Chapter 651: Transformation
"Mika!" The Maiden of Fate caught him instantly, cradling him against her chest as the others swarmed around them with terrified faces.
"What happened to him?!"
"Is he okay?!"
"Fauna, check him—now!"
Fauna’s hands were already moving, pressing against his chest, his forehead, his wrist.
The others watched in agonized silence as she worked, her expression shifting from fear to concentration to something like relief.
"His body is fine." She said finally. "No physical damage at all. His mana is...chaotic, surging unpredictably, but that’s not surprising given everything that happened. His mana levels seems to have expanded during the encounter with the Eternal Queen."
She frowned.
"But his mental state...that’s another matter entirely. His mind has been pushed far beyond its limits. He’ll need at least a week, probably more of deep sleep to recover."
The Battle Angels absorbed this information with grim acceptance.
"Because of the encounter with the Eternal Queen?" The Maiden of War asked.
"Or maybe because he overexerted his mind?" Nadia suggested. "He managed to control us, after all. That’s not something someone at his level should be able to do."
But the Maiden of Fate shook her head.
"No." She said quietly. "That’s not it. Not entirely."
She looked at her sisters, and her eyes were filled with a sorrow so deep it seemed bottomless.
"There’s something I need to tell you. Something about what happened inside Marcus’s domain."
And then she told them everything.
—
The truth was worse than they could have imagined.
From the very beginning, he had lied. He had told them he was safe, that everything was under control.
But the reality had been far, far darker.
He had been tortured. Day after day, hour after hour, moment after moment. Hundreds of people had taken turns inflicting unspeakable pain upon his body, his mind, his soul.
They had torn at his flesh, broken his bones, violated him in ways that defied description.
When the Maiden of Fate finished speaking, silence fell.
The Battle Angels stood frozen, their faces blank, their eyes hollow. They felt as though their souls had been ripped from their bodies, leaving behind nothing but empty shells.
And then, slowly, they turned to look at the boy in their arms.
He was so small. So fragile. This innocent child who had always put the needs of everyone else above his own—he had suffered through hell itself while they stood by, helpless to save him.
They broke.
"How could you...?"
Yelena whispered, her voice cracking.
"How could you go through all of that alone?! Why didn’t you tell us?! Why didn’t you let us help you!?"
Fauna sobbed openly, clutching at Mika’s unconscious form.
"W-We’re sorry! We’re so sorry, baby! We should have been there for you! We should have protected you!"
Nadia’s usually stoic face was streaked with tears, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
"What kind of mothers are we?" She choked out. "We couldn’t even save our own child..."
The Maiden of War wept like a child, her tough exterior completely shattered.
"I promised...I promised to protect the innocent...but I couldn’t even protect you..."
The Maiden of Fate stood slightly apart, thinking about what Mika said about it not being there fault.
She had always suspected that there were external forces working against her family.
The incidents with Astrid, Anya, and Charlotte’s, the way Mika seemed to attract danger like a magnet—none of it was coincidence.
Something was trying to break them. Something was trying to hurt her children.
And the worst part was, she didn’t know what it was. She didn’t know how to fight it.
She didn’t even know if it could be fought.
She felt utterly, completely helpless.
But just as the despair threatened to overwhelm her, a calm voice broke through the gloom.
"Mother...I think you should bring Mika back to the hospital now."
They turned to find the Maiden of Fate’s daughter floating nearby, her wheelchair hovering effortlessly in the air.
Unlike the adults, she was completely composed—her expression calm, her posture relaxed.
Only her eyes betrayed any emotion, and what they showed was not surprise or fear, but a quiet, knowing sadness.
She had expected this.
Somehow, she had always known.
"You’re right." Fauna said, her voice thick with tears. "He needs rest. Proper rest."
—
Back at the hospital, the little ones were waiting.
Charlotte rushed forward the moment they arrived, her eyes wide with worry.
"What’s wrong with Mika?! Is he going to be alright?!"
The others crowded around, asking questions, demanding answers, desperate for any sign that their beloved Mika was going to be okay.
Fauna assured them all that Mika would recover—that he just needed rest, that his body was fine.
And the little ones, despite their fear, tried to believe her.
"My little brother is tough." Astrid forced a smile, even as tears streamed down her cheeks. "He’ll be fine. He’s always fine!"
Anya nodded, wiping at her eyes. "He promised he’d come back to us. And he did! So he’ll wake up soon. I know he will!"
The days that followed were filled with anxious waiting.
Mika lay in his hospital bed, his breathing steady but his mind still refusing to wake.
The family took turns watching over him, never leaving him alone for even a moment.
The little ones talked to him constantly, telling him stories about their day, about games they had played, about things they had seen.
"Mika, you won’t believe what happened today." Astrid said one afternoon, sitting beside his bed. "Anya tried to cook, and she almost burned down the entire kitchen. You should have seen Auntie Fauna’s face!"
"Mika, I drew a picture for you." The daughter of the Maiden of Fate said softly, holding up a piece of paper. "It’s of all of us, together. I’ll put it on your wall so you can see it when you wake up."
