Chapter 106
During his intense focus on Artemis and the wolf vanishing under the moonlight, Kei Y readied himself, muscles coiled, senses sharpened.
He couldn’t afford mistakes.
In that moment of honed vigilance, he lost track of Hermes.
He didn’t notice when the system declared Hermes defeated and allowed high-level healers to retrieve the battered participant. It was only when Kei Y caught the faint shimmer of system particles dispersing Hermes’ body from the arena that he realized the corpse shield he had relied on was gone.
He exhaled, a cold breath fogging in the moon-chilled air.
“Figures,” Kei Y muttered, shifting his stance, recalculating his defenses.
The arena’s gravity, still warped by the heavy influence of Moon Force, began pressing down on him, each limb suddenly feeling heavier, as if invisible hands were attempting to guide his movements, forcing him to step exactly where they wanted him.
A single misstep sent him stumbling forward—
SHLK.
Blood sprayed in a sudden burst, splattering across the cold stone.
An arrow had struck him with no presence whatsoever. It had come in complete silence, a ghost of death slipping through the warped moonlight.
Kei Y’s breath caught, his mind flashing.
“Is this what it’s like when I use Phantom Breeze…?” he muttered, gritting his teeth as he swept a hand through the air. “I owe people an apology.”
Even as blood poured from the wound, he moved, drawing rune strokes with burning precision, igniting the blood with fire runes before it could stain the arena, the smoke rising in tight curls around him.
He could not afford to let his blood linger.
The weight of Moon Force continued to pull at him, the air thick with cold pressure, the entire arena feeling like it was holding its breath, waiting for Artemis’ next move.
Kei Y exhaled sharply, drawing three small, dense orbs from his inventory.
With a flick of his wrist, he hurled them at different angles across the battlefield, each one propelled with extreme force. They struck the ground and cracked open, aether surging outward as the Healing variant of Lotus Bloom erupted in radiant petals.
Soft, glowing petals swirled through the cold air, forming layered zones of regenerative force that pulsed like quiet heartbeats across the arena.
Kei Y’s eyes tracked the drifting blooms, noting every ripple, every disturbance in their patterns, each flicker of movement through the petals.
“If these arrows can come without presence, I need all the help I can get,” Kei Y thought, his mind cold and sharp. “Can’t protect my vitals if I can’t sense the attack.”
The Healing Lotus Bloom fields would mend him faster if he was struck again, but more importantly, the gentle ruffling of the petals would warn him of any unseen movement—including the wolf, which had vanished just like Artemis.
His jaw tightened under the mask.
This was no longer just a fight against opponents.
It was a hunt in moonlight, under silent death, with forces pressing in from all sides.
And Kei Y was determined to survive.
Watching him, more sternly than before, Auserre’s gaze sharpened, tracking Kei Y’s every movement with the eyes of a predator studying prey.
He had fought four opponents back to back, relying solely on Healing Force, and had managed to defeat two, incapacitate another, and outmaneuver the fourth without issue. He maintained control, precise in every step, every breath, and avoided unnecessary injuries with near-unnatural efficiency.
But the moment the wolf arrived, Auserre noticed it:
Kei Y chose to disobey her command to restrict himself to the first force he used.
Yet he hadn’t used fire rune strokes to attack, to defend, or even to counter the chilling pressure of Moon Force weighing on the battlefield.
His sole focus in using fire had been to burn away the blood he had spilled on the arena floor.
And once the blood was gone, he resumed fighting with Healing Force alone, as if nothing had changed.
Auserre’s eyes narrowed.
He had moved with such precision, fighting in a way that prevented his blood from splattering across the stone, forcing himself to take only glancing hits he could heal immediately, preserving control of the battlefield and his own body’s vulnerabilities.
And yet, just now, blood had splattered again.
And Kei Y’s response had been immediate, near frantic.
Fire rune strokes to remove every drop, burning it away before it could linger.
Auserre’s thoughts flickered to the earlier moment—the wolf, ignoring Artemis’ commands, nose pressed to the stone, tail flicking as it sniffed obsessively at the scorched ground where Kei Y’s blood had once been.
It had ignored its master, pulled by something stronger, something primal, in the scent of that burnt blood.
