The Baron snapped his fingers.
"Kill them."
Steel scraped from scabbards as a dozen elite knights stepped forward—not common guards but trained killers—their movements sharp, disciplined, merciless. They spread out instantly, forming a semi-circle that closed around Cassian and Vivian like a tightening noose.
Cassian raised his sword.
Vivian braced herself.
Cecilia leaned back against a blood-splattered table, arms crossed, expression unreadably cold.
"Try not to die," she murmured. "I dislike cleaning up incompetence."
The first knight struck, and Cassian barely blocked before a second blade slammed into his ribs from the side. Pain exploded through him as he staggered, breath ripped from his lungs.
Vivian thrust her palm forward, sending a blast of raw magic, but a knight slipped past it with frightening speed and drove his knee into her stomach. She folded, gasping, and only narrowly dodged the downward swing of his sword.
Cassian roared and charged to cover her, slashing in a brutal arc.
The knight stopped the attack with one hand on the flat of the blade and punched Cassian across the jaw. Blood flew from his mouth as he tumbled across the stone floor.
"Cassian!" Vivian cried.
Her magic flared too fast, too uncontrolled, sparking and flickering around her like unstable lightning.
She hurled another spell. It hit a knight directly, but he pushed through it, armor scorched, eyes cold. He grabbed her face and slammed her into the wall.
Vivian screamed.
Cecilia did not move.
Her gaze was flat, calculating, watching how they fought, how they broke, how close they were to shattering.
Cassian forced himself up, chest heaving, vision swimming.
A knight lifted his blade to finish Vivian.
A shadow curled around his ankle.
He froze.
His head twisted sharply to the side, bone cracking. He dropped like a sack of stone.
Vivian blinked, shaken.
Cecilia's voice drifted lazily across the room, "I said not to die."
But she didn't intervene further.
Not yet.
Two more knights lunged at Cassian. He parried the first, but the second drove a dagger into his shoulder. Cassian screamed, blood spilling warm down his arm. He managed to kick the first knight back before ripping the dagger free and stabbing it into his attacker's throat.
The knight fell, but Cassian dropped to one knee, swaying.
Vivian clenched her shaking hands. A knight grabbed her by the hair, and she bit down on his wrist, hard enough to tear skin. He cursed and threw her aside. She rolled across the floor, coughing blood.
Another knight moved to run Cassian through, but the blade stopped mid-thrust, suspended an inch from Cassian's heart.
A thin black line—Cecilia's shadow—held the knight's wrist in place like a vice.
Cecilia tilted her head, her expression emotionless.
"You are not allowed to die yet," she said to Cassian.
The knight let out a strangled gasp as his own arm twisted until the bone snapped.
Cassian looked at her, but she didn't look back.
Vivian pushed herself up, breathing in fast, shallow bursts. Her eyes were wet—not from fear, but fury.
She thrust her hand forward, raw magic exploding like a shockwave. The knight nearest her was thrown into a rack of alchemical tools, glass shattering over him.
Cassian forced himself to his feet again, blood dripping from his jaw, and swung at a knight who blocked him effortlessly. The knight slammed his elbow into Cassian's throat, choking him; then smashed his fist into Cassian's ribs again and again until he coughed blood.
Vivian screamed his name.
Cecilia whispered:
"Enough."
The knight's own shadow rose like a spear and impaled his calf. He fell to one knee—just enough for Cassian to drive his blade into the knight's side, ripping upward in a violent arc.
The Baron's face twisted with anger.
"STOP PLAYING AND KILL THEM!"
Three knights charged Vivian at once.
She raised her arms yet was slow.
One cut her across the thigh.
Another slammed his shield into her chest, knocking the breath out of her.
The third grabbed her throat, lifting her off the ground as she clawed at his gauntlet, face turning red, until his shadow abruptly cracked like glass.
He jerked violently, dropping Vivian.
Still, she did not step forward—only guided the battlefield from the edges, letting Cassian and Vivian bleed and struggle and claw their way through death.
The remaining knights closed in.
Cassian's vision blurred. Vivian's knees shook. Both were bruised, bleeding, outmatched, but still standing.
Barely.
The Baron snarled, "End them!"
Cecilia's eyes glinted cold, like a predator's.
"Do try," she whispered. "They need the experience."
The fight went on harder, bloodier, more desperate as Cassian and Vivian threw themselves into survival while Cecilia watched like a queen observing pieces on a board.
Cold.
Calculating.
Ready to intervene but only when the line between life and death grew razor-thin.
The fight dragged on, turning from chaos to slaughter.
Cassian collapsed to one knee, coughing blood, his sword trembling in his grip. His left arm hung useless, with a dislocated shoulder, bone cracked. The knight before him raised his blade for the killing blow.
