Deep within the unmapped thickets surrounding the Thung Zu University, the afternoon light did not merely fade; it died, choked out by a canopy so dense it resembled a ceiling of tangled, rotting bone. The air hung heavy, reeking of damp moss, iron, and ancient decay.
A frantic sound shattered the silence, the snapping of wet branches and the ragged, sobbing gasps of a child running for his life.
His small boots skidded over exposed, slick roots and black mud. Blood trickled down his forehead from a dozen jagged scratches, but he did not dare slow down. Tears carved pale tracks through the grime on his face as his wide, terrified eyes darted left and right into the encroaching pitch-black trees. Behind him, the low growl of a primal beast vibrated through the earth, a sound so heavy and famished it rattled the teeth in his skull.
I can’t stop. If I stop, it eats me. If I stop, I’m gone, the boy’s mind screamed in a repeating loop. Please, someone… anyone!
He burst through a dense thicket into a narrow clearing and slammed full force into a tall figure. The impact sent the child stumbling backward. He hit the muddy ground hard, scrambling backward on his hands and knees until his back was pressed against the man’s boots, weeping hysterically.
“Oh, mister! Please! Please help me!” the boy shrieked, his voice cracking with terror as he grabbed the hem of the man’s coat. “It’s right there! It’s been hunting me since the river!”
From the treeline, a predatory nightmare slunk into the dim light. Berzoz, a feral beast of muscle, matted dark fur, and dripping, razor-sharp fangs, let out a low rumble. Drool strung from its jowls, sizzling as it hit the dead leaves. Its glowing yellow eyes locked onto the two figures with cold, mechanical hunger.
The man stood still, his hands resting casually inside his deep coat pockets. He did not flinch. He did not draw a weapon. Instead, his shoulders began to quiver softly, a low rasping sound building in his throat until an unhinged cackle broke from his lips, echoing like madness through the dead woods.
He slowly drew his right hand from his pocket, extending two long, pale fingers toward the looming creature.
“Well, well, well,” the man whispered, his tone abruptly dropping into a smooth, terrifying purr. “What is Lord Zu’s prized little hound doing all the way out here in the dirt? Did they forget to lock your cage today, puppy?”
The man’s laughter vanished in a microsecond. His face went stone cold, devoid of a single shred of human warmth.
Such a waste of flesh, he thought, his eyes narrowing as he felt the boy trembling against his calf. All this noise for a creature that doesn’t even deserve the breath it steals.
Without a single word of warning, his hand whipped backward with blinding speed. He seized the crying child by the throat, lifting him into the air. With a sickening, wet tearing of muscle and bone, he brutally ripped the boy in two. A thick crimson wave erupted into the air, spraying across the dark forest floor.
Before the blood could touch the mud, the man’s aura flared violently. He seized control of the freshly spilled liquid mid-air, hardening the blood into dozens of jagged, crystalline spires that ignited with a crimson light.
“Die,” he uttered softly.
The spires launched forward like a ballista salvo, tearing through the air with a deafening screech. They impaled the primal beast before it could even leap, carving through its heavy hide, ribs, and skull in a gruesome display of total annihilation.
However, as the creature collapsed in its violent death agony, its massive, razor-sharp claw slashed out blindly. The tip of the blade-like claw caught the man’s extended hand, severing his two fingers clean off at the knuckle.
Blood spurted from the fresh stumps, but the man merely stared down at his mutilated hand for a split second. A slow grin stretched across his face until his dark teeth showed.
“Look at that,” he chuckled, his voice raspy and unbothered as he watched his own blood drip onto the dead leaves. “You actually managed to touch me, you miserable mongrel.”
He flicked his wrist, and a surge of dark, heavy blood magic wrapped around the massive, broken carcass of the beast. With a casual wave of his arm, he hurled the multi-ton creature through the air like a ragdoll, sending it crashing straight through the towering, ancient gates of the Thung Zu University.
BOOM!
The heavy, iron-reinforced wooden doors violently burst inward, splintering into thousands of flying shards.
Beyond the threshold lay a sprawling hall bathed in the cold glow of green and purple braziers hanging from towering stone archways. The air inside was thick with the stench of ozone, copper, and dark incense. Hundreds of students, senior disciples, and dark practitioners were gathered along the perimeter, engaged in brutal, forbidden arts. On one side, students were carving glowing runes directly into the bare skin of thrashing human test subjects; on the other, alchemists brewed bubbling, pitch-black poisons in massive iron cauldrons that spat dark sparks onto the flagstones.
The man sauntered through the ruined doorway, his coat saturated with fresh gore, blood still dripping steadily from the severed stumps.
“LORD ZUUU!” he roared, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceilings like a war horn. With a flick of his bloody stump, he used his blood magic to toss the pulverized remains of the beast high into the air above the central courtyard. “I have brought you a gift, hahah! And a message!”
Before the carcass could hit the floor, the atmospheric pressure in the massive hall skyrocketed. The green flames in the braziers flared black. High above, on the dark balconies, a towering, demonic silhouette stepped into the open air and plummeted straight down.
CRASH!
With a burst of dark mana, Lord Zu slammed directly into the beast’s remains mid-air. He crushed the carcass into a fine mist of bone dust and crimson sludge before landing heavily in the center of the hall. The shockwave blew back the robes of every practitioner present, cracking the stone floor in a wide, spiderweb pattern.
Lord Zu, a behemoth of a man and the head of the Tech & Generation Netix Faculty, rose to his full, imposing height. Jagged, obsidian-like horns curled from his skull, his skin was pale as ash, and his eyes burned like two dying stars in the darkness.
