Episode-1000
Chapter : 1999
Rosa froze. She looked at the baby with a mixture of longing and fear. "I... I don't know how. I might freeze him. My control isn't..."
"You won't," Mina said. "You're warm now, Rosa. Feel."
Mina took Rosa’s hand and placed it on the baby’s chest. Sullivan gurgled and grabbed Rosa’s finger with his tiny fist.
Rosa gasped. She felt the warmth of the new life. She felt the beat of his heart. Tears pricked her eyes again.
"He's beautiful," Rosa whispered. "He looks like Lloyd."
"Ideally," Lloyd drawled from his chair, "he'll get his looks from you two. I don't want him inheriting this face. It scares people."
Mina laughed. She gently passed the baby into Rosa’s arms. Rosa held him awkwardly at first, stiff and terrified, but then instinct took over. She cradled him close, rocking him gently. Sullivan cooed and settled against her.
It was a picture of perfect peace. The Winter Queen holding the Summer Child.
Duchess Milody walked into the nursery, carrying a tray of tea. She stopped and looked at the scene. She looked at Rosa holding Mina’s son, at the way the two sisters were leaning towards each other, the years of bitterness melting away.
Milody set the tray down with a clatter. She looked at Lloyd, then at Rosa.
"Well," Milody said, her voice brisk and practical. "It is a lovely sight. But we must think of the future."
Everyone looked at her.
"The balance of the house must be maintained," Milody continued, pouring a cup of tea. She looked pointedly at Rosa. "They say Sullivan is Rosa's child. That is good. But if we are to truly equalize the standing of the wives... well."
She took a sip of tea, her eyes twinkling with mischief over the rim of the cup.
"It is time for Rosa to make a child for Mina to hold. Don't you think?"
The room went dead silent.
Lloyd choked on his own spit. He started coughing violently.
Mina turned bright red, burying her face in her hands.
And Rosa... the Ice Queen, the woman who had stared down Demon Kings and traveled through time... turned a shade of crimson that rivaled a sunset. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. She looked down at the baby, then up at Lloyd, her face burning with a heat that had nothing to do with magic.
"Mother!" Lloyd wheezed, trying to regain his composure.
"What?" Milody asked innocently. "I just want grandchildren. I have a big house to fill. Get to work."
For the first time in a long, long time, laughter filled the Ferrum estate. It wasn't the laughter of relief or hysteria. It was the laughter of a family that had survived the end of the world and come out the other side, ready to face whatever came next.
Rosa hid her burning face against the baby’s blanket, but Lloyd saw it. He saw the smile she was trying to hide.
For a moment, the war didn't matter. The Devils didn't matter. The Fire Fly Corporation didn't matter.
They were home.
The warm, golden light of the afternoon sun was still filtering through the nursery windows, casting long shadows across the floor. The laughter that had filled the room only moments ago—Milody’s teasing about grandchildren, Mina’s shy giggles, and even Rosa’s soft, rare smile—seemed to hang in the air like dust motes. It was a perfect, fragile moment of peace. For a few minutes, Lloyd Ferrum wasn't a warrior, a time traveler, or a general. He was just a man watching his family heal.
But in the world of Riverio, peace was often just the deep breath before a scream.
The heavy, double doors of the nursery didn't open gently. They were pushed open with a slow, deliberate weight. A sound cut through the happy silence, a sound that Lloyd knew too well.
Thud. Drag. Thud.
It was the sound of a heavy wooden crutch hitting the marble floor, followed by the shuffling of a boot.
The family turned. Standing in the doorway was Arch Duke Roy Ferrum.
Lloyd felt a cold knot tighten in his stomach. He hadn't seen his father since the attack by Lucifer. He expected to see the "Lion of the North," the man who could summon mountains and storms. But the man standing there looked like a shadow of himself. Roy was wearing his formal black tunic, but it hung loosely on his frame. His face was pale, drawn tight with pain and exhaustion. His right leg dragged slightly, and he leaned heavily on a cane made of dark ironwood.
