Failure… might as well be erased from the dictionary. What even counted as failure? For some, it was anything they could dress up with excuses, grand claims about how the universe had singled them out for misfortune, all despite their supposed "talent" to win.

Dvina never bought into that load of crap. It was the gospel of losers, mental gymnastics to justify why they'd fallen flat on their faces. That right there was the line in the sand separating Bloodhounds from the rest of the Iron Pact.

Failure wasn't an option. Full stop. And if the universe really was conspiring against you, then you fought back until the flow bent to your will. Even the universe needed to be put in its place now and then.

Right now, though, Dvina wasn't exactly bursting with certainty that this particular plan would pan out. From everything she'd heard about that unruly Drakkari, the girl wasn't stupid. And unless she was either a complete idiot or underestimating the Bloodhounds, their carefully-laid trap would be nothing more than set dressing, something to admire from a distance and walk right past.

But it seemed she was off the mark. Gavrilo's plan actually worked. That bitch was moronic enough to walk right in. Dvina rose to her feet, a feral grin splitting her face—so vicious the kids in front of her flinched back on instinct.

"Ah, didn't mean to scare you," she crooned. "It's just that your precious friend finally came to save you all."

Viera's eyes went wide as saucers. "Jade—"

"Yes, Jade," Dvina confirmed, her voice dripping with mock delight. "Petite little thing. Pale skin, crimson eyes. And that deadpan stare… looks every bit as cold as the reports said. Walking in like she owns this shithole."

Oddly enough, that seemed to rattle the kids even more. She hadn't even said anything threatening yet.

Still, it was worth savoring. Dvina leaned in slightly, voice dropping to something almost conspiratorial.

"I'd enjoy turning that deadpan expression into one of pure dread… as I break her bones one by one."

"YOU WOULDN'T DARE—" Viera burst out, only for Dvina to silence her with a single finger pressed to her lips.

"If it's not obvious by now," Dvina said with a sharp grin, "I can do whatever the fuck I want. You're a noble, and you're still helpless against the authority I hold. Do you honestly think the city would give a flying fuck if I tortured a 'terrorist'?"

Viera looked ready to bite back again. Dvina had thought she'd broken the girl's spirit, she was meek enough most of the time, rarely spoke up, but apparently, insulting her friend flipped some kind of switch in her brain. She fought back every time. Clearly, she needed something more persuasive than verbal sparring.

And that was the real frustration. Dvina wasn't allowed to lay a hand on these kids. Gavrilo had forbidden it. His orders, his rules. He thought it was for their own good. No one else seemed to recognize the problem, that words without consequences were just noise.

Oh well. Now that their friend had shown up, the one person explicitly exempt from that little restriction, maybe watching her get disciplined would put some steel in those words.

The thought alone made Dvina's pulse quicken. Oh yes… now she was even more excited.

***

The cold-eyed Drakkari girl stood at the edge of the premises, her stare as glacial as a winter night. Gavrilo and the others were still busy trying to track her somewhere in the city, which left Dvina as the sole occupant of this warehouse for the moment.

They'd already received the message, though, so the rest of the team must be en route. At their pace, they could be here within minutes.

Dvina studied the outlaw they'd been explicitly instructed to either capture or put down for good. The list of charges against her was long, but Dvina couldn't help wondering what the girl had actually done to earn the combined wrath of both the Iron Pact and the Flameclaw Sect. That kind of double-target status didn't just fall into your lap.

She raised one hand, and as if on cue, the enforcers, still under the effects of invisibility enchantments, slipped out from cover, surrounding the Drakkari in a loose ring. Their enchanted crossbows were already trained on her, each bolt capable of punching clean through the defenses of a red core cultivator.

Not that Dvina was convinced the girl in front of her even required this level of overkill. Her own team could have handled it without the extra theatrics. But when the higher-ups decided to indulge their paranoia, Dvina wasn't in a position to argue.

Most of the enforcers were high yellow cores. Jade could shred these lesser opponents with ease, but that problem was simple: Dvina herself was here, and she was a red core. If this Drakkari somehow got the chance, she might be able to tear through them… which was exactly why Dvina wasn't going to give her that chance.

"How long are you going to stare, you filthy creep?" The crimson-eyed girl's voice was flat. An insult without any heat, delivered with nothing but deadpan boredom.

