Chapter 52: Snake
The forest had gone still again, unnaturally so. Even the wind refused to breathe.
Sebastian stood amidst the fading dust of his last kill, wiping a smear of blackened blood off his cheek. The air stank of death and decay. The kind of silence that followed him wherever he went.
Then the ground trembled.
Not a small shake a deep, bone-vibrating quake that made the red leaves above rustle like a warning.
’That,’ he thought, tightening his grip on Sacha, ’wasn’t an E-rank.’
The next moment, the trees ahead split apart.
A monstrous figure crashed through the clearing towering, broad, and breathing black smoke with every exhale. Its skin was plated with jagged bone, its eyes molten orange, its claws long enough to cleave through stone.
A D-rank.
{Well, look at that,} Bastard purred. {Finally, something that can hit back. Try not to die, yes? I just got used to the new you.}
Sebastian smirked. "Cute."
The beast roared a sound so loud it rattled the air and charged.
Sebastian met it head-on.
Their clash sent a shockwave through the trees. Sacha’s blue-glass edge met bone, and sparks erupted like fireworks. The force sent him sliding backward through the dirt, boots carving deep grooves. The beast didn’t give him a moment to recover it swung again, massive claws tearing through the air.
Sebastian ducked low, pivoted, and slashed at its leg. His blade bit deep, corrupting mana spreading instantly into the wound, but the monster didn’t even flinch. It grabbed him mid-swing and hurled him across the clearing.
He hit a tree hard enough to crack it.
Sacha’s voice quivered in his mind. ’Papa!’
’Still breathing,’ he thought, spitting blood.
The monster lumbered closer, its heavy steps shaking the ground. Sebastian raised his sword again, his eyes burning faintly with purple light.
’Let’s turn this up.’
His death mana surged outward like a black tide, coating the ground in a writhing mist. The beast roared and swung its claws again, but this time Sebastian moved faster. He slipped between its strikes, cutting deep across its side, then across its arm — each strike leaving trails of spreading corruption.
For a moment, the D-rank staggered. Then, with a furious bellow, it slammed its claws down and one of them caught him.
Pain exploded across his chest.
The force threw him back again, tearing through his uniform, leaving a gash so deep he could see bone. His hand twitched. No, three fingers were gone.
’...Shit.’
{Ouch,} Bastard drawled. {That’s going to sting in the morning.}
Sebastian groaned, pressing a trembling hand to his chest. Dark blood leaked between his fingers.
And then his mana shifted.
The black corruption that surrounded him dimmed, replaced by a faint white glow that pulsed from within his body. The air itself seemed to lighten as threads of pale energy wound their way across his wounds.
Life mana.
The contrast was almost holy black fading into white, death giving way to renewal. The deep gash across his chest began to seal, muscle knitting together under shimmering light. His missing fingers regrew slowly, tendons forming before skin closed over them.
Sacha whispered faintly, almost reverently. ’Papa... it’s beautiful.’
He gave a small, blood-stained grin. "And useful."
The monster roared again, but its movements had slowed veins of black still spreading through its body from his earlier cuts. Sebastian raised Sacha once more, the blue glass now glowing faintly with both black and white light intertwined.
He darted forward in a blur, leaping onto the creature’s arm, sprinting up its shoulder. The blade flashed one clean, perfect arc, and the beast’s head flew from its neck.
Its massive body collapsed with a thunderous boom, shaking the island floor.
Points gained: +100
Sebastian landed lightly beside it, breathing hard, chest still faintly glowing with the remnants of healing mana. He looked at his hand at the faint traces of white that shimmered across his fingertips before fading back to normal.
’Still works,’ he thought, almost amused. ’Good to know.’
He wiped the blade clean and turned to look around. The corrupted trees swayed gently, the blue leaves rustling like whispers. And then, through the settling dust, he saw her.
Standing on a rise not far away, watching him with wide blue eyes and a half-shocked expression.
Annalise Astraeus.
Her brown hair shimmered under the strange light filtering through the crimson canopy. She looked very out of place, pristine clothes, trembling hands clutching a small dagger, she clearly didn’t know how to use.
Sebastian’s lips curved slowly into a smirk.
"Found you," he said, voice low and amused.
The wind carried his words across the clearing, soft but unmistakable, and the look on her face said she realized immediately that being found wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Sebastian didn’t move at first. He just watched her.
Annalise Astraeus stood frozen in place, her pretty face framed by soft brown hair, her eyes wide and trembling. Fear shimmered in those blue irises, raw, unfiltered fear. Her breathing was quick and uneven, each inhale a fragile, stuttering thing.
To anyone else, she looked like a frightened girl who had just witnessed a monster die.
But Sebastian knew better.
’You’re good,’ he thought, tilting his head slightly. ’Really good.’
He could see it, the tiny inconsistencies. The way her shoulders were angled, not defensively, but ready to move. The way her hand wasn’t shaking from terror but from restraint, holding herself back just enough to seem helpless.
She wasn’t afraid.She was acting.
The corner of his mouth twitched into something between a smile and a sneer.
’Annalise Astraeus,’ he thought, eyes narrowing, ’the snake who hides her fangs behind a smile. Affinity to the concepts of deceit and trickery. Lies given form. Even the gods would doubt themselves if you whispered long enough.’
He remembered what he’d read about her, how she played both sides during the war arc in the original story, how she’d smiled at her allies before cutting their throats, how her charm and fragility made her untouchable. A wolf that wore silk gloves.
{She’s shaking,} Bastard murmured lazily. {How adorable. You should put her out of her misery.}
’No,’ Sebastian thought, his eyes flickering faintly with violet light. ’Let’s see how long she can pretend.’
The silence between them stretched, filled only by the whisper of red leaves and the hum of the drone still hovering nearby.
Annalise swallowed visibly, her lips parting as if to speak, to beg, to plead whatever mask she planned to wear next.
Sebastian took a step forward. Then another. The black earth crunched softly beneath his boots.
His smile was small, but it carried the weight of a blade.
"You can stop the act, you know."
The words hung in the air, sharp and deliberate, cutting straight through her mask.
And for the first time, the fear in her eyes flickered, not vanishing, but changing into something colder.
Something real.