The Beastborn corpse was already cold by the time Arc Modeus dragged himself out of the alley.
Rain dripped from rooftops in thick, relentless sheets. The street lamps flickered in intervals, mana-threaded coils inside them struggling to stay alive. The healer and injured men had been taken away by city responders—Arc heard their voices echoing blocks away.
But his mind wasn't on the wounded.
It was on him.
The boy at the end of the alley.
The one who killed the Beastborn before Arc could finish it.
The one his puppet was afraid of.
Arc wiped rain from his eyes. His puppet dangled quietly beside him, soaked and unnaturally still. Normally, it whispered, giggled, tugged at the strings.
Right now it was silent.
Arc whispered, "Why did you stop talking?"
Its head turned slowly, creaking.
"Because he wasn't prey," the puppet rasped.
Arc swallowed. "What do you mean?"
A pause.
Then:
"He was a hunter."
Arc felt his pulse spike—not with fear, but with something else. A direction. A thread to follow.
He took one step forward.
And froze.
A streak of red light cut across the night sky, slamming into the side of a distant building. The impact shook the ground under his feet and split the rain in a shockwave.
A second later, a deep, thunderous voice boomed:
"LOCKDOWN DISTRICT THREE! MANIFESTED ABILITY DETECTED! CENTRAL FORCES EN ROUTE!"
Arc's breath hitched.
A Manifested Ability?
Here?
He stepped into the street as people began screaming and running the opposite direction. Arc pushed through the panicking crowd, puppet bouncing behind him.
A blur rushed past him—
taller, heavier, radiating raw tension like static before lightning.
Titanborn.
Arc recognized him instantly.
The young brute was soaked in rain and adrenaline, sprinting toward the impact zone.
His eyes locked with Arc's for half a second—
confusion, recognition, distrust.
"Move," Titanborn growled before pushing past.
Arc watched his massive figure vanish into the smoke-filled street.
Then another figure followed behind—
slim, hooded, sprinting with precise steps, neither panicked nor rushed.
Mindwright.
His glasses were wet, hair plastered to his forehead, fingers twitching as he calculated distances, angles, outcomes. He didn't even look at Arc.
Just muttered:
"Impact vector… too clean. Not random. Targeted."
Arc blinked.
Mindwright bounded into the destruction like a shadow.
Then a ripple of wind and steam washed over Arc as Blinkstep arrived, skidding to a stop with a grin that didn't match the fear around him.
"Oh ho—now THIS is chaos. You joining, puppet-boy?"
Arc didn't answer.
Blinkstep didn't wait for one.
He vanished in a burst of wet air.
The street was nearly empty now.
Rain, smoke, distant screams, the smell of burning concrete—
And Arc.
He walked toward the destruction.
—
Within minutes he found the crater.
A deep, circular wound in the street. Buildings cracked, forms collapsed, chunks of stone scattered like snow.
Titanborn stood at the center, fists clenched, chest rising with fury.
Mindwright was kneeling next to a charred symbol etched into the crater floor, eyes darting, brain calculating at inhuman speed.
Blinkstep hung from a damaged sign, scanning the rooftops like a wolf.
Arc scanned the area.
No Elias.
But something else was wrong.
Titanborn marched toward Mindwright.
"Tell me who did this."
Mindwright didn't look up. "Not human. Not Beastborn. Not Elementis. Not even a Revenamancy signature."
Blinkstep whistled. "So something new? Love when the world gets worse."
Mindwright's finger traced the core of the symbol.
"It was fast. Precise. Surgical. Whatever attacked… only left one footprint."
Arc stiffened.
Footprint.
Blinkstep blinked. "What kinda footprint—"
Mindwright inhaled sharply.
"A human one."
Titanborn's expression darkened. Rain dripped from his fists.
"A human did THIS?"
Arc's puppet tugged, whispering:
"He's close."
Arc's heart thundered in his chest.
He scanned the rooftops—
And froze.
A silhouette stood at the very top of a ruined building. Rain hitting his hood. Knife in hand. Completely motionless.
Elias.
Not hiding.
Not approaching.
Just watching.
Waiting.
Blinkstep noticed him next. "Yo—who's the skinny kid?"
Titanborn turned slowly.
Mindwright's eyes widened.
Arc's breath stopped.
Elias finally spoke—voice quiet, sharp, cutting through the rain:
"You're all too loud."
Then he stepped backward—
And disappeared into the storm.