"You damn brat… I can't belie—"
A hand shot forward, covering the lion's mouth before he could finish his sentence. It moved so fast— unperceivably fast. The movement of the crimson-haired enlightened before him was unlike any mirror beast he had fought before.
No.
Unlike anyone he had ever fought.
The lion moved to slash, his hand moving like a hot iron rod as it cleaved through the air.
A second before contact, the boy let out a whisper.
"Merge."
The ethereal cleaver went straight through the young man's stomach, a blow that would normally be fatal— yet it didn't even faze its target.
Kalen propelled himself off the lion, using the momentum his newly awakened physique gave him to create distance.
Landing near the crater, he held his left hand forward and continued his chant.
"Condense."
"Pierce."
A violent bloom of innate energy followed those words, coalescing and compressing into something tangible.
The lion stood, grinning ear to ear. His uncertain shaking was gone, now replaced with a look of sheer determination.
One of murder.
Brandishing his cleaver, he rolled his shoulders, preparing for a frontal assault. The smoke covering his body blew away as he did, leaving nothing but scarred flesh and rippling muscle exposed to the night air.
Seris could hardly see from this distance.
Honestly, she was straining her already exhausted body far— far beyond its limits.
But even from here, she could tell.
The lion was going to lose.
He had brought forth a living calamity.
And that would become his own undoing.
In Kalen's hand, a burgundy crystal revolver had formed. It shone brilliantly, its deep red surface outshining even the lion's burning cleaver. Crimson light reflected across Kalen's face, illuminating his calm expression.
He lifted the revolver, taking aim at the lion. In the process, he closed one eye, trying to line up an accurate shot.
In retaliation, the lion swung his cleaver, bringing down all the heat and might of his energy with it. A singular crescent blade of fire formed in the air, lingering for only a moment before shooting forward toward Kalen. It carried with it all the accumulated heat from the earlier inferno, warping the air around it as it tore through the battlefield.
Kalen did not react.
In fact, he wasn't even worried about the attack racing toward him.
For some odd reason, he felt different— as if even if the attack did hit him, it would ultimately mean nothing. He was absolutely certain of what his revolver was about to do.
He was also certain his opponent understood exactly what would happen if it fired.
So the lion didn't wait.
He ran as fast as he could, using every inch of internal energy he had left. Pushing everything into this final attack. His giant, burly body moved at its absolute limit, the ground cracking beneath each step.
In the end, he managed to evade Kalen's line of sight, getting directly behind him. A brief sense of relief filled the lion's chest.
He thought the battle was already over.
Kalen turned.
His body moved so sporadically that it almost looked like teleportation. One instant he faced forward, and the next he was already there, staring directly into the lion's widened eyes.
Kalen flashed him a smile.
Then he grabbed the hand still holding the cleaver and pulled the man close.
So close, in fact, that Kalen could see the man's beard had been unevenly shaved. Random patches were longer than others, almost as though he had done it in complete darkness.
But that wasn't important.
Kalen held the lion tightly. So tightly that the man struggled to even breathe within his grasp.
"Hey, ugly bastard. I'm curious…" Kalen muttered softly. "Just how much of your own fire can you take?"
A look of genuine fear flashed across the lion's face.
Then disappointment.
In the end, he simply stared blankly at the young man before him, unable to even struggle free from his grip.
"Let's test it, shall we?"
The fiery slash the lion had released finally reached its mark.
Well, in this case, it hit its own sender. But close enough.
The lion's entire back was scorched instantly. Flames surged across his body as he collapsed to one knee, letting out a roar of pain that echoed through the trees of Sorrow.
The heat distorted the air around him while smoke poured upward into the night sky.
Kalen stepped back, watching silently as the lion struggled to remain conscious. The cleaver slipped from the man's hand and embedded itself into the dirt beside him.
For several long seconds, neither of them moved.
Then the lion's body finally gave out.
He collapsed face-first onto the ground, unmoving.
Kalen stared at him for a moment before raising his revolver. The crimson glow around the weapon slowly glowing brighter, the lingering heat in the air remained suffocating.
Seris blinked from the distance, too stunned to even comment anymore. At some point during the fight, fear had stopped existing in her mind altogether. Watching Kalen now felt less and less like watching a person fight…
Then Kalen began to move again, taking aim with his revolver.
This time, there was no need for precise aiming— his target was right where he needed them to be.
Bang
The first shot cleaved straight through his temple
Bang
The second through the heart.
Bang
The third pierced his first lung.
Bang
The fourth his other.
Bang
The fifth took his left eye.
All but one.
Kalen shot all but one from his chamber.
Then he raised his leg, and stamped on the man's groin as hard as he could.
"That was just in case you live. I would hate to see any kid being raised by you."
Suddenly, a loud mechanical voice echoed across the trees of Sorrow.
"Really? I send you on one measly mission, and within five hours I get a report of your death? Your discipline will be quite severe this time, Vornyan."
The voice paused for a moment before continuing, almost sounding amused.
"But maybe it wasn't all bad. It seems you did manage to gather some prime specimens. So maybe I'll cut you some slack! Anyhoo, to the both of you still alive, I wish you luck on your journey out of Sorrow."
The voice chuckled lightly.
"Trust me… you'll need it."
And with that, the lion's body disappeared.
Not burned away.
Not dissolved.
Just… gone.
Leaving behind only scorched earth, drifting ash, and an eerie silence.
Only Kalen and Seris remained standing in the ruins of the battlefield.