Kael moved.

The shadow man’s signature was faint—damaged, flickering, barely visible through the dust and debris—but still trackable. A dying ember was still an ember. You just had to know where to look.

He vaulted through the hole in the wall, boots crunching on rubble, eyes scanning the slum alley. The crater was obvious—fifty meters away, a building had a new-shaped hole in its facade, and scattered around it were enough bricks to build a small house.

Kael reached the crater in seconds only to see the man’s body gone except the residual dark energy still clinging to the destroyed wall like a fading bruise.

Kael’s eyes narrowed.

He extended his senses—gravity mapping the area, Essence Trace searching for the dark green signature, even his rudimentary shadow ability reaching out like blind fingers.

Gone.

The shadow man had run. Used the explosion as cover, slipped into the chaos, vanished into the labyrinth of the slums like the rat he was.

Kael sighed.

"What a failure."

"Not exactly the word I’d use."

Yenna landed beside him. Her white hair was disheveled with frost still crackling along her knuckles.

Her ice-blue eyes swept over Kael with an expression that could only be described as bewildered.

"You fought a Rank 9," she said slowly. "A Rank 9 with shadow abilities. One of the most difficult elemental combinations to counter. And you don’t have a single injury."

She looked at his cheek. The thin line from the spear’s graze had already scabbed over—Void Body Refinement healing at work.

"That doesn’t count," she added. "That’s a papercut."

Kael turned to her and flashed a smile.

"I know," he said. "I’m a menace."

Yenna looked at him. The look you gave someone who’d just said something incredibly stupid while standing in the middle of their own mistake.

"You let him escape," she said flatly. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Kael’s smile didn’t waver.

"Now they’ll know we’re hunting them." Yenna’s voice hardened. "That shadow bastard will report back to whoever runs this node. Security will tighten. Operatives will go underground. The other two locations on our list will be on alert. You didn’t just fail to kill one man—you potentially compromised the entire mission."

She crossed her arms.

"Well done, menace."

Kael stared at her for a moment.

Then he laughed.

"Well, don’t worry, love." He turned his gaze toward the distant slum labyrinth, where the shadow man’s fading trail still lingered at the edge of his perception. "He ain’t escaping me."

Yenna frowned. "What do you—"

"Yo."

A dark object sailed through the air toward Kael’s face. He caught it without looking using pure reflex.

A crystal.

Void Crystal.

Kael turned.

Cassian stood behind them. His expression was as unreadable as ever.

"Well, that was powering the formation," Cassian said, jerking his chin toward the crystal in Kael’s hand. "Should be useful to you."

Kael looked at the crystal. Then at Cassian.

Cassian knew. He had to know. The way he’d said useful to you. As if he understood exactly why this particular crystal mattered to this particular person.

"Thanks," Kael said simply.

Cassian shrugged.

"You’re the only one going after him." He started walking toward a distant glow that probably indicated a bar. "I ain’t following you. I need a drink."

He raised a hand without looking back.

"I’ll meet you guys tomorrow morning at the Guardians office."

And then he was gone, strolling through the slum with the casual indifference of a man walking through a park, apparently unconcerned about ambushes, dark alleys, or the very real possibility that House of Crimson had more operatives in the area.

"I don’t understand him," Yenna muttered.

"Nobody does. That’s the point."

Kael pocketed the Void Crystal and turned back to the warehouse.

"Yenna."

She looked at him.

"Report the mission’s success. Take care of the civilians. Some of them might need medical attention—Crimson probably drugged them." He paused. "George can handle extraction. Use your Guardian token to contact the base."

Yenna’s frown deepened. "What about the shadow guy?"

Kael was already walking.

"I will handle him before the end of today."

His voice carried no doubt.

Yenna watched him disappear into the maze of crumbling buildings.

Four hours later,

It took four hours of patient tracking through the worst slums on Morir for Kael to find what he was looking for.

The shadow man was good at hiding. His signature flickered in and out of Kael’s perception, masked by layers of shadow manipulation that must have been exhausting to maintain while injured. Twice, Kael lost the trail entirely and had to circle back, searching for any trace of dark energy residue on walls, on ground, on the occasional unconscious beggar who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But injuries left marks. Blood, specifically. The Pulsar explosion had done damage that shadow manipulation couldn’t fully conceal, and the shadow man was leaking—tiny droplets of crimson appearing on surfaces every few hundred meters, leading Kael deeper into the slums like a trail of bread crumbs.

The trail ended at a bungalow.

Not much of one.

The shadow man stood at the door.

He leaned heavily against the doorframe, one hand pressed to his ribs where the lightning had scorched through his defenses. Blood seeped between his fingers as he knocked on the door.

Kael pressed himself against the wall of an adjacent building, shadow manipulation wrapping around him like a cloak. It wasn’t good—nowhere near the shadow man’s level—but in the darkening slum, with no one looking, it was enough.

The door opened.

Light spilled out. And standing in the doorway was a woman.

Beautiful wasn’t the right word. It was too simple, too clean. This woman was... soft. Warm. The kind of beauty that didn’t come from bone structure or cultivation enhancement.

Blonde hair, loose around her shoulders. A simple dress that hugged curves that were generous without being showy. Green eyes that went wide with shock and concern the moment they registered the state of the man at her door.

"Steve—!"

She grabbed him. Pulled him inside. Her hands were everywhere—his face, his chest, his ribs—checking for wounds, assessing damage, tears already building in those green eyes.

"What happened? Who did this to you? Steve, you’re bleeding—"

"It’s fine, Sarah." The shadow man’s voice was weak, pained, but underneath it was something else. Something soft. "It’s... it’s fine. Just need to rest."

Sarah. Her name was Sarah.

She helped him inside, supporting his weight, murmuring soft words that Kael couldn’t quite hear. The door closed behind them. Warm light glowed through the curtained windows.

Kael remained perfectly still in the shadows.

His silver eyes traced the bungalow’s exterior.

A slow smile spread across his face.

The kind of smile that belonged on a predator who’d just discovered its prey had something worth protecting.

"So he has a wife."

The words came out softly.