Vivian tried to scream his name, but she was pinned against the wall by another knight, his gauntlet crushing her throat, her legs kicking weakly against the stone.
They were done.
They couldn't go on.
Even the knights sensed it. Their movements slowed, growing confident, almost cruel.
"You lasted longer than expected," one sneered as he twisted his blade into Cassian's side—not fully stabbing, just pressing enough to make him scream. "But this is the end."
Cassian struggled, tears mixing with blood.
"I… won't die here…"
The knight laughed. "You already have."
Vivian clawed at the hand choking her. Her nails tore skin. Blood streaked down the knight's wrist, but his grip only tightened. Her vision blurred into white spots.
She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't speak.
The world was slipping, and Cecilia still hadn't moved.
She watched them with detached curiosity, as though observing a pair of animals pushed to their limits.
Only when Cassian's blade dropped from his fingers and when Vivian's eyes rolled back, her hands falling limp—
did Cecilia finally straighten.
A shift in the air.
Cold.
Sharp.
Deadly.
The Baron felt it instantly.
His breath hitched.
"You— what are you—"
Cecilia stepped forward.
Not rushed.
Not tense.
Just a slow, graceful walk that made every knight stiffen as instinct screamed run.
"Well," she murmured, voice soft as frost, "I suppose this is far enough."
The knight about to kill Cassian did not even see her move.
One moment he stood, and the next, his head hit the ground with a dull thud, body collapsing beside it.
The knight strangling Vivian turned, but the shadow at his feet surged upward like a serpent, coiling around his throat. He clawed at it, choking, until his neck snapped with a crisp, final crack.
Vivian dropped to her knees, gasping violently for air.
Cassian stared up through blood-soaked lashes, barely conscious.
Cecilia kept walking.
Three knights braced themselves and attacked at once.
Swords flashed only to shatter as they touched the slick, dark barrier swirling lazily around Cecilia's body. A shadow blade pierced each knight simultaneously—three clean strikes, three bodies hitting the floor, twitching as their blood spread.
The Baron stumbled back, horrified.
"You… You're a monster!"
Cecilia tilted her head, studying him the way one might study a dying rodent.
"A monster?"
Her voice was soft… but colder than a winter.
"After what you've done here? You flatter yourself."
She snapped her fingers.
The remaining knights convulsed mid-strike as their own shadows stabbed upward through their hearts, impaling them like skewers.
They dropped instantly.
Silence fell.
The lab still smelled of blood and rot, but now the air was heavier, oppressive, suffocating with the weight of Cecilia's presence.
She stopped walking, standing amid the corpses as though they were nothing more than discarded props.
Turning to Cassian and Vivian, she spoke without a hint of warmth:
"Stand."
Cassian tried. Failed.
Vivian pushed herself upright, shaking violently.
Cecilia's gaze cut through them.
"This," she said, sweeping a hand toward the mutilated bodies around them, "is the reality you are stepping into. You must either rise to meet it… or drown beneath it."
Her eyes sharpened cold, predatory, merciless.
"Now get up. We're not done."
Cassian stared at the corpses sprawled across the laboratory floor, chest heaving, pupils trembling. He tried to rise, but his legs buckled, dropping him back to his knees with a choked breath.
Vivian managed to stand, but only barely. Her hands shook so violently she had to grip her own arms just to stay upright. Her throat still bore the dark bruise of the knight's grip.
"C–Cecilia…" she whispered, voice breaking. "You… you killed them all…"
I didn't even look at her.
I stepped over a corpse, boot splashing through blood, eyes fixed on the Baron as though he were the only thing in the room worth acknowledging.
The Baron, cornered against a shattered table, was trembling uncontrollably. His expensive robes were stained with blood from the fight—not his own—but it still soaked him, making him look smaller, weaker.
"You…" he rasped. "You're not human."
I smiled.
A slow, small, terrifying smile.
"Took you long enough to notice," I said softly.
He flinched as she approached. "W–what do you want from me?"
I stopped only steps away, shadows curling faintly around her ankles like snakes.
"Everything," I murmured.
"Your reasons. Your collaborators. Your methods. Your purpose."
My voice dropped further—quiet, cold enough to frost bone.
"And most importantly… your confession."
The Baron's back hit the wall. "I… I won't tell you anything."
Cecilia tilted her head. "I wasn't asking."
Cassian swallowed hard as he watched her. He'd known Cecilia was cold—efficient—dangerous even.
But this?
This was something else entirely.
Vivian pressed a hand over her mouth, eyes wide as Cecilia reached out and took hold of the Baron's chin—not violently, almost gently. That made it worse.
"Tell me," she murmured, "how long have you been turning humans into chimeras?"
The Baron tried to pull away. Her grip tightened a fraction—just enough to make him gasp.
