William and Priest Andreas paced within the luxurious room reserved for them like caged animals.

Prince Charles's order was a cold, cruel brand on their minds: get rid of a few people from Fredrinn's inner circle.

This was no simple assassination order.

It was a suicide mission in a foreign city, against targets who could be immeasurably stronger than them, knowing they were being watched at every moment.

They were required to put their lives on the line, and even then, their chances of success were almost zero.

By sending them on such a mission, Prince Charles was punishing them.

He wanted them to pay the price for their failure and humiliation in Veythral with their own lives.

Or perhaps he was simply venting his rage on them.

He didn't seem to care much for the outcome.

They were disposable pawns on the Prince's grand chessboard.

"Do you have any idea how we're going to do this?" William asked.

The usual arrogance in his voice was replaced by a desperate tension.

Priest Andreas answered, his gaze fixed on the dark Veythral streets outside the large window.

His voice was laced with deep hopelessness.

"I have no idea, William."

After a moment's thought, William lowered his voice.

"What about... using that thing?"

The priest tore his eyes from the window at the suggestion.

They widened in shock.

"You don't mean what I think you mean, do you? We... we can't use it here! It's too risky! We could lose control!"

"Risky?" William hissed. "Then what do you suggest we do, Andreas? Leave our lives to the mercy of those barbarians?"

"That thing was given to us for precisely these kinds of emergencies!"

"If we fail the mission, the Second Prince will kill us anyway. If we stay here, that barbarian Lord will kill us."

"But if we use what I'm talking about... we might at least have a chance to survive!"

"Would you care to tell me what it is you're trying to use?"

At the sudden, unexpected voice from the corner of the room, they both spun around, tensed like drawn bows.

In a flash, a sword with a golden hilt bearing the Imperial crest appeared in William's hand.

Priest Andreas, meanwhile, pulled a chained necklace from beneath his robes, its pendant a cross symbol merged with a sun.

That it was no ordinary trinket was clear even from the faint, holy aura it emanated.

Lying on the bed was an ordinary-looking young man with messy black hair and plain black eyes, dressed in cheap rags, with no discernible power radiating from his body.

"Who are you?!" William yelled, the shock and fear in his voice palpable.

They had been sure no one was in the room.

In fact, they hadn't sensed anyone's presence since they entered. Even now, they couldn't sense his existence with their mana.

If they weren't seeing him with their own eyes, they would still think they were alone.

How could he conceal his presence so perfectly?

Their minds reeled. All their senses screamed that this ordinary-looking young man before them was a deadly threat.

Cassian raised both hands as if in surrender and sat up on the bed.

"There's no need to be so tense. If I wanted to harm you, believe me, you would have been dead long before you ever knew I was here."

"What do you want? And how did you manage to get in here?" the Priest asked, his voice more cautious.

"What do I want?" Cassian said, a mocking smile playing on his lips. "Initially, I was just going to have you surrender quietly and ensure you were escorted safely from our territory. But from what I've just overheard, it seems you were planning to start something quite entertaining. Care to fill me in?"

"We don't know what you're talking about! You entered our room without permission and now you're threatening us! Does Lord Fredrinn know what you're doing?"

At that very moment, the door to the room burst open with a loud crash.

Fredrinn strode in, his clothes soaked with fresh blood.

Seeing Fredrinn in such a state, William and Priest Andreas tightened their grips on their weapons.

What was happening? Had their plan already been exposed? But how?

"Took you long enough, partner," Cassian said from the bed.

Fredrinn fixed his gaze on the pair in the room. "The guards proved a bit more challenging than I expected. Don't worry," he said, the threat in his voice obvious, "I didn't kill your men. I merely severed a few of their limbs as punishment for drawing swords on my guests in my territory. A reasonable penalty, I think."

Fredrinn's eyes locked onto them again.

"Now, you two... will you choose to lower your weapons slowly, or will you choose to lose those hands?"

"Friend, you're starting to talk like me lately," Cassian said to Fredrinn in a teasing tone. "I think you're becoming more like me."

William and the Priest looked at each other, at a loss.

This was a trap. They had fallen into a trap.

The Priest slowly reached his free hand toward his pocket, intending to pull something out, when chains of Chaos Flames shot up from the floor, coiling around his hand like a serpent and squeezing tight.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold it right there," Cassian said, his voice no longer amused. "If you try anything sudden, this time you'll really end up dead."

Cassian rose from the bed and walked slowly toward Priest Andreas.

He reached into the priest's pocket. His fingers made contact with a hard, lumpish object.

It was a small, smooth sphere.

But the moment he touched it, Cassian's breath hitched. A familiar, nauseating sensation flooded his consciousness. His body began to tremble uncontrollably.

His black eyes instantly turned a blood-red.

With the sudden shock shattering his control over his body and emotions, his shapeshifting ability faltered. In the blink of an eye, the young man was gone, replaced by the form of the white-haired, red-eyed boy.

Clenching his teeth, he yanked the black sphere from the man's pocket.

Fredrinn was startled by Cassian's sudden transformation. He didn't understand why he would suddenly need to change his form. But seeing him tremble and act strangely, he called out.

"Cassian?"

Cassian didn't answer. He had sunk to his knees, his red eyes fixed on the small, black sphere in his hand. His long, white hair veiled his face, hiding his expression.

Priest Andreas and William didn't know what to do in the face of this sudden change. All they knew was that Cassian was weakened at this moment. The chains that had bound their bodies had also vanished.

But Fredrinn was still here.

They knew all too well that even together, they couldn't do anything against Fredrinn.

Fredrinn called out again, his voice tinged with worry.

"Cassian, are you alright? What's happening?"

Cassian still didn't answer. He remained frozen, staring at the blackish sphere in his hand.

Fredrinn reached out to touch Cassian, but at that exact moment, the silence of the room was shattered by a madman's laughter.

It began first with a small, stifled chuckle.

Then, with each passing second, that chuckle grew, transforming into a maniacal laugh.

"Hahahah... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Fredrinn and everyone else in the room had no idea what was going on.

Why was Cassian suddenly acting this way?

What was the reason for this sinister, insanity-filled laughter?

Cassian continued to laugh, tears streaming from his eyes. Then, his laughter cut off abruptly, and a single word escaped his lips.

"I see."

The sphere he held... the mana it carried... it belonged to someone he could never forget, someone etched into his very soul.

It belonged to the one who had tortured him for most of his life, locking him away in a laboratory; to that old, twisted monster who, in the end, had tried to take over his body and soul…

Dr. Aris.

There was no doubt. This was his mana. This was something that belonged to him.

Two possibilities came to mind: either Dr. Aris was somehow still alive and had resumed his cursed research, or someone had taken over his research and legacy.

But both of those were impossible.

He had reduced Dr. Aris, and everything that belonged to him, to nothingness in that forest that day. Not content with that, he had even turned a large part of the forest into a massive crater of void, irretrievably.

So then... how was it that something belonging to him was now, right before his very eyes?

There were answers he needed.

And for now, he looked at the only place he could get those answers: the two men in the room.

His red eyes, with a cold, deadly glint, locked onto them.

"Our esteemed guests from the Empire... I believe you and I have long matters to discuss."

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