Chapter 383: Battles of Life and Death (2)
Life was strange.
It often gave you chances... only to take them back at the same time.
Up until now...
Seris Moonlight had lived her life trapped inside a black box since childhood.
She had been manipulated, robbed of so much... and now, her cold heart burned once more with the fire of revenge.
"I wanted vengeance with every fiber of my being... revenge against the one who took my family from me, who turned my father into a heartless monster, and stole my elder sister away..."
Baelor Moonlight. In his pursuit of the title of Lord...
He committed a crime so vile it would forever stain the history of the Empire.
"I wanted to kill him. But I knew this fire was fleeting ..a hollow goal that would one day lead me astray..."
Ever since learning the truth ..
Seris Moonlight had sought change.
"So rather than drowning in revenge, I chose to become stronger... faster... better."
After the incident that unveiled the truth behind House Moonlight, Seris had pushed herself beyond her limits ...honing every skill she had, using her darkest emotions as fuel to keep going.
"I’ll become far stronger than I am now... strong enough to make sure something like that never happens again. And when I finally gain that strength... my revenge will come naturally."
Those were the thoughts of Seris Moonlight ..the First-Class Wave Controller who created forms capable of matching knights and swordsmen in direct combat.
She had grown far beyond what she once was.
But life always takes unexpected turns...
The red portal had swallowed her alone .. flinging her into a dark cave.
But her sky-blue eyes saw clearly through the gloom.
There, deep in the cave, sat a man... wearing the same armor she’d seen him in last time, his blue hair slicked up toward the sky.
Rising to his feet with a twisted grin, the former Lord of House Moonlight greeted her.
"It’s been a while... my dear daughter."
Hearing those words ...
Seris Moonlight couldn’t suppress the inferno inside her. It erupted violently.
"BAELOR!!"
With a furious scream, her body lit up as a frozen armor formed around her—masking her face and giving her the appearance of a phantom-like ninja.
Her glowing blue eyes narrowed into a death glare, eyebrows furrowed in seething rage.
Baelor chuckled softly, scratching his head in mock irritation.
"I see you despise me deeply... how tragic."
BOOM!
The two began manipulating ice at incredible speed.
Seris hurled massive ice swords at him .. Baelor blocked them effortlessly with an icy wall.
He laughed when she charged forward, her frozen armor massively boosting her speed.
"You’ve grown quite a lot, Seris."
He seemed genuinely proud of his niece. Seris, wielding two gleaming frostblades, slashed at him while simultaneously manipulating celestial bodies to strike from afar.
Her refined combat style allowed her to fight from any range—breaking the old belief that Wave Controllers should only battle from a distance.
The difference in strength between them was immense.
Baelor, an SS rank, parried her blades with the back of his hand.
As for the celestial projectiles she hurled at him, he raised simple ice barriers that effortlessly nullified them.
"It’s pointless, Seris. This fight is meaningless."
"Shut up!!"
Seris continued her assault, but Baelor blocked everything she threw at him with infuriating ease.
Like an adult toying with a helpless child.
"You shouldn’t be fighting me like this, Seris."
With a casual wave of his hand, Baelor unleashed a wave of Aura that blasted Seris into the cave wall with bone-shattering force.
She hit the ground with a muffled scream, pain searing through her spine as she felt her bones crack beneath the weight of that single strike.
"There’s no need to hate me, my dear daughter. Everything that happened to you... was nothing but a bad dream."
Baelor strolled toward her with that same infuriating smile still plastered across his face.
"I’ll rebuild it... our happy family ..what was destroyed by outside hands. Then we’ll live the dream again. A dream you’ll be a part of."
Listening to his madness, Seris slowly rose to her feet.
"After everything you did... you still dare to speak of the family you destroyed yourself?"
Ice began to form around her once more—only to shatter immediately, crushed by Baelor’s control over the very element she tried to wield.
"I wasn’t the one who destroyed it. Our family saw its golden age under my rule."
With another flick of his hand, Baelor unleashed a devastating blast that smashed Seris into the wall once again, forcing blood from her lips.
"Do you blame me for what happened to Drogo? That was war between him and me! I won .. he lost! I became Lord while he was buried, marked forever as the man behind the greatest massacre in the Empire’s history. I won!"
"And what of my siblings who died for your ’victory’? The hanged bodies swinging from trees... the deathtrap you forced us to live in..."
Recalling the massacre she had survived, Baelor sighed in annoyance.
"A price that had to be paid... for a greater purpose."
"So that’s how it is..."
Face darkened, Seris surged to her feet again and attacked the former Lord of House Moonlight with everything she had.
Swords, spears, celestial projectiles blazing with fire—
She tried everything. Nothing worked.
"I’ll soon become one of the Lords of the Ultras, dear Seris."
Shhhh ..
Baelor deflected her strikes while steadily closing the distance between them.
"Then we’ll destroy the Empire and build a new family .one far stronger than the ashes we left behind. A family with you... and my son, Frost."
He laid bare his selfish ambitions, but Seris replied coldly—
"So you still remember your only son. And here I thought you were nothing more than a filthy beast who knew only how to destroy."
BOOM!
"Even filthy beasts like you, Baelor... seem to care for their offspring."
Seris continued her assault as Baelor deflected her attacks, walking closer and closer until he stood right in front of her.
"Of course I care. He’s my only son."
"And my father Drogo cared for us too... but you stole everything from him!"
Seris’s Aura surged. Ice rapidly built upon itself, forming a massive frozen flower that exploded outward .. shattering the cave and exposing the starless night sky above.
It was a devastating attack.
But Baelor walked through it unharmed.
He emerged right in front of her ..just inches away.
"It’s useless. Your attacks won’t reach me, no matter what you do."
His cold, terrifying eyes met hers.
Seris didn’t flinch. She simply raised her hand and placed it flat against Baelor’s chest.
Blood trickled from her forehead, and her frozen armor had already begun to fracture under the weight of his previous blows.
But the fire inside her never once dimmed.
"I’ll gladly die if it means I can end your life, you rotten Lord."
Baelor listened with a blank stare. The gap in strength was far too great ..he could kill her in an instant if he wished.
"I told you, Seris, it’s poin—ghh!"
He didn’t even realize what had happened.
Blood exploded from his mouth as he was hurled back, crashing into the solid stone behind him.
Staring down at his chest, Baelor’s eyes widened in shock.
A white serpent had pierced clean through him, dark-red blood dripping in torrents.
The serpent slithered back at once, joining a swarm of others that now encircled Seris.
"Ice Formation: Abyssal Serpent."
The serpents hissed, slithering across every surface .. radiating a terrifying, frigid presence.
Baelor felt it.
The monstrous power now emanating from Seris Moonlight.
She extended her right hand. Her ice armor had shattered from it, revealing pale white skin marked with strange tattoos—spikes and frozen flowers—and wreathed in glacial white flames.
"Come, Baelor Moonlight... I’ll drag you with me into the abyss of oblivion. With every ounce of power this body can unleash."
Even if it meant her death .
Seris Moonlight had made her decision.
She would kill that man. No matter what it took.
Baelor, for his part, unleashed his true Aura in response. The time for words had ended.
The third round had begun ..
Seris Moonlight vs. Baelor Moonlight.
A battle between kin whose hearts had frozen long ago.
A battle of life and death, poised to shake the entire continent and cast a long shadow over the dark future to come.