Summoned as an SSS-Rank Hero… with My Stepmom and Stepsisters?! Chapter 69: Traitor

The camp was still bathed in the trembling light of torches when I felt the change. At first, it was a distant rumble — like a heartbeat buried deep beneath the earth. Then, without warning, the air tore apart.

A portal had just opened on the horizon. Not a simple mana rift — a wound in reality itself. A tear of blue far too pure to belong to this world. The sky began to tremble. The clouds folded upon themselves like flesh under a god’s blade.

I froze. My heart stopped cold. That sensation — I had felt it once before. Not here, but in Duskfall. A presence. An ancient voice. A vibration that devoured everything it touched.

— "No..." I whispered. "Impossible..."

The aura swept through us in a single breath. The tents quivered. The ground cracked. Students fell to their knees, so screaming, others completely drained of mana under the shock. Even Reina, standing beside , pressed a hand to her temple. Her gaze hardened — almost feral.

— "That’s not a dragon," she said in a low voice.

I swallowed, throat dry.

— "No... this is Sarhael’s level — probably a Primordial."

That word, barely spoken, seed to burn the air between us.

Sothing brushed against my mind — a cold caress, a whisper without a mouth. My stomach twisted.

The dragons in the sky began to spiral erratically, roaring in panic. Even they, the proudest creatures in existence, bowed beneath the weight of that entity. The ground trembled. The stones wept. The air itself seed to implode under the pressure of mana.

— "Kaito..." Reina murmured, eyes locked on the rift.

— "I know."

Then ca a sound. Sharp. Viscous.

Crack.

A wet noise. A cut-off breath.

I turned — not understanding.

Kairen.

He was there, only a few ters away. His gaze t mine, already fading behind pain. And behind him — Garrum, his arm buried through Kairen’s chest.

A jet of blood splattered the earth.

— "Kaito..."

He tried to speak, but only a gurgle escaped his mouth. Then he collapsed, heavy, eyes wide open, staring at .

Empty.

The world froze. Nothing else existed. Not the portal, not the fear, not the dragons howling in the heavens. Just him. And .

I heard nothing. Not even my own heartbeat.

Garrum slowly pulled his hand back, still dripping with blood, and stared at it with a tired smile.

— "Finally... the signal," he sighed. "I was getting tired of pretending."

His face twisted. His features warped beyond recognition — a mix of hatred and delight. His mana exploded. A shockwave devoured the camp. The tents were ripped away, the ground hollowed, and the braziers’ flas vanished in an instant.

Before my eyes, his body changed. His skin shimred with tallic hues, then with crystal, then with a dark obsidian gleam. He was fusing — with stone, with iron, with mana. Each beat of his heart pulsed with lines of light running along his veins, forming a living network of unstable runes.

— "You thought I was weak, huh? Thought I was your little sick soldier?"

His voice vibrated with an inhuman echo.

— "I’m so much more than that, Kaito. More than any of you! I WAS CHOSEN!"

He raised his head — and above us, the dragons scread, as if they recognized what he had beco.

I didn’t move. My gaze shifted between Kairen’s corpse and Garrum’s monstrous figure. My throat burned. My skin tightened.

The world had collapsed around , leaving only that void — that pull dragging down.

Sothing broke inside .

I whispered her na.

— "Lyseria."

A white light flared in my palm. The staff appeared — solid, alive, trembling. Mana surged into it, roaring, answering my fury.

I looked up at Garrum.

He was still smiling.

— "You want to kill , Kaito? Co on. Show your real face. Show them all what you really are."

I took one step.

Then another.

Then the shock hit . I barely had ti to raise Lyseria before Garrum’s aura burst, flooding the mountain like a tidal wave. The air vibrated; every stone, every grain of dust seed ready to explode.

In front of , he advanced slowly — his body no longer real. His skin kept shifting, changing texture with every heartbeat: steel, glass, rock, then sothing I couldn’t even na. His eyes glead with a sick golden light, and his voice echoed inside my head more than through the air.

— "You’re going to die here, Kaito!"

