Chương 105: 104: It Begins

The sound lodged itself in her teeth, her bones, the ringing silence that followed as the world struggled to remember stillness. Butter burst through another wall. KRRRASH! She hit the floor, skidded across polished marble and rolled to her feet in one fluid motion. White stone stretched in both directions beneath soaring arches, its mirror-smooth surface broken only by towering pillars veined with silver and cobalt.

The corridor looked less like part of a military fortress than the grand hallway of an impossibly wealthy estate. Her eyes swept it immediately, searching for the little girl. Gone. She'd avoided those hooked talons for a reason. They weren't merely fast. They oscillated so violently, so impossibly quickly, they appeared perfectly still. One clean pass would've sliced her face to the bone. Her gaze lifted. The drone. That thing worried her.

She'd only sensed a single Apis sphere inside the girl's suit alongside a handful of Operative-grade weapons, yet she barely spent any of it. The armour relied almost entirely on kinetic manipulation, dipping into Apis only when physics needed overriding or something supernatural had to be challenged. Efficient. Extremely efficient. The cannon blast itself had barely mattered. Melody had drunk it in.

Soft pink pulses rippled through the enchanted bandages as they eagerly absorbed the impact, storing the force for later or bleeding it harmlessly through the living cloth. Blunt trauma simply wasn't an effective way to hurt her anymore. Butter frowned. She'd already lost track of the girl again. What was she? Butter had never seen a suit like that before. A long black sensor beak gave the helmet the unmistakable silhouette of a hummingbird. She moved like one too.

The little figure darted through the fortress with impossible grace, an adolescent-sized hummingbird given human form, forever one heartbeat away from wherever Butter expected her to be. — Korhess and Thornburgh collided again. Thornburgh's speed was effectively instantaneous. More dangerous still, his perception matched it. He didn't merely move beyond light; he thought beyond it. To him, the universe was frozen, each moment a motionless painting through which he alone could walk. Light crawled. Time limped.

Korhess had once moved a vigintillion times faster than light against Butter, but that battle had cost her dearly. Every impossible acceleration demanded Apis. Every attack placed into the past had to be repaid in the future or deducted from her reserves. Fortissimo had driven her far beyond those limits, leaving her drained. She couldn't reach those speeds anymore. Roughly twenty percent of her strength was gone. At her level, that wasn't a small loss.

It was the difference between overwhelming him and merely surviving. She relied on future sight instead. Possibilities unfolded before her like branching roots. Every claw, every feint and every killing blow appeared moments before they existed, allowing her to weave through his assaults with flawless precision. Ancient green-gold fire answered her command, carrying the memory of every forest that had ever burned. It didn't matter.

Even when she willed the flames directly onto his body, his animal instincts reacted before they appeared. Somehow, he sensed the intent itself. The clauses still embedded throughout his soul remained vulnerable. Her flames could consume those promises, contracts and bindings one by one. He simply refused to let them touch him. Which left only one option. She would have to get close enough to seize the clauses with her own hands...... and tear them free. A death sentence. He'd learned from Butter.

Every reach she made met waiting claws. Every advance was anticipated, every opening answered before she'd even committed to it. She was almost impossible to kill. Her existence had been folded and compressed so densely that only a strike capable of tearing apart a galaxy could make her bleed, and she'd regenerate from even that. Truly destroying her required overwhelming force delivered in succession. The Shroud Punch changed everything.

A few hits from a prism-powered Talon would exhaust her Apis reserves keeping her alive. Anymore would finish her. It had only been invented today. By a Talon who had fought Butter. The realization chilled Korhess. Butter's existence rippled through the world like a butterfly effect. A meeting in a pod chamber had already echoed through the Syndicate, giving birth to a weapon capable of slaying gods. She buried the thought. Fear had no place here. Her spear hummed as she met the wolf again.

Now Thornburgh possessed something far worse. The Big Bang. He compressed every fragment of his speed into a single limb, gathering enough force to rival creation itself. Charging it slowed him dramatically, leaving a brief opening, but if it landed, Korhess would die instantly. She'd already seen that future. A flash. White. Nothing. She refused to let it happen. Instead of matching his impossible speed, she relied on teleportation and future sight.

Butter and Fortissimo had left her mind too strained to safely reach those velocities again. Attacking Thornburgh's past accomplished little. She could shatter bones and pulp organs, yet his regeneration erased physical injury before the next heartbeat. His true speed was stranger still. Every burst annihilated him. His essence arrived 0. 2 seconds before it departed, rebuilding itself at the destination as though causality had politely stepped aside. Each movement was a fresh death. Painful. Horrific.

Yet pain was his strength. Every wound, every moment of suffering made him faster, sharper, deadlier. He abandoned that impossible velocity once Korhess refused to compete with it, settling for merely relativistic speed and fighting with strategy instead. They collided like beams of light. Spear met claw. His claws weren't meant to wound at first. Every scrape etched suffering directly into reality, planting agony beneath her skin.

