As he watched the boy standing before him with a confident smirk, Cornelius sensed something was wrong. His smirk disappeared from his face, and he looked at the boy again, this time with calculating eyes as he raised his magic power up in preparation.

Suddenly, his eyes widened in shock! This boy! He actually had an Aether Aura!!

Cornelius took a step back in fear as his mind struggled to come to terms with what he was seeing. An Aether Aura was a phenomenon that was exclusive to magic users Rank 8 and higher!

It was a physical manifestation of magical energy that could be seen even by ordinary people with no magic sensitivity! A display of power, a mark of greatness, the proof that one had surpassed moral limits and nearly ascended to godhood… So how the hell had this no-name, worthless cur achieved this feat?!

Cornelius stared at the dark purple and violet cloud of power that surrounded the boy, swirling and churning around him like a whirlpool of pure power. It was so powerful that it was causing the air in the room to swirl along with it in a beautiful dance of elemental and magical fury.

Cornelius’s mind was filled with fear, hatred, and anger towards the boy. He had struggled his entire life to reach Rank 8, to grasp that thread of immortality and climb to the heavens, but this boy before him had just surpassed him by simply existing! How was this pathetic child more worthy of this power than he himself was?!

Unacceptable!!

With a snarl of rage, Cornelius pulled an item from his space ring and immediately started to pour his magic energy into it as fast as he could manage. The item was a blood-red crystal, A Blood Soul Crystal, the same item that he had once used to trap his sister in an eternity of torment until he had been forced to set her free.

This boy was too much of a threat, and Cornelius was wounded, and didn’t have a backup plan, so he had to improvise. Better to trap him now and deal with him later once he knew more about what he was dealing with.

Then, the boy moved.

With a single step, the metal beneath his foot crumpled and ripped with a protesting shriek as he stepped towards Cornelius, his molten silver eyes blazing with violet fury as he struck out with intent to kill!

But Cornelius could only grin in triumph when he saw this. This boy was an idiot! The Blood Soul Crystal took only an instant to ready, and as soon as the boy touched it he would be sealed inside! So with a triumphant howl, Cornelius struck out to meet the boy’s fist with the crystal, his victory assured!

But things do not always go as planned.

When the Blood Soul Crystal met with the boy’s fist, there was a mind-numbing explosion as the two titanic forces came together.

Cornelius had been excitedly watching for the moment the boy realized that he was going to be trapped inside the crystal, only to open his eyes in horror as the boy grabbed the blood-red crystal in one hand, and shattered it into a million pieces by squeezing his hand.

The resulting backlash from the crystal breaking ripped back into Cornelius, traveling along the arm that had held the crystal, turning his bones to splinters and his flesh into an unrecognizable bleeding mess.

His stunned and shocked mind only had a moment before the same fist that had crushed the Blood Soul Crystal smashed into his chest.

A dull crash echoed in the room as Cornelius smashed into the wall, crushing the metal panels and machinery behind it, then slowly slid to the floor.

He sat there, gasping small shallow breaths as blood dripped from his mouth and a strange numb sensation flooded through his body.

He wanted to howl and rage, he wanted to get up and to brutally destroy the fucking bastard that had done this to him, but in that moment, Cornelius realized that he couldn’t feel his legs. All he could do in that moment of horrific realization was struggle to breath while his mind refused to accept what had just happened to him.

He slowly looked up, struggling even to move his eyes as he looked for the boy who had done this to him. When he saw the boy, his body involuntarily began to tremble, an uncontrollable shudder that sprang from the most primal of fears: The fear of death.

The boy was slowly walking towards him, his smouldering violet eyes condemning, his clenched fists uncompromising. The Aether Aura Cornelius had seen before had grown bigger and started to form a shape that loomed above the boy like a vengeful god, a being of incalculable power, a tsunami of fury that Cornelius could not escape from.

Cornelius did not know the name of the creature he witnessed in that moment, but the sight was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.

In that moment of clarity and terror, Cornelius knew he was about to die. He knew there was no escape, no way out, and no salvation. He was dead.

Then he pissed himself out of pure fear.

---------------------------------

Max took another step towards the noble collapsed before him, pure magical power roaring through his body like a hurricane, a hurricane that he controlled.

This man had to die. He was evil, a man so vile and corrupt that his very soul was black with impurities. For harming Zoey and the countless others that he had sullied with his filth, he would pay the price.

The cost? Death.

Max took another step, drawing even more power forth from Leviathan as he prepared the final strike. The strike that would end Cornelius Rellen.

“Stop.”

Max froze as a pair of slender but strong arms embraced him from behind and a voice spoke into his ear. It was Zoey’s voice.

All the power and fury raging inside of him disappeared in a single breath when she embraced him, her familiar scent and warmth bringing his reason back to him and banishing his anger away.

Despite that, Max didn’t take his eyes off of Cornelius, not letting his guard down for a moment. That noble still had to be dealt with, and in Max’s opinion, death was the only possible penance for what he had done.

Zoey seemed to be reading his thoughts, and softly said to him, “His life is not yours to take. Nor mine.”

Max was about to protest, saying how much damage this man had caused already and would again if given the chance, but Zoey turned him around and shushed him with a finger to his lips.

“I didn’t say he was going to live. I only said his life is not ours to take,” She said to him, her emerald eyes holding no sympathy for the noble.

She directed Max’s attention next to them where he saw a strange, bloodied and bruised brunette standing silently, empty eyes staring at Cornelius who was still struggling to breath. Although he vaguely recognized her from the times he had seen her before, Max didn’t know why she was here, however, he could sense that Zoey was indicating that this woman was the one to decide Cornelius’s fate.

“He’s all yours,” Zoey said as she and Max turned away from Cornelius, ignoring the terrified pleading look on the noble’s face.

As they walked away, the brunette pulled a dagger from a sheath on her leg and approached Cornelius. The noble desperately tried to struggle in vain to do anything, literally anything, but he only managed to shake and quiver where he sat as she approached, her dagger gleaming in the light.

His last sound was a desperate gurgle as the dagger slit his throat.