Kaden and Aurora arrived at a particular spot inside Asterion City. They frowned in unison, for the place they had reached was none other than the great arched golden gate welcoming beings into Asterion.

There, two guards in golden-silver armor stood, their backs straighter than steel rods, their faces carved like stone, eyes fixed on Kaden and Aurora the moment they sensed their arrival.

Aurora was panicking inwardly. She was still in Kaden's arms, nestled like a princess who shouldn't touch the ground for fear of being stained by filth.

It was a nice feeling, she refused to admit that, feeling guilty for even enjoying the moment. She nudged Kaden's chest with her elbow, and in a hushed tone…

"Take me down, Fraud!" she whispered, her voice barely audible, afraid that someone might hear.

She didn't want any of the guards to recognize her and report to Solaris. She wasn't afraid for herself, she knew well that Solaris would never harm her.

If not for the love he claimed to feel for her, then surely for the usefulness she still held to him.

But Kaden? He wouldn't receive that same mercy. And though she wouldn't admit it aloud, she had grown used to his witty, infuriating presence and couldn't stomach the thought of him getting in trouble because of her.

So, for his sake, she whispered again for him to let her down.

Kaden, of course, didn't listen. Truth be told, he didn't even hear her. His focus was fixed entirely on the guards' stern faces and on the few passersby strolling past, talking and laughing as if nothing in the world was amiss.

His perception expanded, blanketing the entire space within a kilometer radius making every sound, every whisper, every flicker of movement absorbed into his mind. And still, his eyes couldn't help but return to the guards.

Aurora hadn't shown him everything, doing so would have weakened her far more than she already was. From what Kaden had managed to gather in that vision, it was here, in this exact place, that he was supposed to find the path toward that dark realm.

Now the question was how.

Kaden's crimson eyes gleamed, a sharp flash of red slicing through the air. Aurora, who had been squirming in his arms moments before, froze. Her expression shifted instantly into seriousness.

Her starry eyes shone brighter, gazing up at him from below, staring at his crimson irises looking like a churning ocean of blood. It was mesmerizing, she had to admit.

So she stayed silent, recognizing that he was searching for the way. Inwardly, a wry smile formed. She felt guilty for not showing him everything.

But she couldn't.

To do so would scrape away too much of her power and vitality, and she still had one crucial path she needed to see every day. The path she had promised, as a child, to follow to the very end.

Suddenly, the weight of that oath pressed heavier on her soul. Her insides churned.

'I need to paint… I need to paint…' she whispered inwardly, feeling the restless pull to lose herself in creation again.

"My lady," Kaden said, his voice cutting cleanly through her forlorn thoughts, "I have a question."

Aurora blinked, pulling herself out of her haze, tilting her head slightly in curiosity. "Which is?"

Kaden's eyes never left the guards by the gate. They were staring back, the air thick with tension neither side could name.

Their boots shifted, a subtle scrape against the stone, and then, without warning, they started walking toward Kaden and Aurora.

"How much authority do you have in this city?" Kaden asked, his calm voice slicing through the air as his crimson eyes followed the approaching guards with quiet indifference.

"Hmm," she mused, "enough authority," Aurora replied simply.

"Enough authority to cover the murders of guards?" Kaden shot back.

Aurora paused. Slowly, she turned her head, her starry eyes hidden behind her black glasses as she fixed her gaze on the guards. Then, a faint smile curved her lips.

"Depends on how clean you murder them."

She didn't doubt her knight.

"Oh, don't worry about that, my lady," Kaden said, smirking faintly, "I'm a professional."

The moment the words left his mouth, Kaden threw Aurora high into the air.

A sharp, startled cry burst from her lips — half surprise, half outrage — echoing through the golden gates.

"You! What are you doing?!" one of the guards roared, his voice like a beast's growl, before both kicked off the ground and charged at Kaden, their steps heavy enough to shatter the stone beneath them.

Around them, the crowd froze in shock. The air trembled. Fear gripped their throats as the tension thickened like smoke. A few with sharper instincts began to run.

But not without Kaden's permission.

He took a single step.

His hands remained calmly clasped behind his back. His expression was empty, almost bored.

And then…

Blood spilled outward from his footstep, spreading like an ocean, painting the ground in a wide, perfect circle half a kilometer wide.

"W-What—?"

"Wh–What is this?! Mother! I can't—!"

Their voices choked out mid-scream as blood covered their faces and eyes, sealing their senses. They couldn't see, couldn't speak, couldn't even move.

In that single step, the world around them had turned into a zone of blood.

Only the two guards were able to move, albeit with straining difficulty, as the blood was unnaturally dense and heavy, each of their steps looking as though they were dragging their legs out from the bottomless abyss of death.

In less than a second, Kaden had neutralized everyone around him.

He took another step.

The blood inside the guards began to boil violently, bubbling like water on fire. Their eyes widened, bulging grotesquely as veins slithered beneath their skin like worms desperate to escape.

They opened their mouths to scream, but before any sound escaped, in a heartbeat, Kaden appeared in front of them and plunged both hands deep into their stretched mouths.

Their bodies convulsed, spasming uncontrollably as muffled gagging echoed through the air, blending with Aurora's distant shout as she plummeted toward the ground.

Kaden's focus was immaculate. His gaze stayed fixed on the two grandmaster-ranked guards before him, beings now rendered as powerless as chickens before a butcher.

