Cameraman Never Dies-Chapter 269: And... Now the Sky is Red

Everything in the clearing held still for a moment after Mina introduced herself, like the world was waiting for the next breath. Seraphis stared at the bandaged woman with eyes that looked hollowed out from the inside. Eleyn stood behind her, battered but steady, watching every movement with the focus of a predator waiting for the right angle.

That was when the noise came.

A sharp hiss of air behind Eleyn — too quick, and too coordinated to be anything random.

She spun, but the trio she had knocked around and most probably killed earlier were already in motion again.

"Persistent trash," She cursed.

Two men and the woman she had cracked across the spine, all of them bleeding, bruised, and furious. They still moved in perfect harmony, the kind reserved for high-stakes dancing competitions, but their expressions twisted with the kind of hatred only long-fed grudges could breed.

They went for Eleyn all at once.

Seraphis tensed, ready to turn, but Mina's voice cut across her shoulder like a whisper with teeth.

"Eyes on me. You don't want to miss this."

Eleyn didn't have time to swear.

The first man's fist slammed toward her face with enough force to break bone. She stepped aside, grabbed his wrist, and twisted. The pop of dislocation echoed across the clearing. Before she could follow up, the woman dove in from the left, a hidden blade protruding from her forearm.

Eleyn launched herself backward. The blades sliced the air where her ribs had been.

The second man came low, hands crackling with red ether. He punched into the earth, sending a blast upward. The ground ruptured and exploded into jagged shards. Eleyn leapt over it, twisting midair, and landed with one palm on the ground.

"Stay. Down."

A golden shockwave blasted out from her palm.

The man flew backward — but the woman caught him before he hit a tree, her muscles straining as she used the momentum to launch herself forward again. Her blades swung toward Eleyn's neck.

Eleyn smacked the blades aside with her bare forearm, sparks spraying off her skin. She kicked the woman in the gut hard enough to fold her in half. But the moment Eleyn turned to finish her, the first man reappeared, his other arm glowing with blackened ether. He swung straight at Eleyn's throat.

Eleyn caught the punch in her hand, and the next one too.

She pushed them apart, forcing his arm wide, and slammed the heel of her palm into his chest. He crashed into the dirt hard enough to cough up blood.

The second man charged again. Eleyn pivoted, dropped to one knee, and drove her elbow into his shin. The crack echoed. He screamed, but the woman didn't let him fall. She grabbed his hand and pulled him upright, the two of them moving around Eleyn like they had rehearsed this for years.

They came in fast again—three bodies, one mind.

Eleyn stopped fighting defensively.

She stood up straight.

And for the first time, she looked angry.

The earth rippled outward from her feet like something alive. Glyphs burst into existence in a circle, spinning in opposite directions. The trio reacted instantly — jumping back, splitting apart, trying to break the formation Eleyn was forcing on them.

It didn't work.

Eleyn raised her hand.

"Piega"

The air bent inward. The air kinked like fabric wrung by invisible hands. The trio stumbled as their balance shattered. Eleyn stepped through the warped air with a cold, sharp look in her eyes.

She punched the first man in the jaw so hard his head snapped sideways, and his body followed.

The woman tried to stab Eleyn in the back. Eleyn spun, trapping the woman's blade between her palms, twisted her wrist, and slammed her forehead into the woman's face.

Blood sprayed.

The second man jumped, ether swirling around his hands like twin storms. Eleyn turned, raising her arm just in time to block the strike. The impact split the ground under them.

"He doesn't stop, does he?" Eleyn muttered.

She pushed him back and lifted her palm.

A glowing sphere formed.

The man froze.

"Don't," he said unknowingly, alarmed!

Eleyn fired.

The blast hurled him into a tree with enough force to break it in half. The tree fell behind him with an echo that shook the clearing.

The woman staggered up again, breathing hard, face bloody, one eye already swelling shut. She tried to rush Eleyn once more.

Eleyn had had enough.

She raised her hand and flicked her fingers.

A ripple flowed outward like a wave.

The woman hit the ground instantly, pinned by a force she couldn't see or understand. The two men collapsed next to her, their bodies pressed into the dirt by the same invisible weight.

Eleyn dusted off her coat.

"I told you," she said, voice low. "Stay down."

She turned—

—and everything changed at once.

---

Seraphis stood alone in the center of the clearing. Her breath was uneven. Her shoulders were trembling. But her eyes were fixed on Mina.

"I locked her in a room," Mina said. "And she cried, Seraphis. She might have cried for days. I would never know."

Seraphis raised a hand to her mouth. Mina knew this. She knew exactly how much the words would hurt.

"I was the only conscious one left when Tenebris cast that fake reality," Mina added, almost casually. "The whole continent fell asleep. His power burned away to almost nothing, but he achieved his goal."

Seraphis blinked, confused.

Mina leaned in. "He found the princeps. And because I knew where to look… I simply reached into your room and took your newborn daughter."

Seraphis's heart cracked.

"But why?" she whispered. "What did I ever do to deserve this? What sin did my family commit?"

Mina smiled under the wrappings.

"You did nothing. I killed them because they were threats. Children with a divine aspect. Children who would grow into weapons. Selena. Judge. Both of them."

Seraphis sobbed once, quiet and broken.

"I regret not taking Judge," Mina said. "But I don't step into the Drakonis mansion. I know better than to challenge Gereon."

Seraphis closed her eyes. Aiming to calm herself before fighting, which was not very effective, but still her most viable option.

In that moment, two small hands ran a dagger through her lower back. Seraphis abruptly opened her eyes to look behind her and see the assailant. It was a small child, and she was smiling like a psychopath bathed in blood.

Seraphis closed her eyes once more, this time with determination. And for a heartbeat, she stopped breathing.

Then she opened her eyes again.

Everything around her changed.

The air dropped in temperature. The wind died.

Seraphis did not speak.

She forced herself upright, blood running down her back from the wound Clara had given her. Her hand closed around her blade. Her body swayed, but she didn't fall.

The surroundings cracked.

Mina's head tilted sharply. Her entire body went tense. For the first time, she looked surprised.

She felt something she had never felt come from Seraphis.

Danger.

The sky darkened instantly.

Not like a storm. But like a curtain dropping.

Light bled out of the world, replaced by a deep, crushing red. The clouds twisted. A massive blood moon rose behind Seraphis, huge and heavy, as if dragging itself up from some old grave.

Seraphis didn't move.

She just stood there, blade in hand, blood dripping down her back.

A single drop of that blood lifted into the air.

Clara, still gasping on the ground, stared at it.

The drop hovered for a moment.

Then it shot forward.

It pierced Clara's throat clean through.

She collapsed, eyes wide, choking on her own breath as her life spilled into the dirt.

Seraphis didn't even turn to look.

She just held her blade.

And the blood moon burned behind her like the sky had chosen a side.