
"I promise you," he said, his voice ringing with absolute conviction. "I will never leave you. We will get through this. We'll get married, and we'll live a happy life. The kind of life I thought I lost forever."
For a fleeting second, Arnold's mind drifted. He saw flashes of a past life. He saw Ayelen laughing at a joke, Miyara's rare, beautiful smile, and his mother standing at the doorway calling him for dinner. He felt his father's heavy, proud hand on his shoulder.
A single tear slipped down his cheek, unbidden.
Kale saw it, but she didn't say a word. She simply squeezed his hand tighter, letting him know she was there.
They finished their walk in silence, returning to the quiet sanctuary of their home. Inside, the world felt distant. They changed and climbed into bed, the darkness of the room feeling warm rather than cold.
"Good night," Kale whispered into the dark.
"Good night," Arnold replied.
As Arnold turned away to settle in, he felt Kale move closer. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him from behind and resting her head against the small of his back.
"You will never lose," she whispered fiercely against the fabric of his shirt. "My wishes are always with you. I love you more than anything."
Arnold didn't say anything, but he reached back and gently placed his hand over hers. That night, the silence spoke louder than any words ever could.
The scene shifted.
Ayelen sat alone on a high ledge, staring down at a window where a family sat gathered for dinner. He could see the muffled shapes of laughter and the passing of plates. Warmth. Happiness. It was a mirror of everything he once possessed and everything that had been ripped away.
His eyes were vacant, fixed on the scene with an eerie intensity. Baiana walked toward him, her footsteps light on the cold stone.
"Do you want something?" she asked, her voice soft and cautious.
Ayelen didn't turn his head. "No."
A long pause followed. Then, Ayelen spoke again, his voice sounding distant, like he was speaking from another world.
"Why do you care so much about me?"
Baiana stopped in her tracks. She looked at his slumped shoulders, wanting to scream the truth at him. She wanted to tell him everything, the secrets and the history, but she knew his mind was a fragile glass about to shatter. He wasn't ready.
"It's my job," she said simply, though her heart ached.
Ayelen stood up slowly. He held out his right hand, palm upward. In the center of his hand, a small, pitch-black sphere began to manifest. It was tiny, no bigger than a marble, but it felt impossibly heavy. The air around his hand began to warp and bend, light itself distorting as it was sucked toward the center.
"A black hole," Ayelen remarked, observing the void with a chilling lack of fear.
Baiana's face drained of color. "Ayelen, stop," she said firmly, taking a step forward. "Black holes are not toys. Even the ancient gods failed to control them properly. They are unstable. They are hunger incarnate. If you don't fully understand the physics behind them, they will tear you apart before they destroy your enemies."
Ayelen looked at her, a faint, ghost-like smile touching his lips.
"Gods?"
His voice took on a jagged, darker edge.
"I think you should take your words back."
The black hole in his hand hummed, growing slightly larger, pulling small pebbles and dust particles into its infinite maw.
"If no one has done it before," Ayelen continued, his eyes glowing with an unstable light, "then I will be the first."
Baiana felt a shiver run down her spine. Something had shifted deep within him—something far more dangerous than simple anger.
The scene shifted once more.
Far across the void, near the roaring brilliance of the Helx-01 star, Flauge sat alone on the surface of a dead, silent planet. The massive star burned like a god in the distance, its blinding light bathing the horizon in shades of violent orange and red.
Flauge sat motionless, a speck of dust against the cosmos, lost in a sea of memories.
Suddenly, a presence stirred the stagnant air behind him.
It was her. The same unknown woman who had appeared to him thirty million years ago.
"Flauge," she said softly, her voice carrying a hint of nostalgic sadness. "It has been a long time. A very long time."
Flauge didn't turn around. "I can't do it," he said, his voice barely audible over the solar winds.
She stepped closer, her boots crunching on the dry earth. "It isn't about who can, Flauge. It's about who will."
Flauge closed his eyes tight.
"If you don't take a stand," she continued, "Ayelen will change everything. After what happened to his family, he won't stop until the balance is broken."
Flauge's voice grew heavy with a weary frustration. "But why me? For thirty million years, I watched and waited. Nothing changed. And now, I'm expected to lead? I might lose this entire universe, too." He looked down at his shaking hands. "I never wanted any of this."
The woman stepped closer and placed a gentle, grounding hand on his shoulder. "You loved her, didn't you?"
Flauge's eyes filled with tears, the brilliant light of the star reflecting in the moisture. "Until eternity," he choked out.
She smiled faintly, a look of bittersweet understanding on her face. "Then do it for her."
Flauge looked down at the barren ground. "She is gone. She's been gone for so long."
The woman leaned closer to his ear. "She is dead in this universe, yes. But will you fight for the memory of her? For the world she wanted?"
Flauge clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking. "Thirty million years, and I still love her as if it were yesterday," he said. "Every single day, I hope she's alive somewhere. That I'll find her and finally tell her everything I should have said."
The woman suddenly let out a light, melodic laugh.
"Flauge, stop acting like a child. You are the God of Generation, yet you're behaving like a lovestruck teenager? It's embarrassing."
Flauge turned to look at her, his expression dead serious. She merely smirked at him, her eyes dancing with mischief.
"If I were your crush, I would slap you right now for being so pathetic," she teased.
Flauge didn't react to the jab. Instead, he spoke with a haunting gravity.
"I have one last wish."
The woman grew quiet, sensing the change in his energy.
"I just want to see her," Flauge whispered. "One last time."
For a fleeting second, the woman's expression faltered. A look of profound secretiveness hid behind her smile. Inside her mind, she whispered a truth she couldn't speak: I want to tell you she is alive, Flauge... but the time isn't right.
Instead, she stepped back into the shadows. "Go," she said. "Good luck with your mission."
She looked at him one last time, her gaze turning sharp. "And remember, Flauge. Do not mess with Vanzayoree. If things go wrong with him, there is no fixing it. Not even for us."
Flauge nodded slowly.
"I believe in you," she added, her figure beginning to shimmer and dissolve. "See you soon."
And then, she was gone. Flauge remained on the silent planet, a lone guardian staring into the heart of a burning star, preparing for the end.
CHAPTER 17 ENDS