Ethan tilted his head. A crooked smile tugged at his lips.
"Killing’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think? I prefer to say I’m... intervening. Trying to stop them from growing into monsters like us." His smile faded. "I’d stop all this if there were any other way."
Kai gave a dry chuckle. "If you asked anyone which one of us is crazier, they’d point to you without blinking."
"I’m aware," Ethan said with a shrug. "But isn’t that the price of conviction? No one ever understands you until it’s too late."
Kai stood, slinging his pack over his shoulder. "They say a madman with conviction is the most dangerous kind."
Ethan stood too, brushing dust from his coat. "Then imagine two of us."
To any outsider, it would’ve looked like a conversation between lunatics—one driven by rage, the other by delusion. And maybe it was. But even madness had its own pecking order, and they both knew which role they played.
"Let’s not get in each other’s way," Kai said, voice low. "Different thods, sa destination."
Ethan nodded, eyes dark with sothing unreadable. "We’ll give them a beautiful ending. Let them laugh a little more before it all burns."
Their philosophies didn’t align.
Their reasoning didn’t match.
But the end result was the sa.
And after their last plan had been shattered by a group of cadets and sheer bad luck, both of them were starving for closure—or maybe just blood.
"It’s really starting to get fun, hahah!"
Ethan laughed maniacally, the sound echoing through the misty air like a twisted lody.
"What’s fun? Please, enlighten —Ex-Professor Ethan. Also... shouldn’t you be rotting in the Lock right about now? No one forced you to break out of your punishnt."
A voice drifted in from behind them—sweet, lodic... and laced with murderous intent.
"Well, well. I thought I sensed rats crawling through my city."
Both n froze. A chill ran down their spines like icy fingers tracing their vertebrae. Instinctively, they leapt forward and spun around, falling into defensive stances.
And then—both of them went pale.
Standing just ten ters away, aura crackling like silver lightning around her, was a woman wrapped in power and authority. Hair flowing, eyes glowing faintly with restrained wrath, and expression as calm as a blade drawn too slowly.
Serena Claudia.
Chairman of Velcrest Academy.
A living legend—and one of the few Transcendents still ranked in the top 25 of the Global Hero Index.
She was fear incarnate to villains. A walking nightmare. The final boss people whispered about in bar conversations and rebel camps. And right now, she wasn’t smiling.
"He was right..." Serena’s voice was quiet, yet every word struck like thunder. "You wouldn’t attack from the ground or sky. You’d co crawling from the dark, like worms."
Kai’s mouth went dry. Ethan visibly tensed beside him, ready to bolt.
But it was already too late.
A pulse rippled through the ground, silvery threads of energy snaking around their ankles like chains. Ethan tried to move, but his body wouldn’t listen. His legs felt like they were encased in cent. Even Kai, who’d trained himself to resist paralysis-type skills, couldn’t budge.
"Shit..."
"Trying to run?" Serena tilted her head, voice dripping with scorn. "Don’t bother. This little ambush? It’s already the end."
"The cadet who gave this opportunity—He reminded of sothing important." Serena’s aura flared brighter, casting the ruined lakeside in harsh light. "That we don’t wait for the disease to spread. We cut it out before it infects the core."
Ethan’s bravado cracked. "This is insane... You ca out here alone?"
Serena’s eyes glead, and for the first ti, she smiled—but it was far from kind.
"Alone?" she echoed, her voice smooth as glass.
Then she smiled.
A small, cold thing. Like the curve of a knife right before it cuts.
"Do you really think I’m not enough?"
Ethan barely had ti to blink before the air around him shifted. Heavy. Suffocating. His lungs seized. His knees buckled.
And then—
Crack.
The pressure slamd down like a mountain. His ribs shattered inward, organs compressing beneath the invisible weight. Blood surged up his throat and spilled from his mouth in a dark spray. He collapsed to one knee, coughing, choking.
His eyes widened in disbelief, panic finally setting in.
"W–wait...!"
Serena didn’t flinch.
She stepped forward, heels clicking against the frost-slick stone. Her expression didn’t change. No flicker of satisfaction. No hatred. Just clinical resolve.
Kai lunged.
Or at least, he tried to.
But the mont he moved, silvery tendrils of mana snapped up from the floor like wires, slicing through the air with surgical precision. They wrapped around his wrists, ankles, throat—pulling him to the ground like a marionette suddenly cut loose.
He hit the stone with a thud, groaning, barely able to breathe.
"Don’t bother," Serena said without even glancing at him. "I could end this in a heartbeat. But I want you to watch."
She turned her gaze back to Ethan.
He was still trying to stand, blood pooling beneath him. One hand pressed to his gut, the other trembling.
On the other hand, The weight pressing down on Ethan’s chest grew unbearable.
His knees hit the ground with a dull thud, eyes bulging as Serena’s mana flooded the air, stripping oxygen from his lungs. The silver chains of light tightened like a vice, embedding themselves into flesh and bone.
His voice ca out as a gasp. "K-Kai... do sothing..."
Kai didn’t answer.
He couldn’t.
He was on his knees too, one hand trembling against the stone floor. Every nerve in his body scread under the pressure. His fingers twitched toward the dagger beneath his coat—but it may as well have been in another world.
Serena didn’t move.
She didn’t need to.
A single gesture, two fingers raised.
The chains around Ethan pulsed.
CRACK.
His left shoulder shattered inward. Blood sprayed across the cavern wall.
Ethan howled. "S-Stop! You can’t—!"
She tilted her head. "I already did."
Another gesture.
The chains surged with light—and then plunged into his body like spears of divine judgnt.
THUD.
Ethan’s body arched, then fell still—limp, eyes wide, mouth frozen in a silent scream.
No glory. No last words. No drama.
Just silence.
Serena let her hand fall to her side, as if brushing off dust.
"Ex-Professor Ethan," she said softly, as if reading his obituary. "Wanted for treason, attempted mass murder, and breaking the Treaty of Silence. You died crawling in the dark. As expected."
Then she turned her gaze to Kai.
And for the first ti, sothing like emotion flickered in his eyes—not rage, not fury, but recognition.
He didn’t plead.
Didn’t beg.
He t her gaze with cold clarity. "You think you’ve won."
Serena didn’t blink. "You already lost when you ca back here."
Kai’s mouth curled faintly. A smirk, more bitter than triumphant. "Then do it."
She obliged.
A single step forward.
One finger raised.
Silver light gathered at the tip, compressed into a sphere no larger than a pearl—elegant, radiant, and absolute.
Kai didn’t look away.
He wanted to die looking power in the face.
The light vanished.
SHUNK.
A silver spike, impossibly fast, pierced straight through his sternum.
He didn’t even gasp—just staggered once, eyes dimming, then collapsed next to Ethan’s body.
Serena stood in silence.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
The wind howled across the surface of Lake Virella. The mana currents above shimred like moonlight on broken glass.
With that Chairman moves toward award ceremony, there was still sothing she has to do.
User Comments
0 comments from readers