Chương 42: Act 1, Chapter 42: In the eye of beholder

Day in the story: 11th October (Saturday) Magically, Eve was strong, very strong. But none of her Domains gave her a real physical boost, aside from healing. Sure, she had shadowlight inside her, like I did, which made her tougher and stronger than a normal human. But not stronger than me. Not stronger than me with all my gear. Except for one thing: she still had access to the Debt Domain. I'd spent the last three days poring over de Marco's Domain guide, researching how it worked.

I knew now, any wound I gave her, she could reflect back onto me. If I wasn't absolutely sure I could take her out in one clean blow, then any strike was a risk. And that was a risk I wasn't willing to take.

"You're an interesting mage, rabbit," Eveline said, her voice calm and sharp. I didn't answer immediately. I jumped back, far enough to give myself breathing room, but not so far that she'd think I was running.

"You're strong, physically capable and you can teleport… something I've long wanted for myself."

"Well… kind of," I shot back.

"But you'd suck at it. It requires artistry. Something you clearly lack." That stung. Her face twitched with irritation, but instead of another fiery outburst, she moved with eerie calm toward the bodies of the guards I had knocked out. She knelt beside one of them.

"You made a mistake underestimating me," she said, brushing the man's forehead like a mother might comfort a fevered child.

"Because even when I only had access to a single Domain—my own, I was still dangerous. And now, girl, you've created the perfect circumstances for me."

"I don't care, Eve," I said flatly, but I did. I cared a lot, because I needed to focus back on the necklace, the thing that made her this powerful in the first place.

"Well," I said, narrowing my eyes, "you might've had some power before… but most of it? That came from the necklace, right?" She tilted her head and smiled.

"Most," she admitted. Good. That was all I needed to hear. I saw shadowlight leaking from her fingers. It flowed in those ethereal, washed-out colors: soft pinks and faded violets, like diluted ink in water. It slid gently down into the unconscious soldier's skull like a breath. She stood up abruptly and threw her arms into the air, as if conjuring lightning. but it wasn't the soldier that rose. At first, the air itself warped around him, like the Openings to Ideworld.

It cracked and shadowlight was pulled into those fractures. As it did, the sound followed. It was like hearing the screams of someone trapped in a nightmare, slowed down and played in reverse. Then his shadow appeared, shaped by his dreams, routines and self-image, rising like a dark twin out of the invisible lake, drawn straight from the Ideworld. It shared parts of his silhouette, but it was bulkier and distorted. The rifle it held wasn't standard-issue anymore; it looked like a minigun ripped off a helicopter.

His face had melted into the helmet, man and machine now one and the same. A brutal caricature of military devotion. I'd seen some monsters in my life by then, both human and otherwise, but this one grinned like it had nothing to lose.

"Say hello to my Domain, girl," Eveline purred, so proud of herself it was absurd. The Domain of fucking dreams, of—bloody--course. The monster was disoriented at first, his birth into this world had left him dizzy, perhaps. He stumbled, struggling to walk and crashed into the arm of the man whose mind and soul had birthed him. It was a wet, instant collision. Blood splattered like a smashed melon and bone cracked.

The slick blood beneath him didn't help his footing, he staggered again, catching himself against the brick wall by the rooftop entrance we'd all used. As his hand touched it, the wall crumbled like dry clay. Then, finally steady, he looked up at me. I snapped Ella open and poured shadowlight into her just milliseconds before the hail of bullets slammed into me.

Her canopy flared to life, a domed shield of crackling shimmer, but the barrage still shoved me back, inch by inch, like I was getting hit by a hurricane made of molten lead. And these weren't regular bullets, they were filled to the brims with her Authority. Any one of them could erase me if they landed clean. I braced Ella under my arm, shielding as best I could, while flipping through my deck, fast. When I found the cards I needed, I infused them with steel and eyes and tossed them out.

I immediately gained new vision angles and together they created panoramic, elevated and wide-angled view that let me see almost everything. Dream Hulk was advancing steadily, his minigun still roaring. Eveline was circling, trying to flank me from the right, behind the chimney. It was a clever move, but not clever enough. I slipped another batch of cards out and infused them all with steeliness— it was easier to do that in bulk, when they shared a singular identity.

Then, with practiced fluidity, I hurled them in Eveline's direction, each infused mid-flight with its face value. Cards exploded in wind, light, sparks and sound, each like a miniature trap, a sensory flashbang with elemental kick. I heard Eveline snarl somewhere in the chaos, caught off-guard, while hulk-man hesitated—half a second of confusion. Ella wedged against a roof tile, letting me pivot forward. I bolted left in a tight arc.

The Dream Hulk, too focused on destroying the umbrella, noticed me breaking from cover a few seconds too late. He swung his gun toward me mid-burst, but overshot the arc and I closed the distance. I sent a card toward him with its identity changed to a piercing steel. I flicked it like a dart, right between his shadow-sculpted eyes and finally the illusion of indestructibility shattered with a splatted blood.

