The Glorious Evolution Chapter 592: Hatred That Refused To Die.

Half a Minute Earlier...

Levi had continued past Jasmine and Fang’s battlefield, pursuing the Hexgaze Lurker deeper into the crimson forest.

A brief scan showed that the plan was still holding... although Shia had been forced to fight the wolves to protect her father instead of helping him retreat through the portal.

Still, Levi continued chasing the Hexlurker and pulling Rain away from them.

Jasmine had the means to hold back someone as straightforward as Fang... dealing with Rain’s elusive projection was much more troublesome, especially for a rescue mission.

Unfortunately, locating the Lurker sheltering Rain’s soul hadn’t made catching it any easier.

His Harmonic Spine followed the Lurker through its camouflage, but every attempt to catch it ended with Rain’s projection interfering.

This forced Levi to engage in another altercation to defend himself while the Lurker escaped elsewhere.

Even destroying parts of that projection accomplished little.

Rain’s soul remained protected within the Lurker’s subconscious barrier, allowing him to reconstruct his form and resume the interference.

Their clones had already fallen during the Faction Event... but the circumstances were very different.

Back then, Jasmine had erased Rain’s soul, destabilizing the forced merger between them.

The resulting damage made the Lurker glitch uncontrollably between physical, spiritual, and illusory states.

Those involuntary transformations had given Levi a chance to calculate the exact moment the creature became physical... he exploited that opening to kill it.

But now, both souls remained protected, and the Lurker retained control over its transformations.

It could still turn spiritual and move at terrifying speed... but it chose when to do so, and when to return to a physical form!

Worse... the creature hadn’t forgotten its clone’s previous death either.

It varied its escape routes and kept Rain’s projection between itself and Levi whenever possible, refusing to give him another predictable opportunity!

Still, Levi hadn’t come unprepared to deal with their pain-in-the-ass fighting style.

He used Sound Cutters to close off escape routes and Frequency Hijack to disrupt the Lurker’s movements... even a brief hesitation would have given him a chance to catch it.

Yet, whenever he nearly enclosed the creature, Rain interfered... forcing Levi to defend himself before he could finish the trap.

Even the parasites he had prepared proved useless.

His attempts to deliver them through Palate Parasitic Takeover using his Soulleech Maw only reached Rain’s projection, which discarded the contaminated portions before reconstructing itself.

Getting them into the Lurker required the very contact he couldn’t secure!

Though... the frustration was a two-way street, as even Rain was getting irritated by his continuous failures to finish off Levi.

Worse, his reserves of stored fear were running out, making him realize that once they were gone, he couldn’t do much to Levi... offensively.

Through his connection to Rain, Bishop Na’thir appeared to reach the same conclusion, his shadowy face as twisted as it could get.

’This is taking too damn long...’ He gritted his teeth, his eyes landing on the clock.

Fang still hadn’t reclaimed Idriss or captured Jasmine; the Hound remained trapped in that burning pit, and Rain was exhausting his stored fear without bringing Levi any closer to death.

Meanwhile, the Blood Arts Academy’s reinforcements were rapidly encroaching on their location.

’I am about to exhaust my reserves... I won’t be able to protect the Hex,’ Rain informed his master. ’Let me withdraw and regroup with Fan...’

Before he could finish his sentence, Na’thir’s response shot him down.

’No... keep him occupied,’ he ordered coldly. ’Whether you survive is no longer the priority... It’s his death, and only the Hound can finish the job.’

Rain went silent, understanding that his master wanted Levi trapped and killed in a Dominion, just not his.

After witnessing what he had done to the Hound, it was clear to them that Levi was a Solarbound... somehow, at the higher stages of that rank.

A Warden overpowering a Tier 6 entity to such an extent? It was never a believable possibility.

Rain’s current fighting method kept his soul protected while allowing him to attack through a disposable projection.

As long as the Lurker remained free, Levi couldn’t finish him.

That was an advantage Na’thir relied on.

But Levi’s Dominion?

Neither knew what awaited them inside Levi’s Dominion... but Na’thir suspected it involved Aether and those soul-burning flames.

He refused to gamble their remaining time on Rain winning that confrontation... if Levi emerged victorious, the Academy’s reinforcements might already be there to protect him.

’But the Hound is still trapped...’

’Leave that to me; just keep the boy occupied.’

Na’thir shifted his focus to his wisp within the Hound... at once, green flames filled his perception again, and the giant strained against the four golden chains pinning him to the pit’s floor.

As he attempted to move, the restraints tightened, dragging him back into the fire as an agonized roar escaped his muzzle.

Na’thir’s repeated orders accomplished nothing.

The Hound couldn’t gather himself long enough to follow them... Yet, through all of it, his arms remained strapped against his sides; his fingers twitched whenever the flames intensified.

But he never reached for the chains with them... like his arms were an illusion he refused to accept.

Na’thir’s cold gaze settled on them.

Even now... as he burned in so much agony that his mind was reaching its limit, he still refused to fight or acknowledge the existence of his arms.

