Novel Full Chapter 388: Razeal X Celestia
Chapter 388: Razeal X Celestia
“Razeal!!!” Selena’s scream tore out of her like something resurrected from the grave, raw and unrestrained, as she pushed herself up from the ground where she had been kneeling moments ago broken, emptied, stripped of light.. her world collapsed by the revelation of his marriage. But the instant she sensed him, truly sensed him, something inside her reignited. The hollowness vanished. The blankness shattered. Her eyes, which had been dull and lifeless, flared back to life with desperate brilliance. She rose so abruptly her legs almost failed her, but she did not stop. She ran.
She did not think about dignity. She did not think about the ruined capital around her, about the shattered buildings, the watching eyes, the blood on the ground. She ran like someone who had been suffocating underwater and had finally seen the surface. Tears streamed down her face before she even realized she was crying, her breath breaking unevenly in her chest as she pushed her exhausted body forward.
There was no hesitation, no calculation, no awareness of the battlefield still trembling around them; she simply ran. She ran with the kind of desperation that strips dignity away, that forgets pride, that forgets power. Tears were already spilling from her eyes before she had even taken three steps, blurring her vision, her breath shattering into uneven gasps as her body exhausted, battered, still recovering struggled to keep up with the pace her heart demanded.
Two months.
She had waited two endless, suffocating months for him.
When she had gone to Nova to tell the truth, she had truly believed she might die before ever seeing Razeal one last time. She had walked into that confrontation prepared to lose everything prepared for punishment, for hatred, even for death just to free him from a lie. And instead, she had been imprisoned, locked away in that sterile training room like a criminal whose crime was love and regret.. Not that it always wasn’t.
Every single day in that confinement her thoughts had circled back to him obsessively.. Is he safe? Is he eating properly? Is he sleeping? Is he in danger? Will he ever come back? Will he feel better when he knew the truth is out… or not? Would he be sad after knowing she died? Or be happy if knew she died? The questions had gnawed at her sanity, and she had endured them because thinking of him was the only thing that kept her breathing.
And now.. now he was here. Standing in front of her. Real. Tangible. Within reach. Her mind became a chaotic storm the instant she sensed his presence.. it was as if every suppressed emotion detonated at once inside her chest. What would she even say to him? Ask about his marriage? Demand to know why he had chosen that path? Beg for forgiveness? Apologize.. Like truly, fully, desperately for the pain and suffering her actions had inflicted on him? Tell that she regrets what happened back then also? Finally explain why she had done what she did back then? Confess the feelings she had? Tell him plainly, without excuses or defense, that she loved him… loved him more than herself, more than her own life? She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything except that living without him had felt like existing as half a person.
Since he had left, nothing had been whole. Food had no taste. Days had no color. Nights had no rest. She had not known peace not for a single second. If sacrificing her life could erase even a fraction of the trauma he carried because of her, she would do it without hesitation even if dying could make him forget the agony she had caused, she would kneel willingly.
These thoughts didn’t form in orderly sentences.. they crashed into one another in a desperate jumble as she ran, her heart pounding so violently it felt as though it might burst through her ribs. Her entire body trembled in response to the overwhelming surge of emotion, muscles protesting the strain, lungs burning, but she did not slow down.
She didn’t even remember that she possessed power abilities that could have carried her to him in an instant. Instinct overrode reason. She ran physically, desperately, like an ordinary woman chasing the only person who mattered.
Her body and mind still fatigued from imprisonment.. yet her eyes saw nothing except Razeal’s back.
And as she stared at him, tears streaming freely, there appeared in her gaze that singular emotion that cannot be fabricated the look that surfaces only when one beholds the person they love more than their own existence.
She did not see the destruction around them. She did not see Celestia. Sofia women who just attacked her standing just besides him. She did not see the fractured buildings or the trembling air. There was only him.
But hearing her that loud yell. despite the way her voice cracked with longing and relief.. Razeal still hadn’t turned. He did not even flinch. It was as though her scream had dissolved before reaching his ears.
His posture still remained steady, his attention fixed entirely on Maria’s unconscious body resting in Sofia’s arms before him. His face still expressionless, carved from something colder than stone, his eyes devoid of visible emotion as they studied the blood at Maria’s lips, the bruises marring her skin, the stillness of her chest rising and falling faintly.
