After his call with Alea, Kaden was still running through the empty corridor of his house, his steps silent against the carpeted ground.

The sun had crawled back to sleep.

The moon graced the world, glowing with a neon blue light streaked with crimson at its edges.

There was no one around him.

His father was surely in the underground forge, hammering away and honing his blacksmith's craft. His mother was in her training ground, losing herself to the rhythm of battle.

That was their routine during the nights inside the Warborn household.

And as for Daela…

Kaden abruptly halted, his eyes narrowing as a new presence appeared before him.

Black hair like condensed darkness, golden eyes glowing with a purity and innocence almost unbearable for this malevolent world.

Eimi. The childhood friend of Zaki.

"Oh! Young Master, you are already back?" Eimi said in surprise, wearing a tight black training suit, her face glistening with sweat, her breathing slightly uneven.

Around her neck hung a white towel, damp with the effort of drying her still-wet body.

She had clearly just finished her training.

Kaden would have loved to ask about her progress in her pursuit of strength, but at that moment his thoughts were weighed entirely on Vaela.

So,

"Where is Daela?" he asked, urgency raw in his tone.

Eimi blinked, startled by both his voice and the darting sharpness of his gaze.

"My Lady went back to Fokay to resolve something," she answered, her voice sweet, polite, and respectful.

Immediately, Kaden gave an inward sigh of relief, his crimson eyes softening slightly as he fixed them on Eimi.

"You didn't see me today." He spoke.

Eimi went still for a moment, the weight of his words hanging in the air, then her eyes glinted in sudden understanding before she tilted her head cutely to the side and said,

"See who?"

A drop of her sweat slid down from her jaw and hit the carpet beneath them.

Kaden's lips curved into a satisfied smile before his body blurred away, his speed increasing to the point a violent gust of wind slammed against her face as he vanished.

Eimi instinctively shut her eyes against the force, and when she opened them again she looked at the direction her Young Master had gone.

"Young Master Kaden is always so mysterious…" she whispered, resuming her slow walk toward her chamber.

Today's training had been grueling but fulfilling, every movement carving progress into her body coordination and weapon handling.

A small, satisfied smile crept across her lips.

"Just wait for me, Zaki…" she muttered, clenching her right hand tightly, her bleeding fingers curling into a fist.

She winced at the pain, but she didn't release the tension.

She was determined.

Determined to grow stronger. Strong enough to protect him from the world.

…

Cerveau's Territory.

In front of the Cerveau's mansion, a stunning woman was standing, her beauty so striking that men and women alike stole lecherous or jealous glances at her.

Her hair was grey, flowing behind her like a river of ashes. Her skin was pale, the pallor of a corpse drained of all blood.

Her face was fair, softer than cream, the smile tugging at her lips sweeter than musk. Yet her yellow-grey eyes glinted with cruelty and eerie malice as she gazed at the mansion before her.

This was none other than Alea, the Grandmaster beast under Kaden but also…

'The Masked Abomination, huh…' Alea couldn't help but stifle a laugh as she remembered her discussion with Kaden.

'Master truly has a twisted sense of humor.'

She whispered to herself, then slowly walked away, heading toward a dark alley where even the soft bluish glow of the moon failed to reach.

It was a place drowned in total darkness.

As she walked, she noticed the glances thrown at her, and she suppressed a smile, feeling giddy, delighted to be this beautiful now.

And all of this was thanks to the Harvester…

Her lips curved into a sinister smile as she embraced the suffocating black of the alley.

Soon after, a wholly different being stepped out.

A woman with hair like coagulated blood appeared, wearing a mask carved with bloody tears streaming down its sockets, revealing yellow-grey eyes burning with malevolence.

She wore a crimson robe that dripped over her body like a waterfall of blood.

Her appearance instantly drew every gaze under the streetlamps glowing with mana bulbs, freezing the air with its unnaturalness.

Alea, now the Masked Abomination, didn't even glance at them.

Her gaze was fixed solely on the mansion before her.

"Arise." Her voice came out like the sweet but inescapable whisper of death.

