The police car's sirens pass by Anby and Kiara as they dramatically run to safety. Each corner they turned was a gamble, hoping the next block would bring safety–or a place to hide.
"Wait. Slow down," Anby hisses, her voice becoming more frantic, "We look like criminals."
Kiara pants to herself, maintaining her composure, "Oh my god, we do. I feel like one–I just killed a cannibal."
"Let me do the talking, Kiara," Anby calmly reassures. Kiara nods her head before realizing what Anby just said.
"You do the talking?" Kiara questions, raising her eyebrow, "You're 14? I think you're 14, but you're a child. What do you mean 'you do the talking'?"
"Oh my god, you're right," Anby flails. "We're going to go to prison."
"We can't go to prison, Anby," Kiara shrugs nonchalantly. "There is no evidence against us."
"How?" Anby inquires.
"He got stamped. Smooshed….obliterated," Kiara's voice becomes high-pitched. "He got the clean-up on aisle 6 treatment. "
Anby's face contorted, holding back a chuckle.
"Why are you laughing?" Kiara waves her hand dramatically in front of Anby's face.
"You can't just go from stamped to clean up on aisle 6," Anby sheepishly defends herself, wheezing and scolding. Her shoulders tense up. "That's evil, Kiara."
"He got the 'hit by the truck phenomenon to get sent to another world–" Kiara runs her hand through her short black hair. "Except that another world is the fiery center of the earth."
"Do you mean hell?" Anby mutters.
"No. That's not what I meant…Well, he also ain't seeing those pearly white gates anytime soon," Kiara nervously laughs, shaking her head. Her posture is rigid, arms crossed together as if protecting herself from the shock.
I wonder how Evander is doing? Kiara questions, looking over her shoulder. He must be so confused, being so lightheaded for no reason.
Meanwhile, in an unknown part of the city, Evander explores what it has to offer. He turns his head as if someone had just called his name.
"Wonder what that brat was doing earlier today," He clutches his forehead, pushing forward with careful diligence. A jolt of pain still lingers over his body as he looks over the grocery list Kiara gave him. "What kind of battle was she just in?"
Unknown to him, someone is slowly following him from behind. The figure's footsteps echo behind the Ascendant, as Evander looms over his shoulder.
His eyes widen as he recognizes the person following him.
"Do you still want to explore the city?" Kiara awkwardly pats Anby's shoulder. "Hopefully, we don't encounter another assassin."
Anby lets out a quiet groan, still traumatized by the earlier battle. Hanger's mushed body still lingers in the back of her mind like a bad dream. Kiara rubs her arm, still jittery.
"Let's just go to the park," she remarks, placing her hands around her waist. "I hope the others are okay."
"They're fine," Anby reassures, her mind drifting to the sidewalk. "Seth has Adam."
The sounds of the nearby birds and the setting sun mark the time of late afternoon. The light is more direct and intense as the warmth in the air begins to rise. Shoppers moved in every direction–some browsing through stores while others rushed through a time crunch.
The parents carry large plastic bags on their shoulders as their rowdy children run between stores. Many voices from the distant food court blend as the afternoon rush buzzes. The crowded floor is sleek and polished as Adam walks through with a large hot dog, as Seth trails just behind.
Taking a bite out of his hot dog, a mustard streak appeared across the corner of Adam's cheek. "How did you enjoy the arcade, Seth?" He utters, looking over his shoulder.
Seth, hands in his pockets and scanning the area, mutters. "It felt amazing ... like walking back memory lane."
"Memory lane?" Adam furrows his brow.
"Yeah, I used to go to the arcades all the time… with my parents when I was really young," Seth explains calmly. His highlights in his eyes gleamed with nostalgia.
"Hmm," Adam nods, looking over to see a woman on the second floor watching over them. She leans perfectly still against the glass guardrail, eyeing the two of them.
"How long have we been here?" Seth inquires.
