Chapter : 1313

  Lloyd did not show any reaction. He did not even blink. He did not let any feeling show on his face. His heart beat slowly and steadily. He simply met the assassin’s eyes with his own calm, empty stare and held it. For one long moment, the two of them fought a silent battle of wills across the room. It was a moment of clear and perfect understanding between two top hunters who had finally met on the battlefield.

  Then, Jager looked away. He turned his attention back to the ceremony below, and his bored, noble expression returned to his face. He was an expert at his job.

  Lloyd’s mind, however, was working fast. Jager's move was a common trick to make someone look in the wrong direction. By showing himself, he was making Lloyd focus all his attention on him. Jager wanted to be seen as the main danger. But a master like Jager would never be the main attack. He was the distraction. He was a clever and well-done fake move to draw attention, while the real, deadly attack came from somewhere else.

  Where was the second attacker?

  His mind raced as he looked over the entire situation again. The wine server. Was he the real threat? Was Jager showing himself just a trick to pull Lloyd's attention away from a normal, physical attack happening in the back hallways of the palace?

  He sent a new, urgent command to Annalisa: ‘What is the server doing?’

  The answer came back to his mind right away, clear and exact. ‘The target is continuing as planned. He has not changed his path. He is getting close to the King's private study. My team is hidden. We are ready to stop him.’

  It still felt wrong. It was too simple and normal for someone as smart as Beelzebub.

  His eyes went back to Jager. The man stood like a statue, seeming to be focused on the High Priest’s words. But with his special senses, Lloyd could see a tiny bit of tightness in his body. He was not just watching; he was waiting. He was counting down to a specific moment.

  What was he waiting for?

  The High Priest raised his hands. His old, deep voice filled the room. "In the name of the first kings, and by the light of the eternal sun, I ask you now, do you, Crown Prince Linkon of Bethelham, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

  The Prince’s voice was clear and strong as it rang out. "I do."

  A wave of happy sighs and tears went through the crowd. This was the moment. It was the most emotional moment of the event. It was the moment when every person in the room was focused on the two young royals at the altar.

  It was the best possible moment to distract everyone.

  Lloyd’s eyes opened wide as he understood with horror. He had been a fool. Jager was not the distraction. The entire wedding was the distraction.

  He had been looking for a second attacker, a hidden knife. He had been thinking like a soldier. But his enemy was a devil. And a devil thinks in a way that is twisted, but also smart and awful. There was no second attacker. There was only Jager. And his target was not on the side or in the back. His target was the main person.

  The High Priest turned to the bride. "And do you, Princess Arisa of Muramasa…"

  In that perfect, holy, and completely unguarded moment, Jager moved.

  It was not a physical move. He did not pull out a knife or use a magic spell. He just… smiled. A new smile. A smile of pure victory and total pride.

  And behind Princess Amina, who was standing in a place of honor near the bride’s family, the air wiggled. A flicker of warped space, a tear in the world itself.

  The hidden attack was about to happen. And Lloyd felt a cold certainty in his heart. He knew he was just a little too late to stop it. The king had planned a trap for his enemy, but the enemy was about to take someone important from the king's side.

  Everything seemed to slow down. The High Priest’s voice, which had been loud and deep, stretched out into a long, strange sound that had no meaning. The happy, loud music from the orchestra became one long, strange note. The tiny bits of dust floating in the sunlight stopped in the air, like a frozen, sparkling galaxy.

  For Lloyd Ferrum, time was no longer moving. It had become a set of still, clear, and terrible pictures.

  Chapter : 1314

  Picture one: The wiggle of warped air behind Princess Amina. It was a perfect, silent tear in the world, the sign of a master’s teleportation spell.

  Picture two: Jager. He was no longer a bored noble in the crowd. He was a ghost-like figure made of shadows and metal appearing out of nowhere. He moved with a single, silent goal. His face had a proud and confident look of victory. His eyes shone with the cold, happy light of a hunter who had just caught its food.

  Picture three: The blade. It was a thin knife made of black, evil metal. It was not made by a blacksmith but grown like a plant. A faint, wicked purple light swirled on its surface. It was a piece of an evil spirit's soul. It was a weapon made to destroy a person's spirit, not just their body. It was already moving. It was coming down in a silent, perfect, and unstoppable path toward Amina’s unprotected back. Her death was not just possible; it was something that was sure to happen. It was a result that was already decided in this frozen, awful moment.

  The Royal Guards, who looked grand in their polished armor, were like statues. Their hands were only just starting to move toward their swords. Shock was just beginning to show on their faces. They were far too slow.

  King Liam, a man with great power sitting on his throne, was also like a statue. But he was still for a different reason. He was like a master chess player who just saw his opponent make a surprising and brilliant move that ruined his whole game. For a split second, his eyes opened wide in pure, total shock. He had been beaten at his own game.

