Chapter 80 – Echoes in Crimson
Steel sang as Jean spun Luxclade in a radiant arc, cutting through the fog and intercepting the first assassin mid-leap.
The Crimson Shadows swarmed like a tide—silent, precise, deadly.
But Jean was faster.
Whitney pounced, his massive form crashing through trees and slamming two enemies into the dirt with bone-breaking force. He spun, maw glowing with divine light, and breathed a pulse that scattered illusions.
Jean moved with cold purpose, her aura flaring silver-gold, a sign of her full mastery of the Third Spiral.
"Reveal yourselves!" she shouted.
The shadows obeyed—not by choice, but because Jean's divine light burned away their concealment.
Half a dozen assassins stood revealed. Masked. Eyes like voids.
And then, one stepped forward.
Unmasked.
Unmistakable.
Jean froze.
"…Verin?"
The man before her bore the sigil of the Shadow Guild, but his features were clear beneath the hood—Verin Kord, once a Luther Academy upperclassman. Once her mentor in sword theory. Once… her brother's closest friend.
"I warned them," Verin said. "Told them not to send you."
Jean's grip tightened. "You betrayed the clan."
"I left it," Verin replied. "Before it could betray me."
A flick of his hand and twin blades unfolded from his sleeves. His aura flared—dark red, pulsing with deadly rhythm.
"You should leave, Jean."
"I don't run."
"Then die."
---
They clashed.
Blade met blade—spiral met spiral.
Verin was fast. Precise. Not just trained—perfected. His movements mirrored Luther sword forms, but twisted, efficient, corrupted. Jean recognized every move he used.
He had once taught her them.
Now he used them to kill.
But Jean had grown.
With a roar, she unleashed the Celestial Spiral, the goddess's light entwining with her aura. The forest around them cracked under the weight of her power.
Verin staggered, barely deflecting the force.
"This power… so she really chose you."
Jean pointed Luxclade at him. "Surrender. Tell me who you're working with."
But Verin smiled bitterly.
"You don't understand, Jean. The Guild is just a shadow of what's coming."
His form blurred—and he vanished in a haze of crimson smoke.
Jean lowered her sword.
The battlefield was silent.
Except for the whisper in her ear—from the trees.
"He's only the first."
---