"I have no idea, but I can tell we've been here for hours," Adam hums, wiping his hand with a napkin and tossing it over his shoulder, before being intercepted by a janitor smacking it with his broomstick.
The crumbled-up ball bounces off the pillars like a basketball and lands cleanly in the trash can.
"You sure we're not being followed?" Seth asks, more seriously this time. The woman pulls her cloth mask and hoodie over her head and walks in the opposite direction. Adam slows, taking a moment. He stood on the polished fountain edge, outstretched his arms like a tightrope walker.
"Someone is tailing us," Adam says softly, his tone growing more distant. "I don't think they're ready to make a move."
Seth's posture shifts slightly, brushing his finger across the photo sticking out of his suit pocket. Adam glances, but he doesn't question it. He nudges Seth with his elbow.
"Relax, we're in a mall," Adam remarks, looking cautiously as the woman walks into a tech store above them. "Let's follow our friend inside. She'll show her face before the next round of the claw machine heartbreak."
As Adam and Seth followed where the stranger last entered, they were met with bright overhead LED lights, with soft music playing in the background. The store is divided into clearly marked sections–smartphones, laptops, and TVs
The store loomed over them. Neon hues and colored spotlight overwhelm their senses. The assassin absorbs electricity from nearby TVs. Her body shimmering in cascading ode, rippling through her skin like water.
"This is a labyrinth," Adam mutters, his hand glowing with spiritual energy. He places his hand on Seth's shoulder, sensing the lights flickering out of control. The employee ignores the strobing lights and continues placing products onto the shelves.
"You should get to safety, Seth," Adam orders, taking a few steps forward. "You're not strong enough for this."
"No wait, I can do this!" Seth blurts out, almost like an impulse. His voice was shaky but firm. Adam turns his head, seeing a defiant Seth nudges his shoulder.
"It's fine. You don't have to protect me," the young boy utters, more to himself than to Adam. "I got this."
Adam squinted his eyes, pausing, but he didn't dismiss the idea.
"Okay, but I'll recon," Adam dramatically adjusts his collar. "This is a big place, so I want you to intervene only when I start slicing and dicing, okay?"
Seth takes a deep breath.
"Stay sharp," Adam warns as he disappears into the rows of shelves and electronic products. The assassin's steps felt like mini pulses on the ground, leaving behind nanotech distortion effects. Then came a second step, closer, heavier, but too smooth. Each footfall is a contraction.
Aisles twist endlessly, some narrowing, others widening. The distant carts rattle in the air as the fluorescent lights buzz above. The shoppers disappeared and reappeared like ghosts, minding their own business as Adam pushed by.
Placing her hands into a sign, the assassin mutters under her breath. A translucent veil slowly forms around the mall, invisible to all the regular civilians in the mall.
Adam senses the sleeping veil forming, sees the customers around start to fall asleep, and collapse onto the ground. The whole building has fallen into an unnatural, eerie silence.
The TVs in the area start to glitch out, their audio becoming distorted and extremely laggy. The dilapidated lights start to flicker between on and off. Adam puts his hands into a sign summoning his sword into the air.
The lights flicker, and Adam sees a distorted figure in the aisle ahead of him. Its form is reminiscent of old static television. The distorted figure starts moving ever closer, and the length it takes for them to get closer to Adam gets shorter with each last.
As the lights turn off, Adam takes a deep breath, gripping his katana. Suddenly, as the lights turn off, the distorted figure punches Adam in the face.
Reacting quickly, Adam leaps back to create enough distance between himself and the unknown figure. The distorted entity in an instant transforms into pure electricity and moves between the large TVs displayed in the aisle.
In an instant, a streak of electricity appears behind Adam, revealing the entity behind him. Instantly acting on instinct, Adam turns his back, swinging his sword through the figure's head.
The entity started distorted unnaturally as its form started glitching between transparency and solidity. Adam rapidly swings his sword to mess with its glitchy form.
As soon as a spot on the figure's body becomes more solid, Adam surges his hand with spiritual energy as he punches the enemy with a massive force, launching them far down the aisle. It crashes into a couple of phones on display, coming to a sudden stop.
