The first knight had not finished falling before the others moved.
The lead knight tore his attention away from the two halves of the body the instant they struck the road. Whatever horror had reached his face disappeared beneath training, discipline, and the understanding that allowing himself even one second to process what had happened would give the masked man exactly the opening he needed. He stepped through the spray of blood and drove his sword forward before the stranger had fully recovered from releasing the attack.
“Keep him occupied!” he shouted.
The sphere user responded immediately.
The shock in his face vanished as spiritual energy surged through his wounded arm. Three spheres formed around his shoulder and another two appeared near his opposite side, their pale light reflecting across the blood now staining the masked man’s white clothing. He fired all five without hesitation.
The masked stranger moved.
His shortblade snapped upward and knocked the lead knight’s sword away before he twisted aside from the first sphere. The second passed close enough to disturb the edge of his coat, while the third struck the road and erupted behind him. He ducked beneath the fourth and tried to break toward the carriage, but the remaining swordsman moved across his path.
Steel crashed against steel.
The masked man’s reverse-gripped shortblade caught the knight’s weapon near the guard. The swordsman leaned into the clash with both hands, spiritual energy flooding his arms as he tried to hold the stranger in place.
“Now!”
The fifth sphere arrived.
The masked man kicked the swordsman away and turned just before the sphere reached him. His shortblade moved through the glowing attack at an angle that made no sense to Itsuki.
The sphere disappeared.
Itsuki stared.
It did not explode.
There was no burst of opposing energy, no violent collision between two powers. The glowing sphere simply came apart around the blade, dissolving into countless pale particles that drifted harmlessly through the air before fading.
Mariah saw it too.
“What was that?”
Neither of the two knights beside them answered.
They had already moved.
One stepped directly between Itsuki and the fight while the other grabbed the carriage door and pulled it open.
“Inside.”
Itsuki did not move.
Her eyes remained fixed on the battlefield.
The dead knight lay less than thirty feet away. Blood spread rapidly across the road beneath what remained of him, darkening the dirt in widening patches. She could still remember him standing beside the carriage only minutes earlier. She could remember the way all six knights had positioned themselves around her and Mariah, how ordinary their protection had felt because there had been six of them and because all six were SS-ranked.
Now there were five.
One of the guards reached toward her shoulder but stopped before touching her.
“My lady, we need to move.”
Itsuki looked at him.
His face was controlled, but his jaw was clenched hard enough to show how much effort that control required.
Mariah recovered first.
“He’s right.”
Itsuki’s gaze snapped toward her.
Mariah was already moving toward the carriage. She did not reach for Itsuki this time. She did not order her. She simply looked toward the three knights fighting in the road and then toward the empty stretch behind them.
“They’re buying us time,” she said. “We cannot waste it.”
The words hurt because they were true.
Itsuki looked back at the dead knight once.
The remaining three had not.
They could not.
The masked man drove forward again.
The lead knight met him head-on, his sword carrying enough spiritual reinforcement to make the air crack around the blade. He slashed downward, but the stranger stepped inside the attack and rotated his wrist. The shortblade hooked against the longer sword and redirected it just enough for the edge to miss his shoulder.
The other swordsman attacked from behind.
The masked man ducked as the sword passed over his head.
The sphere user immediately created another pair of attacks and released them toward the stranger’s legs.
The masked man jumped.
The lead knight had been waiting for him to leave the ground.
A crescent of spiritual energy tore upward from his sword.
The masked man twisted in midair.
For the briefest instant, his head tilted.
Then his shortblade moved.
The attack unraveled.
The entire arc of spiritual energy separated into shimmering fragments that washed around him like mist.
He landed untouched.
Mariah stopped beside the carriage.
“What is he doing?”
The guard nearest them shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“He’s cutting the attacks.”
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
Another impact rang across the road.
The lead knight staggered backward as the masked man’s shoulder struck his chest. The stranger pursued him immediately, shortblade carving toward his throat, but the second swordsman intercepted. Their weapons collided, and the sphere user sent another orb toward the masked man’s exposed side.
Once again, the stranger’s head shifted toward the attack before it arrived.
Once again, his blade found a precise point along its surface.
The sphere collapsed into harmless light.
Itsuki felt her stomach tighten.
There was no overwhelming burst of spiritual energy accompanying the movement. The masked man was not overpowering the spheres with greater force. If anything, the amount of energy gathering around his shortblade seemed almost insignificant compared with the attacks he was destroying.
He was doing something else, something none of them understood.
The masked man pushed the swordsman away and stepped toward the carriage.
The lead knight cut him off.
“Your fight is here.”
The stranger’s white mask turned toward him.
The lead knight attacked before he could answer.
His sword moved in a rapid combination, one slash following another without allowing space between them. The masked man blocked the first, slipped beneath the second, and caught the third against the spine of his shortblade. The knight immediately changed direction and brought his weapon back toward the stranger’s ribs.
This time it connected.
The edge cut through white cloth and opened another shallow wound.
Blood ran along the masked man’s side.
The sphere user fired from behind.
The stranger turned.
