"I fought against it?"
Marc couldn't remember a thing about what had just happened.
"Yes, master."
"I was out of control?"
"Yes, master. You really don't remember?"
"I have bridles in my brain but I remember yelling at it very well."
"Yes. Then you fought him."
Marc held his head in his hand.
He looked at the pedestal where the statue had originally stood and where it was after that. The church was a mess. The walls had holes and cracks everywhere. The beauty of the church had been smoked out after the fight.
"I'm...sorry."
"That's all right. You didn't necessarily help us in the search, but you did get us to confirm something. The man was Zodric. The question now is where do you know him from?"
At that moment, the Emperor no longer seemed to care whether Marc was an enemy or not. His real goal was to understand what had happened. And above all, why the statue had recognized a mere boy whom he had simply invited to inspect the ruins with him.
Marc watched the Emperor approach him at a brisk pace in despair.
"In Orio, you assured me you didn't know this man."
Marc nearly stumbled as the Emperor put him under tremendous pressure.
"There, you just shouted his name. He reacted and said you reminded him of someone."
Marc began to sweat. He really didn't know the man, but this was already the second time he'd proved otherwise.
"I just called out his name because it was the only possibility. There was no guarantee he'd move. You would have said his name too by now, now that you know him."
"I don't know the man, but you do."
"I assure you it came that way. Besides, you saw that he didn't know who I was after all."
The Emperor's eyes looked intensely at Marc.
Marc wondered if he would be spared this time. Once again, the circumstances were stacked against him. Ever since his adventures began, everything seemed to be going against him.
He hadn't even managed to prove his innocence by visiting those ruins.
The Emperor said nothing, staring at him sternly, ready to strike. Those were long seconds for everyone in the room. Seconds they certainly won't forget.
But just as everyone expected a drawn blade and a head to roll, he sheathed his sword, clicked his tongue in annoyance, and turned away from him.
"Let's finish the tour."
Jin let out a sigh of relief, Marc too and Exorian finally entered the room with Nathanaël and Elie.
As soon as the doors opened, she rushed over to check on Marc.
Exorian, for his part, made his way toward his Emperor.
"You're not killing him, Majesty?"
"Stop telling me what to do, Exorian. Stay in your place."
"Yes, Majesty. "
"But you're right. We'll have to keep an eye on him. Even if we have to go by force."
The Emperor turned his gaze to Marc and his group.
He saw them all together, like a gathering of potentially catastrophic enemies. Everything had become unpredictable, and should the existence of such power ever be revealed to the public, the world itself would be thrown into turmoil.
And yet, these four remained completely beyond his control. They were true forces of nature, their power stemming from an unknown and unfathomable source.
Zvenne was a great nation, one capable of bringing the world to its knees, yet the Emperor feared even that might not be enough if these children continued to evolve.
One could not hold back a tsunami with a dam... just as he could not halt the chain of events destined to sweep across the world.
At the very least, he would try.
"No. We'll have to keep an eye on all of them. They're probably the biggest threat Earth has ever known."
*
After they had all gathered, the Emperor spoke of the continuation of their exploration.
"Orio's room was already pretty good, but the rest will still surprise you. There are probably beings in white down there, which makes exploration almost impossible. I couldn't get all the way there myself. But we have nothing to fear, since we have with us the man who overcame a mighty statue."
All eyes turned to Mark, who had regained his blank expression more than ever.
The Emperor then led the way and they soon found themselves standing in front of a wooden door.
Made of thick oak planks, it was reinforced with dark iron hinges and rows of metal studs. The arched door stood recessed within a pale stone frame, its weathered surface bearing the marks of time.
It was the kind of door Marc could have sworn he'd seen in any medieval fantasy story. A simple door, nothing more, in the most mysterious of places.
No being in white showed up, though and they simply walked down the long, dark, abandoned hallway, fearing that something might jump out at them. But nothing happened.
And after a while, the Emperor asked Marc a question.
"Tell me Marc. Why are you so worried about a woman who's probably been dead for years?"
"I don't know."
Marc wanted to cover his face in shame.
He didn't know why he wanted so badly for this woman to be safe and stop crying. Her story was probably from a long time ago, but Marc had this thought filling his heart.
Something about this woman—something that didn't even seem to come from him—was bothering him.
"It's all right. Just try to find out why before we go."
They walked for at least a good ten minutes because the hallways was simply enormous. It made him wonder if they hadn't left the church a long time ago.
