The trees blurred past me as I shifted inside that space between the real world and the dungeon, the darkness that existed in that narrow space. It helped me bypass squads and monsters. Shear could keep an eye on me—mostly—but Kenyon and Carter wouldn’t. It put me on my own, yet I didn’t mind that. If anything, a part of it felt more natural to me than working with others.
Stealth weren’t made to exist with others, were driven by that darkness, the call of a void that nothing could ever satisfy. I’d learned to adjust, to work with my squad, to rely on them, but a terrifying freedom overcame me when I had the chance to break free like this.
Just ahead, the pillar came into view. Obsidian, with the heart above it. The shiny, black stone hovered slightly, power radiating from it. I wasn’t first, however. The other group stood there, but upon seeing them, I cursed.
Rank B? They truly thought they could deal with the heart of a higher-rank dungeon? I’d seen what a heart could do to an esper who lacked the rank and power to destroy it. The corruption within the heart could easily overwhelm the esper.The competing energies would clash, and unless they relented, only one would survive.
And looking at the B-Rank idiots here, I had a feeling I knew exactly who’d win that battle.
Heartless as I was, I couldn’t just let that happen. Instead, I slipped from the shadows beside them. “You really think that’s a good idea?”
One of the two stealth espers looked my way, his eyes narrowing. The look he offered suggested he knew exactly who I was. “We were here first.”
“So?”
“You can’t destroy this. It’s ours.”
I made a point to roll my eyes so hard a teenager would have cringed. “I don’t give a fuck about the payout.”
“You may not, but it would make a huge difference for us.” He reached for the heart until my snapped response froze him in place.
“Yeah, well, money’s not gonna mean a fucking thing to a pile of ash.”
“You don’t know that’ll happen. It’s not all about rank! You think that rank means everything, but it doesn’t.”
I shook my head at their stupidity. I couldfeelmonsters coming, the sickening energy, the crunching of ground beneath their feet. They felt us near the heart and wouldn’t allow us to be here unopposed. No dungeon let itself get destroyed without a fight, after all.
Were they alive? Was there some central guiding intelligence? Or was it just instinct?
I didn’t know and, honestly, I didn’t much give a fuck. None of it changed my task, so it didn’t matter to me. Let the scientists waste their time with those sorts of questions.
Me, I destroyed shit. That was it for me. No need for deeper thoughts or what-ifs.
“You want to do something this fucking stupid? Go for it. I’ll take the heart and destroy it after you turn into fucking dust, huh? I’ll just wait until it destroys every cell in your stupid fucking body.”
The first monster burst through the shrubs around us, but I had heard it coming. I caught it by a horn and twisted, the snapping of its neck loud, like a fucking exclamation point to my statement. The thing collapsed into a pile of twisted limbs and black scales. It was hardly alone, however.
More of them overran the small clearing, swarming the group. They focused less on me, probably because the lower-rank espers made for easier targets.
Not that I let that happen. I slipped two blades into my hands from the slots of my belt. They weren’t large, not as scary-looking as the weapons Carter often used, but they helped me stay quick on my feet.
Even a needle could kill a person if stuck in the right spot, and my placement was impeccable.
They didn’t slow, didn’t stop. It was like everything Carter had drawn to him before had abandoned him to focus on us. I lost myself in the movements, in dropping one foe after another, a familiar rhythm that had made up my life for so long.
At least, I did until movement to my left caught my attention. I glanced that way to find the same asshole from earlier going for the heart again. He ignored the monsters snapping at him, and the others of his squad tried to keep them away from him.
“Don’t you fucking do it,” I yelled out as I tore a blade free from where I’d embedded it into one of the thing’s throats.
The esper looked at me, challenge in his features, then dove for the heart. A pained sound escaped him the moment he curled his fingers around the stone.
I knew that pain, had felt it myself, had probably made that sound myself. Still, it hurt to hear anyone else make it, especiallyover something as fucking stupid as their own ego, as their own pride.
What use was there in climbing some imaginary social ladder if it was just going to fucking kill him?
Sure enough, when he grasped it, his body froze. He couldn’t have let it go even if he’d wanted to. His eyes shifted to purple, to the same color that worked its way through the otherwise black skies. His face darkened, veins black and stark against pale skin, until he disintegrated right there.
No—disintegrated implied it was instant, as though it didn’t hurt. That word didn’t do justice to just how horrific it was, to the way the pitch of his voice changed with the pain, to how time no doubt seemed to slow around him as the power tore him apart, atom by atom.
