Chapter 1164: Cursed Guard [Part 6]

Chapter 1164 – Cursed Guard [Part 6]

Lux returned to the chief.

He stabbed his dagger into the corpse’s chest wound and dragged the blade through the remaining blood.

Then he paused.

An idea appeared.

"Oh."

Runa immediately became suspicious.

"What?"

"The hand might not be the key."

"What do you mean?"

Lux crouched beside the chief. "The palm shape could be telling us how to apply the key."

Vaelor leaned closer. "Blood."

"Exactly."

Lux dipped the severed hand into the chief’s blood.

Runa made a face.

Even Vaelor looked slightly uncomfortable.

Lux stared at both of them. "Really?"

Neither answered.

"You two watched me explode demons with bouncing balls, but this is where we establish boundaries?" He carried the blood-covered hand back toward the formation. "Hypocrites."

Lux pressed the palm against the diagram.

-SHHHHNNNG!

All three froze.

The formation lit.

Lux’s smile widened. Crimson light spread outward from beneath the palm.

One line awakened.

Then another.

The circular symbols ignited in sequence.

Blood flowed unnaturally from the chief’s severed hand, pulled into the carved channels as though the door itself were drinking.

Runa stepped backward. "That’s disgusting."

Lux continued holding the arm against the wall. "And effective."

The royal seals began shutting down.

[Authority Lock: Released.]

[Blood Recognition: Accepted.]

[Spatial Anchor: Disengaging.]

[Retaliation Formation: Disabled.]

Lux’s eyebrows rose. "There we go."

The blood finished filling the final symbol.

CLICK!

A surprisingly ordinary sound.

Lux blinked.

After all that?

A click?

Then the enormous white doors shuddered.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Vaelor stopped breathing.

The royal chains wrapped across the doorway loosened by themselves.

One after another, they fell.

The doors began separating.

A thin line of pale light appeared between them.

Warmth immediately spilled through.

Not heat.

Something gentler.

Restorative energy washed across Lux’s skin, brushing over the scratches remaining from his battle.

[Minor injuries detected.]

[External healing effect detected.]

Lux looked down.

The thin cut across his knuckle closed.

His expression changed.

That was from this distance.

Through barely opened doors.

Vaelor stepped forward.

His entire enormous body trembled.

"Princess..."

The doors continued opening.

More light flooded the corridor.

Lux dropped the severed arm.

It landed with a wet thud.

Runa looked down. "You’re cleaning that up."

Lux stared at her. "This isn’t my fortress."

Vaelor walked past them.

Neither noticed his expression until they heard his breathing break.

Lux stopped joking.

Beyond the opening waited a chamber filled with soft white light.

And somewhere inside it...

A heartbeat.

Slow.

Steady.

Alive.

After hundreds of years, Vaelor’s princess was still there.

Lux entered first.

Carefully.

Because apparently this fortress had trained him into developing trust issues with doors.

His twin daggers remained in his hands while his red eyes swept across the chamber.

The room was enormous.

Far larger than the corridor outside suggested, which meant spatial expansion magic had been used again. White stone covered everything, but almost none of it remained clean. Thousands of crimson symbols had been carved across the floor, walls, even the domed ceiling.

Every line converged toward the center.

There stood Princess Eve.

Or rather... Hung.

Four black chains stretched from pillars surrounding a massive circular formation, binding her wrists and ankles. Another thinner chain wrapped loosely around her waist, covered in tiny runes that pulsed with every heartbeat.

The formation beneath her was enormous.

Concentric circles.

Ancient symbols.

Channels stained dark red.

And several crystal vessels positioned around the outer ring.

Lux’s expression darkened immediately.

Extraction.

Again.

[Restorative energy source confirmed.]

[Subject condition: Critical.]

[Continuous extraction detected.]

Lux’s jaw tightened.

Eve herself looked painfully fragile.

Long silver-white hair fell almost to the floor, tangled but somehow still luminous beneath the chamber’s pale light. Her skin had become nearly translucent from weakness. A thin white dress covered her body, ancient fabric hanging loosely from a frame that had clearly been deprived of proper nourishment for far too long.

Yet even like this... She was beautiful.

Not polished court beauty.

Something softer.

Almost haunting.

Like a flower someone had locked away from sunlight and somehow failed to kill.

Her head hung forward.

Eyes closed.

Breathing shallow.

Then Vaelor saw her.

Everything inside him broke.

"EVE!"

He charged.

Lux’s eyes widened. "Wait—"

Too late.

Vaelor crossed the outer ring.

The formation flashed.

A wall of white-red energy erupted from the floor and hit him directly in the chest.

Vaelor became airborne.

Lux watched the eight-foot transformed knight fly backward with almost impressive elegance.

He crashed through a stone bench.

Runa slowly turned her head.

Lux stared at the pile of rubble.

Vaelor’s hand emerged. "I..." He coughed. "...am fine."

Lux’s face became completely expressionless. "You know, you should stop charging at things."

Vaelor pushed a broken stone slab away.

Lux gestured around. "Door? Charged. Guards? Charged."

Vaelor glared at him.

Runa covered her mouth.

"Princess?" Lux didn’t care and pointed at the smoking crater. "Charged."

Vaelor stood. "I was worried!"

"And gravity remains unconcerned about your emotional circumstances."

Runa made a choking noise.

Vaelor looked ready to argue.

A faint sound came from the center of the chamber.

"...Vael...?"

Everything stopped.

Vaelor’s expression shattered.

His gold eye widened.

Eve’s fingers moved weakly against the chain.

Her head lifted perhaps an inch.

Those closed eyes slowly opened.

Pale blue.

Clouded with exhaustion.

But alive.

She looked toward the monstrous figure standing beyond the formation.

For several seconds, confusion crossed her face.

Hundreds of years had changed him beyond recognition.

Horn.

Gray skin.

Claws.

Broken armor fused to flesh.

Vaelor didn’t breathe.

Then Eve smiled.

Tiny.

Weak.

Certain.

"...You came back."

Vaelor dropped to his knees.

Lux’s amusement disappeared instantly.

The former knight stared at her as though those four words had cut deeper than every weapon Lux had used against him.

"I never left." His voice broke.

Eve’s smile trembled. "I know."

Lux looked away for a moment.

F*ck.

Even his Greed had nothing sarcastic to say about that.

Runa quietly moved beside him.

Lux studied the formation instead. His eyes hardened.

Tender reunion later.

First... He pointed one dagger toward the thousands of glowing symbols surrounding Eve.

"We get her out."

[Warning.]

[Extraction Formation integrated with subject’s life force.]

Lux’s smile vanished.

Right... Kaelmor couldn’t simply chain someone to the floor like a normal psychopath.