The air in the Council Chamber, so recently filled with jubilation and relief, solidified as if struck a physical blow. Lin Mei's words hung in the silence, heavy and poisonous as lead.
"Her illness... it wasn't just a curse. It was intentional. And I know who."
Leng Wei froze. The entire world narrowed to the pale face of Lin Mei and the tattered diary in her trembling hands. The cacophony of battle, the roar of the Giants, the radiance of the Legacy—it all vanished, dissolving into a deafening roar in his ears. All that remained was an icy void, and at its center, a single thought, white-hot.
Intentional.
"Who?" His own voice sounded alien, low and lifeless, like the grinding of stone.
Lin Mei stepped forward, her knuckles white on the diary's binding.
"Mentor Kael. The chief ideologue of 'blood purity.' The one who considered your father's marriage the ultimate betrayal. He didn't die that night. He faked his death and has been watching all these years. In this... he calls your mother an 'experiment.' The 'root of a sickness that must be cauterized.'"
The icy emptiness inside Leng Wei began to fill with something dark, viscous, and bottomless. It wasn't rage. Rage was fire, a flash. This was different. A cold, purposeful hatred, crystallizing in his soul into diamond hardness.
"Where is he?"
"An old manor on the outskirts of the Shadow City. He's waiting for the 'natural conclusion of the experiment.'"
Leng Wei turned away. He wasn't seeing the scarred spires of the Academy through the window. He was seeing his mother's face, pale against the pillow. He heard her ragged cough. He felt her cold hand in his. All his struggles, his suffering, his acquisition of power, the battle for the Legacy—it had all played out against the backdrop of a quiet, relentless agony that he now knew was someone's malicious design. His personal tragedy had been someone else's strategy, a political maneuver.
He no longer felt connected to the people behind him. An invisible, impenetrable wall had descended between him and the world. He was alone again. Alone with his grief and his new, terrifying purpose.
The Shadow City greeted them with an oppressive silence and the stench of smoke. The air, once thrumming with magic and life, was now heavy and lifeless, as if exhaled for the last time. They moved through the deserted streets like ghosts, with only the shadows hiding behind shattered storefronts watching them with frightened eyes.
Suddenly, a tall figure in a cloak emerged from the shadows of a neighboring ruin. It was Mentor Lan. Her face, usually impassive, was strained.
"Leng Wei," her voice was quiet but cut through the silence like a blade. "Stop. You are walking into a trap."
Leng Wei didn't break stride.
"He poisoned my mother. No trap will stop me."
"That is precisely what he wants!" For the first time, desperation colored Lan's voice. "Kael hasn't merely been hiding all these years. He has been studying you. And he found a way to strike at the only vulnerable spot you have left. He has awakened the Veil of Sorrow."
Han cursed, a low, guttural sound.
"The legendary artifact that feeds on pain? But it was lost a century ago!"
"Kael found it. And he has attuned it to you, Leng Wei. It feeds on the very pain that is consuming you from the inside right now. The stronger your anger, your thirst for vengeance, your bloodlust—the more powerful the Veil becomes. It will turn your own strength against you and against everyone with you. You will sacrifice not only yourself but them."
Leng Wei paused. He turned, his gaze sweeping over the faces of Han, Jin, and Lin Mei. He saw their determination, their readiness to follow him to their deaths. And he understood Lan was right. His pain, his rage, they were the hook he was being caught with.
"What do you propose?" he asked, his voice regaining a fragile steadiness.
"Do not feed it," Lan said. "Enter not as an avenger. Enter as a son. As an heir. Carry with you not hatred, but memory. Not destruction, but justice. It is the only way to weaken the Veil. His power lies in your weakness. Show him you have none."
Leng Wei closed his eyes. He saw his mother's face again. But this time, he didn't see her suffering. He saw her smile. Her hands stroking his head. Her quiet voice saying, "Come back to me alive."
He opened his eyes. The flame of rage was not extinguished, but it was now encased in the ice of absolute control.
