Chapter 19

Dianna arrives via vortex in Roccurem’s stellar prison, reeling from the travel and summoning her blade. She calls Roccurem out and immediately asserts dominance, testing the fabric of the realm and seizing him by the throat. She demands answers about Gabriella and contemplates a slow, painful execution in retribution.

Roccurem observes Dianna’s evolution and claims to see countless realities, insisting Gabriella dies in all of them and that Dianna’s ascension requires such a loss. The revelation shatters Dianna but redirects her intent; instead of killing him, she considers how to use him. Roccurem frames Dianna as a rule-breaking force who could burn stars and conquer worlds.

Choosing strategy over vengeance, Dianna unleashes flames that tear the realm’s walls, extinguishing its stars and collapsing the illusion that binds Roccurem. With the prison turned to ash and silence, Roccurem rises changed—unburdened. Dianna claims this freedom as leverage, declaring he now belongs to her until he helps her find Kaden.

When Dianna presses for Kaden’s location without riddles, Roccurem implies she already knows the answer: Kaden is not on Onuna, despite the realms being sealed. He warns she is running out of time because the One True King is coming, and Dianna realizes time flows differently in his realm and that her recent attack on a Hand will have consequences.

Resolved, Dianna uses Samkiel’s blood to open a way back, inviting the newly freed Roccurem to witness the world. She departs intent on leveraging him to reach Kaden beyond Onuna while bracing for the looming threat of the One True King.