Vespera Nocturne did not travel like a standard Hunter. A sleek, midnight-black transport vehicle waited for them two blocks away from the ruined apartment complex.
It was heavily armored, reinforced with runic plating that Liam immediately recognized as military-grade S-Rank shielding. The windows were tinted with obsidian glass, and the engine purred with a silent, concentrated mana core rather than standard combustion.
A tall man in a tailored suit stood by the passenger door. He possessed the rigid posture of a veteran and the subtle, suppressed aura of an A-Rank defensive specialist.
He opened the door without a single word, his eyes flicking toward Liam and Liora for only a fraction of a second before returning to his vigilant scan of the street.
"Get in," Vespera instructed, taking the rear-facing seat opposite the main bench.
Liam guided Liora into the spacious cabin.
The interior felt like a luxury penthouse, complete with plush leather seating, a chilled beverage compartment, and a holographic tactical display built into the central console.
Liora immediately sank into the corner of the seat, pulling her knees up slightly. The adrenaline of surviving a Category Five spatial tear was rapidly leaving her system, replaced by the crushing weight of magical exhaustion.
She leaned heavily against Liam, her silver hair brushing against his shoulder as her eyes fluttered shut.
Liam remained perfectly upright. He allowed her to use him as a physical anchor, instinctively shifting his posture to provide better support while his eyes swept over the interior of the transport.
"Your driver seems overly qualified for his profession," Liam said.
Vespera crossed her legs, resting her hands lightly on the silver pommel of her rapier. Her icy blue eyes studied him with unapologetic intensity.
"Silas has served my family for twenty years. He is a professional. You, on the other hand, are a complete anomaly. You possess the combat instincts of a Cataclysm survivor, the magical theory of a grandmaster, and the official registration of a college drop out who barely scraped into the E-Rank bracket."
"The official registration system is deeply flawed and heavily reliant on static mana density readings," Liam replied, keeping his voice low to avoid waking the girl resting against him.
"It completely ignores dynamic output, structural efficiency, and the application of lethal intent. A man with a thimble of water can kill you just as easily as a man with an ocean, provided he knows exactly where to freeze the water inside your throat."
Vespera stared. The sheer pragmatism in his voice was terrifying, devoid of the usual bravado Awakeners displayed when trying to impress her. He spoke about murder the way a mathematician spoke about equations.
"The Vanguard Guild will not share your philosophical views on power," Vespera warned, tapping a perfectly manicured finger against her knee. "Director Vance is an incredibly petty man. You humiliated him publicly, stole his prized S-Rank recruit, and severely injured his nephew. By tomorrow morning, he will leverage his political connections to frame you for the spatial fissure. He will claim your unstable shadow magic caused the localized tear, and he will demand your immediate arrest."
"That’s fine," Liam said flatly. "I have no attachments to public opinion."
"You should," she countered sharply. "If the Association officially brands you a rogue Awakener, you lose all access to sanctioned dungeons. You will be hunted by strike teams twenty-four hours a day. And more importantly, they will place Liora in protective custody to ’rehabilitate’ her. You cannot fight an entire city while protecting a fragile S-Rank."
Liam knew she was right.
In his first life, he had simply slaughtered anyone who got in his way until there was no one left to issue arrest warrants. That path had led to absolute power and total isolation.
The Goddess of Fate had made it perfectly clear that repeating those mistakes would result in a permanent loss of his abilities. He had to play the political game, at least until he regained his former strength.
Before he could formulate a strategic response, Liora let out a sudden, sharp gasp.
Her fingers dug fiercely into Liam’s jacket. The healthy flush in her cheeks vanished, replaced by a sickly, translucent gray. The silver veins beneath her skin flared to life once more, but this time, the starlight was tainted with ugly, bruised purple edges.
She coughed violently, her entire body trembling as a wave of suffocating heat radiated from her core.
[Critical Medical Alert!]
[The target’s Astral core is experiencing severe necrotic mana buildup. The stress of the spatial fissure and the subsequent adrenaline crash have destabilized the Shadow Suture you applied earlier.]
[Immediate intervention required to prevent permanent nerve damage.]
"Her core is failing again," Vespera noted, her aristocratic mask slipping to reveal genuine alarm. She reached for the communication console. "Silas, reroute to the Association central hospital. Tell them to prepare a Class A trauma ward."
"Do not bother," Liam commanded, his voice slicing through the cabin with absolute authority. He placed his hand gently over Liora’s heart, feeling the chaotic, grinding rhythm of her corrupted starlight. "Standard medical intervention will kill her. The doctors will try to flush the necrotic buildup with generic healing mana. Her mutated core will treat the foreign magic as an invader and detonate."
"Then what do you propose we do?" Vespera demanded, her eyes narrowing as the temperature in the vehicle began to drop in response to her rising stress.
[System Recommendation: Core Alignment Protocol.]
[The necrotic buildup must be manually extracted and purified through the Abyssal Meridian located along the target’s spine. You must trace the primary mana pathways with concentrated shadow energy to siphon the corruption.]
[Requirement: Direct, unobstructed skin-to-skin contact along the entire length of her back. The physical intimacy of this act will establish a potent Yin-Yang circulation loop. Try not to enjoy it too much, Sovereign.]
Liam suppressed a profound sigh of absolute exhaustion.
The System was weaponizing magical theory to force him into increasingly compromising situations, but the biological facts were sound. The spine was the central highway of the body’s mana network. Siphoning corruption required absolute precision and direct contact.
"How far are we from your secure facility?" Liam asked, keeping his hand pressed firmly against Liora’s chest to project a tiny, steadying pulse of frost magic into her heart.
"Three minutes," Vespera replied, watching the interaction with intense scrutiny.
"Tell your driver to hurry," Liam said, his dark eyes locking onto the Ice Queen. "I need a sterile room, absolute silence, and a flat surface. I am going to have to manually realign her meridian network."
Vespera stared at him, fully realizing the implications of his statement.
Meridian realignment was considered a lost art, a dangerous and highly intimate practice that required an impossible level of trust and magical control. Doing it improperly resulted in the immediate paralysis of the patient.
"You are a lunatic," she whispered.
"I am a pragmatist," Liam corrected. "And she is running out of time."