Chapter 123: The Strange Bone

"A bone?"

Malrik pinched the tiny object between his thumb and index finger, bringing it closer to the dim light of the room.

It felt freezing cold to the touch. Yet, a faint, rhythmic pulse throbbed beneath its surface.

He narrowed his eyes, focusing entirely on the bizarre aura radiating from the fragment. Since even the System had failed to identify it, there was no way it could be anything ordinary.

Rather than simply observing it, he decided to examine it himself, extending a thin, cautious thread of mana toward the fragment to probe it.

He started with the pitch-black half.

The moment his mana brushed against the surface, Malrik’s breath hitched.

It wasn’t a sudden shock; it was a slow, creeping weight.

A dense, suffocating dread crawled up his senses, wrapping tightly around his mind. It felt vaguely like his own death-attribute mana, but the scale was entirely different. This black energy was infinitely more violent, infinitely more lethal.

He kept his focus on it, trying to peel back its layers.

Bad idea.

Seconds passed, but Malrik still didn’t pull away. At first, the pressure was barely noticeable. Then, little by little, it began to grow heavier.

The longer he probed, the stronger the resistance became. The black energy pushed back against his mana, slowly swallowing the thin thread he had sent into the fragment.

Malrik’s expression tightened.

He tried to pull his mana back, but it wouldn’t move.

The black energy had already latched onto it.

A strange pressure seeped through his defenses, reaching deeper with every second. His vision began to blur. A sharp pain stabbed behind his eyes, followed by a cold sweat running down his back.

Malrik gritted his teeth and tried to cut the connection.

The pressure suddenly intensified.

For a brief moment, he felt something inside him being pulled apart. His consciousness shook, and an overwhelming sense of danger flooded his mind.

Whatever this fragment was, it wasn’t simply resisting him. It was trying to consume him.

If I stay in contact with this any longer, my soul is going to shatter.

Panic flared in his chest. Malrik violently pulled his hand back and immediately threw the tiny bone onto the bed, severing the mental connection as he put distance between himself and the fragment.

He stumbled several steps backward, his breathing ragged and uneven. His heart pounded so hard against his ribs that it almost hurt, while his hands trembled uncontrollably.

For the first time since he had encountered the fragment, genuine fear took hold of him.

Malrik stared at the tiny black bone lying on the bed, refusing to go anywhere near it. The pressure he had felt was still fresh in his mind. It wasn’t simply powerful—it had been something completely beyond his understanding.

"Damn it..." Malrik muttered, his voice low and tense. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the fragment.

"I’ve never felt anything like that before..."His fingers slowly curled into fists. "It wasn’t trying to injure me. It was trying to erase me completely."

He stood still for a few moments, waiting for his breathing to settle. His gaze slowly returned to the fragment.

This time, his eyes fixed on the pristine white half resting beside the black one.

After what had just happened, Malrik hesitated.

He took a cautious breath before extending another thin thread of mana, carefully directing it toward the white side.

Malrik braced himself for another backlash, expecting the same crushing resistance he had felt from the black half.

But the moment his mana touched the white surface, a completely different sensation washed over him.

It was like stepping out of a freezing blizzard and into a hot spring.

The deep chill left by the black energy vanished instantly. The pain behind his eyes disappeared as if it had never existed.

Then a warm surge of vitality spread through his body, flowing through his nerves and clearing his mind. Every part of him seemed to come alive, filled with a powerful sense of energy and strength.

Malrik’s eyes widened. This was the complete opposite of the black half.

It wasn’t aggressive. It was just... overwhelmingly alive.

"This..." Malrik whispered, staring at the bone in absolute bewilderment. "It completely neutralized the backlash."

Two absolute extremes. One side carried a destruction so profound it nearly killed him in seconds. The other carried a vitality so potent it instantly healed the damage and refreshed his entire being.

They were polar opposites, locked together in a single, knuckle-sized fragment.

Malrik’s brow furrowed deep into a scowl. He stared at the exact line where the two colors met, his mind racing to comprehend the sheer absurdity of it.

"How the hell hasn’t this bone exploded—"

Knock. Knock.

The sharp sound cut him off mid-thought.

Malrik snapped out of his daze. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the tiny bone back into his System Inventory, making it disappear from sight. He took a breath, steadied himself, and forced himself to act normally.

"What is it?" he called out, his voice returning to its steady, aristocratic calm.

The heavy wooden door cracked open, and Eliza stepped inside. Her usual composed demeanor was noticeably tense.

"Young Master," she said, offering a precise, sharp bow. "I apologize for the interruption, but you have guests."

Malrik’s brow furrowed slightly. "Guests? Who?"

Eliza looked up, her expression dead serious.

"The Twin Banners have arrived."

Before Malrik could say another word, the heavy wooden door was thrown open. Darian and Daria Vesperion barged into the room, leaving the door wide open behind them.

The two moved with the easy coordination of siblings who had spent their entire lives together.

They shared the same raven-black hair and striking heterochromia, each bearing one emerald-green eye and one sapphire-blue eye.

Darian crossed his arms, his mismatched eyes immediately locking onto Malrik. A wild grin spread across his face.

"You little bastard!" Daria snapped, glaring at him furiously. "We damn near lost our minds watching you back at Blackthorn Castle! Are you trying to give us a heart attack?"

Darian followed right behind her, leaning against a pillar with a lazy, amused smirk. His eyes were still bright with adrenaline.

"I told you he wasn’t going to die easily, Daria. But come on, man... you actually got into a direct fight with that Fallen-rank Bull while being an Awakened-rank mage?"

He shook his head with a quiet laugh. "That’s a whole new level of crazy, even for a Vesperion."

Malrik blinked, momentarily caught off guard.

So that’s what shocked them the most? Didn’t they see the rest of what happened?

Before he could process their words, Darian pushed off the pillar, his eyes gleaming with aggressive curiosity.

"And those undead summons of yours—what the hell were those? Distinct, refined, completely unlike the mindless trash ordinary Necromancers crawl out of the dirt with. Where on earth did you dig those up?"

Daria didn’t give him a second to breathe, her eyes darting around the room as if searching for a hidden something.

"Speaking of special things... where’s that violet-haired maid of yours? Lily, right? I want to cross blades with her. She looked like she could actually put up a decent fight. Far stronger than I initially thought!"

She paced closer, her grin stretching wider. "And that spider-woman you had with you? Fascinating creature. Where did you even find her? Oh, and that thing that looked like a reflection of the Bull itself—how did you pull that off, huh?"

Daria threw her hands up, shaking her head in disbelief. "You damn bastard! You’ve got way too many secrets hiding up those sleeves. You had us genuinely worried sick!"

Malrik stared at them, completely dumbfounded. Their words were strange. Why were they focusing on the least important fight of everything that had happened? They hadn’t even asked about the things he had expected them to care about most.

He slowly raised a hand, cutting through their rapid-fire interrogation.

"Wait..." Malrik frowned, his brows drawing together. "Did you only see my fight against the Bull?"

The twins paused mid-stride. Darian’s smirk faltered slightly, while Daria tilted her head, her mismatched eyes narrowing in sudden confusion.

"What do you mean, only the Bull?" Daria asked. "Did something else happen that we missed?"