Just then, a heart-wrenching voice rang out, filled with fierce hatred and rage that seed to burn the very air.
"DAMN BASTARDS! LET MY DAUGHTER GO OR I’LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!"
The loud cry echoed throughout the chamber.
Kael, however, did not lose his focus on the refinent. Even so, the process beca unstable, teetering on the brink of failure. One more oscillation and everything accumulated so far could collapse in an instant.
Frowning, without taking his eyes off the floating liquid that boiled like a contained firmant, he spoke in a firm voice:
"Take care of them."
Michel snorted, a hint of amusent in his tone. "Who do you take for? Those two are also in rank 7."
Kael glanced at him sideways, assessing the situation. His gaze fell first on Aiden, whose face was distorted with hatred, and then on Natalia, whose condition was obvious. Then, in a calm voice, he said:
"Don’t worry. That woman is seriously injured. You know what to do there."
Michel’s blue eyes lit up slightly at this information. He didn’t need any more details: with just this one piece of information, he understood that his chances of victory had increased. Part of him was already beginning to calculate the probabilities, the outco of each move.
Before Michel could respond, Kael continued with the sa calmness, as if he were not carrying the weight of unstable refinent in his hands.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot. Aiden uses poison magic, and Natalia uses flower magic." His voice was carefree, but the intention behind it was sharp. He didn’t say it because it was necessary, but to strike at the heart of the enemy.
"DAMN BASTARD!" Aiden roared. His face contorted even more, mixing fury with a hint of doubt.
How did Kael know? He had never revealed his poison magic, neither to Michel nor to Kael. Much less had he ntioned his wife Natalia’s magic.
That was the most disturbing part. How could he know? Was there a mole among his n? No, impossible. No one in his inner circle had had contact with Kael. The only link had been himself.
Aiden’s fury was scorching, but amid his hatred, a spark of rationality persisted. That spark was what kept him alive. Without realizing it, he had already begun to treat Kael with greater caution.
The young man without backing, who seed like a simple, naive nobleman, was becoming increasingly unfathomable and dangerous in his eyes.
"This is problematic..." Michel muttered upon learning of the magic his enemies were using, which was problematic for soone who uses aura like him.
However, his gaze remained calm. The information was sufficient. Knowing the nature of that magic, he already knew how to deal with them. He pushed his thoughts aside and, without hesitation, transford his mana essence into an aura. The change was imdiate: an invisible current flowed from his body, quickly covering him.
The sword of coins was also enveloped in that power. But unlike its usual black hue, this ti it turned completely white. Its glow was neither pure nor sacred, but cold and cruel. Every strand of aura conveyed a sense of inevitable death, like the certainty of a blade falling on one’s neck.
Michel had made a decision: to use the farming technique he had inherited long before eting Kael. That technique was not only his trump card but also the symbol of his path.
Kael, in the midst of his refinent, suddenly sensed a tremor in the air. It was as if an icy hand had brushed his shoulder, as if death itself had co to observe him. He unconsciously turned his face and saw Michel out of the corner of his eye.
The white aura enveloped him completely, and in that instant, he understood clearly. No one needed to say it. That overwhelming pressure, that intention of death that tore through space, revealed to him why in his past life they had called him:
"White Death."
...
Aiden and Natalia, sensing death breathing down their necks, unconsciously took a step back. Never in their entire lives had they found themselves in a situation like this, or even anything remotely similar.
"Honey, what do we do now? We’re at a disadvantage..." said Natalia. Cold sweat ran down her back and beaded on her forehead; her lips trembled ever so slightly. Her expression crumpled with the pain that shot through her body, but even so, she didn’t allow herself to give in.
"We have to be extrely careful. If we touch that white aura, we’ll be dead," Aiden replied. Unlike her, his voice remained calm, although his expression was hard, unyielding.
He hadn’t made a single move until now. His goal was clear: to recover as much of his mana pool as possible before launching into combat. He knew very well what was coming. The confrontation would be extrely dangerous, a test that could end in the death of either of them.
At the other end, Michel frowned slightly. He still hadn’t mastered that white aura. It was unstable, erratic. Using it ant risking severe, perhaps irreversible damage. However, the current situation forced him to use it, even if he had to pay the price.
