I closed my eyes and focused.
My enhanced cognition kicked in immediately.
The world exploded into clarity.
Every detail. Every connection. Every possibility branched out before me like a vast web of information.
I pulled at the thread connecting me to Koneko. Followed it backward through time and space.
The mark had started fading approximately forty-three minutes ago. The suppression wasn't gradual—it was sudden. Which meant magical interference. A barrier or seal.
Koneko had run east. Emotional. Not thinking clearly. She wouldn't have stopped until exhaustion forced her to.
The suppression began at mile marker four point two.
That's where he took her.
Loki had been watching. Waiting for exactly this kind of opportunity.
The suppression wasn't complete. Which meant one of three things:
Option one: Loki wanted me to track her. A trap with Koneko as bait.
Option two: The barrier was imperfect. He couldn't completely sever my mark.
Option three: Koneko was fighting it. Her own power interfering with the suppression.
Most likely option one.
Loki was spiteful. Vindictive. He wouldn't just kill her. He'd use her to draw me out. To hurt me.
Which meant she was alive. And would remain alive until I arrived.
Good.
That gave me time.
I opened my eyes.
Now. Where would he take her?
My mind raced through possibilities.
Abandoned buildings within a ten-mile radius: seven locations. Cross-referenced with magical signature strength. Three viable options.
Natural cave systems: twelve mapped locations. Four with sufficient depth for concealment.
Dimensional pockets: unknown. Loki had access to Norse magic. Could create temporary spaces outside normal reality.
I ran through each scenario. Calculated probabilities. Analyzed patterns from his previous behavior.
Nothing.
The variables were too broad. Too many unknowns.
Loki was a god. He had resources I couldn't predict.
He could be anywhere within a hundred-mile radius. Or nowhere at all if he is in a pocket dimension.
Damn it.
My enhanced cognition was useless without data. Without concrete information to work from.
I couldn't conjure information that didn't exist.
I needed another approach.
The mark. That was my only lead.
I focused on it again. Pulled at the connection.
Faint. Distant. But there.
Direction: east-northeast. Distance: approximately four to six miles based on connection strength.
This wasn't ideal. Not even close.
But Koneko was out there. Waiting. Scared.
That was all I had.
I'd have to follow it. Track it like a bloodhound following a scent.
And I hope Loki didn't move her before I got there.
=====
I pushed through the last line of trees and burst into a small clearing.
Empty.
Fuck.
I was too late.
My eyes scanned the area. Every detail processed in microseconds.
Koneko was here.
But she wasn't alone.
Another presence lingered — one I knew far too well.
That signature hum of Loki's magic: divine, smug, and seething with barely contained malice.
I focused on the mark again. Pulled at the thread connecting us with everything I had.
I poured my will and more mana into strengthening the connection. Trying to feel where she was. Trying to reach across whatever distance separated us.
Nothing.
Just that faint, dying flicker.
The thread pulsed once.
A weak heartbeat in the void.
Twice.
Fainter still.
Then—
It cut off.
Completely.
Of course.
Of course Loki would have noticed the connection.
He wasn't an idiot. Weak, yes. Pathetic even. But he was vindictive and cunning.
I'd underestimated him.
Damn it.
I shook my head hard.
No. I couldn't afford to blame myself. Not now.
Koneko needed me.
If I couldn't find Loki directly, there was another way.
Valper Galilei.
The excommunicated priest. The mad scientist who'd been experimenting with Holy Swords and Sacred Gears.
Based on the information I got the past few days.
Loki had been collaborating with him.
He'd allied himself with the trash of the supernatural world. People like Valper who had resources. Knowledge. Places to hide.
And connections.
If Loki was working with Valper, then there was a link between them. A connection I could trace.
Valper would be easier to find.
Much easier.
The man was arrogant. Sloppy compared to a god. He left traces.
Loki might be cunning. Vindictive. Capable of covering his tracks.
But Valper? Valper was just a human playing with powers he barely understood.
And humans made mistakes.
And fortunately, I was already tracking him.
My enhanced cognition pulled up everything I'd compiled. Every piece of information. Every pattern.
Valper's known associates. His previous lab locations. The materials he'd been acquiring through black market channels.
Three primary locations where he could be possibly operating.
An abandoned church on the eastern edge of the city. Secluded.
A warehouse near the industrial district. Recently purchased through a shell company.
And an old monastery in the mountains. Forty kilometers north. Remote. Heavily fortified.
The monastery was the most likely.
Valper was going to regret ever getting involved with Loki.
I'd tear every secret from his worthless mind. Every location. Every ally. Every piece of information he had about Loki's plans.
My hands stopped shaking.
The despair that had threatened to drown me moments ago crystallized into something else.
Something cold.
Something focused.
Rage.
Loki thought he'd won.
But he'd made a mistake.
He should have stayed hidden. Should have remained in whatever hole he'd been hiding in like the pathetic coward he was.
And for that he would burn.
=====
Rias POV
Rias stared at the endless expanse of white before her.
She blinked. Once, twice. But nothing changed. Just white. White everywhere. No walls, no ceiling, no floor that she could distinguish. Everything blended together into one seamless void.
"Hello?" she called out.
Her voice didn't echo. It just stopped, swallowed by the nothingness around her.
She took a step forward. Her foot landed on something solid, but she couldn't see what. It was like walking on an invisible surface suspended in an ocean of white.
Okay. This is the training. This has to be the training.
Leon had explained it, hadn't he? Virtual reality. Full immersion. A year compressed into a month. She remembered climbing into the pod, the lid closing over her with that soft hiss, and then...
And then white.
Rias turned in a slow circle, searching for anything. A clue. A direction. Some indication of what she was supposed to do.
A few meters away, she spotted something that wasn't white. Supplies. Crates stacked neatly, bottles of water arranged in rows, folded clothes sitting on top. They looked almost comically out of place in all this emptiness.
She walked toward them, her footsteps making no sound. When she reached the crates, she crouched down and checked inside. Basic rations. Plain food. Nothing fancy, but enough to survive.
There were clothes too. Simple training gear. Nothing like the school uniform or the outfits she usually wore.
But no weapons. No magic circles etched into the ground. No training dummies or targets or obstacles.
Just supplies. And white.
"Is this it?" she muttered to herself.
She stood up, hands on her hips, and scanned the void again. There had to be more to this. Leon wouldn't just trap them in an empty space for a year. That would be pointless.
Unless...
Unless this was the point.
Rias frowned, thinking back to what he'd said. Control. Discipline. Efficiency. He'd talked about wasting energy, about leaking power with every spell, about lacking focus.
Maybe the emptiness was intentional.
Maybe she was supposed to figure something out on her own.
She raised her hand and summoned her Power of Destruction. The familiar crimson energy crackled around her fingers, warm and destructive and hers. It felt the same as always. Responsive. Powerful.
But as she held it there, she noticed something. The energy didn't stay perfectly contained. Little wisps of it leaked off, dissipating into the air. Wasted.
She'd never paid attention to that before.
Rias let the power fade and tried again. This time, she focused. Imagining the energy as something she could hold, something she could contain completely.
It was harder than she expected. The power wanted to expand, to spread, to destroy. That was its nature. Trying to keep it perfectly controlled felt like trying to hold water in her bare hands.
After a few seconds, her concentration slipped. The power flickered and died.
She huffed in frustration.
This was going to be a long year.
====
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