Elenius tried to crawl, but Lin didn't give him a chance. With a swift kick to the back, he sent Elenius flying with a shout.
A sickening crack echoed—the sound of breaking bones.
Elenius, still lying on the ground, activated his blessing.
With the power of the White Flame—the flame of loyalty and truth, the flame that awakens the heart—
An explosion erupted.
A white flame engulfed Lin's body, forcing him to regain control.
One of his eyes turned blue, the other black.
"Control your body, now!" Elenius shouted.
Lin's body trembled. He saw his reflection in the ice of the arena and froze. A look of terror spread across his face as he stared at his own distorted figure.
He tried to suppress the blue eye, but the black one began to merge with it, forming a swirling mix of blue and black.
Elenius stood and rushed toward Lin, using his flame to help stabilize him and heal his wounds.
Then, he turned the flames on himself.
"Ah... I controlled it," Lin muttered.
His eyes returned to it's usual.
"What was that?" Elenius asked.
"I don't know."
What was that just now? You looked like a terrifying monster.
You completely overwhelmed me—as if I were a helpless child.
Even your mana... I couldn't measure it. I felt something dark—mana that seemed capable of devouring life itself.
You were moving on pure instinct.
If it weren't for Vasthera's eyes, we wouldn't have been able to stop you.
You were about to kill me.
"Unfortunately, I didn't," Lin whispered in his mind.
Elinius sighed. "We're ending the combat training here.
I don't want to face that monster again.
"Meditate," Elenius said. "Look inward. That black snake—its soul, its power—you must understand it. No one knows what it can truly do.
I will go now to take some break.
Lin sat in the ring and closed his eyes, trying to sense the mana flowing around him. After a moment of silence, he activated his mark. A minute passed.
Then—he saw it.
In a fog-laden place, the same massive black snake with piercing blue eyes lay coiled in the shadows. But this time, it wasn't alone. Dozens of smaller snakes, identical in form, slithered out from the surrounding ruins, silently encircling it in eerie stillness—as if bound to it by some unseen force.
Before his eyes, the great serpent shifted.
She transformed into a stunningly beautiful woman—long black hair cascading down her back, striking blue eyes filled with quiet intensity, and a small black beauty mark beneath her left eye. Her figure was slim and graceful, wrapped in a flowing black robe that clung gently to her form, adding to the air of elegance and silent power that surrounded her.
The smaller snakes gathered around her like loyal children.
"So… you've finally come," she said, her voice calm, echoing inside his mind.
"Who are you?" Lin asked.
I am Azareen the heiress of the Black serpent of Vasthera.
She stepped forward, and with every graceful movement, the little snakes followed—silent, watching.
"You carry my soul. But you do not command it… not yet."
What do you want from me?
"Nothing." Her smile was cold. "You're the one who called me.
She began approaching him, her steps slow and deliberate. Then, without warning, she leaned in and pressed a lingering kiss to his lips.
The moment their lips met, his eyes flared open—both started glowing like blue .
The moment their lips parted, Lin staggered back—breathless, overwhelmed.
The world around him twisted.
The ruins dissolved, replaced by a vast, endless space of obsidian ground and a sky swirling with black mist and pale-blue lightning. The air pulsed with power. It wasn't a place... it was a spiritual realm, a reflection of the soul he had touched.
The woman stood at the center, her back now to him. Her black robe swayed in an unseen wind, and her voice echoed—not just in his ears, but deep in his chest.
"Lesson one," she said softly, her voice like still air. "You cannot wield the serpent… unless you become it."
Suddenly, the shadows around Lin surged upward—rising like living tendrils of smoke.
From their depths, a massive serpent burst forth, formed entirely of thick, black mist. Its fangs were bared, its eyes locked onto him with eerie awareness.
There was no time to think.
Instinct took over.
He dove to the side just in time, rolling across the smooth obsidian floor, his breath caught in his chest, heart pounding.
"You must learn to see without light," she continued, unshaken.
"To strike without hesitation. To trust your body when your mind begins to falter."
The serpent struck again—faster this time.
Lin turned to dodge, but too late.
Its tail clipped his shoulder, drawing a burning line across his skin.
He winced, but didn't fall.
Then—something shifted.
His eyes flickered—pure blue light shimmering through his gaze.
And suddenly… Everything slowed.
The fog thickened around the beast, swallowing its form.
But Lin still saw it—not with his eyes, but with something deeper.
A new sense.
It was as if the mana in the air had shape, movement, breath… and he could feel it.
"Serpent's Azure," the woman whispered, her voice touched with approval.
"You're beginning to understand."
Lin raised his hand.
He didn't think.
He moved like a serpent.
His body twisted—fluid, cold, precise.
His hand sliced cleanly through the serpent's form, a strike of pure will.
The creature burst apart into black smoke, scattered into nothing.
Silence fell.
Lin stood there, panting, faintly glowing. The pain in his shoulder was gone—like it had never been.
The woman turned to face him fully now, her robe swaying in the stillness. Her blue eyes remained fixed on him… but there was something new in them.
Uncertainty.
"This isn't right," she said slowly, her voice laced with tension.
"You shouldn't be able to do that. Not this quickly."
Lin didn't respond.
Then—his eyes shifted.
They turned red.
A cold aura rippled from his body—heavy, unnatural, and ancient.
When he finally spoke, his voice had changed—deeper, colder, as if something forgotten had finally remembered itself.
It carried a weight that made the very air tremble.
"Ervas".
In an instant, the realm began to unravel.
And she saw it—not his body, but what now sat inside it.
A soul vast and corrosive, brimming with hatred so deep it scorched the edges of her spirit.
It wasn't Lin anymore.
It was something that had once been erased from existence—something that should never have returned.
The obsidian floor cracked.
The sky dissolved into smoke.
The serpents vanished, fading into nothingness.
A single structure rose from the chaos—
A throne, black and jagged, forged from bone and shadow.
Azareen stumbled back, her legs buckling.
She collapsed to the ground, eyes wide with horror.
Lin walked toward the throne—slowly, deliberately.
His presence now loomed, towering, utterly unnatural.
He sat—silent, composed—upon the dark seat, as if it had always belonged to him.
And in that moment, the realm fell into suffocating silence.
Only the sound of Azareen's shallow breaths remained.