Royal Reboot: Level up, Your Majesty!

Chapter 43: Queen vs. Big City

Queen vs. Big City

Eydis’s amber eyes flicked toward the skyline. She would never say it aloud, but she was… mildly impressed.

After a three-hour drive through a never-ending rollercoaster of winding mountain roads, scored by Cleo’s off-key singing about lost loves (bold, considering Anthony was right there), they finally reached the outskirts of Alchymia City.

Distance-wise, St. Kevin’s wasn’t far. It just happened to be buried behind the snow-draped Southern Alps. The secluded mountain ranges served as a strategic fortress for the Elites and the Gifted.

A helicopter would have made the trip in forty minutes. But that was reserved for those with deep pockets.

Eydis, with her decidedly not deep pockets, was at the mercy of Anthony's so-called “scenic-detour” route. It translated to every twisted road that could test her patience and her inner ear.

Eventually, the peaceful countryside of weatherboard cottages and endless grass fields gave way to a view that even the Queen of Shadows couldn't deny was striking. A mess of mirrored towers cutting into the clouds, their tinted glass surfaces catching the last threads of daylight.

Back home, her palace had been carved by master artisans. But in this world, most construction work was carried out by–

"Check out that golden skyscraper, kiddo!" Anthony said, mercifully turning down the music. "Worked on it right after you left for St. Kevin’s. Thought those fancy 5D printers were gonna replace us, but turns out experience still counts for something.”

Cleo muttered, "If you call that art. Everything’s made by machines now. Empty, mechanical mimicry. No soul. No feeling. We’re doomed, Ant. The city is dead and doesn’t even know it.”

Eydis watched a sky train pass overhead, quiet as a thought. “If automation’s such a threat, where’s the chaos? No riots. No uprisings. No crumbling society. Everyone seems rather blissfully ignorant, despite…”

She glanced up through the panorama glass roof, where The Eye continued to just exist. “...If machines have taken over, how is—Mom—still employed?”

That earned a long silence.

Cleo and Anthony exchanged a look. Not the nervous kind. The oh-no-she’s-asking-real-questions kind.

Before they could answer, the autopilot slammed the brakes. A car had swerved in front of them without warning. Anthony cursed, grabbed the wheel, and switched to manual.

“These darn algorithms can’t be trusted.”

Eydis's lips twitched as her eyes caught the explosion of neon lights against the fading light. How artificial... yet oddly mesmerising. These humans in this world had truly touched the stars, their advanced technology twisting reality to their will.

It made her wonder why the Gifted were still held in such high regard. Unless, of course, there was more to this world than met the eye.

"You can't trust people," Eydis responded absently.

Anthony beamed at her in the rearview mirror. “That’s my girl. Sharp as ever.”

She didn’t answer. Her eyes tracked the street. Dozens of people in suits hurried past, vanishing into the Metro like ants disappearing into the hive.

Their car, on the other hand, moved only inches, stuck in the rush hour gridlock. Even so, she didn’t mind as there was so much for her to take in and analyse.

Movement. Architecture. The metro system. The sky train network. Surrounding cars where drivers no longer needed to drive, relying entirely on algorithms.

The calm didn’t last.

The billboard ahead, previously cycling through perfume ads and real estate scams, flickered. A news alert replaced it: live footage of Thomas Blackwood mid-battle with a swirling entity of smoke and shadow.

Leaning back with a smile, Eydis’s eyes twinkled with delight as she observed the mayhem her familiar had stirred up.

‘So true to their nature. Just as predicted,’ she mused.

‘You were right, Your Majesty. How did you know?’ Envy slithered mentally in Eydis’s mind as it watched the video footage through her eyes.

‘Logical thinking, my dear serpent. The Blackwoods are delicious, after all. So sinful… so…’

’Deliciously human,’ Envy hissed back in agreement.

Eydis smirked. Out of the corner of her eye, Cleo’s hand inched toward the touchscreen again. Eydis flicked a spell. Just a spark. Cleo yelped, snatching her hand back like she’d touched a live wire.

Or a petty monarch. Depending on perspective.

Before Cleo could even whimper a complaint, Anthony fumbled with the radio, switching it to the news channel broadcasting the billboard’s live feed.

“Sir Thomas Blackwood has graciously granted access to reporters during his joint mission with the International Vanguard Watchers, commonly referred to as the Council. Their lead operatives have joined him at the scene…”

The Council? International? Now that’s intriguing.

The footage shifted to show a small unit of suited figures. Then it zoomed in on Thomas himself, breathless and overly earnest.

“We have wasted too much time already," he declared urgently. "The children's safety is paramount."

The broadcast followed the group into a half-built construction site before an unexpected burst of energy obscured the video in a purple fog.

“The smoke monster! It’s here!” someone shouted.

The agents moved instantly. Fire, water, telekinesis. Basic elements flared to life. Their spells met the smoke in midair, bursts of light colliding with shadow.

