Deviant: No Longer Human

7th January, 2032.

The clock crawled toward midnight in Shanghai.

Outside, the city breathed its usual rhythm, horns in the distance, faint neon hums, laughter spilling from some nightclub far down the street.

Yet far away, in a room across another continent, time itself slowed.

The chamber was wide, its wooden floor polished smooth, lantern-light throwing gold across the walls. Scrolls of campaigns and diagrams of siege machines lay scattered on the board between two women.

Velkhara Umbra sat barefoot, lazily sprawled on the cushions. She never cared much for clothing, tonight just a strip of white cloth wound around her curves, leaving pale shoulders bare, a neckline too loose to be an accident.

She was explaining the difference between feints and ambushes, her voice tense… when it stopped.

"Umm…?"

Ning Xue tilted her head, quill pausing mid-stroke. She had been jotting down notes, brow furrowed over the diagrams on the board, when silence pressed too hard.

Across from her, Velkhara sat motionless.

Her eyes glazed, lips parting soundlessly, her chest rising in shallow tremors as though her soul had been tugged out by invisible strings.

"Vel?" Ning Xue's frown deepened.

A second later, her pupils drowned in crimson.

Thin veins crawled across the whites, like cracks in porcelain white jade spilling blood. She sucked in a cold breath, clutching her head, strands of midnight hair wet to her forehead.

"Stop… it's—get… out…" Velkhara's voice echoed, broken, her words slipping between deep gasps.

The sight tore Ning Xue to her feet.

Thud!

She rushed around the board, hand half-raised toward Velkhara's trembling shoulder, uncertain whether to wake her.

Whoosh!

A storm of feathers, black as tar, slammed into the closed windows, shattering them wide.

Wind howled through the chamber, ripping scrolls from the board, scattering diagrams like broken paper wings.

Ning Xue staggered, braid whipping in the gust, eyes snapping toward the broken frame.

Velkhara was gone.

Her shadowed figure shot into the night sky, becoming smaller with each heartbeat.

A figure half-merged, half-born, wings stretching wide, armored plates sliding into existence across pale skin like shadows solidifying into steel.

It wasn't the Velkhara Wang Xiao once knew, who only possessed Umbra like a second skin. This was different... This was total assimilation.

Flesh and shadow woven together until there was no seam.

"What… happened to her?"

Left behind, Ning Xue stood speechless. To her, Velkhara had always been indifferent, lazy, unsocial and nomadic, a woman who would rather vanish than stay close to any living thing. If she could've locked herself away and never spoken to another soul, she would've done it without hesitation.

Yet today, she had left in such a rush.

Ning Xue hesitated only for a second before running after her, but Velkhara was already far ahead, too fast, too sharp.

The distance stunned her. She had always thought the gap between them wasn't so large. But now she saw clearly, Velkhara had been holding back all along.

And it wasn't just Velkhara rushing through the skies tonight.

Another figure was moving too.

In Qing Dynasty...

Near TEDA, Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, by the Binhai New Area port, shores now drowned in neon steel, shadows stirred.

Wang Xiao had just merged the changes he forced onto the present, and those bound to him were being drawn closer, like moths desperate to find their flame.

He, however, couldn't be bothered.

Without looking back, he waved his hand. "Go."

Luna sighed and grabbed Yuzuki by the wrist.

"Eh?! But I, I didn't want to leave yet… Ugh! Lord, save me!" Yuzuki thrashed, arms flailing in the air, as if the very act of being dragged away was injustice itself.

"Don't send me away!" Her voice cracked as she struggled, hair falling across her flushed face. "I've been burning for you every night… do you know what it's like? Lying awake, aching, touching myself just to pretend it was your hands..."

Her wide, pleading eyes flicked to Wang Xiao, certain he would stop Luna.

He didn't.

"Zhao Lian, grab her hands," Luna muttered, jaw tight.

The blonde woman at her side moved swiftly. Once the daughter of Asmodeus, Zhao Lian's grip was merciless as she locked down Yuzuki's wrists, helping Luna shove her into the back of the minivan.

