"Hweee!"

A sharp screech tore through the air behind me, cutting through the crackling flames.

Heh… I almost forgot.

I turned my head just enough to glance back. "Do you want to join the fun, Beelzebub?" I asked calmly. "Do you also want to let your emotions run wild, just like me?"

"Hwee!!"

His voice was no longer playful. It trembled with hunger, with rage he could barely contain. I could hear it clearly now, the desire to shed that harmless little hamster mask and sink his fangs into the man who dared threaten the one we both cared about.

"Very well," I said softly.

I blinked once.

In that instant, the illusion shattered. Beelzebub's small body twisted on the forest floor, his wings ripping free as his fangs extended with a sharp glint. A cold aura exploded outward from him, dense and suffocating. It was dark, crimson, and heavy, as if a devil had finally awakened after a long, patient slumber.

The forest recoiled.

Even the flames hesitated for a heartbeat.

A streak of chestnut-colored light shot past me, so fast it bent the air around it. I parted the fire just enough, opening a narrow path through the inferno, and Beelzebub surged forward without hesitation, diving straight into the blaze.

Go, I thought quietly. Show them what you really are.

The fire swallowed him whole, and for the first time since this battle began, I smiled. I made sure to shield him from the flames as much as my control allowed, bending the fire away from his small body and keeping the worst of the heat from ever touching him.

"S-t… o-p…"

Blackbrand's scream tore through the flames, warped and broken as the fire devoured him from the inside out. His voice no longer carried arrogance or pride. It cracked under pure terror, dragged out of his throat as his body burned.

Power surged over me in thick waves, almost dizzying in its weight.

Beelzebub was already at work.

I could feel it. The pull. The violent siphoning as he latched onto Blackbrand without mercy, drinking him dry with a hunger that spared nothing.

I could tell he was biting like a feral beast, tearing into flesh without restraint until it became a bloody mess. There was no hesitation in him, no restraint. And I let him do as he pleased.

This scum deserved no mercy, no dignity, no clean death.

But even as satisfaction curled in my chest, a warning tightened around my ribs.

I cannot waste time.

The forest would not stay ignorant forever. Someone would notice. Another Holy Knight. Hera. Or worse, several of them at once.

And beneath that growing pressure, I felt something far more dangerous.

Weakness.

My fingers trembled despite my will. My breathing grew heavier, shallow in a way I did not like. Even with Beelzebub passively sharing the power he was draining from Blackbrand, it was not enough to fully offset the cost.

{Blood Control} was far more taxing than I expected.

I had never cared about mana before. Never truly questioned whether I had enough to sustain my skills. My strength always carried me forward. My instincts filled the gaps.

But now, backed into a corner like this, I was forced to confront it.

My control was slipping. My vision dimmed at the edges. I clenched my jaw, forcing my focus back into my grasping hand. I could not afford to toy with him any longer.

I had to destroy my opponent completely before I passed out.

"Come back, Beelzebub."

As expected, he did not hesitate. He peeled himself away from Blackbrand and flew straight back to me, landing on my shoulder as if nothing had happened, his tiny chest rising and falling with restrained excitement.

"Watch and learn," I said quietly. "I'm about to try something crazy. Pray it works."

Even now, with my body screaming from strain and danger closing in from every direction, I felt that strange, bitter satisfaction. Joking at the edge of collapse had always been one of my bad habits.

I turned my hand upside down.

The flames wrapped around Blackbrand twisted violently, pulled into a tightening circle as if the fire itself was being strangled. The air screamed with him. His voice tore through the forest, raw and primal, loud enough that I knew without doubt it would draw attention. I had less than a minute. Maybe less.

Through the hole Beelzebub had left behind, still wet and pulsing, I pushed my control deeper.

Blood answered.

Fire followed.

I forced the flames into his veins, threading them through his body with ruthless precision. Using blood control as a guide, I let the fire boil him from the inside, flooding his limbs, his chest, his throat.

