NOVEL NEXT Chapter 293: Lightning
Lightning snapped and faded as Liss skidded to a stop atop a half-burned billboard on the edge of the city skyline, the charred metal creaking under her boots.
Her arms clutched tightly around the green-haired girl she'd snatched only moments ago, her grip firm but not cruel, electricity humming faintly along her jacket.
The girl was light, fragile almost, her cream sweater bunched at the wrists, but her emerald eyes were wide and alert, scanning the neon glow of the sprawling city below, the lights flickering like a living pulse.
Liss didn't waste time, her white-blonde hair whipping in the wind as she steadied herself.
"Find him," she ordered flatly, her voice cutting through the distant hum of the city. "Use those ears of yours. Listen. Whatever it is you do—do it now."
The girl swallowed nervously, her throat bobbing, then nodded, her green hair shimmering faintly under the billboard's flickering lights.
She closed her eyes, her delicate features tightening with focus.
And the city exploded inside her head.
Voices—hundreds, thousands—poured in like a tidal wave.
Shouts from street vendors, laughter spilling from bars, babies crying in distant apartments.
Dogs barking in alleys, the clatter of trains rattling along tracks, the hiss of fryers in a hundred kitchens.
Tires screeching on asphalt.
A man clearing his throat three streets over, the sound sharp and distinct.
A woman humming off-key in her shower, oblivious to the world.
The squeak of a rusted sign swaying in the wind, grating against its bolts.
Too much.
Every layer of sound piled over the next, a crushing weight pressing against her skull, relentless and unyielding.
Her jaw tightened, her temples throbbed, a faint trickle of warmth leaking from one ear—blood, seeping from the strain.
But she didn't stop, her hands clenching into fists at her sides, her body trembling as she sifted through the chaos.
Kael's voice.
She just needed to find him—his cadence, his heartbeat, the rhythm she'd memorized during those days of surveillance outside the Haven, when she'd been a tool, a weapon aimed at his life.
Minutes passed, the silence between her and Liss stretching taut.
Liss's brows furrowed, her fingers tapping impatiently against her side, sparks dancing faintly around her knuckles.
"Well?" she asked, her voice sharp, impatience bleeding through.
No answer.
The girl flinched, her eyes squeezing tighter, a small gasp escaping her lips as another wave of sound crashed through her.
Liss snapped, her patience fraying.
She grabbed the girl by her shoulders, shaking her like rattling a toolbox, electricity sparking faintly along her arms, not enough to hurt but enough to jolt.
"Hey! Do you even know what you're doing? Can you really find him, or am I just wasting time?"
The green-haired girl's mouth opened, her lips trembling, but nothing came out.
She shook her head quickly, her hands lifting in a frantic gesture, eyes wet with unshed tears, her expression pleading as she pointed to her throat.
Liss paused, her grip loosening, realization dawning. "…You can't talk?"
The girl shook her head again, her emerald eyes glistening, a mix of shame and desperation flickering across her face as she gestured again, more insistently, pointing to her throat.
For a moment, even Liss faltered, her sharp edges softening.
She exhaled sharply, pulling her arms back, the sparks fading as she muttered, "Damn it. Great. Just great."
The girl raised her hand, weak but determined, and pointed outward—past the neon lights, past the crowded streets, toward the dark stretches of the outskirts, where the city's glow faded into shadowed wilderness.
Liss tilted her head, her blue eyes narrowing. "Out there?"
The girl nodded once, her movement firm despite the tremble in her hands.
"Tch." Liss clicked her tongue, crouching low, sparks crackling beneath her boots as she prepared to move. "Fine. But if you're wrong—"
She didn't finish the threat, didn't need to.
She launched herself forward, dragging the girl in her arms again, her grip steady but urgent.
The cityscape streaked by in a storm of blue light, buildings blurring into smears of color as they hurtled toward the wilderness beyond, the air crackling with the force of her teleportation.
The girl squeezed her eyes shut, clinging tighter to Liss, her fingers digging into the S-Class hero's jacket.
She forced herself to focus again, stretching her hearing outward like fragile threads of silk, each one trembling under the strain of the city's noise.
The farther they went, the quieter the urban chaos became, replaced by the rustle of leaves, the distant hoot of an owl, the soft rush of a stream.
But the silence was worse—sharper, more isolating, making every sound she chased stand out like a scream in a void.
Each time she reached farther, pushing her senses to their limit, the noise collapsed back on her, brutal and clawing at her mind.
Blood welled faintly at the edges of her ears, a warm trickle she ignored, her jaw tight with determination.
Her brain was chaos, a cacophony threatening to drown her.
Her body screamed at her to stop, to pull back before the strain broke something vital.
But she didn't.
Because Kael had saved her once—when she had been nothing but a weapon left to die in the rubble of the Haven by the hands of the girl in black, her body broken, her purpose shattered.
He'd seen something in her, carried her to Clara when everyone else would have left her to bleed out.
And now, maybe… just maybe… she could make him her anchor, the one point of clarity in the storm of sound and guilt.
Her reason to fight.
Her reason to stay.
So she listened, even when it hurt, even when the pain seared through her skull, threatening to tear her apart.
.
.
.
The outskirts were endless, a labyrinth of towering pines and tangled roots that stretched into the darkness like a living maze.
Liss's lungs burned as she dashed through the outskirts, the green-haired girl clutched tightly in her arms, her slight frame trembling against Liss's chest.
Hours had bled into one another, time blurring under the relentless pace.