—Treating patients in secret, sheltering individuals who aren't temple members or affiliated, forging documents, and altering inventory. That's everything I've found, and I still don't see any trace of the fallen-from-the-sky monster I was told Román would handle, —said the moderately fit, young-looking man in flashy, ostentatious clothes—. I'm afraid those are serious crimes, committed by Román's property, aren't they? Though, now that I look closer… you look young, and your eyes seem to be blue. What witchcraft is this?!
—No, it's not what you're thinking! —Lía said, sounding desperate as she tried to reach for the hands of the one looking down at her with superiority.
—Don't you dare touch me, you disgusting thing—especially not before you speak properly. —Heliúk pulled his hand away and even took a step back to avoid contact—. Were you trying to touch me to contaminate me with some infection and make me your accomplice in this?
Lía shook her head at the question, moving it side to side. She pulled back the hands she'd extended and put distance between them.
—In case you've forgotten: all priestesses of the amorous arts and other slaves in Belldewar possess neither legal nor political rights. Your life—and the lives of everyone in this temple—continue only because you remain under the authority of a guardian, in this case Román. As the property of the aforementioned, he is the one who can and must speak to me on your behalf. Your owner is the one who should be here right now so your interests can be defended, but since he isn't present, you are guilty of the crimes you're accused of, Lía Priom.
Lía's hands began to tremble when she heard her name spoken from a subjugator's mouth. She knew being addressed directly by name was worse than being deemed unworthy—proof that she truly was being accused of breaking the law.
Desperate, understanding her freedom was running out, she dropped to her knees, pressed her forehead to the floor, and laced her fingers together, begging Heliúk to overlook such acts.
—Your pleas won't make any difference to my sentence.
To Rey, the man looked like he had exactly what he wanted in his hands. Not only was he making the doctor feel miserable, he'd also laid the table for himself to extort this Román he kept mentioning. Rey also noticed how one of the same girls he'd seen earlier in the hallway took one look at what was happening and bolted, as if going to find help.
Swollen with pleasure and power, Heliúk—unaware of what was unfolding behind him—hesitated as he lifted his right foot. In answer to Lía's insistent pleas, he planted the sole of his shoe on her head to shut her up. The doctor didn't react much to the gesture; in that society it was normal for humans to trample those who'd lost their rights.
—You're just another number in this equation, but you're the one that fits best… which is why I'm sure Román will take responsibility. Besides, does that other thing not know its place, or has no one taught it properly? —Heliúk said the moment he noticed the fire in the eyes of someone who was, disrespectfully, staring straight at him.
At first glance, to a twenty-five-year-old adult who stood one meter seventy and was a distinguished member of society, Rey looked like a child—just a bit taller than one meter forty-five—who posed no threat at all.
But to Rey—once praised by his former master for being able to act rationally—watching someone who'd suffered all her life with a foot on her head, kneeling on the floor and begging, made him feel strange. The scene sent a small stab through his heart, tightened his stomach, made his face burn, and set heat racing through his body. Witnessing an injustice made him feel anything but rational.
—Rey… —Lía said his name, but for some reason she couldn't keep going.
She could have told the boy to stop and do nothing, or told him to attack and get her out of it. But she didn't know what to ask for. Between what her mind said and what her heart wanted, the decision was hard to make. It felt better to see how he would act. Someone who had seen another person's past and considered it something dirty and irreversible had no reason to intervene… did he? And yet, if he still cared for her—if he still wanted her—would he do something to protect her?
—Didn't you hear me, arrogant, filthy child?! —Heliúk demanded, suddenly uneasy under those sharpened eyes that seemed to be hunting his life—and now he could feel it—. Do you want your guardian to pay for his property's insubordination?
Rey wasn't thinking; he was only listening, because the new emotion stirred by witnessing injustice was about to take control of his body. Aware that fury was running through his veins, he stepped forward, stabbing the incredulous man with his gaze as he dared keep humiliating the woman Rey had promised to listen to.