Chapter : 2000
The Lodestone. The cursed artifact Lucifer had used. It hadn't just defeated Roy; it had turned off his power. The Steel Blood that usually made Roy invincible was gone, neutralized by the Devil King’s weapon.
"Father," Lloyd said, standing up. His voice lost its relaxed tone and snapped back into the sharp, alert rhythm of a soldier. "You should be resting."
Roy didn't look at Lloyd. He didn't look at the baby, Sullivan, sleeping in Rosa’s arms. He looked past them, staring at a map on the far wall as if he could see burning cities through the plaster.
"There is no rest," Roy said. His voice was gravelly, like stones grinding together. "Not anymore. The courier just arrived from the border outposts. The reports are... they are final."
Duchess Milody stepped forward, her face losing its playful warmth. She was the political mastermind of the family, and she knew the look on her husband’s face. It wasn't the look of a man who had lost a battle. It was the look of a man who had seen the end of the world.
"Roy," she said softly. "What happened?"
Roy limped into the room. He didn't sit down. He stood in the center of the family circle, leaning on his crutch like it was a sword.
"The Shadow War is over," Roy announced.
For a second, there was a flicker of hope in Mina’s eyes. "Over? You mean we won?"
Roy shook his head slowly. "No. I mean they stopped hiding. The protocols of the Shadow War—the spies, the assassinations, the secret moves in the dark—those rules are gone. We are no longer playing a game of chess."
He looked directly at Lloyd.
"The Lucifer Faction has sent a declaration. Not just Lucifer. All of them. Mammon, the Devil of Greed. Beelzebub, the Devil of Gluttony. They have unified. They have officially declared a War of Extermination against the North."
The room went dead silent. Even the baby seemed to sense the tension and stopped moving.
Lloyd narrowed his eyes. "Extermination," he repeated. "Not conquest. Not subjugation."
"Extermination," Roy confirmed. "They aren't asking for territory. They aren't asking for surrender. Their message was simple. They intend to wipe House Ferrum, and every living soul in our protection, off the map. They want to burn the North down to the bedrock."
Lloyd’s mind, the mind of the eighty-year-old Major General KM Evan, immediately began to process this. In his previous life on Earth, he knew what "total war" meant. It meant no rules. It meant biological weapons, scorched earth, and civilians as targets.
"They are moving fast," Roy continued. "Our scouts report that the dimensional rifts in the Badlands are widening. They aren't just sending monsters anymore. They are sending armies. And they are moving toward the capital."
Rosa stepped forward, holding the baby tight against her chest. Her face was pale, but her eyes were hard. She knew these enemies. She had been their prisoner, their tool, and their victim.
"Bael," she whispered. "Is he with them?"
"Bael is a merchant," Roy spat. "He follows the profit. If Lucifer is leading the charge, Bael is right behind him, selling tickets to the slaughter. This alliance... it’s unprecedented. Usually, the Devil Princes hate each other as much as they hate us. For them to work together means they are confident. Or they are desperate."
"Or they have help," Lloyd said.
Roy looked at his son. "Help? From who? The Altamirans are broken. Queen Seraphina is on our side now. Who else is there?"
Lloyd didn't answer immediately. He walked to the window and looked out at the estate. It looked peaceful in the twilight, but Lloyd knew it was an illusion. He was thinking about the strange signal Ken had picked up in the desert. The mechanical noise. The thrusters.
He turned back to his father. "Father, you hold the fort here. Mobilize the Titan Squad. Get the Wraiths to secure the perimeter. I need to go to the capital."
"The capital?" Roy frowned. "The King is celebrating the peace treaty. He won't want to hear about a new war."
"The King knows more than he’s saying," Lloyd said. "And I need to talk to him. Not as a subject to a King. But as one soldier to another."
Lloyd walked over to Rosa. He gently touched the blanket wrapping his son. He didn't say anything sentimental. He didn't promise to come back. He just looked at her, and in that look, he acknowledged the reality of the situation. The brief holiday was over. The work was starting again.
"Keep them safe," Lloyd said to Rosa.