The feel of blood and charred dust lingered in the air. Feel, and not stench, as in all truth, whatever Jae-sung could sense was not proper smell, even if his brain registered it in a simir way. In fact, he was not even certain of that fact alone.

  Still, that was not what the Macedda Locusts that made up his ‘body’ had been going crazy about, ever since the assault began.

  It had not even been fifteen minutes since then. The ground itself shook as their helpers gave the instructors a nice surprise, and Javier had gone on ahead to handle his specific task.

  Which left Jae-sung, as well as the gathered Thorns, to lead the attack itself.

  Not many people should have remained at the facility during te evening, but it did not take even a minute for the first person to run out the back of the building to the right. Indeed, there was a rune of unusual complexity carved in that direction.

  It was well beyond sight, but that sort of sense was irrelevant to the Macedda Locusts, with the unique prana signature attracting them enough to not need further command from Jae-sung. He simply stopped restraining them, then they scattered off like bck smoke seeping from the neck of his thin, long-sleeved shirt.

  The bck cloud cut right into the path of the frantic young man, and once it made contact with the rune, Jae-sung felt as if a lightning bolt had reached him.

  No matter how far away they were, the locusts remained linked to him in absolute symbiosis. One that granted him visceral knowledge of anything they felt, whether when checking on the activities of a suspicious dealer, keeping him aware of Javier’s location, or the quality of any devoured meal.

  The density of the airborne prana within the facility’s grounds was special, no doubt, but it had been a mere appetizer, one that made the locusts quiver once they finally bit into the main dish. They devoured the rune with single-minded, instinctual focus, ravaging it like maggots would a corpse, only within a second rather than a week.

  And just like with such pests, the scrumptious feast gave life to more locusts. The mass became engorged, some of them dying from their own ravenous appetite, but many more being born from the surplus of energy acquired. Newborns that in turn, fed with the same ceaseless drive.

  And it so happened that a perfect meal had just appeared, with his escape route plundered away right before his eyes.

  The locusts did not sense things in the way humans did, but Jae-sung was more than comfortable enough with them to recognize a look of instinctive fear and revulsion. Without any attempt at containing his child-like ughter, he directed the locusts toward the youth.

  The bck cloud swept over him, and his screams reached even Jae-sung’s subordinates. Some cheered, others tried their best to remain impassive, while many showed horror to match that of the victim himself. Jae-sung’s enjoyment grew in turn, making him shiver in delight.

  The locusts tore through cloth and hair as much as they did flesh and bone. Compared to prana, distinctions among the wholly physical were not as notable, but after a disgusting rat for their most recent meal, this was just delectable.

  Skin tore, blood flowed, and frantic sweating came with panicked use of regutors. It all added to the experience, especially the tter, with the locusts devouring any prana before it could take a meaningful form. Defense, as much as an additional treat.

  All in all, there was no way the young cadet could shake them off, and so he desperately leaned on a wall and scurried away in a half-run, moving as quickly as his ravaged body would still allow.

  A terrible choice that greatly pleased Jae-sung.

  The young man arrived at a spacious room, perhaps a waiting lobby judging from the many seats. None of them were occupied, but the number of people in the room was not negligible.

  Trying to stay in a ‘safe’ spot until the instructors gave a message? Gathering any possessions left around before making their escape? Jae-sung amusedly wondered for just a moment before having the locusts leave their husk of a prey, now feeble and powerless, for fresher meals.

  These were in no way defenseless. Jae-sung had been told about the small colored tags that indicated a cadet’s years in the force, so he separated the locusts into masses of different sizes in accord. Even so, the first and second-years still managed to fight back.

  Unique spells, impressive movement, and even the lower-css equipment they had were enough to cause damage. The locusts continued to move in high numbers and solid formations, but several of them were shaved away and killed in one go by the attacks that nded.

  Ultimately though, things were no different than with the stronger ones in more advanced years. Even if some locusts died, they would continue to breed and multiply as long as there was prana to eat, a task made even easier as the cadets constantly attempted to gather more for their use.

  It only took a few to fail in completing their spells, their structure compromised and vital prana eaten up by the locusts, for everyone to be affected. The clouds of miasma broke through the thin defense that had kept them at bay and swept two lower years and one higher year first, then another higher year. Three lower years followed afterward, until the remaining five could only rush for their only remaining escape route in a panic. The building’s entrance.

