The impact pushed air outward in a shockwave, forcing Ren back a step.
He caught a glimpse through the chaos, the stranger's figure completely swallowed by it.
His pupils trembled.
But instead of pressing forward and attacking while the man was down, he turned and ran.
Because Asylia had told them to.
"Serein! The Guardian, we're heading to its location!"
"Guardian?"
Ren caught the word. It rang familiar.
The restaurant's Guardian wasn't a living thing, closer to a robot, or a golem like something out of the fiction he'd read growing up. To keep everyone in easy contact, each phone had tracking access to the public Guardian locations throughout the building. Since the signal had come back earlier, weak as it was, they'd been able to pull up the map. Some Guardians had already gone dark on the radar. Others were still lit.
One of them was close.
*I hope there's help there.*
"Why are you making this so difficult?"
Behind them, a low voice growled, something raw and furious underneath it.
Through the white chaos, a hand burst forward, veins standing out like cord, tearing through the dissipating energy. Like a switch had been flipped, all of it collapsed at once.
And revealing what was left.
The stranger knelt on one knee. Smoke curled from his hands, burned and ruined. His face looked like it had been splashed with acid, flesh and blood slowly dripping, while tendrils of meat writhed at the edges of the wounds, trying to close them. Between it all, a faint greenish-blue aether circulated slowly, threading in and out of the damaged tissue. With each pass, the flesh seemed to grow more active, reaching toward itself.
It was the ability he had honed to its peak, the thing that had earned him the rank of Master Class. The Third Step.
*Tear.*
His eyes were cold. Beneath the surface, veins pulsed along his eyelids like worms pressing through skin.
He hadn't expected her to have something like that. It had actually managed to land a injury on Third Tier Master like him.
*Decent backing,* he thought darkly. *But so what. What comes next is another matter. Right now I need a vessel, and I'm going to get one.*
He looked up.
Their backs were already disappearing around the corner.
"Fucking—"
He stood up and ran after them.
---
"He's already coming!"
"Insane!"
Serein's ears caught the footsteps before the others did.
"Wait—"
Asylia reached smoothly into the backpack without slowing, pulling out three azure orbs with slender symbols at their centers, and one with a black crack running through it.
She exhaled when she saw the black one. *Good. Still have it.*
"Serein. Ren. Crush them!"
She called back before tossing the azure orbs to each of them, then crushed her own.
*Crack.*
Azure wind wrapped around her body and her speed jumped visibly.
Ren crushed his without hesitation, feeling the wind move over his clothes like a caress.
*Whoa.*
He blinked. It felt like he was gliding. One step carried him the distance two normally would.
Behind them, an invisible force lashed through the air, a sound like the howl of something hollow tearing down the corridor.
The stranger had caught up.
Even with the enhancement, he was faster. Still far back, but closing. Slowly, steadily, undeniably closing.
"Why are you running?! I just wanted a small favor!"
His voice thundered off the walls behind them, loud and unhinged, bouncing through corridor after corridor.
Ren's frown deepened. *That's going to draw something worse.*
Then his expression shifted as his body registered what his mind had been ignoring. The injuries and exhaustion from before hadn't gone anywhere. His speed began to slip, just slightly. A dull pain spread across his body. His head felt like it was being caved in from all sides.
"Don't listen to him. Keep going!"
Asylia pushed them faster.
"The floor Guardian." She paused for half a breath. "It should be just around this corner."
Ren dug up whatever was left in him and poured it into his legs. He could feel the strain, could feel things in him protesting, but he didn't slow.
*Just a little more.*
Out of the corner of his eye, a cold streak of blue light cut past and struck something behind him.
A curse rang out from the middle-aged man.
Seeing that they weren't slowing, seeing them pull further, his face darkened.
He reached into his pocket and took out an orb. He paused, grimacing, then pressed through the hesitation and gripped it. The orb was cracked, its outer layer dull, the symbol at its center barely legible, nothing like the ones Asylia had pulled out.
*This is the last one.*
That moment of hesitation cost him.
*Whizz.*
*What—*
A flash of cold light struck his hand before he registered the movement. On contact it released a misty chill that spread fast, climbing his arm, reaching for his neck. He felt the danger immediately and circulated his aether, pushing back against it, a greenish glow slowly eating away the frost as it crept.
