The devil queen's grip tightened around Ast's throat, her crimson eyes blazing with cold fury as she lifted the struggling figure higher. "Where is that man?" she demanded, her voice a silken blade that cut through the grand hall of the Elven Royal Palace. Power crackled around her like storm clouds ready to break.
Liam's heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat that drowned out everything else. Sweat beaded on his brow despite the cool forest air filtering through the towering pillars. *This is it. One wrong move and I'm dead. But running… running gets me nowhere now.* He had faced death before, in quieter moments back on Earth when regret had choked him harder than any monster ever could. Protecting what little he had left—his fragile new place in this brutal world—meant stepping forward, not away.
