Immortal Chi Yuan, Star of Eden.

AM: 1:37 p.m.

Shard Building.

The weather was clear, with not a cloud in the sky.

The First Herrscher bathed in radiance as he stood atop the tower.

This was the tallest building in all of London. At three hundred meters high, it offered a sweeping view of the city.

On ordinary days, standing on the open-air 72nd floor gave one a view of everything within thirty miles of London. Whether it was the city's landmarks, the nearby River Thames, HMS Belfast, or Tower Bridge, everything could be taken in at a glance.

The man's clothes fluttered in the wind. Silent and sorrowful, he stood atop the highest accessible level of the building's central core, gazing down at the sharp tip of the tower, whose simple framework formed a tapered shape.

Its irregular, razor-sharp edges and the pointed ridges of the top floor all bathed in the radiance alongside the First Herrscher, who had lost his beloved, quietly glittering together.

Yet this vast view, broad enough to overlook the entire city, could not offer him the slightest comfort or solace.

The man lowered his eyes to the girl in his arms. The gale high above howled and tugged at her skirt, brushing over the gaping wound and passing across those eyes, their former smile utterly spent and filled with gray haze, making her long, curled lashes tremble faintly.

Cold and soft.

Hollow and fragile.

The First Herrscher caught a mingled fragrance in the cold wind. It was like a morning glory bathing in sunlight, slowly withering beneath the setting sun inside an ice bucket streaked with beads of blood.

Though the vast amount of blood flowing from the girl's body had already soaked his sleeves and arms, drying over time into a scarlet painting across him,

Joyce could no longer