The next time the man opened his eyes, ice-cold water struck his face.

He gasped, sputtered— then realized he was bound. Tight, rough sheets wrapped around his arms and legs, pinning him down on the hard cold floor.

He blinked through the dripping water, catching sight of a figure seated by the window.

Zephyr.

Back straight, eyes unreadable, right fist resting beneath his jaw. Calm— but the kind of calm a blade has before it strikes.

"Who sent you?" Zephyr asked.

The man clenched his jaw, waiting— hoping for the bitter taste of death.

But his eyes widened.

Nothing.

Zephyr's hand moved slightly. He tossed something onto the floor. It landed with a soft, cruel sound.

The poison sack.

The man stared in disbelief. Somehow, Zephyr had removed it— before he could even try to use it.

"I won't ask again," Zephyr said, voice low.

Still, the man remained silent.

Then the air shifted, Zephyr released his aura.

It hit like a mountain falling from the sky. The man's eyes went bloodshot instantly. His body trembled, bones creaking under the invisible pressure. The bed cracked loudly besides him as the force increased.

His breath was caught somewhere between his lungs and throat— like the air itself refused to enter him.

Veins bulged around his face. He shook. He gagged.

Then, finally—

The pressure vanished.

The man coughed violently, blood staining his lips. He collapsed, gasping.

Minutes passed, but Zephyr waited.

When the man could finally breathe again, Zephyr shifted in his seat.

One hand under his chin. Calm. Cold.

"Who sent you?"

"…on one."

Zephyr's eyes narrowed.

"I see you're still playing games."

"I swear!" the man rasped, "No one sent me!". But as soon as he spoke the last words, a thought splintered into his mind.

Why not turn the lastborn against Keede, if he recalled properly the lastborn of Demios had a favourable expression on Selene.

The pressure shifted again, the man eyes widened. "It's Keede". He blurted out. "It's Crownkin Keede".

Zephyr didn't move. His expression barely shifted.

But the air grew colder. Just slightly.

The man leaned into the lie, like a dying man into a final prayer.

"She found out Serena gave you that recommendation letter. Called her to her chamber. She never came out again. I waited for days. Weeks. Until her mother—until…"

His voice broke. He grit his teeth.

"She was carrying my child".

The silence after that was long. Crushing. The man didn't wait to see what Zephyr would do.

He shifted, straining his wrists. And with one desperate move, he forced his body to twist, lips finding the poison sack near him.

He bit down.

Zephyr didn't stop him.

The man smiled bitterly as the burning crept up his throat and down into his stomach.

As his vision darkened, he imagined Serena. Her face. Her voice. Her touch.

He would see her again soon. Even if it was a lie. Even if she wouldn't be waiting.

******

Zephyr stood in silence.

His eyes were hollow now, it was still and unreadable.

He turned, opened the door, and stepped into the hall.

The stone felt cold under his feet, despite the presence of his boots

Each step sounded distant. Far away. Like his body was moving, but his mind had stayed behind.

He walked.

Through the mansion's dim halls. Past guards and servants who bowed without a word.

Until he stopped at the corner of a corridor. A maid was there. He didn't look at her. His voice was dry. Distant.

"Where is Keede?"

The maid's head dipped immediately. "She left at dawn, young master. She's in the mountain range. The west peak."

Zephyr didn't reply.

He vanished— heading toward the mountains.

Toward Keede.

******

The mountain range stretched endlessly across the horizon— an unforgiving expanse of jagged stone. Some Peaks pierced through the clouds like the spines of ancient beasts, their tips dusted with ash and faint traces of snow. Cracks glowed faintly with embers buried deep beneath the surface, pulsing like the dying heartbeat of a sleeping volcano. This was the black mountain reaches— Demios territory.

A place where the clan honed its monsters.

Zephyr stood silently on one of the higher peaks, the wind tugging at the edges of his coat, silver hair like moonlight. Below him, scattered across the uneven terrain, dozens of Demios elites trained in formation.

They all had one thing in common— red hair that shone like fire under the sun. Sons and daughters of Demios, molded by blood and discipline. Their movements were sharp, precise— swords cutting through the air with deadly rhythm, flames licking their feet as they moved like dancers upon ash.

But Zephyr wasn't looking at them.

His eyes were fixed on the figure seated at the base of the mountain— beneath a shade carved into the stone itself. A throne of black rock and molten red veins, half-buried into the cliffside. There she sat, back straight, legs crossed, her arms resting gently over the arms of the chair.

Keede Demios.

Hair like burning coals, expression calm but cold. Her gaze swept across the soldiers with quiet pride, her posture the image of control. Regal. Unmoving.

A queen on a throne of flame, she wasn't training. She didn't need to. She merely watched— like a god overseeing her chosen, this was her personal army.

