Buttermint pointed lazily toward the battlefield.
"Li has a very unusual ability." His voice was casual. "But when he locks eyes with soone..."
"...he can see the weakness in their attacks."
Soren’s eyes widened.
And suddenly—
Everything made sense.
Li moved again.This ti his attacks flowed like a river.
Every step was precise.
Every strike perfectly tid.
It was as if—
He already knew where Aegon would move before he moved.
The katana sliced forward.
Aegon barely blocked. Another strike.
Another forced retreat.The difference between them had beco obvious.
Then—
It happened.
For just a mont—
Aegon’s arm lowered.
And their eyes t.
Directly.
The instant it happened—
Aegon’s body froze. His chest suddenly tightened. Dark veins began spreading up his neck.
His hands trembled. The nunchucks slipped slightly in his grip.
Buttermint sighed quietly. "...Too late."
He took another bite of his sandwich.
"Aegon has lost."
Aegon collapsed to one knee.
Then both.
His hands clawed at his chest. His lungs refused to obey him.
He tried to breathe—
But no air ca.
Li calmly walked toward him.
The katana resting on his shoulder.
When he reached Aegon, he looked down at him with mild amusent.
"What?"
Li tilted his head slightly.
"Forgot how to breathe?"
Only now did Buttermint speak again.
"This is Li’s power."
His voice carried a hint of admiration.
"Once he makes eye contact with his prey..."
"...he can shut down the function of any organ in their body."
Soren’s pupils shrank.
Buttermint licked a bit of sauce from his finger.
"This is Li’s First Form."
He smiled slightly.
"Serpent Sovereign’s Edge."
And on the battlefield—
Aegon continued to suffocate on the ground.
"This is not the first battle we are having. But this is the first ti you have made use my first form." Li walked over. "You shoukd be proud. You have achieved sothing great today."
Li exhaled slowly.
The battle was already over.
With a casual flick of his wrist, he spun the katana once and slid it smoothly back into its scabbard.
Click.
The sound was quiet.
Final.
Then Li spoke calmly.
"I will give you permission to breathe."
Aegon lay on the ground beneath him, clutching his chest, veins bulging across his neck as his lungs struggled for air.
Li reached down and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, lifting him slightly off the ground.
Aegon’s body trembled violently.
"But," Li continued lazily, "I’ll take what I’m owed."
He placed one hand lightly on the hilt of his katana.
Then he pressed the end of the scabbard against Aegon’s temple.
For a mont—
Nothing happened.
Then—
Sothing moved.The skin around Aegon’s eyes twitched.
Soren’s stomach dropped.
At first it looked like a muscle spasm.
Then the flesh began to shift. The skin surrounding Aegon’s eyes started crawling inward. Like sothing alive beneath it. Like invisible mouths were chewing from inside.
The eyelids trembled violently—Then began folding inward. The flesh slowly collapsed over the eyeballs.
Aegon’s pupils widened in pure terror. "W–wait—!"
But it was already happening. The eyelids began sealing themselves shut. Not like a wound closing.
No.
It was worse.
The skin began consuming the eyes themselves. The sockets bulged. The skin stretched.
Then the flesh folded inward like swallowing lips, dragging the eyeballs into darkness.
Aegon scread.
"AAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!"
The sound tore across the battlefield.
His body convulsed violently as the eyes disappeared beneath his own flesh.
The eyelids lted together.
The skin thickened.
Smooth.
Seamless.
As if those eyes had never existed.
As if that part of his face had never been ant to see.
Aegon dropped to the ground.
Rolling.
Thrashing.
Screaming so loudly that Soren felt the sound vibrating in his chest.
"MY EYES—!! MY EYES—!!!"
Bloodshine flinched.
Cynthia tightenedher fist.
Even so of the other fighters turned away.
But Soren stood still.
His stomach twisted violently.
Yet his experiences with death...
With slaughter...
And with Chronovore...
Had given him a grim fortitude.
He endured the sound and the horror.
Aegon scread and clawed at his face.
But his lungs—
They worked again.
Air rushed into his body.
Li had kept his word.
He could breathe. But the screams only grew worse.
Because now—
He could fully feel the agony.
Around them, the Mohawk Party stopped fighting.
Weapons were lowered.
No one attacked anymore.
There was no point.
Their leader lay screaming on the ground.
One by one, they ran toward him.
"Boss!"
"Boss Aegon!"
"Oh god of the Neuralink —!"
They surrounded him, dropping to their knees.
Their faces pale with shock.
Aegon’s face was horrifying.
Where his eyes should have been—
There was only smooth skin.
Unbroken.
Flat.
As if nature itself had erased them.
Aegon cried.
But no tears fell.
There were no eyes left to produce them.
His world had beco dark.
Completely.
Endlessly.
’Is this... how it ends...?’
The thought echoed weakly in his mind.
’Is this how my life... ends?’
He heard voices around him.
His party.
His n.
But they sounded far away.
Distant.
Like echoes through water.
A mory surfaced in his mind.
Just a few weeks ago.
He had been standing proudly in the dorm hall.
His Mohawk Party surrounding him.
Laughing.
Praising him.
"Boss Aegon is unstoppable!"
"You’ll crush Lion Heart one day!"
"Yeah boss! You’re the strongest!"
He rembered how he laughed then.
How proud he felt.
How invincible.
Then another mory appeared.
Older.
Much older.
A small house on the outskirts of a noble estate.
His mother stood in the doorway.
Her clothes simple.
Her back bent from years of work.
She was only a low concubine within the Argon noble family.
Soone barely acknowledged even though she had bore a son for the patriarch.
She had been sold to Aegon family as less than a Slave.
All because she had to pay for the cris her father had against the family.
Yet she held his shoulders firmly that day.
Her eyes filled with fierce determination.
"You will enter the academy."
"I’ll make sure of it."
He rembered the hunts she went on.
Illegal hunts in dangerous forests.
Bringing back rare eldritch at, she no doubt exchanged for the dignity of her body.
Selling their parts.
He rembered her returning ho bleeding more than once.
But still smiling.
Still proud.
"All worth it," she told him. "So my son can stand among nobles."
Aegon’s chest tightened.
"Mother..."
He tried to open his eyes.
But there were none to open.
Only darkness.
Endless darkness.... and then the flood of mories settled in.
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