"Capture these fucking intruders!"

The command came from the Mana Heart Rank 2 cultivator—a woman with a jagged scar across her mask with a sharp voice carrying authority. The operatives around her responded instantly.

Kael brought out his blades.

The Twin Fangs of Eclipse materialized in his grip—Tier 2 shadow-steel, edges darker than midnight, the metal seeming to drink the crimson light around them. They felt different from his old weapons. Lighter. Faster with better shadow conductivity enhancement made his darkness element flow through them like water through a riverbed, natural and effortless.

Aria’s twin daggers appeared—Tier 2, gleaming with faint runic inscriptions, one pitch black, one brilliant gold. Shadow and Light. Her elements given physical form.

Rue reached over her shoulder and drew her weapon from across her back. A tier 2 scythe with red-handled, the blade curved and wicked, almost identical to the one Sage favored. The fox clan’s preferred weapon for their royal bloodline members.

Silas didn’t draw anything. Her hands moved, fingers tracing patterns in the air, and reality responded.

Dire wolves materialized around them.

They came in waves—first the smaller ones, Peak Foundation Establishment, their shoulders reaching Kael’s waist, fur bristling with barely contained violence. Then the larger ones, Foundation Establishment Rank 9, massive beasts that could have torn normal cultivators apart. And finally, the Mana Heart realm wolves—enormous creatures twice the size of their lesser brethren, eyes glowing with intelligent malice, their mere presence causing the temperature to drop.

The rushing operatives slowed.

Some of them stopped entirely. The smarter ones recognized the threat—dire wolves were pack hunters, and a pack with Mana Heart realm members wasn’t something Core Formation cultivators could handle. Fear flickered behind their masks.

Aria was Mana Heart Rank 1. Rue was Mana Heart Rank 1 Peak, right on the cusp of breaking through to Rank 2. Silas sat at Mana Heart Rank 3, her wolves making her effectively a one-woman army.

Kael was the weakest here.

Foundation Establishment Rank 8, about to break through to Rank 9. Still, he was the one standing at the front.

The operatives charged anyway.

They’d seen action, killed people, done things that would haunt normal souls forever. They weren’t cowards.

But they were outmatched.

These weren’t rogues or mercenaries. These were academy students—children of great families, trained from childhood in combat, weapon techniques, hand-to-hand fighting, tactical thinking. The gap between formal training and street experience was vast, and it showed in every movement.

The first wave of operatives hit the wolf pack.

Screams erupted.

The Foundation Establishment dire wolves tore through them like paper, jaws crushing skulls, claws ripping flesh, bodies flying in every direction. The Mana Heart wolves targeted the stronger enemies, their attacks precise and devastating, each kill clean and efficient.

Aria moved through the chaos like a shadow.

Her daggers flashed—black and gold, alternating strikes, each one finding a vital point. Throat. Heart. Eye. Her movements were liquid, flowing from one target to the next without pause, without hesitation, her dual elements creating a deadly dance of darkness and light.

Kael was less elegant. More brutal.

The Twin Fangs of Eclipse carved through enemies with contemptuous ease. He didn’t bother with techniques—just pure physical combat, blade meeting flesh, shadow-steel cutting through bone like it wasn’t there. The Void Binding Bandages on his forearms added their two hundred percent strength boost to every swing, turning his already-enhanced physique into something monstrous.

Rue didn’t move.

She stood behind them, scythe resting on her shoulder, watching the slaughter with an expression of mild boredom.

Then she spoke.

"DON’T MOVE."

The words weren’t loud. They were just words, spoken in a normal tone, with a normal cadence, nothing special about them at all.At least that’s what it seemed like.

Except every operative on the battlefield froze.

They stopped like someone had pressed pause on reality, bodies locked in place, eyes wide with sudden, incomprehensible terror. Even the ones who hadn’t been attacking—ones trying to flee, ones trying to regroup—stopped where they stood.

The Mana Heart cultivators weren’t affected but they stumbled, their momentum broken, staring at Rue with expressions of pure disbelief.

"Word Magic," one of them breathed. "Impossible—"

Rue smiled seductively.

"What?" Her voice was sweet and innocent. "Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a fox use her words before."

She snapped her fingers.

The frozen operatives stayed frozen. They couldn’t move—Word Magic didn’t just stop bodies, it stopped wills, locked muscles, turned people into statues until the command wore off or was explicitly released.

Which meant they couldn’t defend themselves.

Aria and Kael resumed the slaughter.

It wasn’t a fight anymore. It was butchery. Frozen enemies couldn’t dodge, couldn’t block, couldn’t do anything except exist until a blade ended that existence. Kael moved through them methodically, each strike killing, each kill efficient. Aria danced between them, her daggers finding hearts and throats with surgical precision.

The dire wolves feasted. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

BOOM!

A column of flame descended from the crimson sky.

The shockwave hit like a physical force, throwing Kael, Aria, Rue, and even the Mana Heart realm dire wolves backward. Fire washed across the frozen operatives—still locked in place, still unable to move—and they burned. The smell of cooking flesh filled the air as dozens of bodies ignited simultaneously.

Kael hit the ground and rolled, coming up in a crouch, blades raised.

Three figures descended through the flames.

The first was immediately recognizable—Seraphine. Her red robes were gone, replaced by flowing flames that moved like living fabric. Her hair was fire. Her skin glowed with inner heat. She hung in the air for a moment before touching down, the ground beneath her feet scorching black.

She’d broken through since the last time Kael saw her. Mana Heart Rank 2 Peak.

Kael could feel it in the pressure her cultivation base exerted—significantly stronger than their last encounter.

The second figure was an elf. Tall, slender, pale skin contrasting with dark hair that fell past his shoulders. Water swirled around his hands, condensed from the moisture in the air itself, forming spheres and streams that moved with predatory intent.

Mana Heart Rank 4. The strongest presence here by a significant margin.

The third figure was human. Massive, actually—nearly as large as Bruno, with arms like tree trunks and a face that looked like it had been carved from granite. Earth element, probably, based on the faint tremors in the ground beneath his feet.

Mana Heart Rank 3.

The two Mana Heart realm operatives—the frozen ones—suddenly dropped dead. Their heads hit the ground a second before their bodies, separated by clean cuts.

Aria stood behind them, daggers dripping.

The remaining Mana Heart Rank 2 operative—the one who’d been giving orders—jumped backward so fast he nearly tripped over his own feet. His mask couldn’t hide the fear in his eyes as he looked at Aria, then at the three descending enemies.

Aria turned toward the trio.

Her expression was calm. Almost bored.

"You guys better focus on the fight."

Kael’s eyes found Seraphine.

She was looking at him now as recognition flickered in her molten gold eyes—memory surfacing. The last time they’d met, he’d been a Foundation Establishment Rank 4 who’d nearly died trying to fight her.

Now he was Foundation Establishment Rank 8.

"Seraphine."

Her expression twisted into something hideous—contempt and hatred and something darker, uglier, the face of someone who had been planning revenge for months.

"You." Her voice was like crackling flames. "You’re one of the bastards that killed Grellik and Thorne. And now you bring yourself to me?"

Kael spread his arms, blades still in hand, smile never wavering.

"What can I say, love? I was starting to miss you."

The elf—Water Demon, based on the reputation that preceded him—stepped forward. His voice was cold. Dismissive.

"Don’t waste time dialoguing, Seraphine. It’s almost time for the awakening."

He looked at the four students. His gaze lingered on Silas.

"I’ll take care of the summoner. She seems to be the strongest among these clowns."

Seraphina’s burning gaze remained fixed on Kael.

"The kid is mine."