Chapter 75 – Voidrender Awakens

The air shifted.

The courtyard plunged into utter silence.

Then Serenil moved.

Not dashed. Not sprinted. Moved. Like a blade through silk.

In an instant, he was behind one assassin—Voidrender slashed diagonally upward. The man screamed as his body seemed to blur and then shatter into particles, sucked into a swirling black fissure in midair.

One of them hurled explosive runes. Serenil spun, cloak whirling, Voidrender absorbing the detonation into its blade. Then he whispered:

"Shin'en – Black Bloom."

Void petals erupted around him, like a storm of obsidian cherry blossoms. Each petal moved with intent—slicing tendons, cutting limbs, severing magic circuits.

Two assassins screamed and collapsed, blood steaming on the cold stone.

The last two ran.

But they didn't get far.

The ground beneath them caved into shadow—his shadow—and arms of darkness pulled them under, into a silent abyss.

Serenil stood in the center of the chaos, breathing slowly, his blade humming in the cold.

Hestia, bleeding but alive, stared up at him in awe.

"You…" she whispered. "You came."

He turned, face softening as Voidrender slowly faded. "Always."

She clutched his sleeve, tears in her eyes.

And above them, hidden in the rafters of the courtyard, a cloaked figure watched silently.

A messenger of the Noble Alliance. His voice whispered into a communicator crystal:

> "Target is more dangerous than expected. Voidrender has fully awakened.

Proceed with contingency plan: Operation Black Thorn."