Serin's hand found Lena's arm before Lena even realized she had moved, her grip tight, almost painful, her composure gone in a way Lena had never seen before, her entire body trembling as her eyes searched frantically through the chaos unfolding around them.
"My father—" she said, her voice breaking despite her effort to hold it steady, "where is he—he was just—"
Her words faltered as she turned, trying to locate him among the shifting figures, the movement, the growing disorder that made it harder with each passing second to distinguish one person from another.
Lena followed her gaze, her own chest tightening as she tried to make sense of it, to find something familiar in the confusion, but before she could respond—
A loud crack split through the hall.
Sharp, forceful, unmistakable.
The sound of impact followed almost immediately, echoing against the walls as something struck with enough force to draw every eye back toward the center.
Lena flinched.
Her breath catching as her gaze snapped forward.
Several other leaders had acted.
Positioned at a distance, their hands raised, their power or weapons—whatever they carried—already released toward the man who stood unmoved at the center of it all.
Ready to attack or die trying.
A faint distortion, almost invisible unless one was looking directly at it, formed around him, bending the force of what had been sent his way, holding it in place for the smallest fraction of time before dispersing it entirely, as though it had never been meant to touch him at all.
Lena's eyes widened.
"What… was that?"
Kael did not answer.
Because even he was watching more closely now.
Serin's grip tightened further as she leaned forward slightly, her eyes locking onto the source of the attack.
"There—" she whispered, her voice trembling, "that's him—that's my father—"
Lena followed her line of sight.
At the far side of the hall, standing firm despite everything, was the Lord of the Eastern Province, his posture unyielding, his expression set with a level of focus that made it clear he understood exactly what they were facing.
Beside him stood two others.
A patriarch Lena recognized by presence alone, his authority evident even in stillness, and a wizard whose hands remained slightly raised, the remnants of controlled power still lingering faintly in the air around him.
They had acted together.
"He's fine," Serin said quickly, almost desperately, her voice carrying a fragile relief, "he's there, he's alright—"
Lena let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
Not far from them, Lady Meridra let out a small, controlled exhale, her posture straightening slightly as her gaze fixed on the scene ahead, a faint satisfaction touching her expression as her daughters stood close behind her.
"At last," she said quietly, though there was relief beneath it, "someone has chosen to act."
Around them, others seemed to settle just slightly, not fully, not comfortably, but enough that hope—small, fragile, uncertain—began to surface where fear had dominated moments before.
If he could be held—
If he could be stopped—
Then this could end.
It had to.
Lena felt it too, that brief, flickering sense that the situation had shifted, that the weight pressing down on the room had lightened, even if only slightly.
Her gaze returned to the man.
He took a step forward.
And everything they thought they had gained—
Disappeared.
Something changed in him.
It was not loud, not dramatic, but it was there, clear enough that those who were watching closely felt it immediately, the stillness around him tightening into something sharper, something colder, as though whatever restraint had existed before had just been set aside.
The distance between him and the three who had stood against him vanished in a way Lena could not follow, her eyes catching only fragments of motion, the shift of his form, the sudden break in theirs.
The patriarch fell first.
There was no struggle, no drawn-out resistance, just a clean interruption of life as his body gave way beneath him, collapsing before the weight of what had happened could even be understood.
The wizard barely had time to react.
Whatever power he tried to summon never formed, cut short before it could exist, his body dropping in the same silent, final way as the one before him.
Then—
The Eastern Lord.
Serin's father.
For a fraction of a second, he stood.
Still upright.
Still present.
As though the moment had not yet reached him.
Then it did.
His body faltered, his strength giving out all at once as he fell, the force of it echoing louder than it should have in the space, not because of the sound, but because of what it meant.
Serin didn't scream.
Not at first.
She just… stopped.
Everything in her went still, her grip on Lena loosening as the reality failed to settle properly, her eyes fixed on where her father had been standing, as though if she looked long enough, he might still be there.
