The White Flame spread silently across the chains.
Unlike ordinary fire...
It gave off no heat.
No smoke.
Lin's trembling bone blade suddenly froze.
The crimson threads hidden beneath Lin's skin quivered violently.
"..."
Kai tightened his grip.
"Come on..."
"Burn damn it!"
The flame reached the first thread.
It hissed.
The crimson strand twisted like a living parasite.
Slowly dissolving into white ash.
Another followed.
Then another.
One after another...
The threads burned away.
Lin's body convulsed.
As she collapsed forward.
Kai caught her before she struck the floor.
"Lin."
Lin's cloudy eyes slowly regained focus.
The tears staining her cheeks continued falling.
"K..."
"Kai...?"
A weak voice.
"I..."
"I'm sorry..."
Kai shook his head.
"No."
"Lin, you fought it well."
"You never gave up."
Lin began crying openly.
The White Flame faded.
The last crimson thread disappeared into nothingness.
Kai let out a relieved breath.
"It worked..."
______
Across the ruined office—
A hurricane howled.
Chunks of concrete, shattered furniture, and twisted steel circled around Raya.
Raya's eyes burned with fury.
Every breath distorted the surrounding wind.
Estelle watched quietly.
Estelle's smile remained graceful.
"How fascinating."
She raised one elegant hand.
Countless surgical instruments gathered behind her once again.
A metallic halo.
Perfectly aligned.
Without another word...
Estelle flicked a finger.
The instruments shot forward.
BOOM!!
Yet-
Raya met them head-on.
Raya's fist crashed into the storm itself.
Compressed wind exploded outward.
Hundreds of blades were thrown away before reaching him.
Those that slipped through—
Raya shattered it with punches alone.
Steel rained across the office.
Estelle stepped lightly between the debris.
Every movement resembled a dance.
A single scalpel appeared between her fingers.
Raya swung.
Estelle leaned aside.
Raya's fist missed by barely an inch.
The pressure alone split the wall behind her.
"Too direct."
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Estelle whispered.
The scalpel flashed.
A thin cut appeared across Raya's shoulder.
Before Raya could retaliate...
Estelle had already vanished.
Another cut.
Then another.
Each wound was shallow.
Calculated.
Never wasted.
"You rely on strength."
"You overwhelm."
"You force your opponents to surrender."
Estelle appeared behind Raya.
"But strength..."
"without refinement..."
A needle struck a pressure point near Raya's arm.
Raya's right arm momentarily went numb.
"You always leaves openings."
Raya answered with a roar.
The Tempest Domain expanded violently.
The office ceiling groaned.
Every loose object became part of the storm.
This time—
Even Estelle's elegant footing faltered.
"Hm."
"Now that's troublesome."
Estelle extended countless crimson threads from her fingertips.
The crimson threads stitched themselves through the room.
Binding columns.
Walls.
Broken steel.
Creating an invisible web.
Every gust of wind met resistance.
Precision against overwhelming force.
Neither yielded.
...
Meanwhile—
Lin slowly stood.
Her breathing remained weak.
But she was free.
Lin looked toward Estelle.
And fear returned to her face.
"No!"
Estelle's blue eyes shifted.
Meeting Lin eye to eye.
For the first time...
Estelle's smile became genuinely disappointed.
"My assistant."
"I spent so much effort preparing you."
"You were beautiful."
"You obeyed perfectly."
Estelle sighed.
"And now..."
"You've become defective."
Kai immediately stepped in front of Lin.
"Stay behind me."
Estelle simply smiled.
"Do you truly believe..."
"distance matters?"
One finger moved.
Nothing happened.
Another finger curled.
Kai's instincts screamed.
"LIN!!!"
"Too late."
The crimson threads hidden throughout the battlefield suddenly tightened.
Invisible lines crossed the room from every direction.
Lin looked down.
"Ah..."
Lin's body froze.
"K-Kai..."
