thief of fate-Chapter 89: Arkanis’s arrival 2

...They were invading.

Invading the ground, the buildings, the people.

As if their sole purpose of existence...

Was to prove that what we believe to be the end...

One of the soldiers beside us was hit—not physically, but he fell screaming, bleeding from his nose, eyes, and ears, as if his body had decided to collapse all at once.

I looked at him, then at the sky, where the rift continued to widen, and the mouth devoured more of the light.

Kyle yanked my arm, more violently this time.

"We need to get out of here! Valerian, wake up!"

But I was awake.

For the first time... truly awake.

I turned my face to him slowly, and whispered:

"I see them... as if I... know them."

The words came out of my mouth without permission.

A mix of realization, fear, and a truth without explanation.

As if something deep and ancient inside me remembered what I’d never lived.

Selena grabbed my other arm, her eyes pleading:

"Listen to me. This isn’t a fight we can win. Not now. We need to retreat. They don’t want us... they want something else."

Kyle growled,

"What do you mean?"

But she didn’t answer him.

Then she shouted suddenly, without hesitation:

"Cover him! They’re closing in on us!"

She ran ahead of us, swung her blade with fluidity, and blocked an incoming creature that had lunged like an arrow.

We all pulled back.

And in the rear, I saw my father fighting two Arkanis alone, shattering one while the other tried to sneak behind him.

But one of his men suddenly screamed, then went silent... because his head exploded.

No metaphor here.

It exploded.

That’s when I realized this was just madness.

"Valerian!"

It was Leonard’s voice. It came from one of the stadium’s corridors, his arm bleeding, but his eyes shining with lucid clarity:

"The eastern gate... it’s still safe, but only for a little while! We have to get out!"

I looked at Selena, Kyle, then behind me, at my father who fought like a storm.

"I’m not leaving without him."

Selena, striking down the last creature near her, said:

"Then save yourself so you can come back for him!"

Kyle suddenly pulled me, and fired a shot from his hand into the sky.

It burst into strange colors—a signal for retreat.

We fell back.

I ran, not knowing how I was still on my feet.

But I heard a voice in my head.

It wasn’t from inside, but from within.

[Well then, Valerian. You’ve seen, and felt.

Now... we’ll see if you deserve survival.]

And it was followed by a laugh...

A laugh that wasn’t human...

Not even demonic.

And I was part of it...

Whether I wanted to be or not.

....

Zenith POV

Running.

Running isn’t like fighting. It doesn’t give you strength, doesn’t grant you glory, doesn’t satisfy the need that grows inside you when death is near. But now... it’s all I have left.

My feet pound against the rocky ground, my breath eerily calm, though my heart beats against my ribs like war drums. Behind me, their sounds, their screams, their footsteps, the crawl, the roars, the overlapping whispers in a language that doesn’t belong to this world.

They aren’t just many... they’re unsettling.

They chase me not like beasts, but like something commanded, something guided.

Why?

A scream tears through the air behind me. One of them got too close.

I turn, without hesitation.

My blade slides out of its sheath, whirls in the air, then silences the sound forever. The body drops, but there’s no time for reflection. The others don’t stop—they speed up. The smell of blood excites them, or excites something in them.

I run again.

Run.

One word. Suddenly appeared on the black transparent screen:

[Run.]

No instructions. No quests. No power analysis.

Just a command.

And silence.

It was the first time the system spoke to me. The first time it sent me anything... as if whoever was behind it had sensed danger himself. Or was afraid.

That word scared me more than the screams behind me.

Why now? Who is chasing me? Who is waiting?

Something inside me... whispered that this wasn’t coincidence.

I leap over a fractured rock, turn again, strike.

Three slashes. Three bodies.

But they don’t stop.

As if they don’t just want to kill me... but push me toward somewhere.

And then... I felt it.

That shiver. That sense you can’t explain. The feeling that someone is watching you... no, not watching. Waiting for you.

I raise my head to the sky...

And there, above the arena, above the mountains... he stood.

A man.

Long white hair fluttering without wind.

Red eyes... blazing, as if exposing the souls within you.

Nothing about him shined, but you knew that if you stared too long... you wouldn’t come back the same.

