Chapter 201: Chapter 201 Aetherial Class

Lana stood up from the ruins of twisted metal and burning trash, her body aching and her mind dazed from the impact. Dust and smoke clouded the air, but her eyes fixed sharply ahead, drawn by the horrifying sight before her.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Liam was on his knees.

A thick, bloody chain was driven straight through his torso, entering from his back and piercing out of his chest. His hand gripped the jagged steel from the front, blood dripping down his fingers, running in dark streams over his knuckles. His lips were parted slightly, a thin river of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He didn’t scream. He didn’t even flinch. He just stared forward, dazed, broken, dying.

Lana’s heart dropped.

“Liam…”

At the same time, something happened inside Liam’s mind. His vision didn’t go black. It didn’t fade.

It went red.

Not from pain. Not from blood. But from the system.

DING!

[CRITICAL HEALTH!!!] [CRITICAL DAMAGE!!!] [WARNING: Health status dropping rapidly!] [Vital systems compromised — Emergency Survival Mode: Pending…]

Glowing red panels pulsed in front of his eyes, covering his entire vision in flickering danger prompts. A blaring alarm rang in his ears, but he ignored it. The pain was too deep. The cold too strong.

And then—he felt it.

Jack had been watching the entire scene with a smug expression. The bastard had pissed himself moments earlier, yet now wore a victorious grin. He thought it was over. That Liam was finished. That the masked figure would die, and he would walk away untouched.

But then Jack saw it.

Liam looked up.

And those eyes…

They weren’t the eyes of a dying man.

They were the eyes of death.

Glowing blue, laced with crimson veins, burning with something feral and unrelenting. The same eyes that had haunted many in the underworld. Eyes that didn’t know mercy.

Liam sprang up.

It was sudden. Brutal. Impossible to predict.

The chain was still inside him—yet he moved like it didn’t matter.

His hand grabbed the edge of the chain in front of him, ignoring how it tore his palm open even more. And with his other hand, he lunged forward, grabbing Jack by the collar. Jack gasped, stunned.

Then Liam did the unthinkable.

He thrust the very same chain through Jack’s stomach.

Jack’s mouth opened in a silent scream before the pain finally hit. He wailed like an animal, a primal, panicked sound that echoed through the burning factory.

But Liam wasn’t done.

With raw, desperate strength, he dragged the chain upward, then down, then sideways.

Jack shrieked.

Blood exploded from his gut. The metal shredded his insides. His body convulsed violently as he clawed at Liam’s arms, but the grip didn’t loosen. It only tightened.

Behind them, Dimitri finally reacted.

With a vicious pull, he yanked the chain.

It ripped out of Jack’s abdomen, shredding muscle and flesh as it exited. It then tore straight through Liam’s hand, ripping the tendons and skin apart. Liam’s body convulsed from the sheer agony as the chain dragged back through his torso, tearing out through the same hole it entered.

Both Liam and Jack collapsed at the same time.

Two bodies dropping like broken puppets.

The sounds of fire and steel were the only things left.

Liam lay there, panting weakly, blood pouring from his chest and hand. His eyes were wide. Jack lay opposite him, clutching the bleeding mess of his stomach.

Then, with trembling lips, Jack whispered, “L…Liam?”

He stared at the face behind the scarf. Those unmistakable blue eyes. That fury. That pain.

“Liam…”

And then he was gone.

His body went limp.

That name was the last thing he ever said.

Liam’s head drooped back, his vision swaying, red notifications blinking wildly.

DING! [Blood Loss: 86%] [Heartbeat unstable…] [System shutting down in 30 seconds without intervention]

His breathing was shallow. He felt the cold creeping in. He couldn’t move anymore. He could barely hear the chaos around him.

Then, suddenly, warmth.

Lana.

She slid beside him from the debris, her knees hitting the ground hard, not caring about the dirt or blood. She wrapped one arm around his shoulder and gently rested his head on her lap.

Her hands trembled.

Her eyes welled up.

“Liam… Liam!” she whispered, voice cracking. Her fingers brushed his cheek, trembling as they took in the blood smeared across his skin. “Please… please don’t die.”

Tears fell onto his face.

He blinked slowly, barely registering the warmth of her lap, the wetness of her tears. His lips twitched, trying to form words, but nothing came out.

[System shutting down in 10 seconds…]

Lana sobbed quietly now, holding him closer, her face bent down toward his.

