A faint black mist glowed around Max's skin, as though it were continuously seeping out of his body. His eyes had turned completely black, making it look as if he had lost all humanity in a matter of seconds. Each breath that left him was ragged, sharp, and almost furious.
"He's not stable, retreat!" Henry was the first to shout it. One look at his ashen face was enough for his clansmen to understand that he had seen something in Max, something dangerous not only to the fire dragons, but to them as well.
William moved at once. His blade carved through a few more enemies before he seized one of his own by the hand and dragged him back.
"Run, you idiots!"
The others quickly fought off whoever stood in their way. The last ten or so survivors fled in the opposite direction from where Rosalia and the weakest members of the clan had already escaped.
The fire dragons watched them with a mixture of shock, suspicion, fear, and pride. Not one of them thought to run, not without their leader's command. Max had become a threat, and none of them believed they could kill him without staking their lives on it, but they still refused to abandon their injured Queen and leave her at his mercy.
The air temperature dropped to nearly sub-zero the moment Max took his first step toward Agnia, and a violent chill ran through the dragons as if winter itself had just descended onto the battlefield.
The fire dragon queen twitched weakly before her eyes finally opened. A clear sky stretched above her, and high overhead, the two true dragons were still tearing into each other. Yet the ice dragon no longer looked focused on winning. It was trying to shake off its opponent as though escape mattered more than battle.
Confusion stirred inside Agnia. The last few hours were gone from her mind, swallowed by darkness, and she blinked again and again, struggling to understand where she was.
With great difficulty, she pushed herself upright, loose dirt sliding from her hair and body.
"Why am I here?" Her voice came out strained as she looked around. Her clansmen stood nearby in tense battle stances, every single one of them caught on the razor's edge between fleeing and fighting.
Then her gaze found the source of it all, and her entire body went cold. Her skin prickled. Agonizing pain surged through her muscles, as if they had suddenly remembered the instant Max had blasted her away. But this time, he did not even need to touch her. She was already retreating, inch by inch, while terror swallowed her pride.
She was the queen of the fire dragon clan, one of the four great draconic clans of the continent, yet the figure walking toward her did not look like a man. He looked like a demon, a monster the world was never meant to welcome. Those black eyes, that dark aura curling around him, all of it made recognition crash into her at once.
"He's a devil... this man... he can't be human..." Her pupils trembled violently. She knew it was Max, yet at the same time, it did not feel like him at all. It was as if something else had crawled into his skin and was now looking back at her through his eyes.
"Queen, flee, we can hold him—" Agnia could not even register who had spoken as the warrior's voice suddenly vanished into nothing. His lips kept moving, but no sound came out. His eyes turned crimson within seconds, and a bluish shade spread across his face. He tried to gasp, but no matter how hard he fought, it felt as if the air itself had been ripped away from him, and that was not far from the truth.
Max did not even know what he was doing. His mind had drifted somewhere far away, and all that remained before him were shadowy figures, each one wearing the image of his abusive mother with a knife in her hand. He raised his hand, black vortices swirling around it like hungry mouths. In that moment, the warrior who had tried to warn Agnia felt the very air around him disappear.
The void energy under Max's control devoured it all, dropping the man to his knees before his lungs gave out. He died without ever understanding what had killed him.
The rest broke into panic like chickens chased by a starving fox, scattering in every direction and forgetting the vow they had sworn to protect their queen.
"Stop! Come back! It's an order! Sto—!" Agnia cried out in panic as she shot into the air, her wings beating desperately while she chased after the fire dragon. Its cry pierced through the sky, filled with the same desperation as its master. But the moment its gaze met Max's black-as-ink eyes, even that mighty creature turned and fled without a second thought.
The black mist burst out of Max at a speed impossible to follow with the naked eye and coiled around Agnia's left ankle. With one violent pull, all the resistance she had gathered was ripped away from her. Her body was dragged back through the air, and just before she could slam into him, she stopped dead, his hand already locked around her neck.
The crushing grip forced a broken gasp out of her. Those black eyes stared straight into her soul, as if they could see through flesh, bone, and thought itself. For the first time in her life, Agnia, the proud queen, found herself face to face with death itself.
But Max no longer saw Agnia. In her face, he saw his mother, that same wicked smile twisted toward him. He could even hear her voice as if she were truly standing there before him. "You piece of shit mutt, kill me if you dare. You won't, right? Right? Max, you coward, you won't!" she screamed into his face, and his shaking hand tightened more and more around her throat.
"Shut up," he said softly.
"Coward!" she screamed again.
"Shut up! Forever!" Max roared, consumed by the rage of all those years spent being treated like trash by his own mother. He was ready to kill her. He had enough.