The words rang in Hide's ears like the toll of a funeral bell.
Two months.
The masked girl's voice echoed in his memory, her gentle lie shattering into dust: "Nine hours". It hadn't been hours. He had been chained here for two months while the outside world bled.
What had happened to the frontlines? Was Kai alive? What about Sora, Gideon, and Evelyn? And Claire?
In that split second of existential paralysis, Arius struck.
The veteran exterminator did not hesitate. Capitalizing on Hide's vacant, unmoored gaze, Arius surged forward in a soundless blur. He closed the distance mid-flight, his heavy body twisting as he passed alongside Hide, swinging his broadsword in a brutal arc aimed straight at Hide's neck.
Hide's instincts fired a fraction of a second too late.
He snapped his left arm up to block the descending edge.
SWISH.