’You kept your promise...’ the Bishop whispered, changing his strategy.

The Hound barely heard him.

’You brought Seraphis down and burnt his corrupt nation without using your arms...’

This time, the Hound registered his words... his jaw clenched behind the muzzle like a rabid dog catching the scent of its tormentor.

Then, his vision blurred, mistaking the golden chain across his chest for a railing... beyond it, a royal carriage passed through a crowded street.

The desolate eyes of the fallen king looked through him.

Then the green flames swallowed the memory, forcing another scream through his teeth.

’But his student is leaving you here to burn...’ Na’thir continued, softening his voice with carefully measured concern. ’Do you intend to die proving the same thing to him?’

The Hound’s fingers curled against the dirt.

Those arms...

He remembered the empty sleeves hanging beside his body.

A bowl slipped from between his teeth, spilling its contents across the floor... his grandmother bent to gather what remained, telling him that it was fine.

But her hands trembled... when she held his bowl, when she picked up the empty pill bottle, even when she touched his cheek to comfort him.

He had wanted to hold those hands... to comfort her for once.

Yet, he couldn’t even do that.

As for these two enormous hands, strong enough to crush stone and tear through flesh?

They came afterward.

After the hunger.

After those sleepless nights.

After she no longer needed him to bring anything home.

After that night... the night her nightmares ended, and his began.

The Hound refused to let those new arms erase that boy... he needed them then, and fate cursed him with a life of armless tragedy and poverty in a merciless era.

He refused to forget what it meant to need them... and possess nothing but empty sleeves.

Na’thir watched his fingers dig into the ground... he knew how difficult it was for the Hound to use those arms, the very ones he so graciously gave him.

He ordered him.

He imprisoned him.

He abused him.

He did everything in his power to make him use them... and yet, the Hound always chose to bind them at his sides, accepting whatever was done to him, but never using them.

Bishop Na’thir understood his motives for being this stubborn... after all, he was there when all of it happened.

But not now.

Not when Levi was within his reach.

’Those hands came too late for her... must they be too late for your revenge as well?’ he added, his voice as soft and venomous as a devil whispering promises of salvation.

Levi’s face returned to the Hound’s mind... the faint smile above the pit, the green flames curling around his tongue, the hidden enjoyment in his expression whenever another scream escaped.

But in the Hound’s mind... Levi’s features slowly changed.

Another face took his place.

Seraphis.

That king stood above the burning pit... licking his lips as he listened to the Hound scream!

The Hound’s breathing grew ragged as he saw Seraphis, who watched him struggle and enjoyed his suffering.

And if he died here at his student’s hands... Seraphis would be the one who won.

His jaw strained against the muzzle as that face leaned closer in his imagination... wearing Levi’s smile, savoring every moment of his helplessness.

’No!’

He refused!

"SERAPHIS!!"

The name escaped from his throat as he wrenched his arms away from his waist!

The straps snapped under the violent movement, freeing the limbs he refused to use ever since his master gave them to him!

’Good, good, good... stand up, my son.’

Bishop Na’thir’s devilish grin widened as he watched his masterpiece finally bring both arms into the fight.

The golden chains dug deeper into the Hound’s body... but this time, his hands moved to meet them.

Clumsily.

One closed too soon... the other slipped across a link, scraping the skin from his knuckles.

He pulled with both arms, but they failed to move together... one jerked upward while the other twisted sideways, making him look like a toddler using his limbs for the first time.

This movement brought another wave of agony to his soul, breaking his thoughts and his willpower enough to make his fingers loosen around the chain.

But then... Seraphis’s smiling face returned.

"AAAAARGH!!"

The Hound forced his fingers closed again!

’One chain,’ Na’thir instructed him, knowing that the pain and anger were making it harder for him to think. ’Concentrate on one.’

The Hound listened, trapping a single link between his fists... golden light flooded his forearms as he braced his heels against the ground and pulled!

The link snapped!

His freed elbow struck the ground... using it for leverage, he twisted under the remaining chest restraint and wrenched its anchor out of the fractured wall!

The binding totem flickered above him.

His shaking hand missed it once... then caught its edge. He dragged it between his palms and crushed it!

The remaining chains dissolved into golden particles, leaving the Hound to fall to his knees... then he planted both hands against the ground and forced himself upright with great difficulty.

Green flames still crawled across his body as every flicker left his soul screaming... begging... for it all to stop.

And still... he stood.

Levi understood the agony of those flames through experience... he believed that no amount of willpower could keep the Hound struggling long enough to escape.

In fact, he wished that the Hound would remain alive until he returned for him, assuming that being exposed to soul-burning flames for so long would melt his subconscious barrier and soul.

Yet the red-haired giant stood above the blaze, staring toward the forest through a hatred that left no room for surrender or death.

In a sense, Levi was right... the Hound’s willpower broke long before the chains did.

But his loathing didn’t.

Pain offered him the mercy of death... Hatred gave him a reason to live.

"SERAAPHIIS!!"