Cassian’s world collapsed into pressure and darkness.
Robert’s hands—no, not hands anymore—had beco sothing else entirely. Thick, elastic layers wrapped over Cassian’s face like living cloth, sealing his mouth, nose, ears. It felt like being shoved into a sack made of muscle and skin, every gap filled, every sense smothered.
He thrashed.
Or tried to.
His arms moved, but he couldn’t tell how much. His legs kicked, but there was no feedback—no sound, no air, no space. The forest vanished. The firelight vanished. Even Robert’s presence beca distant, reduced to the constant, rciless drag as Cassian’s body was hauled across the ground.
He couldn’t breathe.
That was the worst part—not the lack of pain, not the tearing or pressure. Pain didn’t co. His ability saw to that, numbing nerves, repairing damage as it happened. But it couldn’t conjure air where there was none.
His lungs spasd uselessly, reflex screaming for oxygen that never ca.
Darkness surged, then receded.
He wasn’t sure when he lost consciousness the first ti. Or the second. Each ti his brain began to shut down, his healing dragged it back—cells repairing, neurons firing again—only to slam him straight back into suffocation.
Awake.
Drowning.
Gone.
Awake again.
Ti stopped making sense.
His Domain flared instinctively, then guttered, then flared again—like a heart beating in panic. But there was no room to act, no mont to think. Every scrap of will was consud just trying to breathe.
Sothing thin slid into his nostril.
Cassian convulsed.
It felt like a filant, slick and warm, probing. Another brushed his lips, forcing its way between them when his jaw twitched open in a useless gasp. One slid into his ear, crawling deeper, shutting out even the faint internal ringing that told him he still existed.
His thoughts fragnted.
Air.Move.Kill—
The words didn’t finish forming.
His brain healed faster than it could die, but healing didn’t restore clarity—only function. He existed in a loop of half-awareness, dragged forward, senses sealed, body alive against its will.
Robert didn’t need to speak.
Cassian understood the ssage anyway.
This wasn’t a fight. This was containnt.
No—
Cassian scread inside his own head, clinging to consciousness by sheer will. His thoughts were unraveling too fast—no ti to plan, no ti to think. Darkness kept crashing in and out, his awareness flickering like a dying fla.
Then his Domain surged.
For a heartbeat, it pushed back—halting the grotesque spread of Robert’s flesh and bone, stopping it from burrowing any deeper. And in that instant, Cassian did the only thing left to him.
He let go.
He used the brief instant of clarity to act.
The war armor answered imdiately.
Robert felt it before he even understood what was happening—a sudden, violent chill tearing through his body. Then heat. Blinding, searing heat. The flesh he’d grown around Cassian’s face began to blister and swell, veins bulging for a heartbeat before everything split apart. Skin ruptured, collapsing into scorched, useless strips, like an overfilled bladder bursting under pressure.
Sothing vast and wrong surged outward.
It felt like ropes soaked in the blood of countless dead, uncoiling all at once—murderous intent flooding the air like a rising sea. Robert stared in horror as that intent wrapped around Cassian, tightening, layering itself into solid form.
Armor took shape around him, dark and heavy, pulsing with a deep, shaful red.
A crimson blade ford in Cassian’s hand, its surface gleaming like polished blood. Just looking at it sent a spike of terror through Robert—an instinctive certainty that this sword had taken heads more tis than he could ever count.
The realization hit him a heartbeat later, and his fear twisted into rage.
"You fucking noble bastard," Robert snarled. "So that’s it? You couldn’t beat , so you pull out so fancy toy your parents handed you?"
The dread of that killing aura was drowned out by sothing uglier—jealousy. Cassian had everything. The looks, the talent, the strength. And now this. As if it wasn’t enough, he was noble too. The thought burned worse than any wound.
Cassian finally dragged air into his lungs, breath coming rough and sharp. The relief barely lasted before it was crushed under his fury. He stared at Robert, eyes cold.
"So that’s what did it?" Cassian asked. "That useless jealousy?" His voice was steady, but there was sothing vicious underneath it. "That’s what made you betray people? Hurt innocents?"
Robert snickered, and that sound snapped whatever restraint Cassian had left.
"How many did you kill," Cassian continued, teeth clenched, "just to soothe that inferiority complex of yours?"
He didn’t wait for an answer.
Cassian swung.
The blade didn’t just cut flesh—it split the air itself. Robert’s body jerked as his arm and half his chest were cleaved away in a single, clean arc. The severed pieces fell apart mid-air, his face frozen in pure horror as his balance—and his confidence—collapsed with them.
Robert scread as the pain finally caught up to him.
Cassian didn’t give him ti to recover. Another slash tore through the air, carving into what was left of Robert’s chest. Flesh split, bone cracked—yet even as half his torso collapsed, the damage began to crawl back together.
That was when Cassian noticed it.
The severed arm on the ground twitched.
Then it moved.
Muscle rippled like sothing alive beneath the skin, veins bulging as new bone pushed outward. Fingers ford. Another arm grew where the first had fallen, grotesque and fast.
Robert laughed through the pain, voice hoarse and unhinged."I’ve killed thousands," he spat. "n, won, children. And I’d kill thousands more." His grin stretched wide, blood running down his chin. "At least I’m not so noble bastard sitting on piles of gold while the world rots."
Cassian’s expression didn’t change.
Robert’s body swelled again—arms multiplying, muscle layering over muscle. Three sets now, all thick and distended, veins bulging like cords under stretched skin. He looked less human with every breath, more like so warped beast stitched together by hatred and stolen power.
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