I didn’t know his name, but my heart spoke it.

He was smiling.

A soft, calm smile, as if what was happening beneath him was just a game he’d already set the rules for.

He raised his hand. With one finger, he pointed west.

And suddenly, the Arkanis who were attacking others... stopped. And turned.

To me?

No.

To that direction. As if they were... gathering.

He’s leading them. All of them. As if they were soldiers in an army that needed no shouts.

Then he raised his other hand, and pointed to the ground.

Irkalos.

He emerged from between the rocks as if born from their core. His massive body quaking, his eyes filled with hunger. But he was different.

I felt it.

He was hungry... but not for food.

He was moving toward the place the white-haired man was leading them to, followed by creatures I’d never seen before.

The massacre had begun.

I knew that even before he raised his hand and tore the first body in half.

I...

I’m still running.

But now, I’m not just fleeing.

Now... I’m running to find out why they chose me.

And why, among everyone, I’m the one ordered to run.

.....

Valerian’s POV

We were surrounded.

Reality didn’t need explaining or analysis. One look around me, at the number of Arkanis moving like black waves closing in on us from every direction, was enough to make my lungs tighten as if they no longer knew how to breathe.

"Valerian, focus!"

Kyle’s voice, beside me, was strangely steady. As if he didn’t see what I was seeing.

"We..."

My first word came out as a whisper, as if my throat refused to cooperate.

"We’re surrounded. No exit."

I looked into the eyes closing in. Some crawled, some ran, and some... couldn’t be described. Creatures without defined shape, without logic, but with clear thirst.

I was thinking. Thinking of any way to create an escape route. Any small chance, even if it seemed selfish, to run.

Even if I left Kyle...

Just thinking about it made my heart twist, but an inner voice whispered:

"You’re no hero, Valerian. Survival first."

Then I saw movement.

One of them lunged toward me, and I prepared to dodge, maybe use the moment to flee. But...

An explosion.

Not fiery... but sonic. A mix of metal and screaming.

I looked toward Kyle.

His sword... was shining.

A pure blue glow, extending in the air like lightning, and his strike...

His strike split the ground.

Just one.

And the unbelievable happened.

More than fifty of them.

Fell in a single moment. Their bodies were shredded, some burned, some vanished as if they’d never existed.

The silence that followed that strike... was heavier than a thousand screams.

I looked at him, eyes unable to believe.

Kyle stood silently, his sword glowing.

But any attempt to approach him... stopped suddenly.

The air changed.

As if something opened between us.

Something...

"At last, I found you two..."

The voice wasn’t one. It was two voices at once, opposing in tone, in feeling, in everything. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Then he appeared before us.

A beast with two faces.

His first face laughed madly, a laugh that filled the place as if it celebrated.

His other face... wept. Silently, as if mourning something.

Just his presence between me and Kyle... made the air suffocate.

"Go, Valerian!"

Kyle’s voice now wasn’t a request. It was a command.

"But..."

"GO!!!"

Diros didn’t wait. He lunged at Kyle, and both of them unleashed their strikes at the same moment. The sound of metal, the surge of aura, the madness... all exploded around me.

I stood frozen, hesitant—but he was looking at me. Kyle... his eyes said what his mouth didn’t.

This was his fight... alone.

I turned my back... and ran.

And the only thing running beside me now...

was the fear that I might never see him again.

I ran.

I could no longer tell my face from my feet, or my heartbeat from my breath. Wherever I fled wasn’t shelter—it was just a temporary answer.

"Faster... just faster..."

I whispered to myself, unaware of how many wounds marked my body, or of the blood covering my arms.

Then... I stopped.

Not because I wanted to, but because he was there.

I raised my head... and saw him.

Standing in the middle of the path, silent, unmoving.

His white hair swayed like it didn’t belong to this world. His eyes... red, glowing, devouring me without a single twitch.

He didn’t need to say anything—

And yet, he spoke.

"What’s your name?"

His voice was calm, cold, with no trace of threat.

But I felt as if my very soul was being pulled from me.

I stood there, frozen, staring at him... thinking:

Was survival just a lie all along?