The smoke from the burning lightning slowly dissipated, leaving behind a haze that stung the eyes and the faint, acrid scent of ozone.

Not far ahead, the man stood hunched over, his body trembling faintly as crackles of residual electricity still danced along his skin.

I flexed my fingers, clenching and unclenching my numb fist. My arm felt heavy—tingling from the discharge. That last hit had carried more voltage than I'd planned.

But before my strike could fully connect with his chest, something had stopped it.

A faint shimmer. A flash of black.

Then came the sound—crack, crack!—as shards of dark ice shattered and scattered across the floor.

'Black ice…?'

I narrowed my eyes, realizing what had happened.

'He blocked it—in that instant?'

The thought alone was irritating. My attack had been near-instantaneous, impossible for most to react to. Yet somehow, he'd managed to conjure a defensive spell in that sliver of time between impact and death.

Still, I hadn't missed entirely.

His breathing was uneven, ragged. The transformation that had begun moments ago was incomplete—his horns had stopped halfway, frozen in an awkward, twisted shape. Patches of frost clung to his skin where my lightning had burned and his ice had tried to counter it.

Then his bloodshot eyes locked onto me.

Recognition flashed in them.

His expression twisted—first in confusion, then in dawning realization.

"You… you're that one from before…!"

Oh, fantastic.

I exhaled through my nose, resisting the urge to groan.

I'd gone out of my way not to use any of my usual techniques precisely to avoid this. A helmet, a different stance, even a new spell variant. But apparently, the color of my lightning had given me away.

He connected the dots instantly.

'Tch. So much for staying anonymous.'

My attempts to stay anonymous were starting to feel… awkward.

But still—

'As long as Anna doesn't find out, it's fine.'

The princess was watching from behind me, her sharp eyes gleaming like a cat's in the dim light. I could practically feel her curiosity pressing against my back.

As long as she stayed unaware of who I really was, things wouldn't spiral into something troublesome.

Because the last thing I wanted was to be dragged into royal politics.

Across from me, the man glared silently, his face twisted with rage, his breathing rough and uneven. Then his mouth began to move—muttering something under his breath.

"—!"

My instincts flared. I darted to the side just as shards of ice burst from the ground where I'd been standing a heartbeat ago.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Countless ice spikes shot upward, slicing through the air with a vicious hiss. One grazed my arm, leaving a thin line of frost that quickly melted under the faint heat of my mana.

'If I'd been a second slower… that would've gone straight through me.'

A chill ran down my spine, equal parts from the cold and the realization of how close that had been.

I widened the distance between us, keeping my eyes fixed on him.

His body was no longer the same.

His skin had turned a shade of ashen black, veins glowing faintly with corrupted mana. The air around him warped from the sheer magical pressure he exuded.

But even so… I could tell.

'His transformation was interrupted halfway.'

He wasn't as powerful as he could've been. If I'd let him finish that process earlier, the situation might've been much worse.

Still, the magic swirling around him now was nothing to scoff at.

"I'll help you," came Anna's voice suddenly, breaking through my focus.

I turned my head slightly.

Sensing that the situation was quickly spiraling out of control, Anna stepped forward, determination flashing in her eyes as she rolled up her sleeves.

I instinctively frowned. I would've preferred to keep her out of the fight entirely—getting the Imperial Princess injured wasn't exactly on my to-do list—but judging from the look on her face, there was no stopping her now.

"…Fine," I muttered, giving her a brief nod.

She returned it sharply and began chanting without hesitation. Her voice, calm but fierce, echoed through the crumbling room.

"Fire Burst!"

Flames surged from her fingertips, twisting together into a blazing whip before shooting forward like a comet. The heat seared the air as the fiery spell roared toward the man.

But he merely raised his hand.

"Ice Wall."

Boom!

A jagged pillar of black ice erupted from the ground, thick and cold enough to make the air crackle. Anna's flames collided with it head-on, the resulting explosion filling the room with blinding light and boiling steam.

The shockwave rattled the windows and nearly knocked me off balance.

When the smoke cleared, I narrowed my eyes.

Behind that wall of darkness, the man was still standing—completely unharmed.

The black ice hadn't even cracked. In fact, it looked denser than before, pulsing faintly with an ominous blue light.

At this rate, it wouldn't be easy to take him down with just the two of us.

However.

KROOOAAARRRR!!

The dragon's furious roar shook the entire mansion, making the floor tremble beneath our feet.

Even after taking a direct hit, the beast's rage hadn't subsided—it had only grown stronger.

With blazing golden eyes, the dragon reared its massive head back and swung its tail in a wide arc, the air whistling from the sheer force of it.

Boom!

The sound was deafening. The tail came crashing down like a falling mountain, aimed squarely at the man who dared stand against it.

No matter how strong his ice magic was, no one could withstand that kind of impact head-on. I could already picture him being launched across the room again, just like before.

Or so I thought.

"Freeze."

The man's voice was calm—too calm.

His right arm, blackened with corrupted mana, rose slowly. A chilling wave of power surged outward from his body, filling the air with a biting cold that made my breath catch.

Then came the sound.

Crack—

Dark blue frost spread across the dragon's tail in an instant, encasing it in jagged layers of frozen darkness.

And the moment the tail connected with him—

BOOOOM!

A shockwave of shattered ice exploded outward. The dragon's tail fractured under the impact, chunks of glittering ice and scales scattering through the air like falling glass.

The beast roared again, this time not in anger—but in pain.

Its massive form trembled, cracks of light forming across its body as the transformation magic that sustained it began to unravel.

"Wait—" I muttered, but it was already too late.

Pew!

In an instant, the great dragon's form collapsed into hundreds of smaller Faerus, each one fluttering weakly before falling to the ground in a rain of feathers and faint light.

The entire room fell silent.

Amid the fading glow, the man stood tall, his breath visible in the freezing air. He stared down at his arm, now fully blackened with that strange power, and slowly clenched his fist.

A faint, almost reverent smile touched his lips.

"…Remarkable," he murmured. "So this is the power… of that person."

'That person?'

The words echoed in my mind, sending a chill down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold.

Whoever he was referring to—whoever had given him that strength—wasn't someone ordinary.

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