Five hours into the Great Citadel raid, all Raine could hear were hissing, cracking, and squelching sounds cutting through the mountains. What disheartened her, however, was what lay before her.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Before her, a cadet knelt trembling, words catching in their throat and yet dragged out through sheer will, bowing to the night sky with a heart so violently thumping that even Raine could feel it from where she stood.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Louder and louder his mumbling grew, and yet through all of it, the only thing Raine could make out was the name of the Firstlight Goddess.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Her chest tightened as the question crept in: where had it all gone wrong?

She had always known this mission would be dangerous, despite the easy smile Leomaris had worn through every preparation.

But this... this wasn’t what she had expected at all.

She yanked her sword free with a hard pull from the carcass of the spider she had just brought down, nearly eight feet tall and four meters wide.

Dark blood flew in every direction, soaking her clothes and armour through, though she hardly gave it any thought.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Every movement drew a protest from her sore limbs and screaming muscles, but she took a deep, steadying breath and sent her Divine Aura coursing through her body, healing herself and restoring her strength almost immediately.

She scanned the forest, eyes moving from one place to the next in search of her faction members. But there was no one. She had been alone for a good while now, and hope wasn’t helping.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

She spread her Divine Aura around herself, sharpening her awareness to pick up even the slightest disturbance within its five-meter reach.

She had no idea what had happened. They had followed Leomaris’s instructions precisely, and yet there hadn’t been a moment to attack before they were ambushed. It was almost as though the creatures had been expecting them.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Everyone scattered. Some ran in fear, while many cast Leomaris’s strategy aside and fought however they pleased. That was when she became isolated. That was when her faction vanished, Lucius among them.

She had gone from one massive spider to the next, counting five cadet corpses so far. And yet, something deep within her refused to let go of the feeling that this was exactly what Leomaris had intended.

Why?

Leomaris’s plan assigned each faction to a single class: knights, casters, tanks, thieves, and flight. Every class came with rules that governed their fighting style, all except the thieves, who were also assassins.

Not only had Leomaris’s faction, the Mercy of Death, chosen to be thieves, but they were also the sole faction to make that choice.

And ever since, they had been nowhere to be found. Leomaris included. Not a single word or warning had come from any of them.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

As she made her way up the mountain, a massive blast of flame tore across the sky, cutting a direct path toward the citadel.

Relief swept through her at once, for she knew exactly who was behind it. Alfred. The Ace of the first-year cadets.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

It was the only indication of a composed human presence she had seen in the past few hours. Everyone else she had encountered was either dead or drowning in fear.

She moved fast, heading for the citadel. Then, a few steps in, something pulled at her. Her hand found the hilt of her blade before she’d even decided to reach for it.

Her heart was loud and unsteady. Her head snapped up toward the trees she’d been walking under. Crimson eyes swept from trunk to trunk. Nothing.

The trees weren’t tall. Fifteen feet, maybe. Thin, with leaves shaped like spearheads pointing at the sky. Sparse enough that despite the night, she should have seen anything coming. But there was nothing there.

’Where is it? These creatures aren’t small, so where could they be hiding?’

A moment passed. Nothing still. She stopped waiting and ran straight for the citadel.

Then it happened.

Something shifted within five meters of her, and her body was already moving, blade cutting through the air clean and precise. Almost immediately, she shivered. Not from the cold.

She threw herself backward. It didn’t matter. Green liquid caught her anyway, spreading fast, eating through fabric first, then skin.

In one motion, she tore the fabric from her shoulder and healed herself. Teeth clenched tight. She searched the darkness for the creature.

Lords ruled their territories, and their creatures answered to that strength. The stronger the lord, the stronger what followed. She’d spent hours cutting through enormous spiders, and fear hadn’t been the problem.

Paranoia, though. That was harder to beat.

"Show yourself, coward."

The echo of her voice died in the distance. Still nothing. She clenched her teeth in irritation.

