CHAPTER 427: CHAPTER 427: HELLO, DEAR NIECE.

Commander Tallix’s military compound was wrapped in fog that swallowed sound and sight. From the rooftop, Angelica’s eyes tracked every unnatural movement, wraiths pacing too predictably, shadows clinging to walls that shouldn’t have shadows.

Her lips curved faintly. "Sloppy."

While the courtyard guards panicked over a prowling wraith, she dropped soundlessly onto a balcony. Her landing was weightless, cloak swaying once before falling still. No pause. No hesitation. She flowed through the hall, steel and shadow in one breath.

Inside, Commander Tallix slept, utterly unaware of the wraith crouched at his bedside, poison-slick claw hovering over his throat.

Angelica’s eyes narrowed. One step. A whisper of steel.

The blade’s arc was so clean the sound didn’t register until the head hit the carpet.

Outside, the night fractured with an inhuman roar. Another wraith abandoned its diversion and charged, smashing through corridors, splintering stone and wood alike. The shockwaves rattled the room, yet Angelica stood calm, turning her head slightly as dust rolled in.

Tallix scrambled back, breath ragged. The wraith’s claws blurred toward Angelica, each strike carrying the force to shatter armor.

She simply... walked forward.

Every swipe missed by a hair, as if the air itself shifted to keep her untouched. In the space of a blink, she vanished from Tallix’s sight, reappearing behind the creature. Her sword pierced its core from the back, silver aura erupting outward like frozen lightning.

The wraith convulsed once before dissolving into steaming ash.

She wiped her blade with deliberate precision. Tallix, pale and trembling, stared at her. "...Who... who are you?"

Angelica met his gaze, voice even. "You’re safe, Commander. But more are coming. Move."

Her fingers brushed the crystal at her ear. "One principal secured. The wraiths are bait."

She turned to leave, then paused at the doorway, her eyes catching his.

"...We are Eden."

And she was gone before the dust from the battle had settled.

****

Lady Seriphel’s manor defied reality itself. The building’s geometry was wrong, angles that shouldn’t exist, shadows moving independently of their sources, walls that seemed to breathe.

Seraphina approached cautiously, her analytical mind trying to process the impossible architecture. "What the hell are you?" she whispered.

The corrupted wraith that emerged from the manor’s entrance was different from the others, larger, more powerful, its presence warping the magical laws around it. When Seraphina tried to deconstruct its magical structure, she found principles that simply didn’t exist in this world.

Alien. Foreign. Wrong.

The wraith attacked with tendrils of corrupted energy that should have been impossible to defend against. Seraphina’s attempts to understand the underlying magical rules failed completely, they operated on cosmic principles that predated everything she knew.

Frustration flared into fury.

Fine. If I can’t understand it, I’ll just overpower it.

Seraphina abandoned subtlety entirely. Brilliant light erupted from her awakened power as she channeled raw magical force. Pillars of light, geometric patterns of pure energy, reality itself bending around her will.

She didn’t deconstruct the wraith’s magic, she simply overwhelmed it with such devastating force that its alien rules became irrelevant. The creature was annihilated in a burst of blinding energy that left afterimages burned into the air.

Lady Seriphel cowered in her study, staring in awe as Seraphina’s power faded. "My lady, you’re safe. But we need to evacuate immediately."

"These things operate on completely different magical principles," Seraphina reported through her crystal. "Someone’s using magic that doesn’t follow any rules we know."

****

Sun faction heavy cavalry thundered across the ancient stone span, their war horses’ hooves ringing like war drums. Moon faction pike squares awaited them in disciplined formation, steel points glinting in the morning sun.

The collision was apocalyptic.

Horses screamed as they impaled themselves on pikes. Riders were dragged from their mounts and butchered in the press of bodies. The bridge became slick with blood as both sides fed their forces into the meat grinder.

A family trying to flee the city was caught in the charge, a mother shielding her child as cavalry trampled around them. The woman’s terrified scream cut through the sound of battle as hooves missed them by inches.

Not everyone was so lucky.

Moon faction engineers triggered charges that damaged the bridge’s ancient supports. As it began to collapse, soldiers from both sides fell into the rushing river below, their armor dragging them to watery graves.

The bridge’s destruction marked the point of no return, the capital was now truly at war with itself.

****

Communication crystals crackled with urgent reports as the shadow maidens assessed the devastation:

"Lord Aldwin is dead. I was too late." Shay’s voice carried bitter frustration.

"Lady Miriam poisoned while I fought the decoy." Katrina’s report was clipped, professional.

"Commander Tallix saved, assassin eliminated." Angelica’s tone remained perfectly controlled.

"Lady Seriphel secured, but these wraiths aren’t normal." Seraphina’s analytical mind was already working on the implications.

The pattern was clear, someone was orchestrating these attacks with supernatural backup. The wraiths weren’t random monsters; they were tactical distractions deployed with military precision.

Throughout the capital, faction warfare raged unchecked. Private armies no longer restrained themselves, and with each passing hour, more innocents died as the city tore itself apart.

Time was running out.

****

Elara soared above the burning capital, her enhanced abilities allowing her to move like a force of nature. Below, she could see faction armies clashing at a dozen different points, the Golden Bridge in ruins, the Merchant Quarter ablaze, noble mansions transformed into fortresses.

Through Seraphina’s magical analysis and Veylith’s intelligence network, all trails led to one location: a specific mansion in the noble district where the coordination of assassinations originated.

The time for subtlety had passed.

Elara gathered power around herself, magical energy manifesting as wings of pure flame. She became a meteor of fire streaking down from the sky, her phoenix-like form illuminating the dark morning.

She crashed through the mansion’s roof in an explosion of flames and debris, her impact shaking the entire building. As smoke and fire swirled around her, Elara stood in the center of the destruction, her power radiating heat and light that burned away shadows.

From the darkness of the mansion, a figure emerged, wearing a military uniform meant for Lysora County operations, short silver hair styled backwards, weathered grey features that she recognized all too well.

Recognition hit her like a physical blow. Shock gave way to understanding, then to burning anger that made her flames flare brighter.

"Uncle," she called out, her voice carrying both fury and sorrow.

From the shadows, Count Nicalo’s familiar voice responded, but there was something wrong with it, something inhuman threading through the words like corruption in clean water.

"Hello, dear niece. I’ve been expecting you."