Chapter 67

Isaac kept his gaze fixed on the prince. Kaiyan’s eyebrows arched slightly, his intense blue eyes mirroring Isaac’s own determination. Without breaking eye contact, Isaac reversed his grip on his sword.

As soon as Kaiyan understood his intention, the prince’s expression hardened into a cold, unyielding mask. Isaac overcame his hesitation and drove the sharp blade deep into his chest.

THRU-ST.

The sensation of steel cutting through muscle and bone was foreign, a profound violation of his own body. A wave of unnatural cold seeped into his marrow, followed by a suffocating, white-hot pain.

『—』

The black smoke enveloping him began to convulse. It surged from his pores like a dark, toxic mist, now swirling with jagged crimson veins.

THUMP.

THUMP.

Never had Isaac felt his heart beating with such agonizing clarity. It pounded against his ribs in a desperate rhythm, as if begging him to spare its life. Sweat drenched his skin as he gripped the hilt, his knuckles turning white. With a final, agonizing effort, he squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the blade free.

A violent surge of blood erupted from his heart.

The smoke writhing from his body grew denser and thicker. The apparition’s wails echoed through the chamber, though Isaac could no longer understand them.

A sharp, feline shriek pierced the silence. Isaac lifted his head, his eyes burning with unbearable heat. Perhaps it was just the sweat blurring his vision, but he swore he saw a beast of enormous size, casting a shadow as vast as a tiger’s, rushing toward him. Its huge eyes blazed with malevolent fury. The animal collided with him, knocking him to the cold floor. As he tumbled, his gaze caught the man standing several steps away—the prince.

Kaiyan was staring down at him.

Those unusually vivid blue eyes remained fixed on Isaac without a twitch. His face was emotionless, yet something had fundamentally changed. Isaac couldn’t name the change, but his heart pounded in response.

I do not want to stop. I do not want to end here.

His heart seemed to silently plead with him. Yet, the inferno consuming his eyes overwhelmed even the physical pounding of his pulse. They burned as if doused in molten fire.

Isaac clutched at his sockets, groaning, imagining he might gouge his eyes out just to end the torment. Something shifted beneath his eyelids. A fractured, wavering vision overlapped his reality, as though he were seeing through a different set of eyes entirely.

The capital lay below, a nocturnal expanse viewed from an impossible height, like stars scattered across a vast black velvet shroud. The vantage point was a towering spire near the city’s outskirts. The jagged silhouette of Atone Square loomed nearby.

Then, this place must be…

『Witch-child, what are you looking at?』

A thunderous, guttural shout split Isaac’s eardrums. He opened his eyes reflexively. The ceiling of the Blue Shadow Palace’s reception room filled his vision once more. Red, roiling smoke churned above him, its shape shifting into grotesque, ephemeral nightmares.

The next detail he noticed was a cluster of small, feline beasts huddled on his chest. They had plunged their heads deep into the gaping wound created by his sword and were licking the exposed tissue with desperate intensity. Their faces and whiskers were soaked with his blood, yet they ignored the gore, thrusting their tongues as deep as they could toward his heart.

“You are… near the west gate. Not far from Atone Square…” Isaac murmured, his voice cracking through bloodless, trembling lips.

The smoke surrounding them seemed to freeze in mid-air. Then—

『Be cursed!』

It roared, swelling into a towering, hulking giant of shadow and rage. Isaac watched the display through unfocused, darkening eyes.

“I will find you. No matter where you hide, I will track you down and force you to answer for your crimes.”

『You will soon stop breathing and rot in hell. Do not spout such pathetic, empty nonsense!』

“Even if my breath fails, my eyes will reveal your location.”

『Then I shall simply tear them from your skull!』

The smoke bellowed, morphing into a horned demon that charged toward Isaac, long, hooked claws raking the air toward his eyes. Then—

『—』

The entity stopped, as though struck by a divine lightning bolt.

Kaiyan stood firmly between them.

He intercepted the smoke’s assault and thrust his fist directly into its gaping, obsidian maw.

When he withdrew his hand from the heart of the apparition, a round, lustrous object, reminiscent of a perfect pearl, remained suspended within the dissipating mist. It shone with a blinding, ethereal light.

Isaac had witnessed this treasure once before.

A crystal of holy silver, consecrated by priests over many long years.

A sacred relic that repelled all wickedness in the mortal realm.

The smoke shrieked, a sound so discordant it threatened to shatter Isaac’s skull. The air vibrated violently as the apparition began to disperse like vapor in a gale. The giant form shrank rapidly until only a fist-sized mass remained. The tightly compressed clump of blood-red smoke slowly, agonizingly, began to fade into the ambient air.

