The wind of the night tore through the trees as Elijah Langston shot deeper into the darkness, his figure cutting through the night like a released arrow. The pressure of his movement bent the air, scattering leaves in wake. He landed in the center of a clearing, and his murderous gaze swept the perimeter.There were no snapped branches, displaced soil, nor lingering spiritual residue. There was only a silence so absolute and complete that it felt fundamentally wrong. The Man in the Hood was gone.Elijah’s jaw locked.Then, a voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once, slipping through the air like a whisper. “You should have let go of this.”Elijah turned sharply.Whoosh!A massive wave of darkness rushed toward him. Without hesitation, Elijah crossed his forearms, his qi surging through his body as he braced for impact.Boom!The force slammed into him like a falling mountain. He was forced backward, the ground beneath his boots cracking outward in a jagged, spiderweb patte

The fight continued, but Elijah Langston was no longer truly in the fight at all.He was falling.Not through air, not through space, but through something far worse than either—through the endless inner dark that had swallowed his senses, his thoughts, and then, one by one, the very foundations of who he was. His memories were being stripped away layer by layer until even the concept of self began to unravel. His name, his face, his history, his pain, his purpose—all of it was dissolving into that bottomless abyss, leaving behind only a hollow consciousness drifting without anchor or direction. He was no longer standing in any world that could be named. He was only silence, and only the sensation of being erased.Then, somewhere deep inside what remained of him, something fragile stirred.“Son!”The voice rang out with such force that the darkness itself seemed to tremble.“Run, son! Leave mama! Don’t wait!”A

“This is the start of the road…” Elijah whispered, and then coughed weakly, a mouthful of blood spilling from his lips.The man in the hood chuckled as he began to approach, his steps calm and unhurried, as though he were walking toward a cornered animal. “Maybe it is your brain you are coughing out right now. Even now, you cling to that righteous-path nonsense instead of embracing everything the forbidden arts freely offer…” As he spoke, the darkness covering his face slowly slipped downward and wrapped around his arms like a living serpent, coiling there with a sinister patience.“Nothing is free…” Elijah spat.“You are right,” the hooded man replied, the amusement in his voice deepening. “But everything in this world is give and take. You can give one year of your life for a minute of insane strength, and there are plenty of netherworld merchants who would gladly cling to that deal. Since you know about the forbidden arts, then you must know about this

“I will kill you…” Elijah vowed, his tone calm, yet carrying a murderous intent so heavy it seemed to darken the air around him. The man in the hood let out a low snicker. “Many have said worse, and all of them ended in their graves before me. The netherworld gave me life; only the netherworld can take it away. Even if you succeed, there are mountains far greater than me in the Order of Seven, and they are not nearly as reasonable as I am.” Elijah clenched his fist, the muscles in his arm tightening visibly. “Reasonable… What does that mean anymore?” The man in the hood removed his hand from the old man’s head and said, “The sooner you realize that this useless revenge of yours is pointless from the start, from the foundation up, the sooner you can live your life. Those who are prepared to take lives in order to reach the truth should first make sure they have no lives of their own. But you do, Elijah Langston. You have lives here. You ha

Meanwhile, at the DiLaurentis Medical Center…Serena sat behind her office desk with a pile of documents scattered before her, a pen moving restlessly between her fingers as her eyes remained fixed on nothing in particular. She was silent, but her mind was not. It was loud, crowded, and heavy with calculations that had already failed a dozen times before she could finish them. Every document on the desk carried another reminder of the same cruel truth: the DiLaurentis Medical Centers were running out of time.The office door opened, pulling her out of her thoughts.Secretary Lisa stepped inside with her bag slung over her shoulder, her expression respectful but concerned. “Ms. DiLaurentis, it’s getting late already. Are you sure there’s nothing I can assist with so we can finish up quickly?”“You’ve helped enough already, Lisa,” Serena replied with a forced smile, dropping the pen onto the desk. “You can go home now. I’ll see you tomorrow. I just need a little time to rearrange my t