Chapter 3

"What?" Ava whispered, her fingers frozen on the keyboard.

She messaged Kael instantly. "Ethan, co-leader? What about me?"

The reply was swift, cold.

"Seraphina brings a new energy, Nyx. A vision. The guild needs it."

His words were like daggers.

Invalidating years of her work, her strategy, her dedication.

Ava remembered the countless hours she' d poured into The Crimson Vanguard.

Recruiting, organizing raids, mediating disputes, farming resources.

She' d done it all, quietly, efficiently, while Kael was the charismatic frontman.

She' d sacrificed her own gameplay progression to support the guild, to support him.

All for this. To be replaced by a fraud.

A guild notification popped up.

"Nyx has been demoted from Co-Leader."

Then, another.

"Seraphina has been promoted to Co-Leader."

The shift was instant, brutal.

Ava felt a wave of nausea.

The public humiliation was complete.

Kael messaged her again.

"Meet me at the Eternal Tree, Nyx. We need to talk about our partnership."

The Eternal Tree.

The place where they had first declared their in-game partnership.

A place of sacred vows, now to be a place of execution.

Her heart sank.

She met him there. His Paladin avatar gleamed, Seraphina a radiant Celestial Mage beside him.

"Nyx," Kael began, his voice devoid of warmth. "I asked you here because... I need to dissolve our partnership."

Ava felt her breath hitch.

"Why?" she managed, her voice barely a whisper.

"The Sunstone Regalia... it' s partner-bound. Seraphina and I..."

He didn' t need to finish.

Ava tried one last, desperate plea.

"But Kael... our goals. The guild. Everything we built..."

She had dedicated three years of her life to this game, to him.

She had loved him, in her own quiet way.

"We were supposed to be a team."

Kael sighed, a sound of impatience.

"That was just a game, Nyx. Seraphina... she' s made me realize what true partnership means."

He dismissed their shared history, their bond, as if it were nothing.

As if she were nothing.

"She' s Stardust_Angel. The one I' ve been waiting for."

Ava' s carefully constructed composure finally cracked.

Tears pricked her eyes, blurring her vision of the screen.

"Ethan, I... I loved you," she typed, the words raw, vulnerable.

A confession she' d never voiced before, now laid bare in her moment of deepest pain.

It was a desperate, foolish hope.

His reply was swift, brutal.

"Nyx, your feelings are... misplaced. This is a game. My feelings for Seraphina, for Stardust_Angel, are real. She' s my muse, my inspiration."

He didn' t just reject her; he invalidated her emotions entirely.

He implied she couldn't differentiate game from reality, while he was chasing a fantasy.

"You were... a good support. But that' s all it was."

He initiated the command.

"Kael wishes to dissolve your partnership. Do you accept?"

Ava' s hand trembled over the mouse.

This was it. The final, irrevocable end.

She clicked "Accept."

Pain, sharp and cold, pierced through her.

A server-wide announcement flashed across the screen.

"The partnership between Kael and Nyx has been dissolved."

The game world erupted.

Cheers for Kael, jeers for Nyx.

"Finally!"

"Good riddance!"

"Kael is free!"

Her public humiliation was complete.

Then, Kael did something that shattered the last vestiges of Ava' s heart.

In front of everyone at the Eternal Tree, he turned to Seraphina.

He summoned a Celestial Phoenix, an ultra-rare, incredibly expensive mount.

It burst into existence in a shower of golden light.

"For you, my Stardust_Angel," Kael announced, his voice ringing with triumph. "A symbol of our new beginning."

He gifted it to Seraphina.

A public spectacle of his new love, moments after destroying their old one.

Ava logged off, tears streaming down her face.