Each mark lingered, compounding the last until even old slashes began reopening - not as flesh, but as fractures in her very existence where pain itself had been woven into her. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. His pale blue eyes burned like a cloudless sky. His muzzle bristled with needle-like fangs, saliva glinting between them. As large as a moose yet built like a greyhound, his lupine body was lean, streamlined, every muscle honed for speed.

Human-like hands ended in monstrous claws, while dark fur rippled over his frame, cobalt tufts glowing with the suffering that fuelled his power. He was everything the Syndicate had made him. Korhess's spear embodied absence. Every cut erased body, soul, and fate alike, leaving only nothing where existence had once been. Butter had survived both.

The Requiem pendant reduced Thornburgh's reality-carving claws to a harmless fraction, while Melody nullified the spear's concept entirely, reducing it to an ordinary blade that could only cut flesh. Now the battle belonged to Korhess and Thornburgh. Neither allowed the other to land a single blow. Thornburgh was too animalistic in his instincts and movement. He didn't think about his attacks. He simply was them. Every motion was pure and unmediated, the expression of a creature refined to its absolute essence.

Korhess slipped through every strike. Future sight, teleportation and Asherah's Waltz carried her between his claws, the ancient dance finding spaces where violence simply couldn't exist. Their battle became a dance. A twist of her shoulders. A turn of her hips. Her hoof cracked across his forearm. KRRAK! Bone shattered cleanly in half, hurling him into the wall hard enough to fracture the fortress. Blood darkened his fur. The arm healed before he finished flying. He accelerated. The chamber dissolved.

Heat consumed the world. An endless desert stretched beneath a merciless white sun. Dunes rolled to every horizon, their crests carved by relentless wind into perfect waves of gold. The air shimmered with heat, every breath tasting of dust and scorched stone. No footprints marked the sand. No birds crossed the sky. Only silence, vast and ancient, lingered beneath the endless light. Korhess hovered high above, scarcely more than a silhouette against the blazing heavens. She inhaled. Ancient fire poured from the sky.

It descended like a falling star, a river of living emerald flame that swallowed the desert whole. Thornburgh moved. One twitch. WHOOOOM! The shockwave split the inferno apart. Sand erupted into continents of molten glass. Entire dunes disappeared. Distant mesas collapsed into clouds of dust as the empty sky rippled beneath the force of his passage. They were elsewhere. The Arctic. The Amazon. The empty blue above the clouds. Each landscape endured for only an instant before another replaced it.

The fortress returned around them. Neither had slowed. Neither showed fatigue. The Syndicate had forged him into suffering given flesh. She had refused to become their weapon. They collided once more. KRAAAANG! The fortress trembled.... Butter came hurtling through the shattered chamber. Korhess' eyes widened.

"Sweet saplings…" She stepped beneath the tumbling girl, catching her effortlessly before setting her upon the fractured floor. Her hands lingered for but a heartbeat, ensuring Butter could stand. Then her mismatched eyes lifted toward the far end of the chamber. Butter followed her gaze. Thornburgh. He crouched amidst the rubble, chest rising in slow, measured breaths. Clawed hands carved deep furrows through the stone while sweat glistened across his dark fur. A low growl rumbled in his throat.

His amber eyes settled on Butter.

"So... the little corpse has returned. I took your head once. It appears that wasn't enough." His claws flexed.

"I'll simply have to discover a way to ensure you stay dead this time." Silence answered him. Butter only stared. Her eyes were impossibly wide now, every pale iris fully exposed, doll-like and utterly still. The fury within them had become so complete it resembled perfect calm. Even Korhess felt uneasy. Even Thornburgh hesitated. Somewhere else in the fortress, she could still feel them. Jump bounded through corridors, gleefully whacking Steppers into walls with every oversized leap.

Clap ran alongside, feathers flashing as it harassed patrols, while Sway twirled through another battlefield, fighting with effortless style because Sway could do almost anything, so long as it looked cool doing it. She let the connection shift. Jump dissolved first. Clap followed. Only Sway remained. The griffin was an all-rounder, reliable in almost any situation, and leaving it active freed enough room for another summon. Butter's thoughts brushed instinctively against her reserves. 44. 7%. Enough.

At last, Butter spoke.

"You're very mistaken." Her voice was quiet.

"Let's see…" Her fingers flicked through the Aria.

"…how fast you really are." Something stepped out of the sketchbook. Feet emerged from the page. Korhess blinked.

"What manner of shrub hath this world grown?" It stood over nine feet tall, an impossible tower of plumage. Mango-orange melted into electric lime and violent pink, the colours seeming to drift whenever anyone stared too long. Two enormous eye-spots decorated its rounded body, while a single crooked cerulean feather perched atop its tiny head like a drunken crown. Its neck was absurdly long. Its head absurdly small. Wide black ostrich eyes blinked one after the other with vacant curiosity.

Its beak hung slightly open in permanent, harmless confusion. It looked less like something that had evolved and more like reality had accidentally told a joke. Thornburgh frowned.

"…What is that?" Butter had already turned her back on him. She wandered over to Korhess as though he no longer existed.

"So... what's the plan?" Korhess glanced between Butter and the bird.

"…Mine own grove confesseth itself uncertain."

"You're ignoring me?" Thornburgh's voice deepened.

