Chapter 10
Circling the crystal, Finn carefully examined every detail, from the faint chill emanating from its surface to the crystalline reflections scattering across the ground.
Then he stepped closer, his gaze shifting to the feminine silhouette beside it.
Unlike Sol, whom he had recognized almost instantly, her face remained blurred and her clothing indistinct. If there was one detail that stood out, it was her hand, extended slightly toward them. On the back of it was a watch engraved with the symbol "1S."
"Who are you calling an animal, you little brat?" Stella snapped as she approached Rose, eyeing her curiously.
"I merely asked you to stop behaving that way, my dear lady," Rose replied calmly, her expression hidden behind the mask.
In truth, she felt no fear, or any emotion that might normally accompany such tension, while wearing it.
"Do you feel targeted?"
She's really good at politely pissing people off, Finn thought.
"Little bitch," Stella muttered, her hand already drifting toward the hilt of her sword.
"She's quick with that hand," Ulrich said with a small shake of his head.
"Khan, try to keep your people under control, please," Finn said, glancing toward him.
Khan stood a short distance away, lost in thought.
"He's right, Stella. We can't afford to argue right now," Khan said with a warm smile as he stepped closer.
"Any news about Lydia and Aunt Karmine?" Finn asked.
"No," Khan replied. "But if Lydia wasn't chosen by the Dome, she's probably still somewhere on this island."
"So, Finn," Khan continued, turning his attention to the crystal, "what do you think about this?"
"It's too good to be true."
"What do you mean?" Khan asked, puzzled.
"It's complicated," Finn replied. "I'm not even sure you'd understand if I tried to explain."
"I'm not an idiot, you know."
Finn inhaled slowly, organizing his thoughts.
"I believe he had been preparing for something like this for years, or maybe he was forced into it. Sol represents too large a portion of humanity to simply die because of a random Dome."
He pointed toward the crystal.
"The necklace he's wearing and the woman's watch are the key."
"The necklace probably stops their hearts for a short time, preserving them inside the crystal. It's similar to the ritual knights use before surpassing the Luminescent level, it allows them to ignore the need to breathe for a brief moment."
He paused, studying the watch.
"As for that… I'm not sure. It looks like something from before the Eclipse. It probably allowed them to detect the Dome's arrival, even if only a second before it happened."
"Alright," Khan said, massaging his forehead. "But can we get him out of there? He might be our only chance of leaving this place."
"He warned you," Rose said with a shrug. "That guy is anything but sane."
"And how am I supposed to take that?" Finn replied dryly. "I'm perfectly rational."
"Rational?" Rose scoffed. "You compared me to a mouse when we first met."
"Fair point."
"Introduce me to your new friends," Khan said, gesturing toward Ulrich and Rose.
"This is Ulrich. And her, you probably already know her. Rich kid to rich kid. Rose Evergrim."
"Ah, I didn't recognize you behind the mask," Khan said politely, placing a hand over his chest and bowing slightly.
"I didn't know you had become a Profane."
"A pleasure. Khan Caelius."
"How do you know the monarch's son?" Rose whispered to Finn.
"He's my aunt's stepson," Finn replied loudly enough for everyone to hear. "And he's not really a monarch anymore. Their bloodline was interrupted years ago. At best, he's some kind of fallen royalty."
"Likewise," Rose said awkwardly, making a small curtsy.
"You really had to say that out loud."
Finn shrugged.
"I'm just stating facts."
Then his gaze returned to the crystal.
"I'm not sure it's a good idea to wake him."
Immediately, Rose and Khan stared at him.
Even Stella looked at him with barely concealed astonishment.
Meeting Sol here was nothing short of a miracle. Suggesting to just leave there one of the most important assets of humanity sounded nothing short of foolishness.
And yet, the more Finn thought about it, the more logical it seemed.
He stopped his heart so the Dome wouldn't register him as alive the moment it struck, harvesting half of the souls.
However, if something had gone wrong, if he had failed to outmaneuver Freya's Vice, releasing him might unleash the greatest calamity on them.
"We don't really have a choice," Khan finally said. "Without him we run to certain death. With him… maybe we still die."
However, another problem seemed even more urgent.
A faint grinding noise was coming from the crystal.
Not from the two figures trapped inside, but from the center of the structure itself.
And it was getting worse.
The sound intensified around Sol's silhouette, as if the world itself were rejecting their presence. And in a way it was the case since the Will of Purification didn't seem to reach them through their golden cage.
Even now, the Flux around the crystal was growing stronger, producing tiny white sparks that were almost nonexistent unless someone were to shift his vision.
Finn's eyes narrowed.
'What a headache...'
"I think it's about to explode.")
(10
"Go ahead," Finn said hoarsely.
They started their assault by the oldest way known to mankind... Raw strength.
Stella and Khan took a running start before crashing straight into the crystal, Stella with her burning sword in hand, Khan armed with his rusted iron musket.
He pressed the detonator. A dull thud echoed, followed by a burst of light that surged forward with increasing force. It struck its target with a harsh, unpleasant sound, something between the screech of rusted iron and the shattering of a mirror.
Khan's blast that exploded without leaving even the slightest damage.
Even Stella's blazing sword failed to leave so much as a scratch.
"Try with your friend, Finn," Khan said tensely, holstering his gun.
"Forget it. It's not a matter of strength," Finn replied, stepping closer to the crystal and placing his hand against it, searching for any detail he might have missed. "Besides… he isn't even awakened."