Only when it lifted its gaze toward Kei Y had it stopped, yet even then, it hadn’t looked at Kei Y’s face, but at his blood-stained robes.
And Auserre had seen it:
The way Kei Y had paused, glancing down at the stains, fingers twitching as if calculating whether he could remove them without stripping naked in front of the entire arena.
Auserre’s brows furrowed.
She slowly raised an index finger, arms still crossed, the air around her shimmering as a mist of deep red coalesced at her fingertip, condensing into a small orb of viscous, dark liquid.
Kei Y’s blood.
She held it up to her eyes, letting it catch the shifting lights of the arena, studying it with quiet intensity.
It smelled faintly of ozone and something else—something she couldn’t name, something that called to her deep within her nature. A quiet, pulsing tug, a whisper of hunger she had not felt in a long time.
Her pupils narrowed.
What is this strange pull…?
Is this what drew the wolf?
Is there something about Khenu’s blood that makes it so… attractive?
Is he simply a God Spark… or something more?
Is this why he disobeyed me?
Questions swirled, cold and sharp, within Auserre’s mind, her lips pressing into a thin line as she continued to analyze the blood orb.
Nearby, The Vendor worked quietly, hands moving with professional ease as he plated food, but every so often, his eyes flickered toward his master.
Seeing her expression darken, the red orb floating before her face, he exhaled softly, shaking his head.
“She’s really upset at Khenu… poor kid.”
And for a moment, even amidst the storm of force signatures and clashing participants, the arena’s roars felt distant, as Auserre’s gaze remained locked on the tiny sphere of blood, searching for answers only Kei Y could provide.
Meanwhile, Kei Y was in constant, frantic motion.
To the untrained eye, it looked erratic—his robes fluttering, feet shifting in sharp bursts as he darted around the arena, twisting and pivoting with near-desperation.
But to those watching closely, they would see it:
The Lotus Bloom petals drifting in the air—the Healing Force variant—shivering with the slightest disturbances.
And each time a petal quivered, rippled, or fell out of alignment, Kei Y moved.
Fast.
A single disturbance in the petals was enough to force him to pivot, to duck, to roll, breath puffing out in white mist as the air around him dropped in temperature with every shift, cold clinging to his skin under the shifting weight of the gravity being manipulated by Moon Force.
He could feel it.
The presence of Moon Force hidden in the air, coiling around him like a cold mist, pressing against his senses as the petals revealed the silent approach of Artemis’ arrows.
It had worked so far.
The petals, like a subtle alarm system, caught the edges of each silent, presence-concealed arrow, letting Kei Y know when to dodge, where to shift, how to avoid death by a hair’s breadth.
But Artemis was adapting.
And that was the problem.
She wasn’t just firing arrows.
She was layering them.
Each volley contained a pattern—one or two arrows fired first, designed to disturb the petals, to reveal themselves, to train Kei Y’s reactions.
And behind them, hidden in the wake of the disturbed petals, came the real threat.
Silent.
Cold.
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Invisible.
Arrows trailing behind the first volley by a fraction of a breath, perfectly timed so they would pass through the gaps created by Kei Y’s evasive maneuvers, the petals never getting the chance to react a second time.
A single misstep.
A single mistimed dodge.
And the next arrow would find him.
The frost in the air thickened, swirling around him as Moon Force coiled, pressing close, seeping into his lungs with each ragged breath, slowing him down, chilling him to the bone.
“Damn… she’s good.” Kei Y thought, eyes narrowing behind his mask as he dodged another near-invisible arrow, feeling it slice past, leaving a cold trail across his skin that burned with frostbite.
The arena’s roars blurred into a dull roar as Kei Y focused, Lotus Bloom petals shifting around him in a chaotic dance, each disturbance a whisper of death, each breath a frost-laden warning.
Artemis was hunting him with precision only a true predator could wield.
And for the first time in this death match, Kei Y felt the edge of real danger.
And this wasn’t even counting the wolf.
Hidden in the moonlit mist, it moved without hesitation, its paws nearly soundless on the cold stone.
Nearly.
Because unlike its master, the wolf lacked the discipline and calculation to suppress its primal hunger.
Every so often, a low, guttural rumble would echo from the shadows—a throaty, eager growl that rolled across the arena, vibrating against Kei Y’s bones.