His perception sharpened beyond measure. With his hands inside them, he felt everything — their mana, their blood, their organs, even the subtle composition of their bodies — and something else.

A rune?

'No,' he thought coldly. 'An artifact.'

At that realization, his fingers brushed against something solid lodged within them. Without hesitation, he gripped them tightly and tore them out.

"ARGHHHH!!!"

Their screams broke through the air, choked and gurgling, their throats shredded as blood burst outward, spraying crimson the space around them.

Kaden's eyebrows twitched, and beside him, a bed formed from flowing blood, pulsing faintly like a living thing.

A heartbeat later, Aurora landed upon it softly, the surface bouncing once beneath her weight, cushioning her perfectly.

She was about to curse Kaden only to fall silent, feeling the bed beneath her unexpectedly comfortable. She smiled, then said shamelessly, "You know what, Fraud, it was a good experience. I forgive you this offense." Her voice was light, amused, her body oddly refreshed as a faint vigor returned to her limbs.

Kaden only smiled faintly and didn't respond. His crimson eyes were fixed on the two artifacts hovering before him. From them emanated the same unsettling presence he had sensed from the doundous.

They were small, black, and shaped like sewed mouths with the number 33 etched on them in crimson.

"I would hurry up if I were you," Aurora suddenly said, her voice calm but her glowing eyes locked on something distant.

Kaden halted his thoughts instantly.

Without hesitation, he placed his hands on the dead, still-standing guards and they exploded.

A burst of gore and entrails rained across the ground, only for a massive crimson mouth, filled with countless serrated teeth, to manifest above them. It opened wide and devoured everything — blood, bone, and soul — in a single, echoing gulp.

Silence followed.

Kaden's gaze swept over the trembling crowd still caught in his domain.

He moved his fingers slightly, manipulating the blood that already drenched them, letting it seep deep into their skulls. Then, with a sharp clap of his hands, a surge of mental energy rippled outward, channeling through the blood as its medium, crashing directly into the minds of all who stood within his reach.

In an instant, their memories twisted and were completely rewritten.

Wordless, Kaden turned, stepped forward, and lifted Aurora once again into his arms, this time facing far less resistance from the beautiful lady.

In the next heartbeat, his body blurred into red light. When the radiance vanished, so had they.

Behind him, the sea of blood sank back into the earth, disappearing completely, leaving not a trace behind.

Moments later, two figures appeared at the same spot where Kaden and Aurora had stood. A man and a woman, each wearing silver-blue tunics.

They watched the scene quietly, the crowd moving about their day as if nothing had happened, laughter and chatter echoing through the golden gate that now stood eerily empty, devoid of any guards.

The woman frowned, a faint crease forming between her brows. "What happened here?" she murmured, a strange unease tightening her chest.

The man didn't answer right away. His green eyes, sharp and calculating, swept across the area with practiced precision. After a long pause, he finally spoke.

"…Doesn't this place reek of blood?"

…

Deep within a narrow alley cloaked in shadow, hidden from the bustling streets of Asterion, Kaden and Aurora leaned against a damp wall. Between them floated the two black artifacts.

"You know how to use them to go there?" Kaden asked, his voice measured.

"I don't," Aurora replied simply. "But I could know."

Kaden spared her a sidelong glance. "Will that weaken you?" he asked.

Aurora smiled faintly, yet didn't answer. Instead, she extended her hand toward him, palm open, silent but clear in its request for the artifacts.

Kaden exhaled softly through his nose. That silence told him everything.

"I'll find the way myself then," he said, shrugging. His words made Aurora blink, her eyes widening slightly before a quiet laugh escaped her lips.

For a fleeting instant, warmth and amusement flickered through her expression,. "Aren't you cute, Fraud? Do you pity me?" she teased.

"I pity myself," Kaden scoffed, "because if you get weaker, I'll have to work harder."

Aurora laughed again, light and melodic, echoing faintly against the alley walls. "Don't be shy," she taunted playfully. "Just admit you've fallen for my charm."

Kaden only clicked his tongue, ignoring her completely as he turned back toward the artifacts. His crimson eyes gleamed faintly as he guided his mana forward, letting it seep carefully into the black, pulsing mouths to test their nature.

It didn't work.

But through that failure, Kaden sensed something else. The artifacts didn't reject mana itself, they rejected his.

That meant…

"You need a very specific type of mana to activate them, Fraud," Aurora said softly.

Kaden nodded once, already reaching the same conclusion. He closed his eyes, his mind slipping back to the moment he'd faced the guards, to when his hands had sunk into their mouths.

He recalled it all in excruciating clarity: the texture of their mana, its scent and its color.

When he opened his eyes again, a subtle shift passed through him.

His crimson gaze brightened and the hand holding the two artifacts began to glow with a silvery light.

The artifacts pulsed once, twice then flared, responding instantly.

Before them, space itself trembled. Reality parted like a curtain being drawn open, revealing a swirling silver portal, its surface rippling like living mercury.

Aurora's eyes widened, genuine shock flickering across her usually composed face. "How did you do that?" she demanded.

Kaden blinked, tilting his head slightly. "Do what?" he asked.

"This!!" Aurora gestured wildly toward his hand still wrapped in that radiant silver glow.

He stared at her for a moment, then shrugged, his lips curving into an arrogant smirk.

"I don't know," he said, tone filled with mock modesty,

"I just did."

—End of Chapter 310—

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