  Jae-sung was almost overwhelmed by the increasing number of locusts, forced to process sensory input and damage from every single one. Pain, excitement, fvor and so much more, but it all meant nothing.

  Inevitable.

  He was a living weapon, one possessing absolute authority over the very concept of a sorcerer. As invulnerable as Ain, and capable of ruin neither Valentina, Irina or even Javier could truly match.

  Memories of a boy like so many others, one who begged and cried and pathetically scoured for any scraps he could find. Glimpses of the incomprehensible machinery, glossy surfaces and delighted researchers faded into dripping bck.

  Only that word remained, one he could not be happier to embody.

  Five cadets rushed out of the building’s door and nded their eyes on him. Some might say they were only looking in his direction, but there were no doubts he would be the standout rather than the group of Thorns.

  After all, the rgest mass of locusts was that right by him; one of Jae-sung’s arms completely shifted into a cloud of the most unsightly bck, with its long sleeve fluttering around. Their expressions as he continued to reveal more locusts, now those making up that beyond his shoulder, were so hysterical he could not have stopped smiling even if he wanted to.

  The only reasons he fell short of cackling were the two cadets that merely gred. One in utmost rage, the other fearless and disgusted. Far from enough to ruin his mood, but his annoyance was certain.

  One of the cadets, a boy who may have been fifteen or so, unfurled and fired a Gamma-css rifle so quickly that some Thorns took a half-step back in reflex. Jae-sung compelled his swarm forward in response.

  Macedda Locusts were much better at offense than defense. Such attacks as well as completed spells were made of prana, of course, but their transformed state’s properties took precedence before they could be broken down and eaten. Therefore, the first yers of locusts would naturally perish upon cshing.

  This stopped being an issue if they got close enough and in enough numbers to devour spells before they could fully form, but the current swarm was of such a rge size that Jae-sung did not hesitate to block the shot with it. Many locusts died instantly as they were burned and crushed, but the bck cloud powered through without much loss in its total bulk.

  The boy reacted quickly with an immediate retreat, but for all his bravado, he was not quite fast enough to escape from the swarm. Truly, he was lucky to not be alone, as Jae-sung’s sudden need to move out of another attack’s threat made the locusts falter for a moment, allowing him to barely escape with only an ankle wound.

  Not one second after Jae-sung jumped away, a mp post of glossy metal had buried itself about a third into the floor he had been standing on. Had they not moved a good distance away when he first revealed the locusts, several Thorns could have easily died from such a violent attack.

  The one responsible? The other clueless cadet, a petite girl with maroon eyes and a cwed arm almost as long as her body, bared in chipped, shell-like flesh of a color like red wine. Judging from the low stump of metal beside her, had she torn the post away and tossed it?

  A shifting type? Like Tina… No, more like Javier? I guess she couldn’t attempt something like that indoors, not without endangering the others.

  The danger of a brute like that, especially to his people, was plenty obvious. The swarm quickly recognized Jae-sung’s new intentions, aiming for a new target before even reaching the boy’s thigh.

  But the girl had already made her next move, digging her monstrous arm into the pavement and drawing an arc as she retreated from the approaching locusts. It was only when she suddenly jerked her shoulder and lifted her cws, alongside a solid piece of floor just over four meters in size, that Jae-sung noticed the seamless transition from defense to offense.

  Not just that, but even as she threw the piece of pavement toward him, the girl had seemingly aimed in such a way as to hit the swarm as well, both protecting herself and killing several locusts from the impact.

  Jae-sung rushed off once more, avoiding the giant projectile, menting the fate of some Thorns as he did so.

  Much to his surprise, however, they were ready this time. Not all of them, but he side-gnced at three of them who put their weapons to use. A sword, an arm cannon and a full-arm gauntlet, working together to pulverize the lump of pavement with plenty of strength to spare.

  I guess monkeys from both ends can learn.

  He thought with a smirk, not letting the problematic cadet out of sight even as he did.

  But she was indeed fast, on top of strong. High physical strength did not have to mean one was slow, and oftentimes was a contributor to significant speed. Of course, merely being the strongest would not be enough to match some specialist of quick movement, but the likes of Tina and Javier were still fast enough to crush them just fine.

