Samarth stared at the scene with a shocked expression, utterly unable to believe what he had just witnessed unfold before him. He had never imagined that Ellie would surpass his understanding so completely; he had assumed that after Aeren, Viktor was the strongest among them. However, as he looked at Ellie with her clone knife and her real knife, he felt profoundly uncertain. It was hard for him to tell which one was genuinely real. If Aeren hadn't been absolutely sure whether the knife was real or not, Ellie's blade could have pierced his eye fatally. Samarth realized that Aeren was the only one who could discern the truth with certainty, but for the others, it would have been a death sentence. This shocking realization struck him deeply.
Ellie moved with the speed of pure lightning, barely noticeable to the naked eye. Without any sense of magic emanating from her, no one could track her movements effectively, and her punch would have been lethal to anyone nearby. Yet, she seemed to have chosen a specific target carefully, someone whose defeat would serve a greater purpose rather than simply engaging in combat indiscriminately.
As Samarth pondered the profound implications of what he had witnessed, he recognized that a new era had truly dawned—a reality in which anyone could surpass him if he remained stagnant, relying too heavily on capturing heaven to accomplish his goals. He understood with sobering clarity that he needed to work harder than ever before, lest he be outpaced by individuals centuries younger than himself. His gaze remained fixed intently on the escalating tension of the intensifying situation.
Seraphina was even more stunned than Samarth himself. She had initially thought Samarth was orchestrating this entire encounter from the beginning, but upon seeing his genuinely shocked face, she realized that he had absolutely nothing to do with it. She was equally shocked by Ellie's sudden reaction toward Aeren and by Aeren's immediate attempt to harm her seriously, showing a complete disregard for his surroundings. This made her tremble as she recalled their last devastating encounter, though she felt some relief that Aeren was unarmed at that particular moment. Despite her relief, fear still clung to her deeply, particularly as she noticed Aeren watching her aspirations crumble before her very eyes. She had once dreamed of surpassing her superior and attaining immortality, but now she understood clearly that she was far from that ambitious goal—it had all been a dangerous delusion as she watched the intense battle unfold between the prince and princess.
"Monsters!" both Seraphina and Samarth whispered to themselves simultaneously, coming to terms with the harsh reality of their era. They accepted the truth and vowed silently to surpass this age, determined to become the architects of a new reality.
As for all the royal family members gathered there, they were not shocked by this chaotic situation and had accepted this reality long ago. They had all seen this scene many times before, so they started to get noticeably bored. When Aeren came to the royal palace, they were fighting continuously; that's why they were not shocked initially, but they had not accepted that Aeren would actually aim for his sister's eye to gouge. But that didn't happen because Jane came to protect her at the perfect moment, so the situation became as normal as they had always seen before, which made them sigh in collective relief. And they finally moved from their silence, as some disturbed the troubling situation.
"Kids these days have no control over their anger," Baltazar whispered, but his words reached all the people around him clearly. But no one spoke further after him, and they started leaving the area.
The tension slowly eased gradually as everyone began to leave the place.
Though anger burned intensely within Jane, she knew with certainty she couldn't defeat Aeren. As the eldest among her siblings, she expected some respect from them—yet she could see that no one paid her much attention at all. She had come here to show off her strength proudly, but standing amidst these monsters, all her pride and confidence had withered away completely.
Aeren watched his father depart with Samarth, noticing Jane tending carefully to Ellie's serious wounds. Seraphina followed quietly and obediently behind them. His gaze drifted back to Ellie, unconscious and leaning limply against the ground, with Jane desperately channeling healing energy into her without success.
Without hesitation whatsoever, Aeren walked toward them directly. In a single step, he was beside Jane, his sudden presence making her tense immediately. She looked up and glared at him intensely, disbelief flashing brightly in her eyes.
"What is it?" she snapped, unable to hide her visible anger. After what he had just done to Ellie, she couldn't believe he had the audacity to come closer. She wanted desperately to slap him—but he was still her younger brother, and that fact alone stayed her trembling hand.
