The courtyard steamed.
Aldric inhaled deeply, his gaze swept across the ruin.
Knights pinned like insects. Priests ripped open. blood melted into the stone by the heat of Lucan's flames.
His eyes moved slowly— methodically— hunting for movement.
Then he saw one.
A priest—dazed, staggering, once white robes now torn stain with blood laying on the bloody floor as a knight covered in Mana Blade swung as he fight off the blood spikes—trying to crawl toward the fallen priest.
Aldric's lips peeled back in a slow, wolfish smile.
Before the knight could even turn—
CRACK—
Aldric vanished.
A blur of crimson and shadow.
He reappeared beside the knight, the air snapping around him from the force of the instantaneous movement. The priest mouth bloody with shallow breathe looked up—frozen in terror—mouth opening in a shaky prayer—
Too slow.
Aldric's hand clamped the knights head.
CRUNCH.
Metal buckled like wet paper.
With one violent rip, Aldric tore off the helmet and half the breastplate along with it, flinging the shredded steel aside. The knight barely had time to scream—
Aldric's mouth opened.
Wide.
Far too wide.
Fangs gleamed crimson as his jaw unhinged like a predator from the deep.
Then he struck.
SHLK—
Teeth punched into the knight's neck. Not cutting— piercing.
A wet, choking sound escaped the knight as Aldric latched down, drinking with a savage hunger that made the knight's body convulse helplessly.
Blood didn't spill.
It flowed upward, dragged out of the knight in a pulsing stream that shimmered like a reverse waterfall pouring into Aldric's throat.
The knight shriveled.
Skin tightening. Muscle collapsing. Eyes sinking inward.
In seconds— nothing remained but a dry husk, curled inward like a mummified corpse left in the sun for a century.
Aldric released the mummified husk.
It collapsed onto the stone with a hollow, brittle crack, folding in on itself like dried parchment.
Steam curled from Aldric's lips as he straightened, letting the last taste of blood slide down his throat. His tongue swept across his teeth, savoring the lingering warmth.
His gaze drifted back across the courtyard—over the shattered bodies, the ruptured stone, the scorched air.
> "Good… that's one distraction gone."
He lifted his hand, letting crimson mana pulse through his fingertips.
> "Those priests were getting annoying.
Healing and bring up back those that should already be dead… patching them up… throwing them back into the fight."
His grin widened, sharp and wolf-like.
> "Without them let's see how you held up?
Every wound stays open.
Every cut matters.
Every death sticks."
The ground trembled.
A deep, rolling surge of mana rippled out from him, stirring the pools of blood that covered the ruined courtyard.
> "Now we can really continue."
A deep, rolling pulse like a shockwave of thunder erupted across the courtyard. Every puddle of blood quivered—
then lifted.
At first in droplets.
Then in streams.
Then in sweeping ribbons of liquid crimson, spiraling upward from every corpse, every shattered helm, every torn limb.
Lucan, Carvon, and Elliren froze despite themselves—caught in the horrifying majesty of it.
The entire courtyard seemed to rise.
Blood swelled— thickening— condensing—
into hundreds of forming spear-shapes.
Some hardened instantly into wicked crimson blades.
Others remained liquid— floating in coiling tendrils around Aldric like serpents made of living blood, each one humming with barely restrained violence.
The sky above him glowed red. The air shook. Mana crackled against stone.
Aldric stood at the center of the maelstrom, blood and power orbiting his body like a demonic constellation.
His grin widened.
His wings flared.
His voice came out soft— almost gentle— yet filled with promise of slaughter:
> "Let's begin again."
The blood in the air trembled.
Spears sharpened.
Liquid tendrils coiled.
The entire courtyard throbbed with violent crimson light—like a single, monstrous heartbeat.
Aldric raised his hand.
His grin cut across his face like a blade.
> "Now… let's see along you-all stay alive ."
The blood answered.
It screamed.
The wind tore across the courtyard as hundreds of spears tilted downward, locking onto Lucan, Carvon, and Elliren with predatory precision. The nobles braced, every muscle tensed to survive the next storm—
But before the killing blow could fall,
BOOM.
A shockwave of mana cracked across the courtyard—distant, echoing, not born of Aldric.
Carvon's head snapped toward the source.
Elliren's breath hitched.
Even Aldric paused—just a fraction—his smile twitching as his gaze shifted across the courtyard, where Lucan now stood wreathed in holy fire, the air burning around him, his hair transformed into a crown of living flame.
The blood around him quivered, waiting.
Aldric's eyes narrowed, crimson reflecting the distant flare.
> "…huh."
The smile returned—sharper, colder.
> "Looks like you've decided ot stop holding back but too bad that won't make any difference the moment you decided to bring this many blood bags that was the moment you lost."
The spears hovered, trembling at the edge of release.
And the world held its breath.
—Scene shift—