Chapter 439: A Chance

​"Chaos system... Well, your system must be poor, because it couldn’t hide your Surname." Mirabella said, staring at him, with a slight frown.

​"That’s understandable, your Master System is still the strongest amongst the three." Julian said with a shrugged, his casual demeanor belying the monumental cosmic lore he had just dropped.

​The existence of a second system was a shock; the confirmation of a third meant the foundational architecture of the universe was still entirely different than Mirabella had calculated.

​"Do you know who has the third?"

​"I don’t." Julian lied, looking away, unaware Mirabella already caught his lie.

​Her newly acquired Goddess of Death bloodline made her acutely sensitive to the fluctuations of a soul. A lie created a microscopic ripple in a person’s life force, and Julian’s soul, despite its overwhelming chaotic aura, practically screamed its deception to her golden eyes.

​"Alright... Listen up." Mirabella took a step, and instantly appeared before him, so close Julian could inhale her sweet scent.

​She bypassed physical distance using spatial displacement, a perk of her vastly augmented agility stats. She wanted to establish dominance, showing him that his status as a fellow system user did not put them on equal footing.

​"Get it inside your little brain. I am not your Queen... Get that right."

​"Um... We already did that, and we are bonded together by Heaven. You are already Heaven child, you should accept this." He stammered, staring at her golden eyes.

​The absolute authority radiating from her new form was intoxicating, but the ’bond’ he referred to was an unbreakable cosmic mandate, one he assumed would overwrite her hesitations.

​"Because I am Heaven child doesn’t mean I will agree to everything." Mirabella countered coldly. She had spent time fighting against predetermined fates; a marriage contract was just another rule to break. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

​"Come on, I am a nice guy, you said it yourself. My soul is pure, why won’t you accept me?" He asked, the fearsome Dark King suddenly sounding remarkably like a rejected suitor pleading his case.

​Mirabella took a step back, standing above the sea surface: "Mainly because you keep following me."

​"Huh?" Julian was stunned, and quickly explained:

​"I only followed you because I want to keep you safe, nothing else, please don’t misunderstand! As for last night... Well, you..."

​"Hold it there..." Mirabella stopped him, rising a finger at his face:

​"Don’t get any idea, I only used you last night because you’re a cure... But now, I cleared every single curse on me. So I don’t need you anymore."

​She spoke with the ruthlessness of a progression gamer. To her, he had been a necessary healing consumable, a way to purge the severe debuffs and curses afflicting her. Now that her status window showed zero active debuffs, his utility had expired.

​"So you used, and threw me away?" Julian asked with a sad expression, genuinely hurt by the transactional nature of her logic.

​"You can think whatever you want..." Mirabella turned around: "And as for Last night... I am not a noob. Don’t think you were teaching me how to kiss or anything, I know such simple things."

​"....?!!"

​Julian blinked, even more stunned, he quickly yelled: "At least give me a chance!! I will try my best to help you, and I know one day, you will accept me... Mirabella, we are fated to be together. Yes, I know all this sounds stupid, and maybe even childish to you, but to me, it’s not... From the first time I met you, I fell in love with you!!"

​"And when was that?" She asked, looking at him over her shoulder, her tone laced with deep skepticism. She had lived a brutal timeline of betrayal and death; love at first sight was a fairy tale that didn’t exist in a universe ruled by EXP and slaughter.

​"I met you in your previous life."

​Mirabella froze, turning around to face him again: ’This, he isn’t lying... But.’ She blinked, her mind racing to reconcile the timeline of her regression.

​"How?! Tell me when."

​"I also have a hand with your regression." He revealed, his words stunning Mirabella in place.

​The sheer magnitude of this confession shook her to the core. Her regression—the foundational mechanic of her current rise to power, the cheat that allowed her to correct her tragic past—wasn’t just a random glitch or a lone blessing.

​"As the Heaven child, you came with a second life. But due to your mother taking you away from the realms, and hiding on Earth, your ability to this second life was sealed... On the day you died, I assisted your Mother, and activated the Heaven child’s second life in you. This is how it happened." He explained, detailing the complex cosmic mechanics that governed the soul.

​Mirabella tilted her head to the side, then back upright. Everything Julian just said was the truth, but she wasn’t going to accept it, unless she heard it from her mother... Still... it recontextualized her entire existence. The Master System’s regression protocol had required a catalyst, and Julian had apparently provided it.

​"If you helped her, why didn’t she set you free?" She asked, spotting the logical flaw in the narrative. If he was such an ally, why was he still sealed away?

​"That’s because the Ten Sun Triangle Heavenly formation isn’t an ordinary prison... Once placed, it can never be opened, unless the ten seals are gone. The other reason why I need you is because, you are the only one that can remove the last and final seal... Even if all nine seals are removed, I won’t be able to come out, unless you remove the tenth! And... You don’t have the right to tell me to leave you alone, you have my life, and heart in your hands! I just need a chance." He yelled, his voice raw with centuries of isolation.

The Ten Sun Triangle Heavenly formation was an absolute tier sealing array, a mechanism designed to trap entities that could not be killed. To bind his freedom so intrinsically to her existence was a massive, overarching questline she hadn’t anticipated.

​Mirabella stared at him for a long while, processing the heavy burden of holding a king’s fate in her hands, then exhaled:

​"I am not in any mood to get married, or get into any relationship, and I don’t have the right to tell you how you can feel... Alright then, after I get the full picture from my mom, I will decide to set you free or not." She said, with a small sighed. She needed data, facts, and her mother’s fragmented soul to verify this grand story.

​"Does that mean I can follow you, and fight beside you?"

​"Do as you wish." She waved her hand dismissively, and vanished into smoke moment next.

​"Thank you, Mirabella!! I won’t give up this opportunity." Julian thought with a smile, staring at the dissipating necrotic smoke. He had finally secured his place in her party, and for the Master of the Chaos System, that was the only foothold he needed.