CHAPTER 251: CHAPTER 251: TARTARUS

"You’re pretty confident, if another person said this I’d probably laugh but when it’s you, I can’t help but believe it, you’re so cool for that.."

Qingran chuckled "And you’re supposed to be asleep. I’m not cool, I’m just trying to stay alive and keep the people around me alive so we can all survive, sometimes it can get overwhelming with so many people depending on you, it faster to move on my own but it’s not so bad being with people. Makes all my hard work or worth the while."

Shen Li sighed, she guessed that was what being a leader entails.

"Thank you for saving me, even though I’m just a lab rat right now, being around nice people isn’t bad.." Shen Li said this as she drifted into sleep.

Qingran was still wide awake, all the things she had said to make her betrayers suffer, to be wicked and cruel, she found herself not being able to be that person.

"I guess I’m not the doomsday villainess but I’m not it’s hero either.."

************

The wind slithered across broken glass and metal beams, sharp and electric. The silence in the streets below was heavy, like something buried.

Yan Boran stood near the edge, one hand in his pocket, the other flicking through a series of floating tarot cards.

They hovered around him like orbiting moons, their backs etched in black and silver patterns. Each one pulsed faintly, alive and waiting.

[System: Divinus Arcana]

[Core Spirit: Tartarus – Awake]

[Current Deck: Mind Suite – Partial Unlock]

[Card Drawn: The Tower]

[The Tower means lies dressed as loyalty always fall and when they do, they take the fool with them.]

[Scrying Limit: 32%]

[You seek control, and yet pull the Tower again. You are either consistent or suicidal.]

"I’m consistent.." Boran murmured. "Suicidal would be handing you full access."

[You say that as if you could stop me.]

"Try me."

Tartarus’s laugh was quiet and low, brushing the edge of his consciousness like claws on silk.

Behind him, a faint shuffle echoed.

"Are you always this dramatic when I’m not around?"

Liu Moli appeared, barefoot, blood on her toes, her white dress soaked at the hem. She moved like a dancer, delicate but soulless.

Her lips curled in that soft, unreadable smile.

"I thought we agreed to avoid the rooftop after midnight," she said, tilting her head. "Too cliché...."

"I like the silence.." Boran replied.

"You like thinking of her."

He didn’t deny it but she wasn’t the reason he was here.

Moli stepped closer to the corpse on the makeshift altar , a young man this time. His chest was cracked open, ribs snapped like dry twigs.

Moli crouched beside him and poked a finger into the cavity, curious and casual.

"Blood’s still warm.." she murmured.

"Was he one of yours?"

Boran shrugged. "He asked too many questions. Tartarus didn’t like his face."

[I said nothing. The one who killed him was you]

"You said his intentions were conflicted.." Boran muttered.

[Same thing.]

Moli glanced up.

"Does it still bother you that I can’t hear him?"

"Not really."

"I think it does."

He flicked another card into the air.

[The Moon] It hovered, glowed, then vanished.

"I think I prefer it this way.." Boran said.

Moli stood again, her hands red, but her eyes clear. "You know I don’t like lying to you. But sometimes I want to. Just to see if you’ll notice."

"I always notice.." Boran said calmly. "I just don’t always care."

She stepped into his space, her face close. "Then why do you let me stay?"

"Because you’re useful. And your thoughts are never fully visible. That’s the only reason why you’re still alive, you interest me in a way.."

[She has more of hunger than logic. A predator that doesn’t realize she’s starving.]

"Are you saying, I managed to catch your eyes?" Moli asked cheerfully.

"You like anything that bleeds." Boran said. "Even if it’s yourself."

"True." She smiled wider. "But I like it better when others do."

Boran shifted his gaze to the horizon, the dark skyline of Zone 2 stretching before him.

"Qingran has started her antics, it always turns me on to see her try to save their measly life.." he said.

Moli’s expression twitched, even in bed she still couldn’t amount to that woman. "Of course she has. The perfect little savior. Always saving the world."

"She’s good at it.." Boran replied. "That’s what makes her fall so interesting."

Moli leaned back on the rusted railing. "You want her to die?"

"No.." Boran said softly. "I want her to kneel, to beg me, that would be so.. subarashi.."

[You want to break her. Not for power. Not for revenge. You just want to watch her surrender.]

"I want to see her admit she was never in control..." Boran murmured. "Not then. Not now."

"And you think you’ll get that?"

"I don’t need to think."

He drew another card.

[The Lovers.] It pulsed once and fizzled out.

Moli raised an eyebrow. "Romantic...."

"No much worse." he said. "I was thinking of betrayal."

[You’re so predictable today.]

"Tartarus.." Boran said aloud, his voice colder, "calculate her odds."

[Qingran? Or the parasite beside you?]

"Both."

[Qingran: 14% chance of submission.

Liu Moli: 83% chance of killing you in your sleep.]

"Good to know."

Moli smiled. "You always whisper to him when I’m around. I hope it’s not about me."

"It always is."

She turned and walked away, blood dripping from her fingertips.

"Do let me know when we leave," she said lightly. "I want to pack something pretty."

The hallway was quiet, and dust hung in the air like breath held for too long.

Liu Moli walked barefoot, and her pale silk dress clung to her frame like mist. There was no blood on her skin, at least not visibly, but something darker clung to her presence the scent of a predator who had already chosen her prey.

She reached the third floor and paused in front of the door. Her smile was slow, sharp, and full of certainty.