Dawn filtered weakly through the forest canopy.
Pale light slipped between towering branches, barely touching the ground below. Mist coiled around roots and fallen leaves like wandering spirits, curling lazily through fern beds and moss-covered stones.
Elya moved through it like a ghost.
He leapt from branch to branch, silent despite Nana's weight on his shoulder. His boots barely disturbed the bark. Every landing was precise. Every movement calculated.
Nana bounced lightly against his back.
"You know," she said breathlessly, clinging tighter, "most people would ask before kidnapping royalty."
Elya didn't answer.
He adjusted his grip and vaulted to another tree.
Nana frowned. "Also, the fact that you're not responding is really rude."
Still nothing.
He didn't slow.
To Elya, Nana wasn't a person right now.
She was cargo.
Ashveil blood.A complication.
Branches blurred beneath them as he crossed twenty meters in a single jump.
Then—
Metal screamed.
A chain tore through the air where his head had been.
Elya twisted mid-leap.
The hooked blade at the chain's end buried itself into the trunk behind him, splintering bark.
Nana yelped.
"What was THAT?!"
Elya landed on a higher branch and finally spoke.
"Hold on."
The chain snapped back violently.
A figure emerged from the mist below.
Tall.
Wrapped in matte black combat cloth reinforced with metallic threading. A rune stone pulsed faint crimson at his collarbone, embedded directly into his suit.
His eyes glowed faintly behind a half-mask.
"Well," the assassin said casually, spinning the chain around his arm. "So this is the Ghost."
Elya stared down at him.
Silent.
The assassin grinned.
"Name's Zaziel. Contract says I bring the princess back alive."
His gaze shifted to Lucy.
"You though?" He tilted his head toward Elya. "Optional."
Elya stepped off the branch.
Dropping into motion.
He landed and immediately launched forward.
The forest exploded into movement.
Zaziel snapped his wrist.
The chain followed Elya like a living serpent.
It wrapped around a tree ahead, redirected, and slashed back toward Elya's spine.
Elya pivoted sharply, jumping sideways while still carrying Nana.
The blade missed by centimeters.
He used the momentum to rebound off a trunk and sprint upward along the bark.
Nana clutched his shoulders.
"YOU COULD HAVE WARNED ME."
Zaziel laughed and shot upward after them, boots digging into trees as he used the chain to pull himself forward, swinging between branches with predatory grace.
"You run beautifully," Zaziel called. "But you don't fight much, do you?"
Elya felt killing intent spike.
He twisted.
The chain wrapped around his ankle.
Yanked.
He slammed into a branch hard enough to crack wood.
Nana screamed.
Elya flipped midair, cut the chain's angle by rotating his body, and tore himself free using raw strength. He landed in a crouch, sliding across bark.
He extended one hand.
Cold surged.
Frost raced outward—And stopped.
The ice crawled halfway up the chain before sputtering out, melting into vapor.
Zaziel raised an eyebrow.
"Rune stone," he said smugly. "Negates Magical Arcanum. Didn't they teach you witches that?"
Elya clicked his tongue.
Annoyed.
So that's how it was.
No wide-area freezing.No easy kills.
He was carrying Nana.
And this man was built to hunt him.
Zaziel lunged.
The chain split mid-flight—segmenting into three hooked blades that came from different angles.
Elya jumped backward, twisted sideways, used Nana's weight to counterbalance, and narrowly avoided two blades.
The third carved a shallow line across his ribs.
Blood seeped.Nana felt it.
"You're bleeding."He ignored her.
He landed on another branch.
This time, he finally spoke.
"Release."
Black steel burst into existence beside him.
His Spada manifested in a flash of distorted air, forming directly from his soul.
Nana felt the temperature drop instantly.
Zaziel's smile widened.
"There it is."
Elya dropped Nana behind a thick trunk.
"Don't move."
She opened her mouth—
He was already gone.
Elya vanished forward.
Spada met chain in a burst of sparks.
Metal shrieked.
Zaziel was fast—faster than palace guards, faster than soldiers. He rotated his chain in tight arcs, redirecting Elya's strikes, forcing him backward across interconnected branches.
Elya adapted immediately.
He stopped trying to overpower.
Instead, he started reading.
Every swing.Every pivot.
Every micro-adjustment of Zaziel's shoulders before a strike.
Zaziel kicked off a tree and descended from above.
Elya rolled across bark, reversed his grip, and slashed upward.
Zaziel twisted midair, letting the blade graze his armor, then snapped his chain downward—
Elya blocked.
The impact drove him into the trunk hard enough to crack it.
Zaziel appeared in front of him instantly.
Knife drawn.
Elya caught the wrist.
They struggled for half a second.
Then Elya headbutted him.
Zaziel staggered.
Elya followed with a low sweep, knocking Zaziel off balance, then drove Spada toward his chest—
CLANG.
The rune stone flared.
The blade slowed inches from Zaziel's heart.
Zaziel grinned.
"Too slow."
He elbowed Elya in the jaw and kicked him backward.
Elya skidded across branches, barely regaining footing.
Nana watched from behind the tree, frozen.
Zaziel cracked his neck.
"You rely too much on power," he said. "You don't know how to kill efficiently."
Elya inhaled.
Then he moved.
He closed distance in two steps.
Feinted left.Slashed low.Spun.
Used the flat of his blade to deflect the chain, then rotated his body and drove a knee into Zaziel's ribs.
Zaziel flew backward, crashed through branches, caught himself midair with the chain, and landed in a crouch.
Blood dripped from his mouth.
His eyes burned.
"Oh," he laughed. "Now we're talking."
They vanished into motion again.
Steel clashed.Trees shattered.
Branches rained down.
Elya used the environment—kicking off trunks, rebounding from angled limbs, forcing Zaziel into awkward positions.
Zaziel adapted, too.
He wrapped his chain around branches to alter trajectories, slingshot himself unpredictably, attack from blind spots.
One blade finally pierced Elya's shoulder.
He didn't scream.
He grabbed the chain with his free hand, yanked Zaziel toward him, and drove Spada through the assassin's thigh.
Zaziel howled.
They crashed to the forest floor.
Elya stood first.
Spada at Zaziel's throat.
Zaziel coughed, laughing weakly.
"So… the Ghost bleeds."
Elya didn't respond.
He turned and walked back to Nana.
She stared at him.
Wide-eyed.Breathing hard.
"…you're insane."
Elya picked her up again.
She wrapped her arms around his neck automatically.
Behind them, Zaziel lay in the leaves, bleeding and grinning.
"This isn't over," he called weakly. "They'll send more."
High above marble floors and frozen banners, inside the war chamber of the Ashveil palace…
King Ashveil stood before a massive crystal map of the continent.
Light projections showed troop movements, city boundaries, and glowing rune-stone networks.
His fists were clenched behind his back.
"The assassin failed," one general reported, kneeling. "The target escaped with Princess Nana."
Ashveil didn't turn.Silence stretched.
Then—
"Send the Black Pursuers."
The generals stiffened.
"My lord, that unit hasn't been deployed since the Witch Purge—"
Ashveil finally faced them.
His eyes were cold.
"He froze my palace."
He stepped forward, aura pressing down on everyone in the room.
"He humiliated my guards."
His voice lowered.
"And he took my daughter."
The air itself seemed to recoil.Ashveil drew his rune-etched sword just enough for light to bleed from its edge.
"Bring me the Ghost."
He slid the blade back into its sheath.
"Alive… if possible."
A pause.
"Dead… if necessary."