The air at the top of the Abandoned Old Tower instantly froze. The howling nocturnal winds rushing through the shattered window frames seemed swallowed whole by an expanding void.

Before Rian, Master Vane stood with a triumphant, wide grin stretched across his face. The short blade in the traitorous instructor's hand pressed flush against Elia's throat, leaving a thin crimson scratch that welled with fresh blood. The girl sobbed softly, her body shaking violently within the constraints of the energy-draining binding ropes, staring at Rian with pleading eyes begging him to ignore her and save himself.

"Well, what will it be, Rian? Your choice is simple," Master Vane barked with arrogant relish, bathing in the absolute dominance he held. "Drop your weapon to the floor! Kneel before me right now, or your little friend's head parts ways with her torso!"

Rian stood locked in place. The ten paces separating them felt like a yawning chasm.

In his past life as an elite mercenary, Rian had been trained to discard emotion, prioritize cold logic, and sacrifice anything for personal survival. The golden rule of a professional mercenary was absolute: Never let a hostage dictate your survival.

Yet, in this second life, that rule had begun to fracture.

When Rian's eyes caught the tears tracing Elia's cheeks and the fresh blood tracking down her neck, something deep within the sanctuary of his soul—a human emotional connection he was experiencing for the first time since being born into this new world—violent tremors shook his core. His memories flashed back to the bitter struggles in the dilapidated Oakhaven shack, his mother's sincere smiles, and the simple camaraderie shared with Elia in the academy library.

They are not mere pawns or variables in my strategic equations. They are fragments of the small sanctuary I swore to protect with my own hands.

My family... the people who matter to me... cannot be touched by garbage like this, Rian thought. Deep within his chest, the ancient mental seal holding back the pure core energy of the forbidden grimoire suddenly cracked.

Crack.

The sound of that microscopic fracture made no physical noise, yet it echoed with deafening force through Master Vane's consciousness and the mind of anyone gifted with high magical sensitivity around the tower.

Instantly, the world inside the ancient tower shifted hues.

The dim, flickering glow of the wall torchlight died out at once, plunging the chamber into absolute darkness. From Rian's eleven-year-old frame, a tidal wave of pitch-black mana erupted like an exploding volcano. The wave of energy took the shape of neither fire nor ice, but a mass of pure, crushing gravity that compressed the air until visual distortions rippled across the third-floor space.

"What—what the hell is this?!" Master Vane shrieked in sudden panic. His triumphant expression collapsed into chalk-white terror.

The gravitational pressure and killing aura were so suffocating that the wooden floorboards groaned loudly, as though the entire three-story structure refused to bear the weight of the wrath Rian had unleashed. Ancient books and shattered glass lifted into the air, spinning within a vortex of lethal black wind.

"I-Impossible... how can a mere child possess a dark capacity of this magnitude?!" Master Vane staggered half a step back, his sword-hand shaking violently. His grip on Elia's throat slackened under the crushing weight pressing against his chest.

Rian slowly lifted his head. The hood of his black cloak whipped backward from the energy storm, revealing a cold, expressionless face. But most terrifying of all were his eyes: the whites of Rian's eyes had turned pitch black, while his pupils blazed with a sharp, brilliant crimson luminescence.

"You..." Rian's voice emerged not as a child's tone, but as a heavy, multi-layered echo that rattled the soul, resonating directly against the stone walls of the tower. "...chose the wrong place to test the limits of my patience."

Before Master Vane could swing his blade to execute the hostage, the shadows in the corner of the room suddenly sprang to life.

Thousands of thick, black shadow tendrils lashed upward from the floor at the speed of light. They bypassed Rian entirely, instantly wrapping around Master Vane's ankles, wrists, and torso in the blink of an eye.

"Arghhh!" Master Vane screamed hysterically as the shadow grip crushed his protective armor.

The shadow tendrils crawled upward, binding the traitorous instructor tight and hoisting him bodily into mid-air. The pressure from the pure shadow magic cracked Master Vane's ribs one by one, wringing out a shriek of agonizing torment so severe his voice turned hoarse. The blade slipped from his fingers, clattering uselessly against the stone.

The magical binding ropes caging Elia shattered into dust, swept away by the energy shockwave. The girl collapsed limply to the floor, squeezing her eyes shut, unable to bear the visual terror unfolding before her.

Rian stepped forward, walking straight through the storm of gravitational distortion. Every footprint he left behind scorched a black, charred scar across the wooden planks of the tower floor.

He stood tall before Master Vane, who hung limply in mid-air, dying within the crushing grip of the shadows. Piercing the instructor's soul with his blood-red gaze, Rian whispered coldly:

"Tell your academy superiors and your shadow sect... the true trial has only just begun."

The moment the final word left his lips, Rian slammed his heel down against the wooden floorboards with a single, brutal stomp fueled by the entirety of his destructive mana circulation.

BOOM!

A massive detonation of shadow energy pulverized the entire third-floor structure of the Abandoned Old Tower in a single heartbeat, reducing the ancient monument to a sea of dust and shattered stone rubble.