His shortblade flashed.
Two spheres dissolved almost simultaneously.
The third struck his shoulder.
The explosion snapped his body sideways.
The lead knight followed him.
His sword struck the masked man across the ribs and sent him sliding through the dirt.
The remaining swordsman rushed from the opposite direction.
The three survivors were regaining some control.
“Keep spacing!” the leader shouted. “Do not give him one target!”
The sphere user moved farther left.
The swordsman moved right.
The lead knight stayed directly between the masked stranger and the carriage.
Behind them, the two remaining guards began putting the escape plan into motion.
One climbed onto the front of the carriage and grabbed the reins of the nearest horse to help control the frightened animals. The other remained beside Itsuki and Mariah.
“Get inside.”
Mariah entered immediately.
Itsuki hesitated.
The masked man rose from the road.
Blood now marked three places along his white clothing, including the heavy red spray covering his chest and mask from the knight he had killed. The sight transformed the stranger’s appearance completely. What had seemed ceremonial when he first stepped from the beam now looked desecrated, white and gold buried beneath streaks of blood that belonged mostly to someone else.
Itsuki felt the guard’s attention shift toward her.
“We need to go.”
She climbed inside.
The guard followed only far enough to make certain she was seated before stepping back outside and keeping the door open. He positioned himself on the carriage step, sword ready, allowing him to defend the passengers while the other guard worked with the driver.
Mariah sat across from Itsuki again.
The carriage jerked.
The horses resisted at first, frightened by the explosions and spiritual pressure flooding the road. The driver fought the reins while the knight beside him shouted directions and forced the lead animals to turn.
The carriage began rotating slowly.
Itsuki looked through the open doorway.
The battle continued as the three knights pressed him together, refusing to give the masked man enough space to reset. The sphere user changed his approach first, spreading six smaller spheres around himself in a wide arc instead of relying on single attacks. They launched from different angles, forcing the masked man to divide his attention while the two swordsmen closed in.
He cut through one of the incoming spheres and immediately turned toward another, breaking it apart into harmless light, but the lead knight attacked before he could deal with the rest. Steel crashed against the shortblade, pinning the masked man in place just long enough for one of the remaining spheres to slam into his side. The blast ripped him away from the clash as the others curved inward around him. Another burst tore into the ground near his feet, while a separate sphere caught his leg during the recovery and forced him into a roll through the dust before he came back to his feet.
The sphere user watched closely.
He had seen enough.
The masked man could make the attacks disappear, but only when he had the time to reach them.
Mariah leaned slightly toward the open doorway.
“He can’t do all of them.”
Itsuki looked at her.
Mariah’s eyes remained fixed on the fight.
“He has to hit them.”
The guard standing on the carriage step glanced back at her.
“What?”
“The attacks he makes disappear,” Mariah said. “He physically touches them with the blade. When there are too many things happening at once, some get through.”
The guard looked toward the three fighting knights.
“Then they figured it out too.”
The sphere user already had.
He spread his fingers.
More spheres appeared, not larger than before, but smaller and faster.
Ten lights surrounded him.
The lead knight saw them and changed his approach.
“Keep him busy!”
He rushed forward with the remaining swordsman.
The masked man met them.
Steel rang repeatedly as both knights attacked from opposite sides. The stranger moved between them with astonishing speed, blocking one sword with his shortblade while slipping his shoulder away from the other. He kicked the lead knight in the stomach, forcing him backward, but the second swordsman used the opening and cut across the stranger’s upper arm.
Blood appeared.
The masked man turned toward him as the sphere user fired.
Ten attacks converged from different directions.
The masked man’s shortblade flashed through the barrage with frightening precision, breaking apart several of the incoming attacks before they could reach him. Harmless spiritual energy scattered around his body, but there were too many angles to cover at once. One sphere slipped through and struck his back, another caught his leg during the turn, and a third burst against his shoulder hard enough to make him stagger.
He recovered immediately and forced his way through the remaining attacks before the sphere user could form another barrage, closing the distance toward the two swordsmen.
The lead knight saw the blood running across the masked man’s clothing and smiled grimly.
“So you can bleed.”
The masked man answered by driving his shortblade toward the knight’s throat.
The lead knight caught the strike with his sword, and their weapons locked for only a moment before the second swordsman came in from the side.
The masked stranger dropped low, allowing the blade to pass above his mask, and drove the pommel of his shortblade into the attacker’s ribs.
The man grunted as the masked man followed with a reverse-gripped slash.
The swordsman barely raised his weapon in time, but the impact still knocked him several steps sideways. The lead knight immediately pressed back in, forcing the stranger to turn and meet his blade as steel crashed together once more. Behind them, the carriage finally began to move.
Itsuki felt the wheels straighten beneath her.
The driver had finally turned them around.
The road back toward the village now stretched ahead of the horses, while the battle remained behind them.
The knight beside the driver shouted toward the three fighters.
“We’re moving!”
The lead knight did not look back.
“Go!”
Itsuki’s chest tightened as the carriage lurched forward.
She grabbed the side of the seat as the horses accelerated.
