Chapter 293: Traps Made Of Rage

A violent snap resonated deep inside Lukas’s soul.

It wasn’t physical, but the metaphysical cord binding him to Akira through the Gacha Harem System. And that was enough to tell him what he already knew.

Akira was gone.

A sound tore from Lukas’s throat, a raw, guttural roar that scraped his vocal cords raw.

Grief detonated in his chest, instantly consumed by an all-consuming tide of pure, burning rage.

The world lost its color, and the cavern, the crystals, even the air itself faded beneath the hot, red haze clouding his vision.

He lowered Melody as gently as his shaking hands would allow him onto the stone behind him, then, pushing off the ground with enough force to shatter the bedrock beneath his boots, he charged at Sol.

Across the cavern, Sol watched the reckless assault and laughed. The young master stepped forward without a hint of fear, his ponytail trailing over his shoulder.

The two cultists flanking him flickered and darted away, clearing the space to give their master room to execute his kill.

"Come on, then!" Sol taunted, raising both hands.

Golden flames roared along Sol’s arms, twisting and compressing until the fire solidified into elongated, razor-sharp blades extending past his knuckles. His dark grin widened into a manic crescent.

In that fraction of a second, as the distance closed to mere paces, a splash of ice-cold clarity cut through the furnace of Lukas’s fury.

’A trap.’

He’d seen this posture before. Sol had deliberately executed Akira in plain sight to break his composure, baiting him into abandoning his defensive position to sprint blindly into an executioner’s reach.

And now, Lukas was wide open.

’Abort!’

Lukas reached instinctively for the best skill he had for escaping.

[Void Step]!

But in that moment, a suffocating, invisible weight crashed down upon Lukas, slamming through reality itself.

It felt as if the very fabric of the physical world hardened into solid iron around him, locking every part of him, including his mana in place. The transition to the void was violently jammed shut.

Sol was close enough now, his golden fiery blade descending directly towards Lukas’ heart.

Pinned like an insect under a glass lens, Lukas could only watch the searing light descend.

Then, the air shattered with the deafening boom of thunder.

A silhouette manifested in the space between Lukas and the fiery blade as blue-white lightning erupted out in a jagged lattice.

Bzztt!

Sol’s eyes widened in genuine shock. The young master twisted his torso violently backwards, breaking his own momentum and skittering across the cavern floor, the tip of the lightning strike scorching the edge of his dark red cloak.

The suffocating spatial lock fractured and dissolved.

Lukas did not hesitate. Dropping low, his arm hooked around Akira’s body, pulling her to his chest, and with a thought, he activated [Void Step].

The void enveloped him, and Akira came with him.

A bitter, agonizing realization sank like a stone into his gut. [Void Step] had a limitation, which was that it could never carry another living being through the rift.

The fact that he’d carried her with him proved beyond all doubt that she was dead.

Lukas stepped out of the void beside the wall where Melody lay.

He knelt on the cold crystal and laid Akira down with agonizing gentleness.

Her pale face looked uncharacteristically gentle, framed by her blonde hair. She looked like she was merely sleeping, but the hole where her chest should be told a different story.

A single tear broke from Lukas’s eye, tracing down his cheek.

He turned his head towards Melody. Her skin was pale and coated in cold sweat, but her chest rose and fell in shallow, agonizing hitches. She was alive but slipping by the second.

A firm, gloved hand came to rest heavily on his shoulder.

Lukas snapped his head upwards, poleaxe shifting in his grip, before his eyes locked onto a familiar face.

Morgana Le Fay stood over him, her expression solemn.

"I apologize, Lukas," She said softly. "We came as fast as we could, but we were nearly too late."

She stepped aside as two Adepts wearing the colors of House Le Fay rushed past her, dropping instantly onto their knees beside the fallen women. Both bore the insignia of the Lotus Hall stitched across their collars.

"Tend to them," Morgana commanded. "Now."

The two Adepts raised their hands, their energy washing over Melody. The horrific fractures in her ribs began to align, and the internal bleeding pooling behind her lips slowly receded as the tissue knit back together under the work of the [Healers].

The second healer shifted to Akira. Reaching into a pouch at his waist, he withdrew an [Item], a four-pointed star that was made out of ice.

He pressed the star firmly against the center of Akira’s forehead.

The star liquefied into a brilliant cerulean mist, sinking directly into her skin. A shimmering layer of translucent blue frost crystallized across Akira’s skin, locking her cells, her blood, and her departing essence into a state of absolute stasis.

"The [Frost Seal]," Morgana explained, meeting Lukas’s hollow stare. "It freezes the physical and spiritual decay of the vessel entirely. Her state will not degrade. Once we secure this cavern and return to Salaria, I will mobilize every connection House Le Fay possesses to find a method of revival."

Lukas grabbed Morgana’s arm, his fingers tightening against her sleeve. "Really? You can bring her back?"

Morgana looked down into his eyes, not pulling away. "The upper floors hold miracles beyond the imagination of the lower floors. I give you my word as a Le Fay. We will find a way. But first, we must survive the present."

Lukas took a deep, shuddering breath. The chaotic storm of blind rage inside his mind slowly cooled into something more focused.

He stood up, his grip locking around the haft of his poleaxe.

He raised his eyes to survey the cavern.

The battlefield had erupted into total war.

A dozen Le Fay family enforcers had breached the barrier, clashing violently against the remaining Brotherhood cultists.

Skills of darkness, fire, and kinetic force blasted into the crystal walls, shattering immense stalactites and sending jagged boulders of crystal raining down across the room.

The ceiling groaned under the continuous shockwaves, threatening a catastrophic cave-in at any moment.

Near the center of the destruction, arcs of violent blue lightning cracked across the air.

Lukas recognized the man holding the line against Sol. It was Nic, the high-ranking Le Fay operative who had teleported them to serve as security for the Le Fay family banquet.

Nic was fighting with relentless ferocity, his lightning covered fists trading blows against Sol’s golden blades. Yet, even to an untrained eye, Nic was slowly being ground down.

Under normal circumstances, Nic’s raw speed and destructive elemental output would have granted him the upper hand against the young master. But every time Nic built offensive momentum, Sol would unleash that bizarre reality-pinning aura.

Though Nic possessed enough raw Adept power to violently shatter the spatial lock in a fraction of a second, that tiny hesitation was all Sol needed to maintain an endless, suffocating barrage of attacks, giving the lightning warrior no room to breathe.

Morgana drew a sword out of her spatial ring. She stepped up beside Lukas, her eyes narrowing as she locked onto the red-haired young master.

"What do you say we tag team him?" Morgana asked, a dangerous edge creeping into her voice.

Lukas exhaled, his body relaxing in preparation for battle.

"Agreed."