Nathanaël was staring heavily out the window.
Raindrops were hurling themselves toward the ground, meeting their unfortunate end on the pavement below. No cars passed by his house, and that was normal.
He lived far from everyone else. His father had found a beautiful house set apart from the rest, far enough that no one would come bother them—and it had worked perfectly.
The sound of raindrops hitting the ground echoed in his head, the only sound he could hear. The sight of them splitting into smaller droplets as they hit the pavement fascinated him. He stayed there for a good ten minutes before realizing something was wrong.
The drops no longer hit the ground. They passed right through it.
Their fall made no sound anymore, and the noise of the rain stopped entirely.
Nathanaël noticed the rain was falling even harder now, yet not a single extra sound accompanied it.
"This isn't right. Something's wro—"
His eyes suddenly fixed on something. A faint aura had appeared in the air with nothing around it. A stream of water floated between the raindrops, swirling through the air. By the time Nathanaël realized what was happening, it was already too late.
Two blue eyes stared back at him from the void, and a silhouette began to form.
Nathanaël threw open the window and reached his hand outward in a panic, but there was nothing more he could do.
He shouted at the bluish aura:
"Wait…"
Jin and Marc had just returned home.
The rain hadn't stopped tormenting them along the way. They were soaked, and their clothes were filthy. Jin had stepped into a mud puddle without realizing it, and Marc had stumbled into a river because he couldn't see properly. Both of them looked like a mess.
"You could've watched where you were going."
"I apologize, Master."
"I'm joking, come on. Have you seen the state I'm in?"
Marc no longer scolded Jin for calling him "Master." It used to annoy him, so he had simply stopped reacting to it. Now, his focus was locked on one thing: finding the four books.
He already had one in his possession, but the others were going to be much harder to track down. He had no idea where to even start.
"The simplest way would be to travel the world and check what's giving off a strange aura."
"That would take way too long. We'd need to scan the whole world at once, and that's impossible for us."
"These books aren't completely untraceable. If they're seen as harbingers of the world's end, someone might've taken notice of them."
"Yeah, you're right. But by the time we find them, that hourglass might have already run out."
Marc thought back to the giant hourglass he had seen in his dream.
That overwhelming feeling of running out of time, even when the glass still seemed full.
The sand was slipping downward inevitably, and Marc had no way to stop it. Time was running out.
"Still, we're doing what we can. We have no choice."
He went to shower, washing off all the mud he had accumulated during their run. The water was hot—very hot.
Since his last visit to the other world, Marc had become more comfortable taking scalding showers.
His resistance had grown once again, and simply using his aura every day helped him improve further.
He feared little in this world now…
But still—he feared the world of that man.
The man who, it seemed, could kill him every single day without him being able to stop it...
Thirty minutes later, Marc's eyes suddenly snapped open.
He'd stayed in the shower too long.
He shut off the water, stepped out, and quickly dried himself off.While drying his hair, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen, curious.Who would call him at such a random hour of the day?
It was Nathanaël.
"Hello?"
"Get over here. Now."
Nathanaël had shouted so loud that Marc had to pull the phone away from his ear to avoid going deaf.
But he understood one thing clearly—something was wrong.
Nathanaël was rarely stressed or angry. Shouting like that just wasn't his style. The distress in his voice didn't bode well. Marc got dressed in a rush and bolted out the door.
Jin crossed his path on the way.
"Master, where are you going?"
"Tag along if you want."
The two boys stepped out of the house once more and started running again. This time, the situation felt urgent, and their sprint had a real reason behind it. Marc felt the wind hitting his face violently. Like a wall refusing to open no matter how hard you pushed. It was pleasant, but he couldn't afford to think about that while Nathanaël was in danger. Nothing could stop his determined stride.
"Master, we've been running for ten minutes. Do you actually know where it is?"
Marc suddenly slowed down, though not enough to stop entirely, and slammed straight into a car that started blaring its alarm. The car exploded on impact right after the first beep, causing the surrounding vehicles to blow up as well.
Marc walked out of the smoke and flames like a final boss in a game, his face serious and unshaken. There was no way he'd lose all dignity over something like this. He glanced at Jin with a dark stare, trying to think of a cool comeback or a brilliant excuse. Surely, he knew where it was…
"No."
…Or maybe not.
"I see."
Jin also tensed his face as if he'd become the second final boss in a game. The wind and dust whipped through their hair, which now floated rhythmically and unbroken. If the master could stay cool in such a moment, then so could he.