"I asked you a question." Neither of them acknowledged him. Butter scratched her cheek.

"We should probably find the Commander and finish this whole thing-" The chamber exploded. Stone burst beneath Thornburgh's feet as he launched forward, claws aimed straight through Butter's spine. Feet tilted its head. Its neck lazily drifted sideways. Bonk. Its beak tapped Thornburgh across the face. No wind-up. No effort. The impact simply...... happened. KRRRAAASH! Thornburgh cartwheeled through three pillars before vanishing into a wall.

Feet resumed swaying from side to side, gently bobbing to music only it could hear. Butter didn't even look around.

"So anyway..." Korhess stared. Thornburgh exploded from the rubble.

"ENOUGH!" He became a blur. A claw swept toward Feet's neck. Feet wasn't there. It had somehow taken one leisurely step sideways without appearing to move at all. The claw sliced empty air. Thornburgh spun instantly. Bite. Slash. Pounce. Every strike carried enough force to flatten mountains. Every strike missed. Feet ducked because it happened to yawn. It leaned because a feather tickled its nose. It lifted one foot because it felt like dancing. Thornburgh's fist sailed beneath it.

Its neck absentmindedly swung back. Donk. KRRRAAASH! Thornburgh disappeared into another wall. Korhess slowly lowered one ear.

"… Mine eyes protest what they behold." Feet blinked. A loose pebble caught its attention. It pecked at it curiously. Thornburgh appeared behind it. Both claws descended. Feet bent lower to inspect the pebble. CRAAAK! His claws collided with each other. He hissed, shaking both hands. Feet decided the pebble wasn't very interesting. It resumed its happy little dance. Thornburgh's wolf ears drooped in embarrassment. He backed away. One second. Two. Three.

His entire body compressed inward as impossible force folded into a single paw. The Big Bang. He lunged. His foot landed on a banana peel that absolutely hadn't existed a moment earlier.

"… What?" His balance abandoned him. The punch veered downward instead, enough force behind it to erase everything beneath him. Butter flickered into existence. She caught it with her left hand. WHOOOOOOM. Melody's black bandages flared brilliant pink, flooding the chamber with light. The force rippled through the living cloth, raced over her muscles, snapped loose threads into the air, travelled across her shoulders and poured through her opposite arm before slamming straight back into Thornburgh's stomach.

Melody compressed the impact into his body itself. He was already trying to disappear. The music had warned Butter first. She spoke softly.

"Arpeggio." Her fist glowed white. It crossed the distance instantly. THOOM. No shockwave. Only one impossibly pure note. It echoed through the chamber. One by one...... the clauses stitched into Thornburgh's soul began to unravel. Melody drove every ounce of stored force directly into his essence while Arpeggio erased the space between them. The laws shattered into drifting motes of light. His eyes widened.

"No..." More dissolved.

"NOOOO!" More. Until only one remained. The single clause sustaining his existence. Butter had left it on purpose. He collapsed to the floor, gasping. She released him. Lowered her hand. A thin ribbon of blood slipped from the corner of her mouth. Her body trembled. Just once. She wiped the blood away with the back of her hand, drew a slow breath, and forced the shaking to stop as though refusing to acknowledge it had happened. Without another glance, she turned away. Walking back toward Korhess, she spoke quietly.

"That..." A pause.

"…was a warning." Another step.

"It'll be your last." Thornburgh collapsed to his knees, shoulders shaking with ragged sobs. Fur receded into skin until only the man remained, long hair veiling his face, sweat glistening across his body. Butter still felt it. The hostility lingered. Given the chance, he would attack again. She spared him a single glance. Anger churned within her, not for herself, but for Katherine. He had killed her. Left Katherine helpless before the Steppers.

Everything that had happened since, Katherine's body being consumed piece by piece by the Nonagon, all of it traced back to him. Butter still didn't know what that thing wanted. Thornburgh was a problem. Some problems needed to disappear. Her body trembled. The blue glow within her prosthetic bled, almost imperceptibly, toward violet. She raised a hand.

"Perpen-" Korhess was there before the word could leave her lips. Strong hands closed around Butter's wrists, hooves planted firm like ancient roots.

"Nay." Her voice was gentle.

"Let not thy grove be governed by this tempest." Butter glared.

"He held my head in his hands." Korhess did not let go.

"He hath spoken unto me of the chains laid upon his life. His daughter was slain before his very eyes. His wife and children yet draw breath, believing he shall one day return. Seven winters hath he borne these fetters, and thy death alone was promised as the key unto his freedom." Butter's expression remained cold.

"And?" Korhess's ears lowered.

"He is no tree that bent itself awry. Another hand did twist its boughs."

"He smiled."

"Aye." Korhess's gaze never wavered.

"And therein lieth his sin." Butter's fists tightened within Korhess's grasp. Melody stirred around her knuckles, eager, waiting. Korhess stepped closer, her voice soft as leaves stirred beneath an evening breeze.

"Yet I beseech thee... spend not thy wrath upon another bough broken by the selfsame forest that sought to fell us all." Butter's trembling did not cease. Neither did the anger. But...... she lowered her hand.