"Wait, Wait!"Yuzuki's voice cracked, aggrieved, as the door of minivan slammed. For the past seven days she had been waiting, heart burning, to finally steal a chance with him.

And now? Now she was being hauled away like baggage.

When Wang Xiao returned, he found them just like this, Yuzuki, Luna, Zhao Lian, clustered together, looking for him, searching.

But rather than explain, he dismissed them with a wave.

His eyes were calm.

His tone colder than they expected, shutting all the questions they might have.

He had, truthfully, originally planned to indulge Yuzuki, the body double of Luna, uncanny enough to tempt him just for the cruelty of it.

But not now.

So he sent all three of them away.

A second later...

"Why are you here?"

Wang Xiao turned, brow lifting. The space beside him rippled, droplets together, dripping, gathering, until the shimmer of water began to fold into a shape.

Bloop… bloop…

Slow, and patient.

And then she stood there.

Smal, barely the height of a fourteen-year-old girl. But the aura around her made the air heavy, like the tide pulling at the shore before a storm.

Skin pale as milk, soft, untouched.

Hair spilling down her shoulders in a liquid cascade, dyed with shifting hues, like a rainbow caught after rain, faded yet too beautiful to ignore.

Her eyes glowed a clear ocean-blue, pearls stirring with waves.

Thin brows, delicate nose, crimson red lips curved into a faint smile, gentle, sweet, almost innocent. But the silence she carried made that smile feel like temptation itself.

Naomi.

He knew her.

She usually remained at his mother's side, protecting his family in his absence. Their connection stretched far back, though their personal interactions had always been scarce.

Yet she is a presence far older than she ever appeared.

"Um?"

Naomi blinked at him, wide-eyed, then padded over barefoot, light as a drop of water. She suddenly caught his hand. He stiffened, annoyed, but she only scooped a little water pooled there and let it drip through her fingers, tilting her head like a cat playing with something shiny.

Wang Xiao's brows knit. "What? Lost your tongue again?"

She didn't answer right away. Just stared at him, too long, too deep. It made him uncomfortable. She looked small, delicate, almost like porcelain… but he knew better. Hundreds of million years old and still daring to wear a child's body like armor. Did she really think that look would make him go easy?

Her lips quivered under his gaze, red and soft, and finally parted.

"C… Chronomasters…"

"Hm?"

"Chronomasters. You… revived them."

Her voice was low, shaky, like she was both awed and afraid. Her small hand lifted again, pale as milk, trembling as she reached up toward his face.

Her fingers hovered just above his skin, almost touching, almost brushing. She peered at him through the gaps in her hand, eyes glowing ocean-blue, whispering like she wanted to drink the answer straight out of his breath.

Swoosh!

"Ah!"

Naomi gasped as his hand snapped around her tiny wrist. Her body jolted, breath froze, and his lips curved into that faint, dangerous smile.

"Naomi… how about you use your voice properly, before I change my mind about having you restored?"

Her throat worked. She nodded quickly, lips parting, voice trembling from disuse.

"…H...ave you… tampered with time?"

Between them, a single droplet floated, one she had once left on him. She stared at it, wide-eyed. It had aged… older than her. Impossible. For a moment, it even winked out of existence, only to reappear, flickering like a dying candle.

Her pupils tightened. This wasn't just residue, something had cracked.

And then it happened.

Beings that should not exist, blinked out one by one, erased by the very god of time they once worshiped… only to be spat back into existence again, like drowning men gasping for breath.

Naomi's gaze flicked to him. His frown told her he didn't understand.

She exhaled, slow. Her small hand flexed against his grip, and then.

SPLASH!

A massive drop of water folded around them, sealing the world away.

When it opened again, the Qing Dynasty's steel and neon were gone. Instead, stone. An underground city carved deep in the dark.

But alive.

Hundreds of figures stood there, every one of them with the same distinct features: dark-silver hair flowing, green eyes like gemstones.

Voices fell silent.

Hundreds of heads turned at once.

All of them staring at the two who had just arrived.