It wasn’t silent. Not really.
That low sound, thick with want, was the only reason Kei Y could track its presence, a reminder that even as Artemis hunted him with silent arrows, the wolf’s animal need to reach him—to reach the blood still staining his robes—was calling it forward, pulling it closer.
And unlike Artemis, the wolf didn’t strategize.
It didn’t plan angles or feints.
It only knew hunger.
And Kei Y knew it was only a matter of time before that hunger would break through the mist, teeth bared, claws scraping sparks across the stone, coming for him in a single, unrestrained charge.
Despite everything—the arrows, the wolf, the buoyant nature of gravity being altered, the oppressive chill of Moon Force—Kei Y was no better than that wolf.
His body moved on instinct, dodging, weaving, reacting with mechanical precision to Artemis’ silent arrows and the rippling petals of Lotus Bloom, each disturbance guiding him like a marionette on frayed strings.
But his mind?
It wasn’t even here.
His gaze flickered to the side, where, within the medical unit still visible from the arena, the healers worked on Hermes’ shattered body.
They hadn’t even bothered to carry him to a private area. The damage was too severe, time too short. They began operating immediately, under the eyes of everyone.
Healing Force surged, luminous and steady, enveloping Hermes’ ruined frame as the healers tackled the most critical issue first: the ragged hole in his abdomen, the dangling spinal nerves visible even from a distance.
The glow of Healing Force wrapped around those nerves, pulling them together, fusing them with seamless, practiced precision.
Kei Y’s breath caught.
His movements on the battlefield slowed, his dodges becoming narrower, closer, the cold of Moon Force clawing at him with every passing second.
Because he couldn’t look away.
Under the mask, Kei Y’s irises fractured into glinting yellow shards, the Kaleidoscope eyes rearranging themselves over and over, desperately analyzing every ripple, every pulse of the healers’ technique.
“In all my experiments… I’ve never been able to do that,” Kei Y thought, eyes narrowing as they tracked the luminous threads of Healing Force pulling torn nerves back into alignment, reconnecting what was once thought irreparable.
It was beautiful.
But no matter how hard he pushed, no matter how brightly the kaleidoscopic patterns flickered within his eyes, he couldn’t comprehend it.
The gap was too large.
It was like staring at an intricate, universe-sized puzzle when you only possessed a handful of pieces—enough to form a single corner, while the rest remained hidden beyond your reach, mocking you with its brilliance.
His Kaleidoscope eyes failed to claim even a fragment of that technique for his own.
And yet, Kei Y’s mind devoured every visual cue, every subtle movement, every flicker of force, etching them into the archives of his memory. His medical mind flourished, alight with ideas as he watched the miracle of shredded nerves fusing under the careful glow of Healing Force.
Modern day Earth didn’t know it yet.
But in the future, the world would gain another breakthrough in the field of medicine because of this moment—a breakthrough born from his observation of a surgery conducted under the gaze of thousands.
Of course, that breakthrough would come only after horrifying medical experiments, after sleepless nights in operating rooms where even seasoned doctors would walk out, trembling, unable to forget the things they had seen.
But a breakthrough was a breakthrough.
And Milgram would have given Kei Y a thumbs up, regardless of what the world of ethics would say otherwise.
He was so focused, so deeply locked in his trance of observation, that it was only now—when an arrow pierced through him again—that he was finally forced out of it.
It wasn’t the first time. It had happened a few times already while he was on autopilot, body dodging on ingrained reflex alone, but between the shifting gravity, the cold pressing against his limbs, the hidden arrows, and the silent wolf striking from the shadows, it was too much to remain unscathed.
“Bitch, would you stop shooting me?” Kei Y snapped, exhaling as he flicked his gaze back toward the medical unit.
Just in time to see Hermes’ spine finally fuse together, the ragged hole in his torso sealing shut under the focused glow of Healing Force. They were attempting to regrow his feet next, from what Kei Y could see, but that much he had already figured out for himself in his own research, so the spark of interest in his eyes dulled.
His injuries, however, finally forced his attention away from the scene.
“This is all a joke to you, isn’t it?”
The voice came sharp and cold from somewhere within the moon-chilled mist, just as another arrow whistled past him, missing by a hair’s breadth.