—You're the one I will listen to and obey absolutely from now on, —Rey clarified, looking toward Lía—. Do you want me to end the life of the one who dares to harm you?
Lía stayed silent.
Heliúk, enraged, set himself to reassess the situation. In a way, he couldn't understand how it was possible for a slave on that moon not to know what sentence awaited for speaking out—or for even intending to end a person's life. The death penalty was carried out by forcing someone to swallow boiling silver.
—Uncivilized, and still wild, from what I can see. I suppose you just came down with the last shipment of slaves, —Heliúk sneered—. Don't you know the consequences of threatening a subjugator—or anyone on this planet?
With his vision blinded and barely thinking, Lía's silence meant to Rey that he could do whatever he pleased.
—Dead people look identical to me, —Rey said in a hoarse voice, the voice of a violent beast that had only just learned to speak—. Your life has value only while you have it, so you should be the one worrying about those with the power to take it from you.
The small body unleashed a chain of movements and transformations so precise that, within seconds, Heliúk's feet were dangling in the air and his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. Rey—now twice his size—had him by the throat, teeth bared, face twisted with rage.
—Do you like humiliating people? Is that the only way you feel important and superior? —Rey asked.
—She… isn't… a… person… —Heliúk rasped.
—Neither am I. So why don't you do it to me? —Rey shoved his face even closer to the man he was holding.
Terrified by the horrific scene, Heliúk wet himself as he thrashed to free his neck, barely able to breathe.
Since his victim still wouldn't stay still, Rey took advantage of the fact that the sliding glass door was still open. He advanced, driving the man's back hard into the hallway wall. Staring into the eyes of the ostentatiously dressed subjugator, he gradually increased the pressure of his hand around the other's throat and added, furious:
—Until you apologize to her, I'm not going to stop hitting you.
Rey raised his other arm, fist cocked, ready to smash the man's head—planning to break his nose and every tooth in one blow—but Lía stopped him.
The fallen-from-the-sky boy turned his head and saw, on the girl's face, a frightened little child—born from the violent atmosphere unfolding.
—Don't hurt him, please. Listen to me—don't worry, he didn't hurt me… let him go. Please, don't hurt him anymore.
Squeezing her eyes shut until tears spilled free, Lía wrapped both arms tightly around the young man from behind—around the one who hid his white eyes and had shredded all his clothes when he transformed.
Lía's words pulled Rey back to himself, and he slowly released Heliúk's throat. The moment the subjugator hit the floor, Rey shrank back to his original size and turned, intending to return the embrace and make sense of her behavior.
Unable to hold back a cough, Rey covered his mouth with his right hand and realized he'd spat blood—something that saddened Lía, because it meant the radiation poison was advancing.
Massaging his neck with eyes wide, Heliúk came to his senses. He remembered his duty as a human and a subjugator—the thing drilled into him from childhood, even back in school: kill, by every possible means, anything that wasn't human, if he ever encountered one and that creature was dangerous. Even though he'd sworn to serve humanity and trade his life for the greater good, fear of acting had left him stunned.
It's a dangerous creature, a beast never seen before. It touched me—that means I'm already contaminated and I'll end up turned into a mindless thing, Heliúk thought, shaking with terror. I have to act. This is my only chance…
When his aggressor had stopped and lowered his guard, Heliúk struck from behind. Pouring all his strength into it, he kicked Rey in the head.
Seeing her patient's small body take such a brutal hit, the doctor—who was also hiding her eyes and hair—clamped a hand over her mouth. She knew perfectly well her patient wouldn't calm down again, and Heliúk wouldn't stop behaving like a cornered rat.
Mmm. Since I can't use energy to transform my body or speed up the regeneration of any wound I might have, I'm at a disadvantage if I fight someone bigger than me, Rey told himself. Still, as a sorcerer I can rewrite certain natural conditions and turn the laws of physics and proportion into meaningless lines. One of my weaker spells gives me the power to control my body's mass and density while keeping the same traits and size. Until now I've avoided using it because I need to consume a huge amount of energy to move while it's active, but if I use it intermittently, the advantage he has with his size will disappear. And I have other blessings I might as well use.
