Vance's breath caught somewhere between his chest and his throat, refusing to come out properly.
He stared at the scene in front of him as if his eyes were lying.
Cornelia's hand was wrapped around Sevette's neck.
Not an illusion. Not a delayed echo. Not a fading blood image that would dissolve in the next blink. It was real. Solid. Her fingers were digging into actual flesh, pale skin already beginning to bruise beneath her grip.
"How…" Vance whispered.
His mind raced backward, dragging memories with it whether he wanted them or not. Blood Illusion was not something you simply reacted to. You didn't grab it. You didn't counter it like a normal technique. You endured it, survived it, waited for the user to slip up, and even then, most fighters still failed.
He remembered a senior vampire mana user at the academy, a man with cold eyes and a reputation carved out of broken challengers. That man used Blood Illusion too. Perfectly. Or so everyone said.
