The ruins stretched out like a corpse beneath the morning light, bones of a long-dead city scattered across the jagged earth.
Nero moved through the wreckage with silent precision, his Raven Eyes cutting through the haze of magic that hung in the air like smoke.
His ever-present Shikigami eagles circled above, feeding him fragmented glimpses of the shattered landscape.
He was heading toward the Hollow Tree.
Toward the cursed clan.
But something caught his attention long before he reached his destination.
A voice.
"Walk faster, freak. Or we'll break your legs and drag you the rest of the way."
Nero froze, slipping behind a crumbled wall.
He lowered his body, heart steady, and peered through a jagged crack in the stone.
Two figures moved through the ruins, dressed in tattered black armor.
Black Talons. The warlord's elite enforcers.
Between them, a girl walked with her hands bound in rusted chains.
She looked about Nero's age. She was thin, frail, her clothes torn and filthy.
Her hair hung in a tangled veil over her face. Her feet left smears of blood on the rubble, shoulders hunched as if even the air pressed her down.
Even from a distance, Nero felt it.
The faint pressure against his mind. A creeping sense of despair.
The girl was from the cursed clan.
He stalked them carefully, keeping his presence suppressed, magic coiled tight within him like a loaded spring.
The Talons moved with the easy arrogance of men who didn't expect to be followed.
One of them, at the front of the group, carried a black iron lantern.
Its glass was warped and stained, and inside burned a sickly fire, cold and dark, flickering with a color that made the skin crawl.
Even from his vantage, Nero could sense the curse's weight easing, the suffocating hopelessness receding just enough wherever the lantern's glow touched.
The Talons clung close to it, never letting the light drift far.
But he felt there was something else, something subtler and more disturbing.
He narrowed his eyes, letting the Raven Eyes activate.
At once, the world bled into subtle layers of color and light.
Now, he could see it: a faint stream of magic, like wisps of smoke, drawn from the girl straight into the lantern.
Every pulse of the sickly flame corresponded with a fresh surge of despair drained from her, the artifact siphoning off the ambient curse and growing just a little brighter, a little hungrier, with every step.
He understood immediately.
This was how they breached the cursed clan's territory without being broken by despair.
The lantern was a shield, yes, but also a parasite.
An artifact that forced back the hopelessness just long enough to snatch lives and vanish again, while taking something vital in return.
Nero filed away every detail: the heavy iron, the runes etched along the handle, the way the sickly flame pulsed as if alive and hungry, flickering in sync with the girl's misery.
"You think Malrik's going to care if we rough her up a little?" one sneered, flicking his wand to send a harmless spark toward the girl's face. She didn't flinch.
"Don't be an idiot," the other snapped. "You know what happened to the last guy who damaged the cargo. Malrik flayed him alive. Literally."
The first Talon scoffed but didn't argue.
Instead, he jabbed his wand into the girl's back and whispered a Cruciatus Curse.
She crumpled, body writhing, but her face remained blank, tears rolling silently down her cheeks.
It was like she didn't care.
Like she was already dead.
Nero's fingers twitched around his wand.
He could leave. Let them pass. Follow them back to their base and try to gather intel.
Or he could stop it.
Here. Now.
The decision wasn't hard.
He wanted more information from the cursed clan.
He could always walk into the lion's den later. If he deemed it worthy.
Nero struck like a ghost.
One moment he was a shadow in the ruins.
The next, he was behind them.
"Reducto."
The blast hit the first Talon square in the back, exploding his torso in a spray of blood and shattered armor.
Blood and fragments of armor sprayed across the ruins as his body crumpled in on itself, leaving nothing but a mangled heap of flesh and smoke.
The second Talon reacted fast.
Very fast.
He spun, wand slashing through the air. "Confringo!"
The curse ripped through the space where Nero had been, tearing apart stone and sending debris flying like shrapnel.
Nero Apparated a meter to the left, landing in a crouch.
The Talon fired again. "Bombarda Maxima!"
Nero deflected it with a quick barrier, skidding backward as the ground beneath his feet erupted. Dust clouded the air, but he didn't let it slow him.
He snapped his wand forward, carving through the smoke like a blade.
"Stupefy!"