The guard standing on the step kept his sword ready while watching the battle behind them.
Mariah and Itsuki both turned towards the rear window.
The three knights were getting farther away, but not nearly quickly enough.
The masked man noticed the carriage moving and shifted his body.
The lead knight immediately understood.
“Do not let him through!”
The stranger exploded forward.
The swordsman intercepted and their blades collided.
The masked man twisted around him and tried to break toward the carriage, but the sphere user sent a cluster of attacks across his path.
The stranger cut through the first sphere and the second forced him to move left and the lead knight met him there.
His sword slammed against the masked man’s shortblade.
“You’re staying with us.”
The masked man pushed him away.
The second swordsman came from behind.
The stranger spun and blocked.
The sphere user fired again.
Itsuki watched from the moving carriage.
For several seconds, the plan worked and the distance grew.
The three knights held the stranger.
The carriage gained speed.
Itsuki knew what that meant.
Those three were not planning to catch up easily.
They were staying behind.
Her fingers dug into the edge of the seat.
Mariah saw her expression.
“They know what they’re doing.”
Itsuki turned on her.
“They’re going to die.”
Mariah’s face tightened.
The words struck harder than Itsuki intended.
One already had.
Mariah looked back toward the fight.
“If they can disengage, they will.”
“And if they can’t?”
Mariah did not answer.
Itsuki hated the silence that followed.
She looked back through the rear opening.
The masked man was winning.
There was no other way to describe it now.
The three SS-ranked knights were fighting intelligently. They had adapted to the strange way he destroyed their spiritual attacks. They had recognized that overwhelming him with multiple threats was more effective than relying on singular powerful techniques. They had adjusted their spacing and used one another’s strengths.
It was not enough.
The masked man was learning too.
He stopped trying to destroy every sphere.
Instead, he identified which attacks actually threatened his path and ignored the rest.
The sphere user launched another spread of attacks. He erased one with a precise cut, slipped past two more, and let another graze his shoulder rather than lose momentum. Before the remaining spheres could close in, he burst through the opening and reached the swordsman.
The shortblade came in high, forcing the knight to raise his weapon, but the block left his footing exposed. The masked man swept his ankle out from beneath him and drove a knee into his chest as he fell, launching him hard across the road.
The lead knight attacked before the stranger could follow. The masked man slipped around the sword, opened a line across the knight’s thigh, and drove an elbow into his face hard enough to drop him to one knee. Another barrage immediately came from the sphere user, but the stranger was already turning toward it. Several attacks collapsed beneath those same unnervingly precise cuts while another burst against his back, yet he kept moving through the impact and forced his way toward the caster.
The sphere user abandoned distance and drew his sword into both hands just as the masked man reached him. Their weapons collided, and the difference in speed showed immediately. The shortblade hammered against his defenses in rapid succession, each impact forcing him farther backward while his arms struggled to keep pace. Desperate to interrupt the pressure, he formed an orb beside the masked man’s face and fired at nearly point-blank range, but the stranger ducked beneath it and caught the sword that followed.
The lead knight came back in despite the blood running down his leg, forcing the masked man to turn between both opponents. He kicked the sphere user away while catching the leader’s weapon against the edge of his shortblade, only for the third swordsman to rush back into the fight from the roadside.
Blood ran from the man’s mouth as he charged, but the masked stranger saw him coming. He shifted just enough for the sword to miss and answered with a slash across the knight’s stomach. The wound was not deep enough to kill him, but the swordsman recoiled immediately, one hand instinctively moving toward the cut as his pace slowed.
Watching from the carriage, Itsuki understood what had changed.
The three knights were no longer holding the masked man in place. They were only delaying him now, and even that was becoming harder with every exchange.
Itsuki looked toward the knight riding beside the driver.
“How far until we reach help?”
He did not look back.
“Too far.”
Mariah’s eyes narrowed. “Then where are we going?”
“Anywhere that gives them distance from you.”
The answer made Itsuki’s stomach drop.
The guard standing beside the open door looked toward her.
“He came for you. If we get you far enough away, they may be able to disengage.”
“May?”
The knight did not lie.
“May.”
Itsuki looked back toward the shrinking figures and stood.
Mariah immediately looked at her.
“What are you doing?”
“We can’t just leave them.”
The guard on the step turned.
“My lady, sit down.”
Itsuki ignored him.
Her hand went toward the center of her chest.
The gold was still there, and so was the darkness, but Itsuki knew neither was strong enough yet.
Even if her spiritual energy was returning, she could not heal yet. She could not fight the way she had before. Whatever strange power the butterfly had left inside her was something she barely understood and had only just nearly lost control of in the village.
But the sight of the three knights fighting while the carriage carried her away twisted something inside her.
“They’re dying because of me.”
Mariah’s expression hardened.
“No.”
Itsuki looked at her.
“They are fighting because someone attacked this escort and demanded that we abandon you. Those are his choices.”
“He came for me.”
“That does not make his violence yours.”
Itsuki stared at her.
The words came from the same woman whose throat still bore the marks Itsuki had left there.
