Chapter : 1315

But the assassin’s training was deep inside him. The shock only lasted for a microsecond. His other hand was already moving. His fingers were closing around a small, black amulet at his throat. It was a special object he used for a quick escape.

But Lloyd was faster.

He had not just stopped the attack. He had already guessed what Jager would do next. His free hand, which was at his side, was already moving. It did not hit or grab. It just… landed. A soft, almost casual touch on Jager’s shoulder.

"My turn," Lloyd whispered. His voice was a low, cold promise that this was the end.

He did not use his Steel Blood power. He did not use his spirits. He used his newest, most frightening, and most powerful ability. He used his special power over space.

This time, the world did not fade away. It was taken apart.

A quiet, spinning whirlpool of pure white light appeared where he touched Jager. It did not explode out. Instead, it pulled inward, sucking both of them into its center like a silent, hungry mouth.

Jager’s terrified, disbelieving face was the last thing Lloyd saw. And then, they were gone.

They vanished from the large ceremony room. They did not disappear in a flash of light or a puff of smoke. They were just… erased. One moment, they were there, the center of a crisis that could break the kingdom. The next moment, there was only empty space. The faint smell of ozone was in the air, and a single, perfect rose petal from a nearby flower display drifted slowly down to the marble floor.

In the shocked, total silence of the room, as a thousand people tried to understand the impossible thing they had just seen, King Liam’s eyes narrowed. But his face showed no panic. No fear. He had lost a queen, but his enemy had lost a king. The king thought this was a fair trade.

He gave a small, barely noticeable nod to the High Priest. It was a silent, direct command. The show had to continue.

The High Priest, his face pale but his voice surprisingly steady, hesitated in panic for a moment before he received the silent order. He cleared his throat, raised his hands, and with a perfect, professional skill that was amazing to see, he started the ceremony again. His voice rang out as if nothing had happened.

The royal wedding went on. It was a beautiful, perfect lie to hide the quiet, violent war that had just started in the secret corners of the palace. The party continued, but the game had just been moved to a new, and much more terrible, place.

The trip was not a physical feeling. It was a feeling in his mind, not his body. It felt like being turned inside out. It was like all the tiny parts of his body were taken apart and put back together differently. There was a moment of complete and scary non-existence, like a silent scream in a void of pure, white light.

And then, there was reality.

Lloyd and Jager reappeared not in a flash, but with a strange, sudden jolt. It felt like watching a movie that suddenly jumped forward. The beautiful, sunny ceremony room was gone. They were now in a huge, empty, and perfectly white space. A plain white floor stretched out to a plain white horizon, all under a plain white sky. There were no sounds, no smells, nothing to feel. It was a completely clean, empty, and plain white place.

It was Lloyd’s private space, his personal cage that was five square kilometers in size.

He let go of Jager’s wrist. The assassin stumbled back. His eyes were wide with a mix of fear and disbelief. He looked around at the impossible, empty world. His mind tried to understand how wrong and unnatural it all was.

“Where… where are we?” Jager managed to say. His voice was rough and weak. His proud and calm attitude was gone. It had been broken by the strange and violent feeling of being moved in that way.

“We are in a place where no one can hear you scream,” Lloyd answered. His voice was calm, flat, and showed no mercy. The polite decorator, the shy professor, the charming lord—all those versions of him were gone. The man standing in front of Jager now was someone different. He was cold, ancient, and powerful. “Welcome to my workshop, Jager. I have some questions for you.”

Chapter : 1316

Jager’s survival instincts took over, and he snarled. "You think you've won? You fool. You have just trapped yourself with me." He called for his spirit, Kroth, the powerful iron alligator. The huge, twenty-foot-long animal appeared in a swirl of shadows and evil. Its iron skin scraped against the clean white floor.

Lloyd just watched him. His face showed a deep, professional disappointment. "You still don't understand the rules of this new game, do you?" he said. His voice was full of a tired pity. "In this place, what I want to happen becomes a rule of nature."

He raised a hand. "Ifrit," he commanded.

The white emptiness was torn open. A huge, silent explosion of bright red energy appeared. The nine-foot-tall demon of lava and fire, Ifrit, showed up. His flaming sword gave off a heat so strong it made the air itself seem to wiggle.

But that was not all.

"Fang Fairy," Lloyd said, his voice still quiet and normal.

A second explosion happened. This time, it was a storm of pure blue lightning. The beautiful and scary goddess of the storm appeared. Her silver hair crackled with power, and her golden eyes burned with a cold, hunting light.

Jager and his alligator spirit took a step back without meaning to. The powerful energy coming from two very strong spirits felt like a real weight. It was like a heavy mountain pressing down on them, crushing them.

"Echo. Abyss," Lloyd continued, his voice now a soft, almost bored whisper.

Two more beings appeared. There was the shapeless, shifting Doppelganger made of silver and shadow, and the ten-foot-long Great White Shark made of high-pressure water.

"And finally," Lloyd whispered. A slow, cold, and truly terrifying smile appeared on his lips for the first time. "Let's not be rude. Meet the queen."

Jager just stared. His brilliant, proud mind of a master assassin simply… broke. He was facing not one or two, but five incredibly powerful spirits. It was a group of powerful beings that were like gods and monsters, an army of things that should not exist. And in the middle of them all stood a single, quiet man. He was looking at Jager with the bored and unhappy face of a god who has found a mistake in something he made.

"Now," Lloyd said. His voice sounded like the final, soft click of a trap closing. "Let us begin."

Back in the ceremony room, the wedding continued perfectly, but it felt very strange and unreal. The High Priest’s voice continued on and on. The guests, after a moment of shocked confusion, had decided that the impossible disappearance was just another amazing and hard-to-understand piece of royal magic.

But in the Royal Box, Amina was not watching the ceremony. She was staring at the empty spot on the platform where Lloyd had been. Her face was pale with a mix of fear and hope. She knew what he was. She knew how powerful he was. But she also knew how dangerous the enemy he was facing was. And in the quiet, secret part of her own heart, she was sending a silent, desperate prayer out into the emptiness.

The wedding was a lie. The promises were a lie. The only true thing in the entire, amazing room was the quiet, violent war happening in a world just beyond their own. It was a war that would decide the kingdom's future. The war was being fought by one man. That man had chosen to trap himself in a cage with a monster, and he did it with a strange and scary smile.

While holy promises of eternal love were being made in the sunny ceremony room, a different, more violent event was taking place in the dark hallways and passages of the Royal Palace. The wedding was like a beautiful, beating heart, and its life came from a river of celebration and happiness. But in the hidden parts of the castle—the service hallways, the huge kitchens, the quiet, moonlit gardens—a poison was being put in. It was a quiet, spreading poison that was trying to destroy it all forever.

Jager’s plan, even with all its proud drama, was a masterful example of a type of fighting where the two sides are not equal. He knew he could not attack the palace directly. So, he did not try. He went around the strong walls completely. Hidden gateways, created with forbidden shadow magic and connected to black crystal shards placed weeks earlier by secret agents, blinked open in a dozen chosen, unguarded spots. From these silent, open wounds in the world, an army of evil creatures began to pour out.