The Warlord's Carnal System

Quinn stood between Merin and Tugnier, who was now completely wrapped in thick spirals of roots and branches, forming an oval-shaped cocoon around him.

Quinn using her wood attribute formed a defensive cocoon around Tugnier.

Lydia was nowhere to be seen, she had vanished into fading swirl of red dust.

Her Phantom Cloak (S) was active. She was watching, hidden, waiting for the right moment.

"Ahkk…" Merin coughed, blood spilling from her lips.

The side effects of Aethercore were tearing her body apart from the inside. Her Revival Toxin tried to mend what it could, forcing her heart to beat, forcing her lungs to move. But the pain was brutal, her veins burned, her mana channels screamed.

Her gaze, however, didn't waver. It locked onto Quinn.

Her eyes were red, not from exhaustion, but from rage. The kind of rage that boiled so deep it drowned reason.

Before her, the heads of Fiona and Oken rolled across the cracked red ground, stopping at her feet.

The sight froze time for her. For a brief second, the battlefield went silent in her mind.

No wind, no crackling aura, no distant screams. Only the dull thud of two severed heads meeting dust.

Merin's lips trembled. Her pupils shook. Then, slowly, her breathing turned shallow and sharp.

She looked straight at Quinn, her fury a blazing fire through her eyes.

That one look made Quinn's back stiffen. A tremor ran down her spine.

Merin's killing intent was thick enough to choke on.

Her trembling hand reached to her belt and pulled out another black marble.

Her body, already broken and torn from the first Aethercore, was in no state to take another.

But she didn't care. Logic, survival instinct, everything drowned beneath her fury.

She could have escaped right then. Tugnier was down to his last leg; she was faster than Quinn and Lydia combined. A single burst of her wind could've taken her out of that valley alive.

But all she could see now were the heads at her feet. Fiona's. Oken's.

Rage smothered reason. Revenge overtook fear.

Exactly as they planned.

They knew Merin's pride and fury would blind her. Rolling the heads of her comrades before her was the perfect bait.

If she ran, Tugnier would've needed every ounce of his strength just to tail her, but he is in no shape to do such feat.

So they needed some bait to keep her fighting, and that bait is the heads of her personnel who served under her for years.

She wouldn't run. Not after seeing that.

And so, as her fingers closed tightly around the second black marble, Quinn's expression hardened.

Their plan had worked.

The air rippled like heat waves as Quinn's wooden cocoon sealed Tugnier within, its thick roots twisting tighter with every heartbeat. From inside, a muffled voice spoke.

"Knock knock," Tugnier said. "Umm… can I.."

"Shut up and stay there," Quinn snapped, her eyes locked on Merin.

"But.. umm.. I didn't get the tonic," Tugnier muttered from behind the barrier, trying to sound casual. His tone was almost comical, and Quinn blinked, realizing her mistake.

"Oh! Sorry!" she said quickly. A small hole opened in the wooden shell, Tugnier's tired face peeking out from it. Quinn tossed a small glass vial through.

The tonic shimmered green under the sun. It wasn't a cure, just something to slow the spread of Merin's poison in his veins.

The only true antidote was an advanced or mythic potion. Rune had promised to bring one once he was done with his opponent.

None of them questioned how he could manage that so fast. They trusted him too much to doubt him.

"We'll handle it from here. You stay inside, alright?" Quinn said, her voice softening. She watched Tugnier uncork the vial and gulp it down, the worry in her eyes impossible to hide.

Then. crunch.

Merin bit down on the Aether Core in her hand. A pulse exploded outward like a thunderclap. The sand around her rose and spun in a storm.

Quinn reacted in an instant, leaping to grab Lydia midair before she was flung away.

"What was that!" Lydia shouted, her eyes wide.

Merin hovered in the air, her body trembling. Blood spilled from her mouth, her nose, and even her eyes.

It painted her pale cheeks in dark streaks. The veins beneath her skin glowed black, and her hair floated wildly in the storm of energy that swirled around her.

Her rage had consumed her reason. To her, this wasn't madness, it was justice. Her team had fallen purging evil. Their sacrifice couldn't be for nothing.

"You guys wouldn't even last a minute without my support," Tugnier said from inside his cocoon, a grin tugging at his lips despite the blood at their corners.

His eyes gleamed with excitement. He was a warrior to the core, a man who only lived for the rush of battle. He wakes up, he trains, he eats and he sleeps.

