A green glow pulsed from the device in Oliver's palm.
"Astolf, initiate teleportation." His voice was smooth, almost casual. "Parting gift included."
Lou's body tensed beside me, muscles coiling. "Oh, hell no—"
But before he could lunge, Oliver vanished.
A blink of emerald light, and he was gone.
No trace remained—save for the damn coat still lying at my feet.
For a moment, silence reigned.
I exhaled sharply, my mind racing.
Teleportation. And the flicker of Mana I'd sensed just before he disappeared...
So he had Mana wielders in his ranks. That much was clear.
Our only lead was the mysterious tower, but getting there? That was an entirely different problem.
Lou's furious growl shattered the silence.
"Damn it!" His voice was raw, frustration rolling off him in waves. His hands curled into tight fists.
I could see where that was coming.
We'd wasted too much time bickering with Oliver, trading blows for nothing more than a glimpse into his fighting style and the name of some unknown ally—Astolf.
A heavy stillness settled over us. Then—
Rumble.
A deep, guttural vibration coursed through the ground, reverberating in my bones.
Lou's fingers flew to the hilt of his sword. His jaw tightened.
"Bug." His voice was grim. "I think I know what kind of 'parting gift' Oliver left us…"
I swallowed hard. "And?"
Lou let out a slow, frustrated breath. "And let me tell you… my gut's saying it's gonna be a pain in the ass."
Mina whimpered, burying herself into my arm as the trembling earth worsened. The low rumble grew into thundering, rhythmic thumps, each one sending shockwaves through the ruined city.
My stomach dropped.
No. No way—
Then, in the distance—
Glowing eyes.
Dozens. Emerging from the shadows of the desolate streets.
Shapes too large to be human. Too fast. Too... hungry.
My breath hitched.
"Flow Beasts," I whispered, the words catching in my throat. "An army of them."
Fourteen hulking beasts, their glowing eyes gleaming with hunger, locked onto me.
Oliver's parting gift.
But… how? How had he pulled this off?
Lou, as freaked out as he looked at first, was unfazed.
A low hum rumbled from his throat—his signature prelude to battle—before a smirk curled his lips.
"Interesting." He stroked his chin, assessing the beasts with the same idle curiosity one might give a new puzzle. "Most are C-class or higher. Not a bad challenge."
Before I could react, he scooped up Mina and, with a single bound, vaulted into the branches of a nearby tree.
A good distance away. Safe.
Then—
"Bug." His voice drifted down lazily. "Looks like you have some company! Get to it."
My jaw slackened.
"All mine?" I squeaked, fingers tightening around the Morphblade. The weapon suddenly felt cold in my grip. "You can't be serious! There are fourteen of them!"
Lou chuckled. From his perch, he peered down at me, seemingly unbothered by my growing panic.
"Thirteen, actually," he corrected, making a show of counting. "Looks like one decided to take an early lunch break."
A pit formed in my stomach.
This… this wasn't just a test.
This was a freaky baptism by fire.
The beasts edged closer. Their movements were tense, deliberate. But strangely… they didn't attack.
My breath hitched. Why?
Then my gaze flickered down—to the bracer on my wrist, fashioned from the remnants of the cloak.
Oh.
So that's what he meant.
My Flow was fluctuating too much. The beasts could sense it. They didn't know what to make of me.
Good. Because I didn't either.
Yeah, there were thirteen of them. But the truth?
They were nothing to me.
If I wanted, I could end this fight in mere moments.
But—
My body refused to move.
Fingers curled into tight fists, nails biting into my palms.
I… I don't want to do this.
This path I was walking—it was molding me into a weapon. A living blade, sharpened for destruction.
Not again.
I raised my head to Lou, finding him watching me. And—
He was frowning.
"I… I can't do it, Lou." My voice wavered.
His gaze was a dagger, piercing right through me.
"Huh?"
I shook my head. He wasn't satisfied. Of course he wasn't.
But I didn't care.
"I don't want to do it anymore," I whispered. "I just... I want to—"
Lou didn't let me finish.
He dropped from the tree in a single motion, landing with a force that sent a tremor through the earth. A low growl rumbled in his chest, the air itself crackling with tension.
Then—a violent exhale.
