Mother and daughter

Scott, the owner of the Underworld's Fight Club, was a heartless businessman.

For publicity, he would even force fighters to come into contact with the Fragmentum and turn into monsters, directly tearing many families apart.

Zhang Xiu and Yaoshi's work that night had gone far beyond dealing with him. They had dismantled nearly half the Underworld's illicit operations; it was only a matter of time before Wildfire discovered what they had done.

Before leaving the Underworld, this was one of the few contributions he could think of making to the place.

Watching Zhang Xiu and the others walk away, Oleg blinked his somewhat clouded eyes, then turned toward an alley nearby.

"They've already left. Are you really not going to say goodbye to him?"

As his words faded, footsteps sounded from deep within the alley, and a blonde girl in a long robe emerged from the shadows.

It was Shaya, the girl Zhang Xiu and Yaoshi had rescued a few days earlier.

"No, there's no need. I'm fine just watching from the side... If there's nothing else, I'll head back first, Uncle Oleg."

As Shaya spoke, she prepared to step back into the shadows, but Oleg gently stopped her.

"Shaya." Pity filled his eyes, and after some hesitation, he said, "Natasha told me the other children have recovered with your comfort and returned to their families."

"They're very grateful to you, but they're worried about you, too." Oleg shook his head.

"...You've helped so many people. When will you be able to move on yourself?"

Behind the quiet building, the two looked at each other for a long time. After a stretch of silence, Oleg sighed.

"Ah, whatever happens, I hope you can get better, Shaya. Even if it's for your mother's sake."

At that, Shaya's vacant eyes flickered, and her body shuddered beneath her robe. But she soon regained her composure. "...I will."

With that, she stayed no longer, leaving without even saying goodbye.

Shaya's departure left Oleg in a daze, but he soon came back to his senses.

Kliperburg, in Belobog's Upper District.

Cocolia stood before her desk with her back to the main doors.

She pressed a hand to her forehead, breathing heavily, as though struggling against something...

At last, the current Supreme Guardian made up her mind. "Silvermane Guards...! Silvermane Guards! Send someone to the Underworld to find my daughter! Lift the blockade..."

"Mother, I'm back."

Familiar footsteps sounded behind her. Cocolia spun around to find Bronya already standing before her.

"Bronya!" She hurried forward and pulled her daughter into her arms. "I thought—I thought I was going to lose you..."

"Gepard said those outsiders had taken you away, so I sent people to search. But they scoured the Upper District and the Snow Plains outside the city without finding you... Where did you go?"

Cocolia looked like a little girl who could not find her parents, her eyes filled with sorrow and pain, but above all, the joy of being reunited with family.

Her violet eyes swept over Bronya again and again. "Are you hurt anywhere? Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat? Beet Soup—would you like some Beet Soup?"

"No, there's no need. I'm not hungry yet, and I'm not hurt... I traveled all over the Underworld, met a lot of people, and fought a few battles, but overall, I managed."

"The Underworld...?"

But the moment the word "Underworld" reached Cocolia's ears, her expression turned cold amid a sudden silence, and she released Bronya from her embrace.

Walking back toward her desk, Cocolia commanded in an authoritative voice, "Then report what you saw and heard, Commander Bronya."

Watching her mother sit down with that indifferent expression, Bronya's eyes flickered with conflict.

Given what she had learned earlier, she knew her mother was probably no longer the gentle woman she remembered.

Bronya exhaled heavily, then recounted everything she had experienced in the Underworld in detail, adding her own views.

"The Architects have waited a century for a solution to the problems caused by the Stellaron, and those people might be—"

"Enough!" Cocolia suddenly erupted, slamming both hands onto the solid wooden desk and sending splinters flying.

"Arrogant. Ignorant. You've disappointed me! Bronya!" Her eyes held an unyielding resolve that brooked no denial.

"You've glimpsed no more than a corner of a snowy mountain and splashed yourself with filth in the Underworld, yet you dare question my orders?"

"Silvermane Guards! Take Bronya—" Cocolia's expression twisted slightly as her gaze swept over Bronya below her.

But this time, her exceptional daughter spoke out against her.

"They aren't filth!" Bronya met Cocolia's eyes without flinching.

"My origins, all those things you never told me... I remember them all now! I won't run away anymore, Madam Guardian!"

"Tell me, why send the Silvermane Guards into the Fragmentum to die? Why seal off the Underworld? Why change your mind at that critical moment?"

Hearing her daughter address her as Madam Guardian, Cocolia fell momentarily into a daze, but indifference soon filled her eyes once more.

"...I see. This moment was bound to come sooner or later. I just never expected it so soon."

She stopped standing above her daughter and instead walked slowly to Bronya's side. "You want to know the truth? Then come with me."

"This dying world... It's time you heard her voice."

Serval's Workshop.

"I think I need to say a few things." Zhang Xiu straightened his collar, his words immediately drawing everyone else's attention.

"I've only just stepped into your shop, and I've already noticed a problem."

"From what I've found out, you used to be close to Cocolia, right, Serval? How can we trust you?"

"Oh, that? Ha, don't worry. She and I have nothing to say to each other anymore. She's the one who kicked me out of the Architects back then. I've got no reason to take her side."

Serval shook her head and continued, "Unless the Architects make conclusive evidence public and prove you deserve your punishment, I won't believe you've done anything wrong. And knowing them, if they had evidence, they would've shown it long ago."

Zhang Xiu nodded at her words. Knowing how the story went, he naturally trusted Serval. His question had merely been meant to dispel Dan Heng's doubts.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it, then. As for what we've been through, to make a long story short..."

After explaining what they had seen and heard in the Underworld, along with the matter of the Stellaron, Zhang Xiu and the others also handed Serval the letter Bronya had left them.

"...No wonder I haven't heard anything from Bronya lately. So all that happened." Serval lowered her head in thought.

"The Underworld, huh? It's been sealed off for so many years. I never imagined it had become like that..."

"As for the Stellaron, heh, I think I know why Bronya sent you to me. Back when I was still with the Architects, I was the researcher specifically responsible for studying it."

But just as she finished telling them everything she knew and planned to accompany them into the restricted zone to find the Stellaron, someone knocked on the workshop door.

"Oh, oh no, I forgot my little brother said he'd be coming today..." Serval's expression tightened. "Quick, hide—I'll handle him."