"I don’t understand. Why did you have to do any of this?" Max muttered, his grip tightening around Aurelius’s throat. But from the prince’s perspective, it no longer felt like Max was speaking to him. It felt like he was talking to something inside himself.

Suddenly, a system screen appeared before Max, but this time it was not the usual black screen with golden letters etched into its surface. It was pure white, with black letters swirling across it like smoke.

[Danger detected!]

[User’s mental state unstable...]

[The rage in user’s heart is boiling...]

[Calculating solution...]

[Offering user a new skill to chain their anger...]

[Would you like to accept a soul entrapment skill?]

[Y/N]

Max lifted his eyes to the screen. For a long moment, he did not react at all. His fully black eyes stared at the words, empty and silent, as if his mind was buried somewhere too deep to reach.

"Yes," a low, eerie answer left his lips.

The white screen pulsed with pale light around the edges, as if responding to his voice.

Aurelius sensed that something was wrong with Max and started to struggle with everything he had left. Terror crawled through his body. It felt as if something had latched onto his soul and marked it like prey. A strange pulling sensation followed right after, digging deep into him and sending shivers down to his bones.

From afar, Senuna watched something impossible unfold.

A spectral hand reached out from Max’s back, stretching from the same place where his right wing had formed. It was almost translucent, yet horrifyingly gray at the same time, like dead smoke forced into the shape of a hand. Its fingers twitched and cracked as if possessed by a demon. To Aurelius’s horror, Max’s pupils turned gray as well.

"Ancient sorcery arts... how can he possess and control one of them?" Senuna’s body shivered in fear as she started to back away. But then, Max looked at her, sensing her desire to flee. A single look was all it took to lock her in place. Her legs refused to move, no matter how desperately her mind begged her to run.

She could do nothing but witness as the hand reached deep inside the prideful prince’s chest. His body jerked once, but no scream came out of his ruined mouth. Then, something was pulled out within its grasp, something ethereal that twisted faintly between the gray fingers, unable to keep any real shape.

Aurelius’s horrified eyes slowly grew calm. The fear vanished first, then the hatred, then the pride, until there was nothing left but an empty stare as all of his struggles came to a stop.

"What now?" Max muttered, making the system screen pulse again.

[You may lock the soul inside one of your void pockets. Or you can use the skill to dismantle the soul, causing the victim pain stronger than any physical body could ever endure.]

"How long does that take?"

[You can freely choose the time.]

A cold smile rose on his lips.

"Ten thousand years... That seems like a long enough time to become numb to pain and start wishing for death."

[Very well.]

The hand retracted back into Max’s body, carrying the soul along with it. If Max could look inside himself, he would see a prison made from ancient runes floating around his magic soul. Aurelius was trapped inside, screaming in pain that no human could ever hear.

Max dropped the empty vessel, allowing the body to slump to the ground.

"I can’t allow your filth to nurture my lands..."

Max muttered, and void magic rushed at the body, cutting into it again and again until flesh, bone, and blood collapsed into dust. Yet even that dust was not spared.

Max walked back toward the castle, every step dragging, his feet barely leaving the ground, as if his body was only now remembering how heavy it was. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Soon, he reached Senuna. Her whole essence was shaking, her usual arrogance fading as if it had never existed.

"You don’t know how to forgive... do you?" she asked through the tremor in her voice. An awkward smile rested on her lips. She did not know if she was doomed or if Max was, but either way, this would not end well. Somebody would die, and Max would be in the middle of it all.

"I can’t forgive." He stopped by her side, his words echoing deep into her soul. "For someone who kills without reason, there is no place on the same plane as me... Especially those who touch my family. They deserve to suffer. Suffer until they beg to die. Make sure you never cross that mark, Diplomat Senuna..."

He continued walking, his eyes slowly returning to normal.

Senuna’s lips parted, but no words came out. Only then did she realize she had been holding her breath.

Soon, Max came to a stop before Light’s mother.

"Where’s his body?" he asked gently, and somehow, that soft voice drew more tears from eyes that should have been too dry to cry.

"There..." She pointed slightly to the right, where several people were surrounding something with their heads lowered.

Max was ready to walk over when her elderly hand caught the bottom of his pants.

"Did you kill that bastard?"

"No," Max said slowly. "I gave him something worse than death..."

Hearing that, her fingers let go of Max. Her head slumped toward the ground, exhaustion finally catching up with her after a sense of relief washed over her body. Her hand remained stretched toward him for a moment, trembling in the empty air before falling limp.

"King..." A few of the ice dragons turned to face him, their eyes lowered to the ground. "Light... he..."

"I know." Max pushed them aside, squatting down to pick up Light’s cold body. The weight in his arms felt far heavier than it should have. His fingers tightened around the boy’s clothes, careful not to crush the body that would never move again. Memories began to rush into his mind as he carried him outside, planning to give him a burial himself.

"Sorry... I will become a better king. Stronger. Feared by all. So nobody will dare to touch our people again. Ever..." His cold eyes lowered to the pale, bloodied face in his arms as his wings spread behind him.