In the capital city of Avaloria, chaos had taken over. A shrill evacuation siren blared across the sky, echoing through every street. It was the signal only reserved for the worst possible disaster.

People screamed and ran for their lives, clutching children, carrying belongings, fleeing in panic as guards yelled for citizens to leave the city immediately.

Amidst all that chaos, outside the crumbling district walls, Alex remained kneeling quietly beside Selena's corpse. His hands trembled slightly, but his eyes were fixed on her face—blank, lifeless, peaceful in the most tragic way.

He didn't move. He didn't blink. He simply knelt there, surrounded by death and silence.

Seeing this, Arya clicked her tongue softly. Her green hair fluttered in the spreading gust of mana storms as she looked over the devastation around her.

"Pathetic…" she muttered, pulling out a small communication device from her ring. The screen flickered to life.

"This is Arya," she said quickly. "Send help immediately. Master Kyle is engaging in combat alone within the Human Empire's territory. We'll soon be surrounded by their armies if we stay any longer."

A voice responded almost instantly through the device. "Acknowledged. Reinforcements will be deployed at once."

Satisfied, Arya smiled faintly and lowered the communicator. But then her eyes caught something—movement a few meters ahead. Her gaze locked on the silver-haired boy kneeling beside Selena's body.

Her heart skipped. The boy's face was familiar. His features were sharp, unmistakable.

'No way… that's him,' she thought, her expression changing.

Recognition turned to excitement. As her lips curved upward in a sinister smile, she thought, 'If I kill him here, Master Kyle will be very pleased.'

Silently, she drew her sword from her storage ring and began walking toward Alex, her footsteps quiet, measured, predatory.

She moved closer, slowly, watching him with cold focus. The silver-haired boy didn't even move.

A few meters away, Azrael noticed her intent instantly. His eyes widened in alarm. "Alex! Look out!"

He sprinted toward him—only for a familiar figure to step into his path.

Silas.

"Where do you think you're going, boy?" Silas said, his mocking smile twisting his still-damaged face.

Azrael growled. "You again! Move out of the way!"

Silas tilted his head slightly, his eyes glimmering red. "And why should I? You're weaker now… drained. Master Kyle took almost everything from you. Seems like a perfect time to finish what we started."

He flicked his wrist, and a spear of condensed spiritual energy materialized in his grip. Without warning, Silas lunged.

Azrael barely managed to dodge, the spear grazing his shoulder as the ground behind him exploded from the impact. His movement was sluggish, unnatural—his body not responding like before.

"Damn it… he's right. I'm weakened…" Azrael hissed under his breath, raising his arm and forming a shadowy blade. He clashed with Silas again, but every blow pushed him back farther from Alex.

No matter how he tried to slip past, Silas always intercepted his path—smiling, blocking every route forward.

Meanwhile, Alex still knelt motionless, unmoving, staring into nothing.

Inside his mind, everything felt cold, hollow.

'Again…' he thought numbly.

'Someone close to me… left again.'

His breath quickened.

'Every time I try to get close to someone—every single time—they either betray me… or they die.'

The air around him began to tremble. His aura changed—dense, suffocating. The ground cracked beneath his knees. Mana surged violently, distorting the air around him.

The system's mechanical voice echoed urgently in his mind.

[ Host, calm yourself! At this rate, your mana core will collapse! ]

[ Containment failure imminent! ]

[ Damn it… it looks like I'll have to do something'] the system muttered inwardly, its tone sharp and rushed.

The mana around Alex reached critical levels, swirling with chaotic intensity.

Suddenly, blue system windows flickered one after another before his eyes.

[ Warning: Unknown energy surge detected. ]

[ Skill: (Unknown) awakening in progress. ]

[ Sealed core synchronization commencing. ]

He didn't respond. He didn't even blink. His eyes stayed fixed on Selena's body as golden and crimson lines of energy began to crawl across his skin.

Arya had reached him now.

Even though the violent fluctuations of mana made it nearly impossible to approach, she pushed through, her armor cracking, her body trembling under the crushing pressure.

'Almost there… just a little closer,' she thought, grinning with excitement. 'If I kill him now, Master Kyle will reward me beyond imagination.'

She drew her sword again—pure light condensed into a deadly edge. Raising it high above her head, she aimed for Alex's neck and swung down—

But before the blade could even touch him, Alex suddenly looked up.

His eyes glowed gold, cold and hollow.

"Did you do this?" he asked quietly.

Time seemed to stop.

A bolt of indescribable terror shot through Arya's entire body. The sound of his voice alone made her heart seize.

Instantly, she leapt backward, retreating several meters away, her sword trembling violently in her hand.

