Chapter 0.134 Lionheart Palace

THE LION's SHADOW 

Six weeks after the forest incident

The rain had subsided outside, and a dim light filtered into the windows of the Leonhart Manor, a mansion decorated in the colors of sun and gold. Everything seemed the same, everything was the same… but nox was no longer the same.

On another gray morning, nox stood in front of his mirror, not moving. His face was pale, his eyes empty, as if he were waking up in a body that no longer felt like his own. Slowly, he raised his hand and noticed something strange: his shadow didn't move.

Seconds passed... then the shadow moved, half a heartbeat behind him. It was **smiling**.

He quickly moved away, his heart pounding for a moment, then calming down as if he were used to this kind of distortion. He looked at himself again and realized that the iris of his right eye had turned a dark golden color, glowing with a mysterious pulse, while its pupil was thin and elongated like the eyes of a predator.

He felt no fear. Just an eerie calm. Indifference.

"Akai... that liar..."

The voice came from within him, a whisper that wasn't his own. It wasn't a thought. It was something deeper... **It was as if his soul had begun to speak in languages ​​he didn't know.**

Every night, he dreams of black lions prancing around him, fighting, laughing, some speaking human language, some looking at him and breathing his name.

"Nox... Heir to the Dark Dawn..."

One day, he woke up to find himself sitting on the roof of the palace. He had no memory of how he got there. He was wearing his night clothes, a cool breeze ruffling his white hair, and the horizon was turning the colors of dawn.

He looked down... then up at the sky. In a flash, he saw a black lion soaring through the clouds. No wings, no voice... but there it was.

أ blink. Nothing.

The voices are getting louder

Amidst the laughter of the knights in the training grounds, Nox hears something else... a whispering voice, full of anger and hatred:

"Akai's revenge... is an idiot..."

"They stole your light... let them burn in their own sun."

He could no longer differentiate between reality and his inner voice. But he didn't care.

When Leona would challenge him to a duel, he no longer got angry when she lost. He no longer felt insulted, nor envious. He would just stand… duel… lose… and then **bow with a blank smile**.

Leona was surprised at first.

She once told him:

"You don't get angry anymore... Have you given up, nox?"

He answered her with a faint smile:

"The light isn't for everyone, Leona… some of us are born in the shadows."

She laughed, thinking he was joking. But she didn't know he meant her.

One night, as he was walking through the palace, he noticed that his shadow was longer than usual. It stretched along the wall like another entity, then separated from it for a moment... just a moment.

Headless shadow

He closed his eyes, opened them... everything was back to normal. But then he heard a whisper:

**"You no longer need a head...we're thinking for you."**

Sometimes, nox would wake up to find himself sitting in the middle of the garden, staring at a wilted flower... with dew on his shoulders. He couldn't remember how he got out, or how he sat down.

But every time he tries to go back, he sees something in the edges of his vision:

**Shadows of small lions... some licking their fangs, some looking at him as if to recognize him.**

One day, Lilia was eating with him. She stared at him for a long time, then said:

"Nox... you're different. Are you okay?"

He raised his head and smiled calmly:

**"Fine... just practicing a lot."**

She wasn't convinced. But she didn't want to push.

Ethan noticed too. They were dueling, and for a moment, Ethan felt that nox's movements **didn't seem human**. It was as if someone was moving him... as if invisible strings were controlling his muscles.

nox lay in bed, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. He heard a voice:

eeeex

"Everything you've given up... will come back to you, but at a price."

He raised his hand… he saw his veins **glow a faint black**. Then they returned to normal.

**"You are choosing now... Either you stay as you are... Or you become what you deny."**

In his dream, Nox stood in a black desert, the sky filled with red eyes watching him. From afar, a giant black lion approached him. It was silent, yet majestic. Its golden eyes glowed slowly.

The lion said:

**"Are you ready?"**

Nox didn't reply. But he extended his hand.

The lion extended his claws... and when they touched, **Nox woke up sweating**, and **on the palm of his right hand a small black tattoo was born... in the shape of an inverted crescent with a golden eye inside.**

Nox is calmer now... but more dangerous.

His isolation is no longer a weakness, but a dormant strength.

His smile was no longer innocence, but the calm before the storm.

And his eyes... no longer just see, but **watch from behind the curtain of time itself.**

Deep down, he no longer hated his sister… he had forgotten her.

He forgot his mother, his father, his sword, and his palace...

All he remembered was a name ringing like a sacred call:

*"Zacharos..."*