Chapter 795 – I Insulted Your Personality

Lux adjusted his cuffs.

Unbothered.

"Technically," he replied casually, "I insulted your personality."

Gasps.

Wrong move?

Maybe.

But he was done playing.

"You think you’re above this?" she hissed.

"No," Lux replied calmly. "I think I’m tired."

That threw her off more than anything.

"Tired?" she repeated, incredulous.

Lux looked at her, really looked at her now. Not as heiress. Not as opponent. Not as political asset.

Just as a person who needed attention like oxygen.

"Yes," he said softly. "Of theatrics."

The Envy field trembled again.

Vira’s layered eyes flickered.

Lux’s internal clock ticked louder.

[Artifact Resonance: Max.]

Time’s up.

Cyrinne had succeded taking the artifact.

He straightened fully.

"I came here to observe," he said evenly. "To evaluate. To maintain diplomacy."

His gaze sharpened slightly.

"You escalated."

She snarled softly.

Lux didn’t flinch.

"Control your tongue," she repeated, stepping forward.

Lux’s smirk returned. "I don’t think I need it."

And that... oh, that did it.

You could actually feel the moment her restraint snapped. It wasn’t loud at first. It was tight. Like something pulled too far and then released with a silent whip-crack. The air warped around her as if comparison itself had become a physical force. The arena’s layered sigils pulsed erratically, reacting to her temper, feeding it, amplifying it.

Lux didn’t move.

Her demonic form sharpened further, reflections around her shifting violently, every shadow version of herself standing taller, brighter, superior to some imagined rival. Envy wasn’t brute force. It was distortion. It twisted perception until everything else felt smaller.

And right now?

She wanted Lux small.

"You dare—" she began, but the sentence broke apart as she lunged.

She didn’t run.

She surged.

Her body flickered forward in a blur, claws elongated from polished fingertips into jagged extensions of condensed aura. The ground cracked under her first step, the pressure wave following half a second behind like a delayed aftershock.

Lux stepped sideways.

Not hurried.

Just precise.

The claws sliced through where his throat had been.

He didn’t counterattack.

He lifted one hand.

Telekinesis flared, silent, clean.

The invisible force met her mid-swing and redirected the arc of her arm just enough that the strike gouged stone instead of flesh.

She twisted immediately, launching a second attack, a downward cleave aimed at his shoulder.

Lux leaned back, palm still raised, and the telekinetic force shoved her wrist slightly off trajectory. The claws skimmed past him again.

He looked almost bored. "Are you going to keep dodging like this?" she snapped, her voice layered, distorted.

Lux adjusted his jacket cuff mid-step. "Yes."

The bluntness irritated her more than any insult.

She attacked again, this time not with claws but with a blast of compressed envy-force, a concussive wave shaped by competitive aggression. The arena trembled as the wave roared toward him.

Lux raised both hands casually.

Telekinesis intensified.

The blast hit the invisible barrier of force and bent sideways, tearing through one of the arena’s outer pillars instead. Stone exploded outward in a rain of shards.

Gasps erupted from the nobles.

Lux’s heartbeat stayed steady.

He wasn’t fighting.

He was managing.

"Defeating you..." he said calmly, as she charged again, "isn’t my job."

She halted mid-lunge, confusion flickering beneath fury.

"What do you mean?"

He didn’t answer immediately. He stepped back once more, letting her momentum carry her past him.

"Can you feel it?" he asked quietly.

The arena seemed to hold its breath.

"Feel what?" she demanded, launching another strike.

Lux caught her wrist mid-swing, telekinesis locking her arm in place, stopping the claw an inch from his face.

"The change," he murmured. "Of Envy."

That made her hesitate.

Just for half a second.

And that half-second was enough.

Because beneath her rage, something was shifting.

The Envy field around the arena trembled, not in obedience to her anymore, but in response to something else. A deeper resonance. A reclaiming pulse.

She felt it.

Her eyes widened slightly.

"What did you do?" she hissed.

Lux tilted his head.

"Not me." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

And that was true.

[Artifact Resonance: Stabilizing.]

[New Authority Signature Detected.]

She sensed it now, like a second heartbeat in the domain. One that wasn’t hers.

Her fury spiked.

She broke free of the telekinetic hold with brute force, aura flaring violently as she gathered power in both hands.

"Then I’ll crush you first," she spat.

She surged forward again, this time not controlled, not elegant. This was raw emotion. Raw entitlement. Her claws ignited with destructive force meant to shatter, not spar.

Lux exhaled softly.

He summoned Infernal Barrier.

The dark shield shimmered into existence around him, layered and dense, a clean hemispherical field of compressed infernal energy. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t brace.

Her strike came down.

The impact detonated like thunder cracking stone. The barrier held. Shockwaves rippled outward, sending nobles stumbling backward.

Lux felt the pressure.

Felt the raw weight of her intent.

Before the second strike could land... A new force cut in.

A different aura.

Cool.

Controlled.

Older than her rage.

A figure stepped between them.

Not hurried.

Not dramatic.

Just inevitable.

The second blast hit and split.

The collision of energies erupted into a shockwave that rolled across the arena like a violent storm front. Stone fractured in widening lines. Air compressed and exploded outward. Lux’s barrier dissolved as the incoming force was intercepted mid-impact.

When the dust settled...

There she stood.

Cyrinne.

Not behind.

Not kneeling.

Not lowering her eyes.

Standing.

Straight.

Her presence was quieter than Vira’s, but heavier. Not louder, but deeper. The kind of authority that didn’t need to scream.

Vira staggered back one step, disbelief overtaking fury.

"You..." she breathed.

Cyrinne’s gaze did not waver.

Her eyes locked onto Vira’s without submission.

For the first time in years, she did not look down.

Lux lowered his hands slowly.

"Finally," he whispered.

Cyrinne spoke, her voice steady, not raised. "You felt it," she said. "Didn’t you?"

The arena’s sigils pulsed again, but this time in alignment with her.

Vira’s reflections flickered uncertainly around her demonic form.

"You lost that resonance long ago," Cyrinne continued. "When your mother forced mine into chains."

A ripple went through the nobles.

History.

Ugly history.