The crash of waves filled the air.

They slammed against the reefs, rushed toward the shallows, and sent sprays of white foam hissing across the silver sand. The water whispered against the girl’s pale ankles.

Stars hung in the pristine night sky—countless, clear. Their gentle light wove constellations, gathered into rivers of starlight, and poured over the world.

Ripples of shattered light danced across the sea’s surface.

The girl’s silhouette shimmered with a dreamlike glow.

Luyi and Alices sat silently side by side on the damp shore.

They watched the distant horizon. They watched the vast starfield above.

Alices always looked to the stars—when sorrow weighed her down, when loneliness ached in her chest.

The cosmos felt ancient, boundless. Its quiet magic lifted worries away, if only for a moment, leaving behind a fragile peace.

Now was no different.

"I’m sorry, Lord Luyi," she murmured under the starlight. "My behavior earlier... was unbecoming.

When I saw you walk away, I just... remembered too much.

My past... it was a past where I gained nothing.

Toys I loved, little creatures I cherished—my royal brother would break them, kill them. I’d practice combat techniques until my hands bled, only to be mocked.

I held many things once. But I could never keep them.

They slipped through my fingers like sand scooped from this beach—grains trickling away until my palms were empty."

"I... fear losing what I love."

So she hesitated.

So she clung too tightly.

"So... I feared losing you, Lord Luyi."

For one heartbeat, she’d thought Luyi would vanish forever.

"I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye," Luyi said quietly.

"Yes," Alices smiled, relief softening her voice. "So I’m glad... you’re still here."

The important one was still here.

The pain didn’t feel quite so sharp.

She exhaled, gazing back at the stars. Slowly, she lifted her hand.

"I love watching the stars—they’re beautiful. Quiet."

Her voice grew distant, a trace of melancholy threading through it. "But sometimes... I feel so small.

In time. In space.

The stars blaze brilliantly, yet all I ever touch is their distant light spilling down.

My hand... grasps nothing."

Like a shadow chasing light. A wanderer reaching for mirages.

She knew she was just an ordinary girl who dreamed of stars.

Without Luyi, she’d have lived an unremarkable life in an unremarkable world.

"Not true," Luyi said softly, shaking her head. Alices blinked, startled.

"Why chase stars light-years away? We’re all stars ourselves, aren’t we?"

Luyi’s gaze held hers. "Every person is a star in this sky.

Some dim themselves with despair. Others shine by pushing forward quietly.

You’ve fought hard, Alices. Refusing to surrender to this world—you’ve already lit your first spark in the dark."

For a fleeting second, Alices didn’t feel small.

But she gave a wry smile. "Even so... my light must be faint, right?"

Stars burned bright or dim. Geniuses blazed like suns. Ordinary souls like hers strained until they ached, yet their glow remained weak.

Too faint to carve a lasting mark on the heavens.

Too faint for anyone to remember.

"It might seem faint now," Luyi admitted, then smiled. "But I’ll remember it. I’ll remember your light, Alices."

"Eh?" Alices froze.

Luyi had seen her efforts.

The combat techniques repeated until dawn in the courtyard. Nights spent hunched over ancient texts, ink staining her fingers. The fresh scars on her arms. The shadows beneath her eyes.

"Lord Luyi..." Her voice trembled.

That familiar ache swelled—sweet and sharp. Like a stray pup finally finding shelter. Like a storm-battered flower shielded by an umbrella.

Someone saw her. Someone cared.

Tears pricked her eyes.

"The stars are beautiful," Luyi said gently. "So lift your head. Keep walking."

Alices had given her so much. Luyi hated stories where effort led nowhere.

She’d pull Alices up—after she ascended the Demon Sovereign’s power for the first time.

"...Yes." Alices turned, her smile soft and sure.

She would walk on.

For Luyi alone, she’d keep burning in that vast sky.

Even if, centuries from now, the stars shattered and the heavens went dark.

Silence settled again. The wind sighed. Waves lapped. Sand shifted like breath beneath them.

Alices inched closer to Luyi. Her fingers crept toward Luyi’s—then stopped, hovering.

"Lord Luyi?" she whispered.

"Hm?"

"Nothing. It’s nothing."

But she tilted her head, a genuine smile playing on her lips.

Stars rained down. The night’s heat bled away.

Cool wind rushed in—and Luyi was right beside her.

This feeling... was perfect.

She’d remember this night forever: the golden-haired girl sitting with her on the sand, sharing the same sky.

She’d remember the moment Luyi took her hand and told her to look up—the night cool as water, the stars washed clean, yet Luyi’s clear eyes outshone them all.

Her world narrowed to that gaze alone.

People were like stars. But Luyi? She was the moon that drowned the starlight, sinking deep into Alices’ heart.

In the quiet dark, neither noticed their shadows stretching long across the sand—twined together in the distance.

...

"See, Lord Luyi?" Alices pointed toward the horizon. "Only when the moon hides and stars fill the sky does the Stellar Abyss Pillar reveal its true form."

They’d seen the jagged crystal tower by day. Now, under night’s veil, it vanished into darkness.

But the colossal claw mark tearing across the heavens blazed clear against the stars.

From afar, it looked like a rift—a bottomless abyss splitting the sky itself.

"So this is why it’s called the Stellar Abyss Academy?"

"Yes."

Clever. Breathtaking.

Luyi sat on the sand, studying the star-scarred sky. Her mind drifted.

Stars... constellations...

The abyss... the dragon’s claw...

A strange thought sparked.

A flicker of the Constellation Dragon’s power stirred within her. She raised her hand toward the distant stars.

She imagined a dragon’s claw rending the heavens—and traced that shape in the air with slender fingers.

"Wait—"

A thread of Star Power answered her call. The starlight *shifted*, bending to her will.

Her willpower and the starlight merged, shattering the chains of time and space.

They plunged into a broken realm—a dark, silent wasteland.

Shattered planets drifted beside ruins of cities. Bleached bones and shattered swords floated in the void. Death hung thick in the air, painting this place a graveyard of stars.

On a fractured throne, a colossal dragon—long dead, yet not gone—slowly opened its eyes.