A sharp, suffocating premonition surged through Alex's chest.
Without a hint of hesitation, he swung his sword.
A massive blue arc burst forth—larger than any he had released before—tearing through the air with a speed so extreme it nearly blurred out of existence, as if space itself was being skipped over in its path toward the Night leader.
Before the attack could land, though…
The cube exploded.
Not outward in force—but in form.
It unfolded. Expanded. Multiplied.
In a fraction of a second, it dispersed into an incomprehensible number of tiny components that spread across the entire area. They filled the air, surrounded them from every direction—above, below, everywhere.
It was almost absurd to think that all of this had come from that small object hanging from the werewolf's neck… and yet, here it was.
Alex stared at the countless fragments, his heart skipping a beat.
A bad feeling crept up his spine. No—Not bad, disastrous.
When his gaze snapped back to the Night leader, his pupils constricted into pinpoints.
The attack he had launched…
Had stopped.
Frozen mid-air, just a few meters away from the werewolf.
His eyes darted around, but everything… had stopped.
The drifting dust. The falling debris, even the air itself felt locked in place.
He was the only one still moving.
'I really, really, don't like this,' Alex thought, feeling a pang of panic.
He knew to listen to his instincts and his instincts were screaming at him to run, Now!
But then—
Every single fragment lit up.
The entire space was swallowed by a blinding glow.
'No… that's not it' Alex realized after forcing his eyes to focus despite the brightness.
It was only then that he noticed it.
It wasn't the fragments themselves that were shining. It was something carved into them.
It was the countless tiny inscriptions, etched onto each individual piece, that were glowing all at once.
His eyes widened.
'Shit!'
Alex moved to get out of there, but at that exact moment, his body locked in place, as if invisible chains had wrapped around him. Apparently, he too had now fallen under the effect of the time stop.
The glowing fragments began to move.
They rotated on themselves, then around one another, their motion slow at first. At the same time, they started closing the distance—between each other, and toward Alex, who only now realized that he stood right at the center of their formation.
With every rotation, their speed increased, and as they accelerated, their size began to shrink as well, until the only thing left to see was a raging storm of spinning fragments—a tightening vortex that devoured space itself as it collapsed inward.
In what felt like the blink of an eye, the storm reached Alex.
And swallowed him whole.
His figure vanished behind the curtain of motion.
Yet, the spinning didn't stop.
The pieces kept on assembling and locking into one another, their movements becoming sharper, more precise, until all that remained was the original cube—perfectly whole, resting in its initial size as if it had never changed.
As for what happened to Alex?
Well, no one knew, as his vision had turned black the moment he had been trapped within the maelstrom of moving pieces.
As the small metallic cube dropped to the ground, exactly at the spot where Alex had previously stood, time finally seemed to resume its course.
Boooom
An explosion rang out at the place where the werewolf had been standing, and an agonizing scream tore through the surroundings.
Froze, who had been desperately thinking of a way to escape, suddenly stiffened.
He glanced to the side, only to find the Night leader on his knees, clutching what remained of his left side.
'Why does this feel so familiar?' he wondered inwardly.
The situation was a little different from last time, though.
Back then, it had only been his hand.
Now, his entire left arm had been cleanly severed at the shoulder, and a thick layer of frost had spread across that side of his body, creeping over his torso like a living thing. The flesh around the wound wasn't just bleeding—it was freezing, the cold biting so deep that even the blood seemed to slow as it spilled.
Froze watched the horrific scene before him, then suddenly seemed to remember that Arcanor had been right there just moments ago. Yet, when he turned his head toward Arcanor's last known position, all he could see was the small metallic cube that had been hanging from the werewolf's neck.
"What happened? Where is he?" he asked, his gaze still lingering on the exact spot Arcanor had been standing on.
"Hand me a healing potion instead of asking stupid questions!" the Night leader snarled, struggling just to remain on his knees.
Even after this outburst, Froze remained frozen in place, staring blankly ahead. It wasn't until another furious shout that he finally snapped out of it and moved to tend to his ally.
After several minutes of gore, strained breathing, and muffled groans of pain, the werewolf's condition was finally stabilized—well, as stabilized as it could be given the circumstances.
"Now, can you answer me? Where is he?" Froze asked.
Night's leader remained silent for a moment before his lips parted. "You don't have to worry about his whereabouts. He isn't coming back. In fact… you might as well consider him dead. The chances of him returning are next to none."
What he failed to mention was that the chances of him ever getting the "treasure" he had used to accomplish this feat back were just as low.
'A bit higher than Arcanor's chances of coming back, though,' he thought to himself.
Feeling the certainty in his voice, Froze reluctantly let his guard down and sank to the ground, a long sigh of relief escaping his lips.
"He was much harder to deal with than I gave him credit," he said with a frown.
The werewolf could only nod his head. Arcanor had completely defied all of their expectations.
Froze's gaze wandered until it fell on the giant block of ice before them and he stiffened.
"What about the beasts outside now that Maurdin is dead?" he asked, feeling another kind of dread creeping up within him.
The thing is, the beasts in the oncoming tides were controlled by Maurdin. Well, in truth… he wasn't really controlling them. He wasn't giving them orders or directing them in any way, he was simply the center they all gravitated toward.
Maurdin's ability made beasts "attracted" to him. Froze didn't know the details, but when he activated his ability, Maurdin was like a beacon. All the beasts in the surroundings were attracted to him like magnets. This was the reason why every time a beast tide came to attack, Maurdin was always near or inside the city.
Now that he was dead though, this beacon had disappeared. Chances were that the beasts might slowly lose interest and disperse.
"How come it's only now that you are worried about that, after all, we thought he died way earlier," the leader spoke with disdain.
"...."
The leader shook his head, took a deep breath and stood up. "Do not worry about the beasts. We only needed Maurdin's ability to attract them near the city. Once in its vicinity, they are able to feel the presence of humans behind these walls, so they will come forth anyway, even if Maurdin is dead."
He retrieved a communication talisman and pressed it against his forehead. 'Is everything in place?' he asked inwardly.
A voice resounded in his head.
'Yes, we are in the city plaza.'
'Good. We are coming.'
Placing the talisman away, he immediately turned to leave. "We are behind schedule, we must hurry. Let's go."
Froze nodded but, casting one last gaze at the place Arcanor had been, he spotted the cube the leader had used lying on the ruined ground.
"Wait, what about this?"
The Night's leader only glanced once before resuming his walk. "Leave it, we can't take it with us."
This was the reason he had initially been so against using it against Arcanor. Once someone was placed inside it, that cursed thing couldn't be moved—even if the strongest man in the world stood here.
Actually, it would be easier for them to level this entire city than to move that cube, let alone damage it.
From the moment he used it, the werewolf knew that it was no longer his.
It had served its purpose, though. It had saved his life by trapping his enemy inside of it.
As of right now, they didn't need to fear Arcanor anymore, after all…
…He had successfully been sealed.