He did not glance back or acknowledge the voice behind him.
But again someone else definitely did paid very much attention.
As sofia heard it clearly the desperation, the raw ache woven into that single word. Slowly, she turned her head toward the direction of the scream.
And when her gaze landed on Selena, her expression darkened almost instantly. What she saw made her jaw tighten.
There it was.. the unmistakable look in another woman’s eyes when she gazes at a man with love so profound it borders on worship. Desperate. Longing. Tear-filled. Sofia’s lips pressed into a thin line, and something sharp flickered across her features. No woman.. no matter how composed enjoys seeing another look at her husband that way.. Obiously she wasn’t either..
Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she took in Selena’s trembling form running toward them, as if Razeal were the center of her entire universe.
A possessive instinct rose unbidden in Sofia’s chest Suddenly.. hot and territorial. If she had not been holding Maria.. if Maria’s fragile condition were not demanding her full restraint Sofia might have moved without thinking.
She might have stepped forward and shattered that expression off Selena’s face with her own fists, just to erase the audacity of this bitch.
She would really not have hesitated. But again Maria’s weight in her arms grounded her, reminded her of priorities beyond jealousy and pride.
Her friend’s life came first. And so she stayed where she was, though the tension in her body was unmistakable, her gaze cutting and cold as it remained fixed on the woman running toward them, tears glistening, heart exposed, while Razeal himself stood unmoved.. silent, unreadable, and still utterly focused on Maria, as if the world behind him did not exist at all.
She just sighed.. Though at same time
She also could not deny the sharp curiosity pricking at her mind regarding what Razeal’s reaction would be toward Selena. She was not in a generous mood.. the sight of another woman running toward her husband with that kind of naked devotion had already stirred something dark and territorial within her. If Selena loved him this much, then clearly there had been something significant between them before.
People did not look at someone like that without history without shared wounds, shared memories, shared intimacy. Though Sofia tried to dismiss the idea, the earlier incident still lingered in her thoughts. Razeal had been wronged.. at least from what she knew. Surely he hates Selena for it. Surely he would not forgive her at all… Atleast he doesn’t look like ones of who will forgive.. Yet doubt crept in like a poisonous whisper. What if it truly had been a misunderstanding? A ridiculous, tragic miscommunication blown out of proportion?
What if this fucking absolute idiot of a man chose to understand her if she explained? Or for whatever reason? What if he looked at Selena’s tears and thought, She did it because she loved me? The possibility irritated her more than she cared to admit.
That would be messed up. Completely messed up. She could not predict him. That was the problem. Razeal had always been unreadable to her anyways.. calm one moment and crazy the next, making decisions that defied expectation. She did not know whether he would ignore Selena, reject her, or… something else. And that uncertainty gnawed at her.
Meanwhile, far from her internal storm, Sylva and Selphira were pulling themselves out of the wreckage of the houses they had been violently launched into as wood splintered and stone crumbled as both women rose swiftly from the destruction, dust swirling around their bodies.
The impact had been hard obiously.. hard enough to shatter walls and collapse structures but not debilitating.
They were powerful afterall.. such force alone would not incapacitate them. Though what unsettled them was not the damage it was the fact that neither of them had seen what struck them.
One moment they had been advancing confidently, and the next they felt a sudden, overwhelming impact slam into their bodies, sending them flying without resistance, without even a chance to brace. No visible attack. No mana fluctuation. No warning. Just force.
They floated out from opposite directions, wings beating steadily as they regained balance in midair, their sharp gazes scanning the battlefield. Before their eyes immediately settled at the center… on a tall man with long silver hair standing unmoving amidst the chaos.
He stood with his back partially turned, posture relaxed, as though nothing significant had occurred.
They did not recognize him. His appearance obious had changed drastically from the man they once knew afterall.. Even celestia hadn’t recognised him if not for Selenas help afterall.
So even though both Sylva and Selphira had encountered Razeal in the past, there was no flicker of recognition in their eyes. To them, this was simply an unfamiliar figure.
