Then—

CRACK.

A daggerslammed into its skull, hilt-deep, the impactsplintering bone.The monster’s headjerked sideways, but it didn’t stagger. Didn’t scream.

Justturned.

“What are you doing?”

A voice—cold, sharp, laced with disdain—cut through the silence.

Sera emerged from the shadows, her boots silent against the ruined ground. Her gaze flicked over the scene—Len’s tears, Alira’s hollow stare, the body at their feet—and her lip curled.

“Do you wish to die?”

No sympathy. No comfort. Justa challenge.

She stepped past them, her movementsfluid, unhurried, as if the monster before her was nothing more thana minor inconvenience.

“Don’t just stand there.”

Her smirk wasall teeth, all danger.

“It’s not over yet.”

And in her voice, beneath the ice, there was something else—

A promise.

Of vengeance.

Of violence.

Of a fightfar from finished.

"But—"Len's voice cracked, raw with disbelief. Her hands trembled at her sides, fingers twitching toward the empty space where Towan had stood moments before."That thing killed him."

The words tasted like ash.

Sera didn't flinch.

She watched,silver eyes gleaming with something dangerous, as the monsterwrenched the dagger free from its skull with a sickening crunch of bone.Blackened blood oozed from the wound—thensealed shutbefore their eyes.

"Towan won’t fall so easily,"Sera said, her voicea blade wrapped in velvet.

Absolute. Unshakable.

As if she knew something they didn’t.

Acold droplet struck Len’s cheek.Then another.

Rain.

It fell inheavy, relentless sheets, washing the blood from the grass, diluting the battlefield into a haze of gray and crimson. The downpour plastered Alira’s hair to her face, her usual firedrowned beneath the storm.

She turned, gaze locking onto Rellie’s limp form.Understanding flashed in her eyes—sharp, bitter.

(That’s why Sera intervened.)

(Not for us.)

(For her.)

Alira’s jaw tightened."I’ll take Rellie away,"she said, voicehollow but resolved.Her fingers curled into fists, nails biting into her palms.A promise. A retreat.

Sera’s smilewidened, slow and serpentine. Rain slid down the curve of her lips likeliquid silver.

"I’ll be grateful for that."

Not a thank you.

A dismissal.

And as Alira dragged Rellie into the storm’s embrace, Sera’s silhouettestood unwavering against the deluge—a shadow poised to strike.

Sera stood ready.

Not the stiff, textbook guard of academy drills—but somethinglean and lethal, her body a coiled spring wrapped in silk.Palms open, fingers loose.Elbows tucked, shoulders relaxed. Every inch of herbalanced on the knife’s edge between motion and stillness.

She’d foughtthis kind of thingbefore.

Not its exact shape. Not its same rotting stench.

But thehungerin its eyes?

Theway it moved, like a puppet with its strings half-cut?

Oh, she knew.

The monsterlunged—no more slow, taunting steps. Itrecognized her.

And the airshattered.

Abarrage of strikes, each fist ablur of corrupted flesh, came screaming toward her. Ribs. Throat. Solar plexus.Killing blows, every one.

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Seramoved like water.

Asubtle shiftof her hips, and the first punchgrazed her ribs, missing by a breath. Her forearmredirected the second, sending it spiraling past her ear. The third, aimed for her skull, shecaught mid-air—not with brute force, but with atwist of her wrist, leveraging the monster’s own momentum tosend it stumbling.

"What…?"

Len’s voice wasraw with disbelief.

This wasn’t just blocking.

It wasdismantling.

Sera made it lookeffortless, like she wasreading the fight three moves ahead.No wasted energy. No panic. Justcalm, surgical precision.

The monstersnarled, muscles writhing under its skin as itreared back for another strike—

And Serasmiled.

Not with joy.

Withrecognition.

"Ah,"that smile said."You’re starting to understand."

The monstercoiled to strike again—

—thenfroze.

Itfelt her.

Not just the woman before it. Not just the fight.

But theweight pressing down on the air, thick as a stormfront. Theiron-scented hushthat clung to Sera’s skin. The way the very ground seemed tostill beneath her feet, as if the earth itselfremembered what she was.

This one,the Corruption whispered in its fractured mind,has bathed in deeper blood than you’ve ever tasted.

The monsterleapt back, muscles screaming—

—just aslightning split the sky between them.

One.

Awhite-hot scaracross the battlefield, searing the air with ozone.

Two.

The groundexplodedwhere the monster had stood, dirt and stonevaporizedin the blast.

Three.