Neither of them seemed to know what to do with that.
The carriage struck another uneven patch of road.
Itsuki grabbed the seat to steady herself.
The guard spoke before she could move again.
“They chose the assignment.”
Itsuki looked toward him.
The knight remained focused on the road behind them.
“We knew there were risks when we accepted the king’s order. We did not know this specific risk, but that does not make it yours.”
Itsuki wanted to argue.
The sound of another explosion interrupted her.
The sphere user had fired something larger than the earlier attacks.
Mariah leaned closer to the rear opening.
“He keeps doing it.”
The guard frowned.
“He should not be able to.”
Itsuki watched.
Every time the masked man destroyed one of the attacks, there was something strange about the timing.
He never struck early or attacked the entire technique repeatedly. Instead, he made one movement and one exact cut, and then the energy collapsed.
The sphere user seemed increasingly frustrated by it.
He created another orb, and the masked man erased it. When he created another, the same thing happened.
The sphere user changed the angle.
The stranger still found it.
Whatever he was doing, it did not matter how powerful the attack was.
Only whether he could reach it.
The sphere user realized that too.
His next barrage came from several directions at once, and the masked man dealt with the first attacks quickly, cutting some apart while letting another strike him as the lead knight rushed back in. The stranger caught the incoming sword, but the second swordsman was already there, and for several seconds the three knights managed to force him backward together.
Then the masked man changed pace.
Itsuki barely saw it happen. The lead knight’s head snapped sideways from a sudden strike, the second swordsman was kicked hard in the chest, and the sphere user tried to create distance only for the masked man to appear in front of him almost immediately. The shortblade crashed against his raised sword and sent him sprawling across the road.
The stranger moved to follow, but the lead knight caught his arm before he could. The masked man spun with the resistance and drove the handle of the shortblade into the knight’s already wounded thigh, dropping him to the ground. The remaining swordsman attacked from behind, but the stranger blocked without even fully turning, drove an elbow into his ribs, then pivoted and opened another cut across his shoulder.
Within moments, all three knights were down.
Itsuki’s breath caught as the masked man turned toward the carriage. Even from the growing distance, she could tell exactly where the white mask was facing.
Toward her.
The lead knight moved first. His injured leg nearly failed beneath him, so he drove his sword into the road and used it to force himself upright.
“Not yet.”
The masked man looked back.
The other swordsman pushed himself up beside his leader while the sphere user rolled onto one knee, blood running down his forearm as he fought to steady his breathing. One by one, the three knights rose again, and the masked man turned away from the carriage to face them.
Itsuki slowly sat back down while the carriage continued moving, and neither she nor Mariah spoke as the fight resumed behind them.
The sphere user was the first to change his approach. He stopped creating the smaller attacks he had relied on throughout the fight and drew in one heavy breath as spiritual energy began gathering around him. The lead knight noticed immediately. Their eyes met for only a moment, but the understanding passed between them without a word.
The leader rushed the masked man, and the other swordsman joined him from the opposite side. Together, they kept the stranger occupied while the sphere user retreated and continued gathering energy. A pale glow formed above his raised hand, initially no larger than the attacks he had already been using, but it quickly began to expand.
The masked man saw it and tried to break through.
The lead knight increased the pressure before he could move, forcing their blades together while the second swordsman attacked from the other side. The stranger ducked beneath the incoming slash, kicked the leader away, then struck the other knight across the face with the pommel of his shortblade when he stepped into the opening. Even after staggering, the swordsman refused to give ground, and the lead knight was already coming back in before the masked man could advance.
Behind them, the sphere continued growing.
Its light intensified until it expanded beyond the width of the sphere user’s shoulders and then beyond the width of his entire body. The carriage driver glanced back, his expression changing the instant he saw it.
“What is that?”
The knight beside him looked over his shoulder as well.
“Keep moving.”
Itsuki leaned toward the open door. The sphere had become enormous, its pale light washing across the road and turning the surrounding countryside ghostly beneath it. The sphere user stood beneath the growing mass with one arm raised, his entire body trembling as spiritual energy poured out of him at a rate Itsuki could feel even from the moving carriage.
Mariah’s eyes widened.
“He’s using everything.”
The guard beside the door nodded grimly.
“He knows they cannot keep this going.”
The masked man seemed to understand the same thing. His movements became more aggressive as he drove the lead knight backward and tried to force his way toward the sphere user. The second swordsman came in to stop him, but the stranger slipped beneath the attack and opened another wound across the knight’s ribs. The man gasped, tightened both hands around his sword, and attacked again anyway.
The masked man blocked him, only for the lead knight to strike from behind and carve a line across his upper arm.
Blood sprayed.
The masked stranger turned, but the sphere user shouted before he could retaliate.
“Move!”
Both swordsmen disengaged instantly.
The masked man looked up.
The sphere hung over the road like a second sun, its pressure heavy enough for Itsuki to feel even from the distance. Beneath it, the sphere user’s legs were shaking and blood had begun running from his nose, but he forced his raised arm forward and released the attack.
