Liam gritted his teeth and a low groan escaped his throat as he forced himself upright again. His legs felt hollow, like the bones inside them had been replaced with glass. It took everything in him just to remain standing. His chest was still caved slightly where the fist had landed, each breath sharp and shallow, scraping through him like broken metal.

The entire tunnel had gone quiet.

Vampires, exogens, even the masked men who had been ready to tear into Irina moments ago had paused. They were not afraid of noise or blood. They were watching something else. Watching Liam. Watching The man.

Irina moved first.

She emerged in front of Liam in a blur, her cloak still flowing around her body as she positioned herself between him and The Man. One hand hovered near her side, frost already beginning to gather at her fingertips. Her shoulders were tense, her chin lifted slightly, her eyes calculating.

But Liam reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.

It was not gentle. It was steady.

He stepped around her.

His boots scraped against broken concrete as he walked forward again, even though his body screamed at him to stop. He wanted to know. He needed to know.

He raised his head slowly and looked straight at the burned face in front of him.

"Who are you?"

His voice came out rough and weak, but it carried across the ruined tunnel.

The masked man who was no longer masked stood completely still. His white eyes did not blink. For a few seconds there was only silence, broken by the faint drip of water somewhere deeper in the tunnel.

Then he spoke.

"Cain."

The single word slid out of his mouth in a way that made Liam’s stomach twist. The voice was wrong. It sounded scraped. Distorted. Like air being forced through something that should not be able to form words. Liam could not even understand how the man was speaking. His lips were gone. His nose was gone. Parts of his jaw showed bone. Even his tongue had been burned away.

Yet he spoke clearly.

Liam stumbled back half a step and Irina caught him by the arm.

"C-Cain..." he repeated, as if saying the name would make it less real.

Cain tilted his head slightly. His white eyes stayed locked onto Liam.

"Young man, I admire your spirit. Many have fallen to that. You survived. That is special."

Each word came out steady despite the ruined face. It made the air around them feel heavier.

"Unfortunately, you have offended the wrong person."

Liam felt his whole world tilt again.

Not physically this time. Something deeper. That same strange pressure crawled over his mind, like invisible fingers pressing against his thoughts. He clenched his jaw hard enough to hurt himself. He refused to kneel again. He refused to let fear take control.

He did not know what a spiritual attack was. He did not know why his system had glitched. But he knew one thing.

He would not be caught off guard twice.

Inside his mind he began to focus, reaching for the trump card he had kept hidden. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Cain did not move.

He did not need to.

Liam felt it coming. That invisible force again. Like a mountain preparing to fall on him without warning.

Before he could fully activate his power, Irina’s hand suddenly tightened around his.

He looked at her sharply.

There was no hesitation in her eyes.

In the next second she slammed something small and hard onto the ground between them.

The object shattered with a sharp crack.

A pulse of energy burst outward.

The tunnel twisted.

The sound vanished.

Cain’s white eyes narrowed a fraction, but it was already too late.

In a blink, Liam felt his stomach drop like he had been thrown from a great height. The world folded in on itself and then snapped back open.

Silence.

When Liam opened his eyes again, the smell of dust and blood was gone.

They were back inside Irina’s mansion.

The high ceilings loomed above them. The polished marble floor reflected the dim chandelier light. It felt unreal compared to the chaos they had just left.

Liam swayed on his feet.

Irina was already pulling her cloak off, tossing it aside as if it had never mattered. The cold aura around her faded slightly but did not disappear completely. Her face was tight with concentration.

Mikhail was kneeling a few feet away.

Sergei lay on the floor in front of him.

Liam blinked slowly, trying to clear his blurry vision. The last image he had of Sergei was the massive werewolf form disappearing into the darkness with that masked man chasing him. Liam had believed Sergei would thrive there. In the dark. In his full transformation. It should have been his territory.

But what lay on the mansion floor barely looked alive.

Sergei’s massive body had shrunk back to human form. His skin was torn in multiple places. Deep bruises spread across his ribs and chest. Blood pooled beneath him, thick and dark. His breathing was shallow and uneven.

Mikhail kept tapping his face lightly.

