CHAPTER 1019: HOLLOW

Arty was still pinned beneath Renard’s fists. His punches drove her deeper into the ground, each impact ringing through her skull.

Her mind dangled on the edge of the abyss, pulled further and further into that grotesque illusion of rot and decay.

She couldn’t see the real world anymore and could only see madness.

Renard didn’t care. He didn’t notice. His laughter was manic like a beast’s howl wrapped in human throat.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

His bloodshot eyes bulged, spit and blood spraying with every crazed laugh. His fists rose and fell like hammers without care of the broken body beneath him.

But then suddenly a shadow cut through the chaos.

Jan appeared behind Renard as if he’d stepped out of the air itself. His hand snapped around Renard’s neck in a vice grip, veins bulging in his arm as he yanked the madman backward.

With a twist of his body Jan hurled him away like a sack of meat.

Renard crashed through dirt and stone, rolling violently before skidding to a halt.

Jan’s eyes immediately darted to Arty.

She was still lying on the ground with her face swollen, bloody, and barely recognizable.

Her eyes, though open, stared past everything. It looked blank and unfocused as if gazing into a nightmare only she could see. Her lips trembled soundlessly, whispering words no one could hear.

"Shit..." Jan cursed under his breath, rushing to her side. "What the hell happened to her?"

He had been watching from afar until now.

Arty had been holding her own—even against Renard’s berserk fury. He hadn’t worried, trusting her resilience.

But then, out of nowhere, she broke. She looked at her hands as if something horrific had happened when in truth, nothing had happened to her at all.

Jan’s eyes flicked to Renard, who was already staggering back to his feet, lightning flaring violently across his skin.

"No... it’s not him," Jan thought grimly. "That boy’s gone feral and drunk on whatever drug he took. He’s nothing but a berserker now. He doesn’t have the mind to use illusions."

His gaze returned to Arty’s ruined face, and a sharp pang of guilt cut through him.

"I should’ve stepped in sooner..."

Then his eyes widened.

A faint light shimmered across Arty’s face. Soft and unnatural.

Her bruises began to mend by itself, the blood on her skin evaporating as if rewound in time.

The swelling ebbed away, the cuts sealed, and within seconds her face was whole again. Pristine and untouched, like molded clay restored to its original form.

But her eyes... her eyes were still wide, glassy, and trembling with some terror that Jan couldn’t see.

"What the hell... happened to you?" Jan whispered, dumbfounded.

"HYAARGGHH!!!

Renard roared in the distance, his body sparking with violent lightning currents. He crouched then his Magic energy flaring like a thunderstorm condensed into his flesh, and then he shot forward.

The ground cracked beneath the force of his dash. His body was looking like a living bolt hurtling straight for Jan and Arty.

Jan braced himself, planting his stance in front of Arty. His muscles coiled, his will steeling.

"This ends here. I’ll subdue him before he makes more mess."

But then—

A rush of wind blasted past him, sharp and sudden. Jan’s eyes widened.

"What?!"

Arty’s figure blurred past, launching herself toward Renard with blistering speed.

One moment she had been lying motionless in the dirt with her eyes blank and lips trembling but now she was already moving again. Her movements look fluid, merciless, and inhumanly fast.

He had taken a glimpse of her face when she shot earlier. She was calm but her eyes were empty, devoid of reason—blank, cold, and terrifying.

Jan froze for half a heartbeat. "What... happened to her?"

Arty moved without reason, her face flat and stripped of any emotion. Before, she had been angry at Renard—furious at his violence and his mocking cruelty—but now not even that anger remained.

It had been carved away and leaving only a cold detachment.

What lingered inside her was not rage, or hate, but a singular purpose that hollowed her eyes into voids. It was to kill. That was all.

Her mind no longer steered her body.

In her subconscious, she drifted endlessly through the abyss, unable to think, unable to grasp anything real.

Her consciousness floated in darkness, far removed from the body that now fought without her.

Renard saw her coming. His bloodshot and wild eyes widened. His chest heaving with rabid breaths that even could be heard similar to a beast breathing.

The lightning across his body writhed even more violently, swelling and splitting the ground beneath him.

It cracked and smoked under the growing storm. His every breath fed the destructive aura that threatened to tear him apart as much as his enemy.

But Arty was not deterred. Four elements swirled around her right now as if the world itself bent to her unshaken will.

Wind coiled in sharp currents around her frame, snapping branches and throwing dust into a spiral.

Fire licked up her arms and hair like a crown of flames. Earth rose in fragments beneath her feet to keep pace with her as if she walked on a living road of stone.

Water streamed around her body in shifting layers, reflecting the flicker of fire and lightning alike.

Together they created a storm of their own. Arty right now was like a force of nature in human form.

"HAAAAAHH!!!"

Renard screamed, his fury bursting into soundless madness as his body surged with lightning, jagged bolts streaking through the air with deafening cracks.

He launched himself forward with even more speed. His teeth bared and his eyes looked crazy and he only aimed to obliterate her with a single all-consuming strike.

Arty herself was still with her calm yet empty expression. Her eyes were hollow of reason.

She also advanced to meet him. Her elements roared in unison and she threw all of it to Renard with everything she got.

The next second an incredible destruction was happening.

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