"Very well." He looked at his companions. "You heard her. Anyone who is afraid may stay."
In response, Han merely offered a grim smirk. Jin drew his blade, the metallic ring slicing the silence. Lin Mei wordlessly stepped closer to his side.
Kael's manor was as grim as a tomb. The door was not locked. It swung open on its own, as if inviting them in.
Beyond it, they were met not by a garrison, but by a total, suffocating silence. The air was thick and cloying, difficult to breathe. The very walls seemed to absorb every sound, every emotion.
In the center of the spacious, empty hall, seated on a throne of ebony, was an elderly vampire with an ascetic's face and eyes as cold as ice. Mentor Kael. Before him, on a low table, rested a small, dull crystal from which emanated barely perceptible waves of heavy, oppressive energy—the Veil of Sorrow.
"I have been waiting for you, half-breed," his voice was dry as the rustle of dead leaves. "Waiting for your human weakness, your attachment, to lead you to me. You are living proof of our race's decline. And today, I will correct this error."
Leng Wei felt the Veil of Sorrow reaching for him, trying to siphon his pain, his fury. He felt the dark energy like sticky tendrils coiling around his mind, seeking to ignite a storm of anger and despair.
But he did not yield. He stood motionless, breathing evenly and deeply, as the Elder had taught him in the Tomb. He looked upon Kael not with hatred, but with cold, indifferent contempt, as one would look upon an insect.
"You miscalculated, Kael," Leng Wei stated, his voice calm as the surface of a windless lake. "You thought you were plucking my weakest string. But what you call weakness is my strength. The love for my mother is not an anchor. It is a compass. It led me here not to lose myself in vengeance, but to deliver justice. Not in the name of hate. In the name of love."
The Veil of Sorrow above the crystal shuddered. Its dull light dimmed further. It fed on darkness, and he offered it nothing. Only the cold, relentless light of truth.
"Lies!" Kael hissed, a flicker of unease in his eyes for the first time. "All attachment is weakness! Strength lies in solitude! In purity!"
"No," Lin Mei said softly, standing behind Leng Wei. "Strength is moving forward even when it hurts. And not going alone."
Kael sprang from his throne with a roar. His aristocratic mask shattered, revealing a bitter, cornered fanatic.
"You understand nothing! I did this for our people! To save us from degeneration!"
"You acted from fear," Jin cut in, his silver eyes glinting coldly in the gloom. "Fear of the future. Of change. And you made an innocent woman pay for your fear."
In that moment, Leng Wei felt the connection between Kael and the Veil of Sorrow weaken. The artifact, starved of its intended fuel, began to turn on its master, feeding on his own fury and frustration.
Kael clutched his head, screaming. "No! Cease! I am your master!"
"No longer," Leng Wei said, and took a step forward.
He did not run. He did not lunge. He simply walked, inexorable as fate. Kael, maddened by pain and terror, drew a dagger and hurled himself forward.
The attack was swift, desperate. But Leng Wei didn't even raise a hand. At the final moment, a wall of shimmering runes materialized between them, woven from the combined will of Lin Mei, Jin, and Han. The dagger clattered away as if striking solid steel.
Leng Wei halted a single step from Kael. He looked down at him.
"You are not worthy of a King's death," Leng Wei pronounced. "You will be judged. By those you betrayed. And you will live to see the 'unclean' future you despised come to pass without you."
He reached out toward the Veil of Sorrow. The crystal, devoid of its master's will, offered no resistance. Leng Wei took it, and the dark artifact suddenly clarified, becoming as transparent as a tear, before crumbling into fine, harmless dust.
Kael, stripped of his last support, crumpled bonelessly to his knees. His eyes held no remorse, only emptiness and defeat.
Leng Wei turned and walked toward the exit, without a backward glance at his vanquished foe. He stepped outside, where his friends, his comrades, awaited him. He drew a deep breath of the night air.
One battle was over. But another, far more important, lay ahead—returning to his mother with the cure, and beginning the work of building a new world. A world where there would be no more room for poison in the past.