  This girl seemed to be of the same sort. His swarm could reach her eventually, but not before she threw it off with another improvised barrier or projectile. Not only that, but she was also getting closer to him after each exchange, for the first time forcing Jae-sung to realize the danger he faced.

  He had the range advantage for sure, but his movements were not nearly as agile, and she had begun to exploit that fact before he even realized the need to take countermeasures. There was a real possibility now, no matter how low, that her extreme physical power would reach him. And if it did…

  … It was not a thought he had to worry about anymore.

  “Take it easy, bitch! This one’s still breathing!”

  Not only the girl whom the message was addressed to, but even Jae-sung was surprised enough to instinctively turn to the new voice.

  The yell had come from one of his Thorns, a long, curly-haired young woman perhaps in her mid-twenties. But what drew the most attention was certainly the bloody and broken teenage boy in her grasp, whose throat she now pressed a dagger of beautifully lustrous white metal to. She may have been rough enough to already draw blood, but it was difficult to tell with all the wounds the boy already bore.

  After all, he was the first cadet he had attacked during the assault. And just as the woman said, if one paid attention, he was still barely alive.

  Had she gone into the building on her own to get a hostage? Without orders? For the second time in the day, Jae-sung briefly felt he could give his workers a little more credit than usual. The effect was immediate, making the girl with the monstrous arm stop without dey.

  The look of hatred in her face, of utter disgust and frustration most of all, was greeted with nothing but the greatest sense of glee from Jae-sung. Without anything to stop his ughter this time, he let loose the swarm on his pinned target, ready for sughter.

  The girl tried to protect herself at the st second, however she could, but what escape was there from an all-encompassing, ravenous miasma? The locusts ate at everything, whether they were the pces she could not cover for, or the very arms she used for cover. It did not matter in the slightest.

  Clothing and bone were filling, flesh and blood were rich, and regutors were absolutely scrumptious. But this time, none of them were what stood out.

  Instead it was that which had driven the locusts completely crazy.

  Something completely different, a fvor so uniquely foreign in its strength and effect on them. Present in varying amounts through the girl’s body, but clustered densely within her transformed arm. In all the years since he had become connected to the Macedda Locusts, he had tried but a mere single digit of fvors with such an effect. Both on them, and on him.

  Addictive, cloying, overwhelming... There was no ck of words that appeared to fit at first, but none of them could describe such a taste in a fully accurate manner.

  Jae-sung felt the locusts squirming on each and every bite, as if they were eating electricity itself. Rather fittingly, whatever led to such a reaction seemed to ‘supercharge’ them as well, causing the locusts to fill up and multiply at unprecedented speeds. In just a few seconds, the miasma that attacked the girl had almost doubled in size.

  But even if there were new and hungry locusts ready to keep eating, Jae-sung himself could not handle any more through their link. If he allowed them to keep having at the girl, he could not predict what would happen to him. On the brink of a terrifying change, whether it be death or rebirth, he forced them away from the crippled girl.

  As he readied the new, colossal swarm, Jae-sung opened his ‘eyes’ again after a deep sigh. He saw the defeated girl, torn and sprawled on the asphalt that was steadily dyed crimson, and around five meters away y the boy whose leg he had injured, making a pitiful attempt to crawl away.

  Intending to finish the job, Jae-sung sectioned off a piece of the swarm and poised it for the attack. However, he saw someone else… Rather, some people moving before the bck cloud set forth.

  A group of three Thorns of varying ages and looks with knight weapons at the ready, but they were far from the most threatening thing about them. Neither were their numbers, or even the fact that so many behind them seemed to start their own march.

  What could definitely not be ignored were the expressions on their faces. A frantic excitement that was so unsightly, so beastly, yet human above all.

  Faces that knew there were no longer any consequences. The intoxication of power.

  Far from just the boy, there should not be anyone in the world who could tolerate people like that drawing even a bit closer. But he could not get up, so he could only rely on the Gamma-css pistol from earlier.

  However, a heated shot that could easily crack a wall was stopped by the gauntlet one of the Thorns wore, one that projected a prana shield wide enough to cover them all. The boy kept firing away with hollow eyes, again and again to no avail as the Thorns surrounded him.

  Dry breaking sounds accompanied the hits and shots, but the boy still did not let out a single scream. In contrast, the other two who had also escaped from the building simply ran, any small hope their peers had inspired now shattered into pieces.