The enormous sphere moved slowly at first before accelerating with frightening speed, consuming the road ahead of it in pale light. The two swordsmen sprinted clear while the masked man remained alone in its path.
Itsuki gripped the edge of the carriage door.
The man stared at the incoming attack as his white mask tilted upward. His posture shifted, and the shortblade lowered slightly at his side.
Itsuki expected him to run but he didn’t.
Mariah leaned toward the opening.
“What is he doing?”
The sphere was already too large and too close for a normal last-second dodge to seem possible. The masked man raised his shortblade, his head moving only slightly as though his eyes had found something hidden inside the attack.
Then the sphere reached him.
He stepped forward and cut upward through one narrow section of it.
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then the entire attack collapsed.
There was no explosion and no violent split through the center. The enormous mass of spiritual energy simply lost whatever had been holding it together, unraveling into a silent wave of harmless light that spread across the road and drifted into the surrounding fields like glowing snow.
Everyone stared.
The sphere user’s raised arm dropped to his side, and the color seemed to drain from his face.
“No…”
The lead knight looked toward the place where his ally’s final attack had disappeared, while the remaining swordsman slowed beside him. For the first time since their companion had been killed, all three looked as though they had run out of answers.
The masked man lowered his shortblade as the last harmless fragments of energy drifted around his bloodstained white clothing.
He took one step toward the sphere user, who tried to raise his sword but could barely move his arm after spending almost everything on the failed attack. The lead knight forced himself between them despite his wounded leg buckling beneath him, and the remaining swordsman moved to his side. Neither looked capable of surviving another prolonged exchange.
The stranger raised his blade.
Then blood burst from his wrist.
Itsuki did not understand what she had seen. Something black had crossed the road so quickly that her eyes failed to follow it, and by the time her mind caught up, the masked man’s hand had already separated from his arm. His shortblade fell with it, the severed hand striking the dirt several feet away with its fingers still wrapped around the weapon.
The masked man froze.
So did everyone else.
A man now stood several yards behind him.
There had been no burst of spiritual energy, no warning, and no pressure descending across the road. Nothing had announced another person entering the battlefield. He was simply there.
Itsuki’s eyes widened.
The newcomer looked to be somewhere in his late twenties, with long black hair tied behind his head and several loose strands framing his face. His dark eyes were calm and focused entirely on the masked man. He wore a black kimono patterned with pink cherry blossoms, the delicate design looking almost peaceful against the blood and destruction surrounding him.
A katana rested in his hand, its blade already stained red.
Itsuki immediately searched for his spiritual energy and found nothing.
Her breath caught.
She searched again, but the result did not change. It was as though the man standing in the middle of the road simply did not exist to her spiritual senses.
Mariah had gone completely still beside her. When Itsuki looked over, she saw the same confusion spreading across Mariah’s face.
She could not feel him either.
The two knights beside the carriage were staring in the same direction.
“What…” one of them whispered.
The newcomer did not acknowledge them.
The masked man did.
For the first time since appearing in the beam of light, something changed visibly in his posture.
His shoulders tightened, and his head turned sharply in unmistakable recognition. He knew him.
The masked man looked down at the stump where his hand had been.
Blood poured from the severed wrist, running down his white sleeve and dripping rapidly onto the road.
He clamped his remaining hand over it.
The newcomer had already stopped several yards beyond him.
Itsuki finally understood what had happened.
He had not appeared behind the masked man.
He had run through him.
The man in the black kimono had crossed the battlefield so quickly that Itsuki’s eyes had failed to follow the movement, cut through the masked stranger’s wrist while passing, and continued forward before stopping.
The three surviving knights had been much closer to the exchange than Itsuki, yet even they had failed to follow what happened. The lead knight opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the newcomer moved again.
He vanished from sight.
This time, the masked man reacted.
His remaining hand left the bleeding stump and snapped toward the shortblade lying several feet away, but the weapon was too far to reach normally. He adjusted instantly, shifting his body just as a flash of steel came from his right.
The newcomer’s katana descended.
Somehow, within the space of a heartbeat, the masked man kicked the severed hand up from the ground, tore the shortblade free from its dead fingers, and brought it across his body in time to intercept the strike.
The weapons collided with a crack that carried across the countryside.
The force drove the masked man backward, his arm buckling as his boots tore through the dirt. A small piece of metal spun away from the impact, and Itsuki’s eyes followed it long enough to realize that the newcomer’s strike had chipped the edge of the shortblade.
He landed directly in front of the masked man and gave him no time to recover. His katana swept horizontally through the air with enough speed to make it scream, forcing the wounded stranger to throw himself backward out of its path.
The masked man flipped through the air as blood scattered from the stump of his wrist and his white-and-gold clothing twisted around him. He landed several yards away and nearly lost his footing before forcing himself upright, the damaged shortblade still clenched in his remaining hand.
The man in the black kimono did not pursue.
He remained where he had landed with the katana extended beside him, the pink cherry blossoms across his clothing shifting gently in the wind.
Itsuki searched for him again.
There was still nothing.