Eydis focused on one man in particular. Dark-skinned. Sharp-eyed. Grey suit. He kept to the edges, analyzing instead of reacting. When a tendril lunged for him, he raised a stone wall with ease, redirecting the strike.

Meanwhile, Thomas bolted toward the rear of the site, ignoring the orders shouted at him. The camera struggled to keep up, finally catching him in a different section of the construction zone. The smoke monster abandoned the fight and surged after him.

"Sir, hold your position! Do not engage!" The man in the grey suit barked.

But Thomas was already too far gone.“I see them! The kids—they’re in there! Aaaggh!”

His scream was devoured by the swirling vortex of purple smoke. The screen twisted, glitched, distorted.

"Cease attack! Prioritise Sir Blackwood’s safety!” came the final command before the screen went black.

Anthony and Cleo spoke at the same time. “What… just happened?”

Eydis didn’t answer. Her grin returned, fangs barely visible.

‘Envy, plan B just became very interesting. I think it’s time we met this Doctor Le Bleu.’

‘Indeed, Your Majesty. Indeed,’ Envy hissed in agreement.

Eydis pushed open the door to her bedroom and froze. Her royal eyes, trained in the refined minimalism of Mythshollow and now accustomed to the oatmeal-toned dorm at St. Kelvin’s, recoiled.

Pink. 

Wall to wall. Ceiling to floor. 

Metallics, pastels, bubblegum, flamingo. Every shade imaginable. A full assault on the senses.

She considered it a war crime against good taste.

Alright, “war crime” was a bit hyperbolic, but “mildly nauseating” felt accurate.

Still, exhaustion had finally caught up with her. After a car ride that felt longer than the lifespan of a star, soundtracked by Cleo’s tone-deaf renditions of every love song known to humankind, followed by a dinner where Cleo’s hands and puppy-dog eyes seemed permanently attached to her, Eydis found herself waving the white flag of surrender.

‘Did someone die?’ she wondered for the hundredth time.

Before collapsing into the overstuffed fuschia pillow, she had work to do: investigating her teenage counterpart's life. Who was she, beneath the layers of pink and unreciprocated love? What secrets did she keep?

For all its agony, the drive hadn’t been a complete waste. She’d gathered useful data.

Her so-called parents, for instance. Harmless. Utterly clueless. No malice, no hidden agendas, not even a trace of Envy or Gluttony for her familiars to latch onto. Just ordinary people living ordinary lives.

Which made it all the more curious that their daughter had any knowledge of the Queen of Shadows.

Eydis turned to the room’s contents. Folded clothes. Certificates of minor academic achievement. A few actual books. Childhood photos. In one of them, a younger version of herself laughed freely, unburdened. Genuine joy, untainted by expectation.

Eydis stared at the image longer than she meant to.

“At least you knew happiness,” she said quietly.

A strange tightness pulled at her ribs. ‘Was this... envy? Absurd!!’

"Indeed, it wa—"

Zap.

Mental silence. Much better.

As she continued her search, her hand landed on something interesting: a small, matte-black device, the size of an ID card but much heavier. No brand. No label. Just a single button on the side.

She pressed it. A string of eight digits lit up on the screen. A second press changed the code.

Her brows lifted.

“Intriguing.”

Envy, recovered enough to sulk, asked. “What’s intriguing about it?”

Eydis turned the device over. No visible port. No logo. It didn’t match anything else in the room. “Everything else here is functional. Predictable. Personal. This? This is an anomaly.”

"Anomaly? But it just gives you random numbers?"

Eydis chuckled, slipping the device into her bag. “Envy, Envy, we both know randomness is a matter of perspective. It’s out of place. It doesn't belong. Perhaps... this is the key to accessing that Obsidian Legion Adam mentioned. A secret society of hackers."

The moment she’d heard the name, she had launched into a search frenzy. With Birgit’s superior tech skills doing most of the heavy lifting, it didn’t take long to uncover the truth. The Obsidian Legion was real. Not myth. Not rumor.

Hackers. Notorious. Elusive. Their mission was simple: expose the kinds of corruption no one else dared to touch. Governments. Corporations. Old families with too much power and not enough accountability.

They insisted they weren’t black hat. That their motives were noble. But Eydis had seen the logs.

“Blackmail. Extortion. Criminals…” she whispered, and despite herself, her pulse quickened. “Oh, my dear doppelgänger. You’re becoming more interesting by the hour.”

According to one thread, accessing their forum required three things: a username, a password, and a rotating encryption key. Physical. Untraceable.

Just like the device now sitting in her bag.

But that raised a better question. Why was it here? The girl hadn’t lived at home in years.

Eydis sat on the edge of the bed, hands clasped, a grin pulling at her lips.

“This is where it gets interesting, and I mean truly interesting.”