Kenneth glanced back at the house, his heart pounding. Lust and her accomplice hadn’t woken yet, but he knew their time was limited. Shifting Lucy on his back, he reached up to feel along the invisible wall above the fence, seeking any sign of weakness. After a moment, his fingers brushed against an area where the barrier’s flow stuttered, a slight irregularity. This could be our way out, he thought, feeling a spark of hope.
But he was still in his child form—strength alone wouldn’t break this barrier. Instead, he might be able to disrupt it, using a sharp concentration of pnevma. Kneeling, he took a steady breath, pressing his hands firmly against the weakened spot. Focusing intently, he gathered his pnevma into a single, focused point, willing it to cut through the magical barrier.
Just as the surface began to ripple, a voice behind him sent a chill through his veins.
“I won’t let you escape.”
Kenneth’s breath hitched. He turned, dread knotting in his stomach as he met Lust’s gaze, her eyes alight with cruel amusement as she stepped closer.
“For someone your age to control pnevma so precisely,” she murmured, her voice laced with intrigue, “you must come from a rather impressive family. How interesting.”
Kenneth shifted, his body instinctively moving to shield Lucy. Despite the fear churning within him, he held her gaze, his voice firm. “I won’t let you take Lucy.”
Lust laughed softly, an edge of malice in her smile. With a swift motion, she seized him by the hair, yanking him to his feet. Pain shot through his scalp, but Kenneth forced himself to meet her eyes, refusing to back down.
“Don’t worry,” she said in a mockingly sweet tone, her fingers gripping his hair with strength. “I’ll take you both… I wonder how your pnevma will taste.”
Her hand moved to his forehead, and in an instant, a crushing force pressed down on him, as though something was being ripped from his very core. His vision blurred as a wave of pain surged through his skull, sharp and relentless.
“Ahh,” Lust murmured, her tone dripping with satisfaction. “Your pnevma… it’s exquisite. Even richer than that girl from Luminel.”
Kenneth felt his strength slipping, the darkness pulling at the edges of his mind. He was helpless, trapped in this weakened form, unable to access his fire magic. If only I could summon the fire, he thought, a desperate ache tightening his chest.
And then, somewhere in the depths of his despair, he felt it—a familiar warmth, faint yet growing, stirring from within. It was the same comforting heat he’d felt the first time he awakened his fire magic, a steady strength rising within him.
Lust felt a surge of power radiating from the boy, fire erupting around his body in fierce, untamed waves. Her eyes widened for a split second, shock flickering across her face. This magic, she realized with a twisted excitement—it was Fireon’s lost magic, the fire they had once believed extinguished forever.
The flames intensified, their heat searing through the air, and she instinctively recoiled, her hands burning as she stumbled back. Kenneth, breathing heavily, rose to his feet, the fire coursing through him like a force finally unleashed.
“You… you’re from Fireon,” Lust breathed, her voice laced with a mix of anger and fascination.
As the flames crackled around him, Kenneth held her gaze, steady and unafraid. Shadows began to coil around Lust, dark tendrils that pulsed with sinister life. The air grew colder, suffused with a dark, oppressive energy that seemed to devour the light.
“Do you think that little fire of yours can stand against me?” Lust sneered, her smile widening, cold and deadly. “I’ve devoured the pnevma of countless Wizards…”
Kenneth narrowed his eyes, stepping in front of Lucy. “I won’t let you touch her—or anyone else.”
Lust’s smile grew darker. “What a brave child. I’m starting to like you.” Her tone was dripping with twisted amusement. “Let’s see how much you can endure before I devour every last spark of that pnevma.” With a flick of her wrist, the shadows surged forward, twisting into deadly spears that shot toward him with lethal precision.
Kenneth raised his arms, and his flames roared to life, intercepting the dark tendrils in bursts of light and heat. He grit his teeth, forcing himself to hold steady against the overwhelming force of her magic.
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But Lust advanced, her movements fluid and calculated, shadow weaving around her like a dark cloak. Kenneth thrust his hands forward, sending a wave of fire hurling toward her, but Lust slipped effortlessly into the shadows, dodging his attack with grace.
“Is that all you’ve got?” she taunted, her voice rich with mockery. Shadows spiraled above her, forming a twisted crown of darkness as she lifted her hand, the air around them thickening, pulsing with hypnotic power.
“Kneel,” she commanded, her voice resonating with a dark, magical compulsion. Kenneth felt the weight of her spell pressing down on him, an invisible force bearing into his mind. His knees trembled, his flames flickering as his body began to yield under the crushing power.