  Roaches.

  Jae-sung smirked and raised a hand, drawing the attention of his workers as he stepped forward.

  “Those two are probably heading for the armory. They’ll be telling anyone else still here to do the same, what with their comms and escape devices all messed up. Contact said it was the safest pce, and it’s right where we’re headed too. Let them lead the way, and ready yourselves to meet more of them. But as for you specifically…”

  His words surprised the Thorns and made them stop almost as soon as they began moving. The enormous swarm then split into two masses, one floating toward the three young men who had only now stopped tormenting the boy, and the other toward the woman who had taken the hostage earlier.

  “… I’ll feel like shit if I don’t reward the only ones with a clue here, so good job reading the room and actually doing something. I could use info if you can get it, so how about you check if any of the pigs inside are still alive, and have some fun~?”

  The smiles he received in return, shown just as much in the Thorns’ eyes as on their lips, dispyed more delight than any words Jae-sung could have heard in response.

  With the sound of dragged bodies, then marching Thorns behind him, Jae-sung continued his advance toward the armory. The escaped cadets may have disappeared from sight, but the locusts that had spread far and wide continued to perceive them just as clearly.

  While the walk toward the extraordinarily solid-looking armory had only taken a few minutes, it was enough time for a considerably rge group of knights-in-training to gather in preparation. From what the locusts could sense, they were a little over a dozen.

  While still outnumbered roughly three to one by the Thorns accompanying Jae-sung, their special powers and training should have allowed them to prevail quite easily. That is, if Jae-sung himself was not present.

  “Doesn’t matter where you aim, get them anywhere that hurts. They’ll be trying to get weapons too, so head inside and fuck them up as soon as you can. Don’t give them any chances to get lucky.” Jae-sung told them as they approached.

  And this time, there was no hesitation. As soon as the first target came in sight, hungry clouds of miasma and armed Thorns rushed forward.

  Field-use knight weapons, tools the like of which those very cadets had likely never even held, were fired and swung with reckless abandon. Blood sprayed, skin burned and even the surroundings themselves were razed to an increasingly unrecognizable degree.

  The difference in strength and skill between the two sides was beyond obvious; so significant that despite their inferior equipment and being outnumbered roughly three to one, the cadets would probably end up winning quite easily. That is, if Jae-sung himself was not present.

  He could easily bridge that gap on his own, spreading the Macedda Locusts just about everywhere to become aware of the entire conflict in detail. Every step, every attack, every parry and every mistake.

  The locusts swirled around like a condensed blizzard, covering for any attack that might reach the Thorns and tearing into all openings shown by the cadets. Even the ambush prepared for the first Thorn that entered the armory was for naught, with the bck swarm sweeping through the cadets before they could take down even one enemy.

  This was no battle, but merely another meal for Jae-sung. A perfectly tame main course, complementing the overwhelming hors d'oeuvre from earlier.

  He indulged himself in flesh, bone, as well as prana that was so rippling and solid at first; but slowly, yet inevitably lost its vigor and coherent structure. Blood… Warm and dense, slick as it dripped around the locusts, dripped down his own body.

  His body… His blood?

  Jae-sung buckled reflexively, noticing what he had missed the first time. A hit, then a dry sound, followed by visceral pain radiating from within.

  There was no way he was bleeding. The Macedda Locusts that made up his body had no such trait, and in fact took care of all his bodily functions that might require it. But then, what was the heavy fluid that he could still feel even now? What was it that hurt so much that it forced him out of his delighted trance?

  Increasingly more Thorns around him found themselves looking at him, shocked by Jae-sung’s abnormal behavior, but he barely even noticed. His attention was fully overcome by the dreadful realization that he had been injured. Not the locusts that merely allowed him to interact with the world, but that which truly made him himself.

  The st traces of his original organs encased within the mass of Macedda Locusts had been breached, leaking fluid that should never exit them.

  How did it even happen? The enormous miasma left no blind spots, making him aware of every possible threat in a radius well over fifty meters around him. Dangers such as the cadets were being dealt with, steadily overpowered by the Thorns through the assistance he provided. An assistance that would also let him know of any stray spells or attacks headed his way.

