Daisuke was stunned, his eyes wide as Lekton’s horrifying transformation unfolded.

  “What the hell?”

  “M-Monster!”

  “What the heck did he just feed him?”

  “Haxks! Shouldn’t we run away?”

  While the children recoiled in fear, Adrian guffawed, deriving pleasure from Daisuke’s evident shock. “Looks familiar, doesn’t it? In that case, you’ll absolutely love what I have in store for you !”

  With a snap of his fingers, a wall slid away, revealing a blind, reptilia lurking in a hidden chamber. The children’s eyes widened in bewilderment as, just like Adrian, Daisuke’s expression suddenly became dark.

  Emerging from the shadows with a deep growl was a monstrous chimera—Reginald’s mother, forcibly twisted into this abominatio, Daisuke’s fury eclipsed any sympathy for her past humanity.

  All he could focus on was the bitter truth: this fiend, now under Adrian’s trol, was the very one responsible for Sheba’s death. It had survived—and Adrian was using it as his sed trump card.

  Daisuke sneered as both creatures, oblivious to each other, turheir full attention on him—the source of their shared agony. That morohought bitterly, does he even realize that thing’s his owher?

  With another snap of Adrian’s fingers, both monsters unleashed a thunderous roar, bolting forward like a pair of Formu One cars. Deep cw marks tore through the cavern floor and walls as the beasts ricocheted across the chamber, moving with terrifying speed.

  Even as a ssh carved a bloody arc along his cheek, Adrian’s ominous ughter echoed through the cave, his hands raised high like a stist gone mad.

  This bastard, Daisuke’s features torted into a scowl, it doesn’t seem like he has full trol over the monsters.

  Garrett and the rest of the children huddled together in terror as the chaos closed in around them, invisible cws and fangs sshing through the air just inches from their bodies. Eaear miss only deepeheir dread as the rampage threateo engulf them.

  “Zephyr!” Daisuke shouted, his tone sharp with urgency as he settled into his familiar battle stahe Lipanthyer’s Fang held in a reverse grip.

  G!

  Daisuke raised his dagger just in time to intercept the lethal swipe of a cw, sparks flying as the sharp nail scraped along its edge. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, the sparks casting brief light over both his and Zephyr’s steely expressions. Without hesitation, they uhemselves into the atg their foes’ speed with fierce determination.

  Zephyr darted across Lekton’s massive frame like a relentless flea, his mana-charged fangs and cws tearing into the creature’s rough skin and flesh. Daisuke’s dagger mirrored Zephyr’s speed and precision, sshing in radiant arcs that stripped away yers of the chimera’s flesh.

  Adrian looked on nervously, his oneatly groomed hair now u. No! He excimed inwardly, his expression grave as he bit his nail through his glove. They didn’t tell me he would be this strong! At this rate, the monsters will be defeated! Tsk!

  In a desperate bid to turide, Adrian called upon his powers as a Trickster, summoning a powerful gust of wind. As the children cried out and shielded their eyes from the whirlwind of dirt and debris, the vile beasts vanished, shrouded by a thin veil of mana that rehem invisible.

  “It doesn’t matter how strong you are!” Adrian bellowed with a malicious grin. “If you ’t evehe enemy, what good is all that power? Fools—you’re finished!”

  Daisuke’s lips remained a tight, calm line, his expression cool and posed. His pupils darted meically as the Eye of Verity tracked the agile movements of the loathsome chimera. Meanwhile, Zephyr relied on his keen sense of smell, honing in on his prey.

  As Daisuke relentlessly chipped away at the creature’s armored scales, memories of his past filled his mind—how, at the manor, he had merely been a distra, buying enough time for April and the others to escape. Then he had fled for his life, barely managing to survive. This time, however, there was no fear or despair—only the searing fmes of hatred and vengeance surging through his veins.

  Sheba’s smile, her enting gaze, her charisma, and the tender affe she had always given to everyone—all of it surged within Daisuke, a powerful force that bolstered his strength, speed, aermination.

  Her tears, the memories of her sorrow, were like fuel c through him. The Lipanthyer’s Fang cshed against the chimera’s hardened scales, each strike struggling to break through, but Daisuke’s tenacity was unyielding. Slowly, piece by piece, the scales began to fall away, worn down by his sheer will and drive.

  WOOOSHHH!

  The pu odor of singed hair filled the chamber as Lekton—or the monstrous fiend he had bee—staggered backward, its charred skin crag from the aftermath of Zephyr’s Emberstorm. Smoke drifted from its maw as it tilted its head back, the onidable figure now scorched bd trembling from the searing fmes.

