The Anomaly's Path

”Cough!”

My knees hit the frozen floor with a heavy, wet thud. I held my bare chest, my fingers digging into my skin as another hard spasm tore through my lungs. Dark, thick blood burst from my mouth, splashing across the white frost.

It was not right. The Frost-Monarch was dead. Its core was safely in my void pocket. My shoulder had snapped back, and my broken jaw was healed. By all accounts, the worst should have been over.

But it was not. Deep inside — right at the center of my body, something felt like it was splitting in half. A horrible, burning heat came from my core, making me feel like my soul was cracking open like dry glass.

What the fuck is happening to me?

I tried to breathe, but my lungs felt full of broken glass. I blinked through the sweat and blood blurring my vision, staring into the empty air.

Nova, I hissed in my mind, my thoughts fast and scared. Nova! What is happening to me? Talk to me!

The screen did not flash with its usual blue and black light. Instead, the edges of my vision turned into a broken, glitched red. When Nova’s voice finally came, the usual calm tone was gone, replaced by a sharp, urgent edge.

[Host. Your core has been pushed too far past its safe limit. You have started a dangerous chain reaction inside you.]

Speak clearly, Nova! I yelled in my mind, gripping my head as a sharp pain stabbed through my skull. Why does it feel like I am burning from the inside out?

[Because your body is failing in two ways at once, Host. A Master High monster has raw, crushing power that cannot be beaten by your current rank. To close that huge gap and kill it... you pushed your Soul Flame past its safe limits. But the problem is not just the hunger of the flame turning inward and starting to eat you. It is slowly taking your memories, your feelings, your very being to feed its hunger.]

Nova’s words sent a cold chill through my chest, cutting through the physical pain.

[To give you enough power to kill a Master High monster, your Energy Siphon pulled in the cold from the whole room and the raw energy from all around you. To stop your mana channels from bursting from the wild energy entering your body, your bloodline worked too hard. It ignored all its normal limits, aggressively eating your own flesh, energy, and strength to turn that dangerous foreign power into usable mana.]

”Fuck...” I cursed, my breath catching as a sudden wave of scary emptiness washed over me. For a second, the names of people I know, my family, even the memory of Mia felt distant — like a story I had read about someone else.

[The loop has flipped, Host. Your bloodline is eating your own body to fuel a process that has no more outside energy. At the same time, the Soul Flame is eating away at your memories and your very self to keep burning. Your body is destroying itself to keep going. The Soul Flame takes your mind and memories. The bloodline burns your body.]

”....”

[Your mana channels are cracked and burned from forcing too much power through them,] Nova went on. [...The mana you pulled in overloaded your system. Your whole body is working too hard and about to break. You cannot stop this loop alone.]

I looked down at my bare arms. Nova was right.

Dark, pitch-black flames were starting to rise from my skin again, without me calling them. But wherever the fire touched, the skin did not burn — it turned gray and see-through, before a sudden rush of my bloodline forced the flesh to snap back into solid form.

”Then how do I fix it?” I growled, my jaw clenching so hard my teeth ground together. ”How... do I stop the damn fire?”

[You must endure the pain, Host. You must stay awake to take back control of the Soul Flame. If you pass out now, your mind will lose control, and the flame will erase you. Besides, your body is also adapting.]

I blinked through the haze, forcing my thoughts to focus. Adapting. My bloodline was fighting back. It was a war inside me — the flame trying to erase my mind, the bloodline trying to keep my body alive.

Both were working at the same time, tearing me apart and holding me together.

[Your bloodline is learning, Leo. It is building resistance to the flame’s touch. But... the process is slow and painful. You must stay conscious and control the flames while your body adapts. If you slip, even for a second, the fire will win.]

I let out a rough, mocking laugh that turned into another wet cough. Just take the pain? Stay awake while my soul is being torn apart? Simple enough.

”Fucking hell...,” I said out loud, forcing my shaking legs to lock once more.

I stood up.

The pain of the movement made my vision go white for a second. Every nerve in my body felt like it was covered in liquid fire. I could feel the wild hunger of the flame clawing at the edges of my mind, telling me to give up, to let the numbness take over.

