CHAPTER 347: CHAPTER 347 RAMPAGE III

Lilith’s cold gaze cut straight through the battlefield haze as she fixed her eyes on the old man standing at the mansion’s entrance . Her voice, sharp and merciless, rang out across the silent courtyard.

"Where is Vanessa and Kelly?" she demanded, every word laced with killing intent. "What did you do to them?"

The old man didn’t flinch. Instead, he stepped forward casually, his shoes crunching on the frost as if he were taking a stroll through a winter garden. His wrinkled face stretched into a smile, thin and cruel, his eyes studying her with a twisted curiosity.

He didn’t answer her question.

Instead, his back shifted with a sickening sound—CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!—as black wings sprouted outward, tearing through his suit with deliberate force. They stretched wide, made not of feathers but of shifting shadows that seemed to bleed into the air around them. With a single wave of his wings, he rose into the sky, stopping at Lilith’s level.

Lilith’s white eyes narrowed.

The old man’s voice came calm and mocking. "You should tell me something," he said, his tone carrying unnatural weight. "Your powers... they came from the purest source. No serum. No artificial mimicry. They feel... natural. Ancient." His eyes glowed darker as he leaned forward slightly, wings curling around him like a cloak of night. "How did you get it?"

Lilith remained silent, her expression colder than ice itself.

Her lack of response made his grin widen. "I see. Then I’ll just have to carve the answer out of your dead body."

Suddenly, his eyes turned completely black—voids of endless nothing. His wings thickened, as if they drank in the light itself.

Then—

WHOOOOOOOSH!!!

Black clouds erupted overhead, swirling like a vortex. In seconds, the bright morning sky dimmed. Shadows spread outward across the compound, swallowing the sunlight whole. The day turned to night unnaturally fast, as if the sun itself had been extinguished.

Even at the safe distance where Dickson had fled, he froze mid-step. His breath caught in his throat as a chill worse than any cold ran through his bones. It wasn’t just darkness—it was fear itself, sinking deep into his marrow. His knees wobbled. For a moment he thought he would collapse.

"What... the hell is this?" he whispered hoarsely, sweat dripping down his temple despite the freezing air.

Back in the courtyard, Lilith felt it too. Her stomach tightened in discomfort, her instincts screaming. The oppressive force of the shadows was unlike anything she had faced before. It wasn’t just energy. It carried weight, dread, and something primal.

She hated it.

Her eyes sharpened, and without wasting another breath she attacked.

Her hand whipped through the air. Ice surged instantly, forming a long blade that gleamed with lethal frost. She slashed at him with frightening speed, the cut so sharp it split the air itself.

SLASHHHHH!!!

The icy blade hurtled toward him, its edges sparkling in the dim, corrupted light.

But the old man didn’t flinch. He simply lifted his hand and wove his fingers lazily.

FOOOOOOSH!!!

The blade vanished before it reached him, swallowed completely by the rolling shadows. No impact. No resistance. It was as if the attack had never existed.

Lilith’s eyes widened, just for a heartbeat. Shock flickered across her flawless face before her composure returned instantly. She forced herself calm, though her body tensed.

This wasn’t ordinary power.

The old man smiled again. "Do you see now? Your ice cannot touch the void."

Lilith didn’t respond. Instead, she rose higher into the air. Her aura flared violently, a storm of frost swirling around her like a raging blizzard. The temperature plummeted so rapidly that even the air itself seemed to freeze.

The ground within a hundred metres of her position was instantly consumed in white. Stone cracked under the sudden expansion of ice. Wooden beams splintered and shattered. The corpses she had left behind froze even deeper, turning brittle enough to crumble into dust.

If Dickson hadn’t run far when he did, he would have been dead already. The sheer pressure of her power was enough to freeze the lungs of anything living within range.

From his vantage point beyond the fence, Dickson could barely breathe just watching it unfold. He could see his cousin floating in the sky, her hair whipping in the frozen currents, her eyes glowing white like a goddess of destruction.

But the darkness opposing her was just as terrifying. The shadow that bled from the old man’s wings consumed the frost as fast as it spread, leaving patches of frozen ground battling against creeping night.

Dickson’s chest rose and fell rapidly. His throat was dry, his palms sweaty despite the freezing temperature. His mind raced, panic clawing at him.

"This... this isn’t a mission," he muttered to himself, clutching the fence as if it could steady him. "This is suicide..."

He looked down at his empty hands. If Liam knew things had escalated like this—if Liam knew they had walked into a nightmare—he would be here without hesitation.

Liam would have fought beside her.

