Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power

Kaden's body grew limp. His figure swayed like a drunkard, about to fall to the ground, only to be caught at the same time by Meris and Inara.

They stared at each other, eyes locking in a brief glare. Meris's gaze was cold and irritated, frost clawing at the edge of her silver eyes, while Inara's lips curved into what looked like a provoking smile.

Their silent contest didn't last long. Both turned their focus back to Kaden, who lay unconscious, eyes closed, breath shallow. They then shifted their heads in perfect sync toward Luke and found him sprawled across the rocky floor, eyes vacant and lifeless.

"What is happening?" Inara asked, her tone more curious than worried.

Meris shrugged. "Ask him." She gestured toward Kaden with a tilt of her chin.

Inara's eye twitched. "Wow, Meris… aren't you a damn genius? Why didn't I think of that?" Her voice dripped with mock realization, thick with sarcasm.

Meris ignored her.

…

The world grew dark. For a moment too brief to acknowledge, Kaden had this strange feeling of being swallowed by something. Something harrowing enough to make his mind go blank, his thoughts halt, his breathing slow down…

…life itself seemed to pause.

All he could feel at that moment was fear and sorrow piercing through his heart in a way no arrow ever could.

And then…

Light.

Kaden's eyes flickered open with a sharp snap. Instinctively, he looked around, trying to absorb his surroundings.

The sight before him was chilling.

He stood on a small, grey raft, barely large enough to support him, floating in the middle of a ghastly grey sea. All around, as far as his eyes could reach, the waters stretched endlessly, merging with the horizon into a colorless void.

Above, the sky — grey like the sea beneath — was heavy with dense, black clouds. There was no sun, no moon, no celestial body man had ever known.

Kaden frowned.

"What is this?" he muttered, his legs locked firmly on the raft, afraid to fall into the sea—something he very much preferred not to do, as he could feel a suffocating aura emanating from it.

No, it wasn't just the sea. It was the whole damn place, gripping him by the throat, his lungs straining just to function.

His Will flared instinctively, reacting to a danger he couldn't even properly perceive.

Bad news.

"Is this really the mind place of a person?" he muttered to himself, still confused. He had come here to look through Luke's memories, to gain some understanding of that black rune.

He'd thought it was a good idea. Luke didn't look ready to talk, and Kaden had no time to waste on torture. Besides, hardly anyone could match him in matters of Will. In fact, he believed only the Slave could.

For now, at least.

So, confident, he entered Luke's mind without the slightest precaution. It was a reckless decision, especially after that incident with Calix back in the Domain of the Damned with Alea, but it was far too late to gnash his teeth and ponder it in frustration.

He pushed his perception to its limits, trying to grasp this woeful place more clearly.

The raft beneath his feet was immobile, it didn't budge. That was strange, he remarked. His frown deepened as his gaze moved past the raft, toward the sea, and only then did he notice something he hadn't before…

…the sea… the sea was not moving.

The water wasn't flowing. It remained in perfect, unnatural stillness. There were no ripples, no rhythm, nothing. There was just a flawless reflection of himself upon a surface smooth as glass, looked like it was polished by a perfectionist's hand.

That realization made him more aware of his surroundings.

Nothing was moving.

The wind wasn't howling. The clouds above looked nailed to the sky, unable to shift even an inch.

Even himself.

His lungs slowed, a suffocating weight clawing at him from within. His heartbeat faltered, sluggish, like a horse dragging itself through mud. His body began freezing into a stillness deeper than anything he had ever imagined.

Kaden's eyes widened in shock as he finally recognized the dread knotting in his chest. He tried to move, but bloody hell, it was like the very air had solidified into fortified steel and wrapped itself around him a million times over.

His body was heavy. His mind was heavy.

His entire being was slowing, sinking into a paused state. And despite that, he couldn't shake the sorrow building in his throat.

He felt the urge to cry, and he knew it was only his Will that stopped his tears and kept him resisting the suffocating stillness.

'Now… now this is something,' Kaden thought with grinding difficulty. Even thinking had become a struggle.

He didn't know what was happening, or what kind of place Luke's mind truly was, but he needed to get out before things turned worse.

He never did.

Because the moment those thoughts crawled through his mind, far slower than his usual pace, the clouds above began to shift.

In this world of stillness, that single motion captured his full attention. With the effort of a baby trying to push a grown man, he raised his head toward the sky and witnessed a sight that made his eyes widen in slow motion, filled with awe and dread alike.

High above, amidst the black clouds, the face of a woman began to form. Though shaped from clouds, her features were detailed enough for Kaden to feel her beauty instinctively. Her lips, her nose, her hair — everything about her radiated an impossible grace.

But her eyes…

Kaden suppressed a shudder.

…Tears.

Her eyes were weeping.

Black tears trailed down the cheeks of the gigantic woman's face before falling onto the still grey sea.

The sea didn't budge. It didn't ripple. It stayed frozen, just like everything else in this world…everything except the face above.

Kaden felt like a mortal standing before something twisted. Something divine.

The woman's weeping eyes fixed on him, and in a heartbeat, the stillness deepened, crushing him beneath invisible weight. His left eye froze in place, locked in existence, unable to even twitch. It was only the beginning. Soon, his entire left side was rooted…rooted to the raft, rooted to the sea… rooted to time itself.

Kaden didn't know what would happen if he turned into a statue in this place, but he wasn't very fond of finding out.

And yet, his mind grew dull. The very act of thinking began to feel like a chore he'd rather not do. He simply stood there, staring blankly at the face of the goddess…

'…Goddess?' Kaden barely caught that trail of thought before it slipped away, drowned beneath the growing tide of sorrow that made him incapable of even blinking.

The woman's face slowly descended toward him. And if Kaden had been even slightly more aware, he would have noticed that within her left, weeping eye knelt a figure, hands cupped in prayer, body motionless, as if frozen in eternal reverence.

It was Luke Thornspire.

The owner of this mindscape.

But Kaden knew nothing of that, as his blood-red eyes began to darken at the edges and…

Tears.

…black tears started to trickle down from his eyes, tracing his cheeks before pattering softly against the raft below.

No thoughts formed in his head. His internal organs had mostly ceased to function, leaving only a faint wisp of breath to keep him alive.

The weeping face was now inches from him, her mouth stretched wide, and within it lay a bottomless hole from which echoed cries of pain and sorrow…cries that could make even the hardest heart weep in helpless unison.

The gaping maw of that monstrous face began to swallow Kaden whole, half his head already disappearing into its darkness.

And just at that moment…

"KADEN!"

Reditha's voice, amplified by every shred of Intent Kaden had ever mastered, boomed through his skull like thunder. Instantly, his thoughts snapped back into motion, his mind stirring for just a single, precious heartbeat before stillness began clawing at him again.

But that fleeting breath, born from Reditha's dread and desperation, was enough for Kaden.

In that brief window of time she had bought him, with a voice colder than death and drenched in murderous resolve, he spoke:

"Synthesis."

—End of Chapter 277—