Valdris didn't sleep.
Not truly.
Even at night, the alleyways whispered. Market streets sighed. Drunken footsteps staggered between taverns. The city muttered like something half-awake and half-rotting.
After Alac vanished—no, slipped out of reality—the room felt painfully mortal. The air tasted normal again. Time flowed correctly. The shadows stayed where shadows should be.
And yet Raygen couldn't shake the impression that someone enormous had just folded himself small enough to stand beside a bed.
Asa sat with her back against the wall, legs pulled up, forehead resting on her knees. She wasn't asleep; her breathing was too uneven for that.
Raygen sat at the window, elbows on his knees, watching the alley below. The cracked glass reflected Asa's outline behind him.
Neither had spoken since Lyle Raft's silhouette disappeared into the shadows.
The world had changed too fast.
He whispered, "Asa… you okay?"
A long silence.
Then a tired, muffled, "Your eldritch boyfriend has boundary issues."
Raygen choked on air. "He is NOT—"
"Uh-huh." She raised her head, eyes half-dead. "Raygen, he froze time because I named him. Do you understand how insane that sentence is? Do you understand how insane I am for saying it?"
Raygen opened his mouth.
Closed it.
"…So. That's a no?"
Asa groaned into her palms. "I named a cosmic entity like I was naming a stray cat and he—he accepted it. He literally accepted it. How do I process that?"
Raygen stared down at the alley. "Slowly. Preferably without hitting me this time."
"Oh trust me," Asa muttered, "you're getting hit for this eventually."
He cracked a small smile despite himself.
But the moment didn't last.
Because down in the alley, movement flickered.
A trio of cloaked figures blocked the narrow path—a group of men dragging a screaming young girl by her hair. A woman followed behind them, wrists bound, face bruised purple and blue.
Slave traders.
The subtle kind—the kind who operated under noble protection.
Raygen's fists tightened.
"Asa." He pointed.
She moved instantly to the window.
The girl kicked one man in the shin; he yanked her backward, raising a hand to strike.
Asa hissed through her teeth. "Bastards."
Raygen was already halfway to the door. "We can stop them."
"Yeah." Asa's voice sharpened. "We can."
They ran.
Down the inn stairs. Through the side alley entrance. Into the cold night. Valdris smelled of smoke and damp stone, and the closer they got, the louder the muffled screaming became.
The slavers hadn't gone far.
Raygen sprinted forward. "HEY!"
The three men turned.
The tallest sneered. "Look what wandered in. A couple strays."
Raygen stood ready. Asa slid beside him, daggers unsheathed, stance low, shadows whispering at her ankles.
The tallest man shoved the child aside and stepped forward. "Get lost."
"No," Raygen said.
The man cracked his knuckles. "Then die."
He lunged.
Raygen dodged sideways and drove a knee into the man's ribs. The man grunted, staggered—then grinned with bloody teeth.
"C-rank trash."
Raygen frowned. That hit should've cracked a bone.
He reached for his system instinctively—
[Danger Classification: High]
[Recommendation: Do not engage alone.]
Raygen hissed, "Asa!"
"I'm working on it!"
She intercepted the second slaver, shadows sliding under her feet as she ducked under a blow and slashed upward. Her dagger scraped metal—unexpected.
The man's body hardened like steel. A magic coating. High-end defensive body technique.
"Asa, watch out—!"
"I noticed!"
The slavers weren't normal thugs.
These were trained, augmented, and far above their supposed rank.
Raygen's opponent grabbed him by the shirt, lifted him effortlessly, and slammed him into the wall. Stone cracked.
Raygen gasped.
The man leaned close. "Pretty little hero. Shame to break you."
Raygen's vision blurred.
[Suggestion: Activate hidden skill—]
"No," Raygen breathed.
He didn't want to rely on forced system guidance. Not now. Not with Asa watching. Not after everything Alac said.
The man raised his hand to strike—
The world shifted.
The shadows in the alley bent sharply, drawn toward Asa like iron filings to a magnet.
Raygen blinked. "Asa…?"
Her eyes glowed faintly red—just for an instant. Not magic. Something deeper. Older. Something that smelled like finality.
The Shard of Destruction.
She didn't even know she was using it.
The air around her cracked—soundlessly—like a pane of glass breaking underwater.
Asa's dagger slid forward in a single step.
The second slaver's arm fell off at the elbow.
He stared at the stump, confused.
Blood followed a second later.
He screamed.
Asa didn't.
She looked at her weapon, startled. "…What the hell? I didn't even—"
Raygen's slaver turned just in time to see his companion collapse.
Raygen seized the moment.
He drove his elbow into the man's throat. Hard. The man released him, stumbling back, gasping for air.
Raygen didn't hesitate.
He punched him across the jaw and followed with a kick to the knee. The man buckled.
Asa, meanwhile, had jumped to defend the mother and daughter, positioning herself between them and the third slaver.
He hesitated only a moment—then bolted down the alley.
Asa stepped to chase him—
A voice whispered:
"No."
Raygen froze.
Asa froze.
