Chapter 68: Seraphina is cold

Seraphina’s words made Lia’s eyes widen.

The shock on her face was immediate.

Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but the words never came out of her mouth.

Even Lucian raised an eyebrow, both surprised by how quickly she had stepped forward and also concerned about the decision she had just made.

Lucian could still see that her eyes were slightly swollen, as if she had been crying not too long ago.

His heart tightened faintly as he slowly closed the distance between them.

“Are you sure?” He asked softly.

Even though he was the one asking them to do this…

Even he felt guilt.

For a brief moment, a thought crossed his mind again.

What if he didn’t make them do it?

What if he just handled everything himself?

Even if they didn’t awaken… he could still protect them, right?

He was already stronger than these monsters.

He had already dealt with five goblins alone.

If he kept getting stronger, if he kept fighting…

Maybe that would be enough.

Maybe they wouldn’t need to dirty their hands with this.

But Akasha stopped him before he could think any further about it.

She bluntly told him that such a mindset was stupid.

There was simply no way they could survive in this new world clinging to that way of thinking, and no guarantee that Lucian could protect them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Not every monster will attack when he was present.

Not every danger would give him time to react.

And the danger didn’t just come from the monsters.

There were humans too, who could do far worse things than any creature ever could.

Even Lucian agreed with that logic.

He already had, but agreeing with something and actually acting on it were two entirely different things.

In the end, he decided that even if he had to be harsh right now, it was the only thing he could do.

But now, seeing his mother step forward to do it herself, even he faltered for a brief moment.

But only for a moment.

Seraphina took a slow, deep breath.

Her chest rose gently before falling again.

“Yes,” she said, her tone colder than it usually was.

There was a quiet determination in her voice that hadn’t been there before.

Lia looked at her.

She clearly wanted to say something—to stop her, to object—but the words remained stuck in her throat.

In the end, she stayed silent.

Lucian stretched out his hand, extending his palm toward her instead of directly giving her the knife, while holding the blade in his other hand.

Seraphina stared at his outstretched hand for a brief moment before gently placing her slender fingers over his.

She felt it instantly.

A faint warmth brushed softly against her fingers.

After seeing the state of the goblins, she understood that she had to awaken too, or her fate might become the same as the woman and the man she had watched die so clearly at the hands of these very monsters.

She looked at them again, and as she saw them staring back at her while gurgling and screeching weakly, her fingers trembled around his palm.

Lucian tightened his grip on her, making her trembling lessen.

After stepping a little closer to the goblin, Lucian moved aside, giving her space.

Seraphina stood in front of the creature, her figure trembling slightly despite her efforts to remain steady.

Her eyes slowly lowered toward it.

The goblin lay there on the floor, its twisted body barely able to move.

Its limbs were bent at unnatural angles, making its weak movements look even more disturbing.

Small wounds dotted its rough green skin, and from each of them, thin streams of green blood slowly seeped out.

But it was still alive.

Her entire body screamed at her to run.

Every instinct inside her urged her to turn around and escape from this monster.

But she didn’t move.

She stayed there.

The presence beside her—her son standing quietly at her side—gave her all the strength she needed.

Lucian didn’t say anything.

He simply watched her for a moment before quietly handing her the knife.

Her fingers tightened slowly around the handle.

It was a knife similar to the one she usually used for cooking in the kitchen.

But this one was new, something Lucian had bought from the supermarket.

‘It’s almost like he brought this for just this,’ she thought absentmindedly.

After a few seconds of staring at the knife, she finally bent down, lowering herself to her knees in front of the goblin.

The goblin’s face was now less than a meter away from hers.

The goblin suddenly screeched loudly, the harsh sound making her flinch.

Lucian frowned slightly and instantly pressed his shoe down on the goblin’s head.

“Silence.”

He spoke coldly, his voice carrying a chilling sharpness that made all of them flinch, including Seraphina and Lia.

Then, as if a switch had suddenly been flipped, Lucian’s voice softened almost instantly.

“Mom, kill it.”

The change was almost surreal.

The softness in his tone felt completely out of place compared to the words he had just spoken.

