CHAPTER 67: FLAMES OF DOUBT

Outside the burning walls of Aetherthorn, somewhere in the southern forest, Robert ran as if his life depended on it.

His boots pounded against a forest floor littered with scorched leaves and trembling roots, pushing southeast- toward the place where a terrifying explosion of flaming mana had erupted just moments earlier.

"Darn this beasts..." he complained under his ragged breath.

He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t care about the danger. All he could think about was one thing.

"Marissa!" he shouted, voice raw with desperation. "Where are you?!"

His chest heaved with effort, sweat streaking down his grime-covered face. He leapt from a boulder slick with ash and splashed down into a patch of thick mud, nearly losing his footing- but he didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. Not now.

He didn’t fear the flames. Not the eerie screech of magic, nor the tremors shaking the very earth caused by the rampaging gigantic beast.

What he feared was losing the family he had built over the last seven years.

His eyes scanned the ground, frantic and sharp, tracking the faint imprints of a familiar foot tracks- woman’s, light and quick, unmistakably Marissa’s.

They were headed southeast, away from the heart of the destruction.

He ignored the distant thunder of battle to his left, the unmistakable roar of something massive-something ancient and angry- tearing through the woods. His gut twisted, but he forced himself to stay the course.

"Damn it," he growled, kicking through underbrush. "This whole forest is going to hell... and I don’t have the slightest clue where my wife and son are!"

His eyes flared with the faint glow of his [FALCON FOCUS] skill, usually reserved for hunting elusive prey. But this wasn’t just about survival anymore. This was personal. His heart hammered in his chest, not from exertion, but from fear.

"Please... Marissa, Auren... where the hell are you?"

He whispered the words like a prayer.

After failing to find Auren on the western side—where the boy was supposed to be escaping with Jaira- he had rushed home, hoping to find Marissa preparing the potions.

But instead, their home stood silent. Empty as if she had never been there at the first place.

That was when he knew something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Robert’s world felt like it was splintering apart. The life he had so carefully rebuilt, the people he cherished more than anything... were vanishing.

Just when he’d found purpose to live an honest life again, just when he’d found peace, it was slipping through his fingers like smoke.

In the distance, a towering mushroom cloud of reddish flame rose high into the air, casting the Runewood in an infernal red hue. The sky itself seemed to scream. And from the opposite direction, he could hear the guttural howl of the Nighthral- its rampage echoing from Aetherthorn.

The forest had become a warzone. A living hell to be exact.

Auren was missing. Marissa was gone. The walls of his mind began to crumble.

No.’

He clenched his fists, shaking his head violently.

’I can’t give in. I can’t fall apart now. They need me. I know it. Somewhere out there... they need me.’

With renewed determination and confidence, he pushed forward.

Activating his skill once more, Robert knelt and traced the deepening footprints with his fingers—Marissa’s distinctive sandals, leading further south. The trail veered dangerously close to the forest’s southern edge, brushing against the no-man’s-land bordering Thugian territory. A restricted zone.

And then- he saw her.

Far ahead, walking through the thinning trees, was a familiar figure: Marissa.

Relief instantly crashed into him like a wave- but it didn’t last.

She wasn’t alone.

Flanking her side was a tall, broad-shouldered figure cloaked in flowing black. From the distance, Robert couldn’t see the man’s face, but his silhouette was unmistakably male- and powerful. The sheer weight of his aura was suffocating.

"Who...?"

Robert’s breath caught in his throat.

This wasn’t jealousy. This was dread.

The man beside Marissa radiated an oppressive, chilling energy. It was dark and unnatural. It coiled through the air like smoke from a dying fire. A pressure that threatened to crush Robert’s chest even from the distance.

He activated his observational ability, eyes glowing once more as a small information panel hovered into view above the stranger’s head.

*

Name:

Magnus

Level: 71

Title: Frozen Monarch

Class: Iceshroud Invoker

*

"What the heck..."

Robert’s blood ran cold.

He had only just reached level 40 the previous year.

But this man—this monster—operated on an entirely different level. His power didn’t just rival Queen Elarya’s... it might even surpass it. Hell, he could probably give the elven queen a run for her money.

Magnus stood nearly seven feet tall. His cloak billowed with each step, revealing a dark underlayer- tight sleeves edged in deep blue that hugged arms sculpted from bulging muscle and frost. His pale skin shimmered like carved ice beneath the sun, and his deep, sapphire-blue eyes glowed with ancient intensity.

An obvious skin for someone from the southern continents. From the frozen regions of Ubhosa or Tou-oh probably.

’This man could kill me in an instant,’ Robert realized, heart pounding. ’And yet... Marissa is walking with him. And ... laughing with him?’

He clenched his fists, trying to process the horror building in his chest. Not only was she unafraid—she was comfortable around him. Even smiling. Jealousy and rage was swelling in his chest but he refused to let it control him.

"No...There must be a reason..." he thought.

Though he couldn’t understand it. It felt like betrayal wrapped in a nightmare.

Still, he had to try. A clue, at least.

Even if the man beside her was death incarnate, Robert had to reach her. Had to understand what was happening. He summoned every ounce of courage he had left and sprinted forward.

Up ahead, Marissa walked beside Magnus, their footsteps silent under the forest canopy.

"The Vulkris is in play, just as we planned," Magnus said, his voice cold and measured—like speaking into an empty void.

"But it appears the six we deployed didn’t make it. Kaelthu’s rise as the new elven king... will have to be abandoned. For now, we regroup with the others on the capital."

His tone held no remorse. No concern. Only measured indifference.

Marissa glanced down at her hand, gently turning the ring that sat on her finger- the same silver ring Robert had given her on their humble wedding day.

Her eyes narrowed as if she were inspecting an old artifact, not something meaningful.

"It’s fine," she said flatly. "The goal was achieved. Their lives were just a small price to pay for our ultimate goal."

Her smile twisted into something unfamiliar. Something cruel.

Gone was the gentle, soft-spoken woman Robert had fallen in love with.

The woman before him may have worn Marissa’s face, but everything else was wrong. Her eyes gleamed with something sharp and twisted, and the smile curling on her lips looked like it belonged on a bounty board—wicked, dangerous, unrecognizable.

"If it’s for Lord Thugnaka," she said without a hint of doubt, "I’d sacrifice even my own life."

Magnus gave a faint nod of approval, his cold smile barely shifting as he turned his gaze toward the distant path leading into the human territories. The trees ahead bent gently with the wind, almost as if parting for their escape.

Then, from behind them, a voice broke through the tension.

"Marissa!"

Magnus’s eyes narrowed slightly at the sound, but he didn’t bother to glance back.

"You probably know him..." said Magnus, his tone flat with disinterest. "Handle it. Make it quick. The Dark Fate doesn’t waste time on stragglers."

Then with a deeper tone, he added,

"If he stands in your way... kill him."

Meanwhile, Robert came to a breathless halt about ten meters away. His chest rose and fell rapidly as his eyes locked onto the woman he loved.

She turned to face him slowly.

And when their eyes met- his heart sank.

There was no warmth. No gentle recognition.

No trace of the woman who once laughed with him under starlit skies. Her gaze was lifeless. Cold. As if her soul had been hollowed out and filled with something dark and cruel.

In that moment, Robert understood: this wasn’t the Marissa he knew.

She offered a sly, venomous grin and murmured beneath her breath—

"What a fool."