  And Lloyd, watching from his high balcony, was like a helpless, screaming ghost. He was a hundred feet away, a distance he could not cross. His mind, which was like a super-computer that could think of a thousand things in a microsecond, saw only one result: failure. Amina, his partner, the woman who was as smart as he was, the woman who had seen the real person behind his masks, was about to be killed right in front of him.

  Anger. A pure and very hot anger, an anger so strong it was like a force of nature. This anger burned away all his plans, all his thinking, and all his fear. It was the anger of a man who had lost too many people he cared about. It was the anger of a soldier who would not, and could not, give up.

  The anger was like a key. It opened a door deep inside him. It was a door to a power he was only just starting to understand. It was a power he had never used this way before.

  He did not think. He did not make a plan. He just acted.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He took a single, impossible step. It was not forward or to the side. He stepped outside of normal time and space. He stepped into the emptiness between worlds.

  The world did not get blurry. It broke into pieces. The ceremony room disappeared into a spinning mess of blue light and broken, silent images of the world. For one long, endless moment that didn't really exist, he was everywhere and nowhere. He was like a pure thought, moving through a place between worlds.

  And then, he was there.

  He reappeared in the real world in a quiet burst of blue and white light. He was no longer on the balcony. He was on the platform, between Jager and Amina. He was a ghost who had just crossed an impossible distance in the time it takes for a heart to beat once.

  His hand shot out with a speed that was not physical, but something beyond that. His fingers, made extra strong by his special power, grabbed Jager’s wrist. His grip was as tight as a metal clamp made from a star.

  The black dagger stopped. It was an inch from Amina’s back.

  The silence was complete.

  The world suddenly returned to normal speed. The High Priest’s voice finished its sound. The orchestra's music finished its note. The bits of dust began to dance again.

  And in the middle of it all, a new and impossible scene was now set. The hero, the villain, and the princess were locked in a perfect, silent, and world-changing triangle.

  The look on Jager’s face was a perfect and priceless picture of total shock. His pride, his confidence, and everything he thought he knew had just been broken. What just happened should have been impossible according to the laws of magic and science.

  Chapter : 1315

  But the assassin’s training was deep inside him. The shock only lasted for a microsecond. His other hand was already moving. His fingers were closing around a small, black amulet at his throat. It was a special object he used for a quick escape.

  But Lloyd was faster.

  He had not just stopped the attack. He had already guessed what Jager would do next. His free hand, which was at his side, was already moving. It did not hit or grab. It just… landed. A soft, almost casual touch on Jager’s shoulder.

  "My turn," Lloyd whispered. His voice was a low, cold promise that this was the end.

  He did not use his Steel Blood power. He did not use his spirits. He used his newest, most frightening, and most powerful ability. He used his special power over space.

  This time, the world did not fade away. It was taken apart.

  A quiet, spinning whirlpool of pure white light appeared where he touched Jager. It did not explode out. Instead, it pulled inward, sucking both of them into its center like a silent, hungry mouth.

  Jager’s terrified, disbelieving face was the last thing Lloyd saw. And then, they were gone.

  They vanished from the large ceremony room. They did not disappear in a flash of light or a puff of smoke. They were just… erased. One moment, they were there, the center of a crisis that could break the kingdom. The next moment, there was only empty space. The faint smell of ozone was in the air, and a single, perfect rose petal from a nearby flower display drifted slowly down to the marble floor.

  In the shocked, total silence of the room, as a thousand people tried to understand the impossible thing they had just seen, King Liam’s eyes narrowed. But his face showed no panic. No fear. He had lost a queen, but his enemy had lost a king. The king thought this was a fair trade.

  He gave a small, barely noticeable nod to the High Priest. It was a silent, direct command. The show had to continue.

  The High Priest, his face pale but his voice surprisingly steady, hesitated in panic for a moment before he received the silent order. He cleared his throat, raised his hands, and with a perfect, professional skill that was amazing to see, he started the ceremony again. His voice rang out as if nothing had happened.

  The royal wedding went on. It was a beautiful, perfect lie to hide the quiet, violent war that had just started in the secret corners of the palace. The party continued, but the game had just been moved to a new, and much more terrible, place.

  The trip was not a physical feeling. It was a feeling in his mind, not his body. It felt like being turned inside out. It was like all the tiny parts of his body were taken apart and put back together differently. There was a moment of complete and scary non-existence, like a silent scream in a void of pure, white light.

  And then, there was reality.

  Lloyd and Jager reappeared not in a flash, but with a strange, sudden jolt. It felt like watching a movie that suddenly jumped forward. The beautiful, sunny ceremony room was gone. They were now in a huge, empty, and perfectly white space. A plain white floor stretched out to a plain white horizon, all under a plain white sky. There were no sounds, no smells, nothing to feel. It was a completely clean, empty, and plain white place.

