I found the rhythm underneath it all.
Then I opened my eyes.
Crimson Death pulsed in my grip. My eyes — I felt them shift. The red deepening. Sharpening. The glow of something predatory bleeding into my vision.
All-Seeing Eyes. Active.
The pain hit immediately — a white-hot needle driving straight through my optic nerves, anchoring itself behind my skull. My jaw tightened against it.
I lunged.
The first monster didn't see me coming. The second one did — and it didn't matter. One arc. One strike. Clean.
Then the next.
And the next.
The pain in my eyes became background noise. Something to ignore. Something to move through.
Each step found the one before it. Each strike fed into the next. Without deciding to, I fell into something that wasn't quite thought anymore — just motion, and the red, and the next target.
One arc. One kill. One step.
One arc. One kill. One step.
Behind me, I heard Cassian's voice — quiet, almost to himself.
"...It's like he's dancing."
A pause.
Then Atherion's voice. Low. Steady. Something underneath it that wasn't his usual cold.
"He recently reached Sword Artist," he said. "He earned every step of it."
Another pause.
Veltherion didn't look away from his own fight — blade still moving, footwork still perfect. But his eyes tracked Felix for just a moment.
"Sword Artist," he repeated quietly. Something shifted in his expression. Not surprise exactly. More like... recalculation. "At fourteen."
He said nothing else.
He didn't need to.
Cassian was different.
He had stopped throwing monsters for exactly three seconds — just standing there, sword half raised, watching Felix move through the chaos like water finding its own path.
His jaw was tight.
Not with anger.
With something harder to name.
I froze against the Alpha, he thought. And this kid—
A monster slammed into his shoulder and snapped him back.
He reset his stance. Gripped his sword tighter.
Said nothing.
But his eyes didn't go back to his own fight for a long moment.
"And you know what his magic rank is?" Lucien's voice carried across the chaos, bright with pride. "Advanced Ma—"
"Lucien." My voice cut him off flat.
The reactions came anyway.
Veltherion's eyes snapped toward Lucien for half a second. "Advanced Mage. At fourteen." A short exhale. "Ridiculous."
Cassian said nothing. Just stared. Then shook his head slowly.
Atherion didn't react at all. Which somehow said the most.
"Lucien," I said. "Buff. Now."
"You can do that yourself."
"I need to save mana for Crimson Death."
A beat.
"...Fine. Fine."
He pouted — actually pouted — then raised his staff and chanted. Short. Precise.
The buff hit like a wave. Accelerate. Healing. Strength.
"More than enough," I muttered.
And I carved forward.
One after another. The rhythm held. Each step feeding the next.
Behind me — something changed.
Atherion watched for one long moment. Then his jaw set.
I can't fall back.
He crashed into three at once — full weight, full violence, no hesitation.
Veltherion and Cassian were struggling — numbers wearing them down. Then Veltherion's hand opened.
"Dark Matter."
Space around his targets collapsed. Monsters mid-lunge simply folded.
Cassian covered his flank without being asked.
The tide turned.
For a moment — it felt like we were winning.
Then the monsters parted.
Silence.
A figure stepped through — unhurried. Unbothered. Like he'd been watching the whole time.
Beside him, half hidden in dark mana — the Succubus Queen.
Keltherion's eyes swept across us with mild amusement.
"Well, well, well." His smile was sharp and cold. "Didn't expect little guests — non other than my dear brothers." His gaze moved to Cassian. Then to Lucien. Then to me. "And the Duke's son... along with the blood bags."
The Succubus Queen leaned slightly toward him, her voice dropping into something lazy and dangerous.
"Baby... they're not worth fighting." A pause. "Let's go. I want to—"
Nobody let her finish.
Atherion moved.
No warning. No words. Just a devastating slash aimed clean at Keltherion's neck — the kind of strike that ended things.
It should have ended things.
The blade connected.
And did nothing.
Keltherion's neck remained untouched — but the force of it launched him backward anyway, his body crashing through the wall behind him, stone exploding outward.
Nobody gave him a second.
Veltherion was already in the air — sword pointed downward, driving straight for Keltherion's heart.