The boy took a step forward.
"S-sister…"
His voice trembled. His hands were pressed against his chest, as if that could protect him from something he didn't understand.
Tristine didn't answer.
She didn't look at him.
Her body moved before her mind could… or perhaps there was no mind anymore.
It was a simple gesture. Mechanical.
The boy fell to the ground.
The sound was sharp.
Time stood still.
Nero felt the air catch in his throat. His eyes opened, but his body didn't react. There were no screams. No chaos. Only a thick, crushing silence.
Lux remained motionless.
Kōri gritted her teeth.
Axel didn't hesitate.
The gunshot echoed in the room like a suppressed thunderclap. The recoil shook his arm, but his gaze didn't waver.
The bullet struck Tristine.
She took a step back.
Then another.
But she didn't fall.
Her eyes continued to shine with that unnatural, empty, fixed light. There was no pain. No surprise. Nothing.
"Shit…" Lux murmured, barely audible.
Nero sent his aura into her eyes. Her eyes were enveloped in darkness.
His eyes turned black and red...
Zero stage...
His aura ceased to feel like energy.
It was pure intention.
He directed that intention toward the knife.
The blade responded.
The aura flowed like a silent pulse, enveloping the weapon. The obsidian vibrated… and expanded. The blade grew, lengthening unnaturally, heavily, brutally, as if it hadn't been created to cut, but to end.
Nero felt the weight of the weapon in his hand.
No emotion. No rage.
No guilt.
Only purpose.
Tristine slowly turned her head toward him.
For the first time, her eyes focused on something new.
Nero took a step forward.
"You're not you anymore," he said, his voice unfamiliar.
The aura condensed.
The knife whirred softly, as if it understood.
And then, without hesitation, Nero attacked.
The blade descended.
It wasn't a clean strike.
Tristine turned her head at the last second, and the edge of aura sliced across her face. The force of the impact threw her against the wall, where she hit the ground with a thud.
For the first time, she reacted.
She didn't scream.
But she stepped back, bringing a hand to her face, as if something had interfered with the command that moved her.
"Now!" Kōri shouted.
Lux lunged forward, gripping the labrys with both hands. The weapon descended violently, forcing Tristine to dodge. Axel fired relentlessly, forcing her to move, to retreat, to lose ground.
Nero advanced again.
The Zero Stage was still active.
She felt no fatigue.
She felt no fear.
She saw only trajectories.
Tristine moved erratically, too fast, too unnatural. The air around her vibrated. Suddenly, she opened her mouth, and water condensed before her like a living mass.
The pressure exploded.
Nero was thrown backward, crashing into a wall. The air escaped his lungs. Lux fell to his knees, stunned. Kōri managed to plant her ice sword in the ground to avoid being thrown, but the impact made her groan in pain.
Tristine advanced.
She sniffed the air.
Her head moved slowly from side to side.
"We... smell it," Lux said with difficulty.
It was true.
Tristine smiled for the first time.
A crooked, empty smile, one that wasn't hers.
The fight descended into chaos.
Lux attacked head-on, using his brute strength. Kōri froze the ground and walls to restrict Tristine's movement. Axel covered the flanks, firing with surgical precision. Nero moved between them, her aura knife slicing through the air, forcing her back again and again.
But it didn't matter.
Tristine didn't tire.
She didn't hesitate.
She didn't make mistakes.
Time passed without anyone being able to measure it. There were only ragged breaths, impacts, the crack of breaking ice, and the sharp crack of gunfire.
Then…
Clap.
A slow sound. Ironic.
Everyone stopped.
A figure appeared from the shadows of the corridor, walking with absolute calm. It wore a white mask.
An exaggerated smile, grotesquely carved, fixed.
A Smiler.
"Well..." he said in a soft, almost amused voice. "The merchandise was getting damaged."
Tristine turned to face him.
For the first time... he stopped.
The Smiler raised a hand.
There was no explosion.
No visible ritual.
Tristine fell to the floor as if her strings had been cut.
The impact echoed throughout the house.