His aura exploded outward, a tempestuous storm of silver energy. The very air ignited with power, crackling arcs of Flow forcing the beasts back with startled growls.
Before I could react, his hand clamped onto my collar.
"Bug." His voice was rough, gravel grinding against steel.
Then, in one effortless motion, he hoisted me into the air like a rag doll. As usual.
"Why the hell are you holding back?!"
Huh? I blinked, head reeling. Again with this?!
"That Oliver bastard was right!" Lou snarled, shaking me roughly. "You're holding back! You have the power to end this in seconds—Morphblade, Aura, Flow! Heck, even things you're keeping from me! Whatever it takes! And yet, you hesitate! Why?!"
His grip released, and I slammed into the dirt, pain lancing up my spine.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself upright—only to be met with his piercing glare.
I was capable of more than I thought?
Heh.
What a joke.
I knew exactly what I was capable of.
That was why I refused to use it.
"I'm scared, Lou." The words escaped before I could stop them, barely a whisper.
His expression didn't change—but something in the air did.
"I know what I can do," I continued, gripping my arms as if they might betray me. "And that's exactly why I hold back. If I let go, if I unleash everything—" My breath hitched.
"—I'll become a monster."
The silence that followed was thick, suffocating. A silence of unspoken truths.
Then—
A bitter chuckle.
It escaped Lou's lips, dry and humorless. His hand flew to his forehead, dragging down his face in exasperation.
"Scared?" His voice was low, contempt curling at the edges.
The silver storm around him faded—but his gaze?
Sharper than ever.
"Did you know," he said, voice like a blade against stone, "that people who fear their own powerare theepitome of cowardice?"
He let the words sink in, his next step deliberate.
"But you—" he lifted a hand, pointing directly at me—"You're not one of them. You never were. You never will be."
His eyes bored into mine, demanding something—anything.
"So prove it."
Lou's voice wasn't cruel. It wasn't mocking.
It was a challenge.
"Show us your true colors. Not to become a monster—"
He took another step forward, towering over me.
"—but to make sure you never become a pathetic coward."
…
A wave of realization washed over me.
At first, I thought it was just Lou's aura—that electric, motivating force pressing against my skin, daring me to react. But I was wrong.
It wasn't just the energy.
It was his words.
Harsh, biting—but true.
I had spent too long as a prisoner of my past, shackled by fear, convinced that unleashing my full strength meant losing myself.
But was that really my destiny?
Was I doomed to be a victim of my own power again?
No.
At least not now.
I pushed myself up, brushing the dust from my clothes. A wry grin tugged at my lips as I pocketed the Morphblade.
"Wow," I muttered, tilting my head at Lou. "Why'd you suddenly start saying things that actually make sense?"
His eye twitched. "I'm always spitting wisdom, Bug."
"Sure," I drawled, cracking my knuckles.
Without hesitation, I ripped off the bracer—the last chain restraining me—and tossed it aside.
Useless.
A surge of Flow erupted from me, raw and untamed, scary like a storm breaking free from a cage. The ground trembled under the sheer force, the beasts recoiling—sensing the shift.
"Whatever," I said, rolling my shoulders, finally feeling the weight lift. "You and Oliver were right. I've been holding back. But not anymore."
My gaze flickered to Lou. My voice hardened.
"Back off. Take Mina with you."
Lou raised a brow, but for once, he didn't argue. He simply grabbed Mina and leaped back into the treetops.
I shook my head, "No, it's not safe over there. I suggest gluing yourself to the ground or something."
"Huh?" He arched both brows. But Lou was so desperate to see me in action, he retreated further just like I wanted.
Good.
That was one less thing to worry about.
I crouched low, my stance grounded, arms outstretched. The Flow Beasts snarled, their instincts battling between fear and hunger.
This was a gamble. A desperate play. What I was about to do wasn't really perfected after all.
But perfection is born from trial and error.
As you know, I had always been an anomaly.
One of those anomalies was my ability to perceive Flow in the atmosphere. Not just in people or objects—but in the very wind itself.
For the past two and a half years, under Lou's training, I hadn't just been adapting to this body.
I had been discovering my limits.
Lou thought I was only getting stronger. That I was learning how to fight.
But I was after something else.