"Filthy brat," the figure mutters to herself. The static energy surrounding her clothes quickly dissipates, leaving her vulnerable.
The second member of Carnal Requiem- EMP.
EMP raises her hand, absorbing electrical energy from the nearby TVs, electricity dancing around her baggy tech wear.
She disappears into a state of pure electricity, her form traversing through the technology section with ease. Her body shimmers behind like pure static before fully forming behind Adam. No footsteps or breath.
Adam, gripping the handle with both hands, swings his broadsword throw EMP. She phases her body, her form unstable, limbs distorting like a corrupted file. The metal blade swings through the assassin like she wasn't even there. He barely had any time for a counterattack.
She's already gone—phased right through him. Every screen in the aisle flashed white noise, as if reality itself distorted in her presence.
Adam's body shudders from the sudden surge of electricity through his body. It ripples through his body like an echo screaming through his body. EMP's footsteps felt like magnetic pulses every time her foot fell onto the floor, causing the electronics to go haywire.
Her body shifts into a streak of white and blue electricity around Adam, catching him off guard. Swinging his broadsword in an arc, Adam tries to catch her off guard, but she just shifts in a binding snap of static. It is like a ghost flickering between screens.
Her punch flickers into reality like skipping frames in a video. Her body flickers before syncing back into a stable form. Adam's head snaps back as faint sparks of static shock his body.
"Protection: Binding threads," Adam yells out, raising two fingers into the air. The spell shoots out golden threads from the ground, wrapping around EMP's body--reducing her mobility. Taking advantage of the situation, Adam moves across the dust-swept ground. He closes the distance between with a silent, deadly purpose.
I can't phase. EMP thinks, raises her head, seeing Adam's broadsword ready to strike her down permanently. This brat might actually be smarter than I thought–too bad for you, I can control electricity.
The TV screens flicker and distort violently, and the videos on the screen flicker severely and skip many frames. Many screens glitch and show distorted colorful images. Adam turns his head, momentarily distracted, and is struck by a wave of electricity.
He manages to block the attack with the flat end of the broadsword, but as the screens distort and turn white, many waves of static electricity shoot out. Unable to block against all of the attacks, he pushes himself back to create distance.
"Warden society actually sent out recruits like you on the frontline," EMP remarks, scoffing at the idea. "They must really be understaffed."
"Heh. We really must be," Adam raises his broadsword, standing proud and tall.
EMP's steps don't follow a pattern, one step echoing longer than the other like a corrupted loop. A faint crackle is heard as a glass shattering effect is heard as she approaches Adam. The lights flicker on and off in an irregular pattern between illumination and darkness.
As the lights turn on and off, EMP appears closer each time, jumping like a broken frame in an animation. Adam narrows his with a cold diligence, reading her timing, not the light.
As EMP appears in front of Adam, he swings in a wide arc, cutting through the air with a swoosh. Narrowing her eyes, Emp's form flickers, beginning to phase through Adam.
Pulling his sword back, Adam slowly redirects the motion, making it seem he stopped his attack. A split-second gap appears in her form as she appears behind Adam, preparing to strike him from behind.
Pivoting his back foot, Adam twists his body, throwing his blade up in a powerful overhead arc. His arm held firm on the hilt, and his body committed to the attack. Caught off guard by the sudden change, EMP tries to phase herself to avoid the attack, but her body flickers erratically. She hasn't fully stabilized herself.
In a wide arc, she felt a massive weight crash into her shoulder like a wrecking ball, nearly sending her to the ground. Her body lets out a faint crackle, leaving her partially vulnerable.
Adam's expression remains emotionless, showing an eerie sense of control over the battle. His eyes were analyzing her every decision.
"Not even worth the effort," Adam utters, his eyes looking down beneath her. EMP grits her teeth, her form jittering violently like a faulty TV. As the lights turn on and off, she collapses into the void, only to reappear away from Adam.
