Chapter 367: Only One Come Out

“All you need to do is keep an eye on the people near him. Only move when he was onto us.”

Lily nodded firmly, eager to do what she was told.

Obtaining the blessing of the avatar improved her physique immensely, allowing her to score the top in her class from the tenth spot, her original position. Not to mention, her eyesight was also improved to a terrifying degree.

She can clearly see ants taking each step from over fifteen meters away.

It was almost as if she obtained the eyesight of a falcon.

For more blessings, all she needed to do was watch over Lucivar, the rising star of the academy.

She would report any anomaly to the routine and strike if it was deemed necessary.

Upon noticing that Lucivar was becoming busy and his family was becoming frantic, Lily knew that he was up to something. She and a couple of others have to keep Lucivar distracted, unaware of the approaching danger that’s going to be the end of him.

Lily was both the stalker and the hunter.

But at this moment, she was neither the stalker nor the hunter.

She became prey.

“Lily! Run! He can create clones!!”

Deg!

Hearing Hector’s frantic voice coming from the communication mark made her heart skip a beat.

She had heard what the other woman said earlier, that Lucivar was aware of their existence, but she was hoping that she could kill Sabrina and leave the premises. No matter what, she was a student here—and she doubted Lucivar could locate her properly.

If she could kill Sabrina successfully, she might be rewarded by the avatar.

Perhaps, she would gain another blessing.

But her plan immediately crumbled when she heard what Hector said.

“C-Clones…?” Lily’s eyes widened in shock, then, slowly, she lifted her gaze to look at Sabrina—who was still facing away. Unnaturally standing still like a statue. “He shouldn’t have that kind of ability… Even he didn’t mention any cloning ability.”

“I have so much more ability than you don’t know of.”

Lily looked at Sabrina in horror.

Her voice was barely a whisper, but somehow, Sabrina could hear exactly what she was saying.

More importantly, a frown crossed her face when she realized something.

“I…?” She stepped away in fear.

Just then, under her stunned gaze, Sabrina’s body began to contort with grotesque fluidity.

Bones cracked and reshaped, limbs twisted and stretched, her frame bulging and collapsing as if it was a struggle to decide what she wanted to become. Her skin rippled like water over fire, shifting color and texture, until at last the chaos stilled.

Sabrina was now in the form of a man with short black hair and a lean, muscular build.

But at the sight of this, Lily realized that Sabrina wasn’t Sabrina at all.

It was Lucivar in disguise.

Lucivar glanced over his shoulder, his eyes gleaming with a greenish hue that struck fear into Lily’s core.

Noticing her pale complexion, he cackled, “What’s there to be surprised about? I told you in advance already… I have so much more ability than you know of, and one of them is shapeshifting. It’s really my first time changing my entire form like that, though.”

His Major Morphing ability had reached a new height.

Now, he could shapeshift to anyone without any missing detail.

Of course, until he upgraded his Major Morphin to its next form, he had one limitation.

All he can morph into is people.

Unlike what he wanted, morphing into animals and even monsters, he was still stuck at being human.

But then again, he’s slowly reaching there, so he wasn’t complaining.

‘I… I need to get out of here!’ Lily exclaimed inside her head.

Realizing that it was a trap, she immediately channeled her ether and turned the other way around. She ran with all her might, caring for nothing other than running for her life, hoping that she could reach the main street and be within the camera’s view.

At least then, Lucivar wouldn’t dare to kill her.

“Hah… Hah…”

Lily panted heavily as she kept running, her eyes fixated on the main street.

Feeling that it was too far away, she opened her mouth to scream, but her vision suddenly blurred.

Bam!

Lily lost her balance as a powerful force struck her right on her spine—the vessels in her eyes exploded, her vision turned dark and blurry, and blood forced its way to her throat—and out of her mouth. ‘Did I get hit? Where?!’

As she blinked, the pain finally caught up to her.

It was a paralyzing pain right on her vertebrae, numbing her senses from the waist down.

She fell to the ground roughly, coughing blood repeatedly.

“Raarghkk!”

Her scream was raw and emotional.

Never in her entire life did she feel this level of pain before; it was extremely excruciating.

Moreover, no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t move or even feel her legs.

But sheer survival instinct kept her moving, pushing through the searing pain as she dragged her broken body forward. She crawled—with everything she had, clinging to the desperate hope of escaping this cursed alley.

Just ten meters stood between her and the main street.

In her peak condition, she could cover that much distance in an instant.

One dash would easily cover ten meters.

But at this moment, ten meters felt like miles—it felt so far away.

