Kael twisted sideways on pure instinct.
The golden net crashed down where he'd been standing a heartbeat earlier, its glowing cords smashing sparks from the stone floor as the enchantment sealed shut with a thunderclap of force.
Too slow.
Men were already moving on both sides of him.
Boots hammered across the floor. Steel hissed free of scabbards. A killing circle closed fast around the doorway of Heaven-Earth Tower.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
Then he moved.
Fire burst beneath his boots.
The Ember Dash hurled him forward in a spray of sparks, his body streaking through the doorway before the trap could close again. Cold night air slapped his face as he shot into the street.
Behind him came Hadrian Corvel's furious roar.
"Hand over the Griffin Carriage and I may let you die quickly!"
Kael didn't even look back.
"Come take it, you crow-faced bastard!"
Golden light exploded behind him again.
The Adamant Ward-Net came flying through the night like a blazing sun, its woven runes widening as they descended.
Kael spun in midair.
Something crimson lashed from his sleeve.
The Eight-Claw Flamescourge erupted outward with a dragon's scream. Fire rolled along its scaled length as the whip unfurled through the sky, twisting into the shape of a blazing serpent.
The burning lash collided with the descending net.
Fire swallowed gold.
The whip coiled around the enchanted cords, wrenching them sideways with brutal force. Hadrian staggered hard, nearly losing his grip as the net thrashed violently in his hands.
Sweat burst cold across the young warden's back.
He'd seen Kael fight before.
Back in the Great Verdant Vale, the bastard had been troublesome, slippery, dangerous in bursts—
—but nothing like this.
The pressure coming off him now was completely different.
His movements were sharper.
His control cleaner.
His fire hotter.
Hadrian's jaw tightened.
That fox-spawn had hidden his strength.
Kael landed lightly atop a stone railing, confidence surging through him as the Flamescourge writhed around his arm like a living thing. He was just about to press the attack—
—when icy danger flashed from the side.
A sword streaked toward his throat.
Kael snapped the whip upward.
Steel rang against dragon-scales in a burst of sparks.
The attacker flipped backward and landed several yards away—a gaunt grey-mantled swordsman with sharp eyes and a narrow face.
"That fox is dangerous!" the man barked. "Attack together!"
Another figure stepped forward immediately.
"Move aside."
It was the giant in blue robes Kael had slammed into outside the tower.
The brute thrust both hands forward, fingers clawed.
White vapor exploded from his palms.
The mist twisted through the air like a starving wyrm and lunged straight at Kael.
Kael's eyes flashed.
His wrist snapped.
The Eight-Claw Flamescourge spiraled outward again, the fiery dragon shape re-forming around the whip as it crashed headlong into the white stream.
Fire and pale force detonated together.
Both attacks shattered apart.
Kael remained standing firm as a mountain.
The giant, however, cried out and stumbled backward. Flames crawled wildly up both sleeves of his robe.
The street filled with startled shouts.
Kael finally had a chance to look around.
Six enemies.
Hadrian.
The sword-adept.
The blue-robed giant.
Three more cultists armed with a saber, a measuring rod, and a white horsetail whisk.
Recognition struck him instantly.
These were the same zealots who'd threatened to capture him over the Dread Mire yesterday. A few of the monks from before were missing, but the rest were here.
The giant snarled in rage.
He slapped both sleeves together and blasted the flames apart with a surge of Vitae. Then he glared murderously at Kael.
"So. A wicked creature truly." His voice boomed through the street. "No wonder your tricks stink of corruption. Since that's the case, don't blame Reverend Stillwater for showing no mercy!"
He began chanting.
White mist thickened before him.
Then came a roar.
A massive white tiger stepped from the fog.
The beast's fur gleamed like fresh snow beneath moonlight. Its eyes glowed pale blue. Muscles rolled beneath its hide with terrifying power.
The crowd watching from the street immediately scattered in panic.
Kael's grip tightened on the Flamescourge.
"Corrupt your mother's corpse," he spat. "The Little Saint-Lord is a disciple of the Ascendant Covenant!"
The cultist with the whisk sneered coldly.
"The Covenant truly courts extinction if it dares shelter the cursed remnants of monsters beneath its banner." His eyes burned with disgust. "Tonight, the Still-Heart Order will carry out heaven's justice and drag your fox-hide back to our mountain."
His whisk snapped forward.
Invisible force crashed toward Kael like a battering ram.