  It should have been impossible to hurt him, but the feeling of two more dry hits and the increasingly unbearable pain made his fears all the more undeniable.

  The locusts were just as bewildered, only confirming the severity of the danger he, as their commanding core, faced. Even so, they still failed to pinpoint anything he could identify as the source of that danger.

  Overtaken by a terror unlike any he could remember ever feeling, Jae-sung forced himself to turn. The feeling was clear, the pain even more, alerting him that whatever hit him had come from his back.

  He begged inwardly, pleading that whatever the Macedda Locusts failed to sense on their own could be detected by his facsimile eyes, no matter how much of an emution his ‘sight’ actually was.

  He… He could see indeed, for what little it mattered. A crumpled, twig-like silhouette, dripping red that formed a spotty trail behind, with opaque white exposed on more than a few pces.

  Dead.

  Was the word that instantly came to Jae-sung’s mind, and also the word that let him know why the locusts had made such a mistake.

  A person like that would never qualify as a threat, not as far as they were concerned. Rather, was there anyone who could be threatened by a dead person? To the locusts’ senses, as well as his own sight, that which stood just over ten meters away from him was but a walking corpse.

  And yet, that corpse held a pistol tightly in its ragged hand, refusing to give in to recoil that should have blown a form as frail as a scarecrow well away. And then its deep, focused eye, gring at him as if nothing else existed in the world.

  A dead man with a singur enemy in their mind, with a hand and eye that would ensure his shot would nd no matter what.

  Crippling, incontrolble fear invaded every corner of Jae-sung’s mind. He tried to call the locusts back so they could shield him from a man on the very precipice of oblivion, not even to attack him. But for a mere instant, victim of his sheer horror, he could not even remember how.

  He saw the man’s finger pull the trigger, the brief fsh of the muzzle as the gun coldly fired. The third shot? Fourth? Only such thoughts managed to distract Jae-sung as a crisp impact hit his forehead.

  His body arched back, devoid of any bance as he fell. And as his vision faded into the deepest bck, only the dry echo of the discharged bullet could reach him.

  The young man’s mind was in pieces, unable to remember so much as the way his day had begun.

  He held no delusions about the condition he y in. It was only a matter of time before the machine he called a body colpsed on itself, unable to ignore simple mechanical limitations. His limbs stiff, any small movement felt like the scratching of a rusted toy’s joints. It was not even about the pain anymore; the mere act of breathing required as much conscious willpower as it might take to shoot his own head.

  Everything burned. Air that should have been cold endlessly tortured his open wounds, to the extent that only his dripping blood proved somewhat soothing. The sight in his remaining eye flickered, increasingly blurry and occasionally dark every few seconds. Each step sent ripples into his body, doing nothing but further compound onto everything else and incessantly threaten an arbitrary finish line.

  The time he had spent simply lying on the street, broken as that which he needed to live flowed out of his body, had been enough to make him forget his very senses. Excruciating, terrifying, and yet compared to that static state, every movement he now forced out of himself felt so much worse. Worse than that, he kept losing even more time of whatever he had left.

  Seconds? Minutes? An insignificant amount of life, so many would say, but even that was something he wanted. No matter how miserable his state, he just wished to live as long as he could.

  So what was he even doing? Why would he not just lie down to wait for the inevitable, and perhaps gain even a second more? The answer to such questions was still the only thing that remained perfectly clear.

  Ciara…

  Finn remembered. Something beyond himself, a purpose he had to fulfill.

  Things could not be simpler. Until that was over, he would not stop. That was all there was to his role; all there was to his march.

  “Awesome. I’m so happy I helped you, Finn.”

  Why did those words stay with him? Who even said them?

  More than the pain and the cold, more than the dread of his life slipping away as he y on the alley, it was those words that proved to be the greatest torture. A curse pced not on his body, but on his very soul.

  … Yes. Only by moving toward that singur goal would it finally recede. How funny, for the spark that had made him stand up in the first pce to have been a curse of all things.

  Finn was grateful. Never before in his twenty-four years had he felt so awake.

  He could no longer distinguish his surroundings, not beyond the most general of shapes, but the path to follow was an exception to this. The contrast, as well as his ck of solid memories aside from a direction, only worked to his advantage.

  Even so, he forgot how to breathe again, and each step felt like it took a whole day. His bance became quickly compromised, but even his attempt to find support on the nearby building with his arm failed.