Marc quickly dismissed it as just another fleeting anomaly from another world, but even though he wanted to ignore it, it made him feel particularly uneasy
They were no doors on the side but just indecipherable engravings. Marc recognized one of the symbols from Orio. There was a circle and inside it, a kind of i that twisted to resemble a wave. At the edge of the circle, three symbols seemed to emerge from the outside. A second circle, a sort of flame and a horn. From a distance, the circle looked like a strange monster.
The Emperor noticed the special interest Marc took in the engravings.
"It's good that you're interested in the engravings in this church now. Look at them carefully."
Marc then scanned the wall, hoping to find something useful.
With each passing moment, the engravings began to look more and more like drawings. Drawings of things they could understand.
Marc recognized more and more drawings of people. At first, they were monstrous, then their silhouettes gradually became more refined.
He saw, a smiling sun, a lake of lava, light coming down from the sky - Marc could see better and better. Excitement steadily grew...the ultimate truth concealed behind those walls finally seemed within reach.
He continued forward to look at the drawings, but soon bumped into Elie, who had stopped.
"What's the matter, Elie?"
But when he saw Elie's face, his excitement quickly turned to fear.
Elie was pale. She was paler than ever, and her complexion would deteriorate further before she collapsed completely. No words came out of her mouth. She paled even more.
"Elie!"
She no longer noticed the presence of the others. No one understood what was happening. But Elie had no doubt.
Before her...
was engraved the end she had seen in a vision that day.
Marc looked at the wall and saw what Elie was on the ground for....
Ruins, flames, blood, monsters, angels, beings never seen before, and in the middle of the drawing...
"I see you've noticed. These are the most visible drawings in the corridor. You can see destruction everywhere. It looks like our world, but it's probably not what it looks like today.
If this is what you saw in your dream, I'm afraid we're all going to die here.
The strangest thing about all this is that everyone seems to revolve around this man dressed in black holding his sword. His fallen angel appearance, his black wings, that monstrous aura earns him this place right in the middle of the corridor. Right in the middle of the stage."
...the man in black sat, holding his sword with nothing to do. He wasn't staring at the fallen world, he was staring at the people watching him.
He was staring at Marc, who was staring at him.
He was staring at Marc.
"Observe here as long as you like. I'll be waiting. But they won't wait as long as I do."
The Emperor gently pointed the tip of his scabbard in the direction the hallway led.
At first, nothing disturbed the oppressive silence.
Then, without warning, the atmosphere changed.
Pale fingers slowly emerged from the stone walls.
One hand.
Then another.
Then dozens.
In the dimly lit hallway, countless hands pressed against the stone as though something trapped beneath the surface was struggling to break free.
Heads soon followed.
One after another, they pushed through the walls as if the stone offered no resistance at all. The moment their faces emerged, they snapped toward the small group.
More and more figures followed. Their torsos slid from the walls, then their legs, until hundreds of pale silhouettes stood shoulder to shoulder, completely sealing off the passage.
Clad in simple white linen garments, they remained perfectly still.
Their eyes, vast as galaxies, stared silently at the intruders.
Not a single emotion could be found within them.
Marc tensed up.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
They were all getting ready to fight when Marc suddenly noticed one of them open his mouth wide, revealing its utter emptiness.
He shouted
"Plug your ears!"
And at that very moment, the cry of the white being also echoed.
"Aregis!"
The word echoed through the hallway, and the instant it reached Marc's ears, agony followed.
It hit him with the same merciless intensity as before.
His entire body convulsed.
It felt as though invisible claws were ripping him apart from within, tearing through flesh, muscle, and bone alike. A warm sensation spread across his face as blood seemed to pour from every orifice. The pressure inside his skull climbed relentlessly, threatening to burst his eardrums at any moment.
Marc staggered.
He knew it wasn't real.
He knew none of it was actually happening.
Yet his body refused to believe it.
The pain was so overwhelming, so vivid, that the distinction between illusion and reality had long ceased to matter.
But he hung in there and gritted his teeth.
"No. I mustn't leave them alone. "
He did all he could to get to his feet when he realized he was the only one touched by the word.
Marc didn't understand. His expression clouded over.
"Are you all right?"
The Emperor looked down at him and Marc could have sworn a faint smile flickered across his face.
"Yes. It seems this note only affects you. I thought you were invincible."
They were all fighting against the beings in white.
Looking at them, Marc thought he probably didn't need to help them. Especially when he saw who was protecting him. Elie crushed them with overwhelming blows, while Jin dismantled them with a bewildering variety of fighting styles. Nathanaël cut through them with frightening efficiency, his eyes frequently drifting toward the Emperor as he studied every movement. He saw nothing but an opportunity to further protect his friends.
His aura flared, washing over Marc like a warm breeze and giving him the fleeting impression that an angel was fighting on his behalf.
Yet the biggest surprise came from Exorian.
