The Loom Mother attacked first.
Curse energy started to build up inside its body. Dozens of strings linked together to make one single thread. The tip hardened into a sharp, jagged point.
The thread shot out from its mouth. It crossed the room in a flash. Kai had almost no time to react before the air cracked. It was faster than anything he had seen that day. Way past the speed of sound, well over three thousand meters per second.
It was called Widow's Needle.
Kai acted on instinct. He swung his sword, Bane, up at the last second. He caught the thread on the flat side of the blade. The hit made a loud scream through the metal. His arms shook hard as the needle scraped along the edge, trying to get past.
If he had been even a bit slower, it would have gone through his neck.
While he was still handling the attack, the Loom Mother rushed at him. It was suddenly right next to him. A thick, spider-like leg swung out and hit his side.
The air was knocked out of his lungs. He flew across the room and hit the ground hard.
The Loom Mother did not stop. It turned toward Alexandria.
She was already running. The monster chased her, its legs stabbing down. She dodged the first one by rolling. The second one almost hit her, but she twisted away just in time.
Vera watched with some interest. "She's fast," Vera thought. Her mind went back to the time Alexandria dodged Tristan's shockwaves.
Alexandria focused only on the gray monster chasing her.
Her foot caught on thin red threads she had not seen. She tripped and fell to one knee.
The Loom Mother stood over her. One sharp leg rose up, ready to stab down.
But Kai got there just in time.
He came in fast, swinging Bane. With two quick cuts, he chopped off two of the Loom Mother's legs. They fell to the floor with heavy thumps.
Alexandria scrambled back.
It was not over. Red threads shot from the Loom Mother's body. They grabbed the cut-off legs, pulled them back, and stitched them on again. A few seconds later, it was like nothing had happened.
The Loom Mother turned, fully healed, and faced them both.
"Attacking it is no use," Alexandria said.
"As long as Vera has curse energy, it will always fix itself."
"I figured that much," Kai replied.
He stared at the big creature in front of him. He was amazed by it. It was a physical thing made fully from pure curse energy, held together by her special skill. Vera seemed to focus on fighting from long distance, so having this thing fight up close while she worked from behind was smart. Especially since she was up against a close-range fighter like him.
Plus, making physical things from curse energy alone was rare around the world. Only people with a special type of curse energy could do it.
It's the same thing Azrael uses to create the shadow body he uses to interact with the physical world
"Making something like this must use up a lot of her curse energy, right?" Kai asked.
"I don't think so," she replied.
"There are 8 bodies in that pile, but ten people attacked us. Vera is the 9th, so one is missing," Alexandria said.
Kai remembered the first person whose arm he cut off and almost remembered failing to deliver the final blow
"Yeah... and?"
"Her curse lets her convert the blood she drains from others into curse energy," Alexandria said
"If I'm right, and she fed on the 10th person, then She probably has about double her normal curse energy now. She won't run out anytime soon."
"Hm."
Kai tilted his head. "Hey, Vera. Before we go any further… tell me something."
She glanced at him.
"Why are you doing this?"
"I get Marcus. I get the others. They'd bend over backward for Damian. "
He paused.
"But you.. Why you?"
Vera blinked. " Oh, I'm doing this for your own good."
"You shouldn't be here." She added
"You should never have set foot in this school. It's was a mistake, a small one but a mistake nonetheless."
"And who do you think you are to decide that?" Kai asked, almost curious.
Vera shrugged. "Me?"
"In the grand scheme of things, I'm nobody. Just a pawn on a very large board i suppose. But even pawns have a purpose, and mine is to save you."
"Who's pawn exactly?" Alexandria asked
"I'm obviously not going to tell you now, am i?" Vera replied
"Just trying to get a clear picture of what you're rambling about, otherwise this is just madness" Alexandria snapped.
Vera replied, "When was madness ever a bad thing?"
Kai's eyes flicked toward her. He smirked faintly, shaking his head with quiet amusement. The coincidence wasn't lost on him
But he said nothing. No words. No acknowledgment beyond that brief, knowing glance.
"Okay. Break's over."
Blur: Ricochet.
Boom.
