The dust settled in the ruined dining room of the Melanthos mansion, but the chilling silence that followed Kael's demise was far from peaceful. Aira stood amidst the wreckage, her body screaming in protest, the lingering pain in her ribs a sharp reminder of the brutal fight.
Her Blur ability, pushed past its limits, finally gave out, leaving her trembling, her hyper-accelerated senses struggling to readjust to normal time.
Kael lay lifeless, a testament to her desperate, almost miraculous victory, but the triumph was overshadowed by a creeping dread. His changed fighting style, the ominous familiarity in his eyes, had been deeply unsettling.
What the hell is happening?
The question, a silent scream in her mind, echoed Jean's earlier concern. This cycle felt fundamentally wrong, a terrifying deviation from every iteration she had endured before.
"Jean..." Aira whispered, a raw, desperate sound. She pushed through the gaping hole Kael's attack had torn in the wall and rushed out of the mansion.
This was another usual routine: she would join Jean and the children at the guest house after defeating Kael, the riot quelled. But this time, a new resolve hardened her spirit.
She had made up her mind; she was not ready to let go of Leo, not yet. She didn't want to force him into the ruthless world of politics and burdens that came with it.
She plunged into the forest, a sprawling, ancient expanse that served as the Melanthos lands' natural fortress. Towering oaks, their branches gnarled and dark, formed a dense canopy that blotted out the moonlight, creating an almost perpetual twilight on the forest floor. The air was thick with the earthy scent of damp soil, decaying leaves, and the sharp, resinous tang of pine. Underfoot, a carpet of moss, tangled roots, and fallen branches made every step an effort.
The silence here was different from the mansion's – it was a living silence, punctuated by the rustle of unseen creatures, the distant hoot of an owl, and the frantic pounding of Aira's own heart.
Now, she knew what would happen. In the past lives, she always came across the same group of rugged Ascendants who took advantage of the riot to spill blood, their presence a predictable, if dangerous, obstacle on her path to the guest house.
"Five of them," she muttered to herself, the grim tally of past encounters echoing in her mind. Two men at the first encounter, then another, stronger pair at the next, and finally, a single, even more formidable one at the very end.
****
"What!"
Her breath hitched, a gasp of pure shock. She had reached the exact spot where she always encountered the first two, a small clearing shaded by three massive, sentinel-like cedars.
Instead of the familiar, aggressive challenge, she was welcomed by the chilling stench of blood and the grotesque sight of two dead men.
One lay sprawled face-down, his back a pulpy mess of broken ribs and congealed gore, as if he'd been hit by a colossal, invisible hammer. His dirty, torn clothes were soaked in a dark pool. The other was propped unnaturally against a tree trunk, his eyes wide and vacant, a gaping, impossibly clean hole bored through his chest, as if his Aura had been surgically extracted. His rough-spun tunic was soaked. These were the men she was supposed to fight, the predictable, brutal gatekeepers.
She paused for a moment, not in remorse for their deaths, but in profound confusion. This had never happened.
Who had done this? And why?
She then increased her pace, pushing her weary body harder. Her motility powers were different from super speed; they allowed her to manipulate localized spatial properties to enhance movement, making her incredibly agile and fluid, but not granting the raw, sustained velocity of a true speedster.
Now, with her Aura reserves dangerously depleted and her body weak from the fight with Kael, even this enhanced movement was a painful struggle.
She ran as much as she could, each step a testament to her desperation. Now she knew something was truly fishy. This wasn't just a deviation; it was an active, violent disruption of the cycle's very fabric. On getting to the next encounter point, a narrow pass between towering rock formations, she found the other two men laid dead on the ground, their bodies twisted into unnatural angles.
One had been decapitated with surgical precision, his head lying meters away, eyes still staring in silent horror. The other was impaled on a jagged rock, his body torn apart by an unknown, immense force, his intestines spilled onto the mossy ground.
The sheer brutality of their deaths spoke of overwhelming power, a force far beyond any typical Ascendant.
"Fuck"
She cursed, a raw, guttural sound torn from her throat. The deaths of these men, these familiar, if unpleasant, adversaries, meant Jean and the kids were in grave danger.
If someone was clearing the path, it was either to eliminate all obstacles for an attack, or to secure a target. Both scenarios spelled disaster. She tried as much as possible to overcome her fatigue, to force more Aura into her limbs, but it wasn't working. Her reserves were too low, her body too broken.
She finally got to the last man, the strongest of the predictable five. He lay dead as well, sprawling in a small clearing just before the final incline to the guest house. As expected, he was also dead, though his death was perhaps the most unsettling.
His body was perfectly intact, without a single visible wound, yet his skin was a sickly grey, his eyes wide and lifeless, as if every drop of Aura, every spark of life, had been completely drained from him. His mouth was open in a silent scream, a chilling testament to a final, horrifying moment.
"Tchhhk..."
Aira gasped, the sound of her exhaustion. Immediately, she felt a foreign Aura, distinct from the lingering energy of the dead men. It wasn't coming from the motionless body; it was coming from the depths of the forest itself, here then there, a fleeting, almost playful presence. The scent of this Aura was fast, moving with impossible speed, surrounding her.
She sensed it behind her before she could even move, before her exhausted brain could register the threat.
Thud!
She felt a bang, a concussive force that slammed into the back of her head. It was the kind of impact as if her head was hit with a thick, blunt stick, but this wasn't a stick; it was more of a shockwave, a raw unseen Aura blast sent directly to her.
She tried to maintain balance, to activate her Blur, but her body betrayed her. She fell to the ground, collapsing onto her knees, her vision blurring, her eyes becoming heavy. The world tilted, the trees spinning wildly around her.
"Aaahh... I came right on time," a voice purred from in front of her, echoing strangely, becoming distant. "We don't need you at the guest house, Miss Melanthos."
In front of her stood a figure, more of a boy, perhaps no older than Leo, but radiating an Aura that pulsed with immense, controlled power. She couldn't see him clearly; her vision was too blurry, his form shimmering at the edges. His voice became a fading echo.
"Too bad I can't kill you..."
His voice was becoming more and more distant. Aira tried to stay awake but all to no avail. She finally gave up and slumped on the ground.
"Have a nice nap."