After running a hand over his head, Rey turned to look at Heliúk with eyes that wanted to test something. Setting aside the fact that the enemy's blow had smeared filth into his hair, he began to move, and with silent spells he made floating prayers appear in the air.
Heliúk, startled, felt the pain of having kicked what was like a solid concrete column. He'd expected that blow to at least send a body that small tumbling, buying him time to keep attacking. Even so, ignoring the pain of nearly fracturing his foot, he backed off to reset his distance and prepared another kick—but his enemy vanished and reappeared in a second, slipping the strike.
According to the books… under the stress of combat against a formidable opponent, some fighters can naturally slow time, Rey remembered—because it seemed he'd stopped time for a few seconds. Thanks to my father and my master, I understood it isn't that they control time; they speed up how they perceive it, so everything feels slower. With enchantments designed to make my heart triple its beats, I can manipulate my body's internal logic and accelerate my perception of time.
Rey was only mildly surprised to have pulled off something he was trying for the first time. For now, as long as I don't have to recite a shortened invocation or be half as fast as my opponent, my spells won't be exposed to interruption. Not only am I avoiding using my core as a shield, I can think better in any situation…
Inside his accelerated perception, without even needing to pull out his book of invocations, Rey set about casting multiple spells, blessings, and enchantments to strengthen and refine his small body further—so he could reduce physical effort and not rely on raw energy. Otherwise, it would only speed up the poisoning.
Added to the near-invulnerability of my skin from bathing in the River Styx, I need to triple the density of my bones to gain weight, as well as the strength of my muscles, Rey reasoned, and in a single second he formed the spells in his mind.
—He's a subjugator! —Yicel cried as soon as she burst into a room with ten resting beds, seven of them occupied—. Lía's in trouble!
Those who could barely rest as it was turned their heads with concern at the news. Two females and five males—one of whom tore himself out of bed, and even though he might have been in worse shape than the others, he ripped off all the cables and IV lines attached to him.
The black-haired boy wore a light-colored T-shirt, loose pants, and a red scarf. He stood nine centimeters taller than the girl who had come in, and on his left arm there was a tattoo that meant freedom.
—What can we do, Akai? —asked one of the people there, a steady-voiced man addressing the one walking toward Yicel.
—Isn't it obvious? We have to run as soon as possible, —he replied.
—How are we supposed to escape? —one of the girls asked—. After everything this temple has done to help us in our battle, that would be the most cowardly thing we could do.
—Merlot isn't entirely wrong, —Akai said, meeting Yicel's dreamy yet wary eyes.
Even Pisínoe—the girl who had argued against leaving—looked at Akai with respect. Over all the years they'd lived together, he'd earned the name "the revolutionary who walks the path of difference."
Here's what we're doing today: —Take the boys and go with Pisínoe to the second hideout. I'll handle distracting the subjugator.
—Akai, if you're captured, you'll die—and then everyone else will, too. We've killed hundreds of humans, —Merlot's voice made it clear he was worried.
—I'll figure something out. Now go, through the secret exit. We can't trust that this is the only subjugator who's come to the temple, —Akai said, his tone charismatic and firm.
Walking down the corridor beside the revolutionaries' leader, Yicel caught sight of the one assigned to watch over another "fallen from the sky"—the pure-blood vampire—and with only a few words she was able to alert her to the situation.
—Who was that? —Akai asked, with the uneasy sense that something worse might be happening inside the temple.
—One of the girls. You don't need to worry, —Yicel said, trying to prevent more trouble in the temple.
—Mmm. You know… now that I think about it, not long ago rumors started going around that a terrifying creature was seen falling from the sky. They say it's a heartless being that can devour your soul just by looking at you.