Kai exploded forward, a living blur, ricocheting off the walls. He moved so fast the air itself seemed to tear; afterimages multiplied and folded into the room until tracking him was impossible. The mirages fanned out, descending in every direction, and the Loom Mother lunged with its long, clumsy limbs. Each swipe meeting nothing but empty air.
Then, from a blind spot, the real Kai appeared and unleashed a torrent of slashes.
Every strike the construct threw at the mirages was futile; it could not tell which shadow was flesh and which was illusion. Alexandria watched, stunned, piecing it together.
So this is how he beat Damian, she realized. The combination of visual distortion and blinding speed and that terrifying blade, it left no room for a fair fight. Without prior knowledge, Damian had never stood a chance.
When the last limb of the construct slumped and the whole thing collapsed, Kai paused for a breath, chest rising and falling beneath his armor. But that all the time Vera needed
Red threads shot out from the walls, the ceiling and even some corners of the ground
He dodged, parried and cut where he could, but no matter how many he destroyed, more appeared from angles he hadn't seen before.
They were slower than Window's Needle, but there were too many of them.
He slid low across the floor as a web of red passed overhead.
He spun, Bane flashing as he cut one, then another but more replaced them instantly.
They just keep coming.
In a brief moment, he glanced at the walls and spotted a tiny spider, similar to the one that had helped stitch the Loom Mother together.
The red spiders must be secondary sources for her threads
They were probably crawling everywhere. Since the moment Vera entered the throne room, she had been distributing them across the space. Defeating her in a direct battle now would be far from easy.
From the corner of his eye, Kai saw the Loom Mother begin to move. Broken parts slid together, threads weaving themselves back into a whole, ready to fight again.
"Oh shit," he muttered under his breath.
He pushed forward, cutting through the threads as he charged toward Vera. He had to reach her, had to stop the pressure before it became too much.
Vera's hands moved again, and a massive web of threads stretched up from the floor to the ceiling, right in front of her. The wall glowed faintly red, and Kai could see the edges were sharp. Running into it would be deadly. She sent it sliding toward him.
Kai planted his feet. He didn't move his whole body, only his arms. He poured his speed into his hands, slashing rapidly to cut the threads of the web. The strands snapped and fell away.
But Vera managed to buy enough time for the Loom Mother to rejoin the fight.
It leaped into the air and came crashing down toward him, legs wide, mandibles snapping.
He rolled aside as the impact of its landing shook the hall. It turned instantly and attacked again.
While on the floor, he swung Bane, slashing a chunk of its face. He slammed his foot against its mouth, giving him the opening he needed to break free.
One of its limbs swung toward him. He parried with all his strength, but the force was too much. The limb grazed his chest, leaving a deep, burning wound.
Kai stepped away, creating distance.
The red threads retreated toward Vera. She stood calmly, blue hair framing her face, black armor traced with faint red lines. For a moment, neither moved.
Kai studied her. There was no malice in her posture. No thrill in her eyes. She was focused and controlled, only doing what she had been ordered to do.
"Huh," Kai said, breaking the silence. "Didn't expect this."
Vera raised a brow. "What?"
You," he replied. "Didn't think you'd push me this hard."
"I could say the same for you" she replied
Vera tilted her head. "That technique… the one with all the distorted movements… why didn't you use it earlier?"
He hesitated. The name Damian crossed his mind, and the irritation returned just as fast. "Someone I fought once," he said. "A shitty mentality of his rubbed off on me"
Her eyes stayed on him. Waiting.
"You shouldn't use your abilities against a person who isn't worth it," Kai finished.
Vera was quiet for a moment. "Does that mean I am?"
"Yeah. You are."
A faint smile crossed her face. "for what it's worth, I'm glad"
"No… you really… really shouldn't be," Kai muttered, almost to himself.
Bane began to hum.
The sound was low at first, then deeper, heavier. The blade started to glow as curse energy poured out of it, flooding the hall with pressure. The air thickened, pressing down on everything around them. It was far greater than the energy Vera had released to form the Loom Mother.
Kai tightened his grip, and He lifted the blade slightly and spoke, voice steady.
"Veil."