Inside the abandoned building swallowed by shadows, the eerie sound of slithering serpents echoed.

Rustle, rustle.

It didn’t come from just one direction. As if trapped inside a massive cage of serpents, the sound reverberated from every direction.

Kwon Oh-Jin tightened his grip on his spear with a tense expression. “Haaa...”

He activated the Stigma of Canes Venatici and heightened every sense.

Rustle, rustle—

Just as the sinister noise suddenly went still, a flood of black serpents erupted like an explosion from all sides.

It’s coming!

The first to reach him burst out from a moldy wall.

Right side.

He swung his spear like a windmill and unleashed the condensed lightning.

Boom!

With a thunderous roar, the lightning storm swept away hundreds of serpents.

Shhhhh!

As he fended off the serpents from the right, one managed to latch on and tightly coiled around his left arm. It instantly opened its massive jaws and sank its fangs into his forearm.

Gush!

Its teeth pierced his flesh like a dagger, and a numbing sensation shot up his arm.

Is it poison?

If it were poison, it wouldn’t be some mild neurotoxin. A neurotoxin would be lethal to ordinary humans, but would normally amount to nothing more than a brief sting for Awakeners with superhuman physiques.

“Tsk.”

As expected, this venom savagely tore through his mana circuits while rampaging inside him. He could see his skin around the bite turning black and necrotizing.

Since mana circuits were the pathways through which a Stigma’s power flowed, even the slightest damage could cause fatal internal injuries.

But this much is nothing.

Crackle!

His lightning-infused mana burned away the poison invading his circuits, instantly reducing the serpent on his arm into ashes.

Lightning Charge.

Kwon Oh-Jin shifted toward the right, where fewer serpents swarmed, and gathered lightning into his left arm.

“Explode.”

Kaboom!

The condensed lightning burst forth, annihilating the serpents rushing toward him. Although he had only stacked Lightning Charge five times, the serpents themselves weren’t very strong. One strike was more than enough to wipe them out.

The problem is...

Rustle, rustle.

No matter how many he killed, more serpents kept appearing out of the shadows.

At this rate, this will never end.

He could drag this into a war of attrition, but didn’t know what the injured Cassia would do to Isabella. Ignoring the serpents leaping at him, Kwon Oh-Jin kicked off toward Cassia.

“Oh my, you’re finally paying attention to me?” Cassia smiled sweetly, as if waiting for this moment, and snapped her fingers.

A massive shadow arm appeared out of nowhere and blocked his path. He glared sharply at the monstrous arm that swung down at him with terrifying force.

Could he break through or dodge? It didn’t take him long to decide.

Break through.

Kwon Oh-Jin clenched his fist and drew upon his Stigma’s mana. An immense amount of lightning condensed, turning his fist into blue lightning itself. His fingertips to his wrists had turned into Lightning Form.

Having created this quickly, its destructive power and duration fell far short of the usual Lightning Form. However, it was more than enough to pierce through a weakened Cassia’s shadow.

Crackle! Boom!

The massive shadow arm shattered.

Kwon Oh-Jin charged through the scattering shadows and swung his spear at where Cassia had stood. Cassia, who had been standing there just moments before, instantly vanished.

What the hell?

“Looking for me?” she asked from behind him.

Even without turning around, he knew that she was talking from within his own shadow.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

She could use other people’s shadows too?

Kwon Oh-Jin quickly rolled forward and swung his spear behind him.

Whoosh!

Even for a strike delivered in mid-roll, the blow carried considerable force. Once again, he only cut through empty air.

“Oh my, aren’t you rough,” Cassia said from above this time.

Kwon Oh-Jin cocked his head back in disbelief as he spotted her standing upside down on the ceiling of this ruined building.

What is she, some ghost from a horror movie?

Honestly, she was far scarier than any ghost.

He looked up at her. “You know your panties are about to show.”

“Oh my?”

Her black dress didn’t budge as if it had been glued in place, refusing to flip even while she stood upside down. One careless move and her skirt would lift from gravity.

“Do you want to see my panties?” With a sultry smile, Cassia pinched the hem of her dress and deliberately flipped it up.

Her snow-white legs, delicate figure, and jet-black lace panties could be seen.

