Raven stood over the fragments of ice scattered across the ground, his gaze fixed on the girl before him.
"It seems you're this bastard's daughter," he said flatly, voice carrying no heat, no triumph. Just a fact. "So tell me… do you want to die as well?"
"You don't know who you're messing with. I will definitely kill you."
He tilted his head, his dark eyes narrowing slightly. "How exactly do you plan on doing that?"
"Like this."
"Ice Lance."
Cold condensed around her outstretched hand, frost spiralling outward across the floor. A spear of ice formed, sharp enough to split steel, and her lips curved in satisfaction. She thought this was the decisive strike. In mage combat, whoever cast first usually won.
The lance tore through the air with a sharp whistle. To an ordinary eye, it would have been a blur. To Raven, it moved like a drifting snowflake. He didn't move, didn't raise a hand. The moment it touched him, the spear disintegrated into harmless shards that vanished into the air.
Her eyes widened. "What the hell… what did you do to my magic?"
"Nothing worth bragging about," Raven replied. "You're just wasting energy."
Her teeth clenched, rage flickering in her eyes. She'd just watched him kill her father; now her magic had failed as well.
'She's got some spirit… and stubbornness,' Raven thought, studying her stance. 'Not dangerous to me, but not useless either.'
"You think that's all I can do?" she shot back, voice trembling, but her chin raised. "Let's see you block this."
"Ice Blades."
Around her, the air froze again. Shards began to form, each one sharp and gleaming, this time crackling faintly with sparks of lightning. With a flick of her fingers, the knives shot toward him from every angle.
Most mages would have been overwhelmed. Raven simply reached out with his will and took control.
The blades slowed, their deadly momentum bleeding away until they hovered in the air.
Her breath caught. "Why… why can't I control them?"
"I took them," he said simply. His voice was calm, almost bored. "Now, I could send them back…"
The blades turned in unison, now aimed directly at her.
Her feet shifted back involuntarily. "Please… stop."
"You've already killed my father. What more do you want?"
She hated him. She hated her father, too. But this stranger had taken away the only person left, and that left a hollow she couldn't stand.
For a moment, Raven just looked at her. His mind drifted somewhere else — to a memory of standing powerless before the people who had slaughtered his parents.
'She's desperate. Cornered. Exactly how I once was. And back then… no one spared me.'
While engaging in useless conversation with this girl, Raven finally thought that it might be worthwhile to keep her alive. It wasn't pity exactly, just curiosity, but seeing her desperately fighting back as he had tried to do against his own parents' killers, made him soften a bit.
'So what should I do?'
'Take her back with me?'
'But what then? There is no way that she will listen to me.'
Raven was slightly conflicted but then decided to check her attributes to see what he was about to get himself into.
[God's eyes activated]
{Name: Amelia Ivanov
Class: Mage
Level:12
Exp:500/1700
Attributes:
Mana 12/25
Casting speed 11/25
Ice and lightning 12/25
Strength 12/25
Enhance 12/25}
'Not weak, at least compared to most awakened right now, I think.'
Of course, he couldn't yet accurately gauge a player's strength by just looking at their stats, but all was fine as long as he was stronger.
"You've got potential," he said slowly. "Unrefined. Dangerous to yourself. But maybe worth keeping alive."
"I don't need your pity, you bastard."
Her eyes narrowed. "I'd rather die."
He gave a faint, amused smile. "Then prove me wrong later."
The ice shattered into harmless flakes that drifted to the ground. Before she could process it, Raven stepped forward and seized her arm.
"Let go of me…" she started, but the world lurched. Her feet left the floor, the ground falling away beneath them as Raven launched upward.
The city blurred below, wind tearing at her hair. She beat at his chest with her fists, each strike landing uselessly against an unyielding wall of muscle.
"No one's coming for you," Raven said over the roar of the wind. "Not today. And whether you like it or not… you're coming with me."
"You're insane!" she spat.
"Probably," Raven said without missing a beat. "That's why I'm still alive."
She twisted in his grip, panic flashing in her eyes as she looked down at the shrinking buildings.
"You might want to hang on," he added. "It's a long way to where we're going."
Her voice was cracking due to woe and anger. "I will kill you. I will avenge him. Everything you've done to me… I'll return tenfold."
Raven's mouth twitched into something between a smirk and a genuine smile. "You can try. However, those who are stronger always win. I learned that the hard way."
With a mere thought, he suppressed the flow of her mana, preventing her from casting any spells mid-flight. He never underestimated opponents, not even those this far beneath him.
The wind carried them higher, the skyline of the city stretching out below, distant shouts muffled by the soundproof barrier he'd left behind.
"Hang on tight," he said firmly, though whether it was advice or a warning was unclear.
"We've got a long journey ahead."