She could see him clearly. She could hear the faint movement of his clothing and watch his chest rise with an ordinary breath, yet every spiritual sense she had been trained to rely on returned the same impossible answer. Where a living person should have occupied some place in that invisible world, there was only emptiness.
The masked man clamped his remaining hand around the severed wrist as blood continued slipping between his fingers. For several seconds, nobody moved. The three SS-ranked knights had stopped attacking, not because they had surrendered, but because none of them seemed certain what had just entered their fight.
The sphere user remained on one knee, drained by the enormous attack that had accomplished nothing, while the lead knight kept most of his weight on his uninjured leg. Beside him, the final swordsman pressed a hand against the wound along his ribs. All three watched the newcomer, as did the two knights guarding the carriage.
Mariah stepped closer to the open doorway.
“Who is that?”
Itsuki could not take her eyes off the man in the black kimono, but the masked stranger finally did. His white mask tilted toward the sky, and the newcomer’s gaze sharpened almost immediately.
The masked man stepped backward.
White light erupted around him.
Itsuki’s stomach dropped as the same brilliance that had first brought him to the road descended from above, forming a column of pure white light around his body.
“Stop him!” the lead knight shouted.
He tried to move, but his injured leg failed beneath him. The remaining swordsman rushed forward instead, while the newcomer stayed exactly where he was and watched the beam without making any attempt to interfere.
For a brief moment, the masked man remained visible inside the light. His surviving hand still clutched the chipped shortblade, while blood covered nearly the entire front of his once-white clothing. Before the brilliance swallowed him completely, the smooth mask turned toward the man in the black kimono.
There was no mistaking the recognition between them.
Then the beam vanished, taking the masked man with it.
Silence settled over the road.
His severed hand remained behind several feet from where the light had struck, lying palm-up in the dirt as blood slowly pooled around the ruined wrist.
The lead knight stared at the empty space where the masked man had disappeared, while the swordsman came to a stop beside him and the sphere user lowered his head to draw in a shaking breath.
The man in the black kimono remained focused on the place where the beam had vanished for another second before turning the katana in his hand and sliding it into its sheath with a clean metallic whisper.
Itsuki watched him carefully.
The newcomer looked over the three surviving knights first, taking in their injuries before his gaze shifted toward the body of the man who had been cut apart earlier. Whatever he felt remained hidden behind the calm of his expression.
Then he looked toward the carriage.
Directly at Itsuki.
The uneasy feeling that had settled in her stomach when the beam first appeared returned for an entirely different reason. Even with his eyes on her, she still could not feel anything from him. There was no spiritual presence at all, and the absence felt wrong in a way she could not easily describe. It was not evil or corrupted. It simply contradicted everything she understood about living beings.
His gaze moved from Itsuki to Mariah, then toward the two knights guarding them.
“You should probably get moving.”
The lead knight tightened his grip around his sword.
“Who are you?”
The newcomer glanced toward him.
“Right now? The guy telling you not to stand around waiting for him to come back.”
The knight’s expression hardened. “A man just appeared from the sky, killed one of my people, and tried to take someone under royal protection. Then you appeared without warning, cut off his hand, and drove him away. I would say who you are is extremely important.”
The black-haired man considered that for a moment before giving a small nod.
“Fair.”
The knight waited.
The newcomer looked toward the empty patch of road where the masked man had disappeared.
“Still not telling you yet.”
The lead knight’s jaw tightened.
Before he could respond, the stranger continued.
“But I will tell you this. He’s coming back.”
That silenced everyone.
Mariah stepped out of the carriage, prompting the guard beside her to move immediately.
“Lady Mariah.”
She raised one hand to stop him without taking her eyes off the stranger.
“What do you mean he’s coming back?”
The man in the black kimono nodded toward the severed hand lying in the road.
“I took his hand, ruined his weapon, and made him run away in front of five people he was supposed to kill or kidnap. You think he’s going home to sleep that off?”
Mariah’s eyes narrowed. “You know him.”
“Enough.”
“That beam,” she continued. “You know what it is.”
His expression remained easy.
“I know we shouldn’t be standing where it can drop him right back on top of us.”
“That was not my question.”
“I know.”
Itsuki studied him closely. He was not confused by any of this. If anything, he seemed frustratingly comfortable, as though being surrounded by blood, wounded knights, and a severed hand in the middle of the road was not enough to make him lose that relaxed manner.
The lead knight stepped forward despite the pain in his leg.
“If you know who attacked us, then you will explain.”
The newcomer looked at him.
“Sure.”
The knight paused.
“Sure?”
“Later.”
“That is not an acceptable answer.”
“Neither is dying here because everyone wanted to have a meeting in the middle of the road.”
The knight’s expression darkened.
The black-haired man gestured loosely around them.
“Look, three of you are bleeding, one of you looks like he’s about to pass out standing up, you have two people you’re supposed to protect, and your friend deserves better than being left here while we argue about my name. We can do introductions after we’re moving.”
The mention of the dead knight wiped away what little levity had been in his voice.
For just a moment, his expression became serious.
“And we need to move.”
