Screams tore through the air—people running, trapped under rubble. Terror. Fear. Agony.
I didn't know what was happening. I was scared.
All at once, structures began to crumble. The tremors intensified.
"What's going on?!" I shouted, breathless, my chest tightening as if trying to choke my own heartbeat.
"We're under attack!" the guard leading us yelled, his voice rising above the explosions and the crash of collapsing buildings. "It was sudden!"
"What?!"
Was that why I'd felt such danger earlier? Why I saw blood on the ground and didn't dare question it aloud?
"We have to reach the king as fast as possible!"
I knew that. No need to tell me. We had to move faster. The situation was unstable. Dangerous. Volatile.
Isolde seemed more scared than I was, though I wasn't fooling myself—I was terrified too. I just hid it better. She gripped my hand so tightly I thought she was trying to anchor herself to reality.
Gareth and Leonard surged ahead, dodging debris with the desperation of those who've stopped thinking. Alicia ran too close to the guard, as if that could save her from the inevitable.
Then, out of nowhere, another guard appeared. With him, a man in a dark robe. They were fighting. Clashing swords and fists. Neither seemed to have a clear weapon. A brutal, instinctive scene, out of place.
"Move!" our guard shouted, veering right. His voice carried urgency, yes, but also the frustration of someone herding sheep in a lightning storm.
We followed, dodging rubble, no time to hesitate. No margin for error.
"Agh!" A scream. Then a force yanked me backward. I turned on instinct. Isolde was on the ground.
"Issy!" Time froze.
I hadn't really looked at her during the run. Not with real attention. Now I saw her. Crying. Shaking. It wasn't pain breaking her. It was fear. Raw. Absolute. Irrational.
And beyond the fear gripping me from the collapsing chaos around us… I felt something even more terrifying: the fear of losing her.
My body trembled. But my legs, defiant, didn't wait for orders. I rushed to her. My heart pounded in my throat.
"Issy, are you okay?!" I asked, kneeling without caring about the torn fabric of my pants.
"My leg… it hurts. It twisted," she said, her voice faint, almost airless.
"Okay. Hold on."
I checked her leg, lifting her pant leg. It was bleeding. Her ankle looked torn, as if someone had slashed it open. Or as if fate had decided to cut her off from the world.
I used Syrix to heal her. The process was slow. Too slow. Far too slow.
"Lucy, move!"
Huh?
I looked up, a reflex. Stupid, I admit. A rock was hurtling toward me. I couldn't react. No way to. But it shattered just before impact.
"You okay?" Leonard came running. His tone wasn't relief—it was tactical verification. He glanced at Isolde's foot. "Oh! That's gotta hurt…"
"What's happening? We need to go, get up… Oh, shit," Gareth joined us.
"Can you cover me? It'll take a bit to fully heal her…" My voice sounded scared. Almost broken. I hated hearing myself like that. But it was real.
"Yeah. But hurry. The building behind us won't hold much longer," Leonard said, pulling out his crossbow and taking position. Gareth didn't speak. He just grabbed a piece of wood. Silence more useful than a thousand words.
I focused on the wound. One hand on her leg. Isolde was crying, but I couldn't tell if it was pain or helplessness.
The chaos didn't stop. Everything was collapsing now. Explosions grew louder.
Then a wave of electricity devoured part of the structure to our right.
Leonard and Gareth cleared a path through the debris. I stayed there. Healing. In my own corner of the chaos.
"Calm down, Issy. I'm almost done," I murmured, unsure if I was comforting her or holding onto my own sanity.
She didn't respond.
"Lucius, hurry, the structure's not gonna last!" Leonard shouted. I saw his shadow raising his hands. Was he trying to stop the collapse? Delay it? Didn't matter. We were racing time.
The wound was almost healed. But it wasn't enough.
I had to speed up.
Mend tissue. Stimulate regeneration. Force biology. Push the energy.
"Screw it!" I shouted, placing my other hand and channeling all the mana I could.
"But… Lucy… the mana… you…" Isolde tried to speak, but pain overpowered her.
I ignored her. Not out of cruelty. Necessity. My mana sparked, unstable. It wasn't working right. Didn't matter.
"Lucius!"
A crack. The structure was giving way. I knew it before I saw it.
More mana. More pressure. I ignored the risks. I didn't know what this unstable mana would do to my body. Maybe it'd explode. Maybe it'd kill me. Didn't matter.
The wound started closing faster.
"Lucius, we have to go, run!"
"Done!" I shouted, grabbing Isolde's hand, hoisting her onto my back in a fluid, instinctive move.
I used Syrix again. Blood control. Enhanced speed. I ran. Gareth and Leonard beside me. The structure collapsed. It grazed me. But I dodged it.
