The scent of blood hung thick in the cavern, metallic and suffocating.

  Low growls rolled through the darkness like distant thunder.

  Clawed paws emerged first.

  Then eyes.

  Dozens of them.

  Black-furred dire-wolves stepped into view one by one, their massive frames rippling with muscle beneath coarse fur. A full pack. Enough to freeze the heart of any ordinary adventurer.

  Haruna did not freeze.

  But doubt flickered through her.

  Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword.

  There was only one choice.

  Fight.

  She turned to glance at her master—

  —and froze.

  Haruto stood unarmed.

  Yet a grin stretched across his face. Not nervous. Not forced.

  Hungry.

  His eyes gleamed with something she had never seen before.

  Confidence.

  Excitement.

  That expression alone erased the hesitation gnawing at her thoughts.

  Of course.

  It did not matter that he came from a peaceful world.

  The man chosen by the primordial Chaos.

  With him by her side, fear had no place.

  Memories surfaced unbidden.

  These same beasts had toyed with her before. Circled her. Let her taste dread. Played with their prey.

  Her lips curled slowly.

  “How the tables have turned…” she murmured.

  Astrons surged through her veins.

  They flooded into her blade without incantation, without restraint. Wind spiraled around the steel in a violent vortex, twisting and shrieking like a forming storm.

  No control.

  No refinement.

  Just destruction guided by instinct.

  Just as he taught her.

  Wind detonated beneath her feet.

  She vanished forward in an explosive burst.

  Haruto moved to stop her—

  —but didn’t.

  Something inside him had shifted.

  The sight of predators gathering before him should have stirred caution.

  Instead, it stirred something darker.

  It felt instinctive.

  A pull.

  A craving.

  The grin on his face deepened, though beneath it, buried deep, a thin thread of unease coiled quietly. About dying. About killing creatures that resembled dogs.

  But when Haruna charged, that hesitation snapped.

  Astrons gathered beneath his feet.

  He launched forward.

  Hana barely had time to latch onto him as the cavern blurred into streaks of stone.

  The dire-wolves were not mindless beasts. They were intelligent hunters. They knew when to retreat.

  This time, they did not.

  The pack leader threw back its head and howled.

  Something shifted.

  Their eyes grew brighter.

  Their movements more erratic.

  Berserk.

  Pain meant nothing.

  Fear meant nothing.

  It would not change their fate.

  Haruto appeared before the nearest wolf in a flash.

  He drew back his fist.

  A compact singularity of Astrons condensed just beyond his knuckles. Dense. Volatile. Unstable.

  Exactly as intended.

  His fist connected with the wolf’s jaw.

  Bone cracked.

  Then the compressed wind detonated.

  The wolf’s skull burst apart in a violent spray.

  Blood painted the air.

  Another lunged immediately.

  Haruto’s perception accelerated. The world slowed.

  Claws passed inches from his face.

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  He pivoted—

  —and teeth sank into his right arm from behind.

  Without flinching, Astrons surged through his muscles. He seized the wolf by its scruff and slammed it into the stone with crushing force.

  His eyes flashed blue.

  Information flooded in.

  Anatomy. Muscle density. Bite force. Reaction speed.

  He suppressed the data instantly, letting it settle into memory without distracting him.

  When he opened his eyes again—

  he could see it.

  Weak points.

  Highlighted through instinct and calculation.

  Several wolves closed in.

  His grin sharpened.

  He advanced.

  Each movement was deliberate. Each dodge precise. Fatal strikes slipped past him by fractions of seconds before he answered with explosive counterblows.

  Wind burst from his fists again and again.

  To him, it felt chaotic.

  Messy.

  Imperfect.

  But to any observer, he moved with unnatural composure.

  No panic.

  No hesitation.

  No remorse.

  He simply executed.

  Haruna saw it.

  And something in her chest steadied.

  She carved her blade through the air, unleashing a spiraling torrent of wind that swept multiple wolves off their feet.

  The vortex destabilized quickly—

  —but long enough.

  She cast it again.

  And again.

  Unrefined. Repetitive. Efficient.

  Then—

  she noticed it.

