I maintained a steady, rhythmic stride as my armored boots clicked against the ancient cobblestones of the fortified stone bridge. Beneath the dark-iron breastplate, my newly formed heart beat with cold, mechanical precision. Every movement, from the slight tilt of my head to the deliberate sway of my tactical skirt, was calculated to match the exact biometric data of Vanessa Katt preserved in my cellular memory.
Suddenly, the pitch-black darkness of the ravine was shattered.
"HALT! Identify yourself!" a harsh voice echoed from the battlements.
Several Immoral Knights stationed along the outer parapets thrust their hands forward, channeling their mana. Blinding beams of white light magic erupted from their fingertips, slicing through the freezing mountain mist like high-powered military flashlights. The intense, artificial glare focused directly on my pale face and the distinctive markings of my dark-iron vanguard armor. I didn't flinch, letting the light illuminate the unblemished porcelain skin and crimson eyes I had just grown.
The defensive lines instantly rippled with a wave of collective shock. The guards lowered their weapons slightly, their tense, combat-ready postures wavering.
"Wait... look at her face, that's Vanessa. The commander's wife. She made it back alive!" one of the vanguard knights on the left whispered, his voice cracking with disbelief through his visor.
A tall, heavily armored figure stepped out from the primary checkpoint at the center of the bridge, his dual-bladed halberd scraping sharply against the stone. It was Victor Katt… Vanessa's biological brother and the elite captain tasked with guarding the castle's outer threshold. His gaze locked onto me, his features twisting into a raw mixture of intense relief and deep suspicion as he noted my lack of an escort.
Using my newly regenerated vocal cords, I flawlessly modulated my pitch to mimic Vanessa's distinct, high-pitched northern cadence, injecting a subtle layer of exhaustion and frantic relief into my tone.
"I'm fine, brother, the outpost was compromised by the Bureau's vanguards... but I managed to break through their perimeter and escape into the lower sectors." I said smoothly, my voice carrying perfectly over the whistling alpine wind.
Victor let out a heavy, ragged breath he had clearly been holding for hours. He raised his gauntleted hand, turning toward the towering iron portcullis of the main castle gates.
"Open the gates! Stand down! It's the vanguard commander's wife! Lower the magic barriers!" Victor roared to the gatehouse sentries.
The massive iron-reinforced doors ground open with a deep, echoing groan, the crimson mana wards humming along the threshold dissolving into thin air to grant me passage. Victor stepped into stride right beside me, his heavy plate armor clanking as he guided me past the bowing guards and into the cavernous, torch-lit outer courtyard of the fortress.
"Vanessa, you're safe now,"
Victor muttered, his hand resting briefly on the shoulder of my dark-iron breastplate, completely oblivious to the fact that he was walking shoulder-to-shoulder with the Crimson Phantom.
"Cameron has been pacing the war room since midnight. He thought the Luminous executioners had taken you. Come on... I will lead you straight to him."
The heavy ironwood door of the war room ground open, and Victor stepped aside, gesturing for me to precede him. The interior of Rebelbub Castle was grim, oppressive, and utterly devoid of color, the walls constructed from cold, soot-stained volcanic stone that seemed to absorb the flickering light of the low-burning torches. This was the dark heart of the rebellion… the primary strategic base of the Immoral Knights and the catalyst for the bloody civil war tearing Caria apart.
As I marched down the wide, vaulted hallway, my single functional jade-green eye… now safely masked beneath Vanessa's crimson iris… methodically scanned the personnel lining the corridors. My analytical mind ran hyper-speed calculations on their baseline postures and mana signatures. The data was sobering. These weren't the low-ranking squires or bureaucratic paper-pushers of the 4th District; these were battle-hardened veterans, S-rank vanguard mages, and high-tier knights whose physical stats radiated absolute, lethal discipline.
I recalled the driving, unyielding goal that Eirene had lived by: eliminate every single Immoral Knight.
Walking through the belly of the beast, surrounded by the very monsters who threatened my family, only hardened my resolve.
Victor led me out onto a sprawling, stone-carved balcony that overlooked the jagged peaks of the Rebelbub gorges. The massive full moon was just beginning to set over the western horizon, casting a pale, silver glow over a slender, green-haired figure standing by the parapet.
It was him. Cameron Gal. The top target on the Registry of the Condemned, carrying a staggering bounty of 10 gold pieces. The official sketches in the Bureau's files hadn't lied; his slim build and sharp, aristocratic posture practically radiated the cold authority of a high-tier commander.
"Oh, Vanessa... you're alive," Cameron said, his voice laced with a raw, breathless relief as he turned around. He crossed the balcony in swift, elegant strides and wrapped his arms tightly around my armored torso.
To maintain the absolute perfection of the illusion, I leaned into the embrace, wrapping my newly regenerated left arm around his shoulders. To perfectly mimic a devoted wife's relief, I forced my body to tremble slightly, letting my mind draw upon the ghostly, nostalgic memories of a high school crush just to fake the genuine warmth of a woman returning to her lover.
Cameron pulled back slightly, his hands resting on my dark-iron breastplate as his eyes frantically scanned my pale, unblemished face.
"Your squad... the scouts reported the outer sector was completely wiped out by a single, crimson-winged executioner. I thought I lost you, Vanessa. Hey! We need a high-tier healer out here immediately! Bring Lara Meyer!" He immediately turned toward the threshold of the war room, his voice booming with absolute command.
The moment that name escaped his lips, the blood in my veins turned to absolute ice. My posture locked, a sudden, terrifying calculation grid flashing through my super-intelligent tactical brain.
Lara Meyer.
The name didn't just exist in Vanessa's memory files… it was deeply etched into the darkest, most horrific chapters of my own existence. Lara was one of the three sadistic tormentors from Town Tata. Along with her husband, Dominik Meyer, and the corrupt aristocrat Bernard Callus, she was the monster who had chained a hero in a damp, suffocating cellar, systematically amputating toes with rusted shears and flaying flesh from muscle while forcing her victim to endure raw, unmitigated agony beneath the weight of magic-dampening chains.
Just last month, my blades had cut through Town Tata. I had personally executed her husband, Dominik, and left that entire corrupt syndicate faction drowning in their own blood. Lara had only managed to survive the catastrophic collapse of their estate by plummeting down into the gorge. I had assumed the fall had claimed her broken body, but I had underestimated the terrifying reality of her baseline attributes.
Lara Meyer possessed Divine Regeneration… a god-tier, absolute healing trait that could knit shattered bones, restore ruptured organs, and replicate severed tissue instantly. It was the exact same divine-tier biological capability possessed by my oldest sister, Elicia.
The pieces of the puzzle slammed together with violent, chilling clarity. Lara had survived the absolute ruin of Town Tata, using her god-tier regeneration to completely restore her body from the fatal fall before fleeing straight into the ranks of the Immoral Knights for political asylum. She was here, alive, inside the very same fortress I was attempting to infiltrate.
I forced Vanessa's porcelain face to maintain its soft, exhausted smile, completely masking the predatory, vanguard instincts screaming beneath my dark-iron uniform. The woman who had poured salt into raw, flayed nerves was about to walk onto this balcony.