The sphere user forced himself upright.
“I can still fight.”
The newcomer looked him over.
“I know. I watched you throw half the sky at him.”
The sphere user frowned.
“It should have killed him.”
“Yeah.” The stranger glanced toward the place where the enormous attack had disappeared. “It really should have.”
Something in his voice changed.
Only slightly.
Enough for Itsuki to notice.
The sphere user held his gaze for another moment before finally lowering his sword.
Mariah stepped farther from the carriage, and Itsuki followed. The guard beside them looked ready to stop her, but after everything that had happened, he seemed uncertain where safety even existed anymore.
Mariah’s attention remained fixed on the newcomer.
“I cannot sense you.”
He looked at her.
Mariah took another step.
“There is nothing. No spiritual pressure, no residual energy from that movement, nothing around your katana, nothing in your body that I can detect at all.”
The man glanced down at himself as though checking.
“Huh.”
Mariah stared at him.
“Huh?”
“Good to know I’m still here.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I am serious.”
“So am I.”
A beat passed.
“Mostly.”
The lead knight did not look amused.
Itsuki watched Mariah carefully. She knew that expression. The researcher inside her had surfaced again, curiosity already fighting its way through everything else that had happened.
Mariah studied the stranger from head to toe.
His eyes followed hers for a moment before the corner of his mouth lifted.
“You know, usually when a woman this attractive looks me over that carefully, I take it as a compliment.”
Mariah blinked.
Itsuki stared at him.
The man gave Mariah an appreciative glance of his own.
“And in your case, I’m definitely taking it as a compliment.”
Mariah’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out immediately.
The newcomer smiled.
“There we go. Got you to stop asking questions for a second.”
Mariah recovered quickly.
“I was examining you.”
“Even better.”
“That was not an invitation.”
“Didn’t say it was.”
Itsuki could not decide whether the man was fearless or simply incapable of behaving normally.
Mariah looked as though she was reaching a similar conclusion.
Then her gaze shifted briefly toward Itsuki.
The amusement faded from her face, and so did the question she had clearly been preparing to ask. After everything that had happened in the village, she stopped herself.
The newcomer noticed the hesitation but did not comment on it.
Instead, he looked toward the road.
“You can figure out why I’m apparently invisible to you later. Preferably while we’re moving very quickly in the opposite direction.”
The lead knight spoke from behind him.
“How many are coming?”
The stranger’s expression sharpened.
“I don’t know.”
“You said he would bring backup.”
“He will.”
“How do you know?”
The man glanced toward the severed hand.
“Because he knows who I am.”
Itsuki’s eyes narrowed.
Mariah caught the significance immediately.
“And that is bad?”
The easy smile faded.
This time there was no joke waiting behind the answer.
“For everyone standing here? Yeah.”
The shift was small, but because of everything that had come before it, the seriousness landed harder.
The lead knight studied him carefully.
“You’re wanted.”
The newcomer looked at him.
“That’s putting it nicely.”
“By whoever sent him?”
“Very.”
Mariah’s gaze sharpened again.
Itsuki felt the questions accumulating inside her. Who had sent the masked man? Why had he wanted her? Why did he know this stranger? Why could Itsuki feel absolutely nothing from the man standing in front of them? And why had someone powerful enough to overwhelm six SS-ranked knights retreat the moment he appeared?
The newcomer looked down the road toward Radiance.
“How far are you from the capital?”
The lead knight answered after a brief hesitation.
“Too far to reach before nightfall.”
“Great.”
The knight frowned. “Great?”
“No. Terrible, actually.” The man motioned toward the carriage. “Which is why we should start making that distance smaller.”
“We have a dead knight.”
The humor disappeared again.
“I know.”
“We do not leave our dead.”
The newcomer looked toward the body.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he nodded.
“Good.”
The lead knight seemed caught off guard by the answer.
The stranger walked toward the fallen man.
“Then we bring him.”
He stopped beside the body and looked toward the carriage.
“Make room.”
The guard near the driver understood first and climbed down.
The newcomer crouched, but the lead knight stepped forward.
“I’ll do it.”
The black-haired man looked toward his injured leg.
“You sure?”
“I said I’ll do it.”
He studied him for a second before standing again.
“Alright. He’s your man.”
The lead knight’s expression eased by the smallest amount.
The newcomer stepped aside.
The remaining swordsman joined his leader, and together they began gathering what remained of their fallen companion.
Itsuki looked away.
She could not watch them lift him.
The sound was enough.
Mariah remained beside her without speaking.
The stranger wandered toward the severed hand and looked down at it.
Mariah followed his gaze.
“You left him something to remember you by.”
He glanced toward her.
Mariah immediately seemed to realize how the sentence sounded.
“That was not admiration.”
His mouth curved slightly.
“Shame. I thought I was making progress.”
Mariah stared at him.
“You are remarkably difficult to speak to.”
“I’ve been told I grow on people.”
“I doubt that.”
“See? We’re already getting along.”
Itsuki looked between them.
For reasons she could not begin to understand, this strange man seemed perfectly comfortable flirting with Mariah while standing several feet from a severed hand.