"Ah, well. I was just surprised, that's all." Dvina gestured for the enforcers to hold. "You didn't strike me as a total moron. I had ideas about tracking you, hunting you down myself." She tched, irritated. "But you just stole that fun from me. Showing up like a lunatic."

Her eyes trailed over the girl's tattered rags, her disheveled state. She looked more sunken than the reports described. "Seems the past few days haven't been kind. Ancestors know what shit-hole you were rotting in. I almost thought you'd fled the city."

"And why… would I run away?"

Oh, that expression. That sheer fucking defiance on a face that was otherwise a wreck of nothing. No emotion. Just will.

Dvina was enthralled. She'd never seen a specimen like this. She wanted to see her break. Right the fuck now.

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But she held herself back, reigning in the surge of predatory instinct. That was the thing about reaching red core, her will wasn't just to win. It was to conquer wills, to burn the defiance out of her prey until there was nothing left but obedience. Crushing them instantly was easy. Watching them shatter piece by piece… That was art.

The girl gave a casual shrug, a faint, almost amused smile tugging at her lips.

"Running away would mean I was scared. But scared of who? If you're including yourself in that list, let me save you the suspense, I don't give a flying shit."

Another shrug. "Sure, I have instincts for self-preservation. But right now? I'm just trying to wrestle my life back under a smidge of control. And that means dealing with pests before they decide to sting me when I'm actually busy with something important."

Then, her expression did a complete one-eighty. She beamed, actually jumped in place like an excited child, and chirped, "Also, such a welcoming party!" She jabbed a thumb toward the shimmering air behind her. "Just tell them to come out. That shitty enchantment isn't fooling anyone. It's almost disrespectful how much you're underestimating me." She finished with an exaggerated pout.

The sudden shift, from icy, regal composure to hyperactive gremlin, was jarring. Dvina didn't comment, just took mental notes. The invisibility enchantment had always been a gamble; not every pathway developed strong detection abilities. But it seemed this one did.

Oh well. Dvina grabbed her broadsword and planted it point-first into the floor between them.

"Guess that should at least tell you," she said evenly, "you're not going anywhere."

That's when her [Infernal Premonition] screamed. A vision of a bladed tentacle spearing toward her heart. Her broadsword came up on pure instinct, deflecting the strike with a shower of sparks. The thing was so fucking fast her eyes barely registered the movement.

"Well? When are we going to start?" the girl asked, smiling pleasantly as the tentacle retracted. "I don't have much time. Let's get this over with."

Three more tentacles erupted from her back and coiled around her neck like poised serpents. Dvina narrowed her eyes. It resembled a partial beast transformation, but how? Partial forms usually meant a weak connection to one's bloodline, yet Dvina knew this girl could go full beast.

And another oddity: weren't those tentacles silver in previous reports? Now they gleamed gold. This bitch was full of mysteries.

Fear didn't even enter the equation. If this was how she wanted it, Dvina was more than willing to oblige. She didn't need the rest of the team.

She was enough.

A feral grin spread across her face as she blurred forward. Flames erupted in her wake as she brought the massive, fire-wreathed broadsword down in a killing arc—

—only for golden scales to ripple across the girl's head, absorbing the blow without so much as a twitch. She didn't dodge. She didn't block. She just stood there.

Dvina broke off instantly, leaping back just in time to avoid another tentacle strike aimed to skewer her. Her attack had done nothing.

The girl's expression was one of mild amusement.

Dvina clenched her fist, and the waiting enforcers finally loosed their bolts. Enchanted projectiles rained toward the Drakkari, her body flickering unnaturally, "glitching" for a split second, until surprise broke her expression.

From the reports, Dvina had assumed the girl possessed some sort of ability to interact with the Shadow Dimension. If that was true, wards were in place specifically to block wraith-like phasing. She wasn't going to slip through this net.

And that look of surprise on her face, the instant she realized, oh, Dvina grinned. It was glorious. Confirmation: she'd tried to slip into the Shadow Dimension and failed.

The thirty-odd enchanted bolts that followed struck without mercy, every one crafted for deep piercing power. Golden scales rippled across her body, deflecting most of the barrage. Even so, Dvina watched with narrowed eyes as the Drakkari emerged from the onslaught with only a handful of shallow, bleeding wounds… and still smiling.