He looked down at the destroyed orb.
His expression went completely flat. His skin shifted underneath itself, distorting, like a mask beginning to crumble.
As a Master Class wind aether user, he was fast. Faster than almost anyone he'd ever crossed paths with. But he couldn't outrun a projectile moving like a bullet.
He raised his eyes and found the one who'd fired.
"You bitch! I only asked for a little help and you pull this?!"
The roar tore out of him. A reddish glint passed through his eyes. In the dim corridor his silhouette seemed to grow, pressing into the space around him.
A slow distortion curled through the air around his arms, heavy and suffocating, exuding a pressure that sat on the chest like something was pulling the room inward.
"Oops."
Serein withdrew her gaze. A ripple moved through her eyes. She steadied herself, reading what was coming.
She glanced at Ren as their eyes met and gave a small nod.
*Get here faster.*
He understood. He had nothing left to give. His legs were already burning, straining past what they should have been able to take, but he didn't slow. Not even for a second.
Something changed at the edges of his body. A stickiness settled over his skin and limbs, like moving through deep water. Every step felt heavier than it should.
*What is this?*
He caught it in his peripheral: the stranger had closed the gap, one arm outstretched, reaching like he was grasping something invisible in the air.
"You can't escape!"
His face was ugly with it.
*What is he—*
Ren felt it wrong before he understood it. The palm wasn't facing him.
It was facing Serein.
He could see it now, a faint distortion bleeding through the air, shaped like a slow cyclone with Serein at its center. He was standing at the outer edge of it, and even here the drag was bad enough to feel like wading. If that was the edge—
His pupils shrank.
He looked ahead. Both Asylia and Serein had slowed. But Serein, Serein was barely moving. Like something was pressing down on every part of her. In seconds he would blow past her.
He looked ahead and froze.
The air compressed. Serein stopped, reaching back into her bag with trembling hands trying to pull something out, but there wasn't enough time. A faint light flickered to life around her, a last attempt at a block.
*Boom.*
The wind had become a cage. Under the stranger's control it condensed into something solid, a hammer, shapeless and enormous, that came down on her with the weight of a landslide. The defensive gadget shattered on contact under its unstoppable force.
Her pupils went still.
Cracks appeared on her visor, making a sharp sound like it was screaming under the weight.
Then she was gone, thrown sideways, striking the wall, bouncing and rolling before coming to rest against the corner.
*Shit.*
Ren stopped. Took two steps back as the shockwave of wind hit him broadside.
"Serein! Lanae, are you okay?!"
Everything happened in under a second. Asylia hadn't even had time to react.
She stopped.
From the corner came a sound.
"Cough. Hmm..."
A weak voice. Then the sound of someone trying to move.
Serein pushed herself up with one arm, the other pressed to her chest. There was a faint dent there, shallow, but visible. Her hands were trembling, pain moving through her in waves.
*It hurts.*
Fragments of her suit were scattered across the ground around her.
She forced her head up.
A fierce wind moved through the corridor. In the center of it, the stranger advanced slowly, wrapped in his own aether. Shrouded in the dim light, only the red distortion of his eyes was visible, burning through the dark.
She didn't know if it was the injury, but he seemed to be getting larger with every step.
"Are you okay?"
A hand reached down in front of her.
She grabbed it without thinking.
"Thanks." A sharp groan. She held on. *Not now.*
Ren didn't pause to feel anything. He just pulled.
"Sorry."
He whispered, dragging her out of the way.
"I'll cover you!"
A rush of wind moved past them both. Asylia threw her aether between them and the stranger, trying to put a wall between them and him.
Then silence.
No footsteps.
Puzzled, Ren glanced back warily.
The stranger had stopped. Standing completely still, his gloomy eyes fixed on something behind them.
*Why?*
Ren followed the line of sight.
*Thud.*
A heavy footfall. Then another. Like a drum striking somewhere deep in the chest.
A cool glow reached him first, blue-white, steady, and as he looked up toward the source, something washed through him. A kind of solidity.
*Ding.*
The blue light condensed and swept across them, and from within it something stepped forward, tall, wide, unyielding as a pillar on a plain.
(Dear... Guests....)
It greeted them naturally, stopping in its tracks.
The floor Guardian.