Kael started to counter—
—but movement exploded all around him.
The others attacked at once.
Steel flashed from every direction.
The tiger lunged low.
Hadrian circled behind the others with the Adamant Ward-Net ready in his hands, waiting for an opening like a vulture picking through a battlefield.
Kael gritted his teeth and moved.
The street became fire and shadows.
His footwork twisted between attacks by inches. The Flamescourge screamed through the air like a living dragon, smashing aside blades, wrapping around weapons, scattering sparks across stone walls and rooftops.
One against six.
And the tiger.
Yet somehow—
he wasn't losing.
Vitae surged through his Channels like molten iron.
His body felt strangely light.
Faster than before.
Stronger.
The whip became a storm of crimson fire around him while he drifted through the battlefield like smoke.
The six attackers gradually felt their expressions changing.
Shock.
Then disbelief.
Reverend Stillwater's frustration grew heavier by the second.
He trusted the tiger's brute strength above all else. With a savage shout, he forced the beast directly through Kael's defensive range.
The tiger pounced.
A moment later it screamed.
The spirit beast leapt backward in panic, fur blackened and smoking where the Flamescourge had torn across its shoulder.
Stillwater nearly choked with fury.
"You damned creature!"
Ignoring the drain on his own Vitae, he launched attack after attack in a frenzy, white dragon-shaped blasts roaring from his hands.
Hadrian stayed farther back.
"We only need to trap him!" he shouted sharply. "Keep him exhausted and he can't escape forever!"
Kael heard every word.
Hatred boiled hotter inside his chest.
But Hadrian was slippery as oil. The bastard never committed fully, always hiding behind the others while throwing cheap attacks whenever Kael turned his back.
Stillwater snarled furiously.
"Exhaust him? Bullshit! You said this fox-spawn was weak! He fights better than you by a hundred times!"
Hadrian's face reddened instantly.
"He hid his strength from everyone! Even his own Master was fooled!"
The word Master stabbed through Kael like a knife.
Isara.
For one brief moment, pain cracked his concentration.
That was enough.
The rod-bearing cultist had remained silent until now.
Suddenly he opened his mouth.
"Break."
The word wasn't loud.
To everyone else, it barely sounded stronger than a whisper.
To Kael, it hit like thunder inside his skull.
His head exploded with agony.
The world flipped sideways.
He crashed to the ground hard enough to bounce.
"The Heaven-Thunder Demonbreaking Curse?" the whisk-bearing cultist gasped. "Junior Brother Venn, when did you master such a technique?"
"Talk later!" the rod-adept barked. "Subdue him first!"
Joy erupted among the attackers.
All six lunged at once.
Blades.
Steel rods.
The tiger.
The net.
Everything crashed down toward Kael together.
Hadrian shouted over the chaos.
"Don't strike his abdomen! Be careful not to damage the Primordial Sigil!"
Kael's pupils shrank.
Bad.
Aether exploded from his body.
Massive pillars of fire burst upward from the ground around him.
The street detonated.
Seven towering columns of flame bent inward and fused into a blazing ring that surged toward the sky like a furnace-wall.
The Fire-Prison Art.
A mid-tier fire technique from the Five-Force Path.
Normally used to imprison enemies inside a burning cage.
Kael had thrown it outward defensively in desperation.
The effect was immediate.
Several attackers slammed straight into the wall of fire before they could stop themselves.
Screams erupted.
Hair burned away instantly.
Robes caught fire.
The tiger recoiled with a furious howl as heat blasted across the street hard enough to crack stone.
Even Kael didn't understand what had just happened.
The spell was far stronger than usual.
Several times stronger.
If Isara or his Elder Sorors had been there to witness it, they would've stood speechless.
Kael staggered upright, head spinning violently.
His ears rang nonstop.
The world blurred.
Then he saw Hadrian.
Rage flooded him so hard it drowned everything else.
Kael charged.
Hadrian was still frantically slapping flames off his clothes when he looked up and saw Kael barreling straight toward him.
Panic exploded across his face.
The Adamant Ward-Net flew outward instantly, spreading wide enough to seal the entire front path.
Kael's eyes burned.
Vitae surged through his arm.
The Flamescourge snapped downward and slithered across the ground like a striking serpent.
CRACK.
The whip-head smashed directly into Hadrian's left knee.
The young warden screamed and dropped to one knee immediately.
