Silence. Finally,
The smell of blood still hung in the air, raw, metallic, comforting.
My breathing was steady. Too steady. Every part of me felt alive. Hungry.
That wasn't a fight. It was a slaughter. And it still wasn't enough.
I wanted more. More blood. More screams. I wanted another body to rip into pieces just to feel the bones snap under my hands. It didn't matter if it was a monster, man, anything would do.
I could still feel it. The thrill of it. The heat of blood splattered across my face, slick and warm. I hadn't felt this alive in months. Not since I joined the academy.
I was starving. Starving for violence. Starving for that rush that only comes when something dies screaming under my blade.
Somewhere in me, I could hear a voice whispering that it wasn't right. That I shouldn't enjoy this.
I smothered it.
I wanted it to suffer more. I wanted it to regret ever being forged. I wanted its ashes ground beneath my heel and scattered into the wind like dirt.
But there was nothing left.
Only the core pulsing in the quiet like a weak heartbeat and the burning need still crawling in my veins with nowhere to go.
My hand twitched.
I could kill again. I wanted to.
But I promised. His core first.
The blood on my fingers was drying, cracking slightly when I curled my hand.
I licked it off my lips and exhaled.
This hunger doesn't leave. It just waits for the next thing to tear apart.
Not yet. I forced myself.
I'm a sane person now or so I keep telling myself. Not some blood-soaked savage driven by carnage alone. Even if a large part of me did wish that fight had lasted longer. These things always break too easily.
Still… something felt off.
I looked around the chamber. I don't remember this creature or this core ever existing before… and I haven't heard a single rumour about it either. It felt like someone deliberately put it here.
That thought barely had time to finish before a voice, cold and mocking, breathed right against my ear.
> "You broke my favourite toy…"
My entire body went stiff.
No.
A chill crawled all the way down my spine as that voice purred, "Missed me?"
Before I could react, a pair of hands slid around my waist and then grabbed my chest from behind with obscene familiarity.
"Wha—HEY!"
Her fingers squeezed.
I choked out a sound that was half shriek, half growl. "Let go of me, you depraved woman!"
That damn pervert she always targets my chest every chance she gets.
Nox immediately growled, "Let her go this instant, you barbarian!"
But she only made a pleased humming sound and squeezed even harder.
"Aaah—!" I yelped, face burning bright crimson. "N-NOX! DO SOMETHING! GET HER OFF ME!"
The woman behind me giggled a soft, twisted, almost musical sound. "My, my. That sound you make is absolutely adorable~"
I struggled, teeth clenched. "I'm warning you, let go or I'll kill you right here!"
Thankfully — finally — she released me with a disappointed little sigh. I immediately darted behind Nox, glaring murderously over his shoulder while hugging my chest with both arms.
"You maniac! Stop jumping on me every time you see me!"
She tilted her head with a dreamy smile, pressing a finger to her cheek. "But yours are the best I've ever touched… so wonderfully firm." Her eyes glinted with terrifying delight.
I hissed behind Nox. "You're insane."
The woman took a step forward, still smiling like a deranged doll. She wasn't even bothered by the blood splattered all over the chamber in fact, she looked pleased by it.
She wore a long coat trimmed in silver fur, skin pale, eyes the colour of fresh blood. Her lips curved as she held out her arms dramatically like greeting a long-lost lover.
"Ceciliaaaa~ It's been so long! You didn't even say hello~"
"Go burn in hell," I snapped. I braced myself behind Nox like a furious cat. "Why are you here?!"
She sighed dreamily. "Oh come now. Is that any way to greet me. You're favourite person.?"
Favorite? My eye twitched.
Nox stepped forward, blocking her line of sight to me. His aura shifted cold, threatening. "If you lay another hand on her, I'll rip your spine out through your navel."
She gave him a mocking pout. "Hmph. So protective. Are you her new dog now?"
He bared his teeth. "Watch your mouth."
She looked past his shoulder directly at me again.
"And what about you, Ceci dear? You killed my toy monster and didn't even invite me? That hurts, you know."
"Lovely, you deranged woma—" I froze mid-sentence.
Wait.
Now that I actually looked at her properly…
Something was off. The build. The voice. The shape of the face beneath that faux-feminine smile.
She hadn't just changed clothes. She changed herself entirely.
My eyes twitched. "You…you changed your gender?"
