CHAPTER 338: HOW DARE YOU.

Seeing her father so unexpectedly had left Crystal a mess. The uncaring father who always left her alone was now in this den of depravity. She had no idea why he would be in such a place. He always put the people of the city first over his own family. Over her.

Now he was rubbing shoulders with scum who were abusing women, alcohol and drugs?! Crystal could feel her rage simmering as her hand holding the blade trembled when she drew it. Even when his only child drew her sword on him, he didn’t even flinch.

With his back to her, she could only see the same stoic silhouette that haunted so many of her childhood memories. The same rigid posture. The same unreadable stillness. The same quiet reminder that she had never been enough.

Not loud enough.Not strong enough.Not worth the time.

Even when he and her mother were home, she had felt like a ghost haunting her own family. Sitting at the dinner table, smiling through forced conversations and cold meals. Pretending she didn’t notice the way he checked his watch more than he looked at her.

Her grip on the sword tightened.

He was right here now. Close enough to confront. Close enough to scream at. Close enough for all the questions and pain to finally have a target.

But she didn’t scream.

She just spoke, her voice low and cold.

"Why are you here?" she asked. "Why really?"

Lance turned slowly, his expression still neutral, but there was a faint tightness around his eyes now. He studied her, not like a father worried about his daughter, but like a man inspecting something that used to belong to him. Something broken. Something changed.

"I had business to observe," he said.

"You call this business?" she replied. "These people are monsters. And you’re standing among them like it’s just another meeting."

"There are monsters in every room of power," Lance said. "The difference is whether you control them or let them control you."

Crystal stared at him in disbelief.

"You’re not controlling anything. You’re just watching everything fall apart while pretending you’re still in charge."

He didn’t answer.

She took a step closer, sword still at her side but pulsing with that unnatural cold she had come to embody.

"Do you know how many people died out there today?" she asked. "The bodies of those I..no we couldn’t save are a testament that people like you cannot be trusted. Control them? You are one of them!"

She shouted, her emotions running rampant at wha tshe could only see as a betrayal. She failed to notice that every words caused Lance to flinch, even if only slightly. His lips twitched and there was a trace of sorrow remained in his eyes.

He had truly failed her. His shoulders trembled slightly but his words still came out steady.

"The blame for this is not yours to bare Daughter. It is the adults who have failed you. It is the spineless men who chose a meaningless escape over the right the thing have failed you. If you want me dead so be it. I only have one request. That it not be by your hand."

Lance turned around and Crystal’s breath hitched. Up until now she hadn’t noticed it. But now she saw the subtle clues. Did he care in his own complicated way. Her sword trembled as a beam of dark light struck her.

No one else saw it. No explosion. No fanfare. Just a silent shift. A ripple through the air that passed unnoticed by all except one.

Aria’s breath caught in her throat as she watched the beam pierce through Crystal’s chest. It didn’t burn her. Didn’t throw her back. It simply passed through and vanished.

But the change was immediate.

Crystal’s shoulders dropped as her expression went cold. Her breathing was becoming rough and shallow. As the coldness swept through her body, silent tears began to fall from beneath the blindfold.

They soaked into the fabric, making it cling to her face. Her lips parted as though the words were caught in her throat. Her fingers, still wrapped around the hilt of her blade, began to tremble.

She looked at him.

The man who had been her father only in name.

Her voice cracked.

"Who do you think you are?"

Each word was soaked in anguish. Her arms shook as her grip tightened.

"What makes you think you get to ask that? What makes you think someone like you has the right to decide how they die?!"

Her voice was louder now. The pain that she had buried for years erupted like a storm inside her.

"You abandoned me. You let me rot in silence. You let them whisper and stare. I was always alone. And now you want to talk about mercy through death? Are you that much of a coward?!"

Lance’s expression twisted. The stoicism faltered. His shoulders sagged under the weight of her words.

His voice came quietly. Steady. Honest.

"I don’t deserve that right. I know."

Crystal’s breath caught again. The blade in her hand lowered an inch.

"But I do not want my child," Lance continued, voice tight with grief, "to live with the pain of killing their parent. Even a monster. That is a burden no child should carry."

Crystal stood frozen.

Her chest rose and fell in sharp, uneven breaths. Her jaw clenched. Her hands shook so violently the blade nearly slipped from her grasp. The room around them was fading. The crowd. The lights. The whispers.

All she saw was him.

The man she had waited years to hear say something. Anything. For the first time, it felt like he was actually looking at her. But that only made it worse.

She turned away before her knees could buckle. Before her resolve could shatter completely.

"I chose this path," she whispered. "And I will see it through. But not for you."

He nodded once.

"I wouldn’t ask you to."

And with that, she walked away.

Not toward him. Not toward safety.

But toward Aria whose concern for her new friend was growing.

Aria watched Crystal approach, her steps slow and unsteady, like someone moving through water too deep to breathe in.

The cold that clung to her wasn’t just magic anymore. It was grief. It was heartbreak. It was everything she had kept buried, now bleeding through the cracks in her voice and the frost gathering at her feet.

Crystal stopped in front of her, blindfold still damp. She didn’t speak right away.

Aria didn’t push.

She reached out gently, her hand hovering near Crystal’s arm.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly.

Crystal nodded her head slowly. "Yeah I’ll be fine. Let’s go back. I don’t want to be in the room with this filth anymore."

Her voice dropped to an even colder tone than normal as her head slowly turned, commiting the name of every face she saw. She would remember them and if she ever saw them again commiting any heinous acts, she would show no mercy.