Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power

"Cough… Cough…"

A fragile cough echoed through the shattered and destroyed underground prison.

Under the weight of countless broken rocks, Selene lay there, her whole body buried deep within the debris, unable to budge.

Her face was unrecognizable, bloodied and torn with wounds so severe and grotesque they were painful to even look at, let alone describe.

She had only survived thanks to a unique-ranked defensive artifact that had activated at the very last second, triggered only when her life was in immediate danger—when death was certain.

"H-Help…" Selene whimpered, her voice fragile, her lungs burning as she sensed the crimson fog slowly creeping toward her.

Her already weak heart started to beat faster and louder, drowning in fear, because she knew, if that corrosive fog touched her… she would die.

"H-HELP!" she screamed, mustering every ounce of strength left in her, and finally…

"You're still alive." A deep voice, filled with barely-contained fury, echoed through the wreckage.

Selene's head snapped toward the source, eyes filled with desperate hope, and she saw Laye.

"S-Save… me," she said weakly, trying to raise her bloodied hand to reach him, but she couldn't only her head was not buried beneath the rubble.

Laye stared at her for a moment, clearly considering letting her die right there.

But he knew better.

With what had just happened, they couldn't afford to add these hypocrites to their list of enemies—so, with an angry sigh, he flicked his fingers, and blue flame ignited from his hand, burning away the rocks and debris covering Selene.

The moment she was freed, she instantly retrieved a high-grade healing potion from her space ring and drank it in one gulp.

Before their eyes, her wounds began to mend rapidly.

She then snapped her head toward Laye, her eyes burning with fury and her expression twisted with scorn.

"Where were you? How did you all let this happen?" Selene shouted, her voice trembling with anger.

It wasn't just the pain. It wasn't just the near-death experience.

It was because Daela had escaped.

"Daela Warborn is no longer here!"

"She escaped! How do you explain that with all the steelbeasts guarding the city, and even the runic door? Tell me how!"

Her voice echoed with fury as she kept shouting, demanding an answer.

But Laye wasn't listening.

His attention was fixed on a particular spot… on a message scorched into the wall, letters glowing faintly like embers still burning.

"The Envoy of Death was here."

He read the words aloud. His voice so angry that the space around him started to shimmer as blue flames started to burst around him erratically.

Selene froze as her gaze followed his and landed on the same message, the one she had read earlier.

Laye's voice dropped low, deadly. The atmosphere tense.

"Tell me, big brain… who do you think dared to do this to our city?"

His tone was calm, but his eyes betrayed him, they were flickering with cold blue fire that threatened to devour everything in sight, barely held back.

"I don't know…" Selene muttered.

"I would've guessed the Warborns, but those idiots don't operate like this. You know them, they brute-force everything. Especially with the rumors that they're mobilizing their forces to come here."

"So it's not them."

She was certain. This wasn't the Warborns' style.

And Laye agreed… but that only deepened the mystery.

"Then who did this? Who would want to save the Warborn girl?" Laye asked, his voice heavy as he raised a barrier to push the crimson fog away from them.

Selene fell silent, unsure of what to say.

She didn't know either.

Who the hell is this Envoy of Death? Where did they even come from?

And especially,

Why would they risk so much to save Daela Warborn?

Or she was thinking all this wrong.

Maybe…

'Is it one of our enemies, trying to sabotage our plans by saving her? ' she thought.

Her mind cleared, as if she had found the answer.

"I'll report this to my lord. " she began, then turned to Laye.

"And where is your lord? Where is Goremaw the Ironbound? If he was here, no damned assassin would've dared set foot in this city!"

"And why did he leave you here alone, a single Grandmaster, while taking all his other commanders with him to who knows where?" Selene demanded, her voice bitter and full of suspicion.

Why did this happen now, of all times?

Her eyes widened.

'It was as if they knew the strongest were gone.'

'An assassin group with deep intelligence… Who are they? ' The questions began piling up in her head, and with them, a growing unease.

'I need to report this as soon as possible.'

Meanwhile, Laye sighed at her outburst.

"They're clearing a dungeon," he said plainly. "One we discovered at the very edge of the Desert of the Lost."

Selene blinked in confusion.

"What kind of dungeon requires Goremaw himself to move?" she asked.

Laye stayed silent at first, unsure if he should tell her.

But after everything, he knew he had no choice.

'Why did we agree to work with these people? We should've stuck to what we knew—war, face-to-face.' Laye sighed internally, frustrated by his lord's decisions, even if he would always obey them.

"…It's a Legendary-ranked dungeon," he finally said.

"And you know what that means."

Selene's eyes widened in absolute shock.

"W-What…?"

…

Far away, inside a well-hidden cave, Kaden leaned his back against the rough wall, eyes closed.

On his lap, Daela lay, sleeping peacefully.

But Kaden's mind was racing with thoughts.

'I left behind words they can interpret in many different ways.'

'They won't connect this to us. They won't even think about it.'

'They'll assume it's some other group. Either someone protecting us, or just an enemy of theirs trying to strike from the shadows.'

'That will give us the time we need to prepare for the inevitable clash, while they scramble, unsure who to fight first.'

His lips curled into a faint smirk.

He didn't just rescue Daela.

He planted a seed of doubt inside his enemies.

And that seed…

He would grow it.

'Let's make this unknown enemy real…'

'What name should I give this group, huh?'

He was going to forge a fake organization. One that would strike from the shadows and mess with the Cerveau family in every way possible, buying time to gather strength.

But it needed a different power—no blood.

'They'd recognize me eventually if I used blood. Too obvious.'

So… he needed something else.

Soul?

He could use Soulbrand, but his soul attacks were still too weak.

What else…?

He kept thinking, even using his Perception stat to guide his thoughts.

And thats when he felt something.

Something deep inside him stirred. Something that whispered.

A power he knew all too well.

One that was more familiar to him than anything else, even more than blood.

A concept that had followed him from the very beginning.

The power of…

"…death?"

—End of Chapter 112—