“Good,” Lust murmured, moving closer, her dark aura wrapping around him. Shadows coiled like snakes, tightening around him as her hand reached toward him, fingers curling like claws.
Kenneth’s vision once again began to blur as the darkness wrapped around him, draining his strength. Pain surged through him, weakening the flames in his body, his pnevma slipping away under her grasp.
As Kenneth's strength waned, Lust leaned closer, a twisted satisfaction gleaming in her eyes. She continued to siphon his pnevma, reveling in the thrill of his power slipping away. Despite his fire, he couldn’t stop her.
Was this weakness because he wasn’t truly Fireon’s successor?
As his vision darkened, he knew he couldn’t hold on any longer. His body finally went limp, and he slipped into unconsciousness.
＊＊＊
Lust smirked as she leaned over the unconscious child, finally able to drain his pnevma without resistance. But as she continue to siphon his pnevma, a strange sensation caught her attention. She hesitated, glancing at the boy—his fingers twitched, then wrapped firmly around her wrist.
Her eyes widened as he looked up at her, his gaze sharper and far more focused than before. There was something unsettling about it, a maturity and intensity that didn’t belong to a child. She pulled back instinctively, unnerved by the shift in his demeanor.
“What is this kid?” she muttered, shaken.
Glancing at her hand, she realized it was trembling.
“Ah, I was supposed to be asleep, but you keep pestering this kid,” came a calm, collected voice from the boy—a voice that carried an authority and strength that sent a chill down her spine.
Lust paused, taken aback by the sudden shift in his demeanor.
His focus shifting to the barrier she had created, as though she were no more than an afterthought.
She watched, frozen, as he placed his small hand to the barrier. The barrier was no ordinary spell; this was a high-level dark magic designed to isolate them completely from the outside world. Not even Anterthon’s elite guards could break it.
But the moment his hand touched the barrier, it began to crack, spreading like a web of shattered glass until it dissolved entirely.
“Impossible…” she whispered, barely able to comprehend what she was seeing.
The boy turned to face her, his expression calm and unbothered. “Reinforcements will be here soon,” he said, his tone almost casual. “But before that…”
The falling fragments of the shattered barrier suddenly froze midair, their pointed edges turning toward her like a swarm of jagged, lethal shards. Lust’s eyes widened in shock. How is he controlling it? She barely had time to throw up a protective shield as the shards shot toward her with deadly precision. Her barrier flickered as the shards pierced through, their sharp edges cutting into her. Each wound seared with an unnatural intensity, and for the first time in years, true panic surged within her.
Desperate, she lashed out with a shadow tendril, aiming to immobilize him, but the boy raised his left hand, releasing a brilliant burst of light magic that shattered her tendril like smoke in the wind. She staggered back, stunned. Light magic? This child wields light magic too?
The boy’s gaze darkened. “Consider this a punishment for waking me before my time,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. A blue flame appeared in his hand, controlled and intense. With a swift motion, he sent it toward her, the flame piercing directly into her core.
Agonizing heat erupted inside her, spreading from the center of her being. She felt her insides igniting, her magic unraveling under the relentless flame. She screamed, her voice echoing in the enclosed space, the sound laced with fear and pain.
But just as he was about to unleash a final strike, a masked figure appeared at her side. In an instant, the figure conjured a wave of dark magic, intercepting the boy’s attack and forcing him to step back. Calmly, the boy raised a magic barrier, deflecting the incoming energy without breaking his composure.
Seizing the opportunity, the masked figure pulled Lust to her feet, dragging her away. Before the boy could act, they disappeared into the shadows, leaving him alone in the quiet aftermath, his calm expression unbroken as he surveyed the empty room.
He sighed, stretching his arms as if the entire fight had been a minor inconvenience. “Finally… time to sleep,” he muttered, fatigue washing over him. Just as he was about to close his eyes, a familiar presence caught his attention.
A voice spoke from the shadows, filled with disbelief. “Kenneth… how were you able to use light magic?”
It was Lucian. He had arrived moments earlier, using the teleportation spell, drawn by the faint trace of magic from Lucy. He’d watched the battle from a distance, realizing that his interference might have only complicated things.
Now, as the fight settled, he stepped forward, his eyes wide and questioning, searching Kenneth’s face for answers.
Kenneth turned to him, a lazy smile crossing his face. “Why? Because I can?” he said, shrugging, his tone casual, almost teasing. He stifled a yawn, the exhaustion finally hitting him hard. “No time for questions… I really need to sleep…”
And with that, his legs gave out, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious before he even hit the floor.
“Kenneth!” Lucian rushed forward, catching him just in time, his mind racing with questions. Who… or what… had he just witnessed?