Chapter 567: Empty Blue Eyes

Renard’s blue eyes shifted to Seraphina across the short distance of glowing liquid, his gaze steady and piercing, carrying a weight of unspoken questions.

"Hey, Seraphina, answer me honestly," Renard began, his voice flowing with gentle accusation. "Have you not been too moody lately? And too quick to act on your own impulses? I can’t say I appreciated you terminating my attack a while back, overriding my judgment without consultation. You should know I would not jeopardize the lives of mortals like that. I have more control and consideration than you gave me credit for."

"...Renard," Seraphina almost groaned, her voice rolling with a note of weariness, her head tilting back against the stone rim of the magma pool.

Her long pale-blonde hair, usually a smooth waterfall of silk that cascaded down her back in perfect waves, clung to her shoulders and back in heavy, damp strands, weighed down by the oppressive humidity of the cavern.

The intense heat of the cavern had darkened it slightly at the ends, turning the tips into wet ropes that stuck to the curves of her spine and the upper slopes of her breasts, tracing the contours of her body with dark, damp lines.

A few loose strands framed her face, plastered against her flushed cheeks and the elegant line of her neck, sticking to her skin like fine brushstrokes of pale gold against the warmth of her complexion.

Her head had swung back against the stone rim of the pool, her eyes half-lidded with exhaustion and resignation. "When we are in this place, we do not discuss things like that. No conflicts or grievances... If it is an apology you want, very well... Forgive my rudeness."

Renard’s expression darkened, his blue eyes narrowing with displeasure, his jaw tightening with suppressed frustration, then he flicked two fingers through the molten surface with casual, dismissive ease.

A thick wave of glowing lava surged upward in a smooth, deliberate arc and crashed over Seraphina’s upper body, the molten rock moving with unnatural precision and control.

The liquid was viscous and bright, a deep orange-gold that clung rather than simply poured, that seemed to have a will of its own as it spread across her skin.

It rolled across the full curves of her breasts in slow, heavy sheets, the molten rock sliding over her skin as though the surface were polished glass, following every contour and hollow with intimate precision.

Rivulets split and rejoined, tracing the undersides, the soft cleavage, and the pale slopes before dripping back into the pool in glowing strands, leaving trails of shimmering heat behind.

Steam hissed where the extreme heat met her cooler flesh, wreathing her chest in brief white clouds that dissipated almost instantly.

"What’s with that attitude and the dismissive tone?" Renard glared across the short distance, his voice rising with indignation. "Know your place, you disrespectful lizard—!!"

BOOOMMM!!

Seraphina’s forehead closed the distance in a blur, faster than any eye could track, faster than thought itself.

The impact was catastrophic, a collision of such force that the very air seemed to shatter around them.

The sound of bone meeting bone cracked through the cavern like a mountain splitting, a deafening report that echoed off the walls and shook the stones.

Magma leapt upward in violent ripples from the force of the collision, glowing droplets spraying in every direction.

Renard’s head snapped backward; blood exploded from his nose and mouth in a bright red spray that hissed and vaporized the instant it touched the glowing liquid, disappearing into steam before it could even fall.

The power of the headbutt drove his entire body backward through the rocky floor in a straight, smoking line of destruction, his form carving a trench through the solid stone.

Stone shattered and powdered beneath him, fragments flying outward in a spray of debris.

In a continuous red streak of blood and pulverized rock he was launched out of the cavern mouth entirely, vanishing into the open air beyond the mountain, his body disappearing into the darkness outside.

"Y... Your Majesty!" Izra flinched hard at the sight of her king being hurled away, her body jerking with shock, yet she made no move to follow.

She already knew she did not need to, that this was not a true threat to his life.

THUDDD!!

The return was instantaneous, outside the realm of any natural movement.

Renard reappeared above Seraphina in a blur of cosmic speed, his form almost materializing out of thin air. His foot came down like a falling star, a meteor of vengeance aimed at her skull.

The sole of his foot smashed into the back of her skull while her head was still bent forward from the headbutt, catching her completely off guard.

The impact drove her face straight into the hot stone floor of the cavern with devastating force.

Rock exploded outward in a circular crater, fragments flying in every direction.

Magma sprayed in every direction from the shockwave, glowing droplets arcing through the air. The entire chamber shuddered, the walls groaning under the strain.

Cracks raced across the walls, spreading like spiderwebs through the stone.

Seraphina’s forehead and the stone beneath it sank several inches under the crushing pressure, her face driven deep into the fractured rock.

"If you wanted a fight, you could have just said so, instead of pretending to be civil and then attacking without warning," Renard hissed, his bare foot still grinding her skull deeper into the fractured rock, his voice a ting of savage satisfaction.

The ground itself answered the pressure—stone groaned and compressed further under his weight, the rock surrendering to his might. "I also have a need for stress relief, a desire to release some of my own pent-up frustration..."

When she remained still, motionless beneath his foot, he finally lifted his weight, stepping back from her prone form.

Seraphina rose slowly, pushing herself up from the crater with deliberate, measured movements, turning to face him.

Her crystal-blue eyes were empty of the faint warmth they had carried earlier in Benjamin’s presence, devoid of the gentle affection.