I didn’t have ti to answer. His wing snapped — the ground lifted — and I was thrown before I could even react. The impact tore the breath from ; I rolled across the dirt, back shredded, the taste of iron flooding my mouth. I tried to regain footing, but the mountain still shook.

Ahead of , Garrum landed with a thunderous crash, and the shockwave alone shattered the rocks into shards of glass.

I gritted my teeth. It was insane. His speed, his strength, his mana flow — nothing in him resembled what he once was. A monster. That’s what he’d beco.

I lifted Lyseria with both hands. The staff thrumd under my grip, ready to obey. The air thickened with a crimson glow, a breath that burned without consuming. When he lunged, I had no choice but to et him head-on.

Our weapons clashed with a sound like thunder. The shock ran up my arm, nearly splitting my shoulder. Garrum staggered back a step, eyes locked on , then rushed again. I caught the blow, pivoted, and released all tension in a single motion: First Movent — Dawn’s Bleeding.

Light burst forth — red and pure — cutting a perfect descending arc that split the mist. A wave of mana erupted, scattering dust and tearing through silence. The vibration of the strike shook my chest — but he didn’t fall. He straightened, his wound already closing, the steel of his arm shifting into crystal to seal it.

I stepped back twice. Sweat ran down my spine. He was stronger, denser, more grounded. Every strike I landed seed to feed him — as if each wound made him more real, more alive.

He charged again. His fist slamd into the ground beside , shattering stone like a bomb. I threw myself backward and, without thinking, activated Genesis. Energy flooded at once — cold and burning all at once.

Around , matter tore open; I drew two silver spheres — unstable, pulsing. I launched them forward and detonated them mid-air. The explosion was silent, swallowed by the density of mana around us. The heat that followed ripped a scream from my throat, but Garrum was thrown back a few ters, his left wing charred.

He roared. His veins flared open, glowing with molten light that ran beneath his skin. Before my eyes, his arm reford again — this ti of glowing red tal. He raised his head, pupils slitted like a dragon’s, and charged.

I parried, but the sheer force of the blow pushed back, one step, then another. My feet carved into the dirt, my bones trembling. I had to scream just to keep from breaking — the sound lost in the storm. Every impact rang like a death knell, every motion tore at my muscles.

I spun, drew the staff low to the ground, and shouted: Second Movent — Rise of the First Ray.

A red line traced a circle around us. Mana gathered, twisted, then burst outward in a centrifugal blast. Garrum was hit full-on, his torso split, leaking a blackish light, almost liquid. He fell for a mont, on his knees, breath ragged.

I had no ti to breathe. His laughter rose — muffled at first, then manic.

His flesh boiled, swelling. Sothing moved inside his back. A black filant — organic — pierced through his skin like a tendril, then another, then a third. They pulsed, oozing an energy that froze my very soul.

I understood, in that precise instant, that this wasn’t Garrum anymore. Sothing else had taken him — sothing that had eaten him alive and was now laughing through his throat.

He slamd his fist down — the earth gave way. A wave of molten rock surged up, shaped to his will, and ca crashing toward . I leapt forward, dodged, planted Lyseria into the ground, and shouted:

— "Genesis, compression!"

The world contracted.

The air stopped.

Then the explosion.

A white sphere blood around us — so dense it swallowed the light. The entire mountain shuddered; ash fell from the sky like glass rain. When the shockwave faded, I was on my knees, ears ringing, skin scorched by heat. Garrum was still standing. Half-destroyed — but standing.

I slowly lifted my head. His face was a cracked mask now, but the smile remained. His aura stretched upward, reaching the clouds themselves.

I pulled myself to my feet, swaying. My body scread to stop — but my hands refused to release Lyseria. Not now. Not after Kairen. Not after all this blood.

The air vibrated around . The staff shone with red and gold light — the sa that pulsed beneath my skin. I felt the mana align with my breath, pain lding with rage. The world shrank to a single point: him. Garrum.

I roared and charged.

Our auras collided — and the rest of the world vanished.