"Shit!" I was panting. Collapsed. Sweating. But the respite lasted seconds. I looked around. Fire. Destruction. Worse than before. "Where's Alicia?" I asked, standing.
"They left us. We're on our own," Gareth said, also panting.
"Damn it. Where do we go?" Leonard sounded angry. But his tone was tainted by anxiety. The terror we all shared.
"Issy, can you walk?" I asked, approaching. Isolde was on the ground. Lying. Gasping.
But she was crying. Again.
That was enough.
I lifted her. Held her tight. As if I could shield her from everything with my arms.
"I'm scared, Lucy! What's happening?"
I didn't know what to say.
In my past life, I'd seen horrors. But not this kind of chaos…
I was scared.
I looked to Leonard and Gareth, searching for a decision, a guide. But what I saw was what I felt: fear.
I had to do something. We had to do something.
"Let's take the safest path," I said, standing and carrying Isolde in my arms like a princess.
"Fine. Where's that? All I see is destruction," Gareth replied, smoothing his hair, which seemed to resist any attempt at order.
He wasn't wrong. The landscape around us was a grotesque painting of ruin and devastation. But staying there, indecisive, would be even more dangerous. We had to move.
"Follow me," I ordered, heading toward an alley, still carrying Isolde.
But as my feet touched the alley's entrance, a chilling sensation ran down my spine like an icy wire. I stopped dead, stepping back several paces almost automatically, as if some ancient survival mechanism had taken over.
"Lucius, what's wrong?" Gareth asked, turning to me with a furrowed brow, unable to grasp my sudden reaction.
"Get away from there," I said. My voice trembled; the fear was real, tangible, almost suffocating.
"Lucy?" Isolde whispered, tilting her head, gripping my hand tightly.
"Get away from that alley!" I shouted, leaving no room for hesitation. The urgency in my tone was enough for Gareth and Leonard to obey without needing further explanation.
Something, or someone, was watching us from the darkness. Dangerous. Threatening. I didn't need to see it; my instinct confirmed it with undeniable certainty.
Then a voice emerged from the shadows:
"That instinct of yours… it's interesting."
A small flame sparked from a lighter, revealing just a pair of hands at the edge of the light.
"Lord Vritra was right when he said this wouldn't work. Haha. But no matter."
"W-who are you?" I managed to say, though the answer was already forming in my mind: an enemy.
"Me?" the figure replied, raising the lighter to his face.
The faint light revealed a scar across his left eye, white hair that even the orange glow couldn't hide, and red eyes radiating a sharp, almost tangible madness.
"My name is Dante."
In the next instant, his figure vanished. The lighter began to fall slowly, but before it hit the ground, Dante was in front of me, materializing like a grotesque shadow. His fist aimed for my chest.
No time for thought, only reaction. I activated Syrix, coagulating the blood in my chest to mitigate the impact.
I was launched through the air like a ragdoll, bouncing off the stone structures around us while still holding Isolde in my arms.
When I finally stopped, I noticed Gareth and Leonard were gone. How far had I been thrown?
Isolde slipped from my grasp, kneeling beside me.
"Lucy, are you okay?"
I coughed, spitting the thick crimson liquid staining my lips.
"I'm fine… I think. My chest hurts," I coughed again, more blood coming up.
"Of course you're fine. I'm strong, aren't I?" Dante appeared again, smiling with that unsettling grin.
I forced myself to stand, though my legs shook.
"What do you want from us?" I asked, clutching my chest, feeling the lingering pain. Beside me, Isolde tried to stay composed, though the fear in her eyes was clear.
"To kill you," he replied with a crooked smile. "Don't take it personally. To my boss, you two are too dangerous. Plus, it benefits me. But killing kids is utterly inhumane. Though no one knows that better than you… right, Ha-Neul?"
…What?
My thoughts shattered. Shock mixed with pure terror. My name—not my current one, but from my other life.
How does he know? Who is he really? What if he reveals it? How many others know?
"Surprised? Don't be. All of Vritra's forces know who you are, so you shouldn't be too shocked. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to finish you and your twin."
Dante began advancing with absolute confidence.
In a final desperate surge, I lunged at him, throwing a punch straight at his face. He stopped it effortlessly, catching my fist like it was weightless. Then he slammed me into the ground with a single move.
He grabbed my head, lifting me into the air. I tried to break free, clawing at his arm with all my strength, but resistance was futile. Syrix was spent. My mana, too. I had nothing left.
Is this the end? Will I die again? And drag Isolde with me?
His hand slid toward my neck, and I felt the deadly pressure closing in.
But then, unexpectedly, he let go.
Or rather, he was forced to let go by the deafening blast of Isolde's shotgun. The bullets hit his chest directly.
---
Isoldes's perspective
Seeing Lucy on the brink of death was like a bucket of ice water over my head. I snapped back to reality. Everything else vanished. That guy, Dante, was choking him… and I just stood there. Doing nothing.