"Wow," the girl said lightly, "that was a trick I didn't anticipate. Guess I should really be more cautious in the future…"

Dvina just stared, the faint burn of anger already rising to a boil. How was she still so damn unharmed? Those bolts had enough punch to pierce even Dvina's beast form armor, yet here this little brat was, barely scratched after thirty of them.

"But whatever," the girl went on, voice almost bored, "I don't like being restricted like this."

She snapped her fingers.

A massive bolt of lightning detonated against the warded perimeter. The defensive layers resisted for less than a heartbeat before shredding apart like wet parchment. Lightning, known for its brutal penetration, had simply torn through every barrier.

That was ENOUGH.

Dvina moved. Her form stretched, tore, and shifted, fur erupting into existence as she transformed into a towering, bipedal red lion.

[Infernization!]

Infernal power surged through her, a corrupting wave that magnified her beast form into something truly monstrous. Wings of molten shadow and flame burst from her back. Her hide blackened into armor plating that glowed with inner heat as an additional pair of clawed arms erupted from her back. The air grew thick and sulfurous, choking and heavy. Her eyes blazed with pure, weaponized hatred.

"BACK OFF!" she roared, voice like a furnace's howl. "LEST YOU ALL BE CAUGHT IN THE FLAMES!"

The warning was for her enforcers. Useless now. If they stayed, they'd be collateral. She didn't wait to see if they fled.

Dvina blurred forward, closing the gap in a heartbeat, molten wings fanning heat that could blister skin from twenty paces. She brought her flaming, two-handed strikes down relentlessly, each one meant to break.

But the girl moved. She phased. One heartbeat she was in front of Dvina, the next she was behind her, striking from blind angles. Her movements were slipperier than oil, her very presence muted to the point that if Dvina looked away for even an instant, she'd vanish entirely.

Only [Infernal Premonition] saved her from being hit, each flare of danger pulling her into instinctive blocks or evasions.

And the longer it went on, the more it dug at her.

The frustration was building, slow but certain, like molten rock ready to erupt.

And the girl was so damn unbothered! It was as if she were playing with Dvina, half-heartedly testing the edges of the fight while her real focus wandered, calmly studying the warehouse like this was all some casual tour.

She dared.

The raw hatred fed Dvina's infernal power, stoking it into a frenzy. Her strikes grew more unhinged, more destructive. Flames carving craters into the ground, tearing through the trees, shredding anything in her path. If the little bitch wouldn't go down easy, she'd just have to pound her into exhaustion. The opening would come.

And it did. The girl froze mid-step, a flicker of hesitation, a mistake.

Dvina lunged. Her broadsword, wreathed in pure, crimson hellfire, slammed into the girl's stomach with the force of a meteor.

But the girl didn't cry out. She didn't even look surprised. She just… giggled.

Her form glitched in place like a corrupted projection.

"Well," she drawled, "I certainly expected more from the renowned Bloodhounds. Colour me… disappointed." Her grin sharpened. "Had second thoughts about my plan. Guess I'll see you in a while."

She winked and her body dissolved into a curling plume of violet mana smoke.

The sword met no resistance, striking empty air where her torso had been.

Dvina stood there, chest heaving, surrounded by the wreckage of her own hatred fueled rage. The sulfurous stink of her power was the only thing left.

As if it had all been just a fucking illusion.

***

The sounds of battle outside carried through the walls, distant detonations, the ground trembling under each impact.

Ancestors, please… just keep Jade safe.

That was all Viera wanted.

And to think Jade had actually come here—for them—after everything that had happened. Viera had been right about her friend. She'd almost doubted it, but she'd never let herself fully believe the rumors. Now, she almost smiled at her own stubborn faith.

Something sweet hung faintly in the air.

Not the scorched bite of fire. Not the choking sting of sulfur. Something… lighter. Clinging. It tugged at her thoughts even as the noise of the battle faded into the background.

Her eyelids grew heavy.

Huh…?

What… was… happening?

She tried to turn her head, but it felt impossibly heavy. Her vision blurred.

Just before darkness claimed her, something golden flickered at the edge of her sight.

And then, nothing.

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