“Now we’re safe.”
Haka tapped Kiyo’s shoulder, trying to steady the boy as he clung to him.
“We just need to get dow—” A crack split the air.
The slab beneath them trembled. Hairline fractures raced across its surface like lightning tearing through stone. Haka went still.
“…Kiyo.”
“Y-yeah?”
“We’re too heavy.”
“What?”
The ground gave out.
“WOAA—!!”
“HAKA!! KIYO!!” Aisha screamed from below.
The slab shattered completely, unable to bear their combined weight.
The world flipped, and they were thrown into open air.
“We’re falling!!” Kiyo shrieked, fist twisting into Haka’s jacket.
Below, Aisha raised both hands. Gossamer strands of magic shimmered between her fingers—She froze.
Her Silk Guillotine would slice through anything it touched. Including them.
“No—my threads are too sharp!!”
Wind roared past their ears as they dropped. Debris drifted in slow, chaotic spirals around them. Kiyo squeezed his eyes shut.
“I don’t want to die like this—!”
Haka’s thoughts sharpened. The ground rushed up. Mana pressure thickened the air, accelerating their descent.
Do something.
He bit his finger. Blood welled. Scarlet Covenant answered.
A crimson thread burst outward like a striking serpent, lashing toward a half-intact rooftop and coiling tight around its edge. The line snapped taut.
Their fall halted with a violent jolt. Kiyo gasped as they hung suspended above the dead city. His glasses slipped crooked across his face.
“H-huh—?”
“Don’t move,” Haka growled, arm straining as he held both the blood-thread and Kiyo’s weight. Veins stood out along his temple.
Slowly, carefully, he lowered them. When their feet finally touched solid ground, Aisha nearly collapsed in relief.
“You two are going to kill me before any Remnant does…”
Kiyo sank to the ground, legs trembling.
“I can’t feel my knees…”
“We’re fine,” Haka said lightly, flashing a thumbs up.
He took two steps, and doubled over. He vomited.
Aisha rushed forward. Kiyo followed, panic replacing relief.
Haka braced himself on shaking knees, coughing weakly.
“Using magic here…” he managed a faint laugh. “Really makes you sick—”
He retched again. The mana saturation in this zone was unstable—oppressive. And Haka had pushed himself hardest.
Then, a deep, dragging sound scraped across concrete. A rotting hand crushed through the side of a nearby building.
Aisha turned. Another Remnant stood there. Its upper body bulged with grotesque muscle. Its lower half was skeletal, bones tearing through decayed flesh.
“…Not again.”
“We have to move,” Kiyo said, already shifting Haka’s arm over his shoulder.
“I’m fine—”
“Don’t lie!”
Aisha flicked her wrist. Blue threads shot forward, slicing through a weakened wall. Concrete collapsed onto the creature.
“Run!”
They ran. Kiyo staggered under Haka’s weight.
“He’s heavier than he looks—”
“Not the time!”
Behind them, the Remnant roared.
The city answered in violent echoes. Debris tore free and spiraled upward like a storm of broken stone.
“We need shelter!” Aisha hissed.
“Everything’s floating or collapsing!”
“There!”
A low building ahead—damaged, but standing. They burst inside.
Haka slid to the floor, pale and sweating.
“I’m… okay…”
“Stop saying that!” Kiyo snapped. “You look like you downed half a bar!”
“Water?” Aisha asked.
“Our bags are gone.”
Her stomach dropped. The building shook. A shadow swallowed the light from the doorway.
“He found us.”
“Kiyo,” Aisha said quietly. “Take Haka and go.”
“What?!”
“I’ll hold it off.”
“You can’t fight that alone!”
“And I won’t let you get hurt.”
The Remnant lunged.
“AISHA!!”
She ducked beneath a crushing fist. Threads wrapped around its arm—She pulled.
The strands bit in and stopped. Only shallow cuts.
“What?!”
The Remnant yanked back. Aisha was hurled into a wall.
“AISHA!”
“Go!” she shouted, forcing herself upright.
Kiyo couldn’t move.
Do something. Do something.
Haka’s voice, hoarse and distant:
“…It still has blood.”
“What?”
Haka lifted a trembling hand. The Remnant staggered mid-motion.
Beneath torn flesh, faint vessels pulsed. Residual blood.
Not alive. Not whole.
But enough.
Haka closed his fingers. Inside the creature, something ruptured.
A wet, internal explosion tore through its remaining vessels. The Remnant convulsed as cracks split across its mass. It collapsed.
Aisha stared in disbelief. “Haka…?”
He tried to answer. But his body gave out.
“Haka?!” Kiyo caught him.
But the Remnant was not done. Half-destroyed, bones exposed, it dragged itself upright and leapt—
“Again?!”
BRRAK—!!
A massive spear tore through its back, pinning it to the ground.
Before silence could settle—
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
More spears rained down like a storm of iron.
Shoulder. Abdomen. Jaw. Skull.
The Remnant shattered under the assault.
Silence fell heavy.
“…What was that?” Aisha whispered.
From a rooftop across the street, a hooded figure stepped forward. He leapt down with effortless precision.
The hood fell back.
Messy red hair streaked with orange. Sharp features. Calm eyes that had seen too much war.
He glanced at the ruined corpse.
Then at them. More precisely at Haka.
“…You three are insane,” he said evenly.
Not mockery. Just fact.
“Are you trying to die here?”
Aisha and Kiyo couldn’t answer.
The stranger rested his final spear against his back.
“Which one of you can still walk?” he asked.
“We’re leaving this zone. Now.”
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