The night was silent.
Too silent.
Serenil stood alone on the outer balcony of the palace's southern spire, his silver hair fluttering in the soft breeze. He had sensed it—the shift in air pressure, the faint rustle of movement that defied pattern.
A hunt was underway.
And he was the prey.
Then it happened.
A blur of green and silver flashed toward him. Serenil barely dodged the slashing claws aimed for his throat.
A fox girl. No—a beastkin assassin. She had glowing green hair, fox ears perched atop her head, and a bushy tail swishing behind her. Her blue eyes glimmered with an unnatural light. Her claws, made of condensed spirit steel, tore through stone like paper.
But before Serenil could retaliate, a second figure crashed down from above—purple hair, light pink eyes, cat ears, and two curved daggers that moved like lightning. A third leapt from the shadows, red-orange hair flowing behind her, red rabbit ears twitching as she fired magical projectiles from a crossbow made of bone and arcane runes.
They moved as one—silent, deadly, precise.
Serenil's training saved him. He parried, deflected, evaded, every motion smooth and calculated. But he was on the defensive. Every clash left hairline cuts across his arms and shoulders.
Their speed… their coordination…
These were not ordinary children. These girls had been forged for death.
They surrounded him. The fox girl lunged. The cat girl vanished into the shadows. The rabbit girl launched another bolt glowing with a binding curse.
Serenil was outmatched.
For a normal child, this would be the end.
But Serenil Aetheryn was not normal.
And he was done holding back.
"Voidrender… awaken."
The air split.
A pulse of black and violet erupted from Serenil's body as a void crack tore the ground apart. His blade appeared in his hand, jagged and obsidian, glowing with crimson runes.
Voidrender: Mugen no Kurayami.
The assassins froze.
Then the blade moved.
One slash. The fox girl's claw melted in his anti-magic field.
Two slashes. The cat girl's shadow magic was completely nullified.
Three slashes. The rabbit girl's crossbow was split apart, the curse bolt severed mid-air.
Serenil's eyes burned with cold, detached fury.
He didn't kill them.
He disabled them. Disarmed them. Bound them.
Then, he saw it.
Around each of their necks: a black metal collar etched with crimson runes pulsing with magic.
Control magic.
Soul-binding magic.
"Slaves…" he muttered. "No. Puppets."
Without hesitation, he raised Voidrender. The blade shimmered with concept-severing energy as he brought it down, severing each collar with surgical precision.
The girls collapsed, unconscious—finally free.