While I couldn't absorb external Flow—my overloaded state made sure of that—I had discovered something far more valuable.
I could connect with it.
With the air.
And a wild idea took hold.
What if I pushed my Flow into the atmosphere?
What if I didn't just perceive it—
What if I controlled it?
I could feel Lou's grin even without looking.
He must've loved this.
I exhaled, slow and deliberate, then whispered the words that had been etched into my very being.
"Eidos: Zephyr."
A storm was born.
The Flow surged forth—raw, unrefined, a beast with no master. It poured from my palms, spreading like ink in water, bleeding into the very atmosphere.
For those who could see Flow, the world darkened—pitch-black tendrils of energy latching onto the air itself, warping the very fabric of the space around me.
And then—
The wind roared.
A monstrous vortex erupted around me, a towering cyclone of shadow and gale, swallowing everything in its reach.
It didn't listen to me.
It didn't need to.
I wasn't controlling it—I was letting it run wild.
A Black Storm. A literal Black Storm.
The world trembled beneath its wrath.
The Flow Beasts had no time to react. They were ripped from the ground, bodies flung into the air like ragdolls caught in a hurricane. Their roars turned to shrieks, swallowed by the deafening howl of the storm.
Trees—massive, ancient towers of wood—snapped like twigs. Uprooted, they became deadly lances, spiraling through the chaos, impaling beasts mid-air.
One crashed down—splitting a Flow Beast clean in half.
Another pierced through three at once, their bodies writhing before falling still.
Blood sprayed in crimson arcs, mixing with the swirling shadows. The air reeked of iron, of death.
I stood at the eye of the storm, untouchable. The world outside my reach was a swirling maelstrom of destruction, and I let it consume everything.
Minutes passed. Maybe seconds.
Then—silence.
I couldn't feel their presence anymore. Guess no need to pour my Flow out anymore. The vortex fractured, splintering apart as the last gusts of wind scattered the carnage.
The Square of Execution—once an open slaughterhouse—was now a wasteland of splintered wood and butchered corpses.
What was left of the Flow Beasts was unrecognizable.
Some were crushed, their bodies flattened beneath fallen trees. Others were impaled, their lifeless forms skewered on jagged stakes of wood. Some had been shredded apart, torn limb from limb by the storm itself.
Blood pooled across the earth, soaking the dirt in a deep, dark red.
A bloodbath.
A scene I had seen too many times before.
My fingers trembled. My breath came ragged, uneven.
I had done this. Like I always did.
I had let it happen. Like I always did.
I clenched my fists. I was used to this, wasn't I?
Yeah, I should already accept it. As they say, "History repeats itself."
I stood amidst the wreckage, a lone figure in a battlefield of my own making.
The wind had died. The blood remained.
I looked down.
Oh.
Oliver's coat.
It had survived the tempest, untouched beneath my feet. Maybe because it had been at the eye of the storm—the only place my chaos hadn't touched.
I picked it up and pulled it on. Heavy. Oversized. The fabric draped over me, swallowing my form, but it was better than my old cloak.
It muffled my Flow. Muted me.
Lou returned, Mina slung over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. His grin was too wide, bright against the devastation around us. A jarring contrast.
"Look at you," he laughed, ruffling my hair with an obnoxious hand. "Hiding tricks up your sleeve like that! Why didn't you tell me about your Eidos?"
There was pride in his voice. I should've appreciated it.
I didn't.
I shrugged, pulling the coat's collar higher. "It's not perfected yet," I muttered. "And it drains my stamina."
Lou's laughter dimmed. He studied me, his sharp gaze flickering with something unreadable. Then he sighed, shaking his head.
"You just proved you're not a coward, you know," he said, softer this time. "You did great."
A compliment. From a Sponsor.
It meant nothing.
I laughed. Mocking. Hollow.
Lou frowned. Mina blinked down at me from her perch, confused.
For hell's sake—why hadn't I just accepted it way earlier?
This… this thing I had been running from. This truth that had been clawing at my throat.
I could've made it easier for myself. Stopped trying to be something I wasn't.
Stopped trying to be something to please others.
Lou cut through the silence. "What's so funny?"
I shook my head. "It's nothing." A dismissive wave of my hand.
Then, a whisper.
"Maybe being a monster isn't so bad after all."