I opened my eyes to the fractured sky above me—the upper half of the castle looked like it had been chewed out by cannon fire. The world spun slightly. I groaned, pushing myself upright as the weight of dried blood and sand clung to my skin. I must've been out for a while.
The thundering steps snapped my attention forward. Pirates. A pack of them, sprinting at me with curved knives and rusted swords—faces twisted in anticipation.
I dropped to one knee and pressed my hand into the hot sand.
No time to talk.
The sand shifted with a whisper. From the ground, fine grain needles burst upward, striking with surgical precision. None to kill—just to drop them, hold them.
They collapsed mid-charge, groaning, twitching.
"I looked at them, sorry. Just try not to move, or it could get worse. I'll come back to keep you away," I said, voice low.
A pillar summoned by me as I entered the hallway again.
There it was again.
No, wait.
Something was wrong.
The hallway—why did it feel so long?
Back then, it was 45 meters. I remembered it clearly. Every stone, memorized like the back of my own hand.
But now... it stretched beyond reason. At a glance, it looked closer to 100 meters. Nearly double.
What the hell happened?
I caught sight of the fight further ahead. Sinus and Carrisius.
Carrisius was missing an arm, blood trailing like a banner behind him. Yet he moved like a demon.
Sinus pressed forward, but each time he struck, Carrisius shifted, flickered back, as if the world misplaced him on purpose.
From the outside, it looked like Sinus was missing on purpose. But I knew better.
Carrisius saw me.
"SO YOU ARE ALIVE, HUH? LET'S SEE HOW YOU DODGE THIS!"
The next second, he blinked in front of me.
No—he didn't move.
A millisecond passed. His body shifted again, dodging as a bullet tore through the air he had just occupied. A shot from Sinus, dead-on. Predictive.
But Carrisius hadn't moved to dodge. He was just… placed there.
If my eyes aren't deceiving me... he's not teleporting. There's no change in momentum. Not even the smallest drag or shift in weight.
If he were teleporting, he'd carry inertia—slide, stumble, something. But he stays frozen mid-action like a puppet being picked up and dropped back into a different spot.
Like a game character being dragged around by a cursor.
Only... this wasn't random.
I dropped my hand to the floor again. The stone responded.
Nine pillars. I summoned them in sequence, spacing them every 5 meters according to the hallway blueprint etched into my senses by the Clarion of Touch.
Forty-five meters. That's all there is. No more.
But when I looked up—my breath caught.
The pillars weren't five meters apart anymore.
They looked like they were spaced twelve. Twelve and a half, even.
The illusion was real.
The hallway was longer—it just looked as if it wasn't.
"SINUS, THE ENTIRE HALLWAY—IT'S NOT THE SAME AS IT LOOKS!" My voice cracked from the strain as I ducked behind a pillar that hadn't been there a second ago. "IT'S SOME SORT OF SPATIAL MANIPULATION! EACH TIME, HE'S INCREASING AND DECREASING THE DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU TWO!"
Carrisius turned toward me slowly, his expression twisting into something between disbelief and raw confusion.
"How... how did you get to know... no—" His gaze wavered. That hesitation in his voice—doubt. "No, no, no. The Clarion of Vision cannot change matter or summon pillars, and you don't seem to have an artifact—" His voice rose to a scream, "HOW CAN YOU SEE IT?!"
The shout came with a gunshot.
Sinus had fired again.
Carrisius barely twisted out of the bullet's path, the air humming where the round had grazed past him.
Sinus grinned through the layers of blood crusting over his face. His body was barely holding together—deep weapon wounds, swollen fists, open cuts painting his skin a dark red. And yet, he smiled.
I thought of it. Heide, thanks for confirming it. He clenched his fists tighter. It seems like only Carrisius can see the difference since he holds the Clarion of Vision. And that artifact... it increases the distance whenever I strike. He's standing right in front of me, but my fists can't reach. Then, when he attacks... the space shortens.
"And I'm right?" Sinus's voice reached me through the warped hallway.
"Spot on," I said with a dry smile.
And then—
Carrisius appeared before me in a blink. A cleaver in his hand. The blade reflected the lights of the chandilier, and I barely caught it before it came down.
"DIE!" he screamed.
My hand moved before my thoughts did.
I caught the cleaver mid-air. The force split the floor beneath my heels. My eyes didn't leave his as the metal liquefied in my grip, dripping like mercury between my fingers. Carrisius froze in disbelief.
I laughed, shaking from both fear and adrenaline. "Oh my god... that was so close, right?"
My laugh echoed in the narrow space, brittle and wild. I could see my own trembling fingertips—shaky, but not cut atleast.
Then his fist hit me.
Hard.
The world spun as I was flung out of the hallway doors. My back crashed against the marble steps outside, the impact stealing my breath.
Another bullet. Fired by Sinus. It barely missed Carrisius, snapping through the air where his head had been.
Sinus didn't stop to look at me. Just spoke as he reloaded.
"Save the nobles, Heide. Thanks for informing me."
Despite everything—the wounds, the exhaustion, the pain—he smiled at me. A real smile. Not one born of bravado. A smile that said trust me.
I smiled back. "Of course. Sinus, beat his ass."
With that, I turned and ran. There were people who needed saving. And a friend who was about to stake everything.
Behind me, Sinus stood tall.
"You will die here, you sneaky bastard." His voice was low now, controlled rage simmering in every word. "I have no idea how Heide saw it—but he's my lucky charm, I guess."
He smiled as he flipped the chamber of his modified revolver, fresh bullets glinting like judgment.