Shalap, wake up—wake up.
My voice trembled as I knelt beside her, gently slapping her face to pull her back from unconsciousness. Her skin was clammy, her body limp, and I could still feel the fresh trail of blood streaked across her chest. I'd already administered the basic medication I had on me the moment I found her. She had collapsed like someone who had just escaped death's grip, staggering away. Had I arrived even a few minutes later, she might have crossed the line.
Her eyelids fluttered open. Her gaze, still blurry and unfocused, found mine.
"Heide…? You are… alive?"
"Yeah, I am. What the hell happened here?"
She tried to push herself up, body trembling under her own weight. I caught her halfway and helped her up. I could see the guilt pooling in her eyes before she even answered, so I cut her off.
"No, never mind. Don't tell me. You did well."
A weak smile flickered across her face at my words, the kind that made you forget how close someone was to dying.
She looked around, voice hoarse. "Where… is Sinus?"
I shifted my grip to steady her better. "He's fighting Carrisius," I said, letting the weight of that sentence sink in.
Her eyes widened—only slightly—but she pushed again like she wanted to move. "We need to help him," she said, barely above a whisper.
I smiled. "No need. You need to rest. Besides… I don't think you know, but if there's anyone I'd trust to handle a fight alone—it's Sinus."
The words weren't just comfort. They were truth etched into bone.
That earned me a real smile from her, even if it was faint.
She coughed and leaned against the wall. "The… basement… the people are there. Go… leave me here… save them first."
I stared at her. "Hold up," I said.
She was too light in my arms as I picked her up and carried her to the ship. The medical bed hissed as it received her, diagnostics starting immediately. I didn't wait to watch it finish.
I ran.
Back into the chaos, the burning hallway, the ruined halls echoing with distant battle cries. I searched every corner, every wall, until I paused at the center of the corridor.
No, this won't work.
I dropped to my knees, pressed my palm to the floor, and activated the Clarion of Touch. A tremor burst outward from my hand, warping the surface. With a low rumble, the stone buckled—and I tore a clean hole through the ground.
Below, shadowed by the dust, cells lined the chamber like coffins. Inside them—people. Civilians. Hiding.
But they weren't alone.
The pirates.
"Hey."
My voice echoed once before they turned. I didn't give them time to react.
The Clarion surged again.
Stone barriers erupted around the pirates, sealing them in cages made in seconds.
I stepped forward, the air still humming with force, and pulled the cell door open for the civilians.
"Let's go."
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Carrisius's roar cracked like thunder inside the chamber.
In the same breath, the world compressed.
The room thinned, warped—its vastness collapsed to a corridor barely ten meters wide. Space folded like crumpled paper. Sinus didn't even blink.
Flash step.
Carrisius was already upon him.
But Sinus had already drawn.
The flintlock in his grip snapped up with trained precision. "Bang," he whispered.
The gunshot echoed—
But in the split-second between muzzle flash and bullet travel, Carrisius expanded the room.
From ten meters to seven hundred in the blink of an eye.
The bullet flew past empty air.
"Shit—!" Sinus dove to the side, instinct howling louder than his thoughts.
Carrisius didn't waste a second. He was already surging forward again, the spatial collapse closing the gap to thirty meters like a reverse slingshot. A cleaver glinted in his hand—heavy, chipped, cruel. Its arc screamed through the air, aimed to slice the flintlock clean off Sinus's arm.
But Sinus didn't parry.
He detonated.
With a split-second gesture, he triggered the bomb laced under the stone tiles in front of him. A column of fire erupted between them—
Carrisius tried to halt, but the blast licked his boots.
Flames swallowed his foot, cooking skin in an instant. "AGHHH!" he bellowed, staggering.
The moment's hesitation was enough.
Sinus moved in—only for Carrisius to roar again, eyes bloodshot with rage.
He lunged, burned leg and all, and grabbed Sinus by the hair.
"Got you now."
Before Sinus could wrench away, space collapsed again. The room stretched violently—two kilometers this time.
But Carrisius didn't just drag him—he slammed him. Every meter gained came with Sinus's face being shredded against the ground, skull skipping like a rock over water, bones jarring with each impact.
Smash—smash—smash—
"Gh—!" Sinus could barely breathe, let alone speak. Blood filled his mouth, his vision blurring.
His hand moved on instinct.