  Lightning.

  Thin threads of electricity crackled along the edge of her blade, weaving through the raging wind.

  Her eyes widened.

  She had not willed that.

  There was no time to question it.

  She swung.

  The resulting blast was different.

  The gust exploded outward in a thunderous shockwave. Wolves were hurled backward, bodies seizing midair as arcs of electricity locked their muscles.

  Paralyzed.

  For precious seconds.

  Haruna did not waste them.

  She vanished.

  One head fell.

  Then another.

  Then three more.

  In two breaths, half the pack lay dead at her feet.

  Silence began to reclaim the cavern.

  She stood among the corpses, blade dripping dark red.

  Haruto was right.

  Let Astrons manifest freely.

  Trust instinct over rigid incantation.

  In fast battles, thought was slower than trained reflex.

  Normally, she might have felt a twinge of regret.

  But not now.

  These beasts had chosen a side.

  They had aligned themselves with forces that threatened her homeland.

  In her eyes, they were no longer wolves.

  They were enemies.

  Nothing more. Nothing less.

  ...

  As Haruna looked down at her arms, slick with blood, she watched her wounds knit themselves closed in rapid succession. Torn flesh sealed. Bruises faded. Skin smoothed as if nothing had happened.

  A soft smile formed beneath her mask.

  “Thank you, Mistress Haruki.”

  “Mistress?” Haruki’s voice came lazily, entirely unfazed by the massacre surrounding them. “Hey, that sounds really weird. Can’t you call me something else?”

  Haruna straightened immediately. “Forgive me. I did not mean to—” She hesitated, then asked sincerely, “Please tell me what I should call you.”

  Haruki hummed thoughtfully.

  “I don’t know. Maybe just Haru. I’m used to that. Anything more formal kinda creeps me out, you know?”

  “I see…” Haruna lowered her gaze, conflicted. “I can call you that, but… would it not betray the respect I hold for my master?”

  “Him? No way.” Haruki dismissed it flatly. “Don’t worry about him. He’s not even used to someone calling him Master. He’s just distracted right now. Honestly, I doubt he approves of it.”

  “You truly think so?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Then what if I—”

  Her face flushed instantly beneath the mask.

  “N-no! Never mind!”

  Haruki’s grin turned wicked.

  “Oooh? What’s this? You’re really into him, aren’t you?”

  “N-no! That’s not true! I chose to serve him because he is Lord Charybdis’s apostle and—”

  “Oh? Chose?” Haruki tilted her head. “Was? So now there are… additional motivations?”

  Haruna fell silent.

  Even she did not fully understand it. Something inside her had shifted. Something unfamiliar. Something dangerous.

  Haruki teased, “Well, if you are into him, you’ll have to get in line. Big sis Hana already claimed prime real estate.”

  She nodded upward casually.

  “Maybe you can be a concubine? Is that a thing here?”

  Haruna’s ears turned violently red, twitching against the edges of her mask.

  Meanwhile—

  Haruto was still dismantling wolves.

  It was efficient.

  It was effective.

  It was not enough.

  The hunger inside him hadn’t faded.

  It had grown.

  He stepped back abruptly and grabbed Hana off his head.

  “Give me a second.”

  Before she could protest, he launched her upward.

  “HEY!”

  She spun through the air like a very offended projectile.

  Haruto ignored her.

  His mind sharpened.

  He remembered the failed wind claw technique Haruna attempted earlier when they were learning wind magic. He replayed the sensation. The Astron flow. The structural instability.

  Visual prowess activated.

  Data aligned.

  Conclusion formed.

  He bit down hard on his finger.

  Blood welled instantly.

  One drop fell—

  —and stopped midair.

  It expanded without splashing, unfolding in perfect silence as though sculpted by unseen hands. The crimson mass stretched and thinned, flowing over his forearms before solidifying in a single, seamless motion.

  From his left hand, elongated blades extended forward, sleek and razor-straight. They were not jagged, nor uneven, but refined into narrow, pectinate lengths that tapered into impossibly fine points. Their surfaces were smooth like polished ruby, translucent enough to catch the cavern’s dim light and refract it along their edges.