Without hesitation, Kei Y’s arm snapped forward, launching a volley of projectiles in the direction of the voice, each one charged with Celestial Infusion, the air cracking with pressure as they tore forward.
They struck nothing but stone, shattering across the arena floor in bursts of force.
Kei Y’s eyes narrowed behind the mask.
He was certain that was where the voice had come from, certain that with the speed of his throws, she shouldn’t have had a moment to dodge.
Nothing.
“Not necessarily,” Kei Y replied calmly, shifting his stance as he scanned the cold mist. He lifted his hand, letting Healing Force radiate softly from his palm, casting pale light across the frost-rimmed petals drifting around him.
“I was just… entranced by the healers over there. I don’t know if you noticed,” Kei Y continued, his voice casual even as his eyes sharpened, “but I tend to have an interest in the medical field.”
“You’re in the medical field, but you can be so cruel to others. What sort of irony is that?” Artemis chuckled, her voice floating through the cold mist.
Kei Y glanced toward the Greek participant hidden in the moonlight, tilting his head. “Just out of curiosity… is there a Hippocrates in your kingdom?”
Artemis blinked, taken aback. “Some untalented quack, why do you ask?”
“No reason.” Kei Y’s voice dropped, his tone dry as he rolled his shoulders, Healing Force sparking faintly across his robes. “I’m just going to skin him alive one day. Bastard made my life difficult.”
Artemis’ confusion was so genuine it slipped through her icy composure. “How? He never even left Greece. What are you talking abo—”
Her words cut off.
“Oh crap.”
In that instant of confusion, her illusions slipped.
And in that fraction of a breath, Kei Y appeared in front of her, eyes cold behind the mask, Gale Fang swinging as a storm of force rippled out.
But the blade passed cleanly through.
She smiled as his momentum carried him forward—
—and the illusion shattered, dissolving into drifting motes of moonlight.
Before Kei Y could pivot, a cold weight sank into his back.
Thnk. Thnk. Thnk.
New arrows embedded themselves deep into his flesh, Moon Force crackling across his nerves as frost and pain exploded through him, his breath catching as the chill sank bone-deep.
Artemis’ voice came from behind him now, calm and satisfied.
“Maybe you should focus on yourself, healer.”
Kei Y stumbled forward, pain lancing through his side as cold mist escaped his lips.
And in that single slip—
The wolf lunged from the shadows.
Its jaws clamped around his arm, teeth sinking in with a sickening crunch. Kei Y’s eyes snapped wide, the cold burn of Moon Force coursing through the wound as the wolf’s eyes widened in primal glee, its tail wagging once in savage delight as something warm and indescribably pleasant flowed down its throat.
A taste it couldn’t comprehend.
A taste it would never forget.
“Shit—!” Kei Y hissed, panic flickering across his composure as he felt it, the unmistakable pull within him—
Auserre watched, eyes narrowing, her fingers tightening around the small orb of Kei Y’s blood still hovering before her.
“So,” she whispered, almost to herself, “what are you going to do now, Khenu?”
In that moment, deep within Kei Y’s core, something shifted.
A connection, raw and forceful, began to form.
His Kaleidoscope eyes flickered violently under the mask, the gold of Healing Force fracturing like glass, pieces twisting and rearranging as a misty moonlight hue began to seep in, curling around the shards of yellow.
A new force alignment was being added.
A tether pulled tight between him and the wolf that refused to let go, a link formed through the blood flowing into its throat, through its hunger, through his existence—
The colors within his eyes swirled, yellow and moonlit blue twisting together as the Kaleidoscope eyes adapted, reflecting the undeniable truth:
Moon Force was joining the archive.
As the wolf savored the taste of Kei Y’s blood, its eyes glazed in blissful, primal hunger, it didn’t sense what came next.
In a single, smooth motion, Kei Y’s other hand shot forward, fingers curling into a claw as theysank into the invisible wolf’s neck, piercing fur and flesh with surgical brutality.
Artemis, hidden within the mist, was mid-chant, her arrows drawn and aimed to end everything now that her companion had pinned Kei Y in place.
Her eyes widened.
Her breath caught.
She saw it.
Her wolf, the faithful companion who had followed her from the cradle, was suddenlyvisible as Kei Y’s hand gripped its throat, lifting it clean off the ground as its paws kicked and scraped against the stone, confusion and fear blooming in its silver eyes.
