Lucan remained on his knees.

  Dust still floated in the air at the heart of the kingdom, suspended between cracked columns and chunks of stone torn from the ground. The battle was over, yet the echo of released energy still vibrated through the walls like a memory refusing to fade.

  In front of him, the motionless body.

  His breathing was steady. Too steady. As if his body were operating on instinct while his mind refused to process what had just happened.

  Then he felt it.

  A sting between his shoulder blades.

  Brief.

  Almost insignificant.

  Lucan closed his eyes.

  No.

  Another sting. Deeper. As if a burning needle had pierced through his skin from the inside.

  The seal.

  The heat began to spread slowly, following the lines carved into his back. It wasn’t surface-level pain. It was internal. As if something were awakening beneath his flesh, pressing for space.

  He clenched his teeth.

  “Breathe.”

  He had controlled it before. He always had.

  He inhaled slowly. Exhaled, counting silently. Tried to draw the energy inward, contain it in a single point. Lock it down.

  The heat responded by expanding.

  The lines of the seal began to glow beneath his clothing. First like thin filaments. Then like luminous cracks forcing their way outward.

  The ground beneath his knees trembled slightly.

  Lucan placed both hands on the stone to steady himself. The contact sent a discharge up his spine. The seal pulsed.

  Once.

  The air around him compressed for a second.

  Several people looked toward the courtyard.

  Too many.

  Guards. Healers. Wounded soldiers. All too close.

  If it broke loose there…

  If he lost control there…

  His breathing stopped being steady.

  The heat increased, running down his ribs, climbing toward the base of his neck. The lines were no longer just light; they seemed to shift beneath his skin, rearranging into patterns he didn’t recognize.

  Not now.

  Not in front of everyone.

  He tried to stand.

  The movement triggered a stronger pulse from the seal. The stone beneath his hands cracked with a sharp sound.

  Someone muttered something.

  Lucan didn’t look.

  He felt the stares. Felt the tension building around him. Felt the fear that hadn’t yet become panic, but was one heartbeat away from it.

  And the worst part was that he understood it.

  Because he felt it too.

  Not toward what he had faced.

  But toward himself.

  The seal pulsed again.

  This time the shock forced the suspended dust to fall at once.

  Lucan lowered his head.

  He couldn’t let it out.

  Not there.

  Not with everyone so close.

  “Lucan.”

  Selene’s voice wasn’t a shout. It was firm. Direct.

  He looked up.

  She stood a few meters away, hair stuck to her face from sweat and ash. Her eyes moved over the body in front of him. Then slowly down to Lucan’s back.

  The glow was piercing through the fabric.

  The seal’s lines were visible now, outlining his silhouette with unstable light.

  Selene didn’t step back immediately.

  But her body reacted.

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  A small step.

  Instinctive.

  Lucan saw it.

  It was minimal. Barely half a foot sliding over stone.

  But he saw it.

  Something in his chest tightened more than the seal itself.

  He said nothing.

  He had no words.

  The seal answered that emotion with another uneven pulse. The air around Lucan grew heavy, as if space itself were compressing.

  A messenger burst into the courtyard, gasping, covered in dust.

  “They’re retreating!” he announced, trying to catch his breath. “The invaders are scattering south! Most of them have abandoned the core!”

  The messenger took two more steps before noticing the strange silence.

  He looked at Alaric’s body on the ground.

  Then at Lucan.

  Then at the seal.

  The glow on his back was undeniable. Alive. As if it were breathing.

  The messenger swallowed.

  “What… what did you do?”

  It wasn’t an accusation.

  But in the silence of the courtyard, the question landed like a stone.

  Lucan felt the heat rise again.

  The seal’s lines extended slightly farther, spreading toward his sides like roots searching to break through skin.

  The ground vibrated.

  Selene didn’t look away.

  But her posture shifted.

  No longer just alert.

  Cautious.

  Lucan stood.

  The movement was slow, controlled. But the simple act of straightening made the seal flare brighter.

  A subtle wave expanded from his body, pushing the air outward. Not violent. But enough to force those closest to step back.

  “Move away,” he said.

  His voice wasn’t loud.

  But it carried vibration.

  The stone beneath his boots cracked.

  Selene stepped toward him.

  “Lucan, look at me.”

  He did.

  His eyes weren’t fully focused. There was something in them that felt like too much contained in one place.

  “Move away,” he repeated.

  The seal pulsed again. More irregular. More unstable.

  The messenger hurried toward the exit.

  Selene held Lucan’s gaze a second longer.

  Then she understood.

  It wasn’t a threat toward them.

  It was a warning.

  Lucan turned.

  Each step made the glow on his back fluctuate, as if the seal were testing the limits he imposed.

  “Lucan!” Selene moved after him.

  She didn’t get far.

  A firm hand caught her arm.

  Renar.

  “Let him,” he said quietly.

  “He’s unstable.”

  “I know.”

  Lucan didn’t look back.

  He crossed the courtyard under tense stares, leaving small cracks in the stone where involuntary pulses escaped.

  He wasn’t running.

  But he moved with urgency.

  He needed distance.

  Before he stopped being able to ask for it.

