"It seems we’re going to have to deal with this person much earlier than planned, Prince Julius," Moriarty said.

He held his sword loosely at his side, the tip angled slightly downward, like he wasn’t even concerned about what was about to happen. At a glance, it looked careless. But the air around him told a completely different story. His aura pulsed and vibrated, pressing against everything nearby like an invisible weight. It wrapped around him in a way that made it obvious he wasn’t taking this lightly at all.

Trying to find an opening on him felt pointless. My eyes moved over him, searching, and analyzing, but there was nothing. It wasn’t just that he had good defense. It felt like he was actively shutting down any possible gap before it could even exist.

"This is... that person?" the Prince muttered, his voice low, almost dragging.

His eyes locked onto me, and the look on his face twisted into something ugly. His lips curled, his brows tightened, and there was this unstable edge to him. It wasn’t just anger. It was something worse, something that sat right on the border of madness.

"So then... you’re the reason for my suffering?"

"Come on," I said, letting out a small breath. "I didn’t even get the chance to have a proper conversation with you. How are you already blaming me for all of that? If anything, don’t you think you’re just calling the kettle black here?"

"You are the reason!" he snapped, his voice rising. "I’ve been suffering this much because of you!"

Yeah, he was definitely pissed. Way more than I expected. I didn’t fully get it. Well, maybe a little, if I really thought about it, but it wasn’t enough to matter to me right now. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Well, if you’re that convinced I’m the reason, then why don’t you try destroying that reason?" I said, shrugging slightly. "If you manage to pull that off, do you really think everything will just go back to normal? You think you’ll become the same person again? I mean, you literally just killed your mother."

"It’s your fault she died!" he shouted without hesitation. "Even her death is because of you! And everyone around her will die too, by my hands! Including my sister! Your beloved woman!"

The moment he said that, something in the air shifted.

A wave of bloodlust exploded outward from him, pressing down like it had weight. It wasn’t just intimidation. It felt sharp, like it was trying to dig into my skin. His gaze sharpened, locking onto me completely, and then he moved.

Fast didn’t even feel like the right word.

If I blinked at the wrong time, I would have missed it completely. One second he was standing there, the next, he was gone.

Then he was right beside me.

I activated Guardian instantly, the barrier snapping into place around me.

It didn’t matter.

He tore through it like it wasn’t even there.

That caught me off guard. Guardian was supposed to be the strongest barrier in existence. That was what I had believed up until now. Seeing it break that easily, shattered in a single motion, forced me to accept something else.

It wasn’t unbreakable.

At your limits, anything could break.

Still, I didn’t expect it to fail that quickly.

I twisted my body and dodged his strike, slipping out of the way just in time.

But I didn’t get a chance to settle.

Before I could even plant my feet properly, Moriarty was already behind me. I didn’t even see him move. One moment he wasn’t there, and the next, his blade was already cutting through the air, halfway to me.

Too fast.

Dodging wasn’t an option.

I activated Guardian again, forcing it up between us. The barrier flickered into existence, only to shatter the instant his blade touched it. There wasn’t even a delay. It broke immediately, like glass under pressure.

The slash came through anyway.

I raised my arm and blocked it, but the impact tore through my flesh. I felt it split, like my arm had just been peeled open. My muscles reacted on their own, already stitching themselves back together, but the damage still registered.

"It seems you’re not as invincible as I thought you were," Moriarty said, his tone almost casual.

So he came prepared.

That was obvious now. The way he broke through Guardian so easily, it wasn’t just brute strength. There was something else at play. If I had to guess, some kind of power dampening. Something that specifically targeted defenses like mine.

Great. That made things more annoying.

He moved again, and this time, the Prince moved at the exact same moment.

Perfect timing.

They came at me from opposite directions, both moving at ridiculous speed. Trying to track one was already difficult. Tracking both at the same time felt like trying to follow two different flashes of light.

Before I could react properly, they were already closing in. Any movement I tried to make got cut off immediately. It felt like they were reading me, predicting where I’d go before I even committed to it.

Then the hit came.

I got smashed straight into a building.

The impact was heavy, solid enough to knock the air out of me. The wall behind me cracked, then gave way entirely, the structure collapsing around me as I was driven through it.

That was probably the first time I’d been sent flying like that.

As I pushed myself up from the debris, something came at me again.

A fireball.

Big enough to swallow me whole if I stayed there.

I forced myself up and moved to the side, dodging it just before it could hit. Heat brushed past me, close enough to feel, and for a split second, I thought that was it.

It wasn’t.

More were coming.

Several of them, lined up and rushing toward me like they had been waiting their turn.

I steadied myself and swung, cutting through them one after another. Each fireball split apart before it could reach me, breaking into fading embers that scattered into the air.

While I was dealing with that, I felt it.

Moriarty again.

He was already closing in, his sword raised, his attack already in motion before I could fully turn toward him.

I brought up Guardian again, not expecting it to hold, just needing it to buy me a fraction of time.

It shattered on contact, just like before.

Still, it softened the blow enough.

When his strike landed, the pain hit harder than I expected.

It had been a while since I felt something like that.

The kind of pain that made your stomach twist, like you might actually throw up blood if it got any worse.

My body got thrown backward again, lifted off the ground and sent flying several feet before I finally hit and skidded across the ground.

And right after that, the fire came down.

More fireballs, raining from above, one after another, not giving me a single second to recover.

They weren’t holding back.

That much was clear.

This wasn’t about testing me. This wasn’t them feeling things out. They were going all in right from the start, stacking attacks on top of each other, making sure there wasn’t even a small window for me to fight back.

"It’s not only you who’s been preparing, you know," Moriarty said, his voice cutting through the chaos.

"Yeah," I replied, exhaling slowly as I forced myself back up. "Would you look at that. Seems like we had the same idea."