  A roundhouse kick sent the chimera crashing into the homunculus, their bodies smming together with a bone-jarring impact. Before they could recover, Daisuke enshem both with his Magic s, log them tightly in pce.

  Retrieving the give from where it was lodged in the cavern wall, Daisuke hurled it with all his strength. The on tore through the air with a deadly whistle, and with a dark crack, it pierced both monstrosities. Their bined roars of pain echoed through the chamber as they writhed in agony, helpless and impaled.

  While they were immobilized, Zephyr sprang into a for the overkill. His fangs and cws bzed through the air in a dazzling arc of light as he circled the fiends, shredding them with fierce accuracy. Just as he withdrew, a bolt of cerulean blue lightning streaked down and struck the give, unleashing a torrent of electricity that ravaged the pinned creatures.

  For a moment, time seemed to stand eerily still, and a chill ran down Daisuke’s spine. As the chimera’s malevolent life-force faded, ahereal light emerged from the darkness, maing as a ghostly apparition of a woman. She bowed with a sincere smile of gratitude before vanishing as suddenly as she had appeared.

  DING!

  [Haxks has sin the Chimera Hidden Boss ?Malistra Wrathshade?.]

  DING!

  [The homunculus Lekton has beeed!]

  [138,700 Experience Points have been acquired.]

  [Level Up!]

  [Stormcleaver Give has been acquired.]

  [Aetherc has been acquired.]

  [Reinfort Tablet x2 has been acquired.]

  [Celestial Cube (White) has been acquired.]

  [Celestial Cube (Blue) has been acquired.]

  [Anneliese’s Letter has been acquired.]

  [Medium HP Recovery Potion x2 has been acquired.]

  [Homunculus Serum (Residue) has been acquired.]

  [Serpent’s Tendon x3 has been acquired.]

  [Chimera’s Scales x8 has been acquired.]

  [13803 gold has been acquired.]

  Adrian’s jaw hung sck, his shock palpable at the se before him. Yet, he was the first tain posure, his mind spinning as he tried to prehend what he had just witnessed.

  Against all odds, despite being hunted by two monstrous creatures, the boy he was tasked to capture had not only escaped but done so with a startling level of precision and efficy. The realization hit Adrian hard: if he had any hope of capturing the enigma known as Haxks Starfrost, he would need far more than his current forces—he would need an army and a much deadlier arsenal.

  The moment he spun to flee, Daisuke appeared before him in a fsh, moving faster than the eye could track. A swift bad sent the handsome bastard sprawling across the ground. Adrian groaned, pressing a trembling hand to his bruised cheek, only to find Daisuke crouched in front of him with a cold, desding gaze.

  “Sure, I skimmed a few books during my short stay at the manor,” he began, “but that’s nowhere near enough time to grasp something as plex as alchemy. You’re probably more knowledgeable about it than I am—holy, anyone who knows the name Cedric Osercival should be leagues ahead of my basiderstanding. So, why not recruit one of them instead?”

  Adrian managed a nervous smile. “trary to popur belief, alchemy is about more than just formus, perfect circles, and natural resources. My father, grandfather, and the geions before them often cited Cedric, who said:

  ‘If you ’t truly see the natural world, then how do you expect to i with it?’

  I believe the reason Cedric was able to ceive, develop, and apply alchemy the way he did is that he possessed a natural gift for seeing beyond the veil into the true essence of the natural world.”

  A muscle worked in Daisuke’s jaw as he pted the uttered words. The natural world? He thought intensely. What exactly does that mean? How exactly does oeract with the natural world?

  He sighed inwardly, frustration gnawing at him. It seemed that for every step he took toward uanding alchemy, he ended up taking two steps back.

  Oswald had promised in his grimoire that the secrets of alchemy would be revealed to him if he used the knowledge for the be of others, yet it felt like he was not getting any closer to that goal.

  While he was momentarily distracted, Adrian’s fiwitched, and his legs tensed, poised t into a. Before he could push himself to his feet and flee, Daisuke plunged his dagger into his thigh with an unfling expression.

  But, instead of gushing blood, a caterpilr wriggled from the wound, and in an instant, Adriaire body transformed, bursting into a vibrant swarm of butterflies that took to the air, fluttering gracefully away.

  Daisuke clicked his tongue in annoyance, his eyes narrowed to uhused slits. This makes the sed time he’s mao fool the Eye of Verity. ly sure how I feel about that.