Chapter 549: Descendants

The golden radiance that had completely bathed the cramped quarters finally retreated, sinking back into the pale veins of the jagged stone. The suffocating divine pressure lifted, but the tension inside the room remained.

"You speak to me as if I am merely a scavenger stumbling upon a shiny trinket," Xalvoria said, her voice dripping with cold, ancient pride. She gracefully adjusted her crimson-and-gold mantle. "I know exactly what that stone is because its divine resonance flows directly through my own veins. I am not just a ruler of the First Pillar, boy. I am of the Goddess's direct lineage."

Xavier didn't move, keeping his arms crossed over his chest. "Lineage?"

"I am her descendant," Xalvoria declared, the weight of her words echoing off the metal bulkheads. "Her great, great granddaughter, stretching back through an unbroken royal bloodline that predates your pathetic galactic Federation by eons. For millions of years, my family has ruled from the twilight of the Sun's Moon, and for millions of years, we have scoured the infinite dark of the cosmos to gather the shattered pieces of our divine matriarch. We hold our own fragments of her soul. That is why she recognized her sister's residual energy upon my flesh."

She took a slow, deliberate step toward him, her gaze piercing right through him. "We are the keepers of her legacy. We are the ones destined to make her whole again. So tell me, filthy mortal... how does a fragile, insignificant boy living on a rusted ship come to possess the beating heart of my ancestor?"

Xavier stared right back into her terrifying crimson eyes. A slow, highly amused smirk crept back onto his face, completely shattering the heavy intimidation she was trying to project. He let out a dark chuckle and uncrossed his arms.

"Well, your Majesty," Xavier said casually, his voice devoid of any fear. "I guess that makes this a family reunion."

Xalvoria frowned, her perfectly arched brow twitching in sheer irritation. "Excuse me?"

"You are not the only one carrying her bloodline, and you are certainly not the only one destined to put her back together," Xavier replied as he stepped closer, entirely closing the distance until he was mere inches from the Empress. The golden fragment on the altar pulsed in rapid synchronization with his heartbeat, seemingly backing up his claim.

"I am her descendant too," Xavier stated, his voice dropping into a dangerous, commanding register that carried a weight far older than his physical body. "But my claim to her fragments doesn't just come from the Goddess. It comes from the man who forged his bloodline from her core. I am the direct descendant and the living reincarnation of Zephyros."

The name struck the room like a physical blow.

The towering obsidian knight visibly flinched, her grip faltering on the hilt of her broadsword as she looked at Xavier in sheer horror. Empress Xalvoria froze completely, her breath catching in her throat. The haughty, untouchable demeanor of the galactic ruler vanished entirely, replaced by absolute, paralyzing shock.

She knew the ancient histories. She knew the terrifying truth of the Emperor of Eternity—the patriarch of the Zenith bloodline who had found the broken Goddess, loved her, defied her, and ultimately used a blast of concentrated starlight to shatter her physical anchor into the very twenty-four fragments they were now hunting.

"Zephyros..." Xalvoria whispered, her crimson eyes wide as she searched his face for a lie, but found only the cold, unyielding certainty of an ancient emperor staring back at her. "You bear the soul of the Emperor of Eternity?"

"I carry his soul, and I carry his blood," Xavier answered with a cold, unapologetic grin. "Which means I am not some scavenger holding onto a trinket, Xalvoria. I am the rightful heir to her entire shattered existence. So if you want this fragment, you are going to have to wage a war against your own grandfather to get it."

The heavy silence inside the captain's quarters shattered the moment the name Zephyros left Xavier's lips.

Empress Xalvoria's initial shock rapidly curdled into pure, unadulterated hatred. The ambient temperature in the room seemingly plummeted as her crimson eyes narrowed into furious slits. The obsidian knight tightened her grip on her broadsword, sensing the immediate murderous intent radiating from her ruler.

"You dare speak his name with pride?" Xalvoria spat, her voice laced with centuries of venom. She looked at Xavier as if he were a disease. "The Emperor of Eternity is the very reason our divine matriarch is broken! He is the one who turned his starlight against her and shattered her physical anchor into twenty-four pieces! You do not carry a noble legacy, boy. You carry the soul of a traitor and a butcher."

Xavier didn't react, his nonchalant smirk remaining perfectly intact as he let her vent her ancient frustrations.

"This is the exact reason I despise men," Xalvoria sneered, looking him up and down with open disgust. "You destroy everything that is divine, everything that is whole, and then you have the sheer audacity to act as if you are the ones fixing it. The males of your cursed lineage went off on their own little arrogant crusade to find her pieces, and frankly, it is absolutely hilarious to me. Hundreds of thousands of years wandering the stars, and you pathetic creatures only managed to scrape together what? Two fragments?"

She let out a hollow, mocking laugh that echoed coldly against the metal bulkheads. "You are a failure of a reincarnation holding onto a single glowing rock, pretending to be a god."

Behind Xavier, Lyra growled low in her throat, the demonic heat radiating from her skin spiking as she prepared to lunge. Xavier simply raised a hand behind his back, signaling for her to stay put.

He kept his eyes locked on the infuriated Empress.

"You seem incredibly confident for someone standing on my ship," Xavier said, his voice entirely calm. "So tell me, your Majesty. If my lineage is so pathetic, exactly how many fragments has your glorious matriarchy managed to find while hiding out on the Sun's Moon?"

Xalvoria lifted her chin, her crimson-and-gold mantle shifting as she practically glowed with ancient pride. "The Sun's Moon has gathered eight of her divine fragments. We hold a third of her shattered soul securely within our throne room. We are the true inheritors of her power, while your line has achieved nothing but dust."

Xavier stared at her for a brief second before he let out a loud, highly amused scoff.

"Eight?" Xavier chuckled, a dark, mocking edge bleeding into his tone. "That's cute."

Xalvoria's victorious smirk instantly faltered. "What did you say?"

"I said it's cute that you think eight fragments gives you the right to walk onto my ship and make demands," Xavier replied, his eyes flashing with the cold authority of the ancient emperor she despised. "You clearly need to update your historical archives. My family already gathered twelve fragments long before I was even born. And since I started my own journey, I have personally hunted down and secured two more."

He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "So, if you know how to do basic math, Xalvoria... that makes fourteen fragments on my side of the board. I already own more than half of her soul."

The Empress froze completely. The arrogant fire in her crimson eyes extinguished in an instant, replaced by a profound, staggering disbelief. The math hit her like a physical blow.

'Fourteen fragments.'

He held fourteen, she held eight.