Chapter 143: Chapter-143

Finding a lost transmigrator without their system was like finding a specific grain of sand on every beach on Earth combined. Functionally impossible.

“He wants to trap you,” Heena said quietly, her voice cold with certainty. “Not just capture you. ’Trap’ you. Permanently.”

Estov’s legs gave out. He sank to the floor, his face white as snow.

“He… he wrote himself into the story,” Estov whispered. “He became a character in a world he knew I’d be assigned to. He manipulated the Bureau’s assignment system. He… how is that even possible?”

“It’s possible if he’s been obsessed enough for long enough,” Heena said. “How many worlds has he chased you through?”

“Hundreds,” Estov said numbly. “Over two hundred consecutive worlds. He’s never more than a few worlds behind me. Sometimes he arrives in the same world, and I have to abort my mission and flee.”

Heena crouched down to his level. “Estov. Listen to me. In those two hundred worlds—did you ever encounter him in a world where he was ’already part of the original story?’”

Estov thought hard, his hands shaking. “I… I don’t think so? He always appeared as an outsider. A mysterious figure who showed up midway through. Never as an original character…”

“Until now,” Heena finished.

“Until now,” Estov repeated, looking sick.

Heena stood up and started pacing, her mind racing through possibilities.

“This means he’s escalated. He’s not just chasing you anymore—he’s ’engineering’ your capture. He’s becoming proactive instead of reactive.”

She turned to face Estov.

“Which means we need to figure out exactly what he’s planning. Because I guarantee you, getting Seraphina into the palace wasn’t just about creating chaos. That was step one of a larger plan.”

Estov looked up at her, his expression desperate. “What do I do? If he’s already embedded in this world’s story, if he’s already manipulated things so thoroughly—”

“You stay hidden,” Heena said firmly. “And I buy us time to figure out his endgame.”

She looked at the System. “Can you scan the original plot? Find every mention of Kaelen, every scene he’s in, every action he takes?”

“On it, Host!” The System said, already pulling up holographic screens.

Heena turned back to Estov. “Meanwhile, you need to tell me ’everything’ about your relationship with Kaelen. No secrets, no embarrassment, no holding back. I need to know what kind of person he is, what motivates him, what his weaknesses are.”

Estov took a shaky breath. “He’s… he was my cultivation partner. We trained together, fought together, built our power together over decades. We were… we were going to ascend together.”

“What happened?”

“I gave him half my cultivation base,” Estov said quietly. “He was injured badly in a fight protecting me. He was going to die. So I transferred half my power to him to save his life.”

Heena’s eyes widened slightly. “That’s… that’s a soul-level bond. An unbreakable connection.”

“I know,” Estov said miserably. “It creates a permanent resonance between two people. It’s usually only done between dao partners—people who plan to spend eternity together.”

“And then you ran away from him,” Heena said, understanding dawning.

“I had to!” Estov said desperately. “After I saved him, he became… obsessed. Possessive. He wanted to control every aspect of my life. Who I talked to, where I went, what I did. He said it was because we were bonded now, because I was ’his’ responsibility.”

Estov’s hands clenched into fists.

“He killed my friends because they ’distracted me from cultivation.’ He destroyed my family connections because they ’weakened my resolve.’ He isolated me completely, and when I finally tried to leave, he… he locked me in a cultivation chamber for three years.”

Heena’s expression darkened. “That’s not love. That’s imprisonment.”

“I know that now,” Estov said. “But at the time, he kept saying it was for my own good. That he was protecting me. That the world was dangerous and only he could keep me safe.”

“Classic obsessive behavior,” Heena muttered. “And when you escaped?”

“He’s been chasing me ever since,” Estov said. “Across hundreds of worlds. Every time I think I’ve lost him, he appears again. He always finds me. Always.”

Heena was quiet for a moment, processing all of this.

Then she asked the critical question:

“Does he still have access to the half of your cultivation you gave him?”

Estov nodded miserably. “Yes. That’s why he can track me. The soul resonance is permanent. He can feel me across dimensions.”

“But not pinpoint you,” Heena said thoughtfully. “Otherwise he’d have found you in that sealed room already.”

“The wards are blocking the resonance,” Estov confirmed. “But they won’t hold forever. He’ll find a way through eventually.”

Heena started pacing again, faster now.

“Okay. New plan. We can’t just hide you—that’s temporary at best. And we can’t kill Kaelen because he’s too powerful and probably has contingency systems in place.”

She stopped and looked at Estov.

Heena looked at Estov with cold finality and said, “Leave this world. Abandon this mission.”

Estov stepped forward, his voice rising with desperation. “But—”

“If the Lord God finds out about this,” Heena interrupted sharply, her eyes like ice, “do you think you’ll even have time to say ’but’? Do you think there will be explanations, hearings, appeals? No. You’ll be classified as compromised, stripped of your transmigrator status, and either imprisoned or terminated. Is that what you want?”

Estov’s face went pale. “I… no, but—”

“Then leave,” Heena said flatly. “Tonight. I’ll arrange the extraction. The Bureau will be told you had a medical emergency requiring immediate return. Your mission will be marked as ’inconclusive due to external circumstances beyond operator control.’ You’ll take a penalty hit to your completion rate, but you’ll be ’alive’ and ’free’.”

Estov bit his lips hard enough to draw blood, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides in helpless frustration. What choice did he have? She was right. She was absolutely right, and he hated it.

Finally, he nodded, the movement jerky and reluctant.

“Good,” Heena said, her tone softening just slightly. “Pack only what you need. Leave everything else. I’ll have it sent to your Bureau quarters later.”

“The Duchess—” Estov started.

“Will be told you had urgent family business in your original duchy,” Heena finished. “She knows you’re not really Aston. She’ll understand the subtext.”

Estov looked at her for a long moment, his expression complicated—gratitude, resentment, fear, relief, all tangled together.

“Thank you,” he said finally, his voice rough. “For… for protecting me. Even when I didn’t ask for it.”

“I’m protecting the integrity of the transmigration system,” Heena corrected, but her tone wasn’t as cold as her words. “Kaelen has violated every protocol that exists. If he’s allowed to continue, every transmigrator becomes vulnerable to this kind of targeted harassment.”

She walked to her desk and pulled out a small crystal pendant on a chain.

“Take this. It’s a one-time emergency beacon. If Kaelen somehow tracks you after you leave—if he appears in your next assignment world—activate this immediately. It will alert the Bureau’s Security Division and they’ll extract you within minutes.”

Estov took the pendant with trembling hands. “This must have cost—”

“It cost me a favor I’d been saving,” Heena said. “But your safety is worth it. Now go. You have two hours before the extraction window opens. Use them wisely.”

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