Cameraman Never Dies-Chapter 268: The Trio Eleyn Didn’t Really Like

The moment Mina's soft, cheerful, "My name is Mina," drifted into the clearing, the air went suspiciously silent. Seraphis tried not to blink. She unconsciously held her breath. Her eyes locked onto the bandaged woman, holding the heavy grief buried deep like molten stone.

For some reason, she felt the grief reflected in Mina's eyes. Of course, that woman, too, had a past. But no amount of grief would justify her taking the life of her husband and kidnapping her child, whom she desperately hoped was still alive.

The silence was disturbed, but it wasn't Mina who moved first.

A ripple tore through the treeline behind Eleyn. Three figures exploded from the shadows in perfect formation: two men and a woman. Their expressions were contorted with a raw hatred that seemed carved into their bones. They didn't roar or snarl like the typical goons — they attacked with the quiet efficiency of people driven only by the desire to kill.

Eleyn didn't even bother turning fully.

"Tch. Finally showed your faces."

The first man charged, red ether surging violently around him. His fist shot forward with enough force to crack the earth. Eleyn slid aside by inches, her hand sweeping upward as glowing glyphs spun out from her palm like orbiting stars.

The second man dove low, sweeping a blade of compressed force across the ground. It sliced deep trenches into the earth, uprooting soil in great waves. Eleyn hopped onto one of the lifted slabs as if stepping onto a staircase, letting the attack pass beneath her.

The woman dropped from above, dual ether-blades spiraling down like scythes meant to cleave gods.

"Luminis anuli," Eleyn snapped her fingers.

The surroundings glitched.

Symbols flashed in midair, rings of light pulsing outward. The trio twisted through the openings with frightening coordination, their movements weaving together like one body split in three.

Eleyn raised an eyebrow, faintly irritated. "This is what you bring? Acrobatics?"

The first man roared and charged again. Eleyn backhanded him, not hard or seriously.

"Impulsus," She said as she pushed, and the glyph flaring from her wrist launched him across the clearing, smashing him into a tree trunk that instantly cracked in half.

She didn't get a moment's rest.

The woman was on her instantly, blades flashing. Eleyn caught the first with her forearm, the ether screeching against the barrier coating her skin. The woman kneed her in the ribs, followed by a brutal slash Eleyn barely dodged.

Then the second man was behind her, arms locking around her throat, muscles bulging with destructive ether.

Eleyn's eye twitched.

"Don't touch me." She looked at him like he had just committed a war crime, "Impulsus!"

A shockwave ripped from her skin, blasting him backward before he could understand what happened. He hit the dirt hard enough to skid.

The woman seized the moment and drove both ether-blades into Eleyn's back.

For an instant, they looked as though they had pierced clean through.

Then Eleyn's form flickered, distorted, and dissolved into static.

The woman blinked.

Eleyn appeared behind her and drove an elbow into her spine so hard the crack echoed like a snapped branch.

The woman collapsed to one knee, coughing blood.

"Stay down," Eleyn muttered.

The first man returned with a scream, his fist coated in black, writhing ether. He punched toward Eleyn's chest with enough power to crater a boulder.

Eleyn caught the punch with two fingers.

Two... Her thumb and forefinger.

The man's eyes bulged. He thought quickly and brought down his other fist, pouring more ether into the strike; his veins started to glow, and he ground his teeth as the ground cracked beneath him.

Eleyn pushed his arm downward with the lazy strength of someone closing a book.

His knees buckled instantly.

She lifted her other hand, golden energy blooming like a small sun — only to jerk her head sideways as the woman returned with a flying tackle that sent both of them crashing across the clearing. The woman slashed wildly, fueled by fury more than technique now. Eleyn parried each blow with casual disdain.

"Persistent little pests."

The second man rejoined the fight, stomping the ground to send a wave of destructive energy surging toward her. Eleyn twisted, let it pass, then spun and slammed her palm into the earth.

A massive sigil ignited across the clearing. Rings detonated outward with a deep hum that shook the trees to their roots.

The trio didn't escape this one.

They were flung in three different directions, colliding with the forest floor and leaving craters where their bodies hit.

"Terebrare," She immediately followed. The three had their hearts pierced by the earth.

Silence followed.

Eleyn flicked dirt from her sleeve, exhaling sharply. "Wasted enough time."

Her eyes shifted back toward the center of the clearing—

Where Seraphis stood face to face with Mina.

Lediya, still hidden behind a tree, felt her stomach drop. Seraphis wasn't breathing properly. Her grief had frozen into something sharp enough to cut the air. And she was bleeding from her lower back.

-A few moments ago-

Mina tilted her head. "Now then. Where were we?"

Her tone was bright, casual, as if the last few minutes hadn't involved the two fighting to death with no context.

"You want answers, don't you?" Mina asked softly. "You pretend otherwise, but you're desperate to know."

Seraphis swallowed hard. Her voice trembled, as if she were afraid of the answer. "What… happened to my daughter?"

The world held still.

Mina didn't make her wait.

"Selena," she said, almost gently. "Your little phoenix."

Seraphis flinched; there was no way for the woman to know her child's name unless Mina still stuck around after taking her child. Unless she was something.

Phoenixes were a rare subspecies of dragons, brilliant and resilient, some even capable of resurrecting once after death. But only once. Their second death was final.

"I put her in a room," Mina said lightly, "a very small one. She cried a lot. Children are so… loud."

Seraphis's eyes widened slowly, as though her mind refused to process the words.

Mina continued, tone bright as ever. "I locked the door, or rather, there is no door left to open. Then I left. And, well… I simply didn't look in again."

Seraphis staggered.

"She might have resurrected, of course — phoenix power and all that." Mina waved a hand dismissively. "But without food or water? She would only die again. Quietly, this time."

Seraphis's knees nearly gave way. The air around her tightened into something suffocating. She was angry, but she could not make herself move due to grief weighing her down like a mountain.

Her voice came out cracked. "Why… what did I ever do to you? What crime did my family commit to deserve this?"

Mina laughed.

Not mocking. Not triumphant.

The cheerful, unbothered laughter of someone recounting an amusing mistake.

"Oh, Seraphis. You didn't do anything to me. I simply saw children with divine potential. Children who could ruin everything I'd been working toward."

Seraphis stared at her, broken. "…Selena was only a newborn."

Mina shrugged. "And that Judge was the one who really scared me. But he was inside the Drakonis mansion." Her smile brightened beneath the bandages. "I would never be foolish enough to challenge Gereon."

Her voice shifted, becoming colder and more honest.

"I regret that, you know. That I couldn't take him down while I had the chance."

Something inside Seraphis snapped.

Her grief turned molten.

Her breath quickened.

Her gaze sharpened into something ancient and catastrophic.

Mina saw it. There was something that still anchored her to the world despite the overwhelming feeling of just giving up.

And she smiled like she had been waiting her entire life for this exact second.

"Good," she whispered. "Now you're finally ready."