Amidst the lavish party, where every tone of music made couples’ feet sway, the host of the very party was in a tense mood.

Max and Thane were eager to see the man. John calmly stayed behind, slowly moving closer to the teens.

What they saw was a man without a mask, striding towards them.

His maskless presence set him apart in the sea of hidden faces.

While others hid behind gold and ivory, he walked bare, fearless, or perhaps he failed to find a thing to fear.

His dark skin caught the torchlight in muted glints, his locks tied high and falling to his shoulders like coiled shadows.

They swayed with each step, framing a face too sharp to be called merely handsome.

Rather, it was cut, as if a blade had shaped it and left no softness behind.

On that very face, lines flowed downward unevenly, like scars from a jagged blade.

Though his face accommodated far more than just those three lines, with other branching battle scars intersecting and connecting them.

A braided beard traced his jaw, tightening the severity of his expression. An unwavering pair of eyes was fixed on where he was striding.

Nobles, no matter how drunk, found themselves disturbed by the presence of the newcomer.

As Vidu came closer, the palace seemed smaller somehow, as if it had not been built to contain a man like him.

Vidu Morris stood before Hawk. He was slightly bigger than Hawk, as tall as Thane, though his frame was smaller.

"Do you remember me?"

Hawk smiled slightly. "It’s hard to forget someone who refused to die."

That nonchalant smile awakened something in Vidu’s chest. "You poisoned me, killed our father and Tio," he said, his voice low and trembling with controlled fury.

Hawk paused for a moment, then finally straightened.

"Yeah." He nodded, without the slightest regret or denial.

And somehow... that made it worse.

"Why?" Vidu demanded, stepping closer. "We were brothers. We survived together."

Hawk’s eyes darkened, radiating unfamiliar coldness to those who never knew his past. "I gave you a choice. You chose Morris."

That was the moment Vidu understood. There was never betrayal in Hawk’s eyes.

Betrayal is something done by someone close to you, but Hawk... he never considered them his family.

Vidu exhaled slowly, his fists tightening as he said, "Good."

Hawk raised an eyebrow. "Good?"

Vidu’s expression hardened into something inhuman. "Because if you had a reason I could understand... I might’ve hesitated." He stepped closer. "But now, I don’t have to."

The temperature suddenly dropped, and the air shifted.

It was an irreversible situation.

Two fighters, once brothers, now standing on opposite sides of something far deeper than rivalry.

Two three-lined Blessed fighting would completely turn the palace upside down.

Though, luckily, the only man who could stop them at this point finally stepped in.

"My worst fear came true," said Ildiem Zenonar loudly. "Both of you must stop immediately. Vidu, they are my guests. You’ll have to answer to me if anything happens to them."

"You are taking sides, Ildiem?" Vidu said. He was mad.

Ildiem shook his head. "No, but they are with one of my esteemed guests. Today, they have my protection."

"And tomorrow?"

"None of my business."

Everyone’s attention was now on them. Sound drained away as everyone paused, turning their attention towards them. Only faint whispers from bystanding nobles could be heard.

John stepped forward. "Sir Ildiem, thank you," he said and gestured for the others to follow.

Hawk’s body stiffened.

"Let’s go," John said to Max and Thane, but Hawk didn’t budge. He also wanted to fight.

"Come on." Max pressed his arm.

Hawk had no other option. He tried everything to fight, but his master backed out.

"You are going to run away," Vidu mocked.

He wanted to kill Hawk as soon as possible.

Hawk clenched his fist. It turned into diamond.

He took a deep breath, released the fist, and started to make his way out.

Vidu wanted to fight. He wanted to crush his sworn enemy there and then.

He had suffered nightmares for 18 years, and finally, the man responsible for everything appeared before him.

"Sparing you was father’s biggest blunder. He should have killed you when he killed your whore mother," Vidu said loudly, his words reverberating through the quiet palace.

Hawk’s feet froze. John and the rest looked at Hawk. His eyes were now ruddy with rage. None of the trio had seen Hawk in such fury. Hawk didn’t look back at Vidu.

He solely fixated his eyes on Max. Permission, that’s what he needed. A small nod and all hell would break loose.

Hawk never paid heed to Ildiem. He knew him from when he used to grovel before him.

Times were different. Hawk was the son of Morris, and Ildiem was a lesser noble.

However, Max shook his head. Hawk lowered his head and followed his master.

Vidu caught that. "Ildiem can’t protect you tomorrow. I’ll kill that scrawny man you follow like a dog first and make you watch. I swear, I’ll collect both of your souls without mercy."

That was it. Hawk’s feet wheeled around, his hands turning into diamond. He dashed towards Vidu, who finally smiled.

His plan worked. He no longer had to wait.

"Huh!?" Something strange happened.

Vidu found himself floating in the air. Was it Hawk? No, he thought.

What actually happened? He looked around him and found no one. The entire palace was empty. He alone was floating.

A thin, bluish shadow seeped through the seams of the great doors.

It slithered across the marble floor, soundless, before rising, stretching, twisting until it began to take shape.

From that unnatural haze, creatures were born.

First came the smallest, wasp-like horrors with glassy wings and needle limbs, their bodies humming with a sound that crawled at the back of the mind.

Then larger forms followed, their silhouettes thickening into beasts of fangs and muscles, lions forged from shadows, their eyes glowing with a cold, merciless light.

More creatures emerged, each more grotesque than the last, as if drawn from the darkest corners of imagination.

They did not hesitate. One by one, they descended upon Vidu.

For a fleeting moment, he stood still, confusion flickering through him.

There had been no warning, no shift in the air, no signal that something had changed.

One breath, he stood in silence. The next, the world had turned against him.

The wasps struck first.

They swarmed him in a frenzy, their stings piercing deep, not into flesh, but into something far more fragile.

Vidu staggered, a sharp gasp tearing from his throat as his hands lashed out at empty air, trying to grasp what he could not understand.

Then the larger beasts lunged, claws ripping, jaws tearing, each strike landing with horrifying certainty.

His body bent, broke, was ripped apart again and again.

Yet he did not die.

His eyes widened, not with fear alone, but with a growing, desperate confusion.

There was no sense to it. No wound he could see clearly, no enemy he could fully comprehend, only pain. Endless, unbearable pain that came from everywhere at once.

There was no blood staining the floor. No corpse left behind. Only suffering.

Unimaginable, relentless suffering flooded his senses, trapping him in a cycle where every strike felt real, every tear absolute.

His mind clawed for reason, for clarity, for something to make sense of what was happening to him, but found nothing.

Because to Vidu... this was reality.

And it was breaking him.

Standing just a few steps away, untouched by the chaos, was the architect of this nightmare.

John Prada.

His blessing controlled the minds of others. It was called ’Neural Dominion’, horrifying enough to earn him the moniker of Mind Flayer.

His gaze was calm, almost indifferent, as if he were observing nothing more than a passing experiment.

The illusions danced at his command, bending reality itself within the confines of Vidu’s perception.

To anyone else, Vidu screamed and slithered like a madman. Some were terrified, others confused, questioning the actions of Vidu Morris.

But Vidu did not know that.

To him, the monsters were real.

The pain was real.

The death that never came... was real.