Even while she pretended not to pay attention to the comment from the one she admired most, Yicel was, in a way, impressed by how casually he spoke. Maybe Román's last move really had exposed the temple, and that was why the subjugators were conducting a direct investigation.
—But I don't think you need to worry. Román is known as the king's right hand. Now take me to where your friend is, —the young man went on.
—We're close. Run, but quietly, —Yicel warned when she noticed other footsteps joining the corridor.
And so the two of them moved forward carefully, trying to keep the advantage of not being discovered.
Lía heard several sets of footsteps approaching down the hall. The moment she turned her head, the worst possible situation presented itself—because they weren't allies.
Four individuals dressed similarly to Heliúk appeared, wearing heavy cloth uniforms and recognition insignias that clinked with every movement. When they saw a small brat had cornered someone notorious for acting alone just to earn accolades, they slowed their urgent steps.
—But that scrawny, filthy little creature doesn't look capable of putting up a fight against a ten-year-old kid, —said one of the newcomers—. How do you explain this, Subjugator Heliúk?
With a disappointed tone, he put Rey in a position to be dismissed for his size and physique—made even more vulnerable by the fact that he was naked. The other three laughed at Rey's size, and at the uncivilized, feral way he moved—behavior that, in a way, had already been subtly corrected by the temple's servant of the amorous arts.
On the other side of the corridor, Akai poked his head out to assess the situation—and saw something the subjugators failed to see.
—How can a boy like that look so fearless, in the position he's in? —he whispered to Yicel, who, like him, was hidden around the bend of a corner that formed the corridor on the opposite side of where everything was happening.
—What are you talking about? —Yicel whispered back, too frightened to risk leaning out to look.
—Look at him closely. He looks like a warrior. A hero. Someone brave—so powerful and fierce, like any god of war, someone sent from the heavens.
After saying it, the boy in the red scarf turned to see the expression on the face beside him—the answer he'd been waiting for. And indeed, Yicel was so startled by what Akai had said that she couldn't hide it in her face: he wasn't wrong to assume a boy like that had fallen from the sky.
—He's a dangerous non-human!! —Akai heard Heliúk's warning the moment the man managed to speak.
At their comrade's words, the four subjugators' expressions shifted completely. They drew their combat gear and moved with the intent to kill the target by any means necessary.
Rey managed to evade the bullets flying toward him, and with his gaze he paid particular attention to the oldest of the four subjugators, the one who didn't have a weapon in his hands like the other three—yet was the most dangerous, because he had made a page appear, floating in the air. A spellcaster, like Rey.
—Hear my call. Show yourself in my hand, fireball. —After finishing reading the floating paper out loud, the man positioned in the rear produced an invocation. The daring fireball was one of the most notorious attacks that complemented the most distinguished and valuable members of the subjugators.
Heliúk and Lía were trapped in the middle of the clash. The four subjugators kept as much distance as possible, relying on devastating attacks, without considering the damage they might cause—as long as it was in the name of decontamination.
On the other side, Yicel and Akai swallowed hard, remembering how members of their group had been incinerated by a fireball like that. Once an attack like that was unleashed, there was nothing they could do to stop it.
—Is that your limit? —Rey said, tilting his head. With a snap of his fingers, he made the intimidating fireball vanish, never taking his eyes off the aged man at the end of the corridor—. Mediocre. Inefficient. An absurd manipulation of an invocation through a prayer that isn't even complete.
At Rey's words, the oldest subjugator threw himself to the ground, staring at what, to him, was a true demon. The other three took a step back, and though they tried to run, they turned into human torches the instant they were pierced by a small fireball Rey created.
—What the hell was that?! —Yicel asked, brave enough to peek out, even though her legs were shaking and she could barely stay upright, after watching four subjugators become black smears across the floor, the walls, and the ceiling.
—Someone who made himself look weak when he actually has the power to create hell… I can't believe it, —Akai said, clapping a hand over his mouth as hope filled his eyes.
—I don't understand you, Akai, —Yicel protested—. Isn't he a monster?!
