Chapter 48: A Duke’s Heart

Alvian ran at him.

No Domain. No Severing Sword Aura. No Essence. Just a boy with a sword and acid hands running as fast as he could at a nine-foot-tall volcano monster.

The Duke swung both hands down hard enough to crush a building.

Alvian slid right under the attack.

WHOOSH.

The strong wind blew his hair. The heat burned his eyebrows slightly. But he was under the swing, past the Duke’s defense, and close enough to hit him.

He punched his Clearwater Palm deep into the Duke’s stomach.

The acid touched the hard magma shell. The shell melted. The hot lava underneath melted too. The strong heat went away as the acid broke it all down. The acid pushed deeper through the Duke’s defenses and Talent protection until it touched real skin—soft human skin hidden beneath nine feet of lava armor.

The Duke screamed in real pain.

The acid from the Clearwater Palm burned straight into his human body, melting skin and muscle. A hole opened in his stomach. It was not a lava wound, but a real wound that spilled real red blood.

The Duke stepped back, holding his stomach. The lava tried to heal the wound, but the leftover acid kept melting it. New skin was destroyed as fast as it grew, so the wound could not close.

"WHAT ARE YOU?" the Duke asked, his lava voice breaking.

Alvian stood before him with bleeding palms, a torn shirt, and zero Essence. His sword was useless at his side, but his hands were still covered in Clearwater Coating, dripping with acid.

"Now," Alvian said in a cold voice. "Where are they?"

The Duke stared at him with burning eyes full of deep, pure hatred. He hated that a weak boy had defeated him.

But under that hate, there was something else: real fear. It was the first time in many years that Gaius Magnus felt true fear.

—-

The Duke fell to his knees.

Alvian did not push him; the Duke’s hurt stomach just could not support his heavy transformed body anymore. His lava armor was cracking, liquid rock leaked from his wound, and his Talent healing could not beat the acid. His transformation was failing, showing patches of normal skin that kept switching between human and monster form.

"The dungeons," Alvian said again. "Where?"

The Duke looked up. His eyes were half lava, half human, and filled with deep hatred.

"You think this changes anything?" blood dripped from the Duke’s mouth as his lava voice broke down. "Kill me, and my family sends a hundred men. Kill them, and the Guild sends a thousand. You are trash from the Undercity. You will always be trash. No amount of power changes what you are."

Alvian looked at him for a long moment.

The courtyard was quiet. Smoke rose from the burned grass, and the three hurt bodyguards lay groaning on the stones.

"Maybe," Alvian said. "But you will not be alive to see it."

He put his Clearwater Palm on the Duke’s chest. It was not the Domain, just his hand. The acid burned through the lava armor, through the skin, and reached the Duke’s heart.

The Duke opened his eyes wide.

His mouth opened, but no sound came out. The acid destroyed his heart in three seconds. The A-Rank Magma Behemoth, Level 45, Duke Gaius Magnus, died on his knees in his ruined courtyard. He was killed by an E-Rank Clearwater Talent used by a boy in a burned undershirt.

[DING!]

[Kill: Duke Gaius Magnus (Level 45, A-Rank).]

[Base EXP: 1,500. Pooled.]

[Gambler’s Delay Pool: 380 + 1,500 = 1,880 base EXP.]

[Fate’s Loaded Dice: INVENTORY. Will trigger on release.]

The Duke’s body did not turn into light and disappear. That only happened inside a Rift, not in real life. His body stayed on the ground—a giant, nine-foot monster of lava rock and flesh. The hot lava cooled down into black stone.

Alvian stood over the body.

His hands were shaking, not from anger or tire, but because the fight was over. He had killed monsters and mercenaries before, but those felt distant. This was different. He had felt the Duke’s heart beating under his palm until it stopped.

He did not feel guilty. The Duke had kidnapped his friends and tried to kill him. But killing him so closely left a strong feeling. He pushed the feeling away to focus on what mattered.

He looked at his Gambler’s Delay pool. It had 1,880 base EXP from the Duke and two guards. It was not as huge as he hoped because some guards ran away or stayed alive, but 1,880 was still a big number.

He looked at the three down bodyguards: the lance user unconscious from blood loss, the barrier user curled behind his broken shield, and the tracker lying face-down in the grass.

He did not kill them. They were just doing their jobs protecting their boss. They were not his real targets. Only the Duke was, and the Duke was dead.

He walked past them, through the broken main doors of the mansion, and went down into the dungeons.

The stairs were dark with stone walls. Magic-blocking crystals in the ceiling made the air feel heavy. His Talent power got weaker near the crystals, but his Clearwater Coating stayed active because passive skills were not affected by magic blockers.

He found Tobias first. The old man was locked in a cell. His robot arm was gone, and his cut shoulder was wrapped in a bloody rag. He was speaking crazy words, talking about the Warrens and mistakes.

Serah was in the next cell. Her hands were tied behind her back with magic-blocking handcuffs. Her face was pale, but she looked calm. She looked up when she heard him walking.

She saw Alvian’s face covered in blood, his burned shirt, and his acid-covered hands. She let out a big breath of relief.

"You came," she said.

"I came."

Alvian put his Clearwater Palm on her handcuffs.

——

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