Space remained frozen around Kael.Not literally—no skill had halted the world, no spell suspended the seconds.It was something else.As if raw emotion, too dense, too heavy, had slowed the flow of time itself.
Every breath thundered, outsized.Every heartbeat struck like a hammer.Even the shadows seemed to hesitate in their dance, fixed in a suffocating wait.
And there she was—nailed to her throne.The Succubus Queen—Evelyne, as the System's window had just revealed.Her body remained paralyzed, her throat chained against the obsidian backrest, incapable of movement.
Half-asphyxiated,drool slid from her lips,dripping down her chin like a shame that refused to dry.
Her eyes twitched erratically,jolted by spasms,rolling in their sockets as if her own mind tried to flee this trapped body.
Terror devoured her.Relentless.An invisible predator gnawed at her will, fragment by fragment, granting her no rest, no escape.
A System window opened to the side,its pale letters floating like a scar of light.
But Kael…didn't even notice.
Not ignored—worse.
His mind was consumed, swallowed by the moment.A state of raw trance, where nothing else existed.The Queen crushed beneath his grip eclipsed every other reality.
The System, the world, time itself… dissolved.
There was only his breath,her vacant gaze,and the hollow echo of domination.
The torture endured.Long.Nearly an hour passed in that suffocating standoff.
System prompts rolled in, impotent echoes he never read.They no longer existed for him.
All that remained…were Evelyne's strangled sobs.
Her broken gasps, her convulsions, her throat torn by the chain.Every tear, every spasm, every ragged breath fed Kael's hunger.A black, primal thirst.A visceral need for vengeance.
And in the void of his gaze, that was enough.He admired nothing else.He heard nothing else.He lived only for this—to sate the cold hunger that consumed him.
Beyond the flickering prompts at his flank, one window endured.Stable.Implacable.
It forced itself into his sight, an inescapable verdict:
[System — Unprecedented Resonance detected][Germ of Authority identified]
External source: Cosmic Entity of Absolute type (Thanatos — Weakened Form)
[Compatibility analysis in progress…]Prerequisites for full activation: not metCurrent status: Germ placed in partial hibernation
[Resonance stabilized at latent level]
[Partial effect unlocked: Aura of Domination — Rank C]Type: Conditional PassiveRange: 10 metersFunction: Hierarchical pressure on lower-ranked targetsStatus: Unstable
The window hung there.A cold verdict, etched into air.
But Kael… never saw it.His eyes stayed locked in the abyss-red of his prey.
Windows flickered, stacked, nearly blinding.
Kael finally glared at them.A hoarse breath escaped, more growl than word:
— Get out.
[Error — Command not recognized][Forced reconfiguration…]
And suddenly, all vanished.As if even the System had recoiled from that icy command.
Silence returned.The atmosphere thickened, suffocating.Every breath resounded like agony.
The Queen, still shackled to her throne, wavered at the brink of her end.Her neck strained under the chain, ready to snap.Her eyes convulsed, her body searched for air that would not come.Even the braziers' flames faltered, strangled by invisible hands.
Suddenly, Kael loosened his grip.The kusarigama's chain slackened with a metallic hiss, sliding off the throne.
Evelyne's throat was freed—yet her body, drained of all strength, failed her.She collapsed forward, crumpling to her knees before the throne.
Every breath was a rattle.Spit smeared her lips.She no longer had the strength to rise.In that instant, she was no Queen… only prey, broken, reduced to begging the air she had just been granted.
Kael crouched before her.His shadow engulfed her, so close she barely dared breathe.
Terrified, Evelyne did not raise her eyes.Her gaze clung to the floor, incapable of facing the one who dominated her.
With measured, implacable motion, Kael extended his hand.His fingers closed around her bare throat.
A strangled cry broke from her lips, pathetic, fractured.Her hands trembled, pushing weakly against his hold—useless.
There was no brutality in his gesture.Only absolute cold.A silent verdict pressed upon her flesh.
In one hand, Kael held Evelyne, dangling, strangled, her legs kicking feebly.In the other, the kusarigama reformed, the dark steel humming as if alive.
The chain shivered.No longer a weapon.An instrument of execution.
Umbra stirred.His shadow slid across the metal, pulsing in the air.Beats echoed—steady, low, like a new heart.A cold heart, pounding in rhythm with Kael's arm.
Each throb drew the end nearer.
The blade's edge grazed Evelyne's throat.A thin red line welled on her skin.Kael pulled back slightly, ready to strike.Precise. Final.
And just before the sickle fell—
— KAAAAEL… STOP!
The voice shattered all.A cry, but more than a cry.An order. A plea. An incantation.
Thana.
Time froze in his mind.His muscles ceased to respond, suspended.His entire body obeyed that single command, as if every fiber recalled a forgotten key.
Silence fell.Only Evelyne's gasps remained, suffocating,and Umbra's cold pulses still beating in the void.
Kael's gaze snapped to Thana.His eyes, burning with restrained fury, locked on her.
In his hand, Evelyne still dangled.Her limbs twitched convulsively, drenched in blood, saliva, tears, and sweat.A broken puppet, yet alive.
Kael tightened his grip.His voice cracked out, low, sharp:
— What game are you playing, Thana?I thought we agreed she should die.Did you forget what she put us through… for her amusement?Tell me clearly—what game are you playing?!
(Silence.)No answer.Only a breath, frail, as if she no longer had the strength to explain.
Kael clenched his teeth.His arm flexed again.He turned back toward the Queen, ready to deliver judgment.
But suddenly—A shock.
Thana clutched his weapon arm, the one holding the kusarigama.Her slender fingers closed with desperate strength.She pressed her body against his, as if to hold him back by force of will alone.
Her voice trembled, yet stayed firm:
— Please… that's enough.You've done more than enough.She can still be useful.
Her forehead leaned against his arm, imploring.
— So not here. Not now. Don't fall… not yet.
His breath stalled.As if the weight of her words struck a wall already fractured inside him.
His eyes slid from Evelyne's bleeding throat to Thana, still gripping his arm.A brutal contrast.
On one side, prey choking, offered to the blade.On the other, a wavering shadow, stubborn, refusing to let him sink.
His jaw clenched.A low growl rumbled in his throat.One motion.That was all it would take.
But the motion… never came.
The kusarigama's blade still quivered, poised to fall.And yet, Kael no longer moved.Neither forward, nor back.
A heavy silence stretched.Suffocating.As if even the hall held its breath, awaiting his choice.
But the pressure within him—it was unbearable.
A savage force, condensed, straining to explode.Too heavy to contain, too dark to vanish.
Without release, it would tear him apart.
So Kael chose.
He raised his kusarigama.The chain pulsed like a heart about to rupture.And with one brutal swing, he drove the blade into the throne.
A crack split the hall.The black marble shattered, bursting into shards of red and black.As if all his rage, hunger, and storm had been unleashed in a single blow.
Kael stood still a moment, panting.Then he released Evelyne.
Her body crumpled to the floor, gasping, collapsed at his feet.
He turned to Thana.His eyes still dark, his breath still ragged.But his voice was little more than an icy thread:
— Now… I'll listen to what you have to say.