CHAPTER 159 — CONTROL
The battlefield was already broken.
Cracks spread across the ground in jagged webs, entire slabs of stone displaced from repeated impacts. Dust hung in the air, thick and unmoving, as if the space itself had been forced to hold everything in place.
Séraphine twisted mid-motion, her body turning just in time to avoid the strike that tore past her.
The force didn't stop.
The mountain behind her split open from the pressure alone, the shockwave carving straight through it before the delayed sound of rupture echoed across the chamber.
She hit the ground and slid, boots grinding against fractured stone before she pushed herself back up.
Leylin was already in front of her.
He closed the distance instantly,his fist driving forward with precision. But The strike shifted halfway at the last moment, turning into a feint that forced her guard to adjust,
He vanished.
Then reappeared behind her.
His hand came down toward her spine.
It stopped just short of contact.
But the behind it still landed.
Séraphine was thrown forward, her body slamming into the ground as the crater beneath her widened again.
Leylin didn't move.
His hand remained extended for a moment before he lowered it slowly, eyes narrowing as he looked at his palm.
Then at her.
Why isn't anything connecting?
Séraphine rose from the crater, brushing dust from the side of her face. Her breathing was steady. A faint smile rested on her lips, but she didn't answer.
Leylin watched her.
We've been at this for sixteen minutes," he said. And I haven't touched you once.
She held his gaze, still silent.
There's something you're not telling me, he continued, stepping forward. You people fight differently.
Séraphine tilted her head slightly.
And what world do you come from?
Leylin paused.
For a brief second,he just looked at her.
Then he moved.
He vanished and appeared behind her again, his palm cutting down toward the back of her neck.
The strike stopped short.
But the force still carried through.
She slammed inot the ground again.
From where I come from, Leylin said as he walked forward, we don't fight like this.
Séraphine pushed herself up..He was already above her.
His foot drove into her midsection, launching her upward. Her body cut through the air before she could stabilize
Before she could stabilize herself
He was already behind her again.
His fist drove into her back.
Still,It didn't touch her.
The ground split open beneath her on impact.
Leylin landed a short distance away, watching her rise again.
"Our essence flows through our body, he said, voice even. But from what I've seen…
His eyes sharpened.
You push yours outward.
Séraphine stepped out of the crater, coughing lightly as her breathing settled faster than it should have.
"Essence?" she said.
Leylin looked at her.
"Is that what you call it?
She met his gaze.
You people?
Something in his expression shifted.
Not visibly, but it settled into something deeper.
"Where are you from? she asked. "And earlier...you said you were running from someone.
That question slowed him.
For a moment, he didn't move as something deeper surfaced behind his eyes
Memory.Darkness.
A body that wasn't his.
Fragments refusing to hold.
Pain stretched across time until it stopped meaning anything.
Six hundred years spent in something that couldn't be called living.
He exhaled.
"Let's just say I died."
Séraphine raised an eyebrow.
"You seem to do that often."
Leylin shrugged slightly,a faint smile touching his lips.
"Death keeps coming,but it can't seem to hold me too long.
She studied him closely.
"Are you alive?
He didn't answer immediately.
Then He looked at his hand.
The surface wasn't fully solid. It shifted, molten at its core, slowly hardening as it held shape.
Then he looked up.
The sky stretched above them, filled with dead red stars that didn't move. Among them, a few burned differently, casting a faint purple glow across the space.
The chained sun had begun to change.
A quarter of it had turned red.
Séraphine followed his gaze, then looked back at him.
"You're evolving.
Leylin nodded once.
"It looks that way.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"But something's wrong.
He flexed his fingers slowly.
It doesn't feel like I'm using energy, he said. "It feels like I am the energy.
That made her stop, completely.
"You don't have a proper body, she said slowly
Leylin looked at her.
"Then why does this feel like one?
She didn't answer.Instead, she shifted the conversation.
People from different regions name stages differently ,she said. So What stage do you think you're at?
Leylin glanced at her,You tell me"
"I'm at the manifest stage."
He nodded.
Manifest..That's when you push it outward.?
"Signature, she corrected.
Leylin repeated it quietly.
"Signature.
He looked at her again.
"So at that stage, it has to be external?"
"Yes."
He frowned slightly."Why?
She paused, then answered carefully.
"Because you have to,your body can't handle that level of output internally.
She paused,then added
At the vessel stage, it barely moves. At the anchor stage, it flows through you. At the manifest stage, it expands outward. That's the structure."
Leylin nodded.
"That makes sense."
His gaze lifted briefly toward the sky.
"Then I'm approaching your anchor stage."
Séraphine started to respond..Then stopped.
Her eyes sharpened as she studied him again.
"You shouldn't even be stable," she said. "You don't have a proper vessel, but you're holding structure.
Leylin smiled faintly.
"Then I guess we just have to find out why,
Then, he raised his hand.
The air tightened instantly.
This time, Séraphine didn't move first.
She watched him.Something above shifted as her gaze lifted.
Among the countless dead red stars, one burned brighter than the rest.
Purple.Alive.
The others remained dim.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked back at him.
"You've been using one," she said.
Leylin didn't deny it.
He lowered his hand slightly.
No,he said. I've be using none
But,I wonder,what happens if I do,and let it flow through me instead
The weight of that settled between them.
Séraphine exhaled slowly, her stance adjusting again as her signature gathered tighter around her form.
"Then don't hold back."
Leylin's eyes sharpened slightly.
For the first time, the space around him reacted before he moved.
He lifted his hand fully.
The purple star above burned brighter as... everything went dark.