"Just what in the underworld is going on?"

The senior succeeded in binding Kai in his bile water, but before he could seize that chance, the wall behind Kai shattered without warning, hurling him out into the open. The senior was stunned, but he recovered and lunged for the breach.

He was blocked by the scourges of steel-tusked boars, also wanting to chase after Kai.

Changing his mind, he ran out through the entrance.

From the outside, loud crashes resounded, shaking the entire cave walls and ground.

As soon as he stepped out and ran to the commotion, he saw that Kai was wrestling with something he couldn’t see. Kai looked like he was riding air until he crashed against the stone wall with a thunderous crack.

It was hard to see Kai from this angle.

Kai’s body was on the other side, so all the senior could see was a hand clutching the edge of the big opening in the ceiling of the chamber. Then, he saw Kai’s face poking out, gritting his teeth hard as he stared at something above him.

Something that he seemed to be desperate to reach.

"I don’t know what he’s aiming for, but I should knock him down."

Mana steamed off the senior’s body in furious waves1and the ground beneath him darkened into a pool of black water. His eyes glowed as he thrust his index finger at Kai, firing five thick, concentrated streams—high-pressure lances of bile water.

His aim was the ledge Kai clung to.

Shattering it would hinder whatever Kai was trying to do.

’If he’s really fighting on three fronts, then what chance—do you think you have?’ the senior smirked inwardly. Seems like he had a misconception. Moros wasn’t bestowing Kai his Divine Gift. He was trying to get rid of Kai instead. ’Just give up, you’re n—’

Before the streams could get close, a sudden weight hammered the senior’s mind.

All five water lances halted mid-air, unable to pierce through.

The senior lurched forward, eyes blown wide with shock. Saliva dripped from his parted lips as a searing heat flooded his body. No, his blood itself was boiling; trembling with every inch he tried to close toward Kai.

It felt as though his very Divine Bloodline was being crushed.

Suppressed by an unseen weight.

Not strong or worthy enough to come closer.

And as soon as the senior could lift his gaze again, Kai was already airborne, arm stretched toward the sky, and grasped the air. Or at least, the senior thought he was grasping air until a glow seeped through the cracks of Kai’s clenched fingers.

He wasn’t clutching nothing. He was holding something unseen.

Dark energy seeped from Kai’s fingers, and in the next second, a burst of energy happened.

Boom—!

Stone crumbles. Air rippled. And Awakened Monsters were blasted away.

The senior anchored himself to the ground and crossed his arms in front of him. As soon as the shockwave came, he was almost lifted completely from the ground, but he held on until it passed him.

He dropped his arms and looked skyward.

"No, I need to cripple him now!" The senior channeled his mana.

Dark blue vapor seethed from his shoulders, charging him with more strength.

As a Grade-3 Awakened Supernal with two active Divine Locks, the senior has strength far surpassing any new Blooded Angels. He has minor regeneration, faster casting, and, most importantly, is capable of utilizing more mana to empower his own body.

It was the perk of fully developing the Adventitia layer of his blood vessels.

Despite having a lower-rated Patron God compared to Kai’s, he’s still much stronger.

The senior leaps toward the Lesser Angel, but loses track of him as he drops to the chamber and disappears into the dark corners. He climbed the stone and looked down from the big opening and saw a slaughter.

Steel-tusked boars were decimated like normal pigs in a slaughterhouse.

Blood and carcasses piled up as the remaining squealed and tried to flee, but got nowhere.

And at the center of the chamber swirled the specter of death.

Realizing what was happening, the senior descended in deadly silence—he couldn’t allow the Lesser Angel to slaughter every steel-tusked boar. Losing them meant finding another one, on top of crippling the Lesser Angel so that one steel-tusked boar could finish him off.

As much as the senior wanted to kill Kai directly, if he did, then he would leave behind a trace.

A mana trace.

And that would soon be connected to him.

But then, as though tasting the bloodlust in the air, Kai looked up.

His abyssal black eyes bored directly into the senior, twin voids that promised death.

Crack—!

The senior’s fist slammed into the ground hard.

He missed Kai entirely.

Like an angry bull, the senior looked to the side and saw that Kai was continuing the slaughter.

He scrambled to his feet and charged, desperation clawing at his chest—he had to catch Kai, had to stop this before it’s too late. But he was already too slow. A steel-tusked boar’s strong skull split open. Another shrieked as Kai stabbed his hand into its back and pulled its spine out brutally.

Blood splattered onto the senior’s face as he couldn’t quite catch Kai.

The senior found an opportunity and reached forward, intent on grabbing Kai’s nape.

But his hand only grabbed air as Kai ducked beneath it, twisted with flawless precision, and drove an uppercut clean into the senior’s jaw. The impact rattled his skull—his brain bounced against bone while the world fractured into static as he was hurled backward.

It took him a good moment to rise again, and when he did, the slaughter was over.

Kai stood at the center of carcasses with blood streaking his face and arms.

"You—" The senior’s eyes bulged, locked onto the twin concentrations of mana pulsating from Kai’s chest and stomach. Two Divine Locks. Impossible. He was a Lesser Angel—so he should not have a second one. "How?! You have two Divine Locks? What are you?! No one has ever deceived the academy like this!

"Is..." He pointed at Kai in horror. "Is your Patron God even Moros?!"

"I didn’t deceive the academy," Kai turned fully, facing the senior without flinching. Droplets of blood dripped steadily from his fingertips; each drop struck the stone with a soft, echoing tick. "I gained my second one just now. You witnessed the process with your own eyes."

"No Supernals can develop another Divine Lock..." The senior’s voice was barely a whisper; doubtful of the statement, but it sounded weak. He didn’t want to believe it, but Kai does not seem to be lying.

His expression was serious and absolutely certain.

"As for my Patron God... No, it’s not Moros. I guess I should say Moros isn’t the main one."

"Not... the main one/"

Considering that Kai could attain fragments of power from other Patron Gods, he could say that he has multiple Patron Gods. But the main one was clear; the Goddess of the Primordial Night was the origin of his blood.

"You know too much," Kai grabbed his scimitar from the floor and approached the senior.

His sole reason for answering the senior was because of this.

Because he wasn’t planning to spare the senior.

"You’ve already made a mistake, don’t make it worse by killing me!" The senior staggered a step back and roared. His posture was that of someone who was about to flee, but recalling how fast Kai was, there was no point. "If you do this, they’ll send more! Stronger ones! Stronger Angels will be dispatched to hunt you down!"

Kai ignored the threat.

It doesn’t matter.

Just the wailing of a dead man.

Ignoring him is the right thing to do, as the dead have no right to meddle with the living.

Not even half an hour ago, Kai was already strong enough to pose a threat to the senior. Now, with two Primordial Locks—the gap between them expanded further. Both have the same exact conclusion in mind.

That Kai was now stronger.

Perhaps far stronger.

"Didn’t you say it yourself earlier?" Kai advanced; each step deliberate and weighted with a crippling menace. His abyssal black eyes burrowed into the senior’s soul, dragging dread up from the depths. "I’ve already made the mistake. I’m already going to suffer the consequences. I’ve already offended the Demigod behind you. Whether I spare you or not changes nothing."

"Don’t underestimate me!"

Cornered, the senior summoned five water lances and charged.

Below, the ground turned into bile water, and water tentacles shot up to seize the Lesser Angel.

Kai charged, ducking and dodging the reaches of the water tentacles, and turned his scimitar, ready to strike. He parried the water lances fired at him with precision and dipped inside the arc of the senior’s swing.

Blood-phantom Scimitar hummed in his hand with mana as he swung it through the senior’s stomach. The world paused as Kai and the senior stood in place, back against back, frozen in the aftermath of a death already decided.

Across the senior’s waist, the dark discharge carved a thick black line that hums with mana.

Kai straightened his body first with deliberate slowness.

He then flicked his scimitar to the side, and the blood coating it splattered against the stone—like a painter’s final stroke. And with the faint sound of a rough exhale, the last breath before the soul was lifted, the senior’s body collapsed forward into two pieces.

Slowly, Kai looked over his shoulder. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

It was done; the senior was dead, and the scourges of steel-tusked boars were eradicated.

Kai was about to turn, but faltered on his first step.

He dropped down to one knee, stabbing the scimitar into the stone to help him from falling.

A small chuckle escaped his lips. It grew louder, bouncing against the empty chamber. Things were looking extremely bad a few minutes ago, with death right beside him, waiting to claim his soul.

But he got out of it.

Against all odds, fighting the scourges of steel-tusked boars, the senior—and the Nightborns all at once, he managed to come out on top. The last one standing. Perion would have been really helpful, but ever since he’d woken from the dream, he simply couldn’t call Perion out.

As if he were locked in the House of Night.

Might be the effect of the Night Elevation, but regardless, he fought on three fronts and won.

It brought a sense of exhilaration that forced him to smile and chuckle.

Kai rested for a minute and then began the harvest.

He devoured every carcass scattered across the chamber—the steel-tusked boars, the senior’s corpse—feeding them all to the House of Night. No Null Gem surfaced among the remains. It seemed the Blue Gem he’d retrieved from the Awakened Monster in Ixos hadn’t been natural at all, but something deliberately embedded by the academy.

Only Star Beasts have Null Gems.

Though he knew that already, he was still hoping that it wasn’t the case.

But reality proved otherwise.

Kai grabbed the leather sack with his blood-coated hand and walked out of the cave.