"No…" she whispered, but the word held no force, no denial, just emptiness.
Lena felt it too.
That hollow shift.
That moment where something inside her tried to catch up and couldn't.
He moved again.
Closer now.
Too close.
Lena's breath hitched sharply as her gaze snapped forward, her body refusing to respond the way it should, her feet rooted in place as her mind struggled to process what was about to happen.
Her brother.
Fardin.
He had stepped forward.
Not recklessly.
Not blindly.
But with purpose, placing himself where he needed to be, where he thought he could hold the line, even if only for a moment.
"Stay back," he said, though Lena wasn't sure if it was meant for her or for anyone else.
She wanted to move.
She wanted to say something.
But she couldn't.
Because she knew this moment.
But somewhere deeper—
She had seen it.
Felt it.
Lived it already in a way she had never understood until now.
"No…" she breathed, the word barely forming as her heart pounded violently against her chest.
It happened exactly the same.
The same movement.
The same impossibly fast shift.
The same final stillness.
Fardin's body jerked slightly—
Then dropped.
Just like that.
No resistance.
No second chance.
Gone.
This time, Serin screamed.
The sound tore through the hall, raw and broken, shattering whatever composure remained in those who had not yet lost it, the chaos rising again, louder now, heavier, uncontrollable.
Lena didn't hear it properly.
Didn't hear anything properly.
Because everything had narrowed.
Locked onto one thing.
Her brother—
On the ground.
Not moving.
Not breathing.
Not there anymore.
Her vision blurred, her chest tightening painfully as something inside her began to crack, the weight of it pressing down too suddenly, too heavily for her to carry.
Lady Vaeloria was visibly shaken . She could not believe how things had gone completely wrong.
Her son.
Her beloved boy
Gone!!!
Anger welled up in her like an ocean of fire She's stood up, ready to use her powers on him and for a moment it seemed like she would burn down the building.
The mysterious man who seem to be moving before suddenly stopped. Under a spell
He couldn't move
The guards summoned courage and gathered around him
About to beat him up
And then
In the midst of all the chaos, someone had slipped into the high seats and stabbed The Lady at her heart from behind.
Mr Mysterio was free again
And all the guards were on the ground in a second .
Lena was very scared, but even more than fear, she was pissed
Increasingly annoyed at this random stranger who decided to bring havoc upon her life.
Lena's gaze lifted slowly.
Her father was standing, visibly shaken.
"Father—" she tried, her voice breaking as she took a step forward.
But it was already too late.
He moved.
And just like the others—
Her father fell.
The world tilted.
Lena didn't remember crossing the distance.
Didn't remember pushing past anything or anyone.
She only knew that one moment she was standing—
And the next she was on her knees beside him, her hands shaking as they found him, her breath uneven, her thoughts completely fractured as she tried to make sense of something that refused to be understood.
"Father…?" she whispered, her voice trembling, searching for something—anything—that would tell her this wasn't final.
There was nothing.
Not far from her, the lady Fardin had danced with had dropped beside him as well, her composure shattered completely as she held onto him, her sobs breaking through the noise of the hall as she tried to pull him back in a way that could never work.
Around them, everything had dissolved.
Voices.
Movement.
Fear.
People trying to flee, others frozen in place, the structure of the gathering gone entirely, replaced by chaos that no one could control.
Lena barely registered it.
Because the only thing that existed in that moment—
Was loss.
Her hands tightened slightly against her father's form, her breath unsteady as her mind refused to settle, refused to accept, refused to process what had just happened in front of her eyes.
Lena felt a very strong lump in her chest she felt like all her air in her lungs was going away and then, as she was struggling to breathe she's screamed so violently and plunged at the man. She reached to his face him and tried to squeeze or hit as much as she could but, before she could do anything, he held her and held her in place and began to choke her.
But in the next second, she saw his eyes widden with shock as he seemed to be struggling for something
She could only see his eyes as his face was hooded.
Veins began to show in his eyes and then he released her and went away
Disappearing into the night.