  The murmur of the kingdom faded behind him, but the weight on his back didn’t lessen.

  If anything, it worsened.

  The moment he was far enough from the crowd, the seal stopped holding back.

  The burn became an incandescent line running down his spine like molten metal. His steps quickened.

  He needed space.

  More.

  He crossed a side street. Then another. Houses bore the marks of battle, doors open, smoke rising from distant windows.

  The seal pulsed.

  A wave of energy burst from his body and shattered nearby wooden shutters. Splinters flew outward.

  Lucan gritted his teeth.

  “Control…”

  Another pulse.

  Stronger.

  The pain intensified.

  Deep. As if his bones were being compressed from within.

  He turned toward the southern boundary of the kingdom, where the terrain descended into less populated ground.

  He ran.

  Each step left faint cracks where he landed.

  The seal wasn’t exploding.

  It was overflowing.

  Small filaments of energy began to peel away from his back, drifting like dark smoke threaded with dim red light. They dissipated seconds later, but left the air heavy behind them.

  Lucan felt something else.

  Not only pain.

  Clarity.

  His thoughts aligned with cold precision.

  The seal wasn’t just releasing power.

  It was adjusting him.

  That unsettled him most.

  Then he saw them.

  A large group moving along the road leading out of the kingdom. Some wounded, others carrying sacks. Uneven armor. Swords resting on shoulders.

  They were laughing.

  “Told you they’d pay well.”

  “With this, my sister won’t have to work in the quarry anymore.”

  “Worth the risk.”

  One spat blood onto the ground and smiled.

  “We leave before they regroup.”

  Lucan stopped a few meters away.

  The seal burned intensely.

  One of them saw him first.

  “Hey.”

  The conversations died.

  A heavy silence fell over the group.

  Lucan stood in the middle of the road, cloak torn, dust covering his shoulders. Beneath the fabric, the seal’s light pulsed visibly.

  “He’s one of them.”

  “He’s alone.”

  A man stepped forward.

  “Move. It’s over.”

  Lucan didn’t answer.

  The seal released a pulse that stirred the dust at his feet into a circular pattern.

  Someone swallowed.

  “He doesn’t want to talk.”

  Swords were drawn.

  Lucan stepped forward.

  The air around him thickened.

  The first attacker moved decisively, sword raised.

  Lucan moved before the blade descended.

  He grabbed the man’s wrist, pivoted with minimal effort amplified by the seal, and hurled him into another. The impact was sharp.

  A second attacker tried to flank him.

  Lucan extended his hand without looking.

  A concentrated pulse shot from his palm. The man was hurled backward with enough force to crush his chest against the ground.

  The group reacted together.

  Shouts.

  Steel clashing.

  Lucan advanced.

  His expression was empty.

  The seal began influencing more.

  Whenever someone came too close, an automatic wave burst from his body. Some were thrown into trees. Others simply collapsed when the energy passed through their nervous system.

  One managed to cut his arm.

  Blood appeared.

  Lucan didn’t react.

  He turned and drove the man’s own sword through him without changing expression.

  The seal pulsed in rhythm with the fight.

  Something had shifted.

  He was no longer trying to restrain it.

  He was using it.

  Without reservation.

  Without measuring.

  One of the invaders fell to his knees before him.

  “Wait—”

  Lucan looked at him.

  And ran him through.

  No hesitation.

  That was the difference.

  He had killed before.

  But never like this.

  Never without feeling the emotional weight afterward.

  Now there was only internal silence.

  The seal kept expanding.

  Fewer remained.

  They tried to flee.

  The seal responded before he did.

  A wider wave burst outward, knocking down those who ran.

  Lucan walked among them.

  The ground was cracked.

  Nearby trees trembled under the pressure saturating the air.

  A final coordinated attack came from three directions.

  Lucan closed his eyes for a second.

  The seal flared at full intensity.

  When he opened them, the energy released in a more violent expansion.

  Not explosive.

  Crushing.

  The three bodies were slammed into the ground with a final, decisive sound.

  Silence.

  The seal pulsed once more.

  Then began to descend.

  The light dimmed gradually.

  The air stopped vibrating.

  Lucan took a step.

  His legs trembled.

  The cost arrived all at once.

  The pain he had blocked returned multiplied. His muscles felt hollow. The wound in his arm burned with sharp clarity.

  The world tilted slightly.

  He looked around.

  Bodies.

  Too many.

  His chest rose and fell with difficulty.

  Then he felt it.

  An echo.

  Not external sound.

  Internal.

  As if something were whispering from deep beyond the seal.

  Fragments of voices.

  Distorted.

  Incomplete.

  He tried to focus.

  The seal emitted a faint vibration.

  Among the trees, a few meters away, something moved.

  A silhouette.

  Dark.

  Still.

  Watching.

  Lucan tried to focus his sight.

  The figure seemed human in shape, but its edges were undefined. Like smoke contained in structure.

  The echo grew clearer for a second.

  A low tone.

  Almost familiar.

  His vision blurred.

  His knees gave out.

  The seal flickered once.

  Lucan fell forward onto the cracked earth.

  The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the silhouette tilting its head slightly.

  And then, darkness.

  End of Chapter 20