—He keeps his body small, but he hits with the force of a giant, —the young man murmured—. Amid the crying of the slaves who live on this moon, after all this time, I can swear I'm looking at the incarnation of the former reformer of hell, —Akai said with a trace of exhilaration, like someone eager to make a contract with the devil himself, if that was what it took to gain power.
—He's the one who faced the three heroes of humanity! —Yicel exclaimed, stunned as she remembered those men were revered as the only ones who had gone to hell and come back with a recording of the place.
Meanwhile, Lía was still sprawled on the floor. She felt like she couldn't speak—couldn't believe what she was seeing with her eyes wide open. Rey hadn't even moved, and he'd already ended four subjugators' lives in an inexplicable way.
Heliúk was in the same position as those who remained alive, except he wasn't an ally—he was an enemy. He understood that when Rey turned to him and said:
—Let's get back to our business. You still haven't apologized for your behavior.
On the floor on all fours, the subjugator tried desperately to flee. But like a predator playing with its prey, Rey caught him by the neck with just enough force to keep him from escaping. Agonizing in pain, Heliúk tried to wrench free, but it was useless. So he started asking questions, trying to buy time in the situation he was in.
—How can a hand that small have so much strength?
—No. No. No. —Disappointed, that was all Rey answered the three questions—. Even with eyes, you fail to see the reason I'm still letting you live.
Using the strength of his body modified by invocations, the small boy lifted his opponent off the ground and hurled him into the nearest wall.
A hard, dry thud echoed through the corridor as a body hit stone. In the collision, it was Heliúk's head that sounded loudest—like a coconut dropping to the ground after tearing free from the palm that gave it life. Luckily, the subjugator's skull didn't split like a coconut from the impact, but his skin tore, blood spilling out to paint the wall as his body slumped down.
Lía clenched her teeth and turned her face away, then forced herself back to reason. Terrified, she yelled for her patient not to kill anyone else.
At the desperate order from the female who had cared for him, the young man with disguised white eyes stopped. Rey, with the eyes of someone ready to take another life, turned to look at the one begging him to stop.
Hurting and terrified, Heliúk finally understood why he was still alive. What better proof could there be that his entire life had been wrong, and that the woman he'd treated like an object was also a person—with feelings.
—Make sure you end my life, —Heliúk said, refusing to understand, refusing to be fooled or contaminated by non-human witchcraft—. Otherwise you'll regret it. I'm King Gilgamesh's son. If he hears the juicy information my mouth has to tell him, he'll come for you.
Rey couldn't help smiling. His face, despite being small, filled with power and bright expectations—an expression only Lía, kneeling on the floor, could read better than anyone.
Trained by ancient methods… to be a natural leader, the vampire thought. Shaped to never know how to surrender, because if he surrendered, he'd be giving himself over to hunger, to a painful death, or a life of misery. That look on his face when someone challenges him by invoking the presence of another—it means two leaders have been named in the same place. There are already reasons a contest for territory could begin.
Rey, making a show of his power, turned his back on his enemy once more and offered his hand to Lía to help her up from the floor. Meanwhile, she kept thinking: I can't accept his help. I have to get him away from me—protect him, make him love me first. It wouldn't be fair to make him carry all the problems I have.
Rey waited for her to take his hand, while she hesitated on the floor, wavering at the help he offered.
Once again, Lía looked into the young man's sharpened eyes. Even though she didn't want to, she knew nothing would keep her from making the wrong choice. With tears in her eyes, she reached out and accepted his help—but instead of standing, she bowed her head and stared at the floor, her heart heavy with anguish. Blaming her own selfishness, she felt something hot and wet rub across her face and wipe away one of her tears.
A normal person would use a handkerchief to dry a lady's tears—at best. If they didn't have one, they might use their fingers. But Rey was far from civilized enough to use either method in a situation like this. Lía, eyes still closed, felt the young man's breath spread across her skin as well. To her there was only one explanation for a sensation like that, and the moment she opened her eyes she rejoiced—with mixed feelings—at being right. In the end, that strange sensation was Rey using his tongue, instead of a handkerchief or his fingers, to clean the tears from her face.
