Sebastian stood very, very still.

Not relaxed.

Not smiling.

Not doing that stupid little wiggle he always did before a fight.

He was just still, like an undisturbed ocean, calm as a lake.

His eyes sharpened with an intensity that looked wrong on his face, like someone had taken his usual mask of carefree insanity and peeled it off to reveal steel underneath.

Twenty wolves.

All C-rank.

All large enough that calling them "wolves" felt like an insult to biological classification.

He studied every single one.

Slowly.

Precisely.

Quietly.

Not a flicker of emotion crossed his face.

Nora could fight them.

Probably.

She was strong, almost as strong as him, just slightly weaker, which still put her miles above anything that breathed.

Annalise and Kent?

Different story.

Both talented.

Both above the average student by several lifetimes.

But compared to him and Nora…

Yeah.

No comparison.

If he didn't fight seriously…

Annalise and Kent would most likely die, while Nora might escape.

Maybe with her limbs.

Maybe without.

Sebastian slowly exhaled.

"Okay," he muttered. "Conclusion: I cannot let these three morons try to handle this alone."

He glanced back at his teammates.

Annalise stood ready, her expression a perfect mask of indifference, but her trembling hands betrayed her stone-like face.

Kent twirled his scythe one too many times for someone who was supposed to be confident.

Nora looked annoyed that she wasn't stabbing Sebastian yet.

He nodded once.

Decision made.

And then...

He released it.

His aura.

Darkness spilled out of him like a broken dam.

A tide of thick, black fog rolled across the cavern floor, smoke curling and coiling like the shadows of a battlefield. The air turned cold, heavy, metallic, carrying with it the scent of blood, steel, and old war.

It was the same color and effect as the aura Belle had used earlier today.

But weaker.

Thinner.

A reminder, a painful one, of the gap between them.

Still, it was Sebastian's death aura.

And it was terrifying.

The wolves stiffened.

Snarls stuttered into silence.

Their pupils widened, then trembled.

But he wasn't done.

A soft white glow flickered around him.

Delicate at first, like moonlight brushing against fresh snow that had just fallen from the heavens.

Then brighter.

Warmer.

Life.

Pure and radiant.

The white glow threaded into the black fog but never mixed, like two separate forces coexisting in orbit around him.

Death and Life.

Two halves of one whole.

He was the heir of Life and Death, perhaps the most terrifying concepts in existence. Two powers he was born to command.

The cavern seemed to pulse with it.

The wolves shuddered.

Hesitated.

Their hunger vanished, replaced by something else.

Instinct.

Recognition.

Fear.

And behind him…

His teammates remained absolutely frozen.

Annalise's jaw hung open.

Kent forgot how breathing worked.

Nora stared like he'd just started levitating and reciting opera.

Sebastian blinked.

Then frowned.

Then screamed, voice cracking with genuine annoyance:

"HELLO?! Get a move on! Attack the overgrown furballs before they recover!!"

That worked.

All three jolted violently.

Then, like someone had plugged them into divine electricity, they launched themselves forward at full speed weapons ready, eyes blazing, each of them suddenly desperate to land the first hit.

Sebastian tightened his grip on Sacha, his aura swirling around him like a storm.

And as his teammates charged ahead, he muttered under his breath:

"Unbelievable. I swear, if I don't personally babysit these idiots, they are all going to die. But I guess I did farm quite a bit of aura from this little show."

Then he stepped forward.

Slowly.

Calmly.

Like a farmer strolling through a field.

A terrifying, glowing, Death-and-Life-infused field full of giant, hungry monsters.

Sebastian struck first.

He didn't hesitate.

Didn't test the waters.

Didn't probe or feint.

He simply launched himself straight at the biggest wolf of the pack, a towering monster over ten meters tall, built like someone had taken a tank, wrapped it in muscle, added more muscle, and then covered the entire thing in fur tough enough to shame steel.

Their collision wasn't elegant.

It wasn't refined.

It was pure, violent impact.

BOOM.

The shockwave rippled outward like a tidal wave. The cavern floor cracked, splitting into spiderweb patterns.

Dust exploded upward.

Air surged so violently that smaller wolves stumbled, yelping.

The entire cavern trembled as if the mountain above them suddenly regretted its life choices.

Sebastian skidded back across the stone, boots digging furrows into the ground.

The wolf didn't move.

Not even an inch.

Sebastian blinked.

Then frowned.

Then blinked again because surely that was wrong.

'…Okay. That should've done something.'

He checked the wolf.

Not a scratch.

Not a bruise.

Not even a mildly offended hair out of place.

'…What.'

It was truly perplexing; the attack should have left the wolf injured if not cripled, yet there was nothing.

He knew his limits.

Knew his strength.

Knew what his body and aura could accomplish.

His confidence wasn't arrogance.

He was simply stronger.

So the fact that he had just hit the beast head-on with full force and achieved exactly zero results was...

"Problematic," he muttered dryly.

He didn't have time to think more.

Because the wolf inhaled.

Deeply.

Too deeply.

The air vibrated.

Heat warped the space between them.

The black flames gathering in its throat resembled molten obsidian mixed with a star collapsing into itself.

Sebastian's eyes widened.

'…Oh. That's bad.'

The wolf howled.

And the entire world turned into fire.

A massive torrent of black flame erupted from its jaws, point-blank, straight toward Sebastian, a roaring inferno so hot it scorched the stone mid-air before touching it.

There was no dodging.

None whatsoever.

He knew it.

His body knew it.

Physics knew it.

And defending?

Sure, he could try.

But he also liked having skin. And bones. And organs that weren't cooked.

So he did the only logical thing.

Which was absolutely, undeniably, one hundred percent not logical at all.

Because he was Sebastian.

And Sebastian's logic rarely aligned with human logic.

'…Okay. I have exactly one idea, and it's terrible.'

The black flames reached him.

And right as the inferno was about to swallow him whole.

A voice snapped through his mind.

{Do something, idiot.}

What a bastard.

Sebastian didn't even register the words.

He didn't have time.

He didn't think.

He didn't breathe.

He simply acted.

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