Victoria vanished.
There was no sound.
No distortion.
No warning.
One moment she stood several feet away—
The next—
She was directly behind him.
Close enough that he could feel the cold edge of her presence brush against his spine.
A massive black sword materialized in her grasp.
It did not simply form.
It condensed.
Layer upon layer of cursed energy compressed into physical shape, forging a long, jagged blade that looked less like metal and more like solidified ruin. Its surface rippled faintly, as though struggling to remain stable under the density of power infused within it.
The air around the sword rotted.
Space thinned.
The ground beneath her feet decayed into powder.
Her crimson eyes gleamed.
She swung.
Not wildly.
Not angrily.
Perfectly.
The blade descended with silent executioner precision, cursed energy exploding outward at the moment of release.
The attack did not merely cut.
It erased.
It aimed to split Alex from shoulder to waist.