A firearm rested in his hands. Shot after shot rang through the corridor. Every bullet found a head. He didn't miss once. Only the empty click of his weapon finally brought the deadly rhythm to an end.
"Exorian..."
"Don't worry about me. I'm his majesty's butler after all."
A white being charged at him. Without the slightest hesitation, he caught its arm and snapped it in half. He then twisted its neck until the head spun around completely. When that still wasn't enough, he ripped it off entirely.
Marc could hardly believe it. The old butler was, without a doubt, the strongest human he had ever met after Jin.
Also, for the simple reason that he could no longer really consider the Emperor to be human.
Jin was just having fun in his corner, but could see Elie weakening. She hadn't fully recovered from the engraving. The only reason she had thrown herself into battle was because she had seen Marc writhing in pain.
Jin stepped in to save her.
He sprang over his master's shoulder and intercepted the nearest creature.
But the creature caught his foot.
Jin's eyes narrowed.
The previous ones hadn't reacted that quickly.
And Marc immediately understood.
They were adapting...
As the battle dragged on, Marc noticed a terrifying pattern.
Every new wave returned stronger than the last. There were more of them. Faster ones. Tougher ones.
No matter how many were destroyed, the corridor never seemed to empty.
They weren't guardians...
They were weapons.
Living killing machines designed to wear down any intruder.
And at that moment, Marc finally understood.
This was why the Emperor had never been able to complete his exploration of Zvenne.
These creatures existed for a single purpose:
to protect the Church's secrets.
But that wasn't going to stop Jin from enjoying himself. His smile widened again, but he turned back to his master first.
"May I, master?"
Marc didn't understand why he was asking him.
"Of course."
His smile widened again.
The white being rushed him while his back was still turned. The next instant, Jin was already above it, driving a brutal punch into its spine. A second came up, trying to land a roundhouse kick which Jin easily countered before driving his knee into his abdomen.
"Does it hurt?"
He sounded genuinely curious.
Jin then grabbed his arm before twisting it, but while he was doing so the first being stood up and tried to catch him.
He grabbed Jin from behind and slammed him into the ground.
"Judo?"
Jin's voice sounded almost intrigued.
But by the time the creature tried to capitalize on its hold, he was already gone.
Surprised, he took a huge fist to the face, completely deforming it.
At the same time, the second accompanied by the third charged at Jin, but none of them managed to hit him. His movements were becoming cleaner with each exchange.
The Emperor watched Jin's fight, for he had drawn most of the white beings to him. He contemplated the boy's movements.
"What do you think, Exorian?"
"He's really very strong."
Jin struck and dodged like a master. None of their attacks could truly reach him. His agility and speed clearly surpassed that of his opponents.
Watching him fight, Marc couldn't help but think...
It was as if Jin were the villain everyone else had to overcome. As though he were the one who didn't belong in this world.
If the beings in white didn't wear this kind of clothing, Marc might have been confused.
In the midst of all those corpses, Jin stood there, exhausted.
He took a deep breath.
"That feels good."
Everyone looked at him as if they were going to have to fight him next.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing."
"I don't think this is the time to relax. There's more coming. They never stop coming."
The Emperor's gaze remained fixed on the walls. Every time he'd passed this way, more had come out of the walls. He'd faced thousands of them. He'd sliced through thousands of them, but each time he'd failed to reach the first-floor door.
It was the closest he'd ever come. But white beings were already emerging from the walls once more.
The Emperor clenched his jaw.
"Listen to me. We're going to run to the door. Avoid unnecessary fighting. They'll get stronger anyway. So run."
Marc looked once more at the engraving of the ruined world and stared at the man in black staring back at him.
"I'll kill you."
Then they all began to run, avoiding as many white beings as possible.
The corridor was immense, yet they crossed it at frightening speed.
More hands burst from the walls.
More pale figures followed.
They jumped, ducked, and dodged every enemy in their path, but for each one they avoided, another seemed to emerge ahead.
The distance separating them from the door shrank.
So did the space around them.
"Faster!"
The path, though short, seemed longer because of all the beings in white coming out of the walls. Their hands and legs protruding from the walls reflected a scene from a horror movie.
"What if there are more inside?"
Elie had said this without thinking, but she was right. They had no idea what was behind it. It could be death or the man in black himself, but they were still going for it.
The Emperor remained silent for a moment before answering.
"We'll see."
For a moment, no one said anything.
Then the group laughed. Even Exorian, who was blindly following his Emperor
It was the only answer he could give them, but hearing the laughter, the Emperor himself let out a small smile. The door was closing fast.
"Come on!"
With a shout, they threw the door open and rushed inside.