  They did not look grown.

  They looked forged.

  His right arm formed differently.

  Crystallized blood layered itself into an interlocking gauntlet that encased his forearm in sculpted plates. The structure was streamlined rather than bulky, the contours flowing naturally with the motion of his wrist. Subtle ridges traced along the outer edge, sharpening toward blade-like projections near the knuckles, giving the impression of both armor and weapon in one unified design.

  ---

  ---

  The wolves hesitated.

  Even the berserk ones faltered.

  The injured wolves that had regained consciousness felt it first.

  Fear.

  But the pack leader howled again, forcing the others deeper into frenzy.

  They charged.

  The first wolf reached him—

  —and was sliced cleanly in half.

  The second followed.

  Then the third.

  Blood sprayed in arcs as crystalline claws carved through flesh and bone with terrifying ease.

  Then the remaining pack lunged all at once.

  He vanished beneath them.

  Hana, descending from above, saw it.

  “Haruto!”

  But the concern was unnecessary.

  Beneath the pile, his grin remained.

  Predatory.

  In the next breath—

  Wind detonated outward in a barrage of compressed bursts.

  Every wolf was blown away violently. Some smashed into stone pillars. Others simply ruptured from internal shock.

  Silence fell.

  Haruto stood alone.

  Blood-crystal claws gleaming.

  He extended his right hand calmly.

  Hana dropped perfectly into it.

  He set her back atop his head.

  The remaining wolves and their scarred leader stared at him.

  The leader stepped back.

  It had seen monsters before.

  This was something else.

  With a low growl, it signaled retreat.

  The survivors followed.

  Haruto exhaled.

  “Guess we did it.”

  Hana didn’t answer.

  She wrapped around his head tightly instead, clinging.

  He reached up gently, patting her.

  “Sorry. I didn’t want you caught in that. I can regenerate. We don’t know your limits yet. I didn’t want to test it.”

  She held him tighter.

  Haruna approached, still faintly flustered from earlier.

  “Master… what are those?”

  She pointed at the crystallized weapons.

  Haruto’s grin returned instantly.

  “Pretty cool, right?”

  He flexed them dramatically.

  “It’s like your wind claw technique. I just modified it. My magic responds strongest through my blood because of my skill, so I reshaped it into something more… efficient.”

  He struck a ridiculous pose.

  “Original design.”

  “Those look suspiciously like the scissor claws and gauntlet of that primordial demon—”

  “Nope. Completely original.”

  “Sure.”

  Haruna watched him in quiet awe.

  He had observed her technique once.

  Once.

  And now he had forged something more lethal, more stable, more compatible with his own affinity.

  The only flaw was obvious.

  Energy drain.

  Haruto dismissed the claws. The crystal shattered and dissolved back into liquid before vanishing.

  “Still not replacing a sword,” he admitted. “It drains me fast. And the bloodlust spikes when I use it.”

  His eyes gleamed with excitement instead of concern.

  “I want to learn to control it.”

  “You still haven’t explained what that skill actually does,” Haruki pointed out.

  “I haven’t?”

  “No.”

  Haruto blinked.

  Then he turned.

  “Would a demonstration work?”

  Everyone followed his gaze.

  The wolf corpses.

  One of them suddenly ruptured.

  It exploded into a floating sphere of blood.

  Haruki instantly drew her blade.

  Haruto stopped her gently.

  “Just watch.”

  The sphere pulsed.

  Then split.

  Dozens of smaller blood orbs shot outward, attaching themselves to every corpse in the cavern.

  They consumed.

  Not tore.

  Not shredded.

  Consumed.

  Flesh dissolved. Bone liquefied. Fur vanished.

  Within seconds, nothing remained.

  The smaller orbs drifted back together, merging into a single condensed sphere before slipping back into the small wound on his finger.

  The cut sealed instantly.

  Haruto exhaled softly.

  “Well. That was cool, right?”

  He turned.

  Haruna stared.

  Hana was silent.

  Haruki’s blade remained half-raised.

  “Did I… say something wrong?”

  A bead of nervous sweat slid down his cheek.

  ...