In the dark space, a few candles burned alone, while the continuous sound of iron chains dragged on.

"There's no point in struggling, it's useless."

The man’s slow voice echoed through the dark space.

"These chains are strong enough for gods, imagine what they can do to a little wolf like you..."

On an elevated platform in the space, Karina's body lay with her wrists, ankles, and neck tightly bound by chains as thick as a thumb, fixed to the platform.

Though it seemed she could easily break free, every time Karina tried, she couldn’t gather her strength.

"You bastard!"

Karina glared angrily at the figure slowly approaching, her threatening gaze as if she wanted to devour him alive.

Days ago, this man appeared out of nowhere, displaying incredible strength, capturing an unsuspecting Karina, and imprisoning her in this place.

"What do you want from me!?"

Karina struggled as she asked.

"Well..."

The man stopped beside the platform, and with his presence, the space around seemed to lighten a bit.

However, Karina felt that this man was even darker than the surroundings.

"It's a shame you have so much power yet don’t know how to use it..."

"To think that you’d try to control this power with such foolish methods, it's a real waste..."

"But now, I’ll make good use of this power for my own benefit!"

As he said this, the man’s eyes glowed a shade of white, and he raised his index finger, from which a sharp light emanated, like the blade of a sword.

"Ah! Trying to scare me? Ridiculous!"

Karina sneered and spat in his direction.

Unfortunately, the spit vanished before touching him.

"Hmph, let's see if you’re still laughing soon."

The man smiled with satisfaction, guiding the blade of light toward Karina's skin...

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

......

Not found...

Not found...

I still can’t find it!

Shirley sighed, trying to calm herself, but without success.

Karina had disappeared.

Despite all attempts to contact her from a distance or to personally go to places where Karina might be, Shirley couldn’t find any sign of her.

Since the day they parted, no one had seen Karina...

"Missing, once again!"

Shirley was visibly irritated.

If it were only other elders disappearing, that would be one thing, but Karina disappearing alone? This was different!

The situations weren’t supposed to be the same, right?

"It's as if they're forcing me to use occult magic..."

Shirley thought irritably as she rose into the air.

The occult, as the name suggests, was mysterious.

Undefined, unexplained, with no apparent reason.

Similar to curse magic, but harder to understand and less reliable.

Just like now, the occult operated in a curious way.

Shirley closed her eyes and spun in the air. After a few moments, she felt it was enough and stopped, heading in the direction she faced.

After some time, she repeated the process...

Although it was a complex practice, the occult seemed simple, but Shirley acted strangely, as if she was relying solely on luck to find the way.

She cast no spells, used no artifacts, simply followed her instincts.

Guided by a mystical force, there was a chance she was right, but failure was always a possibility.

After all, no one thinks they can find something lost just by spinning with their eyes closed and hoping for the best.

But, surprisingly, this method sometimes worked...

If the faith is strong enough, if the "possibility" is real, then reality shapes itself to one's desires.

"I feel... that I'm close?"

She didn’t know how long she’d flown, but suddenly this thought crossed her mind.

Like a battle instinct, even without seeing or hearing anything, she sensed the direction of the threat.

However, this fleeting thought interrupted her search.

With a slight mental distraction, the occult became a disoriented search.

Shirley opened her eyes and saw a towering mountain before her, an unknown place to her.

She was now in the region of another race.

"If she’s around here, then... by destroying this mountain, maybe I’ll find Karina!"

Saying this, a dense red light gathered above her palm...

Back to the dark space.

"hahaha! Try harder, you bastard! Trash! If you have the courage, just kill me already!"

Karina shouted furiously, but the man remained impassive, focused on his task.

"Hmm... although I’ve temporarily sealed your voice, unfortunately, I can still understand what you’re saying..."

"You know, if it weren’t necessary to keep the body alive so the power wouldn’t dissipate, do you really think you’d still be breathing?"

"You’re just a despicable person relying on sneak attacks. All you can do is bark like a dog."

Even in that situation, with pain ravaging her consciousness, Karina remained defiant.

"Just wait, when I get free, I’ll tear you apart, throw you to the dogs, or in the sewer... maybe the sewer first, then to the dogs, who knows! hahaha! Even the dogs will rather die than eat something so filthy!"

"Fool..."

The man shook his head.

"Since you talk too much, I’ll just have to silence you a bit."

The man grabbed Karina's neck with one hand, while the other guided the blade of light, drawing precisely inside her mouth.

This wasn’t just to torture her, but to obtain the energy he desired.

In the process, however, Karina felt a pain so deep that it challenged her own resilience...

Suddenly.

The ground shook violently, interrupting the man’s movement.

He hesitated, ignoring the disturbance and focusing on his task.

Shortly after, he released Karina's neck.

"Now that I've extracted most of the power, it’s time to deal with the interruption before continuing..."

At that moment, light from the outside began to penetrate the dark space...