Chapter 9: Domain
Without thought, I knelt beside Albert's cooling corpse.
My fingers, still trembling from the rush of devoured life, found the edges of his scorched black cloak. The fabric was heavy, singed at the hems from his own violet flames, yet intact enough to serve. I tore my own ruined robes free; the explosion had shredded them to tatters, leaving my skin exposed to the cold undercroft air. Blood and ash clung to me like a second skin.
I stripped the robe from his shoulders, wrapped it around myself in quick, practiced motions, I tore a pice of cloth wrapping my eyes. The cloth still carried faint traces of his aura, warm, flickering, defiant. It would do until I could find proper garments.
"This damn rank limitation," I muttered, voice low and ragged.
Purple energy pulsed through my veins in violent, erratic waves. It felt like liquid fire trying to claw its way out from the inside. My skin glowed faintly beneath the robe, thin traceries of purple flame licking along my forearms, my neck, my jaw. Pain followed each surge.
"Mhm, argh!"
I dropped to one knee, clutching my chest. The new talent, Albert's flame essence, fought me like a living thing. My body rejected it outright; the rank restriction acted as an iron dom, refusing to let the foreign aura integrate fully. Every pulse threatened to tear me apart from within.
"You will not be the first to reject me," I hissed through clenched teeth, addressing the talent spirit directly, as though it were a snarling beast caged inside my ribs.
"Echo Pulse."
I forced the technique outward.
Purple-black waves rippled from my core,each one laced with fragments of the very flame I struggled to contain. The pulses clashed against the invading aura, weakening it, grinding it down. With every release the internal fire dimmed fractionally, the violent glow beneath my skin receding like a tide pulled back by the moon.
"My body is in an unstable state due to the rank restriction," I whispered to the empty dark. "Filling me with pure aura… if I don't find a way to break down this excess energy soon, I will explode."
But I was not afraid.
Fear had burned away long ago in the flames of yemen.
I rose, unsteady at first, then firm, and moved toward the nearest exit. The cane tapped the ground in measured rhythm, each strike sending fresh echo waves outward. The training ground's layout unfolded in my mind, I located the heavy iron door, pushed it open with one shoulder.
Cold night air washed over me.
The darkness outside felt deeper than usual, thicker, almost tangible. I stepped onto the flagstone path that wound through the mansion's outer gardens. No wind stirred the leaves. No insects chirped. No night birds called.
I extended my senses.
Nothing.
Plants stood silent; their faint life-flow, usually a gentle green hum, had vanished. Insects that should have crawled across bark and stone registered only as physical shapes, empty of aura. Even the distant trees felt hollow, like painted silhouettes.
"This is strange…" I murmured.
I tilted my head, listening harder. The world before me was not real, not in the way it should be. The pulse of life that had become my second sight was muted, severed, as though someone had drawn a curtain across the living world.
I did not overthink it.
Not yet.
I continued forward, cane tapping, cloak billowing behind me like spilled ink. Madam Helga's mansion loomed ahead, its black spires and crimson-lit windows cutting sharp silhouettes against the starless sky. I navigated the familiar paths by memory and echo alone.
Then I felt them.
Several signatures, Silver and Bronze ranks, converging from the eastern garden wing.
I did not hesitate.
I slipped behind a thick marble pillar, pressing my back to cold stone. My aura drew inward, tight, controlled, almost invisible. The robe helped; Albert's lingering flame aura masked my own violet-black signature just enough.
"Where the hell did that blind devil go?!"
Caleb's voice rang out, furious, raw with pain and humiliation. I could feel the stump of his severed wrist wrapped in emergency aura bandages; the rage rolling off him was thick enough to taste.
"Ha… he returned," I whispered.
Another voice answered, younger, colder, edged with barely restrained fury.
"Caleb, my senses have never failed me. From my deduction, the last violent aura flow came from this exact area."
The speaker was slender, I could tell from the light, precise footfalls. Purple hair, like Albert's. Mana flowed around him in clean, crystalline threads.
"Nothing can hide from my Mana Eyes," he declared.
