Chapter 215: [A TRAP MADE BY A DEMON]

Eli felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Like his lungs had forgotten their purpose entirely.

The only thing still working was his heart—overworking, pounding so violently against his ribs that he was sure it would give out.

Each beat was loud, intrusive, drowning out every other sound in the room.

He wanted to answer.

He needed to.

But his mind lagged behind, stuck on a single, impossible thought.

Because… how?

The room was filled with S-Class hunters. Monsters in human skin, every single one of them. Eli had even been standing beside Midas Ryu himself—and yet he hadn’t noticed a thing.

So how could Caelen?

How could Caelen sense Wormy?

Wormy was hidden. Concealed. Suppressed down to the very last trace. Eli had made sure of it. He had to.

So then—

Was this a test?

Was Caelen testing him?

No.

Caelen’s gaze dropped to Eli’s wrist, calm but sharp, suspicion quietly settling behind his eyes. The same wrist where Wormy was hidden.

The same place that now felt unbearably hot, unbearably alive.

Wormy writhed beneath the concealment, panicked. Eli could feel it—feel him—reacting to Eli’s own fear. And Wormy was smart. Smart enough to understand exactly what Caelen had just implied.

“It’s agitated,” Caelen whispered, his eyes never leaving Eli’s wrist. “I can feel it.”

A pause.

“It is certainly dangerous.”

Eli’s chest tightened.

How?

How was Caelen feeling any of this?

None of it made sense. It shouldn’t

make sense.

’I… what do I say? How do I explain this?’

Fear crawled up his spine, cold and suffocating.

Eli was scared.

Scared of telling Caelen the truth.

Scared of what would happen if he did.

Scared of what would happen if he didn’t.

But more than anything else—

He was scared of losing Wormy.

Because Wormy wasn’t just some creature. He wasn’t just a threat. He was a fragment of something far bigger, something Eli hadn’t even begun to understand yet.

A piece of a puzzle he hadn’t been given the time—or the safety—to solve.

That was why Eli hadn’t told anyone.

Why he couldn’t.

Because the moment Wormy was revealed, no one would see him the way Eli did.

They would see a danger.

A liability.

Something to be restrained.

Tested.

Experimented on.

“Eli, sweetheart… answer me,” Caelen whispered again, his voice dipping lower, darker. “Or I’ll tear it off of you myself. And we both know you don’t want that.”

His lips curved faintly. “Or maybe I should answer the question spinning in your head right now. Which is?”

Caelen’s grip tightened around Eli’s wrist.

Not enough to break—but enough to hurt.

A sharp pulse of pain shot up Eli’s arm, and the moment it did, Wormy reacted. He could feel it clearly now, writhing beneath the concealment, frantic and restless. Fighting. Restraining itself with everything it had.

Eli knew what Wormy was trying not to do.

Transform.

Grow.

Reveal the massive coils, the crushing presence—the truth of the SS-Class serpent hidden beneath Eli’s skin.

Eli couldn’t afford that.

Not here. Not now. Not in front of Caelen.

’Please… stay still. Please,’ he begged silently, forcing his breathing to slow even as his chest burned.

He drew in a careful breath.

Then another.

Slowly, deliberately, Eli lifted his gaze to meet Caelen’s eyes.

“How did you know?” Eli asked.

His voice wavered—just slightly—but the seriousness behind it was undeniable.

That did it.

Caelen smiled.

Not wide. Not warm. Just enough to be unsettling.

“If one wants to defeat his gifted younger brother,” Caelen said, tilting his head, “then one must be more intelligent.”

His grip remained firm, possessive.

“Which means training everything,” he continued calmly. “Enhancing everything about myself.” His eyes sharpened. “Including sensitivity. Instinct. Awareness.”

Caelen leaned in just a fraction closer.

“No one in this country—” he corrected himself with a quiet scoff, “no, in this entire goddamn world—can sense monsters better than I can.”

His gaze flicked briefly to Eli’s wrist before returning to his eyes.

“Even if that thing tries to conceal itself,” Caelen said softly, almost fondly, “I could never forget its aura.”

Eli’s stomach dropped.

It dropped because—suddenly—it made sense.

The realization hit him all at once, sharp and cruel, but he was almost too overwhelmed to fully process it. Monster-sensing abilities differed from hunter to hunter. Sometimes it depended on their power. Sometimes on experience. Most of the time, it came down to classification.

And for S-Class hunters—

It was never just instinct.

It was training. Refinement. Something honed to a terrifying edge.

Caelen, in particular.

Eli remembered it clearly now. Every raid he’d watched. Every recording. Caelen had always been the first to react. The first to turn his head. The first to move.

Too fast.

Too precise.

His alertness rivaled Kairo’s—someone everyone knew excelled at sensing monsters. Kairo’s blood manipulation made it easy. He could feel blood nearby, and monster blood was different. He’d even mentioned it once, in a rare interview—how the moment monster blood entered his range, it felt wrong. Distinct. Impossible to mistake.

That was why Kairo had been considered the best.

But now—

Eli knew that wasn’t true.

Kairo was a monster of an S-Class hunter.

But Caelen?

Eli had felt it the very first time they met.

The pressure. The suffocating presence. The way standing near Caelen made his instincts scream.

The golden prince?

No.

More like a demon wearing a crown.

“I’ve answered all your questions,” Caelen said calmly. “So I won’t repeat myself, Eli.”

His eyes began to glow—bright, molten gold—and his smile faded into something sharp, something openly threatening.

“Answer me,” he continued quietly, “or I’ll force that SS-Class serpent to show itself.” His gaze flicked briefly around them.

“Right here. In front of all these children.” A pause. “In front of the people living in those houses.”

Oh.

Oh, that’s why.

“You’re—” Eli almost said evil.

The word burned on his tongue.

Now he understood why Caelen had chosen this place.

At first, Eli had thought this park meant something to him. A memory. A piece of his childhood.

’How stupid,’ Eli realized bitterly.

This wasn’t sentimental.

It was calculated.

A public space. Open. Crowded. Full of civilians.

A place where Eli would be terrified to let Wormy transform.

Because Wormy wasn’t small.

Wormy was a colossal serpent—something that could level half the neighborhood if unleashed.

Caelen had planned this from the start.

Eli took a step back, his breath shallow, his heart hammering as fear twisted in his chest. The man in front of him no longer felt human—if he ever had.

But even then—

Even as his hands trembled—

Eli straightened.

Because he refused to give Caelen the satisfaction of seeing him falter.

“I won’t tell you.”

“What?”

Caelen’s eyes widen, as if he didn’t expect that response.

Of course, he wouldn’t expect it.

Not with that kind of threat.

“Unless, you take me back to my condo where we could talk…just the two of us.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep