Mako had exited through another part of the castle with the rest of the jury and much of the Lunar House.
He searched everywhere for Ana and Polifemo but couldn't find them. Instead, he came across a far less friendly face.
Catherine, the blonde woman with a small mole above her red-painted lips, approached him with purpose.
"I hope you're not planning to back out of the duel," she said, her tone dripping with provocation. "It'd be awfully boring to miss the chance to tear the House of the Sun apart with my own hands."
Mako didn't let Catherine's words, as a member of the rival Lunar House, intimidate him.
"I wasn't planning to," he said firmly.
For a moment, Catherine's smug expression faltered.
"Say what you want, boy. I don't know what the High Judge was thinking, listening to your lies, but the truth is, it's impossible for your system to be as powerful as you claim," she whispered in his ear before stepping back.
As she pulled away, Catherine regained her haughty demeanor.
"If it were true, your system would be rivaling the king's himself," she said, turning on her heel, unable to spare Mako another glance.
"You're just a brat!" Catherine exclaimed as she departed with her Lunar House entourage.
Just as Mako was about to gather his thoughts…
The entire castle trembled.
A deafening explosion shook the place.
After a few seconds, everything calmed.
Mako nearly fell but steadied himself and looked around.
In the direction where the spectators from the stands had exited, a massive cloud of black smoke rose.
'What the hell was that?' Mako thought as the people around him struggled to stand. 'Wait a second. An explosion of this magnitude… I only know one person capable of something like this.'
The crowd around Mako murmured about a possible attack on the royal family.
From the castle hallway's windows, Mako could only see the distant smoke, nothing more.
'Could it be…?' Mako's mind raced as the area's guards appeared, ordering the Lunar House nobles and the remaining jury to evacuate.
"Did Erick use his power here?" Mako said, stunned.
◇◆◇
After a trial, the spectators in the stands exit through a different route than the jury and the High Judge.
Most people had already left the castle when Mako's trial concluded.
But…
"Cough, cough," Polifemo hacked desperately, enveloped in a cloud of black smoke that blinded him.
Everything smelled of burning, and chunks of debris still fell from the explosion's impact.
"You're a brute," Polifemo said. "Did I really teach you nothing good, kid?"
The massive cloud of smoke slowly began to dissipate.
The guards, who had remained still until then, appeared before the crowd surrounding Erick. All of them, with their systems, created a network of energy shields to absorb the explosion's remnants.
Finally, the black smoke cleared completely.
Erick stood in the center of a massive crater in the floor. The pristine white marble that once adorned the ground was now dust and soot.
The young man with black hair and crimson eyes, Erick, had a clenched fist aimed at the ground, and beneath it was someone.
"You're… a… brute," Polifemo spat, coughing up several of his fangs with his words.
Polifemo was pinned beneath Erick's explosive fist.
Ana, meanwhile, lay several meters away. Polifemo had managed to push her aside, but no guards came to her aid, and the explosion had sent her flying.
She lay on the ground, showing no signs of life.
"Well, well," said the angel behind Erick, seemingly unscathed by the blast. "Looks like I was wrong to say demons had all the interesting humans."
With those words, the angel glanced around, noting the terrified faces of the onlookers and the guards poised for action.
"Lord Erick," the angel said, "I'll take my leave for now. Remember, you have one year to pay."
Erick stood, brushing back his disheveled hair.
"Fine. I used my enhanced system once. Here," he said, pulling out a gold coin and tossing it into the angel's hands.
"What an upright man, paying on the spot. If you use your ability again, you can pay me later—just remember, it'll add to your debt," the angel said before flying off, the payment clutched between its fingers.
Polifemo, meanwhile, couldn't move.
"You're so dramatic," Erick said, seeing Polifemo panting in pain. "You demons can't die—you always crawl back from whatever abyss you came from."
Polifemo gritted his few remaining fangs in fury before shouting, "But Ana's human, you idiot!"
At those words, Erick didn't hesitate. He raised his leg and kicked Polifemo's face with full force.
From the sole of Erick's shoe came another explosion, smaller than the first but concentrated enough to disintegrate Polifemo, sending him back to the inferno.
The guards didn't move. Internal disputes within a noble House were for its members to resolve.
A cloud of smoke enveloped Erick.
He was about to leave when suddenly…
"Ana! Ana!" Erick heard Mako's voice in the distance.
Mako was sprinting from the other end of the long hallway, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Tch!" Erick clicked his tongue as Mako approached. "How the hell did he get here so fast?"
Mako had run the long distance from where he was to the spectator exit hallway the moment he heard the explosion.
Despite growing physically stronger through his awakened system, his enhanced abilities weren't enough to get him there in time to save Polifemo.
"What did you do to her?!" Mako shouted, reaching Ana and cradling her in his arms. "Polifemo! Where's Polifemo? Did you do something to him too?!"
Mako was already fearing the worst as he held Ana.
Tears streamed from his blue eyes as he hugged her tightly.
Erick grinned sadistically.
"Didn't you hear the second explosion?" he said proudly. "Little brother, your tiny sidekick's back in hell. You won't see Polifemo for a while."
Mako wanted to stand and teach Erick a lesson, but a hand stopped him, grabbing his face.
It was Ana's.
She was alive, coughing, her body covered in wounds. Bruises and scrapes marred her skin, but despite it all, she was still in one piece. Thanks to Polifemo's actions, Ana would live another day.
"It's… my fault," Ana said, finally awake, struggling to open one of her eyes.
"Ana! Don't say that…" Mako replied, worried.
"Think, Mako," Ana said with difficulty. "In front of all these people, I'm just a servant of your House. Erick is your brother. Don't do anything rash, not when… we're so close to succeeding."
Mako stopped his tears, relieved she was alive. But Ana's words pained him deeply. He hugged her tighter.
Without a word, he began to carry her in his arms.
But before he could do anything else, someone appeared.
"Wait!" shouted the head guard, clad in armor and a cape. "You must be Mako Sol. You need to answer for the actions that took place here as the head of your House."
For a moment, Mako paused to reflect.
'That's right. Now I'm… the head of my House. I'm the heir to my parents' legacy,' he thought to himself.
Mako wanted nothing more than to make Erick pay. Not even when he felt the guillotine fall and sever his head had he hated him this much.
"He could be banished…" the nobles present murmured.
"Is that true?" Mako asked the head guard.
"Yes! If the disturbance was caused by a member, they can be expelled," the guard declared loudly in a military tone.
Mako grew pensive. He wanted Erick to pay for everything he'd done.
"Fine," Mako said, still holding Ana in his arms. "I'll take responsibility for all the damages caused by my brother."
Everyone was stunned, even the head guard. It wasn't uncommon for such situations to end with a noble cast out onto the streets.
"Hey!" Erick shouted, indignant. "Don't be a coward. What are you playing at? I could blow you to pieces right now."
At those words, all the guards, reinforcing their energy shields, tightened their formation to ensure no one was harmed.
Mako turned to Erick with a murderous glare.
"This isn't over, you hear me?" he said. "If anyone's going to make you pay, it'll be me."
"Mako…" Ana murmured in his arms.
'No matter how many lives it takes, I'll make sure you pay for everything you've done,' Mako thought as he left the castle.