『I will curse you. I will curse both of you. You will never escape these curses for as long as you draw breath. You will spend your miserable, entire lives trapped within them.』

The hate-filled voice reverberated, growing thinner as it receded into the distance. It was fleeing, desperate to evade its fate.

“This time, we will be the ones to hunt you. We will arrive soon, so you will not need to wait long.” Kaiyan spoke, his voice ice-cold.

THUD

One final, deafening roar shook the room, threatening to shatter their eardrums. Then, the sound vanished. The smoke bled of all color and dissolved into nothingness.

Silence reclaimed the chamber—an oppressive, hollow void. Beyond the window, the full moon cast a serene, mocking light over the world, as if nothing of note had transpired.

No hostile presence remained. Only Isaac and the prince lingered amidst the stillness of the dead. Kaiyan looked down at Isaac, who stared at the ceiling through clouded, listless eyes.

The violent thrum of his heart began to slow, fading into a dull, rhythmic echo. Was death beckoning him? Or was this something far worse?

Isaac lay sprawled on the floor like a broken, discarded doll, his gaze blank as his consciousness ebbed away. Suddenly, he was hauled upright by the collar, the rough motion jarring his fractured spirit.

Isaac struggled to blink, attempting to force his mind back into focus. His body shuddered as a sharp, piercing pain flared in his neck. Kaiyan had bitten him.

The prince drank the blood flowing from the puncture wound, swallow after swallow. He seemed to be verifying a flavor he recognized from long ago.

“Indeed.”

Kaiyan released him, his touch unceremonious. He wiped a streak of crimson from his lips with the back of his hand and looked down at Isaac with a cold, calculating intensity.

“Now, the pieces finally fit.”

Ah. In the end, it comes to this.

Isaac forced his dimming eyes open, catching the prince’s gaze. Even through his wavering vision, those blue eyes remained crystalline and terrifyingly clear.

Isaac could never discern the machinations of that mind, but one truth was immutable. The prince now possessed the knowledge Isaac had spent his life attempting to hide.

“The witch’s fragment was stained with the blood from my heart. You should now be able to see the witch’s sanctuary through my eyes.”

Isaac closed his eyes, his voice a mere whisper. He no longer possessed the strength to keep his lids parted, having spent his last flicker of energy to articulate those words.

When his breath finally stopped, the prince could take his eyes and peer through them to the place where the witch was hiding. At last, the goal would be reached. The life Isaac had fought so desperately to preserve would end here, yet he found some solace in his continued utility.

So, death arrives this abruptly. Without a pretty wife. Without a beautiful home.

Without even a few pretty chickens. If I had known this was my end, I would have at least raised those chickens first.

The moment Isaac relinquished his grip on consciousness, a vast, distant darkness rushed toward him. Then, a voice pierced the encroaching void with absolute authority.

“Then you will look.”

It was an order. It was also a declaration that Kaiyan would defy the laws of life and death to ensure it happened.

“You will see it with your own eyes and report it to me yourself. You deceived me, you misled me, and for that, even death will not offer you a release. I decide when you die.”

His voice dropped, becoming heavy and absolute.

“And today is not that day.”

The hand holding Isaac slowly lowered him back to the floor. As he lay flat, his awareness slipped away like sand through an hourglass. A cold, black unconsciousness surged in to replace his waking thoughts.

Through the fading fog of his mind, he heard the prince speak once more in a low, dangerous tone.

“So you are the ones who harbor those enormous beasts. Very well. I will permit you to live, for now. Finish healing this man’s heart. You have only managed to rejoin half of it, leaving the other half to wither. If you fail to keep him among the living, I will kill you as well. ”

GROWL

The beasts erupted into a chorus of guttural, warning growls. A freezing, lethal intent laced the prince’s voice, stripping away any lingering softness and leaving only a sharp, serrated edge.

Though their hackles were raised and their fangs bared toward Kaiyan, the creatures scrambled back to Isaac’s side in a desperate, frenzied rush. Their rough, wet tongues swept rhythmically over his exposed, pulsating heart, attempting to stanch the deluge of blood that continued to fountain from the wound.

By then, the last flicker of Isaac’s consciousness had vanished into the abyss. He lay deathly pale and utterly limp, indistinguishable from a corpse.

The prince leaned down, his voice dropping into the register of a solemn, private vow that draped over the dying man.

“You are not permitted to die. I will not allow it.”

[END of VOLUME 2]