"Who the fuck are you" james yelled, which was just his mouth moving, no sound came out.
Suddenly he saw his head flying to the door of his room, hitting the door of his room.
His eyes widened in horror, 'I died?'
"James snap out of it!" 'His excellency?' Vane's calm yet serious voice rang out in James' ears, making him open his in a blink.
Suddenly—
He was not dead.
He was standing just a few inches away from the masked man, who was now holding a small palm-sized dagger, bringing it just a few centimeters away from James' neck.
If it'd been allowed to move, his throat would've instantly slid open.
'What stopped it?'
"Tch. I've to deal with you first," masked man said with a frown of mild annoyance.
James finally saw it, blinding silver coloured ethereal chains had perfectly stopped the attack just before it could hit him.
Suddenly the masked man instantly appeared in front of the door, like he had just entered the house as a guest. Like he was not just about to kill James,
'His speed is way faster than me, or any monster I've faced, I can't take him head on… He can decapitate me before I can even react. But with the Chains of life, I can detect where he will go before he moves… I still have the advantage of knowing his abilities because of Leor, while he has no idea of mine. As long as he doesn't realise it, I can win.' Vane thought silently, his gaze remaining serious.
Suddenly Vane felt extreme danger, as if he was just about to die.
Woosh!
Boom! Boom!
Soundless explosions ran.
Everything, from the kitchen to James's room instantly evaporated, Dust rising from the ground.
It all disappeared in an instant, but that was not the case.
'This invisible wave… Destroyed everything so fast, that it immediately turned to dust.'
Vane breathed a sigh of relief.
He was surrounded by midnight black chains, which looked like they were coming out of his chest, but weirdly enough they were not touching him, just spinning around him with a steady pace.
The invisible attack, even though Vane couldn't see it, He could certainly sense his death.
"So these are Chains of Death…" The masked man, still standing at the main door, stroked the beak of his chicken mask.
"...How could you know?" Vane's eyes widened with surprise.
This was his Asakami, His secret technique, His trump card… only two people would have known about this.
'He knows of chains of death, then he must've guess by now that I can absorb all aether with a single touch of it, He would definitely avoid it like the plague now… I need to create an opening to use it.'
Even though there was no sound leaving his mouth, it looked like the masked man could hear him.
"Don't worry about it." It felt to Vane like the masked man had a mocking grin under his mask.
Vane took a deep breath, calming his nerves.
'None of this matters, Just one touch and it's over.'
Then— Vane clapped his hand together tightly, like he was trying to hurt the other.
Instantly thousands of silver chains appeared out of nowhere. Steadily rising from the ground. All rushing towards the masked man, who just kept his posture like he was at a banquet, just enjoying himself.
But only Vane knew, in between the silver chains, there were very thin, almost the size of a small thread midnight black chains hidden, completely overwhelmed by the brilliance and light of silver ones.
'These cultists are too arrogant to strategise, This would be the death of you.' Vane thought coldly.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Suddenly, multiple silent air waves, more powerful than the previous on,e randomly attacked from all directions of the house, perfectly hitting all the chains before any of the chains could touch the masked man.
The masked man still had his hand in his pockets, watching as blinding silver chains crumbled one after another.
Now he could clearly see them, the chains of Death.
They were thin enough to miss the eyes of a normal human easily, but for a Cavalier's eyes, it was as big as a horse.
Suddenly small palm-sized daggers were replacing the thin chains of death, James couldn't see it properly, but Vane could slightly make out what happened.
The masked man fidgeted with those daggers, aimed them—Destroyed the Chains of death. The knives had not used an aether reinforcement, just physical strength. This was a fatal weakness of chains of death, and the masked man had figured it out between the first ten minutes of the fight.
'If before when he attacked with that powerful sound wave, just threw knife as fast as he could, it might've taken me off guard…' Vane thought as he saw the palm-sized daggers moving faster than sound, almost invisible to the naked eye,
With a thought, he immediately sprang into action, first he clasped both his hands in a praying motion, fingers intertwined tightly, then he with precision clenched and unclenched the intertwined fingers for three times.
Yelling suddenly—
"Imperium Cage! bringer of Life."
'I have to go all out…'
An extremely dark veil instantly materialised, surrounding the whole house, from upstairs to the main door, startling Clara and Johan, who were now hiding in Leor's room, waiting for Leor's instructions to ignite the gas.
Masked man was startled at first, but instantly reacted. Clenching both of his gloved hands into fists, brought them down like he was punching the air.
Then he crossed his index and middle fingers of his right hand, yelling calmly—
"Celestial Circle! Aural Abyss."
Hundreds of thousands of black chains were desperately reaching out from the ground, out of thin air, from everywhere.
But—
"Null zone."
The masked man's voice grew serious, completely different from his previous arrogant attitude. He knew even a single mistake would result in a drained old frail dead body.
Vane's eyes immediately widened, his pupil constricting to the limit.
'He disappeared?'
James, on the other side, watched everything with a serious gaze, but his eyes couldn't keep up, and suddenly, the mask completely disappeared, making the black chains hit the stone floor.
'No way!' James thought of a possibility, but he didn't wanted to believe in it. He was already becoming a dead weight here.
'He can move as fast as sound'
Leor's previous words rang in his ears, 'It's just like captain's Full release… That man can also materialise into his ability.'
'He's not just moving at the speed of sound… He is sound!' James finally understood it, but instead of despairing—
"Celestial Circle! Marrow Sovereign." James murmured to himself, His lips curling up in a cold grin.
'I can finally join in the fun!'