  It was Lloyd’s private space, his personal cage that was five square kilometers in size.

  He let go of Jager’s wrist. The assassin stumbled back. His eyes were wide with a mix of fear and disbelief. He looked around at the impossible, empty world. His mind tried to understand how wrong and unnatural it all was.

  “Where… where are we?” Jager managed to say. His voice was rough and weak. His proud and calm attitude was gone. It had been broken by the strange and violent feeling of being moved in that way.

  “We are in a place where no one can hear you scream,” Lloyd answered. His voice was calm, flat, and showed no mercy. The polite decorator, the shy professor, the charming lord—all those versions of him were gone. The man standing in front of Jager now was someone different. He was cold, ancient, and powerful. “Welcome to my workshop, Jager. I have some questions for you.”

  Chapter : 1316

  Jager’s survival instincts took over, and he snarled. "You think you've won? You fool. You have just trapped yourself with me." He called for his spirit, Kroth, the powerful iron alligator. The huge, twenty-foot-long animal appeared in a swirl of shadows and evil. Its iron skin scraped against the clean white floor.

  Lloyd just watched him. His face showed a deep, professional disappointment. "You still don't understand the rules of this new game, do you?" he said. His voice was full of a tired pity. "In this place, what I want to happen becomes a rule of nature."

  He raised a hand. "Ifrit," he commanded.

  The white emptiness was torn open. A huge, silent explosion of bright red energy appeared. The nine-foot-tall demon of lava and fire, Ifrit, showed up. His flaming sword gave off a heat so strong it made the air itself seem to wiggle.

  But that was not all.

  "Fang Fairy," Lloyd said, his voice still quiet and normal.

  A second explosion happened. This time, it was a storm of pure blue lightning. The beautiful and scary goddess of the storm appeared. Her silver hair crackled with power, and her golden eyes burned with a cold, hunting light.

  Jager and his alligator spirit took a step back without meaning to. The powerful energy coming from two very strong spirits felt like a real weight. It was like a heavy mountain pressing down on them, crushing them.

  "Echo. Abyss," Lloyd continued, his voice now a soft, almost bored whisper.

  Two more beings appeared. There was the shapeless, shifting Doppelganger made of silver and shadow, and the ten-foot-long Great White Shark made of high-pressure water.

  "And finally," Lloyd whispered. A slow, cold, and truly terrifying smile appeared on his lips for the first time. "Let's not be rude. Meet the queen."

  Jager just stared. His brilliant, proud mind of a master assassin simply… broke. He was facing not one or two, but five incredibly powerful spirits. It was a group of powerful beings that were like gods and monsters, an army of things that should not exist. And in the middle of them all stood a single, quiet man. He was looking at Jager with the bored and unhappy face of a god who has found a mistake in something he made.

  "Now," Lloyd said. His voice sounded like the final, soft click of a trap closing. "Let us begin."

  Back in the ceremony room, the wedding continued perfectly, but it felt very strange and unreal. The High Priest’s voice continued on and on. The guests, after a moment of shocked confusion, had decided that the impossible disappearance was just another amazing and hard-to-understand piece of royal magic.

  But in the Royal Box, Amina was not watching the ceremony. She was staring at the empty spot on the platform where Lloyd had been. Her face was pale with a mix of fear and hope. She knew what he was. She knew how powerful he was. But she also knew how dangerous the enemy he was facing was. And in the quiet, secret part of her own heart, she was sending a silent, desperate prayer out into the emptiness.

  The wedding was a lie. The promises were a lie. The only true thing in the entire, amazing room was the quiet, violent war happening in a world just beyond their own. It was a war that would decide the kingdom's future. The war was being fought by one man. That man had chosen to trap himself in a cage with a monster, and he did it with a strange and scary smile.

  While holy promises of eternal love were being made in the sunny ceremony room, a different, more violent event was taking place in the dark hallways and passages of the Royal Palace. The wedding was like a beautiful, beating heart, and its life came from a river of celebration and happiness. But in the hidden parts of the castle—the service hallways, the huge kitchens, the quiet, moonlit gardens—a poison was being put in. It was a quiet, spreading poison that was trying to destroy it all forever.

  Jager’s plan, even with all its proud drama, was a masterful example of a type of fighting where the two sides are not equal. He knew he could not attack the palace directly. So, he did not try. He went around the strong walls completely. Hidden gateways, created with forbidden shadow magic and connected to black crystal shards placed weeks earlier by secret agents, blinked open in a dozen chosen, unguarded spots. From these silent, open wounds in the world, an army of evil creatures began to pour out.