Arden stood on the platform, his blood-red flames wrapped around the tall man's leg, pinning him to the ground. The man stared at Arden in terror, his eyes wide with fear. "Please… please don't!" he begged, his voice trembling. "I… I didn't do anything! He… he did!" He pointed to the stocky man's lifeless body on the ground, his head severed, blood pooling on the platform.

Arden looked at the man with a cold expression, his flames still gripping the man's leg tightly. "You didn't do anything, huh?" he said, his voice calm but laced with menace. "While you held that woman… you're saying you did nothing?" The man's face went pale, sweat dripping down his brow. "I… I just… please, let me go!" he pleaded, but there was a coldness in Arden's eyes.

For a moment, Arden's anger flared Kael's death, the stocky man's death, they all echoed in his mind, and now… he was on the verge of taking another life. But then Lyra's voice rang in his head: "It's not your fault." Arden took a deep breath, trying to suppress his rage, but then he looked into the man's pleading eyes and something inside him snapped.

"Nothing, huh?" he said, his voice a deadly calm.

"Then… you'll feel nothing."

Arden opened his palm, and his blood-red flames morphed into four thin threads. The first thread wrapped around the man's right arm and snapped tight the arm was severed below the elbow, the man screaming as blood sprayed across the platform. The second thread coiled around his left arm, slicing it off with the same swiftness his screams grew louder, thrashing on the ground. The third thread shot toward his left eye, piercing it like an arrow the eye burned in a fiery blaze, the man's face marred with scorch marks, his screams turning into a guttural moan. The final thread wrapped around his right leg, severing it below the knee the leg fell, and the man collapsed, writhing in a pool of his own blood.

The man writhed in agony, his breaths ragged. "Please… please… enough!" he groaned, but Arden's expression was blank. "This… is a warning," he said, his voice icy. "If you ever think of touching a woman again… my flames will find you." He withdrew his flames, leaving the man in a pool of blood, still alive but his life reduced to a nightmare. Arden stepped off the platform, continuing down the path the scene he left behind was like a horror story.

His mind was a mess Kael's death, the stocky man's death… and now this man's mutilated body. "Am I a monster?" he thought, staring at his hands, the lingering heat of his blood-red flames still tingling in his palms. The god's vision "Your flaw will destroy you" echoed in his mind, and Lyra's "Find me" lingered as a pang in his heart. He missed her, but he had been expelled from the academy he had no way to reach her.

Hours later, as he walked through a wide meadow, he spotted a figure in the distance a tall man in a tattered cloak, his hood obscuring his face. The traveler walked toward Arden, his steps silent but purposeful. As he approached, he lowered his hood slightly a man with long, graying whiskers, his dark green eyes sharp and mysterious. "You… bear the god's curse," he said, his voice deep and resonant.

Arden frowned, flames flickering in his palms, though he didn't attack yet. "Who are you?" he asked, his tone wary. The traveler smiled, but it wasn't a warm smile more like the grin of a hunter. "I… am a magic hunter," he said, his voice a whisper. "My name is Theron. And your blind eye… it carries a divine energy. A power that distorts time."

Arden's heart raced, but his suspicion lingered. "Why should that concern me?" he asked, his voice cold. Theron took a step closer, "Because that power… will destroy you if you don't understand it," he said. "The gods love to play with their toys and you… might be their favorite." Arden's blind eye suddenly burned, a vision striking him a dark throne, wreathed in blood-red flames, and the god's voice: "You cannot escape, blind child." When the vision faded, Arden stared at Theron, breathless.

Theron watched Arden's reaction, then made an offer. "If you want to understand your power, come with me," he said, his tone serious. "But I warn you the gods love to play with their toys." Arden hesitated he didn't know if he could trust Theron. But one thing was certain: this power would either save him… or destroy him.