Nero felt the Zero Stage crack.
"How troublesome you are," the Smiler continued, tilting his head. "You still don't know when to look... and when to close your eyes."
He bent down, took Tristine by the arm, and lifted her with inhuman ease.
Before disappearing, he turned his face slightly toward them.
The smile on the mask seemed wider.
"We'll meet again."
And then... he was gone.
Silence returned.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
Nero fell to his knees.
The knife blade slowly returned to its normal size.
Lux was breathing heavily.
Kōri leaned against the wall, trembling. Axel lowered his weapon, his face more serious than ever.
The mission was over.
But nothing… absolutely nothing… had ended well.
No one spoke for several seconds.
The air was heavy.
Nero tried to stand… and almost fell again. His legs wouldn't respond. The Zero Stage had shut down, leaving only a cold emptiness inside him.
He felt like his body was foreign, heavy, as if it didn't belong to him.
Lux dropped the labrys. The weapon hit the ground with a muffled sound.
"That… that wasn't a person," he said, his voice breaking.
She swallowed. "That was a monster."
Kōri leaned back against the wall, slowly sliding down until she was sitting. Her ice sword shattered into fragments that evaporated upon hitting the ground.
"My aura…" she murmured. "It's almost empty."
Axel checked the revolver's cylinder out of sheer inertia.
Empty.
He closed it with a sharp click and lowered the weapon.
"I'm out of bullets," he said. "And even if I were…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Everyone knew.
They were exhausted.
Out of aura.
Out of ammunition.
And they had just attracted the attention of something much bigger than Tristine.
Nero looked up.
The neighborhood was too quiet.
There were no shouts.
No footsteps.
Not even the usual distant noise of Chim.
"Can you feel it?" he asked softly.
Lux nodded slowly.
Kōri closed her eyes for a moment.
It was an invisible pressure.
As if the city itself were holding its breath.
"Something's going to happen," Axel said finally. "And soon."
No one argued.
For the first time since accepting the mission, they understood something with absolute clarity:
They weren't chasing the problem.
The problem…
had just noticed them.
...
The walk back was slow.
Too slow.
The streets of Vickmolt were still alive even at that hour. Distant shouts. Bangs. Shadows moving through alleyways. Everyday violence, normalized, almost invisible to those who lived there.
Nero saw it.
he understood it.
But he didn't have the strength to react.
Lux walked with her head down. Axel walked a few steps ahead, silent. Kōri walked beside Nero, supporting herself as best she could, each step a conscious effort.
No one said a word.
They were too tired to judge the world.
They arrived at the house when it was already very late at night.
The door closed behind them with a soft, almost respectful sound. The interior was silent, barely illuminated by the moonlight filtering through a window.
Rose was already asleep.
Nero walked past her room and stopped for a second. He listened to her calm breathing. Alive. Oblivious, for now, to everything that had happened.
Axel and Lux collapsed onto the sofa without a word. Exhaustion had won.
Kōri and Nero stayed in the living room.
They sat on the floor, leaning against the wall.
For a while, they just breathed.
"Today…" Nero finally said, "we almost didn't make it back."
Kōri nodded slowly.
"But we came back."
Silence returned.
Nero stared at the ceiling, following a barely visible crack.
"Do you know what my dream is?" he asked, without looking at her.
Kōri turned her head slightly.
"What?"
"To discover the whole world," she replied. "To see every district, every city… to understand why things are the way they are."
She paused. "I don't want to live without knowing."
Kōri lowered her gaze.
"I just want…" she said softly.
Nero looked at her.
"I want people I can trust," she continued. "People who won't disappear. Who won't stab me in the back."
Her fingers closed slowly. "That's all."
Nero didn't answer right away.
"Then…" she said finally, "I hope you find him."
Kōri didn't smile.
But she didn't walk away either.
The pain began to weigh more heavily than their thoughts. Their bodies cried out for rest. One by one, the sounds of the world faded away.
Kōri closed her eyes.
Nero did the same.
They fell asleep right there, aching, exhausted...
But alive.
And for now...
that was enough...