Cassian watched the elder elf lead his humbled disciple away, then turned his chilling crimson gaze back to Jade. The smirk that played on his lips was both arrogant and inviting.
"It seems you attract trouble as easily as you breathe," Cassian purred. "When you are free of my sister's… clutches… come and meet me in my chambers. Privately." The way he emphasized the last word was laden with unspoken, dangerous suggestion.
With a final, lingering look that promised a different kind of game, Cassian too melted into the shadows.
The training sector fell silent. Jade and Zero stood alone.
Zero turned his head slowly, his silver-green eyes regarding Jade with a look of pure, clinical analysis. "I was not aware you… swung that way," he stated, his voice perfectly flat. "The data is unexpected. I must update my threat assessment and maintain a larger personal perimeter."
Jade's head snapped toward him, his composure shattering. "What?! Hell would I do that? That's just— that's disgusting!" he sputtered, his face a rare picture of flustered, genuine outrage. "He's a vampire! A male vampire! With a god complex!"
"The variables of attraction are complex and often irrational," Zero replied, completely deadpan. "Your apparent magnetism to vampires is a documented pattern. I am merely accounting for all possibilities."
Too agitated to spar, they left the training sector. Jade checked his system interface:
He tried to reach out to Alter-Jade, to seek the cold, familiar council within his mind. But there was only silence. An empty throne room. The absence was unnerving.
Deciding to clear his head, Jade simply… walked. He wandered through the vast, awe-inspiring Sanctuary. He saw bustling human parties celebrating a recent victory, their laughter echoing. He passed elegant elves conversing in melodic tones, their auras serene. A pack of Beast-kin Wolves loped by, their power a palpable, wild energy. For a fleeting moment, surrounded by the sheer, bizarre normalcy of it all, Jade felt a sliver of peace.
Peace, he thought. It doesn't come easy.
And it never lasted.
His Observer's Eye, active on a subconscious level, pinged. A presence. Following him. For the last ten minutes. He didn't react outwardly, but subtly changed his course, leading his tail toward a less populated sector of gleaming, crystalline structures.
Finally, fed up, he stopped in a wide, empty plaza. "What do you want?" he asked, not turning around.
There was no answer, only the whisper of movement. He didn't need to turn; his Observer's Eye showed him everything. The masked figure lunged, and a massive, shimmering arc of force—like a giant, ethereal claw—ripped through the air toward him with devastating speed.
Jade didn't summon his scythe. He simply moved, his body blurring with inhuman agility, the claw-arc tearing through the space he'd occupied a millisecond before. He shot toward the assassin, a phantom of white hair and cold intent.
The masked figure realized their ambush had failed. They turned and ran, their speed shocking, a blur of motion that pushed even Jade's enhanced agility.
Argh, I hate doing this, Jade thought, frustration boiling over. He used the Sanctuary's architecture like a jungle gym, leaping between glowing pillars and vaulting over archways, a cheetah using the terrain. He remembered the brutal stamina drills with Alter-Jade and pushed harder. His Observer's Eye calculated trajectories, predicting every possible route, mapping the entire sector in his mind.
He didn't match the figure's speed; he outsmitted it. Cutting through a narrow passage, he appeared directly in their path as they rounded a corner. Jade pounced, tackling the figure to the smooth, cool floor, his body pinning theirs down.
In one fluid motion, he ripped the mask away.
And froze.
Staring up at him was a young woman of breathtaking, unexpected beauty. She had lush, flowing hair the color of a deep tropical ocean, and wide, clear sapphire eyes filled with shock. Her face was delicately sculpted, with a blush spreading fiercely across her cheeks and down her neck. And her body, pinned beneath his, was undeniably voluptuous—soft curves and a slender waist that spoke of grace, not the hardened lethality of an assassin.
Jade was stunned into silence. The deadly attacker was a blushing, beautiful stranger.
For a long moment, they stayed frozen, a bizarre tableau of pinned limbs, flowing white hair, and a deep, embarrassed blush.
"...What," Jade finally managed, his voice dangerously low, "was that for?"
The young woman beneath him seemed to shrink, her sapphire eyes darting away. "I... um... I heard... th-the rumors..." she stammered, her voice a soft, flustered melody. "They said a new anomaly had appeared. That he had... white hair... and crimson eyes... and that he was... erm... very... handsome."
Jade stared, his brain struggling to process this new, illogical variable. "So you tried to decapitate me with a force claw as an... introduction?"
"It was the fastest way to get your attention!" she blurted out, then seemed to realize how it sounded and blushed even harder, looking like she wanted the floor to swallow her whole. "I just... wanted to see if the rumors were true... and maybe... grab your attention... a little..."
As if to confirm her bizarre story, she slowly, tentatively, reached a hand up and gently touched a strand of his long white hair where it had fallen across his face. "It's so soft..." she murmured, almost to herself.
Then, she leaned in slightly and sniffed the air near his collar. "And you smell like... ozone and cold starlight..."
That was the final straw.
Jade recoiled as if she'd tried to stab him again, scrambling backward off her so fast he nearly tripped over his own feet. He stared at her, his expression a perfect mix of horror, utter confusion, and violated personal space.
"You, You sniffed me?!" he exclaimed, his usual glacial composure utterly shattered.
Jade stared at the girl, his mind completely short-circuiting. In the span of thirty seconds, she had gone from lethal assassin to blushing admirer to... personal scent critic.
"You, You sniffed me?!" he exclaimed, his voice cracking slightly, which only made his horror more pronounced.
The girl sat up, brushing off her clothes with a delicate pout. "Well, how else was I supposed to get a proper impression? Everyone knows aura only tells you so much!" she said, as if this was the most logical thing in the world. "And your hair is really pretty. Do you condition it? It has to be a secret skill, right? A Divine Haircare technique?"
Jade opened his mouth, then closed it. He had faced down titans, hollow resonances, and psychotic vampire nobility. He had no protocol for this.
"I... It's... No. It's just hair," he finally managed, taking another subconscious step back.
"Just hair? Just hair?" she repeated, looking genuinely scandalized. "It's a statement! It says, 'I am an enigmatic, powerful being, but also my split From the entrance to the plaza, a familiar dry voice cut through the air.
"So this is what you do in your free time. I was wondering why the security alerts mentioned a high-speed chase ending in what looked like a wrestling match."
They both turned. Zero stood there, arms crossed, observing them with a raised eyebrow.
"Zero! This isn't— She wasn't— It's not what it looks like!" Jade sputtered, gesturing wildly.
The girl beamed at Zero. "Hello! You must be the partner! The one with the lightning and the... quiet, judgey energy!"
Zero's eyes flicked from her to Jade. "Another one? