Eric stood up from his chair and approached Sylvia, taking a few strands of her long silky silver hair, which currently looked as lifeless as the rest of her body.

The old mage clutched her hair in his hands, his lips curling upwards at the sight of the unconscious woman, and went back to the table full of potions.

​​

He then sat back down, his gaze once again returning to linger on her body. "Heh… What an alluring woman! I would be hard-pressed to find any human so beautiful…"

He ran his fingers through his beard and absentmindedly muttered as his other hand busily added the few strands of Sylvia's hair to the clear liquid for the test.

He sighed lightly with a yearning that he didn't know he had and tilted his head down to take a look at the results, when suddenly…

BOOM!

Eric was blasted off his chair and since he was completely caught off guard, he fell down, landing on his behind.

The table, the chair, the several potions on the table, the glass conicals, everything was blown into shreds, scattering all over the prison cell.

Some of the glass shards even landed on Sylvia and fresh blood seeped out of the cuts on her body.

The old mage himself was not doing that much better as his face was blackened with soot from the explosion and his long hair stood up in spikes.

Eric hurriedly stood up, turning around and looking in all directions. "Intruders?" He coughed.

The guard who was standing outside also rushed inside to take a look and help the old man. However, nothing was out of place and everything returned back to normal.

"What the hell caused the explosion?" Eric pondered, as his eyes casually flitted over to look at the liquid spilled on the floor of the prison cell.

And to his surprise, the entire floor looked as if it was covered by burning molten hot lava.

The spilled liquid was a rich red color with a golden aura shrouding it.

Just what type of result was this?

He had caught several beast clan members in his lifetime but not one of them had shown such a powerful aura.

Eric gasped in shock but then immediately relaxed after realizing what might have potentially happened.

He must have broken something or his elbow might have pushed something down by accident. After all, the table was pretty crowded and messy.

And this had probably caused the explosion and all the liquids to mix together giving such a result.

"Go and get me another set of ingredients right now." He dusted his back and angrily shouted at the guard, whose eyes were on his spiky hair that emitted a burnt smell.

The guard quickly shrank back and ran away to do as he was told. Eric then grunted in annoyance and went out to clean himself up, locking the prison cell behind him.

He didn't want others to see him in such a state. For an old and experienced mage like him, this was humiliating.

As the two of them left her unguarded, Sylvia slowly opened her eyes. On her hand, hidden in the back of her palm, just supported slightly by two fingers was a big glass piece.

She twisted and stretched her hand, pain once again ripping through her body, and tried to angle the glass shard inside the shackle that was binding her wrist.

She gritted her teeth and used every last bit of her strength to try and break the shackle…

But how could a magically enhanced cuff be so easy to break apart? Especially when all her strength was constantly being drained by the same cuff…

Sylvia, however, didn't give up. She tried and tried and tried as tears streamed down from her eyes.

Nothing was even moving an inch. All she got in return for her efforts were more searing pain.

"No… No… No…" She whimpered.

She still couldn't process how everything turned out this way. She hadn't even done anything wrong so why were they punishing her so cruelly.

How was she a beast? Wasn't she just a human like the rest of them? Just because she was poor and had no one, they can do whatever they want with her?

Tears dripped down from Sylvia's tired eyes, every last bit of her hope falling down along with them.

She trembled as she recollected the old man's disgusting words and her fingers tightened around the glass shard she was holding with great difficulty.

Sylvia's pale eyes shone with determination as she gritted her teeth and mustered her strength one last time.

They might have imprisoned her… but her life was still in her hands…

Sylvia gripped the glass shard and angled it again, but this time she didn't bother trying to break the shackle.

She directly pierced the shard onto her wrist, the stinging pain disappearing like a drop of water in a desert.

Fresh blood spilled from her wrist and a bittersweet smile danced on her lips. "I might be powerless and weak… but I can still do this much…"

Sylvia closed her eyes, tears still dripping from them.

She knew that she was probably betraying Mikel by doing this, but it was now clear to her that even he might not be capable of undoing all of this.

She knew that he would try and perhaps even die along with her while doing so. She didn't want him to have that kind of ending.

Instead of being a burden to him and dragging him down along with her, it was better that she died like this.

The smile on her lips widened as she fondly recollected the precious memories they had shared these last few days.

These were probably the happiest days of her life.

Even though everything had ended like this… she was still happy that she was able to meet him and live at least for a fraction of a second with him.

Sylvia's lips trembled and the tears from her eyes stopped as her consciousness slowly faded once again, perhaps this time never to return. Or at least she hoped so.

But before she could drift off into nothingness… a familiar voice sounded beside her.

"EH?? Not so fast, my dear."