He tilted their head with a grin. This time, the voice was deeper, smoother, male. "My, you finally noticed."
My mouth dropped. I pointed a trembling finger. "I LET A MAN TOUCH ME. You…you were all over me!!"
The bastard only chuckled. "Dear, I've always been fluid. I can alter my appearance at will… male, female, anything in between. You should know that by now."
My soul left my body for a moment.
I dropped to one knee, clutching my head dramatically. "I… I've been violated by a man…"
He knelt down too, placing a finger under my chin, voice low and teasing, "But you sound so cute when you squeal, Cecilia"
I slapped his hand away so hard it cracked the stone nearby.
"TOUCH ME AGAIN AND I'LL RIP YOUR FACE OFF, YOU GENDER-BENDING PERVERT."
The psycho just smiled wider, now in his male form, looking truly entertained. "I like this body more. I get to see you tremble in a different way."
"NO YOU DON'T."
"What are you doing here?" I said, voice flat. "If you come to fight, don't. I don't have time to entertain you."
"How cold." He chuckled softly now fully male, eyes glinting with that same sadistic amusement. "Sadly, I'm not here to fight. Not yet. It isn't time for that."
"Then move." I walked past him toward the core.
He tilted his head, still smiling. "If you're here to retrieve that, then I should warn you there's a curse on it."
I stopped. "Do you even know what that thing is?" I pointed at the pulsing core behind us.
His smile widened, dark and knowing. "Of course, dear. In fact, I even know exactly who took it from my underground vault and decided to hide it here."
My eyes narrowed. "You know who placed it here? Then tell me. Who was it?"
He lifted a finger to his lips, feigning thought then tapped the side of his cheek with a smirk. "For that… you'll have to pay me."
My jaw tightened. "…What do you want?"
He leaned in slightly, voice low. "A kiss."
"Absolutely not."
He straightened with a laugh. "Then it's your loss, darling." He turned away with a flick of his coat, humming as if nothing had happened. "When you're ready to pay — I'll be waiting." and left.
Is he out of his mind? A kiss? I haven't even held hands with anyone and he wants me to kiss him?
My cheeks were still burning when I heard Nox snap sharply beside me.
"Kid. Snap out of it. He's playing with your head, don't let him."
I forced myself to focus. Right.
Deep breath.
I turned back toward Nox's core, still pulsing in front of the black altar like a heartbeat trapped in crystal. The moment my finger brushed the surface a harsh crack of magic erupted.
A barrier snapped to life around it in a sphere of cursed runes.
"It's cursed," I muttered through gritted teeth. "This is going to be troublesome."
I gathered my mana and started tearing into the barriers one after the other. Each time I shattered a layer, another manifested. The runes screamed, lashing out at my hands like blades and with every shatter, the chamber shook.
And then the monsters started coming.
The first horde burst from the walls, half-frozen beasts with fanged skulls and poison claws. I didn't flinch. Nox moved like a shadow beside me, cleaving through them. My undead emerged from the floor, spectral knights and skeletal archers forming a perimeter, cutting down anything that charged.
I focused on the seals.
Another layer. Another. Each one heavier, more complex, drawing blood from my palms as I forced them to collapse.
Seven layers.
Sweat dripped down my neck breath fogging the air.
Eight layers.
My vision was starting to blur. Every time a barrier cracked, the magic backlash ripped through my veins like fire.
Nine.
More monsters burst from the walls larger now, regenerating as fast as we cut them down. I could feel my mana draining. Undead were falling, one by one.
I braced myself.
One more.
I forced my palm to glow with frost and shadow and slammed it into the last barrier with a savage cry.
The seal shattered like glass.
And I dropped to one knee, panting hard, hands trembling but the core was finally unbound, pulsing freely in front of me.
Finally, it was right there within reach.
I lifted my hand toward the core… and just before my fingers touched it, another wall of ice surged up around it like a clawed shell.
A curse-active ice barrier. My hands were already sliced open and bleeding from the last ten seals.
I stared at it in disbelief.
"You've GOT to be kidding me," I growled. "Why is there an ICE layer now?!"
So close I could feel it. I just needed to break this last one and it would all be over.
Just one more.
"Fine."
I pulled my arm back and punched it.
Nothing. Not even a crack.
I hit it again. And again. My knuckles split open, blood dripping onto the ice, steaming in the cold but the barrier didn't scratch.
