None of them struggled anymore. The absolute certainty of defeat had settled over them like a burial shroud. The only sounds came from the distant hum of the Void-Nullifying stones and the steady dripping of blood onto the cold floor. Kaelen stood among them.His hands remained wrapped around the leader's neck. His iron dagger rested in one hand. The blade glinted beneath the sterile white lights. His black eyes moved slowly from one assassin to the next. The answer came quickly. They had seen too much. They had tried to kill Lyra. They had tried to stop him. Most importantly, they represented a threat to Elara. That alone decided everything. Kaelen let go and took a single step forward. The dagger shifted in his grip. The nearest assassin saw it. Fear exploded across his face. He immediately understood what was about to happen. His breathing quickened. The others realized it too. Death had finally arrived. Then.... a silver blur appeared. "Stop!" Lyra rushed forward. Before Kae

The laboratory was silent except for the bubbling of green fluid. Kaelen stood motionless beside the shattered control desk. His fist still ached from destroying the equipment. The names of the dead children still burned behind his eyes. The rage inside him remained. But as he stared at the glowing slate in his hand, another feeling slowly emerged. Unease. Lines of green text continued scrolling across its surface. More evidence of the Vance family's crimes. Kaelen should have been searching for clues about Elara. Instead, something tugged at his instincts. A strange feeling. A pull. As though the answers he had been seeking for years were buried somewhere inside this machine. His thumb moved across the screen. Page after page appeared. Research notes. Experiment summaries. Private correspondence. Most were encrypted. Some required noble clearance. A symbol appeared. A red seal. Different from every other document. The seal resembled a black circle surrounded by s

Golden mana erupted from the beast's body like a miniature sun. It pushed harder. Trying to force its paw downward on Kaelen. Trying to crush the human standing beneath it. The nearby Void-Nullifying Stones flickered violently. Purple light flashed then died one after another. The suppression network collapsed. Caspian's overwhelming magical output had overloaded the delicate balance of the room. The enormous amount of holy mana flooding from the Golden Lion had short-circuited the suppression field. The moment the final stone failed something snapped inside Kaelen. A connection. It returned all at once. Like a lightning bolt striking directly into his soul. AGONY. Kaelen's entire body convulsed. His vision exploded into darkness. Every nerve in his body screamed. The force of it nearly drove him to his knees. Then came the roar. Not from the Lion from inside his mind. A furious roar that shook his very consciousness. "KAELEN!" The voice hit him like a hammer. W

The laboratory smelled of blood. Green fluid flooded across broken floor panels. Shattered glass crunched beneath heavy boots. Alarm sirens screamed somewhere in the distance. Sparks rained from damaged machinery. And in the center of the destruction stood Kaelen. A living shadow. A walking nightmare. Black mist leaked from the cracks in his skin. His single visible eye glowed like a dark star. Around him lay the remains of Caspian's power. Destroyed equipment. Ruined experiments. The defeated Golden Lion. Everything the Vance family had built was collapsing. And then.... Ding. A soft mechanical sound echoed through the chamber. The rear elevator doors slowly opened. Nobody paid attention at first. Most eyes remained fixed on Kaelen. But the figure stepping from the elevator immediately froze. Mila. She carried a premium leather medical kit. The expensive case had been crafted from imported dragon-hide leather. Its golden clasps shone beneath the laboratory lights

The laboratory transformed the instant Chief Vance lifted his right hand. An invisible force swept through the enormous chamber, and the air itself seemed to scream. The floodwater covering the floor exploded upward into towering waves as a violent cyclone erupted from the old mage's body. Broken glass, twisted steel, shattered laboratory equipment, and chunks of concrete were ripped from the ground and hurled into the swirling storm. The roar was deafening. It sounded less like wind and more like thousands of tortured spirits shrieking through the halls of the Sunken Vault. No one wanted to stand inside the reach of an A-Rank Wind Domain. At the center of the storm stood Chief Vance. His silk robes fluttered wildly, yet not a single strand of his grey hair moved out of place. His wrinkled face carried the calm confidence of a man who had survived countless wars. His eyes never left Kaelen. "So," he said quietly, his voice somehow carrying through the hurricane, "let us se