Chương 160: Cusp

Lilia crept as close as she could without being spotted; she took care not to fully separate from her growing posse, staying at least a bound away. While stealth was never her strong suit, as long as she remained vigilant, the ever-present fog of dust would do well to conceal her. Noises all around her masked her movements, but nevertheless, her heart beat with haste, hoping to not hear even a peep from the posse behind her.

Lying flat out in the open, Lilia posed as a corpse, leveraging her superior eyes to observe her opponents. She scanned around, looking for alternative routes, but no viable paths presented themselves to her; she next looked for opportunities, ways to gain advantages over the Aspirants ahead. High ground in the hedge maze didn't seem possible; besides some larger chunks of fallen debris, the hedge maze's borders weren't stable enough to stand on, considering that they were hedges after all.

"Tch"'We don't have time for this, sister, if a patrol finds us—''Focus on preparing a spell instead of worrying; you know what we have to do…' Lilia impatiently darted her eyes around before settling them back onto the three Aspirants standing in a loose triangular formation. She slowly began crawling forward while trying to glean anything about them.

The one on the left, the one with his hand resting on his undrawn blade, had faint lines of pale light tracing up his forearms, like veins beneath the skin — Force, at least an application of force Lilia had seen before; this one was a clear augmentation of his body, brutish, but effective nevertheless. The middle Aspirant had a short wand in her hand; the veil of dust made it difficult for Lilia to see any details on it, meaning she had to get up close and personal…

or be on the receiving end of a spell to figure out her specialty in magic. Hopefully she would be able to kill them before that became the case. The final Aspirant on the right held no weapon; he wore hanfu, a common garb worn by Qi-users. The man could also simply be an Aspirant from a hanfu-wearing culture, which was still not out of the realm of possibility.

Lilia held back a sigh, not wanting to find out what sources her enemy used firsthand, but the way things stood, she had a feeling her hopes wouldn't be fulfilled. Lilia exhaled and slowly shimmied towards the trio of Aspirants, praying that the murk would conceal her from their gaze. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Her ears twitched as the soft sound of whispers graced them.

She tried her best to focus them to the best of her ability, to tune out all the remnant noise outside. Turning her head slightly towards the trio, she saw a ring on the middle mage's finger pulsing faintly.

'Shit!' Lilia swiftly shifted to her back, before flourishing her hand and throwing a bolt of ice at the mage, but the hanfu-wearing man swiftly deflected the bolt off course with the palm of his hand.

"They said a Harth might come through here," the mage said, conversationally, as if remarking on the weather.

"They did say that you brought an audience!? But I don't see anyone! Did you abandon them, you naughty dog!?" Lilia somersaulted to the side, into what little cover she could find. She reached for the sword she had carried since the start of the disaster, only to remember that she had left it behind with the survivors.

'Tch' The mage held her hand up above her.

"Neat ring, right? Detection magic imbued right onto it; you wouldn't be able to guess where I bought it from, at a low price nonetheless… Bah! I got it from Harth! I'm no good with surprises, y'know…" Lilia held her breath, prepared another bolt, and waited for a window of opportunity. Mortimer always reiterated that an Aspirant could pull off the unexpected. While she had the power advantage, underestimating any opponent was as good as placing her neck on a chopping block. The mage sighed, "Still silent, eh?

Well, if you aren't going to kindly cooperate, we're going to have to do this the… fun way."

Voice lounged back on an invisible chair in the void; he sipped on a milkshake with crushed chocolate cookie bits in it. His voided facial expression betrayed emotion, yet his shoulders were slumped, and his head was limply tilted to the side, watching a projection in front of him. A projection of June wading his way through dust and debris to find his love. He sighed and placed the cup to the side, letting it hover off weightlessly in the void. His vacation had been mostly uneventful.

Voice didn't mind; that's how he liked things… peaceful, and uneventful. Though for a vacation, he still worked more than he planned to, he tied up loose ends, checked up on some folk, and spent his days watching over June. A soft dread continued to linger within him since his trip into his past memories with June. It was an odd feeling to go back, in a somewhat literal sense, and be forced to see what he was… how he lived before he became what he is now.

He found it amusing how a memory of the past could remind an immortal being of their mortality; it was frankly terrifying, sobering, and saddening to see what little he had also been lost. His vacation period was nearly over. He looked at his wrist; there was no wristwatch on it, but the gesture alone was enough to entertain him for a short chuckle. Looking off into the void, he imagined his faceless cheeks creasing into a smile as a bit of relief filled him.

"2 more hours… 2 more hours until I could help that kid out…"

"…"

"That damned poor kid…"