Fear sank into my bones. Helplessness paralyzed me. He was going to die right in front of me, and I… I was letting it happen. My traitorous mind painted horrible scenarios. It showed me a life without Lucy. That's when I understood. I accepted it. I couldn't stay idle. Not this time. I had to fight. I had to do something.
I couldn't keep acting like a little girl. Even if I didn't have Lucy's mental age, that didn't matter anymore. If I wanted to stand by his side, I had to grow up. I had to face this.
Because I didn't want him to die. I couldn't let him die. He had to live. He had to stay here, with me, forever. Because a world without Lucy… is a world without light. And I… I'd be the one living in it.
I grabbed the shotgun from my back. Took a deep breath. Channeled mana and Syrix at the same time. Aimed. Pulled the trigger. The bullets hit Dante's chest dead-on.
He looked at me.
He didn't even flinch.
But he let Lucy go.
I ran to him, desperate.
"Lucy, are you okay?" I asked, my voice coming out in a rush.
"No… now I'm really not okay. It hurts," he gasped, clutching his chest. The blow Dante gave him had done serious damage. I had to use mana to heal him. I couldn't waste more time.
"Lord Vritra said you wouldn't even be capable of this, but looks like he was wrong," Dante said, as if he found it all amusing, like he was holding back laughter. "You must've had a trigger, right? Though it was… different. No magical explosion, nothing. What happened? Oh… no, let me guess."
He was toying with us. Mocking us. He hadn't even drawn a weapon to fight us. Who the hell was he? Why was he so strong?
"I got it! I got it! Your twin, right? Seeing him nearly die snapped you out of it, made you decide to face me… I gotta admit—"
I shuddered. His tone shifted abruptly. Cold. Terrifying.
Lucy's hand grabbed mine. I felt him trembling.
"I didn't expect you to attack me like that," Dante finished, looking at me with an icy threat in his eyes.
Lucy stood, and I followed. We couldn't give up now.
Lucy took the lead. He lunged at Dante, throwing a punch at his face. I followed, redirecting Dante's hand to keep him from dodging. The punch landed hard.
But Dante didn't budge.
"Kids…" he said, with a disturbing calm. "Didn't you know it's rude to hit your elders? Just let me kill you. I promise it won't hurt this time—"
He stopped.
I saw an arrow streak through the air toward his face. Dante caught it, but as he held it, it exploded.
"Lucius! Isolde! Are you okay?!" Gareth shouted, appearing from the rubble with Leonard.
"And this? You two?"
"Who's this guy?"
"Agh!" Lucy groaned. "I don't know. But he wants to kill us."
"What?"
"Enough! Now that you two are here… I'll kill you too."
And he vanished. Just like that. Only to reappear next to Leonard.
I reacted instinctively, firing another shotgun blast. Leonard ducked instantly and countered, striking Dante's stomach. But it… it did nothing.
Dante didn't even flinch.
He countered with his knee, brutally hitting Leonard's abdomen and sending him crashing toward us. Gareth acted fast, summoning a spike of earth that rose from the ground and hit Dante.
But he shattered it with a single punch.
"Damn, he's strong…"
We got back up. Lucy lunged again, this time with kicks. He jumped, spun, and his leg struck Dante's shoulder. Nothing. Leonard fired another arrow; Dante stopped it. I shot again, but the bullets bounced off his chest. Gareth launched a fireball, but Dante extinguished it with water magic.
"That's it?" he asked, bored. "Now it's my turn."
He raised his fist. I saw it wrapped in black lightning. Just as he was about to strike the ground, something appeared.
A blade sliced through the air toward his face. Everything distorted instantly. Structures and debris flew through the air.
"Dante!!" someone shouted.
Dante's face was bleeding from the cut. And then, he appeared. In front of us. He struck Dante's jaw, sending him soaring into the sky.
"Dad?!" I exclaimed, unable to believe it.
"Are you okay, Lucius, Isolde?" he asked, kneeling and hugging us tightly.
"Y-yeah… kinda," Lucius replied, a bit embarrassed.
"You'd better run. Go to your mother, she's fighting that… damn thing."
"What? But—"
"Wow! If it isn't you, Elias. Haven't seen you since… Hmm… let me think… ten years?" Dante was floating in the air. How was he doing that? What the hell was he?
"Kids, go. Please. Leave this to me…"
"But—"
"Issy. Let's go. We need to find Mother."
I looked at Father. It hurt to leave him, but I nodded. Lucy looked at Gareth and Leonard; they nodded too.
Lucy started running. I followed, along with the boys.
"Where do you think you're going?" Dante appeared in front of us.
But Father intercepted him. He took him away at a speed… impossible. Inhuman.