Vision would find it, but the strain on her eyes wasn’t worth it. Not yet. She hadn’t even faced the Lord.

After a moment, nothing. She let out a sigh.

"I have no choice then."

She closed her eyes and relaxed her nerves. "Locate," she murmured, and barely a second later, she caught wind of the spider.

She dashed in its direction without a moment’s hesitation, leaping from one bark to the next. High up and clinging tightly to a tree was a small spider. She sliced it in two.

Once she landed, she scratched the back of her head in confusion.

"Why is this one so small? Isn’t it supposed to be massive like the others?"

Unusual. Once under a lord, monsters weren’t discriminated against. Why the others were massive and this one small was something she had time to think about later.

Then came another blast of magic from Alfred. It was ice, this time.

She hurried toward the citadel until she reached the only path leading to it. A narrow path with an endless drop to the left and right.

Far at the end of the cliff stood the citadel itself, and hovering in the air was Alfred’s spirit dragon alongside two more spirits, all sending attacks toward it.

Her attention didn’t linger. Just in the middle of the narrow passage, someone familiar caught her eye. Dressed in a butler’s attire, with long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, sat on their knees looking utterly broken. It was Hazel, Leomaris’s butler.

Raine hurried toward her, and once she neared, her body shivered. Before Hazel was the severed head of a human. She clung to it as though it were a trophy.

She gulped bile. She knew that face: dark hair, an innocent look even in death. Emerald’s head. The woman who was supposed to kill Leomaris today.

Raine’s heart skipped a beat.

"Does this mean...?"

She grabbed Hazel by the shoulder on instinct. Hazel didn’t have to say a word. Her expression said enough. But she did anyway.

Her eyes were soaked in tears as she spoke: 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"The young master... he’s missing. He’s gone. I failed him."

Raine’s heart began to pound, and without a moment’s hesitation, she dashed toward the citadel.

She didn’t know why. Didn’t know what she’d do once she got there. She’d known days before this raid that Emerald intended to kill him. She’d done nothing.

Yet part of her didn’t want to believe Leomaris would die so easily. Before long, she was sprinting through the citadel, carved entirely from stone.

"Hey, Raine... where have you been?"

Within the walls, she saw her faction members heavily engaged in battle against the spiders. Thriving for the Lord. But that was the least of Raine’s problems.

"Locate!"

She fixed her mind on Leomaris, and for a moment, relief coursed through her. Her ability located him beneath, but she couldn’t tell if he was alive or not. But the sense of him being found was enough.

Her eyes danced around until she spotted a collapsed hole in the distance. Some of the spiders attacked, but she hardly paid any mind, leaping into the hole and landing on rubble that suggested the collapse hadn’t been long ago.

She was beneath where she’d been before. Not where she wanted. The collapse had gone deeper, she could tell, but rubble and debris choked the other path shut.

She pulled on her strength and drove her fist down. Three more strikes at the same force, and the ground caved beneath her, sending her where she wanted to be.

The moment she landed, her eyes searched the distance. Leomaris should have been here. But the place was hollow. Just dust and the stale smell of abandonment.

"Where are you, Leomaris?" She muttered.

Then, suddenly, to her left, near the narrow window, Alfred’s flames burst across the corridor. A faint red glow slipped through the window and washed over the room beyond. It lit something that made her stomach turn cold.

She froze.

Every muscle in her body locked in place as her eyes fixed on the sight ahead. She had prepared herself to see Leomaris broken, perhaps dying, perhaps already dead.

But not this.

For that single dreadful moment, she saw a blade drive straight through Leomaris’s chest with such savage force that his body jerked before he could even react.

His scream reached her a second later, raw and ragged, and before his knees could hit the floor, she caught sight of the one holding the sword.

Someone he knew.

Someone close enough to stand beside him without suspicion.

The figure slowly twisted the blade deeper, almost calm about it, as though savoring the feel of flesh tearing apart around steel.

And worse still, she couldn’t move.