"Help me!"
Too late.
Kael leapt high into the air.
Then drove his boot down onto Hadrian's skull with all his weight.
The impact sounded like a hammer striking wet stone.
Hadrian slammed face-first into the ground.
Kael used the man's head as a stepping point and launched himself over the surrounding crowd, shooting away through the night like a falling star.
Behind him came chaos.
"After him!"
"He went that way!"
"He took the Heaven-Thunder Curse head-on! He can't have gone far!"
"That little bastard burned my beard! I'll skin him alive!"
Meanwhile Hadrian remained sprawled in the dirt.
Blood poured from his nose and mouth.
Stars burst across his vision.
For several moments he couldn't even rise.
Finally he dragged himself upright and touched his face.
Blood.
Mud.
Broken teeth.
His fingers froze.
Then trembling rage overtook him.
"Kael Ashvane…" he hissed through ruined gums. "I'll tear you into pieces…"
He lurched to his feet and staggered after the pursuit party with murder in his eyes.
---
Kael ran blindly through Vessel Town.
The ringing in his skull wouldn't stop.
Every pulse of pain felt like nails being driven through his brain.
He had no idea what kind of cursed technique that rod-bearing cultist had used on him, only that it was getting worse by the second.
He vaulted rivers.
Kicked off rooftops.
Sprinted through narrow alleys.
All he needed was distance.
A quiet place.
Somewhere to force the poison out of his head before the hunters caught him.
But the pursuit never loosened.
Behind him Reverend Stillwater rode the white tiger at terrifying speed, crossing streets and canals effortlessly. The sword-adept flew above the rooftops with the Sword-Flight Art, gliding through the night like a hawk.
They stayed on him relentlessly.
Kael's breathing grew ragged.
His thoughts drifted.
And through the haze, another face appeared in his mind.
Lyra Farrow.
That lazy smile.
Those dark eyes.
That soft body pressed against his.
"Shreve…" he muttered hoarsely. "Where the hell are you…"
If she were here, none of this would've mattered.
He vaulted another canal without looking.
Ahead, a group of people rounded the street corner.
Two beautiful young women led them.
One dressed in violet.
One in blue-green.
The Farwyn sisters.
Violet's face lit instantly.
"Little White Brother!" she called happily. "We were just coming to find you!"
Kael stormed past them without slowing.
His face was pale.
Sweat soaked his clothes.
The girls blinked in confusion.
Azure frowned.
"What's wrong with him?"
Then she saw the figures racing after him.
Reverend Stillwater on the white tiger.
The flying swordsman overhead.
Understanding flashed through her eyes.
"They're chasing him."
Violet frowned too.
Azure suddenly shouted after Kael.
"Hey! Do you need help? Want us to deal with them?"
Kael barely heard anything through the roaring inside his skull.
Ahead stood the high wall of some wealthy estate.
Without thinking, he jumped.
He cleared the wall in a single motion and vanished into the courtyard beyond.
Azure grinned immediately.
"Sister, looks like our Ghostlight Moss problem just solved itself."
She pointed toward the incoming pursuers.
Then raised her voice sharply toward the spirit-creatures behind them.
"Stop those men!"
The demons and beastfolk roared eagerly.
Weapons flashed free.
Blades, axes, spears, clubs.
The entire mob surged forward to block the street.
"Stop right there!"
"We got questions for you!"
"Move another step and we'll gut you!"
Stillwater cursed violently.
"That damned fox actually has helpers!"
But neither he nor the flying swordsman hesitated.
They crashed straight into the spirit-creatures.
Steel rang.
Blood sprayed.
The street exploded into chaos.
Azure laughed excitedly.
"Come on! Let's go get the moss from him!"
Violet nodded.
"Don't let him escape again."
The sisters vaulted over the wall together.
Ahead, Kael was still running for his life.
The girls immediately circulated their own power and gave chase.
Azure cupped her hands around her mouth.
"You can stop running! We blocked your pursuers already!"
No response.
Kael just kept stumbling forward.
"Hey! Are you deaf?" Azure shouted between breaths. "Stand still!"
Ahead lay a small willow grove.
Kael plunged into it without slowing.
The sisters followed close behind.
Inside the grove, the world grew strangely quiet.
Thin mist drifted among the trees.
None of them noticed it.
Kael couldn't spare focus for healing anymore.
The noise inside his head kept growing louder.
His skull felt ready to split apart.
