A/N: Hiiii! I know we already have Trigger Warnings in the 'About the Book' section, but I just want to remind everyone again. This particular chapter is heavy; it contains strong language and extreme physical violence. Please read with extra caution. Take care!

SAGE'S POV

"I-Ivory..."

I barely managed to choke out her name. My throat went completely dry as I realized I'd been caught red-handed. Again.

Ivory remained dead silent. Her utter stillness was far more terrifying than any scream could ever be. Her icy blue eyes locked onto me, a stare so cold, sharp, and piercing it felt like physical blades.

My hands shot up in a frantic, defensive gesture. "W-wait—" I stammered out, the words scrambling in my throat. "This isn't what you think—"

She cut me off with a sharp, decisive shake of her head. Slowly, she clicked her tongue against her teeth.

"You're so dead, Sythria."

At that exact moment, it felt as though a localized bolt of lightning had crashed directly onto my chest. My mouth parted, trembling, desperate to form a coherent protest, but every single word had entirely abandoned me. My body locked up completely. Cold sweat prickled across my skin, leaving me utterly paralyzed.

Slowly, Ivory took a measured step backward into the shadows. She didn't utter another syllable aloud. Instead, she simply mouthed two words of final condemnation:

Good luck.

And that was when I felt it—a bizarre, heavy presence bleeding into the air nearby, like a suffocating winter settling over the forest.

From my peripheral vision, a jolt of pure horror made my eyes snap wide. There, watching us from the deepest, ink-black shadows of the ancient trees, was a pair of glowing red eyes.

Holy hexes.

For a terrifying second, my lungs forgot how to function. The sheer sight of those crimson eyes felt like it was physically stealing the air right out of my chest. I swallowed hard, a lump of dread forming in my throat.

Suddenly, a rapid, heavy crunching of footsteps echoed from directly behind me. The sudden sound violently shattered my paralysis.

I whipped my head around to face the threat, but before my brain could fully register the movement—

A blinding, scorching heat violently clamped down around my neck.

"HURR—K—K—!"

I thrashed wildly for air, my teeth grinding together as an agonizing pain ripped through my throat. Trembling, my fingers clawed desperately at the constriction.

It was a collar made of solid, unyielding metal—thick, heavy, and radiating a blinding, holy light. My eyes weakly traced the glowing chains upward, following the links until my gaze locked onto the person holding the leash.

"A-Audra—"

She didn't give me a single millisecond to breathe. With a cold expression, she yanked the chains, tightening the collar securely around my windpipe.

A ragged hiss tore from my lips. I could literally hear the bones in my neck groaning under the sheer, crushing pressure.

"Argh—!" I choked, desperately trying to pry the metal apart, but it was already too late.

Without a word of warning, Audra brutally wrenched the chain forward.

"L-let me g-go— AUDRA!" I gasped harshly, my boots scraping violently against the dirt as I stumbled blindly after her. The air around us grew severely unbearable, turning into a thick, suffocating vacuum.

Audra didn't answer. No words escaped her lips. She simply dragged me behind her as if she were taking a casual, mundane stroll through the woods, continuously hauling me deeper into the dark, uncharted territory of the forest.

But even through the agonizing pain, I felt her.

The exact moment a sudden, violent black mist began to swirl aggressively around her chest... I felt it all.

The raw anger. The hostility. The contempt. The towering conceit.

And above all else... fear.

All of those chaotic emotions were swirling inside her all at once. And me?

"S-stop this—" I struggled weakly, hot tears streaming rapidly down my face, burning against my cheeks. "P-please—"

I felt like a witch about to be brutally exorcised.

But they completely ignored me. Even Vanya, who was trembling and sobbing hysterically, just pathetically trailed behind Audra like a ghost.

After several agonizing minutes, I realized we were approaching a massive, ancient tree in a secluded clearing. The area was profoundly darker, dead silent, and the shadows bleeding from every corner felt alive, writhing with a sinister sentience.

Instinctively, I tilted my head back to look up. Much to my dismay, the radiant moon was slowly being swallowed whole by a dense wall of black clouds.

Audra shot a brief, icy glance in my direction before forcefully dragging me toward the towering tree. I kept stumbling and scraping my knees against the rough roots, completely breathless, until Audra finally halted.

With a brutal flick of her wrist, she threw the length of the chain upward. It moved like a living snake, automatically wrapping and securing itself tightly around a massive, high-reaching branch overhead.

