Chapter : 327
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Chapter : 327
Ira stared back at him. Her face remained perfectly flat. She refused to show him any pain. She refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She locked all her emotions away behind her invisible wall.
"Your blank face does not fool me," Niro sneered. He tightened his grip on her throat just a tiny bit. "I know you are terrified right now. I know you remember exactly what happens when you disobey me."
Niro raised his free hand. He pulled his arm back. He clenched his fingers into a tight, rock-solid fist. The freezing cold magic gathered around his knuckles. He fully intended to strike her. He wanted to deliver a punishing, debilitating blow right to her face. He wanted to physically and mentally break her. He wanted to remind her that she was nothing but a useless failure.
Ira closed her eyes. She braced herself for the massive impact. She knew she could not stop him. He was simply too powerful.
Suddenly, a loud, highly annoying sound echoed from the corridor outside the bedroom.
"Man, the architecture in these luxury apartments makes absolutely no sense at all!" a voice complained loudly.
Niro stopped his fist in mid-air. He turned his head toward the open doorway.
Ken Eliot strolled casually into the room. He dragged his cheap shoes on the hardwood floor. Scuff. Scuff. Scuff. He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his wrinkled navy blue suit pants. His shirt hung loosely over his belt. He looked completely bored.
"I mean, seriously," Ken continued talking, completely ignoring the intense, violent scene happening right in front of him. "Why are the hallways so incredibly long? I just wanted to find the restroom. I drank a very large iced coffee earlier. It had a lot of caramel in it. Now I am totally lost. Do you guys know where the bathroom is?"
Niro glared at the messy boy. He recognized Ken from the corporate lobby the day before. He remembered the highly disrespectful comments Ken had made.
"You," Niro growled. His voice dripped with absolute venom. "You are the pathetic, loudmouthed servant. Get out of this room right now. If you take one more step, I will freeze your heart inside your chest."
Ken did not run away. He did not put his hands up in fear. He stopped walking and stood in the middle of the bedroom. He looked at Niro. Then, he looked at Ira pinned against the wall.
Ken let out a long, very quiet sigh. He pulled his hands out of his pockets.
The goofy, lazy smile completely melted off his face. His slouched shoulders straightened up. He stood perfectly tall. The sleepy, bored look entirely vanished from his dark eyes. His gaze turned incredibly cold. It was a sharp, absolute, terrifying stare.
Ken completely dropped his goofy act.
"You are making a very big mistake," Ken said calmly.
---
Niro let out a harsh, arrogant laugh. He kept his firm grip on Ira's throat. He looked at Ken with pure amusement.
"A mistake?" Niro mocked. "You are a useless commoner with an untucked shirt. You possess absolutely zero magical talent. You are nothing but a loud, annoying clown. I am a Grandmaster. I can crush you with a single thought. You cannot possibly stop me."
Ken did not argue. He did not shout a dramatic speech. He did not pull out a shiny sword. He simply raised his right hand. He pointed his index finger directly at Niro, exactly like a child holding a toy gun.
"Infinite Chain," Ken stated softly.
He did not yell the words. He spoke them with quiet, absolute authority.
The reality inside the master bedroom instantly shifted. The temperature plummeted, but it was not the freezing cold of Niro's ice magic. It was a deep, terrifying, unnatural cold that made the air feel incredibly thick.
Without a single warning sound, the wooden floorboards beneath Niro's feet violently exploded.
Massive, thick, pitch-black magical chains erupted directly out of the ground. The chains did not look like normal metal. They looked like they were forged from pure, solid shadows. They radiated a dark, overwhelming, god-like power.
Niro gasped in shock. He tried to jump backward. He tried to release his grip on Ira and escape.
He was entirely too slow.
The pitch-black chains moved with blistering, impossible speed. They whipped through the air like angry snakes. In a fraction of a millisecond, the massive chains wrapped tightly around Niro's ankles. They coiled violently around his legs. They shot upward and wrapped securely around his torso. They pinned his arms tightly against his sides.
Niro let go of Ira. He stumbled backward, completely bound by the magical metal.
Ira fell to the floor. She gasped for air, rubbing her bruised neck. She looked up at the black chains in total bewilderment. She had never seen magic like this in her entire life.
Niro struggled furiously. His pale face turned red with anger. He pulled on his massive, Grandmaster-level mana reserves. He tried to summon his most powerful ice spells. He wanted to freeze the chains and shatter them into pieces.
The ice formed around his hands. It touched the pitch-black chains.
The ice instantly melted away into nothingness. The black chains completely absorbed his magic without a single scratch. They did not even flinch. They tightened their grip on his body, squeezing him with unstoppable, crushing force.
"What is this?!" Niro yelled. His arrogant composure totally shattered. His voice cracked with genuine, unfiltered panic. He struggled wildly, kicking his legs, but the chains held him firmly in place. "Release me! What kind of dark magic is this?!"
Ken slowly walked forward. He did not rush. His footsteps made no sound on the broken floorboards.
Ken stepped between the struggling Grandmaster and the fallen girl. He gently placed his hand on Ira's shoulder. He helped her stand up. He positioned her safely behind his back, keeping his own body firmly between her and her brother.
Ken looked at Niro. His dark eyes were empty of all mercy.
"You rely entirely on fear," Ken said coldly. His voice resonated with a deep, terrifying power. "You use your status and your magic to bully people who cannot fight back. You like to make people feel small. But you are about to learn what true, absolute power really looks like."
Niro stared at the boy. The terrifying truth finally crashed down on him. The goofy, lazy slacker was a complete lie. The messy servant was a carefully constructed mask. The boy standing in front of him possessed a level of magic that completely defied the laws of nature. He was an anomaly. He was a monster.
Niro felt a cold, paralyzing dread fill his stomach. He was entirely trapped. He could not move a single muscle.
Ken raised his hand again. He pointed two fingers directly at Niro's forehead.
Ken invoked his absolute, god-like Authority magic. This was not a physical attack. It was a mental invasion. It was a spell that completely bypassed all mental defenses and rewrote the victim's fundamental reality.