The hulking rifle dropped, crushing the poor bastard that was under it and they both collapsed, through the weakened roof. The creature moved its now-free hands to cover the wound, a gesture so human, it was almost jarring coming from a beast born of nightmares. I launched myself again, cyber-rabbit legs pumping with full kinetic might. I spun midair, lining up both feet for a precision strike straight into the Dream Hulk's chest, but it was like hitting a brick wall.

He barely flinched while the air jolted out of my lungs. I landed kneeling on his massive torso while still horizontal, then used that same coiled posture to spring off him in a flash, twisting into a backward cartwheel midair. That's when the other set of eyes saw it, Eveline, crouched like a predator, fire already swirling in her palms. A glowing orb ignited between them, heat warping the air. She hurled it with a scream, letting it roar toward me like a meteor.

She expected me to land straight into its path, but I tucked my arms and shifted mid-descent, letting my limbs go limp in simulation of a fall. Instead of landing upright, I let myself slide across the rooftop, skimming just beneath the fireball as it screamed overhead, singeing the air inches above me. It crashed somewhere behind in a fiery explosion, just as I rolled up onto my feet and sprinted behind cover. Eveline was already launching more fireballs, each impact shaking the tiles beneath me.

At the same time hulk-man charged forward again. I vaulted over the collapsed rooftop, only to skid to a halt a foot away from a wall of flames erupting from the ground, like the maw of hell yawning open. I leapt sideways toward a nearby chimney just as I heard a shriek. Eveline shouted something, but it sounded more like a banshee's wail, designed to shred my senses and crush me with laughter alone. It had to be the Discord part of her repertoire. This book's true home is on another platform.

Check it out there for the real experience. I froze for a moment, as shiver ran through my left side, but a moment was all the hulk needed. He barreled toward me and slammed both fists into my chest, launching me like a missile through the air. I saw my flight through the planted cards, bracing myself just in time with my arms extended to soften the blow. I absorbed some of the momentum, then bent my elbows hard, channeling the rest into a roll like landing from a great height. I hit the ground and spat blood.

My saliva tasted like iron, while the air smelled like burnt hair. Eveline followed the hit with a searing missile of fire. I hurled one of my cards in the nick of time. It split the flame midair, diverting it, though the heat scorched the card like a stove burner. The still-glowing card continued flying and struck Eveline in the side. She bled for the first time. A second later pain flared in my side as the same wound opened on my body. It was shallow, but sharp.

Her Authority was so strong I wasn't even given a chance to fight it back. At the same time Eveline healed instantly in a flash of aquamarine shadowlight. I took Noxy out, just a handheld pistol in his regular form, but a pistol nonetheless. I snapped him up, took quick aim and fired a few shots. The first one hit her, she flinched, then bolted, probably more out of habit or fear of pain than any real damage.

I knew that the bullets won't hurt her, which was the whole point—they were meant as distraction and deterrent. The Hulk grabbed one of the fallen soldiers by the leg and charged, whipping the body overhead in a brutal arc. Then, with a sharp jolt, he slammed it down like a makeshift morning star. I holstered the pistol mid-motion, vaulted to the right, rolled across the roof and came to a stop just a foot short of the gaping hole that led all the way down to street level.

I leapt across and through one of my other eyes, I saw the wreckage the impact had left behind. The body he'd used had been smashed with such force, it was reduced to a wet mush of blood, bone and organs. The creature, now holding just a leg, looked at it and with blood streaking over his face decided it wasn't much of a weapon anymore—he tossed it aside. I was nearing my wit's end and wasn't sure how much longer could I keep this up.

"Do the viewers believe now?" I asked into my earpiece.

"Are they seeing what's happening?"

"Yeah," Zoe responded.

"People nearby started confirming the fire above the rooftops. I ran a poll, most think it's real now. You're trending everywhere." Good. Any second now. I hope.

"Pete couldn't watch anymore, Lex…" Her voice softened.

"He left." I clenched my jaw, ducked behind a scorched chimney and prepared the next move. If Pete couldn't face this, it meant we were close. It meant this was working. Eveline was summoning something massive above her head, some enormous fireball, like a dying star being pulled into shape. I saw it first through the card-eye, but that wasn't enough, not for what I needed. So I turned my real head to look, to show them, to make them believe.

And there it was, pure fire, suspended overhead, roaring and radiant like she held a piece of the sun itself. Its corona whipped out in tendrils of lashing flame, so bright it turned the whole rooftop hell-orange. She was going to roast me alive. I felt it. And Dream Hulk was charging too, ready to turn me into paste.

And then he folded, like a cloth thrown on the floor—his limbs caving inward, body coming apart like scraps of fabric, until the air itself caught the last of him and scattered it to the wind like thread. Shiroi stood behind where the Hulk had been with his arm extended, and eyes wide with the strain." Run!" he shouted, trying to save me with this idiotic maneuver. This heroic act might have made everything I did here pointless. I didn't run, but I didn't get incinerated either. NO MORE!