The slaver froze.
The shadows themselves froze.
Alac stood at the mouth of the alley.
No ripple of distortion. No shift of air. No warning.
He simply appeared—like the alley finally remembered he existed.
Raygen's heart stuttered. "…Alac?"
Asa tensed instinctively, but this time she didn't raise her blades. She only swallowed hard and stepped slightly behind Raygen.
Alac walked forward.
His steps made no sound.
His expression held no anger, no emotion at all. Just a quiet inevitability—as if he'd already seen this scene many times.
He looked at the injured slaver clutching his severed arm.
Then at the one Raygen fought.
Then at the fleeing one.
"Slavers," he said calmly, "carry an echo."
Raygen frowned. "An echo?"
"They do not merely harm the body. They twist the world. They take a life that should have been free and force it into a shape against its nature."
He raised a hand.
The fleeing slaver gasped as invisible force yanked him backward through the air, dragging him until he landed face-first in front of Alac.
He choked, clawing at his throat. "L-Let me go—"
"No."
Alac extended two fingers.
The alley darkened.
No—everything darkened. Even the stars overhead dimmed as if they'd been covered by a veil.
Raygen's pulse spiked. "Alac—what are you doing?"
"Asa," Alac said without looking at her, "observe. You need not understand today. But you will understand one day."
Asa flinched, her dagger blade lowering slowly. "Why are you talking like this is a lesson?"
"Because it is."
He pointed at the slavers.
"You all committed the crime."
The words did not echo.
The world echoed around them.
The slaver closest to Alac went still. His breath halted. His eyes rolled upward, and he collapsed without a single mark on his skin.
Dead.
Raygen lurched. "Alac—stop—!"
Asa grabbed his arm. "Raygen, wait—"
"For those who watched and did nothing," Alac continued quietly, "the world allows me to judge."
The second slaver—the one Asa maimed—tried to crawl away.
His body turned to ash before he got a foot.
Raygen stared in horror. He'd killed before—but in battle, by necessity, never like this. Never by decree.
"Alac!" Raygen shouted. "You can't—this is—"
Alac turned.
Those lightning-born eyes met his.
"This world fears to act. It fears to change. You do not."
Raygen's voice shook. "This… this isn't change. This is execution."
Alac tilted his head slightly. "Execution is a form of change."
Raygen stumbled back a step.
Asa's grip tightened.
Alac's gaze slid to her.
"You possess Destruction. You understand finality more than you admit."
Asa stiffened. "…I didn't kill that man on purpose."
"You didn't need to," Alac replied.
He stepped closer to Raygen.
This time, Raygen did not back up.
He stood firm.
"Why?" Raygen demanded. "Why kill them? Why not let the guards handle it?"
Alac blinked slowly, as if the question was foreign. "The guards would sell the victims back."
Raygen froze.
"What?"
"Valdris is corrupt," Alac said simply. "This city exists because predators remain fed. If I hand these men over, they will return by morning."
Raygen swallowed.
Because he knew it was true.
He'd lived in Valdris. He knew.
Alac continued:
"You must choose what kind of strength you pursue, Raygen. The path of mercy."
His eyes sharpened.
"Or the path of correction."
Raygen's breath caught.
He wasn't ready for this.
But Alac wasn't asking if he was ready.
Alac was telling him the question existed.
Raygen looked over at the girl and her mother—the terror, the shaking, the way they clung to Asa.
He looked at the ash where the slavers had been.
He looked at Alac.
"…I don't want to kill because it's easy," Raygen whispered.
Alac nodded. "Good."
Then his tone cooled.
"But do not refuse to kill when it is necessary."
Raygen felt something inside him shift—something heavy, something old, something he didn't have a name for yet.
Asa stepped between them suddenly. "Okay. Enough. Cosmic lectures later. We need to get these two somewhere safe."
Alac looked at her.
He softened.
"You are correct."
Asa blinked. "Wait—really? I expected another cryptic monologue."
"A name carries influence," Alac said quietly. "I am adjusting."
Raygen almost laughed.
Almost.
Together, they escorted the mother and daughter to the innkeeper—an honest one, rare in Valdris—who agreed to hide them for the night.
When Raygen and Asa returned to their room, Alac was already there, seated quietly on the floor.
Raygen sat across from him.
Asa sat between them, exhausted.
None spoke.
Until Alac finally said:
"Raygen. A crossroads has begun. You stepped onto it tonight."
Raygen stared down at his hands.
"I know."
"And I will not choose your direction for you."
Raygen looked up.
Their eyes met.
"But," Alac murmured, "I will walk with you."
Raygen exhaled.
Slow.
Heavy.
But steady.
"Then… let's go," he said softly. "Wherever this leads."
Alac nodded.
Asa pushed Raygen's shoulder.
"And you're both idiots," she added. "But you're my idiots. So I'm stuck."
Raygen smiled.
Alac gave the faintest hint of one.
And outside the window—
Lyle Raft leaned against a lamppost, grinning as he listened.
"Crossroads, huh…? Interesting."
The real threat had only just begun.
---