Northern entered the Queen's chambers. The space was vast yet somehow cozy, with ornamental accentuations that leaned toward nature—making the room feel more like a treehouse than royal quarters. Green curtains cascaded against brown furniture in a reasonable blend, and the ceiling had been crafted to look like falling flower petals frozen mid-descent, each crystalline bloom catching the soft light.

She lay on a large bed, tucked beneath silken covers with her husband beside her.

Roma led both of them inside and stopped at the bedside. Between them and the bed sat a small table with two chairs—the kind of arrangement where one might sit and chat over tea, if circumstances were different.

The Queen looked at Eisha and smiled. A cough interrupted her before she could speak, the sound wet and labored, but she pushed through it anyway.

"It's… an honor… to meet you." Another cough punctuated the end of her statement.

Eisha lowered her head with deep reverence.

"The honor is mine, Your Majesty."

The Queen smiled weakly and turned to Northern.

"This man here said… you'd like to…" She interrupted herself with a fit of heavy coughs that sounded like wire being strained past its limit.

King Ruger rubbed her back gently, his eyes holding that particular mixture of love and helpless concern that Northern had seen before.

"Honey, why don't you just rest and let him do what he needs to do, okay?"

The Queen rolled her eyes. Even dying, apparently, didn't cure her of that particular habit.

"Okay, okay, I've heard you."

King Ruger turned to Northern, who stepped closer without being asked.

Northern stood still for a moment, centering himself. Then, without uttering a word, he issued the silent command.

'Aoi.'

Northern's azure eyes flickered with an ethereal glow as he activated his Shingan. The world around him dimmed, colors bleeding away until only the Queen remained in sharp focus—a single point of clarity in a gray-washed room.

[Shingan: Layer 1 — Third Eye Activated]

His vision shifted, peeling back layers of flesh and fabric like pages in a book. The Queen's body became translucent before him—bones, muscles, organs all laid bare in perfect clarity. He could see the architecture of her, the framework that held her together.

What remained of it, anyway.

[Initial Scan Complete]

[Analysis Report:]

The damage was extensive. Her skeleton appeared fragile, almost brittle in places—calcium deposits had deteriorated significantly, particularly along her spine and ribcage. Hairline fractures spider-webbed through bones that should have been solid. Her skin, though outwardly maintaining its regal composure, was paper-thin at a cellular level, the collagen structures breaking down faster than her body could repair them.

But it was her organs that told the real story.

[Anomaly Detected]

Something was consuming her from within. Her liver showed signs of progressive deterioration—not the pattern of disease or poison, but something more insidious. Her lungs, hence the coughing, were being slowly compromised, their capacity diminishing week by week. The degradation pattern was too systematic, too purposeful to be natural.

'This isn't illness,' Northern realized. 'Something is eating her alive.'

[Recommendation: Deeper Analysis Required]

[Shingan: Layer 2 — Flow Perception Activated]

Northern's eyes intensified, the blue glow deepening as concentric rings materialized within his irises. Now he could see the flow of energy through her body—the currents of life force that should have moved like rivers but instead crawled like streams choked with mud.

Her essence moved sluggishly, interrupted by strange eddies and vortexes that shouldn't exist in a normal human body. Dark spots where the flow bent wrong, twisted around something that didn't belong.

[Critical Discovery: External Parasite Suspected]

[Current scan limitations: Cannot identify source without physical contact]

[Suggestion: Physical contact will allow complete structural and soul signature analysis]

Northern's gaze lingered for a moment longer, cataloging what he'd seen before allowing his expression to shift into something appropriately concerned. He spoke softly.

"Your Majesty, I'll need to touch you to complete my examination. May I?"

The Queen glanced at her husband, a silent question passing between them. King Ruger gave a small nod of reassurance—whatever this stranger could offer, it was worth trying.

She looked back at Northern and managed a weak smile that probably cost her more energy than it should have.

"Go ahead."

Northern stepped to the bedside and gently placed his hand on her forearm. Her skin was cool beneath his palm, cooler than it should have been. The moment contact was established, his Shingan blazed with renewed intensity.

[Physical Contact Established]

[Initiating Deep Structural Analysis]

[Shingan: Full Spectrum Scan — Active]

Information flooded Northern's perception like a dam breaking. Every cell, every molecule, every minute detail of the Queen's deteriorating body became an open book before him—and he read it all in the span of heartbeats.

[Skeletal System: 47% Integrity — Severe Deterioration]

[Muscular System: 62% Integrity — Progressive Atrophy]

[Organ Systems: Multiple Failures Detected]

— Liver: 41% Functionality

— Lungs: 38% Functionality

— Heart: 55% Functionality

— Kidneys: 44% Functionality

[Cause: Unknown Entity — Scanning Deeper]

Northern's eyes narrowed as his Shingan pushed further, beyond the physical, reaching into the metaphysical realm. Past flesh and bone, past blood and sinew, into the architecture of her very soul.

[Soul Signature Analysis: Initiated]

[WARNING: Foreign Signature Detected]

[Entity Classification: CHAOS VESTIGE]

[Designation: CHAOS HEART]

There.

Nestled within her chest cavity, overlapping with her physical heart like a parasitic shadow, was something that shouldn't exist. It pulsed with dark, corrupting energy that fed on her life force the way a leech drank blood—slowly, steadily, with terrible patience. The thing had wrapped itself around her essence so thoroughly that Northern couldn't tell where the parasite ended and the Queen began.

[Chaos Heart — Detailed Analysis:]

[Type: Parasitic Chaos Vestige]

[Function: Consumes host vitality to sustain itself]

[Infection Duration: Estimated 18–30 years based on deterioration patterns]

[Current Stage: Late-Stage Integration — 73% merged with host's soul]

[Threat Level: CRITICAL]

[Prognosis without intervention: 6–8 months maximum survival]

[Note: Standard removal will kill the host — Chaos Heart has become intertwined with her soul's structure]

Northern was very mindful of his facial expression. He kept it carefully neutral, appropriately grave—the face of a healer discovering bad news, not the face of a hunter who'd just found his prey.

'Anki. You slow poke. I've got you, bastard.'

Who would grin like a madman in such a scenario? A dying queen, a worried king, a room full of people hoping for salvation. Certainly not someone with any sense of self-preservation.

But he was grinning internally. Widely.

His expression remained somber while he processed the gravity of what he'd discovered. The Vestige of the Chaos Prince—the Queen had stumbled upon it somehow, and it had merged with her over the course of her entire life. Northern filed away that curiosity for later. The how could wait. The what was more pressing.

The Chaos Heart wasn't merely feeding on her. It was becoming part of her, integrating so completely that ripping it out would be like tearing away half her soul. Standard extraction would kill her as surely as letting the parasite run its course.

Northern withdrew his hand slowly, letting his Shingan fade. The room's colors bled back into focus around him.

His eyes met the Queen's tired gaze, then shifted to King Ruger's concerned face. The man looked like he was bracing for the worst while desperately hoping for anything else.

"I've found the problem," Northern said quietly.

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