Chương 13: A New Stirring

The aura that rolled out of Aren was not clean. It was black with intent. Not color, exactly. Not something the eye should have been able to see. Yet everyone present understood it the moment it touched them. Death. A black whirlpool seemed to open around Aren, dragging the breath from the battlefield. The remaining hyenas trembled. Some fell to their knees. Some clutched their throats. A few tried to run, only for their legs to give out beneath the pressure. They were not Nen users.

They had no Ten to shield themselves, no training to endure another person's killing intent wrapped in aura. One by one, they collapsed. Oss hit the ground last. His remaining hand scraped against the dirt as he tried to crawl backward. The arrogance on his face had rotted into terror.

"Monster," he whispered. Aren looked at him and felt almost nothing. The man had been loud when he held the advantage. Now that fear had found him, he had become boring. Behind Aren, Machi was still staring at the place where his wound had closed.

"You're... alive."

"I told you." Aren turned and placed a hand on her head. Machi stiffened at once. His palm was warm. His fingers were stained with his own blood. The gesture was careless and gentle in a way she did not know how to answer.

"We'll keep walking together," he said. A faint heat rose to her face. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Machi lowered her eyes and said nothing. Aren withdrew his hand and walked toward Oss.

"Wait." Oss raised his arm.

"I can tell you things. I know people. I know where the elders keep their supplies. I can..." Aren stepped behind him. The words stopped. A hand gripped Oss's jaw. Another caught the back of his skull. Aren twisted. The sound was short and ugly. Oss's head turned past the point a human neck could survive. His body kicked once, then went limp. Silence returned. For the first time since waking in this world, Aren had killed a man with full awareness and a calm mind. He looked down at his hands. There was no nausea.

No trembling. No heroic guilt pressing against his chest. Only a quiet understanding. This would not be the last time. Something stirred inside him. It started beneath his skin, deeper than muscle, deeper than bone. His body seemed to remember the corpse lying at his feet. Shape, weight, scars, clothes, missing arm, the crooked angle of the shoulders, the gold tooth in his mouth. Aren's flesh rippled. Machi's eyes sharpened.

"Aren?" His height changed. His white hair darkened and shortened. His face thickened. His left arm shrank into a stump. Even the torn clothes on his body shifted until Oss stood where Aren had been a moment before. Machi's hand rose instinctively, steel thread catching the light between her fingers.

"It's me," Aren said. The voice was Oss's. Machi did not lower the thread. Aren glanced down at himself, then shifted back. White hair returned. The missing arm reappeared. His clothes became his own again.

"A new possibility," he said.

"My healing recreates missing flesh and organs. Maybe it can recreate more than that."

"That was not healing."

"No," Aren admitted.

"It was something else." Machi stared at him for another second, then looked away.

"Clean up first."

"Good idea." By the time Uvogin and Nobunaga returned, most of the corpses had been dragged into a pile. Uvogin came first, still carrying a bent metal pipe. Nobunaga followed behind him, sword resting against his shoulder.

"Allen's group is finished," Uvogin said.

"That bastard kept swearing he didn't send anyone here."

"He looked pretty sincere," Nobunaga added.

"Then again, he was bleeding a lot." Aren and Machi looked at them in silence. Uvogin blinked.

"What?"

"You came back after everything ended," Machi said.

"Hey, we were busy killing people!" Nobunaga's gaze fell on Aren's clothes.

"Why are you covered in blood?" Machi explained what had happened in a few short sentences. By the end, Uvogin's grin had disappeared.

"Oss did what?"

"He's already dead," Aren said.

"I wanted to tear him apart."

"Too late." Nobunaga frowned.

"If he used Nen, that explains how he survived the elders' bodyguards. But if he was hiding that kind of strength, why waste it on us?"

"Greed," Machi said.

"And stupidity," Aren added. Uvogin leaned closer.

"So that thing you used. That was Nen?"

"Part of it." Aren looked at the three of them. His wound was gone. His aura had settled. The battlefield smelled of blood and garbage, but the direction of their future had changed.

"Oss was useful in one way," Aren said.

"He showed me the true method to awaken Nen." Uvogin's eyes lit up. Nobunaga straightened. Machi's fingers tightened around her thread. Aren smiled.

"Interested?"