  Despair crawled back inside Finn. His body was still a machine in the end, one that ran in accordance with a precarious physical equilibrium. If a key piece of that equilibrium was disrupted, then a body could no longer function properly.

  He could not count the number of pieces that had been crippled in him. The reality of an inescapable end did to his mind what his body had long since suffered.

  But a single sight overcame all that in an instant, blowing away the dark fog of finality for just one moment more.

  Finn saw a person, standing out among the mass of indistinct silhouettes for its detail. A sleek body, a head of well-kept hair, immacute clothes… An unsightly farce, shamelessly exhibited through the alien bck mass that he faded into, from a shoulder to its corresponding hip.

  He had arrived. There was no way to know the distance between them for sure, but that was a superfluous matter. This was enough.

  Enough to force himself to stand back up, even if his hand had not reached the wall that should have been his only chance. Instead, that hand traveled further down, toward a pocket where a hard bump would have been barely noticeable.

  Ciara… Don’t worry. I’ll… Even I can…

  Someone who could do what he could not? What was he even thinking?

  He did not need that. Happy to have helped him? Yes, of course there was a reason.

  Even a coward like me… is still your big brother.

  The pistol was heavy, so heavy that Finn thought he might have lifted a cannon instead. But even that could not stop a smile from forming, creasing his blood-stained cheeks as he lifted the weapon straight before him.

  It was loaded, and he knew just where to aim. The barrel did not so much as shake as he pced a finger on the trigger, then pulled.

  An impact like a hammer’s strike assaulted him, from his hand to his shoulder, then to his torso and the rest of his body. A vibration that could have stolen his embers of life right then and there, carrying enough pain with it that all he had experienced before may as well have happened to a different person.

  But Finn stood firm. He kept his legs in pce as much as his arm, and fired again. After all, the enemy was still moving. He crumpled and bent down, squirming in confusion, but was still standing and moving. Finn’s job was not over if that was the case.

  So he fired shot after shot, and for each time he pulled the trigger, more of his shattered body seemed to fade like dust in the wind. He no longer breathed, and even the pain that had been so intense just a moment ago was rapidly losing any meaning or relevance.

  The enemy turned around as more shots nded, the bck clouds around him buzzing and quivering incessantly. The expression on his face… What was it? Detail was still there, just like before, but Finn failed to recognize any sort of pattern in it.

  It was all unimportant. When he saw such a face, only one thought entered Finn’s mind.

  Fuck off.

  Once more, he pulled the trigger. And this time, the enemy fell.

  The impact hit his head, and he buckled backward like toy unable to keep bance. His back hit the floor, with as many bck clouds as Finn could still see gathered around the unmoving body in a packed, messy manner.

  Finn might have shot one or two more times afterward, but there was no way for him to know. Even if his pistol had run out of ammo, he could not even feel its blowback anymore.

  … Over?

  Even that he was not sure about, not before what seemed like a full hour of looking at the downed body had passed. However, a new reality did gradually seep into his consciousness, no matter how slowly.

  … Yes. Ciara… You’ll be… It’s all okay now…

  Impossibly scorching cold had long since left his body, repced by a void-like numbness that allowed nothing to escape, but that changed yet again. No matter how small, how faint and mysterious, a sliver of warmth was all that now remained.

  There’s… There’s still your birthday, right? It’s sooner than m… Sooner… Sooner than what?

  With such warmth, the smallest inkling of sensation had returned to the young man’s body. It was due to such, that he noticed the unusual, sudden pressure that repced his arm so very briefly.

  He turned as much as he could, seeing nothing but the formless silhouettes that had stood near the enemy. They moved, shifted a lot. So weird.

  The young man tried to point at them, wondering if it might help him identify something, and noticed he did not have that arm to point with anymore.

  We haven’t talked about… backup. Backup pns… if you end up not liking kn… What you do anymore…

  A simir pressure assaulted his side next, covering the span from his chest to his right hip, and his field of view changed drastically. So much faster than before, he no longer saw the silhouettes of people, nor the outlines of buildings. He saw… the sky.

  Detail? Detail… Was not needed. The sky… was just the sky.

  A view then covered by a dazzling light.

  I wanted to see you again,

  Ciar—

  And Finn Morrigan knew no more.