CHAPTER 189: UNSEALED

[Spatial Seal still fixed on a target.]

[Withdraw to use on someone else?]

[Confirm Withdrawal: Yes / No]

"What...?" Hissra muttered, his voice hoarse, as the notification hovered before him. His mind struggled to process what he was seeing.

Still fixed on a target?

That meant the seal hadn’t been broken. It was still binding someone.

But if that was true—

His thoughts never reached their conclusion.

Because in the next instant, a presence—sharp and suffocating—materialized directly in front of him.

Eli.

Standing within the Heat Domain. Inside the burning cylinder that was supposed to incinerate anything that entered.

Grinning.

Unharmed.

Hissra froze mid-step. His thoughts staggered. How is he not cooking alive right now? The very air inside the domain was unbreathable, the ground scorched to glass—but Eli looked unaffected, his cloak barely fluttering from the heat.

Then he felt it—Eli’s hand snapping forward, gripping his wrist. The same hand that held the seal.

That’s bad.

Hissra tried to pull away, to ignite a blast, to react—anything. But Eli squeezed.

Hard.

The bones in Hissra’s wrist groaned, then cracked audibly under the pressure.

"Aaaghh!"

Hissra cried out, the pain shooting up his arm too sharp, too sudden to suppress.

His fingers trembled—then gave out.

And the seal slipped from his grasp.

"No...!" Hissra gasped, voice cracking, panic overtaking the pain.

He watched helplessly as the hexagonal stone fell, spinning through the hot air.

But Eli’s other hand moved with perfect precision.

He caught it mid-drop, his fingers curling smoothly around the artifact like it belonged to him all along.

Then he looked up.

Grin sharp. Eyes colder than the fire surrounding them.

"Gotcha."

One word. That was all it took to drain the blood from Hissra’s face.

*

"Gotcha," I muttered, eyes locked on the seal now resting securely in my palm.

My plan had worked.

Exactly as intended.

From the beginning, I had no intention of actually breaking the seal. I couldn’t—not directly, anyway. But I didn’t need to.

All I had to do was make him believe it was broken.

I used [Stealth] to vanish from his senses, suppressing every trace of my presence. Then, combining it with raw agility, I blitzed through the battlefield fast enough that to an outside observer—especially one in panic—it looked like I was teleporting.

Dot to dot. Vanish. Reappear. Gone again.

It was all smoke and mirrors.

Add in a little acting—a stumble here, pretending to be hit there—and Hissra had started to believe he was gaining ground. That maybe the seal wasn’t working after all.

And by the time he realized his mistake—it was too late.

The moment I laid eyes on the seal that had kept my innate ability locked away, I lunged for it like a starving beast.

I wasn’t going to let a second chance slip through my fingers. Not after all this.

Not when [Phase Walker]—my skill—was finally within reach.

"Damn you!" Hissra screamed, his voice cracking with fury as his body erupted in a surge of heat. Flames exploded from his core in every direction, lashing out wildly.

But I was already moving.

I drove my foot into his chest with a sharp, snapping kick, and he went flying—his body crashing into the cracked earth with a dull thud, heat trailing behind him like smoke.

But just as I turned my focus back to the seal gripped tightly in my hand—

Something shifted.

A pulse.

Low and deep, vibrating in my bones.

My eyes narrowed as I looked down.

The seal was glowing—veins of light spreading across its surface like molten cracks.

And then—

BOOM!

The object in my hand surged violently, unleashing a torrent of flame that erupted in a cone, engulfing me point-blank.

"The fuck—" I growled, teeth clenched as the fire tore through the space around me.

The flames were intense—hot enough to melt steel, thick enough to blind. But thankfully, I wasn’t made of normal flesh.

[Fractured Existence] shimmered to life, wrapping around me like a translucent second skin. The fire curled and hissed around it, unable to reach me through the distorted field.

I stood through the inferno, cloak whipping in the current, unscorched.

Then, without a word, I tossed the seal into the air.

My hand shot to my side, and I drew Gravefang, activating my class skill—[Rift Annihilation].

Void energy surged along my arm like a cold current, responding to my will. I raised one finger and traced it along the flat of Gravefang, lacing the blade with that familiar ripple of black, unstable power. The air warped around it—space itself bending at the edge.

Then I slashed.

A jagged tear erupted from the blade, a black rift that howled silently as it tore through the air toward the seal still spinning mid-drop.

The moment it touched—

CRACK.

The seal split cleanly into two, the force of the slash continuing past it, carving a vertical scar into the sky itself, a jagged line of nothingness stretching high above the treetops before slowly sealing shut with a distant hiss.

The remains of the seal hit the ground a second later, the two pieces smoldering, their runes flickering once—then going dark.

And then came the system notification.

[Spatial Seal has been destroyed.]

[Restriction has been removed.]

I stood there, gripping Gravefang, breathing in the thick, smoky air.

And finally—finally—I exhaled.

Relief washed over me like a cold breeze through the fire.

My skill—my freedom—was back.

"No!"

I heard the cry behind me—Hissra’s voice, frail and brittle like dry leaves crushed underfoot.

I turned.

And what I saw barely resembled the proud, flame-wielding Chosen who had once stood tall.

His body was wrecked.

Skin cracked and ashen, veins darkened from internal scorching. His frame had shriveled under the weight of his own magic, the Heat Domain skill slowly cooking him from the inside out. His breathing came in ragged, wheezing gasps, as if each inhale dragged through lungs already turned to ash.

He fell to his knees, trembling.

Nira’s words echoed in my mind—The seal is bound to his life. It’s like his heart.

Which meant... with the seal destroyed, he was already dying.

But I wasn’t about to wait.

I summoned...