“STOP!!” Artemis screamed, her voice cracking, panic and desperation ripping through her composure.
The wolf yelped, snapping out of its stupor as its eyes locked with its master’s, confusion shimmering for a single, heartbreaking moment.
And then Kei Y’s arm bulged, cords of muscle tightening beneath blood-stained robes as Healing Force surged within, amplifying his strength in a brutal, efficient pulse.
CRACK.
The wolf’s neck bent sharply, twisting at a grotesque right angle, the body spasming once before falling limp in Kei Y’s grip.
The wolf’s form shimmered, fully revealing itself to the entire arena in its final moment, silver eyes going dull as it looked at Artemis one last time, as if asking why.
Artemis’ scream tore through the moonlit mist, raw and pained, echoing across the silent arena.
Kei Y’s mask tilted down, his breath sharp, shoulders rising and falling with restrained tremors as the dead weight of the wolf hung from his arm before he let it drop to the cold stone with a heavy thud.
He watched the lifeless body, Artemis’ broken screams filling the air, her eyes wet, her bow trembling in her grip.
And Kei Y clenched his jaw, breath shaking beneath the mask.
He didn’t look away.
He stared at her.
At the pain tightening her features.
At the tears streaking down her cheeks as she rushed to her wolf’s corpse, collapsing onto it with a choked cry, her fingers trembling as they dug into its fur.
He watched as she sobbed, clutching the limp body, her grief raw, her aura flickering with shattered moonlight as it struggled to maintain coherence under the weight of her emotions.
He watched as the connection that had formed between him and the wolfsnapped, the soft, misty moonlight hue in his Kaleidoscope eyes vanishing, retreating back into the steady yellow glow of Healing Force.
A quiet sigh escaped him, breath fogging in the cold.
“This was never your matter to begin with,” Kei Y said, his voice calm but carrying the weight of what he had done. “You should just take your companion and forfeit.”
It was mercy.
The only mercy he could offer after taking what was most precious to her.
For a moment, Artemis did not respond. She only sobbed, pressing her forehead against the wolf’s fur, the arena silent except for the sharp, broken sounds of her grief. Her moonlight aura dimmed, then flickered out completely.
After a minute, or maybe two, she slowly lifted the wolf’s body, cradling it in her arms as she stood.
She did not look at Kei Y.
She did not say a word.
She turned, stepping slowly away, her silhouette retreating across the cold arena floor, forfeiting the match.
Because he was right.
This had never been her battle.
And her companion had died for something that had nothing to do with them.
Kei Y exhaled, the cold air curling around him as he turned to face the next presence stepping onto the arena floor.
His eyes narrowed, the yellow glow of Healing Force in his irises pulsing as he regarded the new opponent.
Dione.
She stepped forward, frost clinging to her aura, coldness radiating from her as her eyes burned with silent fury.
Her teammates had faced this single opponent—and every one of them had been defeated, some violently, others humiliated, and now a companion had beenkilled.
What she had thought would be a quick, easy punishment for the one who dared insult her mother had become a nightmare, and she was in no mood for games.
Kei Y tilted his head, mask shifting slightly, his voice dropping to a cold, low note that cut through the frost between them.
“As for you, I’m still deciding whether I should skin you alive or send you back to your mother piece by piece,” Kei Y said, his tone devoid of mercy, of humor, of warmth. “I was going to let you choose how you wanted to die.”
His eyes narrowed further, the yellow glow darkening.
“But now… I’m in no mood to be that nice.”
The cold between them deepened, the tension coiling like a blade.
Auserre watched, her eyes sharp, her arms folded as she studied her student.
The image she had built in her mind of Khenu—the kind, obedient student—cracked under the weight of what she had just witnessed.
Brutal.
Cruel.
Decisive.
She had seen his panic, the soul-stripped coldness that flickered in his reaction when the wolf bit into him, when its bloodlust ignited from tasting his blood, whenhe had reacted with such cold efficiency to end it before it could become something else.
And now, as she held the bead of his blood floating before her eyes, turning slowly in the air.
There were questions about Khenu—that she wasn’t certain she was ready to be answered.
Or if she should ever try.
But that was a matter for another day.