When the fury erupted from Tiflos's eyes, time itself seemed to slow.
The sound waves pouring from his gaze sliced through the air with a piercing whistle, making dust particles tremble like dancers caught in a violent storm. The lights in the room flickered, swayed, then died one by one—until only the silver glow of Tiflos's eyes remained, illuminating the destruction.
Valerius did not look afraid.
He smiled arrogantly and raised his hands.
"Do you really think you can kill me? I am the law—and the law stands above death!"
Suddenly, the judge's body began to glow with blinding white light. His limbs shrank and stretched unnaturally, bones cracking with sounds like shattering glass. In a heartbeat, Valerius transformed into a massive seagull, each wing spanning nearly three meters. Its silver eyes gleamed with malice. The feathers were pure white, yet stained with black patches—like corruption etched into flesh.
"Transformation!" Noor shouted in shock.
"That's a rare ability! I never thought I'd see someone who possessed it!"
The gigantic seagull took flight inside the luxurious office, its golden talons snatching at the swirling papers. Its cry was no ordinary birdcall—it sounded like the scream of a dead man echoing from another world. Each flap of its wings birthed miniature hurricanes that devoured everything in their path.
Tiflos leapt backward, his sound waves forming a transparent barrier that absorbed the attack.
"A bird?" he scoffed. "What a joke!"
"Seagulls are not ordinary birds!" Valerius roared, his human voice emerging grotesquely from the beak.
"They are masters of the sky! And you are nothing but worms crawling on the ground!"
The creature beat its wings violently, unleashing blades of compressed wind. Shards of broken glass turned into lethal projectiles, books were hurled like weightless leaves, and the golden statue of Justice toppled with a thunderous metallic crash.
Tiflos dodged with a graceful backward flip, extending his palm as sound waves deflected the glass shards. Every impact produced explosive sonic cracks that shook the hall. His feet carved marks into the marble floor from the sheer pressure.
"You cannot defeat me!" Valerius screamed as he soared toward the high glass ceiling.
"I am freedom incarnate! The lord of the skies!"
With a single powerful strike, the seagull shattered the ceiling. Glass rained down like a deadly storm. Tiflos raised his hands, his sound waves pulverizing the falling shards into fine, shimmering dust beneath the moonlight.
"Freedom?" Tiflos shouted as he vaulted through the opening to the upper level with inhuman ease.
"You're the embodiment of cowardice! You hide behind wings while destroying the lives of others!"
Noor tried to intervene, releasing visual-spectrum tendrils to distort the creature's vision, but Valerius's power was overwhelming. A burst of energy from his wings blasted her away. She slammed into a marble wall and collapsed, unconscious for a brief moment.
The battle spilled into the grand hall of the complex.
Marble pillars crumbled one after another under the force of the wings. Golden statues melted under touches of seagull-born energy. Valerius flew with terrifying speed, exploiting every inch of the structure—circling pillars, diving from above, vanishing behind statues only to reappear in sudden strikes.
The creature attacked relentlessly, its golden beak firing energy beams that battered against Tiflos's sonic shield. Each clash sent concentric shockwaves rippling through the hall. The floor was buried beneath dust, ash, and the shattered remains of priceless artifacts.
"You're destroying historical heritage!" Valerius screamed as he obliterated another marble pillar.
"And you destroyed my family!" Tiflos roared back, unleashing a focused sonic wave from his sword that struck the creature's wing directly.
A piercing scream tore through the hall.
White feathers, stained red with blood, scattered through the air. But Valerius did not surrender. He reverted to his human form—this time with broken wings, blood pouring from countless wounds. His silver eyes were strained to their limits. He had never been a fighter; why would a judge ever need to be one?
Valerius collapsed to his knees, gasping.
"I won't let you kill me!" he cried, trembling hands forming a sphere of compressed air—the final manifestation of his ability—glowing violently between his palms.
"I am the judge! I am the law! And the law does not die!"
Tiflos saw Noor stirring, struggling to stand. He saw the blood on her face. He saw fragments of his childhood—his father reading stories, his mother singing softly, his brother playing in the garden.
All of it had been destroyed by this man.
And the decision was made in a fraction of a second.
"Justice…" Tiflos said quietly,
"…begins here."
He poured all of his remaining power into his sword, releasing a single, concentrated sonic wave. A colorless, annihilating aura advanced forward, its shrill whistle tearing at the ears with unstoppable resolve. Valerius's energy sphere detonated on contact—but the sonic wave continued, slamming directly into his chest.
When the dust settled, Valerius lay sprawled on the floor, his body twisted, barely breathing. His eyes were wide open, filled with disbelief. At last, he collapsed completely, broken and bleeding.
"Mercy… please…" Valerius begged weakly.
"I can pay… I can give you everything!"
Noor ran toward them.
"Tiflos, stop! It's over! Don't do this!"
Tiflos looked at Valerius, then at Noor.
His eyes had reached their limit—but there was no rage left in them. Only a killing cold, like polar ice. The whistle of his sound waves faded into a deadly whisper.
"This is for my father," Tiflos murmured.
He raised his sound-forged sword, glowing with a pale white light. Slowly—like someone performing an ancient ritual—he moved his hand forward. The visual blade pierced Valerius's chest as easily as a knife through butter.
It was not a strike of anger.
It was calm.
Precise.
The act of someone carrying out a painful but necessary duty.
Noor stood frozen, staring at the blood spreading across the white marble.
"What… what did you do?"
"What should have been done long ago," Tiflos replied, his voice hollow.
Noor remained in shock.
Tiflos turned his back and walked away—
as if completing an obligation.