"You think hiding in the shadows makes you clever?" she hissed out, her golden girl facade cracking. She grabbed the trailing end of the chain, wrapping it securely around her palm and tightening her grip.

Then, she yanked the chain so violently that my feet nearly left the ground. I choked, the metal cutting deeply into my throat.

"Sneaking around like a disgusting rat in the dark—spying on us?!" she screamed directly into my face.

A violent flash of panic swept through my system, but the sheer surge of adrenaline forced me to suppress it.

"S-seriously?!" I spat back, coughing roughly as the metallic taste of blood pooled on my tongue. "W-you're just dragging me here over something you assumed?! What the hell is your problem?!"

"YOU," she sneered, her blue-gold eyes flashing with lethal intent. "YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. ALWAYS HAVE BEEN!"

I narrowed my eyes, shooting a venomous glare straight back at her.

"And so are you!" I spat, pulling uselessly against the restraints. "But between the two of us? You've always been the arrogant bitch who made everything worse."

She scowled deeply, the very register of her voice turning heavy and ominous. "You sure have a sharp tongue for a noxious witch."

I visibly flinched at the slur.

"But that doesn't change the fact that you are exactly what I saw," she added, a dark certainty settling over her features.

I swallowed hard, the words dying in my throat as I stared at her.

"What?" she mocked, a cruel smile touching her lips. "You think this is some kind of joke? You've been a threat since the literal day you arrived at this academy. I've seen what you become. I saw it with my own eyes!"

I forced out a breathless scoff.

In response, she brutally yanked the chain once more, forcing me onto my tiptoes.

"You..." Audra whispered, her voice trembling with a strange horror. "...standing in the dead center of absolute ruins... soaked entirely in blood and darkness."

My breath hitched at her words. A cold dread pierced my chest. "Wha–w-what do you mean?" I asked, my voice finally shaking.

She grinned wickedly, looking entirely unhinged.

"That you and your wretched fate have granted us the perfect chance to get rid of the threat—to eliminate YOU before anything catastrophic happens."

Wait... does that mean... she's going to kill me? As in, murder me right here?!

HAS SHE COMPLETELY LOST HER MIND?!

I could feel my own blood boiling violently in my veins. A deep, chaotic tremble tugged at my heart as I fought desperately to breathe. The cold, metallic texture of the collar wrapped around my neck started to burn, searing into my flesh like raw fire.

But right now, I couldn't care less about the pain.

"H-huh." I clicked my tongue sarcastically. "So... one stupid vision... and you just automatically decided it's the absolute truth?"

I forced myself to project a calm, mocking exterior despite the agony, but there was an intense, roaring emotion trying to rip its way out of my throat. "T-that's so pathetic... so s-shallow—"

Audra cut me off by callously tugging the chains one more time.

My boots were now a mere inch from the dirt. The terrifying reality that I was about to be executed via hanging slammed into my brain.

"You have absolutely no idea how dangerous you are, noxious witch." Audra shook her head firmly, her patience completely depleted. "You don't know what I saw. You don't know what I felt..." She gritted her teeth so hard her jaw strained. "...seeing you walking around alive, acting like you belong here, like you're one of us. But—YOU'RE NOT! You're the damn storm, Runa. And I saw it coming for ALL. OF. US."

I watched Audra's grip tremble violently against the metal links.

She noticed her own weakness too. With a feral snarl, she jerked the length of the metal again, tightening the loop to a lethal degree. The chain crawled higher, grinding loudly against the thick bark overhead, and the glowing white collar branded my skin with holy fire.

With that sudden, violent action, my head was forcibly wrenched upward and tilted at an unnatural, agonizing angle beneath the tree, leaving my entire body completely off-balance.

I couldn't hide it anymore. The sheer, unadulterated terror consuming my soul breached the surface.

One inch left.

One more single inch before my neck snapped.

"H-huh..." I let out a bitter, hoarse laugh, the sound scraping against my raw throat. "You... of all people... acting like a damn savior." My voice was fading, but I kept pushing through the suffocating weight.

Audra merely glared back, refusing to offer a reply.

"You..." I growled, pinning her with a venomous stare. "P-pretending to be so righteous... when you're literally choking me to death with your holy chains." I gritted my teeth, forcing the immense pain back down my throat. "A-aren't you supposed to be the golden girl of protection? White magick, h-huh? Holy seals, divine shields, and all that heavenly bullshit?"

Suddenly, the suffocating grip of the collar loosened just a fraction.