I bared my teeth and kept hitting it, harder each time, until the skin over my knuckles tore open completely and my breath came out in ragged clouds.
Then light bloomed from the barrier in front of me.
A disembodied voice echoed through the chamber:
"If you truly wish to obtain the item, show me your resolve. Take it into your own hands."
Resolve. Determination. A cruel little test.
"How am I supposed to TAKE it—" I slammed both fists against the barrier, "WHEN IT WON'T BREAK?!"
My voice echoed through the chamber, filled with rage and desperation. I was losing blood. My arms trembled. But I couldn't stop.
Not after coming this far.
I pressed my bloody palm flat against the barrier, glaring at it through the ice.
"Fine," I whispered, cold fury in every word. "You want to see my resolve? I'll carve it into you until you shatter."
I pressed my bleeding hand against the ice and felt a surge of cold power trying to push me back, almost mocking me.
"Resolve, is it…" I muttered.
Fine.
I poured raw mana through my injured hand. The blood around my knuckles hissed, turning purple with power as I forced my magic straight into the barrier. Ice cracked beneath my palm. The temperature dropped even further, cold enough to burn. The air itself froze solid around me.
"You're going to hurt yourself," Nox growled behind me.
I ignored him and drove more mana into the curse. My vision blurred at the edges as the ice screeched in protest, the cursed runes flaring.
"Stop it." His hand grabbed my shoulder. "Cecilia, your mana flow —"
"I SAID" I twisted free, pressing both hands to the barrier now, my forehead almost touching it. "STAY BACK."
Blood dripped down my wrist, sizzling against the frozen shell. The voice echoed again, a whisper like wind through a grave:
"Show me your resolve… with everything you have left."
My mana surged so violently I could feel it tearing at my veins. Frost crawled halfway up my arms. Pain spiked up my bones, sharp, horrific, but I refused to let go.
It cracked.
The barrier finally cracked once, then ruptured in a web of fractures until with a violent shatter, the entire cursed wall exploded outward in a storm of ice and light.
I stumbled forward, empty, panting hard, blood dripping from both hands, frozen.
My fist closed around the core, still pulsing weakly in my palm.
It was done.
Nox caught me as I swayed, grabbing my shoulders to steady me.
"You idiot," he muttered, voice low but not angry this time. "You're bleeding everywhere."
I kept my eyes on the core. "It's yours. Don't let it go again."
He looked at me and for a moment, there was something wrong in his expression. Something like concern.
"Are you… Actually worried about me?" I asked, still holding the core out to him.
Nox scoffed but not convincingly. "Of course I am. Just because I don't always show it doesn't mean I don't." His tone was rough, yet it carried warmth and concern.
A tired laugh escaped me before I could stop it. "Hurry up and absorb it already. Then let's get out of here. I'm exhausted… and I want to sleep."
Nox took the core from my hand and closed his eyes. The crystal sank into his chest in a slow pulse of black light, disappearing completely.
His aura flickered then flared. Stronger. Whole.
He exhaled like he'd been underwater for years.
"It's back," he muttered. "Finally."
"Good. Now we're leaving."
I pulled the silver amulet Damian had given me from under my collar the emergency teleportation spell. Without hesitation, I crushed it in my bloody palm. Light burst out, enveloping both of us in a blinding flash.
The teleport spell dumped us right into Damian's office.
He looked up from a book, startled then his expression froze completely when he saw me.
Blood dripping from my hands.
Coat slashed, half-burned.
Eyes sharp with exhaustion but still wild from the fight.
Damian stood so suddenly that his chair scraped across the floor. "Cecilia—?! What happened to you?!"
I swayed once, harder this time, and muttered, "Nothing. I'm going to bed."
Damian was already at my side, his voice sharp. "You are not fine. You're bleeding everywhere and your arms are half frozen—"
"I told you…" My voice sounded distant, sluggish. "I'm fine."
The room tilted.
My vision blurred, colour bleeding out of the world like ink in water. I heard something shatter on the floor I think it was the pendant fragments slipping from my hand.
Damian reached out to grab me, his expression going from stern to outright panic. "Cecilia—!"
Nox was suddenly behind me too, voice low but urgent. "Kid. Try to stay awake."
Too late. My knees buckled.
Their voices overlapped as everything dimmed.
"Cecilia—!"
"Idiot, stay awake—!"
Everything went black.
To be continued.