Despite them having the advantages of numbers, they were all beneath him. The majority was at Zeta rank, with the minority being at Elpison, there were only two Delta ranked individuals her. Keede and a lady besides her.

When Zephyr saw Keede, the suppressed trauma returned, but instead of a searing intensity, it was like a glacier. He was strangely calm.

He had stood here for minutes, battling with himself. Dreaming of confronting her directly. Wanting to kill her in a single combat.

But that would be foolish, she had the advantage of another delta ranked individual.

So instead, he chose to snipe.

Zephyr's birthmark pulsed— lightless black radiance leaking from the back of his right palm, like ink from a cracked void. His two Aethers began to churn and clash within his mindscape, creating sparks— twelve violent collisions.

Black Aether was born in the thirteenth, it surged into his limbs like a plague.

Space warped before him— twisting, folding, unraveling itself until a single black nail materialized mid-air. The air trembled around it.

Limbo— Hollow Nail Trap

His hand moved, almost instinctively.

He gripped the nail, and black arcs of energy spiderwebbed across his arm.

Keede looked up, and so did the other Delta-ranked soldier beside her.

Too late.

Zephyr swung.

A crisp black arrow tore through space, an arrow of inverted gravity. Entire chunks of the mountainside peeled away—stone, ash, even lava nestling inside the mountains— dragged along in its wake.

The arrow didn't just fly, it devoured.

Stone collided mid-air, compressed by impossible force. Sand turned to diamond. Dust became razor-sharp crystal.

Then—

Impact.

The arrow struck the training ground with a sound like the sky being torn apart.

A massive explosion rocked the entire mountain range. Light twisted, air screamed, and space cracked at the seams.

The entire training field and mountain in it's surroundings all twisted and collapsed into a single point.

In no time all that was left was lava and crystals from compressed rock, and a prayer.

'Please Keede don't be dead'. Zephyr pleaded in his mind. But from the looks of things he was doubtful.

******

Keede was alive.

Barely.

Her personal artifact— a crimson disc etched with runes— had activated at the final moment, enveloping her in a cocoon of burning red light. It cracked on contact, shielding her from the full force of the black nail's implosion. But that was all it could do.

The artifact was now dust.

She clawed her way out from beneath the rubble, blood streaming down one side of her face. Her red armor was shattered, blackened, half-melted from the hot lava. A high-pitched ringing screamed in her ears as she stumbled, eyes wild, heart slamming against her ribs like it was trying to escape her chest.

Smoke rose around her like mist on a battlefield after a massacre. The charred bodies of her elites— her pride— were gone. Turned to ash. Only molten rock and fractured crystal fields remained, a landscape torn apart by something not of this world.

And standing above it all… was a figure.

A figure she couldn't quite see well.

His silver hair danced in the thermal winds, eyes glowing coldly as he stepped forward from his mountain perch. The lightless sigil on his hand dimmed, only to flicker again— alive with deeper wrath.

He smiled, a cruel smile. "She lives!! She lives!!". The figure screamed from the top of the mountain peak, hands spread, pure satisfaction dripping from his voice.

Keede backed away in horror. Her instincts screamed, but her mind couldn't comprehend. What kind of malevolent Aether was that? Was he human?

Then, he raised his hand again.

A second nail appeared— identical in shape, but different in hue. Where the first had been black, this one gleamed blue. Deep, suffocating blue, wrapped in tendrils of darkness that curled like claws. It pulsed once, releasing a gust of sheer pressure that cracked the earth beneath him.

Limbo— Hollow Nail Trap:- Hollow Transition

Keede braced, ready to defend. But the nail was too fast, all she saw was a blue streak like a comet tail. The Artifact used up a considerable amount of Aether. Although she had large reserves the sudden snapping of her Aether left her body in a weak unresponsive state.

And in the next breath— he was there.

A figure cloaked in blue-black light appeared behind her in the air, right where the nail had been appeared. Zephyr's body shimmered with the veil of Limbo Aether, warping like a mirage, and before she could even comprehend the familiar face—

His fist smashed into her jaw.

A sharp crack echoed across the ruined training ground as her head snapped back, blood and a shattered molar flying free. She was lifted into the air like a ragdoll, limbs flailing—

But Zephyr wasn't finished.

His hand seized her ankle midair.

His smile widened— twisted, dark, filled with hate.

With a single motion, he swung her downward.

Keede's body struck the crystallized floor with the weight of a mountain, and the crystal shattered, sending shards of glowing white glass into the air like frozen stars. A crater formed beneath her, ribs splintering, Aether sputtering like a dying flame.

Zephyr stood over her. Breathing lightly, an unhinged look of satisfaction filled his face.

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