Thendozens, acacophony of heaven’s wrath, turning the night into a strobe of blinding light and shuddering darkness.

Through the chaos, Sera’s voicecut like a scalpel:

“It’s about time you leave, Len.”

Len opened her mouth—

—thenchoked on the breath as something moved on the side of her vision

Sera’s Essentiashrieked in warning, the same way Rellie’s did—thatpreternatural sensethat caughtintentlike spider silk caught dew.

Something was coming.

Something worse.

Anotherthunderclap.

And then—

Towan stood.

His chestwhole.His skinunbroken.

His eyesvoid-black, pupilsswallowed by endless dark.

Sera’s smilewidened, slow andrapturous, her teeth gleaming in the storm’s glare.

“That,”she murmured,“is what I’ve been waiting for.”

A shiver razored down Len’s spine.

The air itselfthrummed, thick with somethingoldandhungry, pressing against her skin like the charged silence before a landslide.

"How—?"

But beneath the terror, beneath the instinct screaming at her torun, a traitorous warmthbloomed in her chest.

Towan wasn’t dead.

Hewalked.

Each stepsplintered the earth, not from weight, but from the sheerwrongnessof his presence. Theintentionradiating off him wasn’t the boisterous, grinning boy who’d taken hits for them—it was somethingcold, somethingcalculating, a storm given flesh.

Thelifein him now wasn’t warmth.

It wasa black sun, burning inverse.

Len’s voicecracked, barely audible over the static roar in her ears:

"Is that… Towan?"

Seradidn’t blink.

She’d felt thisonce before—months ago, in a sparring match, when Towan’s Essentia hadflickeredfor a single, impossible second. Agapin reality. Ashadowwhere his power should be.

Now, that shadowwalked.

"Yes,"she said, her voicestrangely soft, as if speaking too loud mightshatter the moment."But I don’t know if it’s the same Towan you know."

The monsterstilled.

For the first time since it had torn itself free of Haeren’s corpse, ithesitated.

Its headtilted, violet eyesdilating, as if staring at apredator it couldn’t comprehend.

And then—

Towansmiled.

It wasn’t his smile.

It wassomething wearing his face.

Towan moved.

Not with the reckless abandon of the boy they knew—but with thelethal precision of a blade unsheathed after centuries.

Aspinning kick, his body awhirlwind of distilled violence, arced toward the monster’s skull. The air itselfscreamedin its wake, split by the sheer force of it.

The monsterraised its arms, Corruption surging to harden its flesh into a shield—

—too slow.

Towan’s heelconnected.

The impactdetonatedlike a cannon strike. Bonesplintered. Fleshruptured. The monster’s headsnapped sideways, its jawshearing clean offas its skullcaved inward, violet-black ichorerupting in a grotesque fountain.

The forcelaunched the beast backward, its bodycartwheelingthrough the air beforecrateringinto the earth. Corruptiontwisted and seethed, frantically trying toknit shattered bone and torn muscleback together—

—but Towanwas already there.

No pause. No hesitation.

Consecutive punches, each strikefaster, harder, more brutal than the last, hammered into the monster’s torso. Ribsshatteredlike glass. Its chestcollapsed inward, thenburst outwardin a spray of gore as Towan’s fistpunched clean through.

The creature’s formunraveled, Corruptiondissipating like smokeunder the onslaught.

Lenstared, her blood running cold.

"That isn’t Towan."

Her voice washollow, the realization settling like a stone in her gut.

"He... doesn’t fight like that."

No wild grins. No taunts. Nojoyin the motion.

Justperfection.

Sera said nothing.

But her silencespoke volumes.

A few more strikes.

Not a battle. Not a fight.

An execution.

Each blowlanded with surgical precision, the sound ofsplintering bone and tearing fleshmuffled only by the relentless hammering of rain. The monstercouldn’t scream. Couldn’t eventwitch.

It wasoverbefore its body hit the ground.

Corruptionslithered awaylike dying embers, retreating from shattered limbs, abandoning its host. The twisted fleshpeeled back, revealingHaeren’s facebeneath—pale, broken, his features slack withsomething between relief and horror.

The raindid not relent.

If anything, it grewheavier, the downpoura shroud of silver needles, turning the battlefield into awaterlogged grave.

And then—

Towan turned.

His gazelocked onto Len and Sera, the motionsmooth, deliberate.

No recognition. No warmth.

Justassessment.

Like a predatorweighing the threat of new prey.

Len’s breathhitched.

Seradid not flinch.

But she asked

“Who are you?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com