Heliúk, Yicel, and Akai—watching from different places—pinched their expressions with disgust.
—Stop, please… —Lía said, a little embarrassed by the boy's behavior—. When I told you to listen to me absolutely, I didn't mean it in every sense of the word. You can help me up now if you want, but you don't have to take responsibility for me—nor defend me or protect me… not when that can put your life in danger.
In the arms of the young man who wouldn't stop licking her face, Lía tried to keep talking, but the more tears came, the harder he worked to clean them—until he was holding her face with both hands. Only when she'd calmed a little did she finally manage to open her eyes without spilling another tear.
—Listen to me, Rey, —Lía said, her voice strained with the effort of not crying again—. You're in danger. Gilgamesh is the god and king of humans. I know you saw in my memories how dangerous it is to face him—and what it means to lose a fight against him.
With the presence of a giant, the moment Lía managed to stand, Rey turned and, looking straight at Heliúk, said:
—I can endure any offense, humiliation, or blow, but let one thing be perfectly clear: as long as my loved ones are at my side, no one will be forgiven if they try to harm them. You, who want to die so badly—tell that to your father.
Heliúk stared like he didn't understand a thing. By obligation—after having contact with a non-human as dangerous as the one in front of him—he was supposed to die in combat so he wouldn't suffer dishonor. That was why he didn't try to run again, but the instinct to live, to do something, had taken over his body.
—You two hiding on the corner, —Rey warned, addressing the ones peeking out with mouths still hanging open at everything unfolding—. Three subjugators are coming this way.
Akai and Yicel jolted at being discovered—especially when they heard the hurried footsteps of exactly three people and could confirm the small boy's words. In Rey's eyes, it was the moment those two could shine, and they didn't look willing to waste it.
—Operation Fun! —Akai said as he threw himself to the ground, making the short-haired girl go tense at his words.
—I've never done anything like this, —Yicel whispered, on the verge of a heart attack.
—I have faith in you. You can do it, —the boy said, then began to scream from the bottom of his lungs and writhe from side to side—. Aaah! Aaah!
—Help!! Somebody help me, please!! —Yicel screamed as they backed away, hopping in place. With every shout from Akai, she got more and more nervous.
The three hurried figures broke into a run and arrived to find a young man sprawled on the ground, apparently writhing in pain, and a young woman who didn't know what to say as she tried to read the situation with her eyes. The subjugators failed to realize they were already dangerously close to the real threat.
Within seconds, the one on the floor "in pain" surged up like a storm, and using every low, dirty attack he'd learned so far, he managed to kill all three subjugators.
Like a human forced to fight others who were armed, the boy in the red scarf used his fingers to gouge out the first opponent's eyes. He dropped the second with a brutal body check, and with the grip of his hand he crushed the third man's testicles—just as the man was raising his weapon to aim and fire.
Before the second man, knocked down by the shove, could draw his weapon, Akai spat into his eyes to blind him. Then, using the pistol of the one he still had by the testicles, he smashed the first man's head as he fired wildly in every direction, unable to bear the pain in his eyes.
After driving an elbow into the third man's jaw and a kick straight into the second man's liver, Akai broke the first man's neck with a heel kick. The third also crumpled when his head was forced into a brutal twist, and the second subjugator—hunched forward trying to endure the sickening pain from the liver blow—ended up with his head trapped between his own torso and his opponent's right hand.
In a flashy movement, Akai rolled and snapped the second subjugator's spine, then pulled away from the three bodies, breathing hard, trying to catch his breath after doing all of it almost without breathing.
Yicel, who had done nothing but drop to a seated position on the floor to dodge the gunfire, still felt her stomach knotting and her guts threatening to come up—not just from the awful sound of three necks breaking, but from the sight of the inside of one body's empty eye sockets as it still twitched on the floor in the process of dying.