Aeren's voice was calm, almost unnervingly cold.
"Hmm. I'm here to tell you that your healing won't work on her. In fact, it'll only make her condition worse significantly. So stop doing something so foolish."
Aeren's words reached Jane, and she stared back at him in complete stunned disbelief. His words felt like sharp needles pricking her skin—sharp, cold, and utterly impossible to ignore. She froze mid-heal completely, the glow around her hands fading as her concentration broke suddenly.
"What… what does that mean?" she asked, her voice trembling noticeably.
Aeren looked at her directly, a faint, almost mocking smile tugging at his lips. "Nothing complicated," he said calmly without emotion. "Just as I said—no healing will work on her. Time will heal her."
He knew the reason very well. It was because of his own powerful fist—the same strike that had sent Ellie unconscious violently. His punch had erased the magic from that critical part of her body entirely; no healing spell could reach it without his explicit permission. But Ellie was like him—his own pupil, shaped completely by his methods. With time, her body would repair itself naturally and completely.
As for Seraphina, he had lost all memory of her—the reason she had been able to heal herself despite his strike had long been lost with that missing memory.
"You can use… anti-magic?" Jane muttered, confusion written all over her face. She couldn't accept what she had just witnessed before her eyes. Her little brother—a decade younger than her—had done something even she struggled desperately to comprehend. The realization struck her harder than any physical blow ever could. She had spent years training intensely under her master, shedding blood and sweat to grasp even the basics of anti-magic. It had been her pride. And now, seeing Aeren dismiss it so effortlessly, that pride began to crumble completely.
Aeren blinked once, his tone flat and utterly indifferent. "Anti-magic? No. What's that supposed to be?" he replied, sounding completely bored—as if the entire subject itself wasn't worth his precious time.
Without another word, he turned away decisively. "I'm leaving. You can bring her back with you," he said quietly, more to himself than to Jane, and began walking steadily toward the distant capital palace. Her explanations about anti-magic no longer mattered to him at all.
Aeren left the place without looking back even once. Jane stood there in heavy silence, disbelief clouding her eyes as she stared down at the ground beneath her feet. Shame washed over her completely. She had always taken great pride in her healing abilities and her hard-won mastery of anti-magic—but both had shattered completely the moment she faced Aeren and Ellie. The two of them existed on a completely different level, so far beyond her reach that even touching their realm of power seemed utterly impossible.
"Jane, what happened?" a soft voice called.
It was Emily. She approached carefully, noticing the defeated slump of Jane's shoulders immediately. Emily couldn't bear to see her friend in such a state. She had arrived moments earlier, calling out to the group, but everyone had barely acknowledged her before turning away, leaving her standing there, ignored and uncertain. The sting of being overlooked hurt more than she wanted to admit.
Only when she noticed the unconscious girl on the ground—Ellie—and Jane kneeling beside her desperately, did she realize she had walked into the wrong moment entirely. Still, she hadn't been entirely useless there. In truth, it had been her sudden intervention that saved Ellie—and everyone near Aeren—from whatever devastating would have come next. Her presence had broken the deadly silence, and that alone had pulled Aeren's attention away; otherwise, he might have erased everything around him.
Jane slowly lifted her head and met Emily's worried gaze. For a brief moment, seeing Emily's ordinary, completely human expression amidst the monsters she had just witnessed brought Jane a strange sense of relief.
"It's nothing," Jane said finally, her voice calm but heavy with unspoken burden. "My sister got injured in a… sibling fight. Let's just pick her up and return to the palace. We can talk there."
She didn't feel like explaining any more than that—she simply wanted to find a reason that sounded rational and end the conversation entirely.
Emily studied her friend for a moment, sensing something deeply unusual in her tone and expression. Still, she nodded without pressing further for details.
"Yes… we'll do that," she said softly, deciding wisely to save her questions for later.