The dust from the explosion hadn't even settled before Solan was moving. He didn't run like a man escaping; he moved like a shadow reclaiming the night.
[VOID SIGHT: ACTIVE] [ANALYZING MANA TRAILS...]
In his vision, the world turned into a tapestry of cold blues and greys, but cutting through the mist were three distinct, jagged veins of light:
A deep, aggressive Red (Aries).
A sharp, electric Yellow (Leo).
A toxic, swirling Purple (Scorpio).
"They've split up," Solan whispered, his hand tightening on the Fang of Ophiuchus. "They think they're the hunters."
He didn't head for the valley exit. Instead, he circled back toward the Iron-Wood Forest. He knew the terrain, and more importantly, he knew how to eat it.
The first knight, the one with the Aries mark, was hacking through the petrified branches with a flaming broadsword. He was breathing heavily, the weight of his silver armor dragging in the metallic sand.
"Where is that rat?" the knight growled. "The High Priest said he was a 'Null'. A Null shouldn't be able to kill a Warden!"
"I'm right here," a voice drifted from the canopy above.
The knight spun around, raising his flaming blade. "Show yourself!"
Solan dropped from a branch, but he didn't land. He used the Fang of Ophiuchus to pierce a nearby iron-wood tree, swinging his body around it in a fluid, gravity-defying arc.
"Astral Void Style, First Form: Refined Meteor Strike!"
The knight barely had time to raise his shield. The Fang, pulsing with a compressed crimson light, didn't just hit the shield—it phased through the physical metal and struck the mana core directly.
CRACK.
The Aries shield shattered into mundane iron scraps. The knight gasped, his connection to his constellation severed for a split second. That was all Solan needed. He didn't kill the man; he slammed the pommel of the Greatsword into the knight's helmet, sending him into unconsciousness.
[ABSORPTION INITIATED: ARIES MANA RESERVES] [ENERGY RESTORED: 15%]
"One down," Solan muttered.
But as he stood over the fallen knight, a sharp, stinging pain erupted in his shoulder. He looked down to see a purple, crystalline bolt embedded in his flesh. It was sizzling, spreading a numbing poison through his veins.
"Found you, little serpent," a feminine voice laughed from the shadows.
Out of the mist stepped the Scorpio Knight. She held a mechanical crossbow that glowed with a sickly violet aura. Behind her, the Leo Knight arrived, his golden claymore radiating a heat that made the air shimmer.
"The Aries fool was always weak," the woman sneered, reloading her crossbow. "But we are Sentinels of the Inner Circle. Give us the black sword, and perhaps we'll kill you quickly."
Solan looked at his shoulder. The purple poison was crawling toward his heart. He looked at the Ring of the Faded Star on his finger. It was black now. Dead.
He slowly pulled the ring off his finger and let it fall into the grey sand.
"The ring was never for my protection," Solan said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, dual-toned vibration. "It was for yours."
The crimson runes on his arm didn't just glow; they ignited. The blood-red plasma from the Fang of Ophiuchus expanded, wrapping around Solan like a suit of shifting, jagged armor.
[WARNING: FULL AWAKENING INITIATED] [LIMITER REMOVED]
"Now," Solan said, his eyes burning with an unholy orange fire. "Let's see whose star dies first."