But Liam wasn’t here.

And Dickson’s phone... his only way of reaching him... had been smashed to pieces back in the car wreck.

For the first time in a long time, Dickson felt utterly helpless.

Lilith’s chest rose and fell, each breath sharp and deliberate. The frost storm around her spun tighter, her eyes glowing brighter as she finally let go. She had been building her strength, gathering every last shred of power in her veins, and now she released it.

She raised her hand high, her white fingers glowing with cold energy.

RRRRRRUMMMMMMBLE!!!

Behind her, the air shattered. An avalanche of ice surged upward, forming out of nothing but raw energy. Massive jagged walls of frozen power towered into the sky, curling and twisting like the wrath of nature itself. The sheer scale of it dwarfed the mansion, the trees, even the courtyard.

It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

Majestic. Otherworldly.

Lilith levitated before it, the goddess of winter herself, pale hair whipping in the wind. Her aura flared so brightly that the frost glittered like diamonds under the faint remaining light.

Dickson, watching from his hiding spot far beyond the fence, felt his knees weaken. His jaw slackened. For one horrifying moment, he felt the urge to kneel, to bow his head and worship the figure of his cousin hovering before the avalanche.

His mind screamed at him—Snap out of it!

He bit his lip hard enough to taste iron. The pain grounded him, but even then his eyes refused to look away from the sight.

Lilith’s hand cut through the air.

FWHOOOOOSH!!!

The avalanche moved.

It tore forward with unstoppable momentum, the weight of an entire mountain crashing down at her command. Ice boulders the size of houses rolled over each other, and spears of frost spun wildly through the mass, all aimed at one target: the old man in the sky.

The shadows around the compound hissed as they met the cold air, a clash of night and winter filling the atmosphere.

The old man didn’t flinch. His wings spread lazily, each movement deliberate. He looked almost serene. The avalanche rushed toward him, promising annihilation.

And yet... he smiled.

"She is even stronger than I imagined," he said softly, his voice carrying across the frozen courtyard.

There was no fear in his tone. No concern. The terrifying wave of destruction didn’t shake him in the slightest.

His smile deepened, almost fond.

Then he moved.

With a single beat of his wings, he ascended higher into the air. The sound—WHOOMPH!!!—shook the sky itself. His black wings stretched wider, blotting out what little light remained.

He raised his hands, and the shadows obeyed.

FWHOOOOM!!!

The darkness he had spread across the compound surged toward him like rivers flowing uphill. The black clouds cleared from the sky, compressing inward, folding themselves into his body. The suffocating shadows that had drowned the morning light all retracted, leaving the battlefield in unnatural clarity.

Then—like a tide—he unleashed them forward.

The shadows wrapped themselves around Lilith’s avalanche. The unstoppable cold met the endless void.

For a second, the two forces fought—ice and shadow grinding against one another, sparks of frost and black smoke bursting violently.

But then...

The ice faltered.

The avalanche didn’t explode. It didn’t shatter. It didn’t even break apart.

It was consumed.

The shadows swallowed it whole, devouring it chunk by chunk, until nothing was left.

The terrifying wall of ice, Lilith’s ultimate attack, was gone. Erased from existence as if it had never been.

Dickson’s heart slammed in his chest. His eyes went wide, unblinking. His throat tightened.

"What the fuck..." His voice cracked, barely a whisper. "What the actual fuck!!!"

He grabbed at his own head, his fingers digging into his scalp. He had just witnessed something impossible. He had seen Lilith summon a power so devastating he thought nothing on earth could stop it—and this old man had erased it with a flick of his wings.

This was beyond comprehension. Beyond anything Liam, or even Lilith, had ever shown him.

He almost laughed, but the sound caught in his throat.

Lilith, in the air, stared in disbelief.

Her face had already been pale when she released the attack. Now, it was completely drained of color, her lips trembling faintly. Her body swayed in the air, weakened from the effort.

She had put everything into that attack. Every shred of her strength. And it hadn’t even touched him.

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her breath fogging in front of her face. Her glowing eyes flickered with disbelief, then fury, then something she hated to feel—fear.

The old man floated before her, untouched, his black wings curling gently as if nothing had happened. He lifted one hand and casually dusted it off, as though he had finished a light chore.

Then his black eyes fixed on her again.

"Well," he said calmly, "I did tell you, didn’t I? I will carve the answer out of your dead body."

His smile widened, cruel and calm all at once. His voice dropped lower, carrying like a whisper in the cold air.

"Let’s start."

Lilith’s body stiffened. Dickson’s jaw clenched so hard his teeth hurt.