Crimson threads wrapped around Lin's limbs, neck, and across the body.
Raising her above.
The room became silent.
Slowly...
The threads converged.
For a single heartbreaking instant...
Kai reached toward Lin.
"No!"
The threads flashed.
"Kai."
"H-Hel-"
Lin's word silenced mid sentence.
Lin's body been shredded to pieces.
Mutilated beyond recognizable.
Blood pooled within the flesh.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Kai's pupils trembled.
"No..."
Kai stumbled forward.
"N-No!!!"
Kai's hands shook uncontrollably.
As he desperately tried to gather the fallen flesh.
As though sheer determination could somehow put them together.
"It..."
"It can still work..."
Kai's voice broke.
"Please..."
"Please..."
Yet it failed horribly.
Nothing could be restored.
Nothing answered.
Lin is DEAD.
The White Flame flickered weakly around Kai's fingers...
Then vanished.
Kai collapsed to his knees.
His breathing became uneven.
"Lin!"
Across the room—
Raya saw everything.
Something inside him shattered.
Raya's wind exploded.
The entire office shook.
"You..."
Raya's voice echoed.
"MONSTER!!"
The Tempest Domain compressed beyond its limit.
Wind howled.
The pressure became visible.
Estelle smiled.
"My, my."
"Disposing thrash is a crime now?"
Raya vanished.
A sonic boom tore through the office.
Estelle reacted instantly.
Hundreds of scalpels formed layered barriers.
Needles reinforced them.
Forceps locked together like shields.
Thread barriers intertwined between every layer.
Elegant.
Perfect.
Absolute.
Raya crashed into them.
BOOM!!
The first layer shattered.
Then the second.
Third.
Estelle's calm expression finally changed.
"Impossible."
Raya screamed in rage.
"TEMPEST—"
Wind spiraled around Raya's arm.
Heavily compressed air surrounding Raya's arm.
The office walls split apart.
The roof groaned.
"—ROAR!!"
Raya's punch erupted.
The compressed cyclone pierced every remaining defense.
It struck Estelle directly.
The explosion ripped through the building.
The entire left side of the office vanished.
Concrete.
Steel.
Glass.
Everything exploded upward.
The rooftop burst apart beneath a pillar of roaring wind.
Moonlight poured into the ruined chamber.
Estelle's body was hurled skyward.
Before crashing back among the rubble.
Her left body been shredded completely.
Then-
Silence followed.
The Tempest Domain collapsed.
The winds faded.
Raya remained standing for only a second longer.
Raya's body trembled violently.
The immense strain finally caught him.
Raya dropped to one knee.
Then another.
Raya's vision blurred.
"Did..."
"I..."
Darkness overtook him.
Raya fell unconscious onto the shattered floor.
Kai remained motionless beside Lin's remains.
Kai's eyes were empty.
The battlefield had become eerily quiet.
Broken instruments lay scattered everywhere.
The office had become little more than ruins beneath the smiling moon.
Dust drifted through pale moonlight.
For several long moments...
Nothing moved.
Then...
A crimson thread twitched.
Another.
Then dozens more.
They crawled silently across the rubble like living veins.
One by one...
They reached toward Estelle.
The crimson threads slowly attached the open wound.
Slowly.
Soft crimson light pulsed beneath Estelle's skin.
The devastating wound along her left side slowly began knitting itself together.
Bone.
Muscle.
Skin.
Not instantly.
Not completely.
But steadily.
Estelle's fingers twitched.
A quiet laugh escaped her lips.
"Hehe..."
Estelle's eyes slowly opened.
The formerly blue eyes, had glowed crimson.
Estelle looked toward the broken ceiling, where the moon watched silently overhead.
Then...
Estelle smiled.
Beautiful.
Elegant.
Unshaken.
"As expected..."
Estelle slowly rose from the rubble.
"The moon love us all."
As crimson threads danced around her like delicate ribbons.
"The love us Equally!"
To Be Continued...