The underground chamber fell silent.
Dust drifted slowly through the beam of moonlight pouring in from the shattered ceiling. Broken stone littered the floor like bones, and the air itself seemed to recoil from the presence standing within the shadows.
Kael straightened.
His clothes were torn, stained with blood and dust, yet his posture was calm—unnaturally calm for a crippled boy surrounded by armed guards and a furious elder.
Elder Lin stared at him as if he were looking at a ghost.
No… worse.
"What forbidden technique did you activate?" the elder demanded, his voice trembling despite himself. "Answer me!"
Kael did not respond immediately.
He took a step forward.
Just one.
The guards instinctively stepped back.
They didn't understand why.
Kael felt it clearly.
Fear.
Not overwhelming. Not explosive.
Just a thin, fragile thread—forming for the very first time.
Inside his chest, the devil sigil pulsed.
A whisper echoed in his mind, low and satisfied.
Fear detected.
Kael almost laughed.
Lin Feng clenched his fists, forcing himself to step forward. "Elder, don't be fooled! He's just pretending! He's always been trash!"
He pointed at Kael, his voice sharp with forced confidence. "He must have stolen something from the clan treasury. Kill him now before—"
Kael turned his head.
Only his head.
Their eyes met.
Lin Feng froze.
The words died in his throat.
In that instant, Lin Feng saw it.
Not power.
Not cultivation.
But certainty.
The certainty of someone who had already decided how you would die.
Sweat beaded on Lin Feng's forehead. His heart slammed violently against his ribs, an irrational terror flooding his veins.
Kael broke eye contact.
The pressure vanished.
Lin Feng staggered back, gasping for breath, his face pale.
"Enough!" Elder Lin barked, masking his unease with anger. "Kael Draven, you are accused of activating a sealed formation and practicing an unknown forbidden art. By clan law—"
"Clan law?" Kael interrupted softly.
The elder faltered.
Kael stepped fully into the light.
The guards tensed, weapons raised.
"Clan law," Kael repeated, his voice even, almost curious. "Was clan law mentioned when your people threw me into a dying room and waited for my body to rot?"
Elder Lin's expression darkened. "Watch your tongue."
"Or what?" Kael asked calmly. "You'll kill me?"
The words should have sounded desperate.
They didn't.
They sounded like a challenge.
A strange sensation spread through the courtyard—subtle, insidious. The guards shifted uneasily, their grips tightening. None of them wanted to be the first to step forward.
Kael felt it again.
Fear.
Stronger this time.
The sigil burned warmer.
He understood instinctively now.
This power did not explode outward.
It seeped.
It grew.
It accumulated.
Elder Lin noticed the change too.
This boy's aura was still weak—fragile, even—but something else was layered beneath it. Something that made the air feel wrong.
"You will come with us," the elder said coldly. "You will be interrogated."
Kael smiled faintly.
"Interrogation," he said. "That means torture, doesn't it?"
No one answered.
Kael nodded. "I thought so."
He moved.
Not fast.
Not slow.
Just… precisely.
Before anyone realized what he intended to do, Kael reached down and picked up a broken shard of stone from the ground.
The guards laughed nervously.
"A rock?" one of them scoffed. "He's lost his mind."
Kael flicked his wrist.
The shard flew.
It should not have been dangerous.
But the moment it left his hand, the air twisted.
The shard struck the guard's throat.
Not with force—
With intent.
Blood sprayed.
The guard collapsed, clutching his neck, eyes wide with shock, gurgling as life drained out of him.
Silence exploded.
Lin Feng screamed.
The remaining guards stumbled back in terror.
Elder Lin's pupils shrank violently. "You—!"
Kael looked at the dying guard without emotion.
Inside him, something surged.
Fear increased.
Devil Authority: Minor Suppression unlocked.
The air grew heavy.
The guards dropped to one knee involuntarily, gasping as if an invisible weight pressed down on their chests.
Elder Lin staggered, barely holding himself upright, his face twisted in disbelief.
"This is impossible…" he whispered.
Kael turned to him.
"This is only the beginning," he said.
For the first time, true killing intent leaked from Kael's body.
Not wild.
Not chaotic.
Focused.
Controlled.
Elder Lin's legs gave out.
He fell to his knees.
The courtyard trembled.
From beyond the walls of the clan, distant figures paused mid-step. Somewhere, beasts howled uneasily. Even the night wind seemed to hesitate.
Kael felt it.
Fear was spreading.
Then—
A powerful aura descended from above, crashing into the courtyard like a hammer.
"STOP."
The voice was cold, authoritative, and filled with overwhelming pressure.
The clan head had arrived.
Kael looked up slowly.
And smiled.