CHAPTER 10.5: THE WOMAN WHO BURNS
POV: Genna Vrae
Location: The Wasteland Perimeter, beyond Eden's Wall
...
The gates of Eden hissed shut behind her, sealing the light away.
And the Wrathborne Observer, Genna Vrae, smiled faintly as the wasteland heat swallowed her whole.
It was not a kind smile.
It never was.
...
The Hunt Begins
She walked alone.
No squad. No drones.
The black sand crunched under her boots as she passed into the ash-fields beyond the barrier, her sleeveless coat snapping in the wind. Around her, the ruins of the old world stretched in jagged silhouettes... skyscrapers gutted to their steel ribs, highways twisted into knots of molten black.
In the sky, faint streaks of lightning flickered in the upper atmosphere... gold veins across violet clouds.
Her breath came slow and steady.
Her eyes burned faint orange as she muttered to herself.
"Finally," she growled under her breath, "something worth hitting."
She flexed her fingers and the flames answered... tiny tongues of fire licking along her knuckles, wreathing her forearms.
She didn't bother suppressing the heat. Not out here. Not where no one could see.
Especially not where he couldn't see.
...
The Swarm Arrives
The Akuma announced themselves before they showed themselves.
A low swarm.. like a hive waking up in the bones of the earth.
Then came the shadows.
Six of them at first, crawling over the cracked concrete like insects: black wings folded wrong, eyeless heads snapping toward her in unison.
Then six more. Then more.
The swarm.
She grinned now, baring her teeth.
"Finally," she said aloud, raising her hands. "You pathetic little judgment-day roaches , bring it on you bloody insects."
The first one lunged.
She caught it by the throat, her palm igniting, and crushed its neck in her grip as the fire roared. Its scream was like glass splitting... and then nothing but smoke.
The next two came together... she ducked one, pivoted, and slammed both into the ground with one fiery sweep of her arms, leaving nothing but black ash and splinters of bone.
Her feet moved on instinct... steps honed by a thousand missions, each one more brutal than the last.
But this one?
This was different.
This wasn't work.
This was therapy.
Wrath and Words
She muttered as she moved... half a snarl, half a confession.
"That stupid old smart old man, Always him and his games ." she spat, kicking an Akuma hard enough to snap its carapace.
"You think you're clever, Shinomiya," she hissed at no one in particular, smashing a claw aside and twisting its owner into smoke.
"Sending him in like that. Breaking him in front of us like some lab animal. Praising him. Humiliating him. And everyone else just… sitting there, watching. Even Zero. Even him. God damn.... why we letting do this to us."
Her voice dropped low as she burned another one into slag.
"They're all playing. Everyone thinks they're playing. But it's just him."
She swung her arm wide, cutting through three at once, the flame snapping like a whip.
"They don't see it. But I do. He's moving the pieces. Every one of us. One by one... by one. And everyone is like Nooooooo let him play his game... let him do this... let him do that. Ahhhhhh am sick of it"
The words came like sparks as the ash settled around her boots.
"I don't care what Zero says. You can't control a bomb after it's already lit. And that old smelly stupid man is already lit."
...
The Swarm Grows
The ground cracked open to her left as a larger Akuma rose... at least ten feet tall, with jagged horns and spines like saws. Its jaws split open too wide, revealing a molten core of orange light.
"Good," she muttered, rolling her shoulders.
"Bigger target."
It lunged.
She caught it by the throat.
It howled as her flames spread up its neck and down its spine, cracking its armor, splitting it apart from the inside out.
Her feet sank into the sand as she planted her stance and ripped the creature in half, letting the halves collapse into embers.
She exhaled through clenched teeth and looked up at the rest of the swarm.
"Come on, then," she shouted into the storm.
Her coat smoked. Her arms glowed like molten iron.
"Show me something real."
...
The Catharsis
When it was over, the sand was glass beneath her boots.
The air shimmered with heat.
The corpses of the swarm lay scattered... some still smoldering, some already dissolving into the black dust of the wasteland.
Her chest heaved.
Her hands still burned.
But her mind?
Clearer now.
Quieter.
She knelt, dragging her fingers through the ash.
It reminded her of the first time she'd stood outside the walls of Eden... when everything had been burning and nothing had been left.
When she'd signed the deal they all signed.
A deal with a devil.
...
The Memory
She remembered standing in that council room, years ago, before they even called it Eden.
Her hair had been shorter then. Her armor, dirtier.
She remembered the way Zero had spoken... calm, cold, convincing.
"We call ourselves the Observers," he'd said, *"because it sounds better than what we are. But don't lie to yourselves. We didn't stop the Rupture. We caused it. But now we rebuild a new era different from the last one."
She remembered the silence after that.
No one disagreed.
Because it was true.
They'd been there, on that day.
They'd torn a hole too big to mend.
And when the judgment fell, she was just a innocently mere apprentice to Akira and was inspired by his dedication to care for other until... when the sky split and the Akuma poured out, they'd signed their names to something they couldn't take back in desperate. For survival...
A bargain for survival.
A lie that called itself Eden.
And now here she was, years later.. still burning for sins no one dared name.
...
The Last Ember
She stood slowly, brushing the ash from her knees.
Her flames dimmed, but the heat inside her didn't.
And as she stared at the horizon... at the faint shimmer of Eden's walls in the distance she said his name aloud, just once.
"Paku Shinomiya, am sorry... for what we did to you. You dont deserve it"
A tear fell onto her face.
"We are horrible people.... Paku.. Forgive me as this is what Zero wish. And I will not let you stop him."
As.
It wasn't a curse.
It wasn't a prayer.
Just a name.
She wondered what game he thought he was playing this time.
And how much of her fire he thought he could control.
She smiled faintly to herself... teeth sharp, eyes still burning.
"Keep playing, the fool Paku..." she muttered.
Her hands clenched, and the flames roared to life again.
"i want to see how long your board lasts when the pieces start burning."
And with that, she turned and began the long walk back to Eden, leaving only a trail of smoking footprints behind her.
...
END OF CHAPTER 10.5