If someone had only heard the way he said it—

It wouldn’t even sound like he was asking someone to kill a monster.

But Seraphina didn’t focus on that.

Her eyes remained fixed on the goblin.

She searched for a reason to kill it, forcing herself to remember the deaths these creatures had caused just moments ago.

They had killed others—hunted them down like prey—without a trace of hesitation or disgust.

She kept repeating that thought to herself, again and again, and slowly, the guilt inside her began to fade.

Her eyes grew colder than before as her icy blue gaze locked firmly onto the vile creature.

Her breathing gradually steadied.

Her fingers tightened around the knife.

Then—

Without hesitating any further—

She twisted the blade and plunged it down with both hands, driving it through the goblin’s back and deep into its chest.

The goblin flinched violently and let out a harsh screech before its eyes slowly turned dull.

“Ha… ha… ha…”

Seraphina’s breathing grew ragged as she stared at the lifeless body of the goblin.𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Her hands were still trembling slightly.

Her fingers slowly loosened around the handle, as if her body had finally begun to understand what it had done.

The goblin didn’t move anymore.

Its body remained slumped heavily on the floor, while dark green blood slowly spread outward from the stab wound, pooling and staining the ground beneath it with a dark, ugly mark.

The screeching had stopped.

It had stopped twitching.

Seraphina’s eyes stayed locked on the corpse.

Her pupils trembled faintly.

Her breathing didn’t slow down—instead, it only grew more uneven.

“Ha… ha…”

Seeing her own hand still gripping the knife, she quickly pulled it away, her fingers finally freeing themselves from the weapon she had used to kill the creature.

Lucian’s heart ached as he watched her like this.

He immediately stepped closer.

Without hesitation, he knelt down beside her.

Seraphina looked fragile right now.

Just like the day he had first seen her in the facility.

He slowly stretched his arm toward her shoulder.

He hesitated for a brief second, his hand hovering in the air just above her.

But right before his fingers could touch her—

He stopped, noticing the sudden change in her expression.

{DING!~}

Seraphina’s eyes suddenly widened as a clear, resonant chime echoed loudly inside her mind.

The sound was sharp, yet strangely melodic—like the ringing of an ancient bell buried deep beneath layers of time.

Then, one after another, a series of beautiful, ancient golden screens flickered into existence before her vision, each one shimmering faintly with an otherworldly light.

{First kill confirmed.}

{Recording data.}

{Initialising status window.}

{…}

{You have awakened your rank and talent.}

{You have been granted your status window.}

Seraphina stared silently at the messages.

Her breathing slowly began to steady, but her mind was still racing with thoughts.

The smaller golden screens faded one by one, before a larger, more beautiful screen slowly materialised in front of her.

Its edges were decorated with delicate golden patterns that shimmered faintly.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name – Seraphina Cross

Race – Human

Rank – F

Titles – None

Bloodline – Winter’s Grace

Affinity – Ice

Talent – A

— — —

Lucian’s eyes widened slightly.

He couldn’t see the screen before her, but he felt something else instead.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop by a few degrees.

It was barely noticeable—but still unmistakable.

Lucian, who was still kneeling right beside Seraphina, felt the coldness slowly seeping outward from her body.

Seraphina slowly exhaled.

A thin mist of fog formed faintly in front of her lips.

Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of it.

“…?”

She felt something different.

Strangely light. Strangely clear.

It felt as if something inside her had shifted ever so subtly.

Like a door that had been tightly sealed her entire life had suddenly been pushed open.

Like her body had transcended its usual limits.

There was no violent explosion of energy, no massive pillar of light erupting into the sky.

Her awakening was silent—almost normal, like it should be.

Lucian finally snapped out of his thoughts.

He raised his hand again and gently tapped her shoulder.

“Mom?” he called her softly.

Seraphina’s eyes finally moved away from the golden screen floating before her.

The screen faded the moment her focus shifted.

She turned toward Lucian.

He was watching her closely, while she was probably staring at her status window.

There was concern, curiosity, and a little nervousness visible in his eyes.

“Did it work?” Lucian asked.

There was a slight tension in his voice.

