Hana didn’t wait for the shadow to settle. As soon as the Yakshi’s feet hit the center of the room, Hana slammed her palm against the wall.

  The arrays I’d helped her place ignited. Bars of solid, weaponized light shot out from the floorboards and the ceiling, weaving together into a cage of glowing gold. It wasn't just light. In Hana’s hands, the very photons were as hard as titanium.

  The Yakshi didn’t just sit there and take it. She let out a sound like grinding stone and reached for the air itself.

  Suddenly, the shadows cast by the bars of light became physical. They turned into black, jagged blades that Hana had to deflect with a flick of a copper wire she’d pulled from the wall. They tore through the house, turning the furniture into toothpicks and the wallpaper into confetti.

  It was a nightmare of physics. Hana was weaponizing the light, the Yakshi was weaponizing the darkness, and the house was screaming under the strain. Every second was a massive drain on their mana. I could see the sweat beads on Hana’s neck, reflecting the gold and black chaos of the room.

  "Now!" I yelled from below.

  Hana didn't hesitate. she delivered a heavy, mana-infused kick to the center of the floor.

  The wood didn't just break. It disintegrated.

  It was a fake floor, a trapdoor disguised by hours of precision chalk-work. The Yakshi plummeted into the dark basement below, with Hana following her down like a falling star.

  They landed right in the center of the magic circle.

  I was standing there, tucked into a corner of the stone basement, my hands already glowing with the faint blue of my mana. The circle was a masterpiece of geometry and silver dust, designed by the guild’s best specialists based entirely on my diagnosis of the Twilight Curse.

  If my math was wrong, if that old book was just a hundred-year-old prank, we were all about to become very expensive stains on the floor.

  "Hana, keep her pinned!" I shouted, pushing my mana into the silver lines.

  Hana lunged, her hands gripping the Yakshi’s smoky wrists. The silver dust ignited, a bright, searing white that began to climb up the shadow’s form. The ritual was starting. The two halves were supposed to bridge.

  But the Yakshi wasn't done being a weapon.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  She let out a shriek that rattled my teeth and reached down. She didn't grab Hana. She grabbed the very floor.

  She weaponized the magic circle itself.

  The silver lines ripped out of the stone, coiling and sharpening. In a second, the circle I’d spent hours building turned into a massive, rotating chakram of silver energy and jagged mana.

  Hana had to leap back to avoid being decapitated. The circle was still spinning, still active, but it was no longer a seal. It was a hungry, rotating saw-blade that was dragging mana out of me like a siphon.

  "Elara!" Hana yelled, her eyes wide.

  I couldn't answer. I was doubling over.

  The strain was too much. My mana pool was a shallow puddle, and the chakram was trying to drink the ocean. And then there was the cold.

  The Mana Frostbite wasn't just humming now. It was a glacier in my lungs. Every breath felt like I was swallowing needle-sharp ice. My heart rhythm was faltering, the blue veins on my arms pulsing with a light that shouldn't be there.

  The Yakshi didn't care about my health. She saw the opening. She ignored Hana and rushed at me, the silver chakram still spinning in her hand like a deadly halo. She was going to kill the source.

  "Why hasn't the spell worked yet!?" I screamed, my voice cracking from the cold.

  "The Yakshi broke free from the seal due to the weaponization!" Hana yelled, rushing toward me to intercept. "It takes a lot more mana to override her control once she’s claimed the circle!!"

  Hana reached me just as the Yakshi lunged. She threw herself in front of me, her arms up to block, but we both knew it wasn't enough. We were out of gas.

  I looked at Hana. She looked at me. There was a moment of pure, terrifying clarity. I was a strategist without a move. I was a hunter without mana.

  Then the system flashed in front of my eyes.

  [Core Skill: Symbiotic Bond (LV 2) – Resonance Detected]

  [Scanning for compatible partner...]

  [Target acquired: Hana Ryu]

  [Analysis: Extremely high emotional and physical compatibility (94.2%)]

  [Bond Level 1 can be established. Initializing synchronization...]

  Oh.

  I didn't think. I didn't have time to consider the ethics or the logistics or the fact that I already had a literal Ice Queen waiting for me back home.

  I reached out, grabbed Hana’s trench coat, and pulled her down.

  I kissed her.

  Hana’s eyes went wide, her body stiffening for a split second before she melted into it.

  The effect was instantaneous. It wasn't the cold, regal rush I got from Seraphina. This was fire. This was the heat of a forge.

  [Symbiotic Bond: Level 1 Established (Hana Ryu)]

  [Mana Share (Rank E) – Activated]

  [Synchronization Bonus: Initializing!]

  A massive jolt of mana shot through my chest, shattering the ice in my lungs. My mana bar didn't just fill. It overflowed.

  A blinding flash of white and blue light erupted from the center of the basement.

  The silver chakram froze in mid-air. The jagged lines of the magic circle snapped back into the stone floor, glowing with a light so bright it turned the cellar into the surface of the sun.

  Outside the house, the night was still.

  Roonie and the three thugs stood on the street, watching as a single, silent pulse of light flickered through the cracks in the walls.

  A second later, it was gone.

  The darkness returned. The mountain breeze picked up again, rustling the leaves of the nearby trees.

  And then, the crickets started chirping again, their rhythmic song filling the silence where the screaming had been.