But unfamiliar did not mean harmless.
In fact, what disturbed them most was what they could not sense. There was no aura radiating from him. No visible mana fluctuation. No oppressive energy signature. And yet, just by standing there, he exuded a quiet, suffocating danger that made their instincts sharpen. The air around him felt wrong.. too still, too controlled.
They exchanged brief glances, pride stung. Being struck like that without even perceiving the attack.. was humiliating.
They were not ordinary afterall… Not to say he looks just to be of their age.. So to be tossed aside so effortlessly ignited a flare of indignation within them.
And.. Without further discussion, both flapped their wings sharply, propelling themselves forward with explosive speed toward the silver-haired man. At the same time the wind pixie spirit perched on Sylva’s shoulder.. a saint-king ranked entity in its own right straightened, its tiny form glowing faintly as it prepared to defend and counter with full force noww. The atmosphere tightened with impending violence.
And.. Sofia saw them coming.
She saw Selena running. She saw Sylva and Selphira cutting through the air like twin blades aimed directly at them. Yet she did not move. Not because she was careless.. but because she expected someone else to act.. And so her eyes shifted toward Razeal.
And yeah
This bastaaard had not moved.
He had not even blinked actually.
His gaze was still remained fixed on Maria’s unconscious face, studying every detail with an intensity that was actually irritating her nowww.. like literally more than the approaching enemies.
How dare he look at another woman like that? Right in front of his wife? And not just glance.. stare? As if the world had narrowed down to Maria alone.
The fact that Maria was literally in Sofia’s arms only made it worse.. Honestly giving her the idea.. that maybe she should just throw her away.. But again she didn’t..
Still was he even aware of how that looked? Was he so absorbed that he forgot everything else? She bit back the urge to snap at him on this.. but again this is not the time so she reminded herself.
But still… maybe she should atleast remind him about those people coming towards him.. if for whatever reason he wasn’t sensing this..
She opened her mouth to speak..
But before a single word could escape..
It happened.
In less than a fraction of a second, the shadows beneath every approaching figure shifted.
Selena, mid-run. Sylva and Selphira, mid-flight. Even the saint-king ranked pixie spirit perched on Sylva’s shoulder.
The shadows beneath their own bodies expanded unnaturally stretching outward like living ink. There was no warning, no buildup. The darkness surged upward from the ground, rising in fluid motion to engulf each of them completely. It wrapped around their limbs, torsos, wings forming a seamless cocoon of pure shadow that swallowed them whole mid-motion.
And…
There was no scream.
No resistance.
No time.
The shadow cocoons formed and collapsed inward in the same instant, compressing into nothingness.. and then they were gone.
Gone.
Not fallen. Not displaced visibly. Simply erased from that space.
Like completely disappeared from where they just existed.
The entire sequence lasted less than a heartbeat.
Even the saint-king spirit had no opportunity to react.. its defensive glow had barely begun to flare before it too was consumed. No one had actually prepared for such an ability afterall. No one had anticipated an attack that did not strike from outside.. but from within their own shadows.
And the battlefield fell eerily still…
“….”
“What the…?” The words slipped from Sofia before she could stop them, her brow arching sharply as her composure cracked for the first time since the chaos began.
What the fuck just happened?
One moment Sylva, Selphira, and Selena had been charging forward with speed and intent.. and the next, they were simply… gone?
Not blasted away. Not concealed behind illusions.. But Gone? The shock did not show in any dramatic movement Sofia did not stagger or gasp but her eyes sharpened instantly, scanning the space where they had vanished as if expecting reality itself to correct the mistake.
Her instincts reacted before her emotions did. She extended her senses outward spreading like an invisible web across the suroudings.. searching for the familiar signatures she had tracked moments earlier.
But Nothing.
She pushed further.. hundreds of meters, then nearly a full kilometer, the maximum radius she could reliably perceive now now.
But
Still nothing.
No trace of Sylva’s wind-infused aura. No flicker of Selphira’s presence. Not even the saint-king ranked wind pixie’s distinct spiritual frequency. It was as though they had never been there at all.
Her gaze shifted slowly.. deliberately to Razeal.
And that when..
Recognition dawned not with surprise, but with a tightening realization.
That deep dark coloured thing that surrounded them? She had seen it before.
She was familiar with this.. Shadow manipulation ability afterall.. It was of his .. whatever it was.
The way darkness that obeyed him like a subordinate awaiting silent command as Obiously this wasn’t the first time she had seen him using this dark thing..
But again he could do something like this?
So she doesn’t know.. or understand what the fuck actually happened.
Like yeah she was familiar with this.. shadow manipulation. Though this was the very first time she had ever seen him use it like this.
She suddenly looked towards Razeal again. To clearify if it was really him…
But Razeal still hadn’t even blinked.
His lashes did not so much as flutter as his eyes still remained locked on Maria’s unconscious face..
Yes… it was Razeal. He had used his shadow-based shadow teleportation to send everyone around him to a faraway distance. Obviously, he didn’t want any disturbances right now.
Like yeah normally, he might not do something like this
but now..
Obiously the immense density of Quadrillions of units of dark mana is inside him. At that magnitude, there were very few things left that he couldn’t do right now..
Sofia his still seeing that unblinking gaze of his parted her lips, intending to speak something.. but then closed them again.
Like what to say? She doesn’t know what to even react on this..
But thats when suddenly.. As if sensing something..
Her eyes flared wider.
As slowly, she turned her head left.
Then right.
The guards who had been stationed nearby.. gone. The civilians who had gathered at a distance to watch or intervene.. gone. The reinforcements who had begun approaching from adjacent streets.. gone?
Everyone gone?
Her pulse ticked once, sharply.
Nahhh that cant be..?? She doesn’t believe it..
She extended her senses again.. this time not searching for specific individuals, but for any presence at all. Mana signatures. Heartbeats. Ambient life fluctuations. She swept the area methodically, expanding outward like little over.. kilometer within her perceptual limits Obiously..
But…
Nothing.
Absolute emptiness.
The entire zone within the radius she could sense.. void of human presence. Not hidden. Not masked.
Just Removed.
No wayyy!!!
Her mouth opened slightly, breath catching in a way that betrayed her shock despite her effort to remain composed. She looked back at Razeal as if seeing him for the first time.
Did he do all this?
To like fucking everyone??
Amd that too.. Simultaneously??
And.. Without lifting a finger or even blinking??
Like yeah she could guess what he had done. Teleported them. Just like how he had brought them from the faraway ocean to this empire in an instant.
The guess wasn’t hard.
But again guessing and witnessing were two entirely different things.
This was insane.
Like???
This fucking scale?
To selectively teleport every individual within kilometers??
Like even whyyy?? Was there need to.. Go this fucking farr?
Her thoughts formed bluntly, unfiltered. Who the hell can do this?
But anyways.. Now, there were only four people left in that place.
Now, the battlefield once chaotic with clashing forces and watching and filled with many people.. had become eerily empty.
Only four figures remained.
Razeal.
Sofia..
Maria herself, unconscious and fragile.
And Celestia.
Who for reasons unknown, he had not removed.
Celestia stood at a distance.. frozen in the exact spot she had occupied moments before. Her posture was rigid, her previously regenerated arm hanging still at her side. She had felt the shift.. not as mana, not as a wave but as a distortion in reality itself. One second there had been noise, presence, tension. The next, silence.
Her eyes trembled slightly as she stared at Razeal’s back at the unmoving figure who hadn’t even shifted since it happened.
“W–what… what just happened?” she suddenly murmured slowly.. her voice barely above a whisper… Totally confused.
Then she glanced around herself again.
Still no one.
The place that only moments ago had been saturated with noise, presence and life now stood in absolute stillness.
Like hundreds of people who had filled this space vanished like nothing?
Even Selena.. Sylva and Selphira.. Actually even the saint-king ranked wind spirit perched on Sylva’s shoulder.. Just Gone?
Celestia had seen it with her own eyes too.. as the dark dome that had expanded from beneath their shadows, rising in a seamless, suffocating sphere that swallowed them whole.. before making them totally dissapear..
There had been no struggle, no resistance, no time to react. One instant they existed, the next they were erased from the spot as if they had never occupied it at all. The memory replayed in her mind, yet it made no more sense the second time than it had the first.