"Get up already! I need someone to be my training dummy and get beaten up by my cute paws!" The Maiden of War’s daughter complained.
"You’re going to wake up soon, right?" Charlotte whispered, clutching his hand. "You promised you’d always protect me. You can’t do that if you’re sleeping all the time."
And finally, on the fifth day, Mika opened his eyes.
The family was overjoyed. They had expected him to need at least a week, but he had recovered sooner than anyone had anticipated.
They rushed to his side, calling out his name, reaching for him with desperate hands.
But something was wrong.
Mika’s eyes were dull. Hollow. Empty in a way they had never been before.
He responded to their questions with short, monotone answers, his voice flat and emotionless.
"Mika? Can you hear me?"
"...Yes."
"How are you feeling, baby?"
"...Fine."
"Are you hungry? Thirsty? Can we get you anything?"
"...No."
His movements were also slow, almost mechanical, as if he was going through the motions without really being present.
It was obvious that his mind was still not fully healed.
A part of his soul had been damaged and he needed time to recover.
But the Battle Angels didn’t push him. They didn’t force him to be the Mika they remembered. Instead, they simply took care of him.
They held him in their laps, played with him, talked to him constantly, and showered him with love and affection.
They knew that no medicine could fix what was broken. The only cure for Mika’s condition was the warmth of his family.
And slowly, it worked.
Every day, Mika improved. His eyes grew brighter. His responses became more natural.
The spark that had been missing slowly returned, like a flame being rekindled after a long, cold night.
By the third week, Mika was back to his old self.
He was making jokes, teasing the sisters, acting as arrogant and confident as ever.
"You really think something like that can kill me, huh?"
The family felt as though their precious boy had been returned to them after a long and terrible absence.
But at the same time, they noticed something different about him.
Mika’s personality had changed.
In the past, he had always tried to act like an adult despite being a child. He had been serious about everything, constantly throwing himself into his studies, always striving to become stronger.
Now, he was different.
He was more carefree. More open. More willing to speak his mind and be shameless about his desires.
It was as if, after everything he had experienced, he had reached a new understanding of life.
He had basically seen the darkness that lurked in the world, and instead of letting it consume him, he had chosen to embrace the light.
The family found this change refreshing. Mika was more fun to be around, less stressed, more genuine.
They were relieved to see him finally acting his age.
But at the same time, they knew that this transformation had come at a terrible cost.
The only reason Mika had changed was because he had suffered through unimaginable horrors. And that wasn’t something to celebrate.
—
Mika himself was aware of the changes within him.
Not just in his personality, but in his power as well.
He was so much stronger now than he had been before.
But more importantly, he had gained a new perspective on the forces that had been influencing his life.
He had come to realize that there really were powers beyond his comprehension that were constantly interfering with his existence.
When he looked back on past events, he could see patterns that he had missed before—moments of incredible luck where he had found invaluable objects or escaped danger by the narrowest of margins, followed by moments where everything seemed to work against him, as if the world itself was trying to make him suffer.
He had identified two distinct forces: the Will of the World that was trying to end him, and the Will that was trying to help him.
And then there was the Eternal Queen.
Her existence was absolutely baffling to him.
He still didn’t know if she was actually the real Eternal Queen or some sort of copy that was mimicking her.
Maybe she was a part of the will of the world that was influencing him, the one that was making him suffer.
But if that was true, why had she looked at him with such tenderness?
Why had she spoken to him with such love?
And was she even a person at all? Or was she something else entirely, some manifestation of a power that he couldn’t begin to understand?
There were so many things he didn’t know.
He went to the Maiden of Fate for answers, hoping that she might be able to shed some light on the situation.
And surprisingly, she was more forthcoming than he had expected.
She admitted that there were certain things about his mother that she had been withholding from him. But when he tried to pry further, she remained adamant about not revealing the full truth.
"There are certain things that even I don’t know, Mika." She said, shaking her head. "Your mother kept many mysteries, even from me. I was as shocked as you were by everything that happened."
She paused, a faraway look in her eyes.
"But the truths that I do know...she made me promise on her deathbed that I wouldn’t tell you.
"Let me guess." Mika let out a humorless laugh. "When the time comes, I’ll learn everything. I’ll save the world from a massive threat. Something like that?"
He meant it as a joke. But the Maiden of Fate didn’t laugh. Instead, a small, nostalgic smile crossed her face.
"In her final moments." She said softly. "She looked at you in the incubator and said she simply wanted you to live a peaceful life. Without worrying about anything at all."
Mika fell silent.
For a moment, he had been leaning toward believing the Eternal Queen.
Those final words, that tender gaze, had touched something deep inside him.
But now, hearing what his real mother had said with her dying breath...those were a mother’s words too. A mother who wanted her child to live free from the burdens that had crushed her.
He didn’t know what to believe anymore.
But in the end, he decided not to dwell on it.
The Mika of the past would have obsessed over the mystery, researching endlessly, refusing to rest until he had uncovered the truth.
But the Mika of now was different.
He had learned to let the river flow and carry him wherever it would.
If the truth was meant to be revealed, it would be revealed in time. Until then, he would simply live his life and enjoy every moment.
