CHAPTER 57 — RAGE
The air thickened. Dust hung in motionless spirals, trembling only faintly as if the world itself waited for what was to come. Leylin did not speak. He did not shift. He simply stood, silent, yet heavier than the lattice beneath the clearing. The pulsing threads of energy beneath his feet seemed to recoil subtly, sensing something that even he had only ever felt once before his imprisonment.
Crimson Six moved. Slowly. Her red cloak swayed faintly, brushing against stone, yet her presence carried the weight of inevitability itself. She tilted her head, observing, measuring. A subtle smile ghosted her lips — one born of strategy, not arrogance.
"Interesting," she said softly, almost conversational. "You've felt it, haven't you? That tiny… ripple in certainty. That hesitation beneath control."
Leylin's pupils narrowed, green flames of envy pulsing faintly inside his chest. He said nothing. Cold radiated off him, chilling the battlefield like an unseen frost. It was not anger. Not fury. Not even wrath. It was cold. Absolute. Silent. The kind that made Crimson Six's smile falter, if only for a heartbeat. She blinked, recalibrating her composure, and the confidence returned.
"I suppose I should congratulate you," she said, pacing lightly, rubbing her lips. "I've been cataloging every one of your movements for months. Timing, preference, hesitation… even the pauses between thought. Your methods are as elegant as they are predictable. Originally, I feared your return. My father warned me about monsters like you: brutal, cold, merciless, ruthless. But the thing I see before me…" Her lips curved faintly, almost fondly. "…you are more human than I anticipated. Predictable. Almost soft."
Leylin's gaze did not waver. His aura thickened. Coldness deepened. Crimson Six did not flinch; she was calculating. Every second, every pulse, every slight flicker in his pupils was being stored, measured, analyzed.
She stopped pacing. Her gaze flicked toward him, deliberate, calculating. "As for the person you care about…" She raised a hand. The lattice beneath the clearing shimmered, reforming into a translucent screen. A figure appeared, suspended against the wall. Four limbs stretched unnaturally, chains biting into her flesh. Crimson Six's eyes glimmered faintly as she gestured. Blood drained slowly from the body, the veins visible under pale skin. Elira.
Leylin said nothing. Not a word. Not a flicker of expression. But the cold radiating from him intensified, wrapping the battlefield in silence so heavy that even the lattice seemed to hesitate.
"Well?" Crimson Six murmured. "Do you wish to save her?"
No reply came. He simply observed. Cataloged. Studied. Every faint movement of the nine demigods stationed at the perimeter of the lattice, every pulse of energy beneath the stone, every pattern of dust in the air. Sixteen minutes. That was the time given. Sixteen minutes to save a life measured down to the second.
Crimson Six tapped her watch lightly, the sound almost inaudible against the tension of the battlefield. "You have sixteen minutes. Fail… and the girl dies. You return. An experiment once more." Her smile widened. "Your choice."
Leylin's lips did not move. His pupils flickered once. A step forward. A vanish.
Bang. Boom. A crater tore open at the center of the formation, a human silhouette sprawled wide. Dust swirled in clouds, lifting and falling as the figure rose. Leylin. Expressionless. Arms wide, aura radiating pure cold. He had collided with something, smashed into it, leaving nothing but shockwaves in his wake.
The lattice had reformed into a translucent barrier, encompassing a mile-wide circle. The nine demigods stationed at the edge moved forward, synchronized, disciplined. Crimson Six observed, her hands folded lightly.
"And thus," she said softly, "the fun begins."
Leylin's gaze swept across the formation. He said nothing. The puppets, the lattice, the dead around him — all were tools, all were tests, all were irrelevant now. Only one thought consumed him: Elira.
Crimson Six tilted her head, her eyes glinting faintly. "I have accounted for the person you are trying to save. You see, Leylin… one of yours is unmeasurable. A variable beyond the grid. One that cannot be predicted… yet."
Leylin's gaze sharpened. "What have you done with her?" His voice was quiet. Cold. Absolute.
"Oh," she said, smiling faintly, pacing once more. "Clever. You ask exactly what I hoped you would. Yes… Originally… I feared you. But now…" She paused, lips pressing lightly together. "…the thing I see is Human. Calculable. Yet still terrifying."
Leylin said nothing. He merely stared, aura radiating a frozen certainty that made the demigods step slightly closer in instinct, though none dared break formation.
Crimson Six raised a hand toward the lattice. And as if daunting him..she conjured a translucent screen identical to the one before, showing Elira chained, suspended.as Blood drained slowly from her body... being pulled into strange tubules that were used....to create the same puppet's leylin had just decimated...and he..had killed thousands.... thousands...
The cold in the battlefield thickened; it was as if time itself had slowed in deference to Leylin's focus.
"You have sixteen minutes as before.." she said again, voice calm, deliberate. "younarr welcomed to try...again."
Leylin's pupils flickered. He cataloged everything. Every demigod, every lattice pulse, every subtle motion of air. Then, he moved. A single step forward .. and vanished.
Crimson Six glanced at her watch, then back at the battlefield. Her smile was sharp. Calculated. "Exactly as expected," she whispered.
Nanoseconds passed. One. Two. Three. A crater erupted at the center, dust spiraling in great columns. Leylin emerged, expressionless, arms wide. His aura chilled the very stones beneath his feet.
The demigods tensed.yet
Crimson Six just folded her arms, observing the frozen tableau leylin layed motionless in as she said almost inaudibly to herself..
. "And thus..she said softly with a smile "the game truly begins."