“Howard” lashed at the two relentless hounds with his metal chains, over and over.

  No matter how hard he swung, the hounds always slipped away, faster than the chains could bite.

  Any time he tried to retreat, one hound cut him off from the front while the other boxed him in from behind.

  If he forced it, they just surged in and tore at him again.

  It was a nightmare.

  While “Howard” was tangled up with the hounds on the surface, Enid and Caroline finally burst out of the tomb and faced him head-on.

  “Howard” knew he wasn’t putting those hounds down anytime soon, so he switched targets.

  Cut off the head, and the body dies.

  His thinking was sound.

  Caroline had only just sprinted out of the entrance, she didn’t have the time to react.

  By the time she saw a chain whipping toward her, it was already too late.

  Clang.

  A stone wall shot up from the ground between them and took the hit, stopping what would have been a clean decapitation.

  Caroline froze for a beat.

  She couldn’t react in time, but Enid could.

  With an elf’s sharp senses, Enid threw up that earth-wall at the last possible second and saved her.

  Caroline didn’t hesitate after that.

  She broke hard to her right, dodging the next chain strike.

  As she ran, she kept directing the hounds, forcing “Howard” to stay just far enough away that he couldn’t simply finish her off.

  At the same time, Enid moved to Caroline’s left, angling closer to “Howard.”

  She wrapped herself in a water barrier, then kept hammering him with rising stone pillars and slicing wind blades.

  It wasn’t just pressure, it was disruption.

  Every strike messed with his timing, his footing, his ability to think cleanly, and little by little it bled his strength away.

  Caroline ran while murmuring the spellwork under her breath.

  As the chant hit its final phase, a dark blue malice-mana began to leak off her like smoke.

  It coiled around her hands like crackling lightning, flashing and snapping as if the energy itself couldn’t wait to be unleashed.

  When the timing was right, she planted her feet, stacked her hands together, aimed for a heartbeat, then drove her palms toward “Howard.”

  “Dread Cannon.”

  A seventh-circle spell array bloomed in her palms.

  A dense column of dark blue power erupted out of it and slammed forward.

  The beam was nearly as wide as half her body, a straight shot of compressed ruin.

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  It was fast.

  It was violent.

  Even standing near the target meant you could get thrown by the shockwave.

  Enid used wind magic to slide away instantly.

  “Howard” didn’t have that luxury.

  The hounds had him pinned in place, stealing the second he needed.

  By the time he registered what was coming, the blast was already in his face.

  Boom.

  The explosion swallowed him, along with the two hounds, in a rolling cloud of black smoke.

  For a moment, you couldn’t even tell if anything was still standing inside it.

  Enid didn’t stop.

  Fighting through the curse’s backlash, she fired off a string of fireballs and more wind blades into the smoke, tearing through it and blowing the haze apart.

  If this had been any ordinary mage, there wouldn’t have been enough left to prove they’d existed.

  But “Howard” clearly wasn’t ordinary.

  Even after taking Caroline’s full-power shot and Enid’s storm of follow-up spells, he was still there.

  Barely.

  The dark red chains around him had already vanished.

  He had no legs, just a wreck of a body sprawled on the ground, propped up by his arms so he wouldn’t collapse completely.

  Caroline’s Dread Cannon had drained her malice-mana dry.

  She swayed, dizzy for a second, then forced herself to breathe, refill, and summon two fresh spell hounds.

  They appeared at her sides, and she moved in fast.

  “Howard” tried to struggle again, but he couldn’t even form a single chain.

  Enid’s earth magic pressed down on him like a weight.

  Then metal-element spikes formed and drove him into the ground, pinning him so tight he couldn’t so much as roll.

  Once they were sure he was finished fighting, Enid and Caroline stepped up to him.

  “Howard” panted, blood spilling from his mouth, but his eyes were still vicious, locked on them like a trapped animal.

  Caroline stood over him with the hounds on either side.

  “Stubborn, aren’t you,” she said coldly. “For a filthy demon wearing Howard’s face.”

  “Howard” spit and sneered. “Heh… Dean Caroline, what are you talking about, wearing his face…”

  He didn’t finish.

  Caroline kicked him hard in the face.

  “Stop the act,” she snapped. “Howard was a rigid, careful old bastard, but he wasn’t like you. He wasn’t this brutal, and he didn’t lie this easily.”

  Her eyes burned.

  “And he sure as hell didn’t use that kind of twisted magic. So who are you?”

  The moment he realized the mask was pointless, “Howard” gave her a mocking grin.

  “Heh… didn’t expect you to see through it, Caroline. I really underestimated you.”

  That was when Enid calmly drove another metal spike into his body.

  “Pretty sure I told you already,” Enid said. “Your mouth is for giving answers, not for wasting my time. Don’t test my patience.”

  “Howard” tried to say more.

  Enid added another spike.

  Then another.

  Then a few more.

  By the time he looked like a human pincushion, he finally started talking.

  “Cough… fine,” he rasped. “You want to know so badly? Here you go. You’re right, I’m not Howard.”

  His grin widened, ugly and proud.

  “But I’m also very much Howard. Whether I am or not, you can keep guessing. Hahahaha!”

  One of Caroline’s hounds growled, ready to lunge.

  Enid touched Caroline’s shoulder, a quiet warning to hold.

  Then Enid spoke, almost casual.

  “Soul possession. An old demon art. Am I right?”

  The wild laughter cut off mid-breath.

  “Howard’s” eyes went wide.

  “What… who are you? How could you possibly know that?”

  Enid let out a soft laugh.

  “I didn’t know,” she said. “I took a shot in the dark. You’re the one who confirmed it.”

  Her smile turned sharp.

  “So yes, you really are just as brainless as the rest of your kind. Pathetic.”

  She pushed another spike in.

  “Ugh… I didn’t even say anything!”

  Enid added one more.

  This time, “Howard” shut up.

  “Now talk,” Enid said. “When did you take Howard’s body? Think before you speak.”

  Her gaze flicked to the hounds.

  “Because the spikes and Caroline’s good dogs won’t be as gentle as I am.”

  “Howard” let out a weak, sick chuckle.

  “Heh… you saying that just reminds me of the original owner of this body,” he murmured. “That face, all terror and despair… the whole thing drenched in blood.”

  He smiled like he was admiring a painting.

  “What a masterpiece.”

  The hounds rumbled a warning.

  Caroline’s voice came out low with fury. “You bastard. So you really weren’t Howard.”

  Caroline leaned forward, ready to keep pressing him.

  Enid stopped her with a hand.

  Because “Howard’s” body was swelling.

  It was the exact same tell Enid had seen before, the same pre-explosion bulge she’d seen right before Q pulled that stunt.

  “Howard” threw his head back and laughed, loud and manic.

  “Hahahaha! You’ll never catch me. Let’s die together!”

  In the instant before the blast, Enid grabbed Caroline and pulled her close.

  A thick earth barrier wrapped around them like a shell.

  Boom.

  The explosion hit.

  The earth barrier didn’t even crack.

  Enid’s timing saved Caroline from the blast.

  The hounds outside weren’t so lucky, but they were spellcraft, not living creatures.

  Caroline didn’t spare them a second thought.