‘No… I can’t die like this,’ Lily gritted her blood-coated teeth—features trembling between frustration and pain. “Not when everything had only started to go my way. I reached the top of the class… I found a benefactor who can help me get stronger. I can’t die like this… I can’t.’

As she crawled forward, a shadow moved at the edge of her vision.

Lucivar is walking silently beside her as if he were taking a stroll, just within her peripheral gaze.

“Please…” She turned her head towards him, tears streaking down her face. Her voice was hoarse and filled with desperation. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die. Please, Lucivar, spare me. I don’t want to die. Spare me!”

Even as she said this, she kept going forward.

Her face was so pathetic that even Lucivar started to feel bad.

But feeling bad wouldn’t stop him from doing what he needed to do.

Realizing that she was a few meters away, Lily crawled faster.

However, her hope was completely shattered in the next second.

Lucivar, without mercy, grabbed her leg and dragged her back into the alley.

“No. No!”

Lily screamed, her voice hoarse and desperate.

Her ankle was grabbed, and her body dragged across rough concrete.

She flailed wildly, hands scrambling for anything—anything at all—that could anchor her. But there was absolutely nothing. No railing, no crack, no mercy. In a frenzy of desperation, she slammed both her hands against the round, fingers clawing deep.

First, her nail bent—then tore, peeling away from the quick in sickening pops as she cried and wailed.

Still, she clung to the cold concrete.

Her skin split open. Flesh gave away. Her fingertips shredded into raw, bloodied stumps, painting four desperate trails in their wake. And yet, she kept slipping—Lucivar dragged her like a lifeless rag, not a human, rendering her resistance meaningless with his sheer strength.

Even the use of ether didn’t make a difference.

Lucivar’s strength was simply in a class of its own.

No matter how hard she fought, her blood-slick hands could not hold.

All she could do was scream and cry as she was hauled mercilessly back into the dark.

…

“RAAGHH!”

A group of two students snapped their heads to look over their shoulders.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, I heard it. It sounded like someone was screaming.”

“It came from the cafeteria, I think… But I can be wrong.”

“Still, this can’t possibly be real, right? It’s not like this is a public place.”

Both of them exchanged looks, brows furrowed in alert.

Considering that there were guards patrolling around every night, academy hunters who were tasked to look after the academy, there was no way that someone would try to do something bad around. Nobody would dare to do that.

A criminal act that was committed inside the academy has an amplified punishment.

All aspiring Hybrids are humanity’s future.

For that very reason, the Supreme House had doubled—if not tripled—the punishment for any criminal act committed within an academy’s grounds. Nothing of the sort had occurred in the last ten years after the rule was finalized.

Now, only a fool would dare to attempt something so reckless.

And it was even more foolish for anyone who believed that there was someone that foolish out there.

Just then, the students’ expressions shifted from alert to fear.

“Should we check it out?” One of them asked.

“Check it out? You’re the one who’s going to die if this were a horror movie,” The other shook his head in disappointment at his friend’s response. Hearing a scream should’ve alerted him, not drawn him in. “You really are helpless, man.”

“Come on, you know I’ve always wanted to see ghosts. Didn’t you know? Our academy is known to have the Pale Baby. I heard that twenty years ago, there was a pregnant student who was killed, and now, the baby turned into an evil spirit we called—the Pale Baby. Its body is a baby, but its arms are fucking long. So long that they have to be dragged along while walking around.”

“Fuck me… You believe that shit?”

“I don’t believe it, but what if it’s real? That’s why we should check it out.”

“If you want to see ghosts, go to that tamed dungeon, the Black Crypt—there are many ghosts there.”

“You know that I don’t mean that kind of ghost. I meant like actual ghost, not ghost monsters.”

“Same thing for me.”

Not even entertaining his friend’s stupid suggestion, the student walked away with his friend following right behind. Of course—both of them were still arguing about whether they should turn around to check if the Pale Baby was real.

Meanwhile, on the alley beside the cafeteria.

Sabrina emerged from the darkness and walked out of the alley with grace.

She cleaned the trail of blood on the ground calmly with a cloth until it was sparkling clean.

Then, she pocketed the cloth and walked out slowly—stopping right on the alley’s mouth.

For a moment there, she stood motionless and stared into the starry night, inhaling the fresh night air deeply while enjoying the scenery. Only the sound of insects creaking accompanied the night, and their synchrony created a peaceful atmosphere.

Once she was ready, she slapped her hands together once, then again.

Slow, deliberate, as if wiping away a mess no one could see.

After doing that, she turned to the side and walked away, heading back toward the student dormitory.

Nobody came out of the alley other than her, and nobody noticed anything wrong.

Only the walls were the silent witness to what had happened inside the alley earlier.

Two people came into the alley earlier, but only one came out.