—It's not my fault their weapons are designed to work only when the owner triggers them voluntarily, —the boy in the red scarf defended himself as he smashed the lenses mounted under the barrels of the pistols against the wall.
Behind the crack of gunfire, Rey and Lía walked toward Akai and Yicel, while Yicel tried to get as far as possible from the bodies with broken necks. When they reached the corner where the corridor turned, the doctor and her patient could still hear the last breaths of the three men twisting on the floor, but unlike the girl, their faces showed no discomfort.
—What are you doing here? —Lía asked.
—We came because we thought you needed help. —Yicel nudged a hand away with her foot; one of the bodies was still touching her, twitching side to side.
—My name is Akai Shida, and since you've already dirtied your hands killing other subjugators, why don't you join our group?! —After introducing himself with practiced charm, the young man in the red scarf, sleeves rolled high to show his arms, made his pitch.
—Shida? —Rey asked.
—Yeah. It's my family name, and I'm proud to say it because I'm free to. —The boy in the red scarf gestured at the tattoo on his hand—. Gilgamesh has always remembered the surnames of the families that opposed him in the beginning, and he condemned their descendants to be eternal slaves, no matter how powerful they were. Shida is one of those names. But hey—if the punishment for a slave who thinks about killing a human is the same as if he'd killed hundreds, then why not follow the impulse and fight the ones who are exterminating us?
—Because I'm not a slave, —Rey replied, showing little sympathy for the charismatic boy who talked too much.
At those words, Akai dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
—Then if you fell from the sky… if it'll make me stronger, I'll give you even my soul in exchange, hell-demon.
—I don't need your soul, and I'm not a demon. That said, I can make you stronger as a reward for wanting to help me, —Rey said. And with quiet ease, he placed the same enchantments, miracles, and blessings he'd woven into his own body onto the bodies of the others there—. You're stronger now.
That fast? They all asked themselves the same question. Nothing magical had appeared in the air—no rituals, no offerings—just a brief pause in his words, and that was it. It felt unreal, but none of them dared say it out loud, not wanting to offend or cast doubt on someone who could say, with such calm certainty, you're stronger now.
Without warning, Rey began to cough up blood. Lía rubbed his back, and the other two grew visibly uneasy.
—Listen. —Rey lifted a hand, a silent signal for them not to worry more than they should—. From this moment on, your bodies have conditions that slow your perception of time. If you stop breathing, that condition will activate a magic circle that sends electricity to your hearts and speeds your pulse until it reaches 360 beats. I also replaced the natural conditions imposed by nature in your bodies and rewrote the hardness of your bones, the strength of your muscles, and the resistance of your skin. The effect will be greater or lesser depending on my health condition. Do you understand?
Yicel nodded. To test the boy's words, Akai and Lía held their breath. After a blink, they felt Rey's speech stretch and drag, as if his words were moving through syrup. But Rey flicked his hand and struck Akai—one sharp tap with his middle finger to the forehead.
—Even so, if someone is faster than you, there won't be much you can do. And when you take another breath, you'll be dead.
Heliúk—still alive—trembled at how easily a non-human could create an army of superhuman fighters. No wonder humanity had to fear creatures like this. When sensation returned to his feet, he tried to stand, but stumbled and crashed back down, drawing the attention of the four of them.
With the breath of four predators practically on his neck, Heliúk began to shake, break into a cold sweat, and even wet himself again.
—Akai, I need him alive, —Rey said—. He can make my message reach that Gilgamesh. I'm staying here as long as Lía stays. And if you and she want to get out, you can use the fact that all attention will be focused on this place to spark the revolution elsewhere.
Akai's eyes widened as he saw the greatest opportunity of his life. He understood that only Gilgamesh could stop him, and with Rey's power no human could stand against him.
—In chaos, the revolution can find the opportunity it needs. And if the king sends subjugators as reinforcements from everywhere, this moon they call Sun will be weak on every side.