She just stood there in utter confusion, her thoughts stumbling over themselves, unable to reconcile perception with reality. What technique was that? What law did that obey? How could something so overwhelming leave behind no residue of mana even?
Meanwhile, within Razeal’s consciousness.
[She’s fine, host. You don’t need to worry. Just suppressed by that imperial bloodline forcefully as placed into an unconscious state.] The voice of Villey echoed steadily in his mind, analytical and precise.
For the first time since his arrival, Razeal gave any outward acknowledgment at all. “Hmm.” The sound was low, almost inaudible, but it was there.. a slight hum vibrating in his throat, subtle confirmation that he had heard.
Sofia noticed immediately. Her eyes flicked toward him, and she gave a small, almost relieved nod.
Good.
He’s not a statue after all.
For a few unnerving seconds she had wondered if he had turned into something colder than human, frozen entirely in that unnerving stillness. The faint reaction reassured her.. slightly. She shifted Maria’s weight more securely in her arms and parted her lips.
“She’s..?” she began, intending to ask about Maria’s condition directly.
But before she could finish.
Razeal suddenly vanished.
Not blurred. Not phased. Not distorted.
Simply gone.
As he directly appeared beside Celestia.
As celestia who had just taken a step forward, tentative and uncertain, her mind still spiraling through unanswered questions. The movement hadn’t even completed.. her deet barely lifting off the ground when she suddenly felt an arm draped around her shoulder.
Firm solid and.. Present.
Her entire body locked instantly. Her eyes widened, pupils contracting as cold awareness flooded her nerves. I didn’t see anything again? The thought came sharp and edged with something dangerously close to fear. Earlier, perhaps her guard had been down. Perhaps she had underestimated the situation. But now? Now her senses were fully expanded, her mana alert, her perception sharpened to its peak.
And still.. nothing.
No spatial distortion. No mana ripple. No displacement signature.
He was simply there.
Close enough that she could feel the faint warmth of his body near hers.
Razeal though didn’t cared as he just leaned slightly toward her, lowering his face near her ear. His breath was steady, his presence suffocating in its restraint. “Thank your lucky… that I came here in time,” he whispered, voice quiet yet carrying a lethal edge. “Because if you really had killed her…” His grip around her shoulder did not tighten, but the implied pressure was unmistakable. “…I would’ve taken this neck of yours.. off these useless shoulders of yours.”
His tone was cold as ice. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just flat.. like a statement of fact.
And Celestia just paused.
Not because of the threat itself.
Or because she wasn’t able to sense or react to anything that had just happened. And yet she was certain. This person, whose appearance was so different now, was Razeal. She had sensed his presence. It matched him completely… even if it was altered, just slightly. And that was exactly what made her freeze where she stood.. Well not actually that.. fully isthe.
It was as if everything from before had been erased, replaced by pure astonishment at his words.
She paused because.. It was Razeal and.. at words he just said..
Kill her? For her? Razeal?
Her lips, for reasons she didn’t quite understand, slowly lifted. She wasn’t resisting. She simply stood there, not even turning to look at his face. Just the idea of his words that he believed he would kill her.. Just purely amused her.
Like kill her?
For someone else?
And that was the thing.. Obiously she was certain he wouldn’t even be able to make up his mind to kill her… even after what she had done. Killing her for himself was already difficult for him let alone for someone else. Obviously, she believed she still held some important place in his heart. Because of that, he would never be able to truly decide to kill her.
And that amused her more than anything.
She stood there without reacting, her lips curling into a faint smile as she listened to what sounded like such a pleasant joke.
She really would like to see him try.. she thought to herself.
Her smile deepened slightly.
What a nice joke
“Also… maybe thank your mother too,” Razeal whispered again as his lips barely moving, his breath ghosting against Celestia’s ear as his voice dropped even lower, colder, more lethal. “That I didn’t kill you already. Because I would have killed you actually… just for trying to kill her now. But again this isn’t the right time yet.” There was no exaggeration in his tone, no theatrical emphasis. It was not shouted, not laced with fury. It was worse than that. It was calm. Controlled. Saturated with killing intent so dense it felt tangible, like invisible blades pressing gently against her skin. For the first time since he had appeared behind her, the air itself seemed to grow heavier, as though even the atmosphere recognized the seriousness behind those words.