I focused my Echo Motion tighter, mapping his energy flow. It was different from ordinary superhumans ,sharper, more analytical. A true mage.
"They have a mage with them," I noted silently.
"Caleb, why did you bring my brother along on your suicide mission?" Jasper's tone sharpened to a blade. "I can't sense his presence anywhere! Caleb, if anything happens to him,"
"Jasper, you will do nothing," Caleb cut in arrogantly. "Even if something happens to him."
Jasper's body flared,silver-rank aura igniting in a sudden corona of purple flame, but Caleb looked at him unbothered.
"Okay, tell me, Caleb, why did you take him to kill the one ranked number one on the battle ranks list?"
My ears caught the words clearly.
"Battle rank… number one?"
Confusion rippled through me. I had no memory of any such ranking.
"Master specifically ordered us to go as a team before we were all abducted into this domain," Jasper continued, voice trembling with suppressed rage. "Just pray that nothing happens to my brother."
Purple flames erupted around him, wilder, hotter than Albert's had been. The reckless fire within me reacted instantly, surging toward my skin as though answering a call from kin.
"Damn it."
Jasper's head snapped toward my hiding place.
I moved.
Like a shadow torn free, I flashed across the open ground and plunged into the mansion's nearest side entrance. Marble halls swallowed me; echoes bounced off high ceilings and polished floors.
Behind me, Caleb laughed, a savage, wounded sound.
"Blind demon! I have returned for your head!"
But before he could charge, Jasper was already moving, tight on my heels, purple flames trailing like comet tails.
"Ehhh?"
Caleb's surprise was almost comical.
He burst forward with raw, unrefined strength, several Bronze-rank followers streaming behind him like hounds loosed from the leash. Boots pounded stone. Shouts echoed down the corridors.
I ran.
Not from fear.
From calculation.
The mansion's interior was a labyrinth I knew intimately, every turn, every hidden stair, every servant passage. My cane tapped once, twice, mapping the path ahead in perfect clarity. I veered left into a narrow service corridor, then right through an arched doorway that led to the eastern wing's guest quarters.
Jasper was fast, faster than Caleb. His flames lit the hallway behind me in violent purlpe pulses. I could feel the heat licking at my robe.
I pushed harder.
The excess energy from Albert's talent still roiled inside me, unstable, dangerous. Every step sent fresh sparks of purple flame dancing along my veins. If I did not vent it soon, the restriction would tear me apart.
But I could not stop.
Not yet.
I reached a grand staircase, marble steps spiraling upward toward the upper floors. I took them three at a time, cane tapping rhythmically. Behind me, Jasper's voice echoed up the stairwell.
"You can't run forever, blind devil!"
Caleb's roar followed.
"I'll tear you apart piece by piece!"
Bronze-rank auras fanned out, searching side passages, blocking exits. They were trying to box me in.
I smiled beneath.
Let them try.
I reached the second-floor landing and veered into a long gallery lined with ancient tapestries and obsidian statues. Moonlight streamed through tall arched windows, painting silver bars across the floor.
I paused, just long enough to listen.
Jasper was close, flames roaring like a living furnace.
I slammed the cane into the ground.
"Echo Pulse, modified."
A violet-black wave exploded outward, not wide, but focused. It struck the nearest tapestry, ripping it from its moorings. Heavy fabric cascaded across the hallway behind me, momentarily blocking line of sight.
I darted through a side door into a disused servant's wing.
Darkness swallowed me again.
I slowed my breathing, letting my senses expand.
The mansion felt wrong, too still, too empty. No maids hurried through the halls. No guards patrolled the corridors. Even the distant kitchens were silent, no clatter of pots, no murmur of voices.
This was not the mansion I knew.
I pressed forward, cane tapping softly.
A faint purple glow leaked from beneath my robe, Albert's talent still fighting for dominance. I clenched my jaw against the pain.
"Hold… just a little longer."
I needed to find a place to vent the excess energy, somewhere safe.
But safety was an illusion tonight.
Behind me, the sound of shattering marble echoed.
Jasper had torn through the tapestry blockade.
Caleb's furious shouts followed.
The hunt was on.
And I, was the prey.
For now.