The world snapped back into focus with the violence of breaking glass.
Alex hit the ground hard, shoulder grinding against rough stone. Beside him, Sarah collapsed in a tangle of blue silk, her carefully arranged hair now wild around her face. Lord Erick landed with a sickening crack, his arm bending at an unnatural angle.
They were in some kind of abandoned storehouse. High ceilings lost in shadow, broken windows letting in sickly afternoon light. The air tasted of rust and old blood.
"Well, well." The hooded figure stepped through the closing tear in reality, his face wreathed in satisfied shadows. "Two SS-rank novices and their babysitter. This was almost too easy."
Erick groaned, trying to push himself up with his good arm. "You... you don't understand what you've done. The Crown will..."
The hooded figure gestured casually. A tear in reality opened silently behind Erick, and he stepped through in one fluid motion. Before the liaison could even turn, a curved dagger flashed across his throat.
Blood sprayed across the warehouse floor as Erick collapsed, hands clutching uselessly at the gaping wound. His eyes remained wide with shock for a heartbeat before the light faded from them completely.
Alex watched the execution with detached interest. *One less variable to worry about. And the girl will be more malleable without an authority figure.*
The hooded figure stepped back through the closing tear, wiping his blade clean on a piece of cloth.
Sarah's scream tore through the storehouse like breaking crystal.
"No, no, no!" She scrambled backward on hands and knees, blue dress staining with dust and worse. "This isn't happening! This can't be happening!"
The spatial manipulator laughed, low and cruel. "Two SS-rank novices. Fresh awakened, barely novice, probably can't even maintain basic Essence flow under stress." He flexed his fingers, reality rippling around them like water. "My employer was concerned, but honestly? This is going to be disappointingly simple."
Alex pushed himself to his feet, mind calculating. *The man's right. We're outclassed. But panic makes people unpredictable. And unpredictable can be useful.*
"Sarah," he said quietly, not taking his eyes off their captor. His tone was calm, clinical. "Look at me."
But Sarah wasn't listening. She was completely lost in panic, tears streaming down her face as she stared at Erick's remains. "My parents... they're going to think I'm dead. They're going to think..."
*Good. Terror strips away pretense. Let's see what you really are underneath all that sheltered nobility.*
The hooded figure raised his hand, space beginning to warp around Alex's throat. "Enough chatter. Time to..."
Sarah's sobbing became erratic, her breathing coming in sharp, shallow gasps.
"I can't... I can't breathe... everything's moving too fast..." She pressed her hands against her temples, rocking back and forth. "My parents... they don't even know... they think I'm safe..."
Alex watched with predatory focus as everything around her began to... slow. Not physically. The dust motes still fell at normal speed, the manipulator's gesture continued at regular pace. But Sarah herself seemed to be moving just slightly faster than the rest of the world.
*Interesting. Temporal distortion under stress. This could be very useful indeed.*
"I don't want to die!" Her voice climbed toward hysteria, completely unfocused. "I don't want to die here! I want to go home! I want my mother!"
Her tears hung suspended on her cheeks for a moment longer than they should have. Her breathing quickened to an almost hummingbird pace, then gradually synced back to normal rhythm as her panic reached a crescendo.
The hooded figure noticed the temporal distortion, his confident expression flickering with confusion. "What the hell...?"
Alex said nothing. He simply watched, cataloging every detail of Sarah's breakdown with the cold interest of someone who had learned long ago that survival meant exploiting every weakness, every advantage, every tool available.
*She's not just slowing time. She's accelerating her own temporal field while under extreme duress. Raw, uncontrolled power. The question is: what else can she do when pushed to the breaking point?*
"You killed him," Sarah whispered through her tears, voice breaking completely. "He was just... just trying to help us and you..."
She was trembling violently, completely lost in grief and panic.
"And you're next, little girl, unless you..."
"No, no, NO!" Sarah's scream tore through the storehouse, raw and primal. She collapsed to her knees, hands clutching her head as her breakdown reached a crescendo. "I don't want to die! I want my parents! I want to go HOME!"
Her sobbing became uncontrollable, her entire body shaking with the force of her terror and grief. The air around her began to shimmer with an almost imperceptible distortion.
[System Alert: Dangerous Energy Fluctuation Detected]
[WARNING: Hostile ability manifestation in progress]
[RETREAT RECOMMENDED]
Alex read the system warnings with grim satisfaction. *Hostile ability manifestation. Perfect.* He began backing away, but made no attempt to calm Sarah. Instead, he watched with calculating eyes as her power built toward something dangerous.
*Let's see what you're really capable of, little lamb.*
"I CAN'T!" she wailed, completely lost in her panic. "He's dead and we're going to die and I'll never see my mother again!"
The hooded figure took a step closer, raising his hand to create another spatial tear. "Enough of this pathetic..."
The moment he crossed within three meters of Sarah's huddled form, the change began.
"What the hell?" He staggered slightly, a strange weakness washing over him. "I feel..."
Alex continued retreating to what the system indicated was a safe distance, his expression coldly fascinated as he watched the invisible field strengthen around Sarah's broken form.
*There it is. Not just temporal acceleration. She's creating a localized time dilation field. And he just walked right into it like an amateur.*
Sarah was beyond hearing anything, lost completely in her terror and grief. Which was exactly what Alex had hoped for.
That's when he saw it. The man's skin was changing. Subtle at first. Just a slight tightening around his eyes, a deepening of the lines on his forehead. But it accelerated rapidly as he remained within the invisible field radiating from Sarah's emotional breakdown.
*Aging. She's not just manipulating the flow of time - she's weaponizing it. Fascinating.*
"Something's wrong," the hooded figure said, his voice starting to crack as he tried to back away. But the aging effect clung to him like invisible poison. "I feel... different. Tired."
Sarah was completely oblivious, lost in her own panic. "I want my mother!" she sobbed into her hands. "I just want to go home! Please make it stop!"
Gray crept through the man's hair like spreading frost. His confident sneer began to sag as the skin lost elasticity. Age spots bloomed across his hands and face like dark flowers as Sarah's unconscious power drained decades from his life.
"Girl!" he gasped, finally understanding what was happening. "Stop whatever you're doing!"
"I'm not doing anything!" Sarah screamed back through her tears, still completely unaware. "I don't know what you want from me!"
*Perfect. She has no idea she's killing him. No conscious control means no moral hesitation. This is exactly the kind of power that can be shaped.*
The aging accelerated as Sarah's breakdown intensified. The hooded figure tried desperately to escape the invisible field, but he was already too weak, his movements becoming sluggish as decades drained from his life.
"Please..." he gasped with a voice now ancient and papery. "Make her stop..."
Alex remained silent, watching with clinical detachment as their captor withered. *Why would I? You made yourself a threat. Now you're being eliminated. The natural order of things.*
Sarah was beyond reason, curled in a ball on the storehouse floor, her sobs echoing off the walls. Her grief and terror poured out of her in waves, each one strengthening the temporal distortion that was killing their captor.
Alex observed with the same cold interest he might show a particularly effective torture technique. The man aged decades in seconds. His hair went white, then began to fall out. His face became a map of wrinkles, his back bent with the weight of accelerated years. His proud posture crumbled into the shuffle of extreme old age.
*Accelerated aging as a defensive mechanism. Triggered by extreme emotional distress. She's not just SS-rank - she's potentially catastrophic if properly motivated.*
The man's breathing became labored, then stopped altogether. What collapsed to the storehouse floor looked like an ancient mummy. Desiccated, hollow, wearing clothes now far too large for the withered frame within.
Only when the threat was completely eliminated did Sarah's emotional breakdown begin to subside. Her sobs gradually quieted to exhausted whimpers, and the shimmer in the air around her slowly faded.
The silence stretched until Alex could hear his own heartbeat.
Sarah finally lifted her head, her face streaked with tears and dust. She looked around the storehouse with confused, red-rimmed eyes until her gaze fell on the withered corpse.
"What... what happened to him?" Her voice was small, lost. "He was just... and now he's..."
She stared at the ancient remains, then at Alex. "Did... did you do this while I was crying? He looks like he died of old age."
Alex studied her face carefully. *Complete dissociation from her own actions. Useful. It means she can be guided without the burden of conscious guilt.*
"No, Sarah," he said quietly, his tone almost gentle. "You did that."
"Me?" She looked genuinely bewildered. "But I was just crying! I didn't even touch him! I was just scared and upset and..."
*And there's the shock. Now comes the critical moment. How she processes this will determine how malleable she'll be going forward.*
In the distance, they could hear sounds of approach. Boots on stone, voices calling out in the systematic pattern of a search. Their captors had backup arriving.
"We need to move," Alex said calmly, already analyzing exit routes.
"Can you do... that again?" he asked, nodding toward the remains. His tone was purely practical, as if discussing any other tool or weapon.
Sarah looked at her hands, then at the desiccated corpse. Something complex flickered across her features. Revulsion, fear, and underneath it all, a cold satisfaction she clearly didn't want to acknowledge.
*Good. She felt the satisfaction. That means she can be taught to embrace it.*
"I don't know," she said honestly. "But I think... I think I'm going to have to find out."
*Exactly the answer I wanted to hear.*
Outside, the voices were getting closer.
"Then let's go find out together," he said, his voice carrying the faintest hint of something that might have been approval.
As they moved toward the shadows at the back of the storehouse, Alex allowed himself a thin smile. *Sarah Millbrook, carpenter's daughter. Time manipulator. Living weapon.*
*She just aged a man to death without even realizing it. Once I teach her to do it deliberately, she'll be unstoppable.*
*And completely under my control.*
The question wasn't whether she'd realize her true potential. The question was how quickly he could mold her into exactly the tool he needed.
After all, he'd learned long ago that survival meant using every resource available. And Sarah Millbrook was going to be his most valuable resource of all.