The entire hall fell silent. Every single student, master, and servant instantly dropped to their knees, slamming their foreheads against the cold stone floor in total submission.
Lord Zu slowly turned his gaze toward the man standing by the shattered doors. A dark, guttural resonance vibrated from his chest, shaking the very dust from the ceiling beams.
“Bow, all of you…” Lord Zu commanded, his voice a suffocating weight that forced the kneeling students even lower to the ground. He stepped over the gory crater he had just created. “And speak, Haema. You know I have little patience for dramatic entrances that waste good meat.”
Haema stepped forward with a slick, arrogant smirk, wiping a streak of blood from his jaw with his sleeve. He did not bow. He simply stood tall, his eyes dancing with a manic, sadistic light.
“Oh, forgive me, my Lord,” Haema said smoothly, his voice dripping with theatrical mockery. “I am just so terribly excited to be home. The one and only Haema Bloodhound, back where he belongs. And I didn’t come back empty-handed.”
He leaned forward, his voice dropping into a conspiratorial whisper that carried effortlessly across the silent hall.
"My pathetic excuses for cousins have finally arrived at the academy, filing their safe scrollwork... and they brought him with them."
A sharp gasp rippled through the back ranks of the kneeling disciples. Low, agitated mutters of dark excitement began to spread like wildfire.
He’s here? The Liberator? The boy from the legends? a senior disciple whispered, his knuckles turning white against the stone floor. Then the barrier… the barrier really is failing.
Lord Zu’s glowing eyes widened in pure, chaotic ecstasy. A terrifying, inhuman grin split his face from ear to ear, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth. He threw his head back and let out a booming, demonic laugh that shattered the stained-glass windows along the upper walls.
“FINALLY! HAHAHAHA! AT LAST!” Lord Zu thundered, slamming his massive, clawed fists together with a force that sent a shockwave of dark energy rippling through the room. “THE STARS ALIGN! THE BLOODLINE RETURNS TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE! IT CAN FINALLY BEGIN!”
He turned his head sharply toward the pitch-black archway of a side corridor, his expression twisting into a sneer of malice.
“And our prestigious new recruits get to watch the curtain rise from the front row!” Lord Zu declared loudly.
Haema tilted his head, watching with an amused smile as heavy, rhythmically synchronized footsteps echoed from the depths of the dark hallway.
Out from the shadows stepped two figures, bathed in a cold, unnatural chill. They moved with a disturbing, predatory elegance.
“Allow me to introduce our newest assets,” Lord Zu purred, gesturing grandly with his clawed hand. “Morta and Snicky Judaseim… the distant, long-lost cousins of the noble bloodline. Sharp, lethal, and completely devoid of human mercy.”
The surrounding students stared in awe and quiet horror at the two Judaseim figures, whose eyes gleamed with a cold, hollow hunger that promised nothing but destruction.
So those are the Judaseim executioners… a master in the back thought, his heart hammering against his ribs. If Lord Zu has brought them into the fold, this isn’t just a raid. This is a total eradication.
Before the heavy atmosphere could settle, the massive iron doors at the far side of the hall were violently thrown open.
Two junior scouts tumbled into the room, scrambling over each other in panic. Their faces were dead pale, their robes torn, and the magical communication crystals in their trembling hands were spitting jagged sparks of dying light.
“Lord Zu! Lord Zu! Emergency!” one of the scouts shrieked, his voice cracking hysterically as he fell to his knees before the demon lord. “The feed! The visual array! It’s collapsing! It’s all going dark!”
Lord Zu’s smile faded slightly, replaced by a look of profound annoyance. He sneered down at the trembling scout, flicking his wrist dismissively.
“Calm yourself, you sniveling worm,” Lord Zu growled coldly. “Our network is flawless. The gemmed sparring puppets, the scrying pests, the hidden eyes we planted in their walls… my brilliant plan is already rooted too deeply into their foundation to be undone by a simple interference!”
“No, Lord Zu! You don’t understand!” the second scout sobbed, holding up a cracked, dark crystal that was leaking black smoke. “It’s not an interference! They aren’t just jamming the signal… they are killing our eyes! Look! Look for yourself!”
Lord Zu’s demonic eyes flared with a dangerous, murderous heat.
“Insolent fools,” he hissed beneath his breath.
He raised his hand and snapped his clawed fingers sharply.
CLANG!
Dozens of razor-sharp, meters-long mirror shards shot up from the stone floor, floating in a wide, sweeping arc high above the center of the hall. Each mirror reflected a different, highly secretive vantage point from deep within the enemy university—the training grounds, the cipher archives, the inner courtyards, and the high balconies.
For a single second, the feeds showed the chaotic bustle of the enemy campus. But then, the images began to warp violently.
On the first mirror, a shadow passed over the lens, and the glass shattered into black, lifeless static.
On the second, a flash of golden lightning erupted, wiping out the feed instantly.
One by one, with terrifying, methodical precision, the magical feeds across all dozens of floating mirrors began to flick out, dying like extinguished candles in a gale. The feeds were being purged from the inside out, erased by an unseen, merciless force that knew exactly where every single spycrum was hidden.
The dark, confident composure on Lord Zu’s demonic face completely disintegrated. His jaw tightened, his pupils shrinking into tiny, furious slits as he stared at the wall of black, dead mirrors hovering before him.
“No…” Lord Zu gasped, his voice barely a whisper before exploding into a deafening, panicked roar that shook the very foundations of the university. “WAIIIIT!”