His screams changed instantly, twisting into something inhuman, something so wrong it made my stomach churn. I had heard screams before. I had heard people beg, cry, curse, and even laugh while dying.

But it did not last long. Five seconds. That was all it took.

The sound cut off abruptly, as if the forest itself had swallowed it whole. His body went slack, collapsing inward as the fire consumed what little remained.

I released my grip on blood and flame at the same time.

The world lurched.

I bent forward slightly, hands braced against my knees as my breath came out in heavy pulls. Sweat poured down my chin, dripping into the scorched soil beneath my boots. My fingers trembled uncontrollably, the aftermath crashing into me all at once.

I did it… I killed a Holy Knight…

The realization settled into me slowly, not with triumph, but with a heavy, sinking calm. I had expected what came next. I had never spoken about it, never warned anyone, but I had always known. There was a price for crossing that line, for being the one to deliver the killing blow to a Holy Knight.

The body at my feet twitched once, then went completely still.

A pulse of golden light erupted from it without warning.

It spilled out like liquid fire, bright and oppressive, carrying an ancient authority that made the air tremble. The forest recoiled. Even the scorched ground beneath us seemed to pull away as the energy surged forward and rushed straight toward me.

I did not resist. I let it strike me head-on.

The golden energy wrapped around my chest, coiling inward with deliberate intent, slipping past flesh and bone until it reached my heart. The moment it touched, a sharp pressure bloomed inside me.

I sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, my vision dimming at the edges as the spell anchored itself deep within me.

So this is it.

An ancient curse, older than the empire itself, wrapped around my heart. A punishment reserved for those who dared to defy the Holy Knights and live afterward.

Unless.

Unless I killed the one Blackbrand served.

The master who blessed him with those flames. The one who poured power into him and called it righteousness. The true source behind the blade I shattered tonight.

Only their death would lift this mark. Only their blood would buy my freedom.

I straightened slowly, my hand pressing lightly against my chest as the golden glow faded from sight, leaving nothing visible behind.

[Foreign energy detected]

[You have received the Holy Mark]

[Curse detected: Golden Springs]

[Effect: gradual internal erosion]

[Estimated time until death if not cleansed: 90 days]

"Shit…" The word slipped out before I could stop it, low and rough, scraped straight from my chest. "Now I've really done it. There's no going back anymore."

I knew it the moment the system finished speaking. From this point on, I would be hunted for far more than killing an innocent man. I had crossed into something irreversible. I had stepped onto the same path as Lyssandra herself, at least in the eyes of the empire.

A marked existence.

A living blasphemy.

They would not forgive this. They would not negotiate. To them, I was no longer just dangerous. I was unforgivable.

And worse than that, I was dying.

Ninety days. The number echoed inside my skull, heavy and merciless. The curse was already inside me, quietly gnawing its way through my insides, patient and inevitable. A slow death meant to remind me every single day that the empire's judgment never truly ended.

I clenched my jaw, forcing my breathing to steady.

I could return to her. The thought surfaced uninvited. Lyssandra could tear this curse out of me if she wanted to. She is powerful enough...

But the idea tasted bitter.

Lowering myself. Crawling back. Trading freedom for survival. I did not want that kind of mercy. Not from her.

I had the system now. This strange, unpredictable thing that watched and measured and interfered when it pleased. If anything in this world could find a way to save me without bending my knee, it would be this.

For now, I had something far more immediate to deal with.

I turned my head and looked at Elira. I took a step toward her, then another, my legs feeling heavier with each movement.

I knelt beside her slowly, careful not to jostle her injured body, my hand hovering just above her shoulder before I finally let myself touch her.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, my voice softer than the crackling embers surrounding us. I knelt beside her and pressed my hand to her shoulder, letting warm green energy flow into her body as I activated {Healing Touch}, guiding the magic carefully so it would not overwhelm her weakened state.

"Next time, I might be the one needing saving from you," I added quietly, forcing a faint smile even as exhaustion tugged at my limbs. "So wake up quickly. There are still so many battles we have to endure together."

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