The two of them gazed toward the horizon as if Nathanaël's house lay exactly in that direction. Truthfully, Marc had completely forgotten where Nathanaël lived. Even though the other world had made him stronger, his memory issues had not improved.
Eventually, Jin asked,
"What do we do now, Master?"
"We pretend we know where it is and then—"
Marc's phone rang again in his pocket. Still wearing that concentrated expression and holding a stoic gaze, he answered.
"You don't know where it is, do you?"
"No."
Nathanaël was desperate, but Jin still saw his master as the one and only.
"Hurry up."
Nathanaël repeated the address to Marc, who immediately started running again.
This time, he knew where it was.
They arrived at Nathanaël's house quickly, and the scene before them was both impressive and disturbing.
His house was full of holes, and pieces of the roof were falling off. The rain was pouring so hard it was even creating holes in the ground.
Nathanaël was there, holding his sword, which was glowing under the rain. In front of him stood a man—or rather, a silhouette. Hands buried in what looked like pockets, her body seemed to be made entirely of water. The raindrops were shining thanks to the dim light of Nathanaël's sword.
Nathanaël himself was breathing heavily on the ground.
The sight was beautiful and terrifying. Had Nathanaël been attacked? By who? Was Goagi back?
Marc looked at the strange aura floating in the air. It was just a big stream of water, twisting and turning on itself in a sinuous and rhythmic motion. The silhouette was almost transparent and seemed feminine. Her bluish aura didn't resemble Goagi's at all.
"Another entity from the other world?"
When the silhouette sensed Jin and Marc arriving, she turned to look at them. Her intensely blue eyes stood out more than anything. Marc couldn't escape them and stared straight into them.
It was as if an entire ocean was raging before him. Powerful waves twisted and crashed against the edges of her strange pupils. The water was unstable and raw, as if it wanted to tear apart everything it saw. But the blue… the blue was beautiful and shining, standing apart from the rest of the strange silhouette.
Marc couldn't look away. There was something strange in her eyes...
Suddenly, he felt a wave crash over him. His breathing stopped, and the beautiful, harsh gaze of the silhouette suddenly darkened. His vision blurred, and his lungs were filling with water.
He was drowning…
"Marc !"
Nathanaël was seeing something different.
Marc had arrived running and had looked at his enemy, but after a few seconds, he had dropped to his knees and started coughing up large amounts of water.
Jin was struggling too, but he seemed to resist better.
What was going on?
Suddenly, the silhouette spoke. A feminine voice, arrogant and full of confidence.
"Pathetic."
But her irritation didn't last long.
Surprised, she watched as Jin suddenly changed his behavior. The young man seemed to inhale liters of water—though there was nothing around him.
His chest swelled, and then he spat out all the water in one massive jet.
The silhouette, stunned, didn't move an inch and took the attack head-on.
"Not bad."
Nathanaël appeared behind her in a flash. His sword lit up just before slashing his opponent. But the reaction he hoped for didn't come...
The water had indeed been sliced—but the silhouette didn't seem worried at all. Instead, she reformed herself calmly, the water returning to its original position within her human-like body.
The young woman looked disappointed.
"If you want to beat me, you'll have to use your aura correct—"
She didn't finish her sentence—for a very simple reason. A powerful aura had just manifested behind her.
She turned in a shock and saw Marc's dark and red aura, screaming in agony. It hadn't changed. Like a thick gas rising into the sky. It suddenly took more space, spreading like a furious fog, and its darkness darkened the heart. It was honestly horrible—but since it was Marc, it was acceptable.
He stood up with difficulty.
From his point of view, Marc had just spent the last thirty seconds trying not to drown. He was raising his arms in the water, letting out a desperate cry that slowly faded into the sea. Bubbles floated up toward the light of the sun, which seemed farther and farther away. The dark ocean was pulling him toward the bottom, while black hands of darkness slowly grabbed at him. The outlines of the world faded. Little by little, his field of vision shrank, darkened by lack of oxygen. Colors shifted to blue, to grey, then to black.
It was quiet, terrifying, and dark...
At the bottom, there was only fear...
But Marc had already faced worse than that ! The image of the dark man returned to his mind. His six dark wings. His aura filling the world around him. His terrifying presence. His gaze—unseen, but felt—like it would deliver certain death. He had faced worse. He had faced more fatal.
So, he was going to break free of this illusion.