“Don’t leave me…”

The factory burned around them.

And Liam was slipping away.

Lana didn’t move. Her arms were locked around Liam, clutching him like letting go meant the world would end.

“Please,” she whispered, her voice cracking under the weight of despair. “Liam… come back.”

She slowly brought his bloodied head to her chest, holding him tightly, rocking back and forth as fresh tears streamed down her soot-streaked cheeks.

“I love you,” she choked out between sobs. “I always have… I should’ve told you long ago. I should’ve said it three years ago. When we had time. I was too scared… too stupid…”

But Liam didn’t respond.

His body was warm from the blood that soaked through his shirt and into hers. His breathing—if it even existed—was too faint to hear. His limbs hung limp. His face was pale. She pressed her cheek to his forehead, praying to feel something.

Anything.

But all she got was silence.

Then—a presence.

Lana looked up, eyes blurry with tears, as a looming shadow stepped in front of her. Dimitri.

He stared down at the scene before him, his chains coiled loosely behind his back like resting serpents. His massive body was dusted with ash and scorch marks, but he looked largely unharmed.

“Pathetic,” he muttered. “But necessary.”

He raised one hand, and the chains hissed awake behind him, rattling with menace. One shifted, aiming itself toward Lana like a viper preparing to strike.

Her breath hitched.

But he didn’t attack.

Dimitri paused, tilting his head as if considering something. Then he slowly lowered his hand, his lips curling with indifference.

“My work here is done.”

He turned to leave.

Lana’s body trembled.

She gently placed Liam’s head on the ground, brushing the blood-matted hair from his face. Her breath came in sharp, ragged pulls as she wiped her eyes. Then she reached behind her neck and tugged the scarf off.

Her face was streaked with grime, her lips trembling with rage and sorrow.

“You did this to him…” she growled.

A blaze sparked in her palm—then erupted.

Flames danced violently across her fingers and raced up her arms, swirling around her with untamed energy. They weren’t like the earlier ones—these burned hotter, brighter, faster. Her grief and fury had awakened something deeper, something wild.

Her entire body seemed to glow with orange-red fire as the heat around her intensified, distorting the air.

“You did this to him!” she screamed.

Dimitri turned, just in time to duck as a blazing fireball hurtled toward his face. It exploded behind him, sending bits of metal and debris flying through the factory.

He narrowed his eyes.

So she still had fight left.

And not just fight—power.

He hadn’t expected this level of intensity from someone so inexperienced. Her flames were erratic, untrained, but undeniably dangerous. Still, he grinned. That just meant she was easy to bait, easy to trick.

He sidestepped another incoming blast, watching how her stance shifted, how she overcommitted her steps, how her aim was slightly off. She was emotional. Distracted. Unstable.

She’s fighting with her heart, not her head.

Perfect.

But Lana didn’t care.

She threw fireball after fireball, roaring with each shot. The flames spiraled like comets, some striking metal beams, others crashing into crates, igniting them instantly. The room lit up with the glow of hellfire.

Dimitri moved swiftly, weaving between attacks, occasionally using his chains to deflect the ones too close to dodge. But she wasn’t giving him space. She was relentless.

He scowled, flicking a chain toward her feet to break her stance.

She jumped.

Another fireball flew.

It grazed his shoulder and exploded—blasting him back a few steps. He shook off the pain, more annoyed than injured.

“You’re better than I thought,” he muttered under his breath.

Lana’s eyes glistened with tears, but her face burned with fury. “He didn’t deserve this,” she snapped.

Dimitri twirled a chain, readying it for a counterstrike.

But while the firestorm raged—beneath the flames and pain and fury—Liam’s body lay still.

Lifeless.

Almost.

Then…

Ding!

A chime echoed in his mind like a sharp whisper in a void.

> [Mission Completed]

A second chime. Louder this time.

> [Class Unlocked: ???]

His fingers twitched slightly.

The pain was still there, but dulled, distant, like it belonged to someone else. He floated between two realms—reality and something deeper. Darker. The system wasn’t done.

> [Warning: Host condition critical]

[Initiating Emergency Protocol: Evolution Required]

Liam’s broken body suddenly surged with heat—no, energy.

His vision remained red, though not from blood this time.

> [New Class Unlocked: Aetherial-Class]

[Evolution Begins…]

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