"I'll crack your mask," EMP playfully mutters, her tone dripping with sarcasm. Her body disappears in a colorful smear. Adam raises his sword proudly, his eyes carefully tracking her movements.
Pushing his foot off the ground, Adam traverses through the narrow aisles. His feet pound on the floor as his heart hammers in his chest.
Rematerializing above Adam, EMP descends, throwing a right hook. Reacting fast, Adam pivots, carefully spinning away from the attack. As EMP's punch impacts the floor, her body shimmers like a broken camera and disappears.
Flicking his wrists, Adam throws his broadsword in the air, the blade glistening in the dilapidated lights. Spinning around theatrically, he catches the blade mid-air and blocks EMP's rematerialized punch with the flat side of his blade. A wild shockwave ripples through the air, shaking many electronics off their shelves.
Tch–what the hell? EMP's eyes narrow, seeing the sudden block Adam performed. Her expression is obscured by the static texture covering her face. Adam tightens his grip on his handle, feeling the pressure of EMP's fist pulsing over his blade.
"Watch where you're pulling those punches," Adam smirks, his voice arrogant yet playful. "That could really hurt someone."
Is he mocking me? EMP thinks, lowering her head. "Let's see what you're made of." She melts into the void around her. As she appears behind Adam, his arms tremble from the sudden static coursing through his body, burning his insides.
Pushing off his foot, Adam turns his body, blocking EMP's strike. Her body appears like a constant trail of static noise, appearing and reappearing all over the store. Each block against the blade sends a shockwave through Adam's body.
"You really think your training is enough to defend yourself," EMP scoffs.
"Hey, don't waste a hit on the masterpiece," Adam playfully jokes, clutching tightly on his broadsword's hilt.
"You are an arrogant boy," EMP coldly mutters under her breath. "No wonder they want your head on a silver platter."
"How about you fill their cups with liquor?" Adam's eyes narrow with an eerie calm, and a smirk tugs on his lips. He saw her shimmer–always–just before she phased. He raises his hands in the air, blade held tightly. "Don't believe me…watch me kill your signal."
"You have something interesting in your code," EMP smirks, static flickering across her face. " That's why I need to make this quick."
Adam confidently points his sword at EMP, the blade gleaming on her body.
"Nice declaration," Adam playfully taunts, his gaze as sharp as a razor. His voice was smooth like a blade sliding through its sheath. "That's not going to happen, though."
"Always the righteous ones that get distracted first," EMP coldly remarks, slowly turning her gaze to Seth, standing away from the chaos. "Too focused on protecting vulnerable assets–strike them down, the whole facade breaks."
"Adam," Seth mutters, his voice barely a whisper. He swallows hard, reading his blade to protect himself. His form is shaky, but he steadies himself. Adam and EMP take notice of this.
"Seth. You can't help me," Adam warns, his gaze locked. "She is too fast for you to react in time."
"I have to try," Seth mutters, low and tense. "That's what we're supposed to do, right?"
It didn't sound brave.
It felt rehearsed.
"A coward with a sword is making some big talk," EMP tilts her head, unimpressed.
"Seth," Adam's tone sharpens, slightly inching closer to the young boy. Seth's legs couldn't stop shaking, but he tried to shrug it off.
"I'm not a coward," Seth straightens his collar, still composed. "I was preparing for the perfect moment to strike."
"'Aw. I was hiding behind a vending machine crying for my mommy,'" EMP mutters deadpan. Seth winces, tensing from the insult. Something about her words struck a nerve.
Adam and EMP lock gaze–the same thought crossing their minds. Seth was the weak link. She would strike him down to catch Adam off guard, and Adam would have no choice but to protect himself.
A sharp buzz filled the air. EMP made the first step. She surged through like a firecracker–current, erratic, and charged. Her target was clear—Seth.
Pushing off the ground, Adam charged to intercept the assassin. He rushes forward like an arrow cutting through the gusting wind. His pace unwavering, knowing that Seth's life is on the line.