This world had never been kind to heroes. That wasn't new information, but the way it went about proving it—time and time again—still had a way of tightening something in my chest. The fall of the Kagu family was just the latest reminder. Not a fall into ruin, no—more like a forced kneeling, the kind that cracked bone and left lasting scars.
Stripped of their place among the Seven Superpowers. Their royal standing unofficially revoked. The moment Selene Kagu had slipped into that coma, it all started crumbling like a house of cards in a hurricane. And until she woke—and that word "until" was doing a lot of heavy lifting—they were no longer rulers, just remnants clinging to past glory.
'Lucifer's burden,' I thought, 'was heavier than anyone gave him credit for.'
