His lack of fear unsettled me.
Not bravado. Not confidence.
There was simply no hesitation in him at all, as though the outcome had already been settled and this was merely the process of reaching it.
He advanced at a measured pace, drawing his bow again with the same unhurried calm, eyes fixed on me like a craftsman preparing another cut.
I cursed under my breath and drew my sword, muscle memory carrying the motion without thought.
The arrow was released before I consciously registered it.
My blade met it on instinct alone, splitting it cleanly in midair. The fragments struck the ground and rolled uselessly away.
Relief flickered, brief and shallow. I had only barely sensed the danger in time.
That fact tightened my stomach.
Around him clung an aura that was not shadow, not mana, not anything familiar. It felt older. Wrong. Like something that had slipped into the world without permission and never bothered to explain itself.
It pressed against my thoughts, not loudly, but insistently. Fragments of authority brushed against my mind, incomplete concepts that made my head ache the longer I remained near him.
In the Central World, all beings were echoes. Reflections cast by something greater beyond the stars.
Yet he carried weight, something vast and strange.
Not personal strength alone, but the sense that something vast looked outward through him, curious and distant, as though I were an object being measured.
The laws I relied on felt thinner near him.
Life, causality, even probability bent slightly, as if the world itself hesitated before committing to an outcome.
A quiet terror crawled up my spine.
"Is this your power?" I muttered, forcing my voice steady. "Causality feels warped."
He did not answer. He drew again.
An arrow tore in from the right.
I twisted back just in time, the wind of it grazing my cheek.
Jennifer was already moving, sprinting toward me, sword drawn, expression tight with focus rather than fear.
He was suddenly beside me.
"I should warn you," he said calmly, his voice precise and cold, "I have no intention of holding back."
Pressure slammed down like a collapsed sky.
My knees hit the ground as he raised his hand and caught Jennifer's blade barehanded.
The impact rattled through my bones, a brutal reminder of how fragile my body truly was.
"I accounted for this outcome," he continued, unbothered. "An army twice the size of the one you left behind has already reached them."
My teeth clenched.
Of all the possibilities, this was the one I had hoped would not occur. I had expected Sansir to face him.
Rosen.
The name alone carried weight. Decisions were altered in distant courts simply by the possibility of his involvement.
He held a seat among the highest of the Silent Court, feared as much for his mind as his power.
They called him the Criminal.
It was because he broke laws, not simply those enforced by society, the laws that were enforced by the very world.
The hum of his authority vibrated faintly through the air, subtle yet absolute, as though the world recoiled from acknowledging him.
I leapt back and hurled a spear of spiraling wind at the arm holding Jennifer's sword. She twisted free at the same moment, dragging him just enough to disrupt his stance.
That spear should have taken his head.
Instead, he ducked and kicked forward.
The blow crushed into my armor and emptied my lungs. I coughed violently and dropped to one knee, pain blooming through my chest.
He truly was not holding back.
Jennifer froze as his gaze shifted to her. I did not hesitate. Space folded and I exchanged positions with her instantly.
My Regalia allows me to obtain what I lack. Conditions. States. Advantages.
Some things resist being taken.
This was one of them.
I caught his next kick with my forearms. Even so, I was hurled backward, heels carving deep furrows into the ground.
An arrow fell from above.
I spun and summoned a tornado around myself, hurling it skyward.
The arrow pierced the storm.
It struck my shoulder, shattered my armor, and bit deep. I tore it free with a grunt, blood spilling freely as I raised my blade again.
Rosen walked through the gale without resistance. He reached for my throat.
Jennifer's sword came down from above.
It shattered on his wrist. She was thrown back as if struck by an invisible wall.
I slipped under his arm and drove my blade into his chest.
He twisted around me, hurled his bow upward, shoved me back with both hands, then caught the weapon again in one smooth motion.
Immediately, he loosed the rest of his quiver.
"Surge Rampage."
The arrows ignored distance. Ignored sequence. They arrived as though existence itself bent to deliver them.
I forced my logicae into place. The world around us spun with impossible force.
Time stretched thin, layers peeling back as every arrow hung suspended in overlapping paths.
My lungs burned as I moved, cutting them down one by one, my blade screaming under the strain.
When the last arrow fell, my strength gave out.
I dropped to one knee, my sword buried in the ground to keep me upright.
Rosen looked down at me, genuine surprise flickering across his features.
"Well done," he said quietly. "I did not expect you to endure that."
He drew his sword. "It is unfortunate to end such potential."
I laughed weakly and activated my Regalia.
In an instant, our states inverted. His vitality flowed into me, and my exhaustion bled into him. My wounds. My limits.
I stood.
His eyes sharpened.
"There we go," he said. "Now you are trying."
Jennifer rushed toward us, but space folded inward before she could reach us, sealing around Rosen and me and erasing everything else in a silent sweep.
Then it expanded.
The space became vast. Endless. Empty.
"I was growing tired of spectators," Rosen said. "I hope you do not mind."
I tightened my grip on my sword.
In truth, I had hoped she would stay away. She could not survive what came next.
This required something more.
I turned inward.
Time ceased.
Great hands lifted me. Cradella gazed down with pity, her eyes reflecting every absence within me.
"You pray with eyes that want everything," she said softly. "Eyes that would never be satisfied."
Her words cut deeper than any blade.
Envy writhed within me, whispering that if Rosen possessed such power, then I deserved it more.
I crushed the thought and knelt.
"I pray," I said. "Free me. Grant me your power."
Her laughter shook the space.
"You beg now," she said, "and you will beg again."
The world shattered.
I returned.
My sword gleamed sharper than before. A single horn, curved and unmistakable, jutted from my forehead.
Rosen smiled.
"Praying to something like that," he said. "What did you offer?"
"I am a monster," I replied as my Regalia flared, devouring all magicae around us until only he remained untouched. "And I will do anything."
His eyes gleamed with interest. "What do you seek, Nicole?"
I raised my hand.
"I wish to obtain what is impossible," I said. "What is assumed. What is denied."
"I wish to obtain humanity."