Strike the core.
He twisted mid-drag, driving his fist into Carrisius's face—right into the nose. Something crunched.
Carrisius yelped and dropped him.
Sinus hit the ground hard but rolled, coughing blood. He didn't stop.
"Die—!" He leveled the flintlock, ready to blast Carrisius's skull at point-blank.
But Carrisius grinned, nose crooked, blood painting his teeth.
"You forgot how far we are now."
Space warped again—distance expanded in a flash. The trigger pulled, but the bullet traveled a mile before it reached where Carrisius had just been.
"You bastard," Sinus muttered, panting.
"I am," Carrisius said, staggering up with that same devil's smile.
He limped forward. Despite the burns, despite the blood, he moved like a force of nature—unstoppable, anchored by a madness honed over decades.
Sinus's flintlock clicked empty.
"A empty shot?" Carrisius's grinned.
He dropped the space from 700 meters to five.
But this time, Sinus closed his eyes and fired before the collapse finished. The bullet formed as the room was still reforming—and shot point-blank in less than a microsecond.
Carrisius's shoulder exploded in blood.
"ARGHHH!"
Sinus tackled him through the pain, slamming Carrisius into the wall
"THAT'S IT! I'M DONE WITH YOU! I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL KILL YOU!!"
Carrisius's voice shattered the air—no longer regal, no longer proud. It cracked, warped by fury and disbelief. This wasn't the voice of a ruler anymore. It was the howl of a cornered beast, clawing against fate itself.
And the world answered.
Reality buckled at the seams.
The hallway around them distorted like wet paper—stretching, shrinking, snapping. The walls twisted, bleeding into the ceiling. One moment the distance was ten meters, the next it was nearly a kilometer. Carrisius was ripping space open with every breath, tearing apart any sense of direction.
And he descended.
He didn't teleport. He collapsed space between them, appearing in front of Sinus mid-scream, a blur of hate and steel.
THUD!
Sinus didn't even see the punch. It buried itself in his gut, lifting him off the floor.
CRACK!
The second strike—Carrisius's knee—exploded into his chin before he even landed. Blood flew. His vision swam.
"WHERE ARE YOU LOOKING, INSECT?!"
Sinus reeled.
But Carrisius wasn't done.
He grabbed him by the throat and dragged him—through floors, through flickering corridors, through broken geometry. They moved in bursts of violent dislocation. At one point, Sinus saw the same shattered statue pass them four times—four different distances, none of them real.
"YOU THINK THIS—THIS IS ENOUGH TO STOP ME?!"
WHAM—!
He slammed Sinus into a wall that hadn't been there a second ago. Then the wall expanded, becoming a bridge. Sinus's body skidded across it as Carrisius kicked him down its length. Every time he tried to crawl, Carrisius folded the space again—cutting off his escape mid-motion and slamming him somewhere else entirely.
Sinus could barely breathe.
His mind reeled.
He couldn't brace. Couldn't even crawl. The rules of space had been rewritten, and he wasn't even invited to read the first chapter.
But somewhere in that agony, something clicked.
There was a pattern.
Not in the space itself—but in Carrisius.
Each time he changed the world, his rage flared. He screamed louder. Hit harder. The changes got more erratic—sloppier.
He wasn't a god. He was a man losing control of a god's weapon.
BOOM—!
The floor cratered from the force of his stomp. Sharp pieces of stone tore upward, cutting Sinus's side—but he was still on his feet.
"You're learning?" Carrisius snarled, sweat and blood streaming down his face. His voice wasn't taunting anymore. It was cracked. Almost hysterical.
"You… cockroach!"
Sinus didn't respond.
He lunged—shoulder first—into Carrisius's burned leg.
Carrisius staggered. Just enough.
The spatial fold glitched for a second.
Sinus grabbed the shattered flintlock and slammed it into Carrisius's ear.
CRACK!
Blood burst out. Carrisius stumbled.
But he screamed, grabbed Sinus again—and this time, the world snapped.
The hallway compressed into a jagged coffin. No air. No space.
Sinus was slammed into all four walls at once. Up, down, sideways—it was all the same now. Carrisius was rabid, a beast with no reason.
"I'LL RIP YOU TO PIECES—! I'LL ERASE YOU—!"
His cleaver flashed in the suffocating dark.
SLASH—!