Instantly, the ground beneath them turned pitch black in a wide circle, swallowing the street in shadow. Purple mist began to permeate the air, thick and suffocating, poison so potent it made bystanders choke violently, their bodies turning purple as they stumbled. From the darkness, skeletal hands clawed their way upward.

People froze where they stood, their eyes wide with harrowing dread as the dead emerged. Skeletons rose, some as tall as colossal trees with calamitous frames and claws as long as spears, others small and twisted like goblins, and others grotesque skinless mockeries of humans.

A ghastly silence pressed over the crowd before a young boy stifled a scream.

And then chaos.

The square erupted in terror as people screamed and fled in every direction, their bodies already turning purple from the spreading poison.

Some never even managed two steps before collapsing to the ground, convulsing as the venom seized their lungs.

Alea ignored them all, her gaze still fixed on the mansion. She slowly raised her slender finger, pointed at its gates, and parted her lips.

"Attack."

The undead threw back their skulls and roared, their skeletal jaws splitting wide as a soul-rending chorus of shrieks thundered outward, making the very air recoil in dread as they charged the gates.

Their steps struck the rocky ground like an avalanche of stones plunging from the heavens.

The two blue-haired guards standing at the entrance felt their hearts leap out of their chests as they witnessed the horror.

"GO! ACTIVATE THE ALARM! WE ARE BEING ATTACKED!" the older guard shouted, his trembling voice cracking as he shoved the younger one.

The second guard sprinted at once, and soon… a deep sound like the beating of war drums echoed across every corner of the mansion.

A sound that every Cerveau understood clearly.

They were being attacked.

…

Inside the Cerveau's mansion.

Neron, the Executioner, and the Archivist were together in the meeting room, sitting around a table. In the middle of the table rested a collar glowing with a bone-chilling red hue.

They had just finished discussing how to deal with Vaela and were about to act when the alarm echoed through the walls, halting them in their steps.

Neron frowned, his expression carved in ice. "Who dares to attack us?" he wondered, his voice cold and sharp.

Since when were people daring enough to strike at them — the Cerveau — so openly?

Especially now, at this exact time, just when they were about…

Neron's thoughts froze, his mind inevitably circling back to Vaela, but soon he shook his head. His eyes shifted to the white gloves covering his hands, then to the blue chain wrapped around the Archivist's neck, and finally to the earrings hanging from the Executioner's ears.

'No. Vaela would not be able to see us or even sense us. It can't be her. This is something beyond her control.' he concluded, placing deep confidence in their artifacts.

But still…

"Lucan, take the collar and go to Vaela's chamber and finish it. You will face no issue as long as she is bound," he ordered the Executioner.

"Do not linger. Be fast, end it before things become annoying," he added, his voice dripping with irritation.

Lucan nodded without hesitation before vanishing in a burst of blue light, heading straight toward Vaela's chamber.

Neron then turned to Calix, the Archivist.

"Come with me. I'll need your mind-altering abilities to end this ridiculous farce quickly," he said, already walking away, his mind moving with ruthless speed as he tried to connect the dots.

He might have discarded the possibility of Vaela being the culprit, but something deep inside of him gnawed with unease, whispering that she was involved in one way or another.

He clicked his tongue, irritation bleeding out of him.

"I told Brain to kill her a long time ago. Now I have to clean up this mess while he wastes time negotiating with some puny beast." he muttered, his tone cutting.

Calix at his side smiled, but it was hollow, devoid of humor.

"A puny beast with a legendary legacy in its hand," he corrected, his voice flat.

Neron returned the smile, but his eyes were colder than frost.

"A beast is a beast. A legacy in its hand does not make it smarter…" he paused, his gaze boring into Calix's,

"…and without intelligence, it's nothing but a pathetic animal waiting to be used for our gain."

He turned away sharply, not caring for Calix's answer.

The Archivist only shrugged and smiled faintly.

Finally, they arrived at the courtyard of the mansion and what awaited them was an unsettling, almost apocalyptic sight.

Skeletons. A cornucopia of them.

Everywhere the dead marched in swarms, like maggots crawling over one another, slaughtering everything in sight without hesitation, their empty sockets lit with a black flame.

