As soon as Lycius calmed his mother, his focus shifted.
His golden gaze, once warm with familial affection, now hardened as it fell upon Vynessa.
A thought whispered through his mind, cold and sharp.
"What did her kind do… to enrage Mother that much?"
Though Lana had withdrawn her fury, its echo remained within Lycius—an ember that refused to die.
A switch had been flipped inside him.
The delicate balance between his benevolence and malevolence—shattered.
And in that moment, something within him stirred.
His golden eyes flared, glowing like molten stars as a dreadful presence radiated from his being.
The air thickened. Darkened. Twisted.
Abyssal power seeped into reality, coiling like a serpent around his form.
His skill—Death's Aura—activated on its own.
A veil of darkness unfurled from Lycius, swallowing the light, warping the air with a presence that should not exist.
And within it…
Countless whispers.
Souls.
The remnants of every monster Lycius had ever slain.
A phantasmal choir of the dead—mourning, weeping, screaming.
The aura crawled toward Vynessa like a living thing, suffocating the space around her.
Her breath hitched.
Her body frozen.
The spark of life in her eyes dimmed, consumed by the overwhelming weight of the abyss.
For the first time since their meeting…
She understood.
The boy before her…
The boy she had dared to speak to so disrespectfully…
He was truly the son of Lana Abyssi.
And with that understanding came a horrifying realization.
She was standing before a monster in the shape of a boy.
Then—he spoke.
A voice that should never belong to a child.
A voice that, if given the power, could kill with words alone.
"Vynessa, I'm only going to ask you once…"
His gaze bore into her, stripping her bare—exposing every fear, every doubt, every weakness.
"What did your kind do to Mother?"
Vynessa's lips quivered. Not out of fear—no, not of him—but because she truly did not know the answer. She clenched her fists at her sides, her wings twitching as if resisting the weight of the suffocating presence that surrounded her.
"I—I don't know," she admitted, her voice firm despite the clear distress in her eyes.
A flicker of something crossed Lycius's face.
Truth.
He could feel it. An unknown force within him told him she wasn't lying. A force that had been growing ever since he laid eyes on her—something he couldn't name, something foreign yet familiar. A force that told him to trust her, even as his mother's overwhelming presence screamed otherwise.
Lana took a single step forward. The world trembled beneath her foot. The leaves of the great trees quivered, birds scattered, and even the unseen beasts of the forest dared not move.
"You don't know?" Lana's voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of a thousand deaths. "How convenient. Tell me, child, what exactly do you know? Or were you just sent here to insult me with ignorance?"
Vynessa's body tensed, but she did not cower. She lifted her chin, meeting Lana's demonic golden eyes with her own violet gaze.
"I ran away from home," she said firmly. "That's all you need to know."
Lycius felt something twist inside him at those words.
She ran away?
Something about that felt wrong—no, not wrong. Familiar.
The sense of longing, of wanting to be somewhere else. A place where she could belong. Lycius understood that feeling better than he liked. He had never ventured beyond the great forest, never interacted with anyone outside his mother and aunt. And now, before him stood the first person who was like him—not family, not bound by blood, but... connected in a way he couldn't understand.
And she had nowhere to go.
Lana's eyes narrowed.
"A princess of the Desire Kingdom," Lana spat the words like venom, "ran away from her home? And I'm supposed to believe that's all there is to it?"
Vynessa's gaze did not falter, but Lycius saw it—the slight shake in her fingers, the way her lips pressed together as if holding back words.
There was more.
Something she wouldn't say. Or couldn't.
Lana must have sensed it too, for her expression darkened further.
"That kingdom has already disgraced my name once before," Lana said, each word slicing through the air like a blade, "and now, you—a daughter of that wretched land—stand before my son? Tell me, girl, do you think I'll allow this?"
Vynessa didn't answer. But Lycius saw her shoulders stiffen, saw her wings twitch.
Then, without thinking, the words left his mouth.
"She should stay."
Silence.
The weight of those three words crashed into the air like an unmovable force.
Lana's gaze snapped to him. Elizabeth, who had been silently watching from a distance, finally shifted, her golden dragon eyes narrowing in calculation.
Vynessa, however, stared at Lycius in complete shock.
Even Lycius was surprised by himself.
But he didn't take it back.
"I want her to stay," he said again, this time firmer, more resolute. He turned fully to his mother, stepping forward to meet her gaze with his own unwavering eyes. "She's alone. I don't know why, and I don't know what happened between you and her kind—but she's not like them. I can feel it."
Lana's expression was unreadable.
Then she said the words that shattered something inside him.
"She has to go."
It felt like the ground had been ripped from beneath him.
His chest tightened, an unfamiliar pain blooming in a way he had never felt before.
"No," the word escaped his lips before he could stop it.
Vynessa flinched, but not from fear.
From the same pain.
Lycius could feel it radiating from her. The way her breath hitched, the way her fingers curled into the fabric of her dress. The unspoken plea in her eyes.
She didn't want to leave.
He didn't want her to leave.
His mind raced, searching—grasping for something, anything. His mother would not change her mind. He knew this. She was absolute in her decisions.
Unless...
A memory sparked.
One of the ancient texts his aunt had taught him. A law older than even the Demon Kingdom itself.
An ancient DragonBorn ritual.
A duel.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he turned his gaze to his mother.
"If you refuse to let her stay..." He took a breath. "Then I invoke the Rite of Combat."
Everything stopped.
Elizabeth's eyes widened, her usually calm demeanor shattered for the first time in years.
Lana's expression darkened—not in anger, but in something deeper. Something close to disbelief.
Vynessa looked between them, confusion evident on her face.
"What... what does that mean?" she asked softly.
Lycius didn't look at her. His gaze remained locked with his mother's.
"It means," Lana said slowly, her voice laced with a dangerous edge, "he wishes to fight for your right to stay."
Vynessa's eyes widened.
Lycius clenched his fists.
"I will fight," he declared, his voice unwavering. "And if I win, she stays."
A silence heavier than any before fell upon them.
Then, Lana chuckled.
Not out of amusement.
Out of something else entirely.
"You truly are my son," she murmured. Then, she exhaled, her golden eyes glinting with something unreadable. "Very well. You wish to invoke the ancient rite? Then prepare yourself, Lycius."
She turned away, her aura retreating into a quiet storm.
Elizabeth, still watching with narrowed eyes, finally spoke.
"You do realize what you've just done, don't you?"
Lycius nodded.
"I do."
Elizabeth sighed, shaking her head. "Then I hope you are prepared. Because the moment this duel begins..."
She looked at him, golden eyes gleaming with something close to sorrow.
"There will be no mercy."
Lycius exhaled, turning his gaze to Vynessa, who was still looking at him with wide, unreadable eyes.
"I won't lose," he said simply.
Vynessa's lips parted as if to say something, but no words came out.
Instead, she simply nodded.
Lycius turned back to his mother.
The duel had been set.
And he would not let himself fail.
Not this time.
Not when something inside him told him that losing would mean far more than just a simple defeat.
It would mean losing something he didn't even understand yet.
And that—he could not allow.
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