“If you want, you can look as much as you want.”

Kwon Oh-Jin pressed his forehead as if getting a headache.

“Haha, I’m just teasing.” Cassia burst out laughing and let her dress fall back.

Instead of simply dropping, the black fabric seemed to flow up against gravity and spread across the ceiling like spilled ink.

Just then, a long black whip lashed down at him.

Whoosh!

To be precise, it wasn’t a whip.

It’s a serpent’s tail.

Dozens of serpent tails descended from the ceiling and split the air with a sinister whistle as they lashed toward Kwon Oh-Jin.

One tail grazed his side as he attempted to dodge.

“Argh!”

The hooked, razor-edged scales tore away a chunk of his flesh. His blood sprayed out everywhere.

Kwon Oh-Jin activated the Stigma of Hourglass and weaved between the storm of tails.

She’s pulling this off even while injured?

The attack’s sheer ferocity made him click his tongue in disbelief. Just when he started to doubt that she was wounded at all, Cassia’s face twisted in pain. She lowered herself lightly back to the floor.

“Urgh...”

Kwon Oh-Jin could tell she wasn’t doing so well after all. He readjusted his grip on his spear and looked at her panting.

“Getting tired already?”

“Haa, haa... Oh? I’ll have you know, my stamina isn’t bad at all.” Cassia patted herself down with her slender hand and smiled with feigned composure, but sweat beaded on her pale brow and soaked her platinum-blonde hair. She exhaled deeply and closed her eyes. “Haaa...”

Rustle, rustle!

Her black dress spread across the floor like a dark flood and covered the ruined building’s interior in shadows. The sound of snakes filled the air again, louder and more numerous than before.

So she wants to finish this quickly.

Kwon Oh-Jin narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his spear.

I can’t fight her properly inside this place.

It was the dead of night, and the abandoned building was pitch-black. Shadows swallowed every corner. For Cassia, who controlled shadows, this was a perfect battlefield.

That’s why she lured me here in the first place.

No matter how much he wanted to escape, shadows covered everything from the floor to the ceiling.

I can’t escape her shadow here. In that case...

Kwon Oh-Jin spread his arms out and fired his wire shooter toward the wall.

Bang!

The wires shot out and deeply pierced the rusty metal. At the same time, a wave of black serpents poured out from the shadows.

Shhhhhh!

He kicked off and sprinted along the wall as the swarm chased after him like a scene straight out of a sci-fi blockbuster.

Cassia’s breathing grew ragged, and her face twisted in pain. “Haa, haa. Running won’t help.”

She wavered like she would collapse any second, yet the tide of serpents only grew more ferocious.

Crackle! Crack!

Kwon Oh-Jin cut down the serpents as he ran without ever slowing down.

“My, you are quick.” Cassia squinted at the serpents that failed to catch him. “But what about this?”

Her Stigma glowed, and an ominous power pulsed out into the shadows.

Shaaaa!

The long, whip-like tails of the serpents shot up like an explosion. Not from the floor, ceiling, or shadows on the walls, but from Kwon Oh-Jin’s own shadow.

“No matter how fast you are, you can’t outrun your own shadow.”

Just as she said, he could never be faster than his own shadow.

Kwon Oh-Jin nodded knowingly and suddenly halted. “I figured as much.”

By now, the black serpents surrounded him and left him hardly any room to run.

If running away is impossible...

He stretched out his hand and grabbed a wire in front of him. While running along the walls, he had crisscrossed the wires until they looked like a spider web.

“Then, I’ll just burn everything down.” He drew upon his Stigma’s mana to its limit and released all the lightning through the wire in his grasp.

Crackkkkle!

Blue lightning raced along the wires that stretched throughout the abandoned building. The snakes that touched the densely woven wire were burnt to a crisp. In an instant, the dark building lit up as bright as day.

“Ugh...” Cassia winced and staggered back.

Seizing the opening, Kwon Oh-Jin lunged forward and clamped his hand tightly around her slender neck.

“Kugh!” Cassia wheezed, her face contorting in pain as she struggled to breathe.

Kwon Oh-Jin coldly looked down at her. “Let’s stop this pathetic bullshit, Cassia.”