CHAPTER 297: CHAPTER 297: THE PRICE OF VICTORY

The battlefield was silent at last. Noel knelt on the shattered stone floor, Revenant Fang hanging loosely in his grip. Noir lay limp in his arms, her small body trembling with shallow breaths. Blood smeared her fur, staining his sleeves as he clutched her closer.

In front of him, the blue system window floated, clear and merciless against the smoke and ruin.

[Mission completed: Save Nicolas von Aldros’s life.]

[Reward available. Want to claim???]

Noel’s throat tightened. His emerald eyes blurred as tears welled, spilling silently down his cheeks. He had succeeded. The mission was complete. But at what price?

’We saved him... but Noir... Nicolas... this isn’t victory. This is bullshit!’

His gaze shifted, almost by instinct, to the lower corner of the screen.

[Current Core Progress: 92.55% – Mana Core: Adept]

His heart stuttered. He was so close—one step away from breaking through. His grief twisted, molten fire stirring in his veins. The chance was right here, staring back at him.

His teeth clenched. His mind screamed.

’Claim! Claim! Claim! Claim! Claim! Claim! Claim!’

The system responded instantly.

[Reward Claimed!]

[One page of Diary of the Forgotten Son!]

[+20% Core Progress.]

The window pulsed once, waiting for him to accept what would come next. Noel dragged in a shaky breath, clutching Noir tighter, his tears mixing with the heat of his ragged breath.

The mission was done. But nothing about it felt like triumph.

The system window rippled as the numbers shifted.

[Current Core Progress: 92.55% – Mana Core: Adept]

[+20% Core Progress applied.]

Noel’s chest tightened as the bar filled in his vision. The first surge hit like a hammer. The 7.45% he needed spilled instantly into his core, the last step shattering through the limit. Heat roared through his body, his entire mana circuit igniting at once.

[Progress 100%.]

[Threshold reached. Advancing...]

The remaining energy pressed forward, but the system diverted it. Half of the surplus bled away, absorbed into the void.

’Tch... so it only gives me half past the breakthrough...’

[Excess converted: +6.28%]

[Current Core Progress: 6.28% – Mana Core: Ascendant]

His body convulsed as the transformation completed. Mana no longer flowed as scattered rivers; it condensed, denser, heavier, molten as if every particle was weightier than before. His veins burned, but not with pain—with power.

The window glowed again.

[Congratulations!! You advanced to Ascendant!!]

[Congratulations!! You have completed Arc IV!]

[Arc V will begin soon.]

The words flooded his vision. His breath came fast, ragged, as if he had run through fire. But beneath the exhaustion, he felt it: the difference. The air itself seemed thinner, lighter, his mana like a reservoir he had never touched before.

And then the final message appeared, freezing him in place.

[Congratulations!! Noir is evolving!!]

The shadow wolf in his arms stirred faintly, her form flickering with unstable shadow. Noel’s heart jumped into his throat, his grip tightening.

’Noir...?’

The light of the system reflected in his emerald eyes, and for the first time, fear outweighed triumph.

The shadow at Noel’s feet began to ripple. At first it was faint, like the shimmer of heat above stone. Then it deepened, spreading wider, pulling at Noir’s small body.

Her puppy form trembled in his arms, fur dark as midnight and still stained with blood. She whimpered once before her frame dissolved into smoke, her outline fracturing like shards of glass.

"Noir!" Noel’s voice cracked, his hand reaching desperately to hold her, but his grip found nothing. The wolf sank into the shadow beneath him, her body consumed by the darkness as if she had never existed outside of it.

The system window pulsed coldly.

[Noir is evolving...]

[Noir is evolving...]

Noel’s heart hammered. He snapped open his status window.

[Name: Noel Thorne]

[Core: Ascendant – 6.28%]

[Familiar: Noir is evolving...]

He clenched his jaw. "Show me more," he hissed. His finger flicked through the interface, trying to pry deeper, to force an explanation.

The only reply was the same, looping endlessly.

[Noir is evolving...]

[Noir is evolving...]

[Noir is evolving...]

His chest heaved. Each repetition cut into him like a blade. ’Why now? Will she be okay? What’s wrong with her wounds? Will they heal? Fuck...’

The shadow at his feet pulsed once, then stilled. Noir was gone. Nothing remained but the faint trembling of darkness that clung to him.

Noel lowered his head, hands trembling as he closed the interface. The silence pressed heavier than the battle itself, his heart straining at the emptiness where her presence should have been.

’Come back to me... please.’

The system’s cold glow remained, but it offered no answer.

Noel stayed crouched on the broken stone, staring at the last place Noir had been. The system’s words still burned behind his eyes.

[Noir is evolving...]

[Noir is evolving...]

His chest felt hollow. The battlefield was silent now, but the weight of her absence pressed heavier than the ruined coliseum. He clenched Revenant Fang so tightly his knuckles turned white, but even the cursed steel felt powerless.

A sound drew his attention—a faint cough. He turned sharply. Nicolas lay collapsed near the center of the crater, unmoving except for shallow breaths.

’We saved him... didn’t we? Then why isn’t he standing?’

Noel rose slowly, every step heavy, his body still trembling from both the battle and Noir’s disappearance. He crossed the fractured stone and knelt beside the Archmage.

At first, he thought Nicolas was simply unconscious. But then he saw it: a hollow cavity in his chest where radiant blood trickled. His heart beat faintly, still alive—but where his mana core should have glowed, there was nothing. Only shards of crystal embedded in torn flesh.

The sight twisted Noel’s stomach. It was too familiar. The wound was almost identical to the one he himself had carved into Kaelith, back then. A brutal hole where a core should have been, leaving the body alive but emptied.

Noel’s breath hitched. He reached out with shaking fingers, hovering just above the wound. ’His core... it’s gone. Destroyed.’

The realization sank into him like ice. Nicolas von Aldros—one of the strongest mages alive—could no longer channel a single spark of mana. He was alive, but broken.

Noel shut his eyes, his jaw tight. Noir was gone into the shadows, evolving beyond his reach. Nicolas lay ruined, his power stripped away forever. And him... he had advanced, but the taste of it was bitter ash.

This was the price of survival.