CHAPTER 107: 108 - UNSEEN FORCES

The two of them sat in silence near Ignis, the phoenix’s labored breathing filling the space between them. Raine had finally calmed down, though the occasional shudder in her shoulders betrayed the lingering weight of whatever had happened.

Velren waited, giving her time. Then, after a moment, he spoke.

"...Tell me what happened."

Raine exhaled softly, her fingers absentmindedly brushing against Ignis’s feathers.

"When the teleportation happened... I got caught in it too," she started. "One second, I was in the citadel hall, and then—just light. Overwhelming, blinding light."

Velren listened intently, letting her take her time.

"When I came to, I was near this island," she continued, her voice steadier now. "It was dark, rocky—completely unfamiliar. But I could see the main isle in the distance, so I knew where I had to go." She clenched her fists. "I didn’t waste time. As soon as I got my bearings, I flew there with Ignis."

She paused, her expression darkening.

"But mid-flight... I saw them. City officials. The same kind who were at the citadel." Her jaw tightened. "I thought they were friendly. Thought maybe they were searching for people who got scattered."

Velren frowned. "But they weren’t, were they?"

Raine let out a bitter laugh. "No." Her hands curled into fists on her lap. "They fired on us. Without hesitation."

She stopped, her throat working as she struggled to say the next part. But she didn’t need to—Velren already knew. He could fill in the blanks himself. The projectile had struck. Ignis had been wounded mid-air. And then—

"I was so scared of falling, but more than that.... I was afraid for Ignis. That something worse would happen to him."

Velren glanced at the phoenix. The great beast remained still, its breathing shallow but steady.

"...Can he shift into his small form?" he asked after a pause. "That’d make things easier, right?"

Raine shook her head. "No."

"Why not?"

She exhaled, brushing a hand over Ignis’s feathers again.

"When he’s injured this badly, he can’t shift," she explained. "It’s not just a size change—his whole form restructures when he does it. And if something is damaged, shifting only makes it worse."

Velren frowned.

"So he’s stuck like this until he heals?"

Raine nodded.

"Yeah." Her voice softened as she looked at Ignis. "And right now... I don’t know how long that’s going to take."

Velren exhaled through his nose, glancing at Ignis’s injured wing. The thought of the phoenix being grounded, unable to move freely, didn’t sit well with him—especially not in a situation like this. They were stranded, the citadel was in chaos, and now they had an injured companion to worry about.

"...Damn it," he muttered under his breath.

Running a hand through his hair, he abruptly stood and made his way toward one of the unconscious officials. If they wanted answers—if they wanted to know why the city’s own forces had turned against them—they needed someone awake to provide them.

Crouching down, Velren studied the official for a moment. The man was completely out cold, his uniform slightly disheveled from the earlier impact. Velren tapped the side of his face, not gently. No response.

"Tch."

Gripping the front of the official’s uniform, Velren dragged him upright and gave him a firm shake. Still nothing.

"Wake up," he ordered, then—not bothering to wait—drove two fingers into a pressure point near the man’s collarbone. A sharp, jolting pain shot through the official’s body.

With a startled gasp, the man’s eyes flew open. Velren didn’t waste time. He grabbed the official by the collar and leaned in.

"Oy. What are you guys up to?"

The man didn’t answer. He dropped his gaze to the ground, and his face was rigid with unreadable tension.

Velren’s eyes narrowed. Without hesitation, he struck—an open-handed slap across the man’s face, hard enough to snap his head to the side.

"I asked you a question, dumbass."

The official flinched but still refused to look at him. Then—so softly it was almost a whisper—he mumbled something under his breath.

Velren barely caught it.

"For the True Monarch... the true dominion awaits."

Bzzt!

[System Alert: H0st saf3ty c0mpromis3d.]

His breath hitched.

Then—

The official’s body convulsed. His eyes—his mouth—split open with blinding light, a searing white that shouldn’t exist.

Velren jolted back, instincts screaming.

"Shit—!"

Without thinking, he reached deep, flaring his Ka—

Gravemaw.

A spatial rift swallowed the man’s entire form, distorting reality for a split second—then collapsed with a heavy, unnatural silence.

Velren didn’t wait to see what came next. He spun on his heel and bolted back toward Raine.

"Hey! Get the hell out of here!" he shouted.

Raine, still caught off guard by everything, jolted at his sudden urgency. But she didn’t hesitate. She pushed herself up, gripping Ignis’s feathers as the phoenix let out a weak but determined cry. Together, they turned to flee.

A pulse.

Velren felt it before he saw it.

The space where the official had vanished rippled. And then—violently, grotesquely—his form re-emerged, as if being disgorged by reality itself. His body twisted unnaturally, light still spilling from his eyes and mouth. And the moment he returned—

BOOM!

A violent explosion tore through the air, a shockwave of pure, searing force.

Velren barely had time to throw himself forward before the blast swallowed the space behind him. Heat licked at his back, debris flying as the island’s jagged terrain cracked under the impact. Dust and smoke billowed outward, obscuring everything in a suffocating haze.

He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to steady his breathing. His ears were still ringing from the explosion, but he pushed through the haze, carefully approaching where the official had been.

Even before the smoke fully cleared, he knew.

The destruction—the violent, unnatural detonation—he had seen something like this before. Back at the Dominion Clash exam. The Kaovus.

His eyes narrowed. No mistaking it. The process had been different, the trigger unknown, but the end result... the explosion had been the same.

’What the hell does this mean...?’

The Kaovus—ancient, man-made constructs, more machine than living being. But this?

Velren had no doubt—that had been a person. A living, breathing human being. And yet, the moment he was compromised, something had forced him to self-destruct.

Like a failsafe. Like he was never meant to be captured alive.

His fists clenched, nails biting into his palms.

Were they being used? Were people being turned into—what, living weapons? Pawns? Disposable tools designed to erase themselves the moment they lost their purpose?

Whatever this was... whoever was behind this—

They weren’t just dealing with an unknown faction. This was something far worse.