Aden stood there bleeding, vision still blurry from the head wound, sword trembling in his hands.
"If I'm going to die tonight…" he snarled, voice low and broken, "I'm dragging every single one of you bitches down with me."
He hated this. Hated it more than anything.
But he had no choice.
For the first time in seven years, Aden pulled on his aura.
Pain ripped through his cracked core like glass shards grinding inside his chest. Red aura, dark, unstable, angry, forced its way out and wrapped around his black sword, glowing like fresh blood.
The assassins froze for a split second.
Then Aden exploded forward.
He used the Vasco family's Sword technique - Way of Fire.
The first assassin barely had time to raise his blade before Aden's sword pierced straight through his chest and out the back. Aden twisted viciously and ripped sideways, tearing the man in half. Blood and guts spilled across the forest floor.
The second one tried to swing. Aden was already there. He drove the glowing red blade through the man's throat, pinning him to a tree. The assassin gurgled once before going limp.
Two down in seconds.
But the red aura flickered wildly. Aden coughed hard, blood sprayed from his mouth, splattering the ground. His cracked core screamed. The aura shattered and vanished.
He dropped to one knee, gasping, fresh blood running down his chin.
The leader of the assassins lunged at him.
Aden grabbed the man's collar and yanked him down hard into the dirt. The leader tried to kick the sword away. Aden didn't let him. In pure rage he hacked down with two savage cuts , severing both of the man's hands at the wrists.
The leader screamed.
Aden stabbed the sword straight through the assassin's knee, pinning him to the ground.
"Why?" Aden growled, voice shaking with pain and fury. "Why the hell are you doing this? Who sent you?!"
The leader, despite the agony, started laughing through bloodied teeth. "Heh… you really are one hell of a Vasco… Exactly like the rest of your fucking family."
That word "family" hit harder than any blade.
Aden's hand shot out and wrapped around the man's throat, squeezing tight.
"You think this is funny?!" he roared. "You think-"
A bright red flare suddenly shot up into the sky just outside the clearing.
A distress signal.
Academy guard corps.
Hope flared in Aden's chest for half a second , rescue, witnesses, maybe he could explain.
But then he looked down at the leader's face.
The man was grinning from ear to ear, eyes shining with triumph even as blood poured from his mouth.
Aden understood instantly.
If the guards arrived and saw this , him standing over a bunch of dead assassins with the leader still alive , the survivor could twist everything. Claim Aden killed Claire. Say the Vasco boy snapped and murdered everyone. The book's prophecy would still come true.
No.
Aden rose slowly, legs shaking, blood dripping everywhere.
The moment the first academy guards burst into the clearing, swords drawn, faces shocked at the massacre, Aden moved.
In one clean, brutal motion he swung his black sword.
The leader's head flew off his shoulders and rolled across the dirt.
Silence fell.
The guards stared in horror at the scene: bodies torn apart, blood everywhere, a blood-covered Aden in his red Vasco robe standing over the decapitated leader.
One young guard whispered, voice shaking, "What… what the hell happened here?"
Aden didn't answer.
He just stood there, sword still dripping, chest heaving, the weight of everything crashing down on him