The rest, admin work, planning, diplomacy, he left to Quinn.

"No! You shouldn't move!" Quinn shouted, layering more wood and vines around his prison.

But it was too late. The next instant, the cocoon evaporated, vanishing as Tugnier's blue aura flared outward.

It wasn't stable, it crackled like lightning, distorting the air, blurring his outline until he looked almost demonic.

Even Quinn froze. She had seen him fight before, but it had been years. The sight of him now made her breath hitch.

"Damn it," she whispered. She knew that tonic would only work if he stayed still.

If he moved, if he fought, the poison would spread faster. His body would break down.

This wasn't a battle, this was a race to see who fell first. And whoever fell wouldn't be saved.

Quinn bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood. Lydia caught her glance and nodded.

They moved together, sprinting toward Tugnier, totally ignoring Merin. They had to stop him, before he killed himself.

Wooden spirals burst from the ground, wrapping around Tugnier's legs. Lydia flashed above him, her cloak of red dust fading as she appeared, her thighs locking around his neck in a chokehold.

Poof.

It was an illusion.

The real Tugnier was already before Merin, his massive club swinging down.

The air exploded when they met.

Blue and black sparks erupted across the valley floor, slicing the sandstorm in half.

Quinn and Lydia were forced to brace themselves, their feet dragging across the cracked ground.

"No!" Quinn screamed as she saw Tugnier's blood splattering with every swing. Merin's body shook, her arms trembling from each clash.

Both of them were burning themselves alive just to land the next strike.

Quinn could tell. Tugnier wasn't trying to win. He was trying to drag Merin down with him, even if it killed him too.

The earth shook again. Tugnier's aura flared, brighter, hotter, his body breaking apart from the inside. He coughed out blood, but his grin didn't fade.

Merin's own black aura spread like wildfire, turning the ground beneath them to ash. Whirlwinds screamed around her. Air bullets formed and snapped through the air like gunfire.

This was no longer a battle Quinn or Lydia could enter. One wrong step, and they'd be erased by the shockwaves alone.

Then.

A whistle cut through the chaos.

Slleeeeckkk.

Something flashed between Quinn and Lydia, so fast it left a trail of crimson light.

BOOM!

The katana hit the ground in front of them, its blade sinking deep into the cracked soil. The impact sent a shockwave that pushed both Tugnier and Merin back several feet.

Crimson aura flickered around the weapon, crackling and humming, its metal glowing hotter and hotter until it turned blood red.

A chain connected to its hilt swayed upward, rattling from crackling crimson aura in the silence that followed.

Everyone froze.

Then the ground exploded again as a figure dropped from the top of the valley.

He landed hard enough to shatter the stone beneath him. A shockwave rippled outward, crimson crackles flashing through the dust storm. Sand rose and twisted around him, masking his form.

In the haze, they saw him, standing tall, head bowed slightly, crimson aura crackling beneath his feet.

And among that aura, black sparks of mana danced, twisting, tangling together with the crimson light like serpents in a storm.

Mana and aura, two forces that only a few in history had ever managed to merge. It was the mark of impossible mastery.

Merin's eyes widened. She knew this sight.

Once, when she'd still been a general, a single star away from marshal rank, she had seen it on the battlefield.

Back then she used to take tasks above her pay grade to earn that one star.

One such task is to tranfer herself to border lands of the war prone region.

War with Orvelian Dominion, which was still ongoing.. though what was a war during Merin's deployment was now died down to border conflicts.

And there is just one single reason for that.

Cassandra Sinclair.

During the war against the Orvelian Dominion, there had been a woman who wielded both mana and aura as one. Her insane mastery over aura has allowed her to do so.

Cassandra Sinclair, the Duchess of Sinclair duchy.

The wielder of Sovereign's aura.

A cold shiver ran down Merin's spine.

"Yo, Merin."

The voice broke through the ringing in her ears. Calm. Confident. Almost casual.

The silhouette stood amidst the red sand and crackling crimson aura, a girl slung over one arm, and a head held loosely in the other.

"Long time no see." The man's voice carried clearly through the storm. "Glad to see you're still alive."

For a second, it almost sounded genuine.

Almost.

But Merin felt it, the killing intent behind the words.

He wasn't glad she lived because he wanted to save her.

He was glad she lived because it meant he still had the chance to kill her himself.