His pace slowed badly.
The sisters gained ground quickly.
Still the mist thickened silently around them.
Kael finally couldn't run anymore.
He staggered forward clutching his head, dragging one foot behind him.
The sisters caught up beside him.
Azure shouted loudly, "I told you to stop running already!"
Kael jerked violently.
He spun around with wild eyes and snapped the Flamescourge upward instinctively.
The sisters both retreated a step.
"What are you doing?" Violet cried.
Kael blinked hard.
For several long moments he simply stared at them stupidly.
Then recognition finally returned.
Relief sagged through him.
He lowered the whip and pressed a hand against his skull.
"You're hurt?" Violet asked softly.
Kael nodded.
Then shook his head.
Then just stood there breathing heavily while the ringing inside his skull screamed louder and louder.
Kael stood bent over in the deepening mist, one hand braced against his knee, the other pressed hard to his skull.
The screaming inside his head would not stop.
It felt like nails driven into the Sanctum behind his eyes. Every pulse of blood made the pain worse. His vision blurred in and out. The willow trunks around them seemed to twist slowly through the haze like black bones rising from swamp water.
Azure folded her arms and glared at him.
"So where's all that big talk now?" she snapped. "Thought you were some mighty terror. Why're you getting chased all over town like a kicked dog?"
Kael breathed hard through his teeth.
"You see how many there were?"
"Two," Azure shot back immediately. "Only two! You fought five of the White-Hair Matron's disciples back at Vane's Summit. Don't tell me you can't handle two bastards and one oversized monk."
Kael's face reddened despite the pain.
"Two?" he barked. "There were six! And a refined war-tiger besides! Ever hear the saying about enough fists beating an old master to death?"
Violet tilted her head slightly.
"They're enemies of yours?"
Kael opened his mouth to answer.
Instead a dull groan escaped him.
The pain suddenly spiked viciously through his skull. His knees buckled. He crouched slowly to the ground with both hands clamped over his head.
The sisters exchanged a glance.
Azure blinked her bright eyes once, then casually drew a finger across her throat in a silent suggestion.
Kill him.
Violet frowned immediately and shook her head.
She stepped closer instead.
Kael smelled faint flowers as she knelt before him. Her hand touched his forehead.
Cool.
Soft.
The sensation slid across his burning skin like cold water over fevered iron. Kael nearly moaned from relief.
"What exactly hurts?" Violet asked gently.
"I don't know," Kael growled irritably. "Those bastards must've done something filthy to me."
Azure snorted.
"You're pathetic enough not to even know how you got injured?"
Kael's temper flared instantly.
He surged upright and turned away from them.
"Where are you going?" Azure shouted.
Kael ignored her completely and stalked deeper through the forest.
Violet shot her sister an annoyed look before hurrying after him.
"Wait," she said. "Let us see if we can help."
"Don't need it."
The words came out harder than he intended. He paused briefly, then added stiffly:
"I'm fine."
Azure followed behind them with her hands on her hips.
"Hey! We helped stop your pursuers. How're you planning to repay us?"
Kael snorted without looking back.
"Nobody asked for your help."
Azure nearly choked.
"Oh, listen to him now! If we hadn't interfered, you think you'd have escaped?"
"If I couldn't escape, then I'd fight again," Kael shot back stubbornly. "A real man doesn't piss himself over dying."
Azure's eyes narrowed.
"Oh? A real man? Fine then. Since you're such a grand heroic warrior, answer me this. Should a real man repay his debts?"
"Yes."
The answer came out instantly.
Kael froze.
Damn it.
Azure grinned triumphantly.
"Good. Then hand over that chunk of Ghostlight Moss as thanks."
"Hell no!" Kael barked. "I knew you two were after the moss all along! You can take my life before you take that stone!"
Azure clenched both fists furiously.
Violet suddenly stopped walking.
"Wait," she said quietly. "Where are we?"
Kael blinked.
Only then did he finally notice the forest around them properly.
The trees had become impossibly dense. Thick trunks crowded together shoulder-to-shoulder beneath drifting ribbons of pale mist. The air smelled damp and old. No wind moved through the branches overhead.
Azure turned slowly in place.
"Wasn't this just a tiny grove when we entered?"
Violet frowned at the endless green around them.
"And we've been walking for a long time now."
Kael stared into the fog.
The deeper woods stretched outward forever.
No roads.