"Sergei. Hey. Wake up."

There was no response.

Liam’s chest tightened, and not just from his own injury.

He realized something then.

Those two masked men were not ordinary exogens. They had confidence that did not come from arrogance. It came from certainty.

Cain and the one who chased Sergei were on another level.

Irina moved quickly to Sergei’s side, kneeling and placing her hand over one of his wounds. Frost spread carefully around the torn flesh, slowing the bleeding without freezing him completely. Her movements were precise, controlled, far from the playful tone she had used earlier in the fight.

Liam took a step forward but the room tilted violently.

His vision pulsed red.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears.

The image of Cain’s burned face flashed in his mind. The white eyes. The invisible punch. The way he had not moved yet still struck him.

Liam tried to speak but his throat felt tight.

He could not shake the feeling that Cain had not even been serious.

His eyes slowly began to glow deeper red.

Something inside him stirred. Not fear this time. Rage. Raw and rising.

Irina glanced back at him, sensing the shift, but before she could say anything his knees buckled.

Thud.

His body hit the marble floor hard.

The red glow flickered once and vanished.

Darkness swallowed him whole.

Liam opened his eyes slowly.

For a moment he just stared at the ceiling above him. The soft light in the room felt calm, steady, nothing like the chaos he remembered. He inhaled deeply and paused. No sharp pain. No crushing weight on his chest. No blood in his throat.

He felt... refreshed.

Like he had not been slammed through a wall hours ago. Like he had not been one punch away from death.

"You’re awake."

He turned his head slightly.

Lana was sitting right beside him on the bed.

Her green eyes were fixed on his face and the fire that usually burned confidently inside them was dimmed with worry. She looked like she had not moved from that spot for a long time. Her long dark brown hair fell over her shoulder in soft waves and her fingers were lightly resting on the edge of the mattress as if she had been holding herself back from shaking him awake.

Liam coughed once and slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position.

The movement was smooth.

Too smooth.

His brows pulled together as he looked down at his chest. The shirt he was wearing had been changed. Clean. No blood. No tear. He lifted the fabric slightly and stared at his skin.

It was completely healed.

Not even a scar.

He ran his hand over his chest slowly, pressing lightly, testing. Nothing. No pain. No soreness. It was as if Cain’s punch had never landed.

Lana’s eyes followed his hand nervously.

Liam exhaled softly then lifted his hand and gently rubbed her cheek with his thumb.

"Sorry for scaring you."

His voice was calm now, steady, almost warm.

Lana closed her eyes briefly at his touch and leaned into his hand without thinking.

"Mmm," she breathed out, relief slipping through her like tension finally breaking.

When she opened her eyes again they were still serious.

"Irina told me everything. I couldn’t believe it until I saw you."

Her voice was quiet but there was something firm inside it. She was not the type to panic easily. She had faced monsters before. She had burned enemies alive without hesitation. But this was different.

This was Liam.

Liam gave a small smile.

Even he could not believe it.

Someone that powerful. Someone who could attack without moving. Someone whose presence alone made his system glitch. It felt unreal. He had grown stronger. Much stronger. He had defeated enemies that once would have crushed him.

Yet Cain made him feel like a child standing in front of something ancient.

Liam swung his legs over the side of the bed.

Lana’s hand instinctively grabbed his wrist.

"You should rest."

"I’m fine," he said quietly.

He stood up anyway.

His legs were stable. No shaking. No weakness. His body felt like it had been completely restored. If anything, there was a strange sense of energy running beneath his skin, like his system had done more than just repair him.

He rolled his shoulders once and stretched slightly.

"How long was I out for?" he asked.

Lana stood up with him, still watching closely as if expecting him to collapse again.

"It’s been six hours."

Liam paused for a second and nodded slowly.

"Six hours," he repeated.

That was not too long.

Decent.

He had expected worse. After the state he was in, after the way his chest had been crushed and his vision had gone red, six hours felt almost generous.

He walked a few steps across the room, testing his balance again. Perfectly fine.

Behind him Lana was still watching in silence, her eyes tracing every movement, making sure he was really stable.

He turned slightly and gave her another faint smile.