Supreme Bloodline Evolution System

Chapter 171: Arbiter Aurelian

Agnia’s heart slammed against her rib cage. Her face went completely pale, and cold sweat gathered across her skin. For a moment, even the wound in her shoulder felt distant.

Her lips parted for a moment, almost moving on their own. She wanted to confirm his identity. She wanted to ask if he was looking for Max. But she did not. She forced those words back down her throat and held them there, afraid that even one wrong reaction from her could bring disaster to him.

But that simple gesture was not missed by the masked stranger.

The motion was small, but to him, it was enough.

His head tilted slightly, the long golden smile on his mask staring down at her with that same lifeless curve.

"Choose. Child. Or the father. Which one lives? Which one dies? Your next words will determine their fate."

Agnia felt as if her soul had escaped from her body. The silence after those words was worse than the blade.

It was a choice she did not wish to make. She did not want to tell this stranger where Max was. She did not want to betray him, not to this thing, not to something that looked at life as if it was nothing more than a sentence waiting to be carried out.

But she knew.

If she let the child die, Max would likely kill her himself. At least, that was what she imagined. She did not know that the very man she feared to betray was already rushing toward her as if his own life depended on it. She did not know that his glorious dragon wings were not that far away anymore, tearing through the sky, coming closer with every passing breath, ready to shield her from the danger closing around her.

"He is..." Agnia hesitated for only a second. Her fingers curled tighter until her nails dug into her skin, and her eyes slowly drifted to the side.

That was all it took.

The blade of light moved quickly, striking toward her stomach with terrifying precision. Agnia gasped, and her face went completely pale, as if every drop of blood had been drained from her body in an instant.

The tip stopped only an inch away from her.

So close that she could feel the heatless light against her skin. A thin line of radiance trembled at its edge, ready to pierce through with the slightest motion.

Then, suddenly, it froze.

The masked man turned his head to the side.

"I can feel the aura of the Forgotten Creator..."

His grip loosened.

Agnia fell to the ground, dropped as if she were nothing more than a useless doll. The floor bit into her knees. Her hands immediately moved to her stomach, shielding it even though the danger had already shifted away from her. She dragged in a broken breath, her whole body trembling, but her eyes were no longer looking at the blade.

They were looking at the wall.

The small dagger of light in the masked man’s hand began to grow, stretching with a low, silent radiance until it became a long sword made from pure light. The golden smile on his mask remained unchanged, but his body had finally turned away from Agnia.

A heartbeat later, the wall shattered.

Stone exploded inward without warning, pieces scattering in every direction as a violent pressure tore through the room. Dust, broken rock, and splinters of light filled the air.

Through it all, a dark blade descended.

It crashed against the masked man with enough force to shake the ground beneath them, colliding with the sword of light in a burst of black and gold. For a single moment, the two powers swallowed each other, darkness pressing against radiance, radiance burning against darkness, until the clash looked like an eclipse born inside the broken room.

"Max!" Agnia exclaimed.

The man she had prayed would not appear today had come to her anyway. She did not understand how he knew. She did not understand why he came for her so quickly. But the moment she saw him standing there, dark blade locked against the sword of light, something inside her chest loosened.

She felt happy.

Strangely relieved.

Relieved to see that familiar face she had somehow begun to adore, even if his arrival meant the danger had now turned toward him.

Max’s eyes were burning as he stood between her and the masked man. One black wing folded near the broken opening, its shadow falling over Agnia like night. Gold and purple flames crawled along his blade, twisting together with the black mist spilling from his body, as if his rage itself had taken form.

"Who are you?" Max roared, his voice shaking the broken room. "And how dare you touch my woman?"

Agnia’s heart fluttered at those words, and tears slowly gathered at the corners of her eyes.

The masked man did not seem fazed by his sudden entrance. He did not even take a step back after Max crashed against him. His sword of light remained steady, pressed against Max’s dark blade, while the long golden smile on his mask stared forward without the slightest change.

"I am Arbiter Aurelian, of the Land of Gods," he said calmly. "I have come to reclaim what is ours."

In that moment, Max felt something inside him scream.

Flee.

It did not come from his gut. It did not come from fear, or instinct, or even common sense. It came from somewhere far deeper, from a part of him he barely understood, the same place where the black mist slept beneath his skin.

The mist escaped from his fingers on its own.

It surged forward like a living shadow, lashing out at Arbiter Aurelian before Max could even command it.

It recognized him.

Then a voice exploded inside his mind.

Flee, Max! The words of the system creator echoed through him, urgent in a way he had never heard before. You must not fall into their hands. If you do, your life will be forfeit!