He had forced them to do all of this, yet he didn’t even truly know how others awakened, since he had never personally witnessed Lia’s awakening in his previous life.

He only knew that one had to kill a monster to awaken—but if there were other hidden requirements… then he was completely unaware of them.

Seraphina didn’t answer immediately.

She remained silent for a few seconds.

Her mind was still reeling from the sensation she had just felt, from the golden screen she had just seen, and from the faint coldness that still lingered inside her body.

And the memory of the goblin dying beneath her hands.

All of it mixed together inside her thoughts.

Lucian didn’t rush her.

He simply waited, despite the fact that three more goblins were still trembling and shrieking faintly nearby.

To him, they were irrelevant right now.

Lia, who had been standing a few steps away this entire time, slowly approached them as well.

Her hands were clenched tightly at her sides.

Her gaze moved repeatedly between Seraphina… and the goblin’s corpse on the floor.

Even she was nervous now.

She still didn’t know if what Lucian had said would actually work.

Finally, after nearly a minute of silence, Seraphina looked at him properly.

Her eyes met Lucian’s as she nodded slowly.

“Yes.”

Lucian let out a short sigh as a faint smile formed on his lips, before he gently helped her stand up.

Seraphina was still slightly unsteady.

Her legs felt weak.

But she didn’t resist his support.

“How do you feel?” Lucian asked.

Lia stepped closer as well, curiosity visible in her eyes.

Even though she was still uneasy about the goblins that occasionally made weak grumbling sounds from the floor, her attention was now fully focused on Seraphina.

Seraphina thought for a second before answering.

“I… don’t know.”

She said slowly, as a small frown appeared on her face.

She looked confused, since she didn’t even truly understand what had just happened to her.

Even Lia frowned slightly, since she had almost expected something more dramatic—like Seraphina suddenly exploding with overwhelming power or something equally spectacular.

Lucian didn’t seem particularly surprised.

He simply nodded once before asking her the main question.

“What about your status window?”

He asked in curiosity, as his eyes even sparkled slightly.

Seraphina blinked.

“Oh…”

She paused.

“I don’t know. I didn’t properly read it.”

She didn’t have the time to read it, her mind consumed by the guilt of having killed something for the very first time.

And just like that, the screen was gone.

“Just think about calling it back. If that doesn’t work, just say ‘status’.”

Seraphina nodded as she did what Lucian said.

She thought about the screen before her that she had just seen seconds ago.

After a second, the golden screen materialised before her, floating mid-air as it shimmered faintly.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name – Seraphina Cross

Race – Human

Rank – F

Titles – None

Bloodline – Winter’s Grace

Affinity – Ice

Talent – A

— — —

This time, she read it carefully.

Her name was the same, though her lips tightened slightly when she saw the surname.

Cross.

A faint trace of disgust appeared in her eyes.

That name still lingered with her.

But she quickly pushed that thought away.

Aside from that and the race, she normally wouldn’t have understood what the other sections meant.

But thankfully, Lucian had already told them about each of the sections in detail—at least to the point he knew.

After reading it again, she repeated everything written there.

Lucian’s eyes widened slightly.

“A rank.”

He hadn’t expected her to possess such a high level of talent.

He didn’t know what the absolute highest talent rank was, but he did know about Elijah, who had A-rank talent—and even he had seemed to be considered exceptional beyond normal limits.

Slowly, a smile crept onto his face as he suddenly pulled her into a tight hug, startling her slightly.

“Good job, Mom,”

For a moment, Seraphina froze.

She even forgot about her first kill, her thoughts consumed entirely by the warmth of her son.

Her body slowly began to relax.

Gradually, her hands moved behind his back as she returned the hug.

A small, delicate smile crept up onto her lips.

Lia, on the other hand, didn’t feel quite as happy.

No, she was genuinely glad that his mother had gained such a high talent, but…

Her feelings were complicated.

‘I have to get a higher talent.’

Her fingers clenched slightly at her sides.

Yes, she didn’t want to feel left out.

Please add the novel into your Library and give me golden tickets if you like it, and want to see the new uploaded chapters.

Thank you for reading.