No. Not here. I didn’t survive two deaths just to let my own power eat me.

I focused everything I had left on my core, forcing my fingers into tight fists. I had to accept the hunger, make it mine, like I had practiced while trying to make my third form. But the fire was too much. The flames were growing taller, wrapping around my chest, eating the light in the yard.

I was losing it. I could feel my grip slipping.

Spitting another mouthful of blood onto the ice, I looked up. Through the haze of black smoke and rising flames, my eyes locked onto the figure standing near the blue pillars.

Seris.

Her eyes were wide, staring at me with an intensity that was almost too much, her blank mask finally showing a flicker of real shock.

I looked straight at her, the silent black fire now licking at my neck. I did not have time to be polite, and I did not have the strength to hold back.

”Hey,” I called out, my voice cold and empty, stripped of any warmth by the drain of the flame. ”I... need you to fight me. Right now.”

_

[Seris POV]

The silence of the frozen courtyard was suffocating.

I stood in the shadows of the blue pillars, my fingers lightly resting on the hilt of my blade. From the moment the tournament began, I had followed Team Leo from a distance, fulfilling my duty as the second-year observer.

To be completely honest, I hadn’t expected to do much. I knew Leo was strong — the white-haired Primus had built a reputation for being a reckless, stubborn wildcard.

But fighting a Master High rank? Alone?

It should have been a death wish. An Elite Low and an Expert Low going against a boss of that level was not possible.

Yet, I had watched from the dark as he took apart the stone giant. I had seen the skill of his space power, the sudden bursts of his black lightning, and most of all, those quiet, dark flames.

Those flames... they made something move deep inside me.

A strange pull toward him hit my chest, a feeling so unsettling it made my hands shake. It was not pity. It was not just curiosity. It was a raw, deep instinct that told me this boy was carrying something that did not belong in this world.

But now, the monster was dead. And Leo was falling apart.

He fell to one knee, coughing up dark, heavy blood that stained the white frost. For a moment, I thought he was just hurt from the fight. But then I saw his eyes. He was staring blankly into the air, his jaw tight, like he was arguing with a ghost in his own head.

Then, the fire returned.

It was not a normal element. It did not give off heat, but the moment the flames burst from his bare skin, the light in the room began to bend.

The air grew heavy, empty, and scary quiet. I could see the space around him stretching and cracking. The cold of the Gate, the leftover power in the air — everything was rushing into his body like water down a drain, yet his skin was smoking with a cold, hollow feeling.

Worse, the flame was eating him.

I could see his skin turning gray, fading into nothing before a sudden, strong rush of power forced the flesh to snap back. He was stuck in a scary loop of self-destruction, a war between a flame that wanted to erase him and a body that refused to die.

Suddenly, he forced himself to stand. The willpower it took to move in that state was terrifying, but he did it anyway. He snapped his head up, his white hair messy and wet with blood, and looked directly at me.

”Hey,” his voice cut through the heavy silence. It was cold, hollow, and empty. ”I... need you to fight me. Right now.”

I blinked, my blank face breaking for a second. ”...What?”

”If I lose control of these flames, I will erase myself,” he snarled, a sudden, desperate anger breaking through his cold mask. ”...Or worse, I will leak out and kill everyone else here. The only way to keep my mind sharp enough to control them is the rush. I need the pain of a real fight to stay awake. If I slip... you have to kill me.”

A chill ran through me. Kill him?

He was serious. He was not asking for a spar.

He was asking for a lifeline made of violence. He was scared of becoming a monster, scared of losing himself to the very power he had used to win. I could see the cracks in his face, the way his fingers twitched against his blade.

Before I could even think about what he said, the space in front of me broke. With a loud explosion of black lightning, Leo vanished.

He appeared right inside my guard, his moves too fast for me to react. His fingers shot forward, pinning me against the heavy stone pillar behind me. The hit shook my back, but what caught my breath was the look in his eyes.

He was close — too close — and the flames on his bare arms were close enough to touch my uniform, making the air around us feel hollow, like the idea of my own breath was being stolen.

”Do not hold back, Lady Seris,” Leo growled, his face inches from mine. ”I cannot afford to lose my mind. Hit me like you mean it.”