The daylight was beginning to fade behind the walls of the imperial palace.
Lusian remained in the private armory, preparing each weapon and every piece of equipment with an unsettling calm. His fingers paused for a moment over the sheath of his sword, and then over the black helmet that seemed to absorb the light around it, designed for the approaching night.
Every movement was silent and precise, as if the darkness was already waiting for him.
From the corridor came raised voices. Emily and Elizabeth were arguing insistently, and their words echoed against the stone walls.
—"Lusian, you can't do this!" Emily exclaimed, unable to hide her frustration. "The Witherfrost destroyed an entire legion. You could die!"
Elizabeth stepped forward, her face rigid with tension.
—"It's an Omega-level monster. I won't allow you to go alone. It's too dangerous."
Albert did not remain silent either.
—"Then I'll go with you, Lusian!" the veteran declared firmly. "I won't let you face something like that alone while I'm still breathing."
Lusian lifted his gaze.
His eyes met Albert's, and the atmosphere seemed to freeze for an instant.
—"Albert… I am Duke Douglas," he said in a cold, unshakable voice. "You are my vassal. You will obey me."
He stepped toward him.
—"You will remain to protect the princess."
The old man hesitated, but his pride still resisted.
Lusian continued before giving him a chance to respond:
—"There is no room for discussion. This mission requires precision, stealth, and speed. No one can interfere."
His gaze hardened.
—"Not tonight."
Emily breathed heavily, and Elizabeth looked away for a moment, trying to contain the worry boiling in her chest.
Lusian observed both of them in silence before speaking one last time.
—"As long as it is night… no being is safe with me."
Silence became absolute.
From an elevated balcony, Naira watched with her arms crossed.
Those words struck her memory.
She recalled the war against the Kingdom. The night of her worst defeat. The Douglases had slaughtered more than a thousand soldiers before dawn without anyone understanding how.
Since then, the Empire had never again launched nighttime offensives against them.
And now, before her eyes, a Douglas was going to hunt an Omega monster alone under the darkness.
Lusian finally mounted Thunder, the steed wrapped in crackling electricity. Beside him, Umber advanced in silence, moving with the natural calm of a predator.
Hooves struck the stone.
The black wolf positioned itself beside him.
—"Go."
Lusian barely whispered the order before heading into the streets of the imperial capital.
Emily and Elizabeth remained motionless as they watched him disappear into the shadows.
The certainty of danger, the impossibility of stopping him, and the absolute confidence he exuded left them speechless.
They knew Lusian was not alone.
But they also understood something far more unsettling:
his shadow alone was enough to face any horror that existed in that world.
Night fell over the capital.
Lusian advanced without leaving footprints. Beside him, Umber moved its massive black body with unnatural softness, like smoke taking solid form.
Both were covered in a layer of shadows so dense that not even the most mana-sensitive creature could perceive them.
Lusian inhaled deeply until the movement of his chest almost disappeared.
Just need a second. I don't need luck… only precision.
—"Soul Sleep initiation," he whispered.
Even that voice seemed to die before spreading.
His temperature dropped.
His pulse became nearly imperceptible.
His breathing disappeared completely.
Umber mirrored the process. The yellow glow in its eyes slowly faded until it became dead embers.
They were no longer heat.
Nor scent.
Nor sound.
They were shadows moving among shadows.
—"Stay on my right," Lusian murmured in a hollow voice. "Do not let your aura awaken."
The wolf responded with an almost inaudible growl.
Hundreds of meters ahead, the Witherfrost breathed.
Each exhalation froze the air into a gigantic arc, forming crystals that floated slowly before falling like petals of ice.
The cold tried to reach them.
But the darkness surrounding Lusian swallowed it like a bottomless pit.
A forbidden magic.
Dangerous.
But indispensable.
—"Absolute Shadow Mantle."
The ice stopped before touching them.
The creature perceived nothing approaching.
Perfect.
Lusian extended a hand.
Beneath the snow, the ground began to sink slowly into a liquid darkness.
—"Reverse Pit… activated."
The trap waited.
Umber lowered its head as its fur trembled, as if something alive was coursing through its body from within.
—"Prepare yourself," Lusian ordered.
The Witherfrost suddenly raised its head.
Something had alerted it.
A minimal vibration.
An almost imperceptible disturbance in the wind.
But it reacted too late.
The creature stepped forward, and one of its legs sank into the viscous shadow.
The roar that followed split the entire forest.
Umber attacked first.
