Chapter 1166: Cursed Guard [Part 8]

Chapter 1166 – Cursed Guard [Part 8]

Stone exploded.

The entire chamber lurched.

A crater appeared beneath Vaelor’s hands.

The carved symbols shattered.

One section of the formation went dark.

[Spatial Anchor destabilized.]

Lux’s eyes widened. "Nice."

Vaelor grinned.

A genuine grin.

Probably the first he’d managed in several centuries.

Then the formation noticed him.

His grin disappeared.

Vaelor flew backward.

He passed Lux.

Lux watched him go.

Vaelor crashed beside Runa.

-KRAAASH!

Dust rose.

For several seconds, neither moved.

Then Runa’s head emerged from the rubble.

Her hair was a disaster.

One feline ear twitched.

She looked toward the crater they’d created.

Then she grinned. "Good."

Vaelor pushed himself upright beside her. "You call that good?"

"One anchor is down."

He looked.

She was right.

The section they’d destroyed remained dark.

Lux’s Greed immediately invaded the weakened portion. Black-gold sigils spread deeper into the formation.

[Contract Rewrite Progress: 19%.]

Then...

[27%.]

Lux laughed. "Oh, yes."

Kaelmor’s formation flared violently.

Lux’s arms shook under the pressure. Blood dripped from his fingers onto the glowing symbols. But his smile only widened.

Runa stood again. "Keep it like this."

Vaelor looked at her. "Meaning?"

"We are going to find another anchor." Runa cracked her fists. "Ready?"

"Yes."

They moved.

Lux saw them from the corner of his eye.

One angry cat sorceress.

One eight-foot former knight with approximately four centuries of unresolved emotional damage.

Both preparing to physically assault magical infrastructure.

Lux almost felt proud.

"System."

[Yes, sir?]

"Show me every clause connected to Eve’s life force."

The contract unfolded before his eyes.

Hundreds of lines.

Lux’s smile disappeared.

The core condition.

Eve’s blood belonged to the formation.

Her healing belonged to Kaelmor.

Her life continued only while extraction continued.

A perfect circle.

Keep her alive by stealing the very thing that kept her alive.

Lux’s Greed stirred.

Possessive.

Furious.

Not because he wanted Eve.

Because another man had dared call a living person an asset.

"No." Lux pressed harder. His black-gold sigils swallowed another line of crimson text. "You don’t own her."

The formation retaliated.

Pain ripped through him.

Lux laughed through clenched teeth.

Behind him...

Runa attacked another anchor.

Vaelor charged through the opening.

Another inscription shattered.

[Contract Rewrite Progress: 41%.]

Lux’s red eyes burned. "That’s it."

His Greed spread wider.

"Keep breaking his fine print."

Then the chamber became a war against paperwork written in magic, blood, and centuries of cruelty.

Runa found the next anchor.

She struck first.

The barrier retaliated immediately, hurling her across the chamber hard enough to crack the wall. Before the defensive layer could repair itself, Vaelor charged through the temporary gap and smashed both fists into the exposed inscription.

Stone erupted.

Another anchor died.

The formation weakened.

Lux attacked the opening instantly.

His Greed sigils poured through the damaged section, rewriting clauses faster than Kaelmor’s authority could reinforce them.

[Contract Rewrite Progress: 52%.]

Pain tore through Lux’s arms.

It wasn’t ordinary magical backlash anymore.

The contract recognized him as a hostile authority.

Every clause he changed punished him.

His palms burned.

Black-gold cracks crawled along his forearms beneath the skin, while blood slipped from his nose and dripped from his chin.

He didn’t stop.

There was no clever joke now.

No sarcastic observation.

Only concentration.

Kaelmor’s contract fought like the bastard himself was standing there.

Lux fought harder.

Behind him, Runa dragged herself from another crater.

Her feline ears were flattened against tangled hair. Blood ran from the corner of her mouth. She wiped it away, found another anchor, and attacked again.

The barrier launched her backward.

Vaelor entered.

Another anchor shattered.

The retaliation caught him directly.

His enormous body flew across the chamber and rolled several times before stopping.

He got up.

Every. Single. Time.

Neither complained.

Pain had become irrelevant.

Compared to centuries?

A few broken ribs were an inconvenience.

[Contract Rewrite Progress: 67%.]

Then seventy-three.

Eighty-one.

The chamber began failing around them.

Crimson symbols flickered.

Chains around Eve trembled.

Several extraction crystals cracked spontaneously, leaking pale restorative energy back into the air.

Eve’s hair fluttered as her stolen power began returning.

Lux saw it.

He pressed harder.

The formation burned his palms.

He smelled his own flesh scorching.

Runa destroyed another physical inscription.

Vaelor took the retaliation.

Lux devoured another section of contract.

The pattern continued until there was only one anchor remaining.

By then, all three looked like they’d spent the afternoon arguing with a mountain.

Runa could barely keep one arm raised.

Vaelor limped heavily.

Lux’s sleeves were burned away below the elbows, blood coating both hands.

Yet nobody suggested stopping.

Runa attacked.

The barrier cracked.

She flew.

Vaelor charged.

His fist descended.

The final anchor shattered.

Lux’s Greed surged.

[Contract Rewrite Progress: 91%.]

[96%.]

[99%.]

Lux gritted his teeth. "Come on..."

The final crimson clause resisted.

His Greed wrapped around it.

Pulled.

Crushed.

Rewrote.

[100%.]

[Forced Contract Authority: TERMINATED.]

[Subject Ownership Clause: VOID.]

[Life-Force Extraction Rights: REVOKED.]

Lux’s smile returned. "Got you."

The formation went dark.

For one heartbeat, there was silence.

Then the system screamed.

[WARNING.]

Lux’s smile vanished.

[SECONDARY TERMINATION PROTOCOL DETECTED.]

One last trap.

Every dead rune suddenly reignited.

Not crimson.

White.

Lux’s eyes widened.

The formation wasn’t trying to preserve itself anymore.

It was going to explode.

And Eve was sitting directly in the center.

"F*CK!"

There was no time to reach her.

No time to teleport.

No time to think.

Lux threw one hand forward. "BARRIER!"

Black-gold energy erupted around Eve.

A dome snapped into existence just as the entire formation detonated.

An explosion boomed.

White fire swallowed the chamber.

Lux’s barrier protected Eve.

Which meant Lux had none around himself.

The explosion hit him directly.

His body left the ground.

For one strange second, Lux saw everything from above.

Runa tumbling through smoke.

Vaelor reaching desperately toward Eve.

His own Barrier shining around the princess like a black-gold shell amid an ocean of destruction.

Then Lux hit the wall.

Stone collapsed around him.

His vision flashed white.

Then black.

The chamber became silent except for falling rubble.

At its center, Eve remained untouched.

The barrier flickered once.

Twice.

Then vanished.

And for the first time in centuries, there wasn’t a single chain attached to her.