The lead knight and swordsman carried their fallen companion toward the carriage, and whatever amusement had been on the newcomer’s face disappeared when he saw them approaching.
The sphere user followed slowly. His face looked hollow now that the fight had ended, and without an enemy directly in front of him, his eyes finally drifted toward the body.
His steps slowed.
The lead knight noticed.
“Keep moving.”
The sphere user’s jaw clenched.
“Yes.”
There was no room for grief yet. There would be time for it if they survived long enough to have any time left at all.
Once the body had been placed inside the carriage, Itsuki moved toward the far side to make room and Mariah climbed in after her. The sphere user leaned against the carriage for several seconds, breathing heavily.
The newcomer walked over.
The knight raised his head.
“What?”
The stranger looked him up and down.
“You look terrible.”
The sphere user frowned. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I wasn’t thanking you.”
“I know.”
The knight exhaled through his nose.
The newcomer nodded toward the road behind them.
“That giant attack took almost everything you had, didn’t it?”
“That was the point.”
“Risky point.”
“It should have killed him.”
The newcomer looked toward the place where the enormous sphere had dissolved.
“Yeah. It should have.”
The sphere user studied him.
“You saw what he did.”
“I did.”
“What did he do?”
The black-haired man looked back at him.
“Something you do not want to challenge with another attack like that.”
“You know what it was.”
“I do.”
The sphere user’s face hardened. “That would have been useful information five minutes ago.”
The stranger raised an eyebrow.
“I wasn’t here five minutes ago.”
The knight stared at him.
“That is incredibly unhelpful.”
“Still true.”
After another second, the sphere user actually let out a quiet breath that was almost a laugh.
“Fair.”
The lead knight finished securing the carriage and turned toward the stranger.
“You said you’ll protect us.”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
The newcomer looked toward Itsuki.
She felt that instinctive discomfort again, not because she sensed danger from him, but because she sensed nothing at all.
His attention stayed on her for only a moment before returning to the knight.
“Because that guy wanted her badly enough to attack six SS-ranked knights in the middle of nowhere.”
Itsuki’s stomach tightened.
“And now he knows I’m here,” the stranger continued. “Which means this just became my problem too.”
The lead knight watched him.
“That does not answer why you would help us.”
The man shrugged.
“I’m a nice guy.”
No one responded.
He looked around at their expressions.
“Wow. Not one of you bought that?”
The swordsman gave him a tired look.
“No.”
“Little insulting.”
The lead knight remained serious.
The newcomer sighed.
“Fine. Because if he comes back before you reach Radiance, you cannot stop him. And if he brings who I think he might bring, you probably won’t survive a minute.”
The humor disappeared completely from the road.
Mariah’s fingers tightened against the carriage.
“How many people are capable of doing what he just did?”
The stranger looked at her.
“More than you want there to be.”
Mariah stared at him.
Itsuki saw the questions gathering again, but Mariah did not ask them.
The black-haired man clapped his hands together once.
“Alright. Everyone terrified enough now?”
The lead knight stared at him.
“That is your way of motivating people?”
“Worked, didn’t it?”
He nodded toward the horses.
“Get moving.”
“You’re giving orders to royal escorts.”
The newcomer gave him an easy look.
“I’m giving very good advice to royal escorts. Totally different.”
“You expect us to trust you?”
“No.” He pointed down the road. “I expect you to go that way while I make sure nothing coming from that way reaches you.”
The remaining swordsman looked between them.
“He has a point.”
The leader turned toward him.
The swordsman gave a careful shrug and immediately winced as the movement pulled at his wounded ribs.
“I hate that he has one, but he has one.”
The sphere user pushed away from the carriage.
“So what’s the plan?”
The stranger gestured toward the horses.
“You ride.”
“And you?”
“I’ll stay close.”
The lead knight frowned. “On what horse?”
The man looked toward him as though the answer were obvious.
“Do I look like I brought a horse?”
The sphere user frowned.
“You’re going to run beside us?”
“That’s generally what people do when they don’t have a horse.”
“You’re serious.”
The newcomer smiled.
“Unfortunately.”
The leader studied him for another moment before finally looking toward the driver.
“We move.”
The surviving knights returned to their positions.
Before the driver could gather the reins, the lead knight looked back toward the stranger.
“You still haven’t told us what to call you.”
The man thought about it.
“Handsome works.”
Mariah actually rolled her eyes.
The stranger caught it immediately.
“There it is. Knew I could get a reaction out of you.”
“Do not encourage yourself.”
“Too late.”
The lead knight looked deeply unimpressed.
“A name.”
The stranger’s smile remained, but his eyes drifted toward the distant horizon where the beam had vanished.
“Later, later, stop bugging me about it.”
His hand settled near the sheath of his katana, and his expression changed only slightly.
Itsuki saw it.
He was listening, not to them, but to something farther away.
The lead knight noticed too.
“What is it?”
The man’s dark eyes remained fixed on the distant road.
“Nothing yet.”
Then his easy smile returned.
“Let’s keep it that way.”