The enormous black wolf became a blur among the shadows before sinking its fangs into the beast's hind leg. Frozen mana dispersed violently, and the creature lost stability.
Then Lusian appeared.
He emerged from the darkness as if he had always been there.
His shadow sword reflected no light.
It made no sound.
It looked like a black fissure cutting through the world.
One slash was enough.
The frozen tendon shattered like glass.
The Witherfrost fell to its side as the snow exploded around it like a white storm.
Lusian raised a hand toward the sky.
—"Now!"
A bolt of lightning descended from the hill without producing a sound.
Thunder appeared wrapped in blue electricity, cutting through the darkness like a specter.
Its hooves struck the ground.
The earth cracked.
Thousands of volts surged through the monster's body from end to end.
The Witherfrost convulsed violently as the ice plates covering its body began to fragment.
—"Umber!"
The wolf leapt straight for the throat.
Its shadow fangs pierced frozen flesh, tearing through entire layers of living ice.
Lusian gripped his sword with both hands.
Darkness concentrated along the blade, dense and hungry.
—"Nullification Cut."
The strike pierced the core.
A burst of black light consumed the ice from within.
The Witherfrost stopped moving.
Silence returned to the forest.
Deep.
Absolute.
Lusian exhaled slowly.
Umber lowered its head.
Thunder dispersed the electricity in its body with a soft neigh.
It was over.
The frozen shadow of the night had been hunted.
The first rays of sunlight pierced the walls of the imperial capital, illuminating the melting snow and the torn banners still waving over the plaza.
Lusian returned in silence atop Thunder, while Umber walked beside him.
Between them, they dragged the massive body of the Witherfrost, still wrapped in dark shadows that seemed to resist the dawn.
The creature looked less like a corpse… and more like an omen of the violence that had fallen upon the world.
When he stopped before the Heralds, the heroes of the Kingdom, and the few soldiers who survived the encounter, silence became absolute.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
The beast that had destroyed entire legions and forced the Empire into retreat was now dead before them.
And upon Thunder stood Lusian Douglas.
Unmoving.
Emily was the first to move.
Her hurried steps echoed over the frozen pavement as she ran toward him.
When she reached him, she clung tightly to Lusian and buried her face against his chest, as if needing to confirm he had truly returned.
—"Lusian!" she whispered, her voice breaking between relief and fear. "You're okay…"
Lusian placed one hand on her back and the other on her neck, holding her firmly.
The shadow of battle still lingered in his eyes, but the tension in his body softened slightly as he felt Emily in his arms.
A few meters away, Elizabeth watched the scene alongside Empress Naira.
The princess maintained a serious expression, though pride and relief were visible in her gaze.
Naira, however, studied him in silence.
Her eyes calculated.
Evaluated.
And behind that imperial calm, a dangerous fascination began to grow.
Before her, she did not see only the man who had defeated the Witherfrost.
She saw someone capable of changing the balance of the Empire.
Someone who could stand at her side… and give her the strength she needed.
The Heralds remained motionless, while the mana around them slowly rippled, as if even they were trying to measure the magnitude of what had occurred.
The surviving soldiers, still covered in frost and wounds, watched in silence.
None of them seemed able to fully comprehend it.
The creature that had destroyed entire legions had fallen by the intervention of a single man.
Emily pulled back slightly and looked up at him.
Worry was still visible in her eyes.
—"Never do something like that again…" she whispered, tightening her grip on his hand.
Lusian looked at her for a moment before forming a faint smile, tired but calm.
—"I won't," he replied softly. "But it's over now."
His gaze shifted to the corpse of the Witherfrost.
—"No one will suffer because of that thing again."
Elizabeth lowered her gaze for a moment, holding back the relief still tightening her chest.
Naira, however, remained still.
She watched Lusian with dangerous attention.
The Heralds remained motionless, while mana rippled around them like a silent warning.
They were no longer observing a hero.
They were observing a threat.
A man who acted on his own, with abilities that neither armies nor gods could fully control.
Every action Lusian took made the need to contain him more urgent.
Because that night had proven something unsettling:
a single man could alter the course of war and the political balance of the Empire with his mere presence.
The heroes of the Kingdom, in contrast, remained silent.
Shame was impossible to hide.
Six heroes.
Two legions.
And still, they had not been able to stop the Witherfrost.
Defeat remained visible on their faces.
Frustration.
Helplessness.
Wounded pride.
Some avoided looking at the monster's corpse.
Others watched Lusian in silence, trapped between admiration and jealousy toward someone who had not only survived… but had mastered a threat they could never control.