No sky.
No sounds except distant dripping water.
Azure's earlier irritation faded.
"This place feels wrong," she muttered. "We need to find a way out quickly."
Kael wiped sweat from his brow and forced a crooked grin.
"That's easy enough."
Before either sister could reply, he leapt upward.
He caught a thick branch with one hand, swung himself higher, then used the Eight-Claw Flamescourge like a climbing hook. The whip wrapped branches with serpent speed while Kael launched himself rapidly through the canopy.
Within moments he vanished into the dense leaves overhead.
The sisters waited below.
And waited.
Nothing.
No sound.
No movement.
Azure's expression gradually changed.
"Why's he taking so long?" she muttered. "Don't tell me something happened."
Violet thought for a moment before nodding.
"We go carefully."
She murmured a Binding Curse beneath her breath and opened her satchel. Two silver rings floated into her hands, glowing with soft moonlit radiance.
Azure drew her own weapons.
Twin flower-shaped blades unfolded from her palms. Every metallic petal curved razor-sharp, their edges gleaming icy blue within the mist.
The sisters rose together into the air.
Unlike Kael's clumsy scrambling ascent, they floated smoothly upward through the branches without support, their bodies light as drifting leaves.
They pierced the canopy.
And immediately stopped dead.
Kael stood motionless atop a narrow branch nearby.
Staring outward.
Azure stormed toward him.
"What's wrong with you? You scared us half to—"
Her voice died instantly.
Violet froze beside her.
All three of them looked out across the endless forest.
Green.
Nothing but green.
A colossal sea of trees stretched to every horizon beneath rolling banks of mist.
No town.
No roads.
No mountains.
No edge.
Just an infinite wilderness swallowing the world whole.
---
Hadrian Corvel and the others crashed through the outer streets in pursuit, cutting down spirit-creatures wherever they found them.
The battle became chaos almost immediately.
"How many of these filthy things are there?" Hadrian snarled.
His Adamant Ward-Net flashed gold through the air and wrapped around a wolf-headed creature. The net contracted violently. Bones snapped inward with wet crunches until the monster compressed into a shrieking lump of mangled flesh.
Several nearby spirit-creatures roared and charged him at once.
Reverend Stillwater smashed one aside with his sleeve and shouted over the fighting.
"That fox-blood brat escaped beyond the wall! These beasts are helping him!"
"Kill them quickly!" shouted the cultist carrying the horsetail whisk. "Don't let the demon spawn escape too far!"
Despite their strength, the hunters found themselves bogged down.
There were too many creatures.
The spirit-beasts attacked without fear, hurling themselves at blades and spells alike with savage desperation.
Then suddenly—
Someone else arrived.
Dozens.
Nobody saw where they came from.
One moment the street held only blood and battle.
The next, a silent formation of strangers stood nearby.
Men and women both.
Some wore broad travel hats. Others hid their faces behind pale veils. Every one of them carried weapons.
At the front stood a young nobleman in embroidered robes.
He looked sick enough to die.
Sunken cheeks.
Bent back.
Skin pale as old wax without the slightest trace of blood beneath it.
Even standing seemed to exhaust him.
Hadrian's heart tightened uneasily.
More allies of Kael's?
The pale nobleman drifted forward slowly, almost swaying as he walked.
A hard wind might have knocked him flat.
"Excuse me," he asked weakly. "I heard some of you know where the fox heir is. Which one of you would like to tell me?"
His voice barely rose above a murmur.
Yet every person in the middle of the battle heard it clearly.
Nobody answered.
Nobody had time.
The pale nobleman wandered directly into the fighting while blades and spells flew around him.
He looked left.
Then right.
"So nobody wishes to speak with me?"
A giant axe suddenly spun past his face close enough to shave skin from his cheek.
The young man frowned slightly.
"If you continue ignoring me," he sighed, "you'll regret it."
Reverend Stillwater finally exploded.
"Sickly corpse!" he roared. "Get out of my way!"
His elbow drove viciously into the nobleman's chest.
The impact should have shattered ribs.
Instead it felt like striking empty air.
Stillwater stumbled awkwardly as if his force had vanished into nothingness. Horror flickered across his face.
The pale nobleman slowly looked down at his chest.
"You touched me?"
For the first time, something ugly appeared behind his weak smile.
He punched Reverend Stillwater lightly in the shoulder.
The blow carried almost no visible force.
