With the cackle of a crazed hyena, Lee screamed.
The scream was abruptly cut short by a savage grunt as his hand clamped down on my shoulder.
His fingers dug so deeply into the flesh that a faint crack echoed through the Great Hall.
I would’ve screamed.
I simply didn’t have the time.
In the next instant, an overwhelming force hurled me through the air and straight toward the artifact.
The colossal iron cage.
As I crossed the threshold, I threw out my arm and caught one of the pristine bars, my body swinging violently over the bottomless pit below.
Thank damnation…
Had I missed, I would’ve plunged straight to my death.
Behind me, rapid footsteps thundered across the stone floor.
Then…
A sharp hiss of pain.
A grin slowly spread across my bloodstained face.
Not because he was hurting.
Because…
I’d done it.
Everything had gone exactly as I’d planned.
The moment the blade found its mark, I didn’t hesitate.
I moved.
The chains.
In that single opening, while he was consumed by pain and fury, I wrapped the chains around both of us.
I had planted the seeds.
Now all I had to do was struggle.
Fight.
Bleed.
I had to push harder than I ever had before.
Because eventually…
Those seeds would bear fruit.
They had to.
I…
I just had to— BAAM!
The entire fortress shook.
Lee’s palms crashed against the massive iron bars as he forced himself forward, his fingers digging into the metal with enough strength to make it groan.
The bastard was still standing.
No.
Not just that.
He was trying to break through.
“You…” His voice was trembling.
Not from fear.
From rage.
“You…” His grip tightened.
“You f*cking wretch!” His face twisted into something ugly, something completely consumed by hatred.
“I…” A sharp breath escaped him as his body faltered for the briefest moment.
Even now.
Even after everything.
He was still trying to reach me.
My eyes widened.
Was this asshole insane?
Was he seriously ignoring everything else just because he wanted to tear me apart?
Well…
He was f*cking welcome to try!
His gaze locked onto mine once again, burning with murderous intent.
Then his arm moved.
Too fast.
The blade descended, piercing into my hand.
Once.
Twice.
Again…
And again.
Pain exploded through my entire body as my fingers finally lost their strength.
Slowly, my grip vanished.
But I didn’t panic.
It was all fine…
Because that dumbass still hadn’t realised we were f*cking bound together.
As my body plunged into the abyss beneath the cage, the chains suddenly snapped taut.
Lee was violently yanked forward.
His chest slammed against the pristine iron bars with a deafening clang, the impact stealing every bit of momentum from my fall.
Instead of disappearing into the darkness below, I was left hanging in the air, suspended by the chains binding us together.
Lee let out a savage howl.
The bastard planted his feet and pulled with everything he had, dragging both of us upward inch by inch.
Blue lightning exploded across his arms.
Ability Fuel.
The instant it coursed into the cage, every rune carved into the pristine bars erupted into a brilliant golden radiance.
The Great Hall trembled.
With a thunderous crash that shook the entire fortress, the colossal iron cage slammed onto the ancient stone floor.
It had sealed.
I was trapped inside.
Lee’s eyes widened.
For the briefest moment…
Understanding dawned on his face.
Then…
His lips slowly curled upward.
Too wide.
Far too wide.
A manic laugh burst from his throat.
“Ha…
ha…
HAHAHA!” “So this…” “This is an Artifact!” He looked at me as though he’d just found the greatest treasure in the world.
“Just how terrible is your luck, Rat?!” Speak for yourself…
dickless.
Ignoring the blood pouring from his groin, Lee seized the bars once again and flooded them with even more Ability Fuel, veins bulging beneath his skin as blue lightning crackled wildly around his arms.
I smiled.
That smile was filled with rage.
If that even made sense.
Every nerve in my body screamed.
My hand was ruined.
My shoulder was shattered.
My chest burned with every breath.
Agony swallowed me whole.
And yet…
I laughed.
Not a chuckle.
Not a grin.
A full, broken, unhinged laugh escaped my throat.
Lee laughed with me.
Our voices echoed through the Great Hall together, two deranged lunatics howling at one another like blood-soaked devils that had forgotten what sanity even was.
It all felt so…
so…
exhilarating.
His murderous glare locked onto mine.
Mine never left his.
Then…
His eyes shifted past me.
Toward the abyss inside the cage.
His smile disappeared.
His pupils shrank.
He froze.
“…What?” A heartbeat later…
“ARRGGHHH!” With a blood-curdling scream, Lee collapsed onto the ground, clutching his ears as though he could somehow block out the voices tearing through his mind.
His fingers pressed so tightly against his head that his knuckles turned white.
Then…
His scream changed.
It stopped sounding human.
It became a siren of pure agony.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” The sound was deafening.
For a moment, even I almost covered my ears.
Almost.
But I didn’t.
Instead…
My laughter only grew louder.
The bastard scrambled backward, desperately trying to escape as far away from the cage as possible.
But the chains remained.
They held us together.
His sudden movement dragged me forward, my body slamming violently against the iron bars.
Pain erupted throughout my body, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.
Because Lee was no longer the same monster who had been chasing me.
The injury had taken its toll.
The Ability Fuel he had poured into the artifact while being assaulted by those insidious whispers had drained him further.
His body had weakened.
And now…
The chains pulled him back.
His body crashed against the bars directly in front of me.
He roared in fury, grabbing the chains and pulling with every ounce of strength he had left.
It didn’t matter.
Artifacts were not meant to be broken.
Even if these chains lacked active Runic Enchantments, their very existence as an artifact placed them beyond the limits of strength.
Lee couldn’t break them.
He never could.
And then…
As he desperately pulled against the chains…
Something moved behind him.
Two pale, bloodstained hands emerged from the darkness.
Before Lee could even react, they wrapped around him.
And pulled him into an embrace.
Of course…
I wasn’t foolish enough to rely on my arms alone.
As pitiful as the bastard’s state had become, I was still hopelessly outmatched in raw strength.
Worse, I could feel the last scraps of adrenaline draining from my body, my limbs growing heavier with every passing heartbeat.
I was running out of time.
No.
We were.
Every second brought us both closer to death.
The chains had made sure of that.
We were bound together.
Locked within each other’s reach.
There was only one way this could end.
Kill…
Or be killed.
So I moved.
My arms coiled around his neck, locking themselves beneath his chin like iron shackles.
Then my legs slipped through the gaps in the bars and wrapped tightly around his torso, anchoring us together until separating became impossible.
I wasn’t just going to strangle him with my arms.
I was going to strangle this motherf*cker with my whole damn body.
If he wanted to live…
He’d have to tear me apart first.