“Excuse me, did you just fall asleep in the middle of my presentation?”

  Steadily, Derrick started circling, moving further away from me.

  “I think that puts him eligible for marriage. So in conclusion, by falling asleep, he’s displaying the proper qualities to deal with you and marriage.”

  Now Derrick was standing by the mediating Weirdo.

  “Also, he gave me the right to consent on his behalf by borrowing this.”

  Derrick steadily bent down while making eye contact with me, a blueprint in his hand.

  So you’ll marry him and give me materials. Seems fai—

  The blueprint slipped through Derrick’s fingers.

  Not dropped. Not caught by wind or gravity.

  It just… phased downward, like the laws of physics had clocked out early.

  It sank into Jalen’s chest, without resistance. No splash of mana, no warning, just—ripples. Like his skin was the surface of a pond, and reality had a sick sense of humor.

  A concentric wave rolled out from the point of contact, crawling across his collarbone, shoulder, and jaw.

  “…What the hell.”

  Derrick blinked. Not startled. More offended.

  “Give that back, you idiot. I only have three of those. I’m going to kill you.”

  His voice wasn’t raised. If anything, it got calmer, dangerously so.

  His hand jerked out like he was snapping someone’s neck mid-air, and a blob of silver shot from his palm.

  It wasn’t magic in the way I understood it—more like melted moonlight forced through a centrifuge, spiraling with elegant violence straight at Jalen.

  But it didn’t connect.

  Not because he awoke or moved—

  It simply went right through.

  As he passed

  “What the hell?”

  This time, Derrick stopped, actually stunned. Or maybe he was frozen in place as he and Jalen began turning blue and vanishing.

  I looked at the dwarf, who gulped.

  “Did you do that? To get me to marry you? Well, it won’t work.”

  “Yep, I did it. So no need for marriage.

  But I heard you will make the Throwing guy very happy to marry you.

  I also heard Jalen would be very happy to marry you.

  So happy he’ll die if you don’t.

  I simply wish to draw on your abilities.

  They will die if you don’t marry you, so our marriage will only last an echo of the forge, while they should win your hand.”

  My head shook as the dwarf's pride was interrupted by a forceful face plant. My head tilted, and I sighed. “Stop speaking nonsense, you short-tempered dwarf. Did you forget the human lie detector is standing right here?”

  I didn’t even get to finish the eye-roll.

  A blast of red energy—raw, jagged, and furious—tore through the barrier.

  It wasn’t heat. It was malice condensed into color, a beam that screamed through the air and hit the ground with a thunderous crack that sent stone splintering in all directions.

  The shockwave shattered the floor at our feet. Conversations died in their throats. The dwarf stumbled, nearly falling. My hair whipped around my face as the wind screamed by.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  From the far end of the chamber, something else stepped through. And it wasn’t interested in marriage.

  "I knew I should have just killed you and just been done with it, you redd-haired psycho. " A woman floated in through the slowly cracking barrier. Crimson red tendrils of energy flowed from her. Her red hair spilled behind her in waves, trailing through the air as if fire had decided it preferred silk.

  Her eyes locked on me, then flicked to the dwarf if he was the noise she hadn’t finished muting yet.

  The woman whispered. One word. One name.

  “Aeris.”

  The air recoiled. Crimson surged, veins of power exploding from her back in elegant, writhing arcs.

  Then she spoke again, low and sharp like a blade against bone.

  “Quintessence Aeris.”

  Boom.

  Crimson exploded from her like a nova.

  The pulse didn’t crash—it carved. The surge cut through the barrier completely now, not shattering it but erasing it, as if the structure had offended her. The ground split beneath her feet. Mana warped in protest. The shockwave was pressure incarnate, a slap of elemental power condensed into a single exhale.

  The very air became sharp as daggers, the temporary barrier I had set up was cut into bits.

  The woman's voice rang out her but her mouth was still. "Ignis. Ignis Verat. Quintessence, my name is Quintesscense, but you will call me sapphire. I let your little farce go on for far too long and I'm bored of it. So I will be taking that little necklace as a compensation.