A voice without sound reverberated through my soul, then something far worse hit me. It felt as if pure concept of Reality spoke through me directly and a wave of Authority unlike anything I had ever felt surged over me. It was like being peeled open from the inside, like my soul had been yanked up by the spine, wrung dry and stomped flat. My very existence overwritten in an instant. I was cold and hot. I ran and stayed. I slept. I sang. I heard. I felt and didn't. I saw the fire spread…

and then it just ceased to exist. Gone in a blink. Then there wasn't any fire. Was there ever? Yes. No. Yes, … No. My legs gave out and I crashed to the rooftop—my breath gone and body limp, unable to move. Everything became quiet somehow. There was no Authority, no strength, no alternate sightlines, no Domain access, nothing. I felt human again. I was so weak…. so cold. I switched off the camera feed in my mask when my body started listening to my commands again and looked for Eveline.

She was kneeling with a lighter trembling in her hand flicking and flicking, trying to pull fire from it. A little flame sparked up and she reached out but nothing else happened.

"No!" she screamed out of the top of her lungs. She tried to use her authority again, but once more to no use. The backlash Dam warned me about, the one he told me about worked in my favor. When enough sleepers witness undeniable magic, when belief turns into certainty Reality doesn't just erase memories anymore, it fights back.

"We call it a Backlash. Reality uses its divine Authority to suppress or erase the mage's power entirely. It can rewrite abilities, undo enchantments, even strip Domains. Whatever it takes to make the world behave according to his rules, not yours." Those were more of less his words. Words I bet my plan on. I didn't want to let her go, so I drew Noxy, took aim, and fired a few more times for good measure. The bullets cracked from the barrel and struck her center mass. She crumpled and went still.

I holstered the gun, found the necklace in my pocket, and ran to Shiroi. No one had seen him use his power, and I hoped he had been spared this arcane judgment.

"Take it." He looked at Eveline—transfixed for a moment—but then his gaze shifted back to me. I pressed the necklace into his hands.

"Try to unravel it. Its power should be gone. Reality saw this as the cause. I made sure of that." A flicker of silver light shimmered briefly above us as he took it. He looked down, then up, understanding hitting him like a slap. He focused and examined it for few long seconds.

"I hate this thing." He whispered.

"You still have your powers?" I asked, lowering my voice to match his.

"I do," His fingers gripped the necklace tighter, but it remained whole.

"I can't do it, Alexa. It's still too powerful. Let me just unmake this bitch instead," We both turned toward ger, but she was gone. I'd made a mistake assuming that bullets had killed her." Fuck! Where did she go!?" he shouted.

"We'll find her—she couldn't have gone far," I said, my eyes scanning rooftops and alleyways.

"But for now, don't focus on breaking the artifact. Focus on the link itself—the soul-thread between her and this necklace. It should still be bound to her, but inactive, right? Can you unravel that?" He paused, looking at the necklace like he was seeing it for the first time all over again. I realized, suddenly, that I was gripping his shoulders with both hands and he didn't unravel me. Had he stopped seeing me as a threat? I drew my hands back anyway. That's when I saw a glimpse of golden light.

It stretched from the necklace toward Eveline's distant location, gleaming in the air. The thread pulsed faintly, shifting in rhythm with her flight as she pulled farther away from us. Now the thread was unmistakable, glowing with rising intensity… before it began to fade slowly. Shiroi stayed focused with his fingers clenched tight and expression locked in unwavering concentration. He was fighting his own battle now, far less spectacular, but no less fierce and no less vital.

The thread resisted him, flaring brighter once more. A pulse traveled along it toward him and then he unraveled briefly, his hands and arms dissolving into threads. Yet the necklace hovered in place, tethered by millions of ribbons woven from fabric, skin, blood, muscle, bone, veins and nerves. It was both beautiful and horrifying. I was defeated after all. Everything had been in vain. A pulse of light surged along those threads, the purple and violet hues of Akira's Domain.

Every thread shimmered on the wind like rays from a black star bound to a singular, potent artifact. The light danced, then crushed them back together in one violent outburst, instantly reassembling Shiroi, now fully engulfed in the radiance of his own magic. His eyes glowed with dark colors as he refocused his will. The necklace no longer held him, he was the one in control. The thread broke, violently. Its golden strands staggered in the air, confused, like nerves with nowhere left to fire.

Then, with a shimmer, they vanished entirely.

"You did it!" I shouted and ran to him, throwing my arms around his neck. He dropped the necklace in surprise, but after a second, he hugged me back, tightly.

"Yes," he said softly.

"I think I did." I stepped back quickly, smiling and reached down for the necklace. My fingers curled around it and I looked into his eyes. He looked like someone who had finally exhaled after holding his breath for years.

"Good fucking job," I said, pressing the necklace into his palm.

"Can you unravel it completely now? Should be easier. Layer after layer." He looked down at it, hesitating.

"Will you unravel it?" He stood still.

"Akira. Wake up." He looked up at me and seconds later, it turned to dust in his hands.

"Thank you for this," I said, quietly.

"Hope to see you again one day. Goodbye!" He was still standing there, stunned by everything that had just happened. While he tried to process it all, I turned and ran to the edge of the rooftop. I clipped onto the line I had set up days earlier, leapt off the building and disappeared over the side before he could follow. And I ran all the way to an abandoned building where I changed into more ordinary clothes. And for the first time in, Reality knows how long, I walked home on my own two feet.