Audra seemed visibly startled, her eyes widening in fury as she hurriedly stepped closer to me. "You don't understand what I'm trying to do!"

My lips pressed into a hard, severe line of forced silence. Cold sweat beaded heavily on my brow, tracing a slow, hot path down to my temple.

With a slow, ragged exhale of air, I spat right back, "I do."

She arched an eyebrow, her jaw clenching as she fought the urge to speak.

I let out a dark, bitter laugh, locking my sharp silver gaze onto her eyes. "You're scared."

"I'm not."

"You're terrified of me."

"I am not scared of you!" she yelled, her perfect voice cracking. "I am doing what needs to be done!"

"Y-you are," I wheezed, my sweaty hands desperately gripping the burning collar. "B-because you..." I trailed off, taking one last, shaky, desperate breath to speak with absolute clarity.

"...You just couldn't stand the thought of being wrong."

The entire forest began to spin dynamically before my eyes. The sheer, suffocating weight of the dark tension in my body was rapidly becoming too heavy to carry.

I watched Audra swallow hard. Her hand was visibly trembling now, the frantic rattling of the chains serving as undeniable evidence of her mounting nervousness.

"You really are evil." Her eyes glowed with a fierce, blinding white light as her brows furrowed in pure disgust. "Noxious. Cursed bitch. Cursed fate—"

Cursed?

That single word struck my soul like a final, fatal blow.

"C-cursed..." I whispered in a completely faded voice.

Above me, Audra's eyes suddenly rounded into dinner plates as she stared at me in absolute horror.

I didn't know what was happening anymore. But in the very next second—the glowing white collar and the holy chains attached to me violently shattered into a thousand jagged fragments.

Instantly, the temperature in the clearing plummeted by ten degrees, a chilling, freezing counterpoint to the heat of my panic.

I hung my head low.

My ragged, broken breaths tore violently in and out of my lungs, racing to match the frantic, thunderous rhythm of my heartbeat.

Something inside me had completely snapped.

It was a terrifying, primordial force that utterly transcended any of the physical pain I had just endured.

I didn't lift a single finger. I just stood there, right in front of her, staring blankly at the dead grass beneath my boots.

Yet, I could feel a heavy, ice-cold mist beginning to churn violently around my body. The air grew unnaturally thick, freezing, and dead still. A pitch-black, suffocating presence began to pool heavily at my feet, swirling outward and aggressively demanding space in the forest's quiet darkness.

"A-audra... let's get out of here—" Vanya's terrified, sobbing voice echoed from the sidelines. "Audra... let's get out of here—"

"Shut it, Vanya," Ivory's voice cut in, sharp and laced with an unusual tremor from beside me. "Can't you tell she's already on edge?"

I clenched my hands into white-knuckled fists, the sheer effort sending violent tremors up my arms. I bit down on my lower lip so hard that the sharp, metallic tang of my own blood instantly flooded my mouth.

The ground beneath our feet began to tremble—a low, violent, catastrophic shudder.

Then, the shadows around us deepened, coiling and gathering with an intense, suffocating malice until they completely enveloped the clearing.

"H-hey, Audra... something's not right—her power—it's c-colder than any blizzard I've ever summoned," Ivory's voice was actively shaking now.

Amidst the encroaching darkness, Audra just stood there, completely frozen, staring at me in wide, unadulterated disbelief.

I could hear the three witches frantically stepping away from me.

"...Audra? You can stop her, r-right?"

Slowly, deliberately, I lifted my gaze to meet them.

I felt a terrifying, hellish ignition spark deep inside my chest as my silver eyes began to glow with a blinding, lethal brilliance.

Within my field of vision, everything was instantly swallowed by the catastrophic power I had just unleashed. The ancient forest, the stormy sky, the stars, the moon—every single thing was completely consumed by a pitch-black, suffocating darkness.

And it felt like...

I was standing at the very gates of hell itself.

"ACK—K—KK—L-Let go—of m-me—"

I barely reacted to their desperate, agonizing screams.

They were no longer standing on the ground. All three of them had been violently hoisted high into the air, thick ropes of black smoke already latching onto their throats like cruel, crushing hands.

They kept screaming, coughing, completely suffocated by the sheer, unbridled agony I was unknowingly causing.

I just stood there. Immobile. Unblinking.

Silently, coldly, I watched them writhe and suffer in the air, as if I were casually waiting for the last breath of life to leave their bodies.

Until finally, pure, unadulterated darkness completely consumed my vision.

No matter how loud they screamed...

I stopped listening.