The Ghost didn't give them a warning.
The moment the words «Let's finish the warm-up» left his mouth, he moved.
The tall man barely had time to reset his stance before Kael's boot came down on his knee from the side. The joint bent at an angle knees aren't supposed to bend. There was no scream at first , just the sound of cartilage tearing and bone snapping, wet and sharp like a branch breaking in a storm. Then the pain hit, and the man howled, collapsing sideways.
Kael didn't look away. His shadow tendrils surged from the cobblestones, wrapping the man's arms and shoulders, holding him upright so he couldn't curl away from the pain. «One down,» he said quietly, as if ticking boxes on a list.
The limping beast-man roared and charged from the left, claws wide. Kael shifted, let the momentum carry the creature past him, and drove his elbow into its spine. The sound was a deep thunk, followed by a shudder that ran through the beast's whole body. It stumbled forward and Kael's shadow hooked around one leg, yanking it clean off the ground.
It fell on its side, and that's when Kael's boot came down on its ribs. Once. Twice. Three times. Each blow was a hard, flat crack of bone giving way under focused, unhesitating force. The beast thrashed, but the sealed space meant there was nowhere to throw its strength.
The woman tried to run.
Kael didn't chase.
He just made a small cutting motion in the air, and the sealed dimension folded in on itself like a vice. The space around her warped , the ground tilted , and she slammed sideways into the wall with enough force to leave a crater in the brick. The air left her lungs in one choking gasp.
When she hit the ground, Kael was already there. One hand on her throat, pinning her down. Not squeezing yet, just letting her feel the pressure. His voice stayed calm.
«Tell me about the Children of the Hollow Flame.»
She spat blood in his mask's direction. Bad choice.
Kael slammed her head into the cobblestones. The sound was dull and meaty, followed by the faint grit of loose mortar scattering. Her breathing turned ragged, but she was still conscious.
«I can make this last hours,» he said. «You will talk before the end. That's not a threat. That's fact.»
Behind him, the tall man tried to rise on his good leg. Kael didn't turn , a single flick of his fingers sent a tendril lancing up through the man's palm, pinning his hand to his own chest. The tall man gritted his teeth, trying not to scream. Kael could respect that, but respect didn't mean mercy.
He walked over and crouched in front of him.
«You smiled at her,» Kael said flatly. «Explain that to me.»
The man tried to spit an insult, but Kael's hand shot forward, clamping down on his face. Mana surged through his palm, not like a spell, but like a current , heat and pressure forcing itself into nerve endings. The tall man's body jerked as his pain receptors lit up in white fire. He made a choking sound that wasn't quite a scream, wasn't quite a groan, just a raw animal noise.
«Every time you hesitate,» Kael said, «I'm going to light you up again.»
He let go, and the man sagged, panting hard. The moment he opened his mouth to curse, Kael's hand was there again , same burst of magic, same violent spike of agony. This time, the scream was full-throated, echoing off the sealed street's warped walls.
The beast-man was dragging himself up now, even with broken ribs. Kael turned on him next. A twist of the fingers, and the shadows gripping his leg shifted into hooks, digging in. The beast howled, the sound wet and hoarse. Kael pulled his hand upward , slowly. The shadows obeyed, tearing through flesh like fishing line pulled through meat.
When the creature's leg muscle separated, it dropped flat, twitching. Kael didn't break eye contact. «You've been altered. That's not just Void taint. Who did it?»
The beast growled, teeth clicking in defiance.
Kael sighed. His magic pushed down on the ribs he'd already broken, driving splinters deeper with surgical precision. The beast's roar climbed in pitch, voice cracking under the strain.
The woman tried a charm again. Bad timing. Kael turned, his shadow lashing out, curling around her hand. He crushed , not enough to sever, but enough to pulp the small bones in her fingers. She shrieked, clutching the ruined hand to her chest.
«Talk.»
«Go to hell,» she gasped.
Kael reached down, grabbed her by the jaw, and forced her to look at him. «I am hell for people like you.»
He didn't wait for a reply. The magic shifted again , this time targeting her inner ear. A pulse of spatial distortion hit her balance center directly, sending her mind into a spin. She gagged, collapsing sideways, the world tilting violently for her.
He turned back to the tall man.
«You're in the same cell. You share orders. You know who's in charge.»
The man tried to laugh, but it broke halfway through into a cough.
Kael stepped on his broken knee and leaned in. The scream that tore out was guttural and unrestrained.
«You'll say the name,» Kael said. «And then you'll tell me where.»
It took six more minutes of work , pressure on broken bones, mana forcing muscle fibers to lock in cramps, careful cuts with shadow edges that bled just enough to hurt but not to kill , before the tall man gasped it out.
«Sereth… Arch-Seer Sereth. Eastern quarter… safehouse… black door, three rings…»
Kael memorized it. Didn't nod. Didn't thank him. Just turned to the woman.
«And you. How many in the city?»
Her eyes flicked to the beast, then back to him. He saw the calculation , loyalty versus survival. He didn't give her time to pick wrong. Shadow wrapped around her ankle, tightened, and pulled. The pop of her hip dislocating was sharp in the air.
«Thirty! Maybe thirty-five!» she blurted, breath coming in panicked bursts. «Not all here , scattered , cells!»
The beast-man tried to move again. Kael was on him instantly, one hand on the back of his neck. Mana pulsed , not heat this time, but cold so deep it burned. Frost crept along the beast's altered skin, sinking into the cracks of his warped muscle. He convulsed hard enough that something in his spine gave way with a muffled crack.
«Names?» Kael demanded.
The beast only growled.
Kael's fingers tightened. «Last chance.»
When the beast spat blood instead, Kael drove a shadow spike through its shoulder. The noise it made didn't sound entirely human anymore.
Kael straightened, letting the spike fade. He'd gotten enough for tonight , Sereth's name, a location, numbers. He could chase the rest later. Right now, these three were done.
He let the shadows drop them all at once. They slumped in various states of ruin , broken, bleeding, gasping. Alive, but only because Kael had chosen it.
He stepped back, letting the sealed space dissolve. The sounds of the city came rushing back , distant chatter, footsteps, the faint hum of the lanterns. The street looked the same as before, but the smell of blood lingered heavy in the air.
Kael glanced down at his hands, flexing them once. No tremor. No hesitation.
And then it hit him.
Liora.
He'd left her in the plaza. That had to be… what, twenty minutes? No, longer. Closer to forty. Maybe more.
He exhaled sharply through his nose. She's going to be furious.
And for the first time tonight, that thought worried him more than the cult.