"No? Then we will do this the unpleasant way."
Her shadow stretched behind her, rising like a monstrous silhouette against the blood-stained floor.
This time, he broke instantly.
"W–WAIT!" he shrieked. "It wasn't me! I didn't start it!"
Cecilia's eyes sharpened.
"Go on."
"The experiments. I only did what they asked me to do—"
A guttural howl cut him off.
Cassian whipped around. Vivian froze.
Something moved behind the cages.
No—several things.
The Baron suddenly grinned, wild and unhinged, laughter spilling from him in a cracked, desperate frenzy.
"You want the truth?" he spat. "Then ask them! My masterpieces!"
He grabbed a blood-smeared lever on the wall and yanked it down.
The iron bars of the cages SLAMMED open.
A chorus of distorted roars and choked cries filled the room as the chimeras spilled out, dragging twisted limbs, stitched flesh tearing, extra jaws gnashing in the dim torchlight. The smell of rot surged forward like a wave.
Vivian stumbled back, horror contorting her face.
Cassian's breath seized in his lungs.
The creatures were once humans.
Once children.
Once families.
Now nothing but monsters made of pain.
The Baron laughed, hysterical.
"Let's see how confident you are when you face them all!"
I didn't flinch.
Didn't blink.
Didn't even turn fully toward the approaching monstrosities.
I simply exhaled… slow, bored.
"Oh?" I said lightly.
"Releasing half-finished toys?"
The chimeras lurched closer, jaws splitting, blood dripping from fresh stitches.
My voice lowered to a chilling whisper:
"Pathetic."
The chimeras lunged.
Cassian grabbed his sword on instinct, but I lifted a single hand without even looking back.
"Do not move."
Her voice was soft.
Yet absolute.
Cassian froze mid-step.
Vivian swallowed hard and stepped behind him, trembling.
The first chimera—massive, stitched together with three torsos and a jaw too wide for its skull—charged straight for Cecilia.
She didn't even bother drawing a weapon.
Her fingers twitched.
Crack.
A spike of ice erupted from the floor, impaling the creature through the chest before it even came within two meters. Its grotesque body convulsed, flesh tearing around the frozen blade.
It never even touched her.
The second and third came together—one crawling on all fours with too many joints, the other dragging a lower body sewn from different corpses. Their distorted forms cast massive shadows on the walls.
I stepped forward, my steps echoing softly through the lab.
Her expression was blank.
Cold.
Almost bored.
"Umbrae Vinculum," I whispered.
A dark ripple spilled across the floor like spilled ink. Shadow tendrils shot upward, snaring the two chimeras mid-charge, freezing them in place even as they writhed, shrieking through mismatched mouths.
Cecilia lifted her hand.
The air froze.
Power gathered around her fingers—cold, ancient, and merciless. Vivian felt it in her bones, a pressure that made it hard to breathe.
Cassian clutched his chest, eyes wide. "Wh-what is she—?"
Cecilia's lips curved.
Not a smile.
Something worse.
"Absolute zero."
The world stopped.
A soundless explosion of frost erupted from her body. The air crystallized. Even the light seemed to shatter. A wave of white-blue energy swept through the lab like divine judgment.
The chimeras froze mid-scream, ice crawling up their bodies faster than the eye could follow. Their flesh blackened under the cold, cracking apart.
Then—
BOOM.
They shattered.
Fragmented into glittering chunks of frozen gore that scattered across the stone floor like broken glass.
Cassian stumbled back, nearly collapsing.
Vivian clapped a hand over her mouth, tears brimming.
Cecilia brushed a fleck of ice off her sleeve, unimpressed.
"I warned you," she said quietly. "Half-finished toys."
But she wasn't done.
At the edge of her spell, another chimera—smaller, trembling—tried to crawl away on ruined limbs, dragging a trail of blood.
It whispered through torn lips:
"Help… please…"
Cecilia's eyes darkened.
Not with pity.
With disgust.
"You died the moment he touched you," she whispered. "I am merely correcting the mistake."
A blade of ice formed at her fingertips—thin, flawless, mercifully quick.
She flicked it.
Slice.
The creature fell still.
Cassian turned his head away, jaw trembling. Vivian's shoulders shook, unable to comprehend how effortlessly Cecilia killed what had once been a person.
But Cecilia didn't spare them a glance.
She had already noticed the Baron.
He was crawling toward the stairs, slipping in the blood, clawing desperately at the stone.
"What a nuisance," she sighed.
He scrambled to his feet and ran.
Ran like a man who had seen a demon and knew he was next.
"Run, then," Cecilia murmured, stepping over the bodies of the chimeras.
"I'll come for you soon."
She didn't chase him.
She didn't need to.
Because now?
There was nowhere left for him to hide.
To be continued...