"What?" Stella murmured, casting a disbelieving glance.
She had assumed he simply possessed a specialty invisible to the naked eye unless one shifted vision to Zone Two, or perhaps that he simply didn't consider her a significant enough threat. But this… containing her for so long without even awakening his bond to the world was utterly disproportionate.
"Are you some kind of wild beast?" she said at last.
"You tried to cut out my tongue over a joke," Ulrich replied, narrowing his eyes, "and you nearly beheaded me for resisting… and I'm the one lacking humanity?"
I really envy his sense of repartee, Finn thought.
"So what exactly are we supposed to do?" Khan interrupted. "If you provoke him too much, this is going to end badly."
Why the plural? Finn wondered.
"Wait here. I'm going to the river," Finn said, motioning for Rose to follow him.
"I'll need the mask soon," he told Rose.
She paused for a moment, then nodded firmly.
"Why do we have to go back to the river?"
"I need a fixation ritual to bypass the Will," Finn answered, spotting their destination ahead.
"Why do you have to do it manually?" Rose asked. Every answer only seemed to drag her deeper into an inexplicable storm of unanswered questions.
"You remember when I told you my powers were fairly restrictive?" Finn said. "Let's just say I'm cut off from the Will of Purification. I won't be able to use my specialty until my circulation stabilizes."
Rose blinked before kneeling beside him.
"Brace your heart."
His hand swept across his face. Fragments of the mask slowly took shape as they faded from Rose's face, revealing it for the first time in quite a while. She kept her left eye shut, offered Finn a reassuring smile, then plunged her hand into the sea of blood.
Almost effortlessly, she drew a flawless circle. That was all they would need.
Usually, this ritual, the fixation ritual, was considered largely useless, except when used on inanimate beings or relics.
During any transfusion, there was a refractory period in which the body adapted to the new entity entering it and to the drastic changes it brought. Using one's specialty before stabilizing would normally result in the explosion of every vein throughout the body.
But that risk was entirely nullified by the Will of Purification, which manually cleansed the veins of every human being. People called it "Will," but whether it possessed a consciousness of its own or was simply an inseparable part of humanity remained a mystery.
In short, no one would ever need to perform such a ritual under normal circumstances. No living being, at least.
"So what's your specialty?" Rose asked, ready to complete the diagram.
"Mimetic."
"Your birth one? I need it to finish the circle. You had a blood chance, I suppose."
"I see."
"Do you know how to draw death?"
"Sorry?" Rose asked suspiciously.
"Just do something… We seriously lack time."
Rose hastily drew the first thing that came to mind, the closest representation of death she could think of: an arrow. When she placed her hand on the structure, the arrow lit up with a silvery glow.
Finn brushed the circle, then stood and rushed back to the crystal.
If his hypothesis was correct, Sol had no way to escape the crystal on his own. Someone had to free him from the outside. But the crystal was far too rigid and dense for them, it would likely require someone at the Blinding rank, and even then only if they possessed a purely offensive specialty.
That left only the watch she had handed him, and the "1S."
Finn had already considered dozens of hypotheses, all too far-fetched. They needed the simplest one, something anyone could understand.
'1S for one second.'
One second during which the crystal would become vulnerable.
The watch itself was frozen at 3:03 PM, even the smallest hand hovering around three seconds. The only question was whether that vulnerability occurred every three minutes… or every three hours.
"Took you long enough," Khan said urgently.
He could see it too now, the sparks scattering more and more frantically in a circular pattern across the surrounding grass, surrounding them before fading away. It felt like standing at the center of a burning arena, without knowing whether the fire or the explosion would reach them first.
"How does it look?" Khan asked Finn while running beside him toward the crystal.
"We'll know soon."
Finn gathered all the purified Flux he could into his right hand and placed his left hand on the crystal. He focused what little Flux remained, shifting his vision to Zone Two.
The world turned into a fusion of black and white, a state in which he could more easily empty his mind and discern even the faintest fluctuations of Flux.
"We should probably get out of here," Ulrich said confidently. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather get melted by the other one."
"My lord… are you sure it's a good idea to stay still like this?" Stella asked.
"He said we'd know soon…"
"And with all due respect," she replied, "you believe him?"
Khan paused briefly.
"No."
Crossing his arms, he headed toward the nearest tree, stopping beside Ulrich in eerie silence, ignoring the flames that were beginning to spread as they fed on the surrounding vegetation.
Finn's arm remained outstretched, waiting for the slightest spark. Seconds passed in deafening silence.
Then suddenly, he almost felt his heart explode from anxiety as a faint, imperceptible current of Flux gathered around Sol's body, noticeable if one paid close enough attention, even without shifting to Zone Two.
Finn's fist slammed into the crystal, shattering it into countless shards.
Finn blinked as the shattered fragments flew past his face, some scratching his cheek while others spun through the air with enough force to pierce flesh.
They all gathered around Sol, hesitant steps, expectant gazes, hands half-raised, eagerly awaiting his next words like a final verdict.
Sol remained still, observing them with a nearly exhausted gaze. Then his lips slowly curled into a warm smile, lifting the weight that had accumulated on t
heir shoulders along with their doubts.
"Good morning."
Perhaps, for the first time in history, a man, or perhaps two men to be precise, had overcome the Eternal Dome's wrath, a phenomenon long judged inevitable.
"It's noon already."
Sol Acerna had resurged.