Novel Full Chapter 231: Presence
Chapter 231: Presence
The first punch landed on William’s face like a mountain.
Crack!
Elion’s fist crashed into William with a sickening crunch that echoed sharply through the corridor.
The sound of the bones in his face cracking was almost disgusting as William’s face visibly caved in from the impact.
The sheer force sent his body flying backward across the room as blood and teeth sprayed out of his mouth in a violent arc.
Elion had not held back, not even a little.
That punch carried every ounce of strength he physically had in him, but he wasn’t done. Not even close. He wanted him to feel the same pain he had inflicted on her.
He wanted William to feel true despair. He wanted him to feel pain until he begged for a quick death, and then he would not grant it to him. No, death was too merciful an escape for a beast like him.
Before William’s body could even hit the wall, Elion had already moved again.
He flickered forward, his figure blurring as he appeared in front of William, who was flying mid-air. His hand shot out swiftly, and grabbing him by the neck, instantly stopping his momentum.
Snap!
Something in William’s neck cracked audibly.
Elion stood there, holding him up off the ground by his throat, his arm steady, his grip unrelenting as anger boiled within him; his entire presence was suffocating the space around them.
William coughed violently, mouthfuls of blood spilling out as his consciousness flickered; his eyes began rolling slightly as he teetered on the edge of blacking out.
“Don’t pass out on me,” Elion hissed coldly.
Smack!
Smack!
He slapped William’s disfigured face harshly across both cheeks, forcing his head to snap from side to side, keeping him conscious, and refusing to let him escape.
The staff in the waiting room finally caught up with the two of them. Elion had simply moved too quickly for them to even track him, let alone react to him.
“Hey! What are you doing!?” one of them shouted as five of them rushed forward at once as they prepared to subdue him.
Elion glanced at them just once and released a dense wave of killing intent that exploded outward.
The air turned heavy, cold, and suffocating all at once
The five staff members froze mid-step, their faces draining of color instantly as their bodies locked in place, their instincts screaming at them not to move, not to breathe, not to exist in front of whatever stood before them.
’What is this…!?’
They could not move.
[Ding!]
[New skill acquired!]
[Presence Lvl 1]
The system’s voice echoed in his mind, but Elion did not hear it. His blue eyes darkened, shifting slowly into a deep, abyssal black.
He turned his gaze back to William as he tightened his grip around his throat.
“You think you’re smart?” Elion said, his voice low, trembling with rage as he brought William closer. “Are you proud of yourself?”
He shook him slightly. “Huh!?”
“Tell me!”
William did not answer, he could not answer, he was struggling just to keep his eyes open as his consciousness flickered in and out.
His jaw hung loosely, completely broken, and blood continued to spill from his mouth as his body twitched weakly in Elion’s grip.
“You did this for what?” Elion hissed, his voice low and trembling with rage as he tightened his hold slightly, “to get back at me?” he continued, his eyes dark and unreadable, “was this your brilliant plan!?
He didn’t get the answer he wanted. William could not even form words. Elion’s grip tightened further, his patience snapping as his anger surged again—
But then a hand touched his arm. He froze.
Then turned his head sharply, his eyes flashing with anger at being interrupted, his killing intent flaring instinctively as he directed it at this newcomer.
’How did they even get this close…?’
“That’s enough… don’t you think?” a calm voice said.
Elion glanced at the handsome older student who had appeared beside him as if out of nowhere.
His grip was still tight around William’s neck as his eyes narrowed slightly, but it took him no more than a second to recognise the face.
He did not know the man’s name, but he had seen him before, once in the city when he had gone into the dungeon with the girls, and again in the arena, fighting Evander, and even though they had never officially met, Elion’s enhanced memory made it impossible for him to forget a face.
What bothered him was that this guy was strong. Very strong. If he told Elion to stop, then there was no way for him to strong-arm his way through this situation.
“What do you want?” Elion asked coldly, not bothering to hide his hostility.
Even as he spoke, his mind moved quickly, analysing, connecting, observing, and it only took him another second to notice the faint resemblance between this man and the one in his grip; his eyes glinted slightly as realisation set in.
’So that’s it…’
Xavier nodded slightly, a faint approving smile appearing on his face as he saw that look of recognition.
“I like dealing with smart people,” he said calmly, his tone smooth, “It means I don’t have to waste time explaining myself.”
’So this guy is William’s brother?’
“I won’t waste time telling you why you should or shouldn’t do more than you already have to my… stupid brother here,” Xavier continued, glancing briefly at William, who was barely conscious in Elion’s grip, “but aren’t you forgetting something?”
Elion’s eyes sharpened instantly. Right.
Aria.
That thought cut through everything else.
’Aria needs me.’
Elion’s gaze flicked back to William, who finally went limp in his grip, his body going completely slack as his consciousness gave out.
Without another word, Elion released him.
Thud!
William’s body hit the ground violently.
What was surprising was that Xavier did not even move to catch him. He simply watched his brother fall.
Elion gave Xavier one last displeased glance, his dark eyes recovering their blue color, and then he turned and left without another word.
“Why did you let him go!?” one of the staff members finally shouted, having regained enough courage to speak as they rushed over to William, panic evident in their voices as they checked his condition.
A single glance from Xavier was enough to shut the man up.
The man froze mid-sentence, his words dying in his throat as a chill ran down his spine, and he quickly turned his attention back to William without another word.
Xavier looked down at his brother’s broken body for a brief moment, his expression unreadable.
Then he turned and left.
Across the room, Tessa and Isolde stood there, both of them frozen in shock, their eyes wide as they tried to process what they had just witnessed, the sheer violence, the pressure, the way everything had unfolded so quickly.
“What just happened…?” Tessa asked quietly, her voice low.
She had finished her match quickly, without much suspense, and had returned in time to watch the rest unfold on the screen, just like the others. She had seen the moment Aria lost her hand from the screens.
Mira had not stayed long after it happened. The moment Aria had been carried off the battlefield, she had burst out of the room.
…
Elion did not know where the infirmary for this place was, his mind still filled with rage and urgency, but he did not stop to think about it for long as he immediately relied on the harem seal’s tracking feature, activating it without hesitation.
Instantly, he felt five presences appear clearly in his perception, three of them very far away, one of the three almost out of reach, and two very close to him.
The two presences overlapped slightly, meaning they were together; his eyes sharpened as he locked onto them.
Without wasting another second, Elion broke into a full sprint, his body surging forward as he followed the faint trail leading toward those two presences.
His footsteps echoed rapidly through the corridor as he turned corners without slowing down, moving faster and faster as if the path itself was guiding him, his focus completely locked onto that direction as everything else faded from his mind,
’I’m coming,’ he thought. Nothing else mattered right now, only one thing: getting to her.