Different from the one he'd first encountered. This one was broader, its head wider, limbs like tree trunks. Its outer armor had taken damage, peeled back in places, shallow gashes running across its body from what looked like bladed impacts. Around it, small orbs of silver and blue metal orbited slowly like satellites, and one drifted toward them now, releasing a calm glow like a watchful eye.
"Finally."
Asylia's expression broke open with relief.
She looked over her shoulder.
She didn't know what this man's problem was or why he'd fixated on them. It didn't matter now. With a floor Guardian present, he wouldn't be able to do anything.
Then something shifted in her face.
"No, get back!"
She grabbed Ren and Serein by the wrist and yanked them toward the small corridor on the left.
"Wha, whoa!"
Ren stumbled, looking back as he moved.
What he saw made him understand immediately.
Behind the Guardian.
A darkness clung to the corridor walls, deep in the far end where the light didn't reach. It looked like the same dimness as everything else at first, but it wasn't. The shade was denser. Heavier. Like ink pressed into the background of a painting.
Whether it had always been there or had been trailing the Guardian in silence, he couldn't tell.
Then it moved.
The darkness shifted, and a thin crack split open through it just for a moment, and through the crack an eerie red glow slipped out like dull blood staining the low-light space.
Seeing this eerie red light, the stranger who'd been following Ren's group took a step back in fear. Gone was the madness and arrogance from earlier. Now clarity came back into his eyes.
"What... am I doing?"
The stranger murmured.
He shook his head like a man waking from a fever dream.
But he knew now wasn't the time for doubt. He quickly took a step back and got out of the vicinity.
"Right... those brats..."
Before he disappeared, he took a quick glance at Ren's group. Pausing slightly. Before vanishing completely from sight.
Meanwhile—
(...Movement detected...)
A deep mechanical voice rang out.
The Guardian's head snapped toward it. Fast, unsettlingly fast for something its size. Its eyes swept the wall like blue searchlights.
A sword of light tore through the deep, oppressive darkness around it. But even though the light was strong, there was something it couldn't penetrate.
Ren's breath caught.
Covering the walls was a carpet of flesh. Bulging, threaded with tendrils that gripped the surface. As it moved, cracks ran through its mass, and through each crack those red eyes looked out, peering from the dark one by one.
{Danger assessment... Extremely Dangerous...!}
At the sight of it, the third floor Guardian's light source became brighter and more condensed, as if powering on.
A deep, dull sound rang out of its chest, its core expanding, sending waves of transparent, light-blue energy spreading outward.
Where the light reached, a heavy, solid feeling appeared in the space, like a rock thrown into water. As it came into contact with the carpet of flesh and blood, a ripple swept through its body.
It emitted a weird, low shriek.
Eyes quickly shut, bursting like crushed fruit. This seemed to enrage the creature, cracks appearing around it, an even larger crimson eye peering out angrily.
{Escort the guests first.}
The Guardian took a heavy step forward.
It commanded the floating orbs around it.
Without fail or pause, half of the orbs swiftly gathered around Ren's group, ready to escort them, while the other half remained.
"Dear guests, please follow us. We will take you to a cleared sector."
Its voice was swift and calm.
The orbs projected a blue map in midair, shaded with red, orange, and blue, showing the current safe and dangerous areas around them.
Ren saw that their current location was shrouded in orange.
Ren didn't answer.
They were already running. They could ask their questions later.
A moment later, everyone stopped in their tracks.
There was no more sound behind them. Only silence and the endless, oppressive ocean outside remained.
"Dear guests, we are now in a relatively safe sector. Take a few more steps forward and we will reach a danger zone."
The orb's reminder calmly rang out in the air, its light flickering with its voice.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Letting go of a breath he'd been holding, Ren checked on his companion.
"...I'm okay. I got some surface-level wounds. But my suit's damaged."
Serein touched the scratch on her face. Unlike Ren's visor, which was only cracked but still usable, hers was already broken, exposing her delicate face to the outside world.
Strands of silky azure-colored hair fell lightly over her forehead, reaching toward the gentle curve of her nose.
Tiny cuts over her cheeks added a hint of fragile temperament to her, making people want to protect and hug her on instinct.
The orb's calm voice rang out once again.
"Dear guest, it looks like your suit needs replacement. Over to the right of this room, there should be a spare suit to replace it."
The light it shone became a symbol and hit a closed door in the far right corridor.