  My breath stilled my mind, already knowing her game. " You're trying to take the system compensation as boredom compensation? My hand went to the Golden necklace dangling from my skull. I'd like to see you try and take it my hand, closed around the necklace."

  In an instant, the ground under the floating woman exploded upwards, 12 lances of metal aimed at various points on her body. A sickening sound rang out. The woman's body fell but was held up by the spears.

  That was surprisingly easy to damn easy. I thought my brain was going into overdrive.

  " Is it just me that noticed she called herself sapphire when her magic and suit were more crimson. "The dwarf muttered asbently while walking toward the spears.

  " He does have a point, the human lie detector stepped forward. As he did, the woman's body started vanishing, and the blood disappeared. The lances clattered to the floor as if they’d never struck anything at all. There was no corpse. No wounds. No blood. Just… silence.

  Then the silence twitched.

  Not broke. Twitched. Like a muscle spasm in the air itself. And suddenly, everything around us felt wrong. Skewed. The air had weight. Not humidity, not pressure intent.

  " So the woman can use illusion magic that's just great. I added my mind, already configuring how I was going to get her back for threatening me. I looked a Derrick gazing into the distance.

  Some more illusions up and coming Derrick pointed to a cluster. A dim glow pulsed in the far corners of the chamber. At first, it looked like torches catching flame again—until those flames blinked. Eyes. Dozens. No, hundreds. Red. Pulsing. Watching. Hungry.

  "Is this another illusion Mr. lie detector I can't feel them here but I can feel their impact Jacob. I think a test is in order." I probably shouldn''t show the full range of my abilities,because she's probably watching.

  I clenched my fist large 30 meter spikes shot out from under ground impaling the shadows. "so basic weapons and abilities should be fine to take on this red eyed freaks.

  The eyes collectively blinked then large growls were released and the eye's opened again The moment those monstrous eyes reopened, I knew I’d made a mistake. Not because of the spell no, my attack had landed clean. Too clean. Like plunging a sword into sand and finding no resistance because what you hit wasn’t the threat at all. The spikes had struck… something. But what stared back now wasn’t surprised. It was hungry. Entertained.

  The blinking turned into movement. Not the skittering of small creatures or the stalking grace of predators but the crawling, impossible convergence of presence. Shadows slithered down the walls, stretching like they had spines that bent in directions bodies weren’t meant to twist. They poured from cracks, from corners, from the edges of our reality where light no longer reached.

  They didn’t rush us. They simply watched until I took my eyes off them. Then one lone shadow blinked out of existence.

  That was followed by a low growl from above, and there were even more crimson eyes peeping from the ceiling. So I did the only logical thing I could do. I blew up the entire cave. The extra atoms at my control, thanks to my necklace, made the task simple, just turning on a fuse.

  The explosion was instant and massive, giant, and that's when I realized something was wrong. My ability doesn't allow me to instantly explode things, no matter the metals. And in that moment of realization, I did what any logical, self-preserving lunatic would do: I made one final spear and aimed it directly at my neck. As the spear was on the course to pierce I heard a monotone laugh.

  " Oh dear you figured out that quickly it's only been a few seconds. " Then the illusion shattered. I stared at a wounded woman the Crimson stared back at me. Crimson is not only from the woman's magic, but also small crimson puddles of blood. The woman's hand was laid on her stomach, where the biggest wound was located some small fragments of the spears still sticking out.

  I kept the spear up not that it would do much anymore. The illusion had cracked, but the damage was still real. And so was the woman who now stoodor rather, staggered-inin its wake.

  She looked like a half-broken statue come to life. Blood pooled beneath her boots, and though her hand tried in vain to stem the bleeding at her abdomen, it was clear she didn’t have long unless she did something drastic. Yet her expression? Unbothered. Amused, even. That same monotone laugh still echoed faintly, like a wind chime made from bones.

  “I’ll give you credit,” she said, her voice calm but breathless. “You're league's stronger the dwarf. Whose's race is You barely took ten seconds.”