'No… no, not him,' she thought in horror. Her face drained of color as Kyle's warning echoed in her mind—one he had told her days before.

"Never attack Alex Dragonheart alone."

Kyle's words thundered inside her head: "If you do, you he will kill you in a second."

Alex's head tilted slightly as he stared at her, his expression empty yet terrifying. His voice was dead calm.

"I'll ask just one more time," he said. "Who did this?"

Arya couldn't speak. She couldn't even breathe. The oppressive aura emanating from him was suffocating—each second feeling like the air itself was trying to crush her lungs.

Dark threads of energy spiraled around him, flickering between gold and blood red, destabilizing reality itself. Even the space around his body began to bend unnaturally, warping under his rising power.

And still, he stayed motionless—his hand resting gently on Selena's lifeless form, his eyes locked on Arya, demanding an answer she didn't dare give.

Death itself had taken human shape before her, waiting for her next word.

Alex stood completely still, his expression unreadable as the howling wind tore through the ruins of Avaloria's edge. The crimson and golden currents swirling around his body began to calm—but only for a moment.

His eyes, now glowing with a faint golden luminescence, locked onto Arya trembling before him.

His voice came low, cold, and final.

"Your time is up."

Before Arya could even comprehend the words, Alex's figure vanished from where he stood. In less than a blink, he appeared right before her, the air bending violently in his wake.

Startled by the impossible speed, Arya gasped and swung her sword instinctively. The blade found its mark, driving deep into Alex's stomach. The steel slid clean through—but he didn't flinch.

His face remained eerily calm as blood dripped down his abdomen.

"I'll find out what happened myself," he said quietly.

Before Arya could pull her weapon back, his hand shot forward with inhuman force. He seized her by the head, his fingers digging into her scalp. Shadows twisted violently around his arm.

Inside his mind, he gave an order. 'Do it.'

The system hesitated.

[ Host, your condition is dangerously unstable. If you try to— ]

"Just do it, damn you!" Alex roared, his voice trembling with grief and unrestrained fury.

At once, a pulse of golden light erupted from his palm, expanding outward like rippling waves. Arya's eyes went wide.

"No—what are you—"

Her scream exploded through the sky. It was a sound so raw, so agonizing, that even the monsters battling in the distance faltered for a second. She shrieked like a cornered animal, her voice torn apart by unbearable pain. The sound carried for miles, echoing through the collapsing landscape.

Her body convulsed violently in his grasp, her sword falling from her trembling hand. The light flared brighter—and then stopped. Arya dropped to her knees, gasping weakly, clutching her head as tears of blood streamed down her face.

At the same instant, a blue system window shimmered before Alex.

[ Target's memory has been extracted. Transmitting to host. ]

The world around him seemed to blur as the memories flooded into his mind.

He saw it—everything.

Through Arya's eyes, he witnessed the moment Selena fought to the brink. The pain, the desperation, her refusal to surrender, and finally, Kyle's arrival—the mockery, the cruelty, the cold execution. He saw Azrael broken, overpowered, drained, and Kyle's laughter as he devoured him.

He saw all of it—the agony, the futility, the final moment when Selena's neck snapped under Kyle's hand.

Each vision crashed into Alex's mind until grief and rage melted together into something unrecognizable.

He lowered his head and began to laugh—quietly at first, then louder, until it became a hollow, wild sound that carried across the battlefield.

The laughter didn't come from joy or madness alone—it came from someone who had lost the last thing anchoring him to reason.

The system's voice broke through the haze in his head.

[ Using cosmic essence to recreate the Flames of Chaos. ]

As the message flashed, the air around him twisted violently. Flames—black at the core, edged with black—burst into existence around his hands. They were unlike any mortal fire, shifting and alive, carrying within them something divine and destructive.

Arya looked up weakly, still clutching her skull. Her breath hitched the moment those flames reflected in Alex's eyes. She could feel it—the raw, suffocating terror that came only when death was near.

Alex stepped toward her slowly, his shadow stretching long behind him.

"I won't give you an easy death," he said, his voice hoarse but steady.

He extended his hand toward her, the flames rising higher, coiling like serpents ready to consume.

"I'll show you what hell truly feels like."

The ground cracked when the fire touched her.

Within seconds, Arya's screams tore through the air once more as the chaotic flames enveloped her entire body. They didn't just burn flesh—they devoured everything. Her power, her soul, her memories—all consumed by that merciless inferno.

The sky above turned red as the same flames once used by Alden to torment Alex now danced in his palm, reclaiming their cruelty under a different master.

Arya writhed, her voice breaking into silence. The chaos fire burned brighter for a brief moment—and then vanished, leaving behind nothing but glowing ash drifting on the wind.

But the cruelty wasn't over just yet.

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