The scent of blood and burning metal filled the air.
Hyun-Jin lay motionless, his body pinned against the wreckage. He couldn't move. His vision flickered between darkness and reality, his senses dull, but he could still feel the cold night air pressing against his skin.
Beside him, his driver was dead on the spot, his lifeless body slumped over, blood pooling beneath him.
Then—
The air changed.
A suffocating pressure weighed down on everything. The temperature plummeted, ice forming along the shattered glass and twisted metal.
He arrived.
A gust of wind swept through the scene as Akhlys appeared, his long, silky purple hair flowing like liquid night. His usually serene, teasing smile was gone. In its place was a look of pure, unrestrained fury.
His very presence made the world halt.
The enemies didn't dare move.
Their hands shook. Their breaths came in short gasps. They weren't just afraid. They were terrified.
Akhlys' crimson eyes glowed under the moonlight, burning with a rage that no mortal could withstand. His anger was a storm, his aura so powerful that the very air around him became too heavy to breathe.
Slowly, he moved toward his beloved.
His steps were unhurried—because he had already decided their fate.
He knelt beside Hyun-Jin, his delicate fingers brushing against his pale cheek. So warm. So alive. Relief flickered in his crimson eyes.
Then, he spoke—his voice cold, merciless.
"You dared to touch what is mine?"
No one could answer.
Because the next moment—
They died.
Without a touch. Without a word.
Their bodies collapsed instantly, lifeless. Their eyes wide in silent screams, faces twisted in horror, as if their very souls had been ripped apart.
Akhlys didn't even glance at them.
They were nothing.
Carefully, he lifted Hyun-Jin into his arms. His beloved. His only one.
Then, he turned to the driver's body.
Even in death, Akhlys would not leave him behind.
With effortless strength, he carried them both.
The god of poison never looked back.
Because in his wake, there was only death.