But
Celestia suddenly couldn’t take it anymore.. as she suddenly laughed.
It was soft at first a small, involuntary chuckle escaping her lips. Then it grew, just enough to be heard clearly in the hollow silence that surrounded them.
“Ohhh, really?” she said, her tone light, teasing, almost amused. “You really think you would be able to kill me? You?” Her smile widened faintly, lips curving upward with familiar arrogance. “And not to say.. for her?”
She didn’t even shift her posture. She stood exactly as she was, shoulders relaxed despite his arm having been around them moments ago, chin slightly raised, as though the threat had entertained her more than unsettled her.
But the instant those words left her mouth..
She felt it.
Razeal’s body paused.
It was subtle. Almost imperceptible. But she felt it clearly through proximity.. through instinct.
And her smile widened further.
Ah… atleast he is aware..
There it is, she thought.
For a fleeting second, she felt triumphant.
But the triumph did not last.
As sudden Razeal removed his arm from her shoulder without abruptness. No shove. No display of force. He simply let go. The contact vanished, and with it, the strange intimacy of proximity. Then he stepped forward, slowly circling until he stood directly in front of her.
Now they faced each other.
No distance between their gazes.
No turned backs.
He tilted his body slightly to the side, just enough that his arm extended outward in a deliberate gesture. His hand pointed.. not aggressively or any dramatically but unmistakably toward Maria, who remained unconscious in Sofia’s arms several steps away.
“Try me,” he said.
No rise in tone.
No visible anger.
Just a flat, emotionless declaration as he stared directly into Celestia’s eyes.
And now she saw it.
His eyes.
They were no longer the shade she remembered.
Crimson… Deep blood crimson.
At first, she noticed the color shift. But what unsettled her more was what lay within them.
Nothing.
No hesitation. No lingering attachment. No softness. No trace of the complicated history they shared.
Only a void.
Only a cold, unwavering certainty.
Take one step..” he continued, his voice steady as his gaze bored deeper into hers, “And I promise you.. I’ll have your head. And as for your mother… let’s see if even she can bear the consequences of your actions.”
And suddenly, feeling the seriousness and cold intent directed at her, Celestia didn’t know why.. but a shiver ran down her spine. Just looking at those cold, emotionless eyes… not to mention hearing those emotionless words.
Even though it should have been laughable.. As what he literally said. Her mother would face consequences? That would normally be the funniest thing she could’ve heard.
The idea that anyone could threaten her mother and survive to speak about it would have been the most absurd joke to her..
But she didn’t know why.
Looking at his face, it was as if he was truly serious. And at the same time, from his confidence… it felt as though he really could… do it..
As if he genuinely believed he could turn the world upside down if he chose to.
And for the first time..
A faint shiver traced down Celestia’s spine.
It was small. Brief. Almost imperceptible.
But it was there.
Why…? she questioned internally.
Why does this feel different?
This should be ridiculous. I should be laughing.
Yet as she looked into those crimson eyes.. emotionless, unblinking she did not see the Razeal she used to know. She did not see the man who hesitated. The man who struggled with decisions.
She saw something colder.
Something that had crossed a line she hadn’t realized existed.
And then..
“What?” Razeal’s voice sharpened slightly, not louder, but edged now with something dangerous. “Come on.” His crimson eyes began to glow subtly at first, then intensifying, a violent scarlet light pulsing within them like embers fanned into flame. “Try Meeeeeeee.”
The glow wasn’t theatrical.. it was oppressive.
The space between them seemed to compress under invisible pressure.
“Try me,” he repeated, this time the words carrying a quiet challenge that echoed like a blade scraping against stone.
Celestia’s confident smile suddenly faltered.
It didn’t disappear instantly.. but it cracked.
Her lips stiffened. The teasing curve flattened. The amusement drained slowly from her expression as her eyes narrowed in response.
She stared back at him.
Dangerously.
Pride flared inside her chest, refusing to retreat.
Was she being challenged?
Her?
Celestia?
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