His gaze fell on Aiden and Natalia. The gleam in his eyes was cold, distant, devoid of compassion. Then, a smile slowly spread across his lips as he raised his sword, pointing it directly at them.
"Stay interesting."
...
Kael, seeing that the battle was about to begin, turned his full attention to refinent. His mana essence trembled, unstable, disturbed by the pressure from Aiden and Natalia, but he still controlled it with force.
He couldn’t afford a mistake at this point: he was in the final stage, the climax of the process.
Following the instructions from the system and the note, he continued.
Then, with great care, he lifted Elizabeth’s body. His hands tensed for a mont; he hesitated whether to break her neck right there or whether refinent demanded that she remain alive.
Doubt was a blade that pierced his mind. But Kael was not naive: risking everything on a whim was foolish. He kept her alive, but barely.
With a slow, almost ceremonial movent, he subrged her body into the refining liquid, which had already taken the form of an ancient blade.
The blade began to glow, and under Kael’s extre manipulation, it slowly dragged Elizabeth’s body inside.
The liquid received her as if it were a hungry abyss. Her skin began to crack, like broken porcelain, as the starlit glow seeped into every crack.
"AHHHHH!!!!" A heart-wrenching scream erged from Elizabeth’s throat. It was not a human scream, but sothing broken, distorted, as if her soul were being torn apart piece by piece.
His veins darkened, his flesh wasted away, and his blood evaporated into luminous threads, rging with the liquid cauldron.
The stench of burnt iron filled the air, mingling with a glow.
Her body convulsed violently. Her bones cracked, bending and breaking, until her torso was deford into a hollow structure, resembling a container. The remaining skin stretched taut and took the shape of a grotesque cauldron, still throbbing, as if her heart were still beating inside it.
Kael did not look away. His eyes remained cold as he guided each step of the transformation.
Finally, the cauldron of flesh and bone began to distill an unnatural glow. From within, strands of starlight erged, writhing like snakes until they condensed in the air.
Little by little, those lines ca together, drawing a magical formula: a circle of stars slowly spinning, like an engraved celestial mandala.
The refinent was complete.
What had once been Elizabeth was now nothing more than a vessel. Flesh, bone, and soul reduced to a dark cauldron, from which forbidden magic erged.
Kael, a bead of sweat running down his forehead, looked up. His breathing was calm, but his eyes glowed with a dark light.
He had finally mastered the magic: the Magic of Stellar Acceleration.
At that very mont, several notification windows appeared.
Ding.
[You have completed mission #2: Kill young Elizabeth of the Blander family before leaving Dubhu Mountain].
Ding.
[You have received the reward: Mana capacity at 100%, with no consequences.]
Kael looked at the notification windows, feeling sothing inside him break like a rusty chain, and felt his sea of mana exceed that limit. Now he had truly finished all his business on Dubhu Mountain.
He just had to escape from a family full of anger.
And at that mont, his status window appeared.
Kael dici
Title: Strayed Demon.
Talent: SSS.
Mana Core: Awakened.
Rank: 8
Knight Rank: 8 Stars
Magician: 2nd Circle
Traits: Refinent (A), Swordsmanship (A), lee (S), Tar (C)...
Strength: 100
Endurance: 98
Agility: 97
Vitality: 115
Mana Capacity: 100%
Stat points: 0
When he saw his status window, especially the Mana Capacity section, a small smile appeared on Kael’s lips.
He closed his state and, without the slightest hurry, approached the grotesque cauldron ford from Elizabeth’s body. He reached out and extracted the magic formula floating above it. With absolute calm, he stored it in one of his space rune rings.
At that mont, a bloodcurdling scream pierced the air.
"YOU DAMNED DEMONIC BASTARD!!! YOU MUST DIE!!" Aiden roared.
Kael turned slowly. His gaze t Aiden’s distorted face, covered in tears and rage. That expression of impotent hatred was so fragile, so miserable, that it only fueled the darkness within him.
Then, an extrely cruel smile appeared on his lips. A smile that, in Aiden’s eyes, did not belong to a man, but to a monster. It was like looking directly at the Demon God himself.
What Aiden didn’t know... was that Kael wasn’t a demon. He was sothing much warr and purer: an Angel Born of Hell.
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