Finished with the bones, I finally let my focus drift back to the notifications echoing in my head.
[Minor Law of Ti – Level 1]
[Level Up]
[Minor Law of Ti – Level 2]
[Level Up]
[Minor Law of Ti – Level 3]
[Level Up]
[Minor Law of Ti – Level 4]
The glowing text faded, leaving a faint ringing in my mind. I couldn’t help but smile.
"I’ll need to create so new skills," I muttered to myself. "And upgrade the old ones while I’m at it."
Raising my hand, I commanded the bones.
They floated up from the air around , spinning slowly as faint ripples of ti flickered across their surface.
With a flick of my wrist, they shot downward, smashing into the ruined cetery.
Each piece buried itself into the shattered ground with a sharp crack, scattering faint waves of temporal energy. To anyone sensitive enough, they would seem like whispers of ti calling out from the rubble.
I stepped once and reappeared atop the castle wall, where Knight still stood.
Looking at him, I said, "So I’m assuming the demon is fast. That must be why Roland chose him. I’ll leave him to you. If he’s smart enough to sense the bones himself, that’s good. If not..." I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Just make sure he finds them."
Knight gave a low hum in response.
I stretched my perception outward, letting it sweep through the tunnel beyond the fla wall and across the whole Lamp Fort. I was waiting for Roland and his new hire to arrive.
Beside , Lyrate muttered under her breath. "Again, no fight for ."
I chuckled softly. "Don’t worry. All of you will get your fights. Most likely today itself."
She didn’t reply right away. After a mont of silence, she simply flashed back to her throne, clearly uninterested in waiting on the wall.
I stayed where I was with Silver and Knight, watching over the fort. Ragnar still sat in the middle of the ruined cetery, his eyes closed, posture steady, like so silent monk lost in ditation. The air around him didn’t even stir.
Then, the teleportation circle deep in the fort flared to life. Three figures appeared in the light—Roland, Primus, and Lara.
But this ti, the girl wasn’t with her father. Roland held her hand, keeping her close as she walked beside him. A faint smile played on his lips, but his grip was tight, controlling.
The three of them crossed the fort grounds and stopped in front of the staff. Primus crouched, reaching out to touch the staff. His fingers traced the runes etched across its length, his eyes narrowing with focus as he studied it.
Roland spoke sharply. "I’ll explain one more ti. Do not fight. They’re too strong, they’ll crush you like a bug. Just run in, grab anything that looks precious, and get out."
Primus straightened and gave a small nod. "I understand. If sothing can make you tremble like this, then it must be the real deal."
Roland scoffed, though his lips tightened. "Just make it fast. I’ll keep a watch on Lara."
Primus turned toward his daughter. For a mont, the cold, dangerous look in his eyes softened. He bent slightly, eting her gaze. "I’ll be back soon, alright? Then we’ll go back to our ho."
"Yes, Father," Lara said, her small voice steady despite the chains of the mont. "I’ll wait for you."
Primus smiled faintly and gave her a firm nod before turning back toward the path through the flas.
From the castle wall, I lifted my hand, subtly bending Essence and space to blur my presence. My figure dimd, like a shadow fading into the stone, as I continued to watch.
Primus threw off the cloak he’d been wearing. Now he stood bare-chested, only in his pants.
The faint flas dancing across his body grew brighter, hotter, bursting like sparks from an engine revving up. The tattoos across his skin pulsed with crimson glow, and even the horns on his forehead shimred red, glowing hotter with every breath he took.
He bent forward slightly, muscles coiled tight, fire erupting around him in short bursts. Then, in the blink of an eye, he vanished into the flas.
The mont Primus vanished, the flas rippled like water struck by a stone. I extended my perception to follow him.
He was fast, much faster than I expected. His body flickered between fire and flesh, a blur tearing through the air.
One heartbeat he was solid, the next a streak of fla slipping past the resistance of the tunnel. Each shift let him break through the drag of space itself, making him cut forward like a burning arrow.
His speed wasn’t elegant, but it was raw, explosive. Every flicker carried him several steps ahead, leaving only afterimages of fire twisting in the air behind. I could almost feel the ground itself groan under the pressure of his bursts.
In less than a breath, he cleared the fla wall and crossed into the Lamp Castle grounds. His instincts were sharp, too sharp. The instant he entered the cetery, he adjusted his path, skirting wide instead of charging through the center. He didn’t dare go near Ragnar.
I watched as his figure darted around broken graves and collapsed stone, his flas dimming slightly as he suppressed his presence. Even with chains in his past and exhaustion written in his body, his movents were that of a predator who knew how to survive.
"Smart," I thought, lips curling faintly.
He didn’t stop to think, didn’t pause to asure his surroundings. He ran straight toward the deeper ruins, searching for what Roland wanted him to find, treasure.
But maybe he wasn’t that smart after all. He completely ignored the scattered graves and the bones I had laid out and rushed straight for the castle wall.
From his movents, I understood, he was planning to break into the castle itself, hoping the treasure was hidden inside.
Unfortunately for him, there was nothing for him to find there, and more importantly, I couldn’t allow him to cross those walls.
I narrowed my eyes, locked my perception onto his blurring figure, and raised my hand.
In the blink of an eye, Primus’s body jerked as though he had slamd into an invisible barrier. His fiery form flickered, snapping back into solid flesh mid-stride. His crimson eyes widened in shock a second before his body was hurled backward.
He smashed through broken stone and shattered graves, tumbling across the cetery before finally skidding to a stop near the ruined wall. Dust and bone fragnts rained around him.
But the demon didn’t stay down.
The instant his body stilled, he roared low in his throat, his fra blurring again. Fire burst from his skin as he shifted back into that flickering state, and before the dust had even settled, he launched forward once more, faster, sharper, like a beast refusing to be caged.
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