The Talon sidestepped, narrowly dodging the red jet of light. He was skilled, faster and sharper than the average Reaver.
But he wasn't faster than Nero.
The Talon lunged, trying to close the distance, but Nero had trained with Mu and Zen.
He wasn't just a spellcaster. He was a fighter.
The Talon jabbed his wand like a dagger, aiming for an eye, but Nero sidestepped, grabbing the man's wrist with one hand while driving his elbow into the Talon's ribs with the other.
The force knocked the air from the Talon's lungs, and before he could recover, Nero twisted the wand from his grip.
The man swung a punch, but Nero ducked, sweeping the Talon's legs out from under him with a sharp kick.
"Incarcerous."
Thick ropes exploded from Nero's wand, binding the Talon's limbs and wrenching him upright against a cracked stone pillar.
The man struggled, eyes burning with hatred.
"Who the hell are you?" the Talon snarled through clenched teeth. "You dare to oppose Lord Malrik's orders?"
Nero stepped closer, wand lowering.
"I'm the one asking questions," he said, voice cold as ice. "What is Malrik planning to do with the cursed clan?"
The Talon's jaw clenched. "I'll say nothing."
Nero sighed, wandlessly conjuring a shimmering barrier around the girl.
The magic warped the space within, she could neither see nor hear him or the Talon.
"Did you enjoy torturing her?" Nero's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.
"Because you're about to taste the same thing."
He raised his wand.
"Crucio."
The Talon screamed. A raw, animal sound that echoed through the ruins like a death wail.
His body convulsed against the bindings, muscles spasming as agony flooded through him. Nero held the curse for ten seconds before releasing it, letting the man sag like a broken doll.
The Talon gasped for breath, tears streaming down his face.
"Please… No more… I... I'll talk," he rasped, voice shredded from screaming.
"Malrik... he... he needs the clan's despair. Their curse... it fuels the ritual... h-he..."
The Talon stiffened.
His eyes rolled back into his skull, and blood streamed from his nose and mouth.
A black sigil burned into his forehead, glowing with sinister magic before disintegrating into ash.
Far away, the air rippled.
A voice, distant yet sharp as a knife, slithered through the ruins like a phantom.
"Oh... looks like a rat is playing with my slaves."
A chill crawled down Nero's spine.
For a moment, it felt as if the city itself was watching him.
Nero's eyes snapped upward, Raven Eyes flaring.
"Who are you?" Nero demanded, voice cutting through the silence.
The voice chuckled.
Then it faded.
No longer feeling the oppressive presence, Nero proceeded to remove the barrier.
The girl was still standing.
She hadn't moved.
Hadn't reacted.
She just stood there, eyes dull and lifeless, her chains clinking softly as she shifted her weight.
Nero approached her carefully, wand lowered but still ready.
"I'm not here to hurt you," he said, voice steady.
She didn't respond.
He stepped closer.
The pressure against his mind increased.
The despair. The emptiness.
It pushed at the edges of his consciousness, trying to seep in like venom.
But Nero had fought worse.
He reinforced his Occlumency barriers, shoving the influence away with practiced ease.
He reached out and tapped her chains with his wand.
"Finite Incantatem."
The rusted metal snapped and fell away.
The girl flinched.
Her eyes flicked up to him. Glassy, unfocused.
"Do you want me to take you back?" Nero asked quietly. "To your clan?"
She blinked, as if struggling to process his words.
Then, slowly, she nodded.
After healing her wounds and using transfiguration to make her some shoes, Nero retrieved the lantern from where it had fallen, careful not to let its cold, unnatural light brush against his own skin for long.
Only then did they set off through the ruins, Nero leading the way, the girl trailing a few steps behind.
She never spoke. Never asked questions. Not even a whisper of thanks or fear.
She followed, eyes fixed on the ground, like she was walking in a dream from which she had no wish to wake.
The oppressive aura around her didn't fade.
If anything, it became more distinct the longer they walked.
Even with Occlumency, Nero could feel it, like cold hands brushing against his thoughts, trying to drag him down.
But he endured it.
If this girl was a reflection of what the rest of her clan was like...
Nero needed to understand them. To know what they were.
What Malrik wanted from them.
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50 chapters ahead on Patreon (Suiijin): Chapter 196: Web of Betrayal