CHAPTER 77:A world without direction
The universe did not know direction.
Up and down were inventions of gravity, illusions created by spinning worlds and orbiting moons. In the endless void between stars, there was no sky above and no ground below. Only motion. Only momentum.
Direction was a lie that planets told themselves.
Leylin realized that as he fell.
Wind tore past his body, roaring in his ears, but it told him nothing. His senses strained, searching for orientation, for some anchor to reality. There was none. Clouds drifted around him like pale ghosts, sliding across his vision in slow, indifferent currents.
He didn't know if he was rising.
He didn't know if he was falling.
The world had become a blur of motion and pressure.
For a moment, there was only the sound of the wind and the dull throb spreading through his body .. unfamiliar yet restrained,as if afraid of the one who had sent him spiralling with such momentum
Then something moved.
Leylin's eyes narrowed.
Above him, far beyond the drifting veil of clouds, a speck had appeared.
Small.Almost insignificant.But it was growing.
Rapidly.
The speck deepened in color as it descended, crimson bleeding into the sky like a spreading wound. The air around it distorted violently, pressure spiraling outward as the figure tore through the atmosphere.
Too fast.
Leylin's mind barely had time to register the danger.The crimson speck became a silhouette.Then a woman.Then..Impact.The collision detonated the sky.
Crimson Six struck him like a falling star, her fist driving into his guard with enough force to shatter the surrounding air. The shockwave ripped through the clouds, scattering them in violent spirals as both of them were hurled downward.
Leylin crossed his arms over his chest an instant before the blow landed.
Even so..His vision exploded with light.
The force drove him through the atmosphere like a cannon shell. The ocean below surged upward to meet him, the surface splitting apart as his body crashed into it.
Water erupted in a towering column.
Before the sea could close again..Another impact struck.
Crimson Six plunged into the water after him, her aura burning like molten iron in the depths. The pressure of the ocean did nothing to slow her. If anything, it seemed to coil tighter around her movements, amplifying the violence in them.
Her fist slammed into Leylin's ribs.
Sending Shockwaves spiralling downwards as the sea floor cracked.
As if reality was playing a cruel joke on him, leylin turned trying to stabilise himself as water flooded his senses from all sides as just then he heard something colder that the sea itself...a faint breathe beneath his ears..."too slow"
Then...nothing
Leylin's body shot upward again, bursting from the ocean in an explosion of foam and vapor.
He barely had time to breathe before she was there again.
Another punch.
The sky screamed as the air split.
Leylin's body tore across the horizon like a comet, streaking over the surface of the planet. The distant silhouette of a mountain range rushed toward him....and shattered as he crashed through it.
Stone exploded outward.Entire cliffs collapsed.By the time the debris began to fall, Crimson Six had already caught up.Her kick connected with his side.
The impact redirected him instantly, sending him skidding across the ground at a new angle. Forests vanished beneath the path of destruction as he tore through them, the earth gouging open beneath his back.
She did not stop.
Strike after strike followed.
Each one faster.
Each one heavier.
Mountains cracked.Rivers reversed course.
The terrain groaned beneath the violence of their battle as the two figures streaked across continents in seconds, their collisions shaking the atmosphere itself.
Leylin blocked.
Again,And again.
His arms remained crossed near his chest, guarding the center of his body with almost obsessive precision. Many of Crimson Six's blows slammed against that defense with devastating force.
Others...Vanished.
The moment her fist connected, the energy behind the strike simply… disappeared.
Swallowed.
For the briefest instant, her brow furrowed.
Something felt wrong here ,her attacks were not weakening.
If anything, they were growing heavier with each exchange as the wrath core in her chest burned hotter.
Yet something was changing.
Not her..him.
Leylin's aura flickered...not exhaustion.
Not damage.But weaker.
Each time he absorbed one of her strikes, the dark pressure surrounding his body thinned just slightly.
As if energy was being spent just for him to exist
Crimson Six's lips curled faintly.
"So that's how it works."
Her next blow came down like a falling meteor.
The ground beneath them fractured as her fist drove Leylin straight into the earth, carving a crater large enough to swallow a city block. Dust and shattered stone erupted into the air.
For a moment, the battlefield fell silent.
Leylin was on one knee.
His breathing was uneven now, faint streaks of blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. His hair hung loose over his eyes, shadowing his expression.
Crimson Six landed a few meters away.
Calm.Unhurried.
She studied him like a predator examining a wounded animal.
"So the more you defend," she said softly, "the faster you burn through whatever power you're hiding."
Leylin didn't answer,his chest rose slowly as he drew in another breath.The silence stretched.
Then Crimson Six moved.Not fast,not violently.Just one step forward ,then another.When she stood before him, she crouched slightly, her crimson gaze locking onto his.
"This was fun," she said.
Then her hand shot forward.
Her fingers pierced through his armor and plunged directly into his chest.
The motion was clean.Precise.
She expected resistance .. bone, muscle, the solid presence of the core she had been sensing throughout the battle.
Her fingers closed.
Nothing.
Her hand sank deeper ,still nothing.
No heartbeat..no pulse,no core.
Only hollow flesh surrounding a space that should not have existed.
For the first time since the battle began..Crimson Six hesitated.
Inside his chest there was no sternum resisting her grip. No organ shifting beneath her fingers. Just empty space… like reaching into a wound carved through reality itself.
Her thoughts slowed.
If there was nothing there…If there was no core,then ...The thought was too grave for her to admit as Slowly...Leylin lifted his head.
Blood ran down the side of his mouth as his lips curved into a faint smile.
His eyes met hers.
Quiet,Calm.Calculating.
"Got you."