Stillwater tried to block.
Failed.
The fist landed anyway.
His Crucible shook violently.
Every stream of Vitae inside his body abruptly froze.
"I always collect interest," the pale nobleman said pleasantly. "So I'll hit you once more."
Another soft punch.
This one landed against Stillwater's chest.
For a split second his frozen Vitae resumed flowing—
Then instantly spiraled out of control.
All the power in his body surged toward the two impact points like floodwater through broken gates. Flesh swelled. Veins bulged black beneath the skin.
Stillwater's eyes widened with absolute terror.
"You... you're..."
His shoulder exploded first.
Then his chest detonated outward in a shower of blood and shattered bone.
Chunks of lung and meat blasted across the street.
Several breaths later, Reverend Stillwater's corpse finally collapsed.
The pale nobleman smiled brightly.
"That hurts, doesn't it?"
Then he casually punched a leopard-headed spirit-creature in the stomach.
The beast froze upright.
The pale nobleman's figure blurred.
For an instant he became a flickering phantom racing between the fighters.
Then screams erupted everywhere.
Bodies exploded apart.
One spirit-creature lost half its torso instantly. Another burst open from the spine. The cultist swordsman's chest collapsed inward before detonating outward in a spray of organs.
The remaining creatures charged the phantom in fury.
Every one of them died the moment they neared him.
Blood burst across the street in wet crimson clouds.
Limbs flew.
Entrails slapped against walls.
Within moments the entire battlefield fell silent except for dripping gore.
The pale nobleman reappeared calmly in the center of the corpses.
Not a single drop of blood stained his robes.
Yet he breathed heavily now, chest heaving as though even that brief slaughter had nearly exhausted him.
A slender veiled woman hurried from the gathered attendants and knelt before him.
"My Lord," she said sweetly, voice rich with dangerous seduction, "your health is poor. Please do not overexert yourself. Allow this servant to dispose of the remaining trash."
Hadrian stared at her numbly.
That voice...
He knew that voice.
But terror had hollowed his mind too badly to think.
The pale nobleman waved dismissively while still catching his breath.
"I'm not tired." He smiled faintly. "I haven't come outside in a very long time. Today I intend to enjoy myself properly."
The whisk-bearing cultist suddenly jolted as if struck by lightning.
His face drained white.
"The Sevenfold Thunder..." he whispered.
Then he screamed.
"You're the Little Demon Lord!"
The pale nobleman looked at him with interest.
"Oh? You recognize me?"
The cultist turned and fled instantly.
At the same moment the saber-wielding cultist and the ruler-bearing cultist bolted in different directions.
"Foolish."
The Little Demon Lord laughed softly.
His body blurred again.
The fleeing whisk-cultist collapsed first.
Then the saber-cultist dropped screaming into the dirt.
The ruler-bearing cultist spun around desperately and spat out a thunder-banishing curse.
A withered fist struck his chest anyway.
The Little Demon Lord tilted his head.
"That was a heaven-thunder ward, wasn't it? You trained it rather poorly."
He withdrew his fist.
The cultist stared at him with bloodshot eyes.
Then his chest exploded outward in a torrent of mangled organs.
The Little Demon Lord walked calmly back through the street with his hands behind his back.
Bodies littered the ground in shattered heaps around him.
His gaze finally settled upon Hadrian Corvel.
The young warden stood pressed against a wall trembling violently.
The Little Demon Lord smiled.
"You're afraid, aren't you?"
He approached slowly.
"I love that feeling so very much."
Hadrian's courage broke completely.
Warm filth spread down his legs.
The Little Demon Lord sighed softly while raising his fist again.
"Such a shame," he murmured almost sadly. "Without the Sevenfold Shroud, I can no longer savor these exquisite emotions properly."
"Please don't kill me!"
Hadrian dropped to his knees so hard they cracked stone.
Tears and mucus streamed down his face.
"This one is the Young Warden of Dawnbreaker Hold! I swear absolute loyalty to the Sevenfold Dominion! Spare me, my Lord!"
"Dawnbreaker Hold?"
The Little Demon Lord blinked once.
Then smiled faintly.
"I've never heard of it."
His fist slowly tightened.
"And there are already far too many people offering loyalty. You don't appear especially useful."
"I—I—"
Hadrian's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Then suddenly he screamed:
"Don't kill me! I know where the fox heir is! I know where the descendant of that fox is hiding!"