The air itself was suffocating. Purple mist choked the entire courtyard, forcing the Cerveau to don masks and down Health potions just to fight without collapsing. With their artifacts they succeeded in destroying the undead, but every step forward cost them ground.

Because each death only fed the enemy's army.

Every fallen Cerveau clawed back up from the dirt as a corpse, eyes now glowing with ghastly hunger, turning their blades against their own kin.

The survivors cried in horror.

Alea was nowhere to be seen, controlling her army of the dead from the shadows while pouring more poisonous fog into the grounds, drowning the mansion in corruption.

Calix observed the battlefield with indifferent eyes. "I think you are on your own today. I cannot control the mind of the dead, after all." he said, his voice dry, cutting.

Neron's face twisted as he spat a curse, the wind howling through the battlefield.

"Activate the damn runic formation!" he bellowed, his voice booming over the whipping air.

…

"Urgh," Vaela grunted, blood dripping from her lips as she staggered back, her body swaying before she collapsed onto the ground.

Around her neck was a red collar sealing away all her power, like some void beast had been unleashed inside her to devour every last drop of strength.

She clutched her stomach with her right hand, soaked in her own blood, trying desperately to keep her entrails from spilling out. Her vision blurred to a haze of crimson and shadow.

With difficulty, she raised her head and saw Lucan struggling himself to remain standing, his neck bleeding heavily. Beneath him lay daggers woven from blue threads.

'Not deep enough…' Vaela realized, dread settling over her like ice.

She had been on edge when the alarm rang, and so she had managed to wound Lucan before he clamped the red collar onto her.

She gritted her teeth, rage twisting her broken face. "W-Why?" she rasped, her voice hoarse with agony.

Lucan didn't speak.

He only stared at her with cold indifference. His mind repeated one command, over and over.

Kill Vaela.

That was his task, and that was all he would do.

Outside, a cascade of black swords suddenly plunged from the sky into the ground, cutting down the Cerveau who were pushing back the undead with the aid of Neron's runic formation.

A man appeared amidst the swarm of the dead. Bulky. Hair like coagulated blood. His mask similar to Alea's, but revealing sky-blue eyes that burned through the night.

"The graves call for you… and my blade shall guide you to the soil." the Ruined Knight intoned, pointing his massive greatsword toward the Cerveau.

Then the blade struck. Brain matters, flesh, limbs exploded through the air.

The clash of steel echoed in the distance, orders being shouted, explosions booming, and cries of rage and grief splitting the air.

All of it poured into Vaela's ears as her life slipped away.

She looked at Lucan, her eyes turning cold.

"I will kill you," she spat, anger bubbling in her chest but beneath it, fear.

Not fear of death.

That was a lowly fear to her.

She feared dying without seeing Kaden again. She had told him they would be together even in death…

But no one truly knew what lay beyond death. Was it eternal torment for their sins? Paradise for the worthy? Or just void, nothingness, emptiness?

She didn't know. And that unknown made her fear a life without him.

Her body shook, trembling with anger and unwillingness.

'I just obtained my family…' she thought, eyes burning with despair.

But Lucan didn't care. He was losing too much blood, Vaela's blade had pierced an artery in his neck, and her power was already poisoning him from the inside.

His focus was slipping.

He needed to end this quickly.

"You will die today. That is your fate." he said, his voice hoarse, hollow and expressionless.

"Who decided that?"

A cold, murderous voice echoed from behind him as a crimson sword pierced through his heart with a sickening crack, tearing it apart into splinters of flesh before bursting out through his chest, dripping blood and shards of organ.

Lucan's eyes widened in shock as he turned his head mechanically, refusing to collapse, and saw a masked man, red eyes burning like ignited blood through the sockets of his mask.

Without hesitation, the masked man seized Lucan's jaw and tore it wide open before flooding his body with a torrent of blood. With a vicious twist, he hurled Lucan through the chamber doors, shattering them into splinters.

Then he bent down, lifted the bleeding Vaela from the floor, and vanished like a mirage.

His words echoed in the broken chamber as he disappeared.

"Explode."

A thunderous detonation erupted, shaking the entire mansion of the Cerveau as Lucan's body burst into a storm of blood.

That day… the territory of the Cerveau rained blood.

—End of Chapter 223—

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