Lightning carved open the stormy heavens as Saven and Tilly moved in perfect sync.
The rain became heavy to hide Tai's sadness - uncomproming, endless.
Tai laughed, his voice echoing across the chaos, cruel and calm.
"Do you think numbers will change your fate?"
Tilly lunged first, her claws flashing like vengeance incarnate—for Liana, for justice.
Tai raised one hand—steady, deliberate—and in an instant, a cage from another dimension enveloped her whole.
"The second victim," he whispered.
When the cage dissolved, only her head remained.
The sight ripped Saven from his trance.
The dragon vanished.
Silence fell—save for the rain.
Eyes widened. Breaths halted.
All stared at Tilly's lifeless form, her head untouched, her body gone.
Liana screamed—a sound of rage, grief, and despair—and charged.
"The third victim," Tai murmured, voice colder than the storm.
Her head rolled to Saven's feet.
Rage erupted in Saven's chest, but his body refused to move.
He trembled—not from fear, but from helplessness.
Tai advanced.
Two meters. One blink.
He stood before him.
"I wanted you to be the last… but I'll end your suffering now."
Steel flashed—then silence.
Saven's head fell.
The storm swallowed the sound.
Only the rain bore witness.
With eerie calm, Tai lifted both heads—Saven's and Tilly's—his expression unreadable.
He ignored the corpses behind him, walking forward with deliberate steps—each one heavier, darker.
His aura pressed down like a storm given form.
Every footstep echoed a countdown to the survivors' doom.
In his hands—undeniable proof of his brutality.
Behind him—only terror remained.
"Four left…"
His tone was flat, detached.
"Who dies first?"
Celia screamed, unleashing torrents of magic.
Useless.
Tai sealed her powers with a flick of his fingers.
Her fate mirrored the others—swift, merciless.
Daron charged, fury blazing, his sacred blade gleaming with divine energy—
Then shattering upon impact.
He staggered back, eyes wide.
"How…? That was a sacred blade…"
Tai's expression didn't change.
"I'm bored," he said softly.
"Time to invent a new way to kill."
He struck Daron five times in the face—each blow heavier than the last.
Bones cracked. Blood splattered across the mud.
Daron collapsed, broken and unconscious.
Tai sank to the wet ground, tilting his face toward the sky.
"This rain… my only companion.
It hides my tears, drowns my sorrow…
Yet it steals my fire—I can't even light a cigarette."
From the storm, Milia's voice pierced through.
"We're right here! Why won't you attack us?"
Tai's grin twisted—no demon could match its cruelty.
"You asked for it… I have an idea."
He seized Milia. She struggled, but her powers faded into nothing.
"Let me go! How did you seal my magic?"
"Shut up. You bark too much."
He smiled faintly. "I can seal anyone—anywhere. Even a kilometer away."
He bound Neva with a rope woven to suppress magic.
"Look, Neva. Your friend barked herself into this.
She ruined my mood.
Now… watch her suffer."
He slammed Milia's head into the ground—precise, deliberate.
Not to kill.
To break her spirit.
Neva screamed.
"Please! Stop! I'll do anything!"
Tai turned to her, laughter soft and venomous.
"Are those tears? My apologies—
the rain makes them hard to see."
He leaned closer, his voice a whisper of hellfire.
"You said I can do anything I want. Very well."
His tone turned razor-sharp.
"I love breaking people."
Milia wept as Neva offered herself in sacrifice.
Tai healed Milia, then stomped the ground.
The earth rose, shaping itself into a stone pillar, twisted like an altar.
He bound Milia to it, her head pinned in place.
"Your turn."
He took Neva's hand and began tearing her fingers off, one by one.
"Let's play a game. Choose—do you want to die?"
Her voice trembled.
"Kill me."
Milia screamed, her voice raw—until it wasn't.
Tai had severed her vocal cords.
"You're annoying.
But don't worry, you won't die.
I healed you. That way, your agony lasts longer than hers."
Flames erupted.
Neva burned alive.
Tai turned back to Milia, gripping her jaw with unnatural calm.
"A doll obeys its master.
And in this world… you don't get to choose your death—
burning, slicing, suicide… even nature itself."
Behind him, Daron stirred, clutching his shattered face.
Through swollen eyes, he saw the impossible.
"The fire… it's still burning… in the rain?"
He blinked again.
The flames refused to die.
Neva's body still burned.
(End of Chapter Three)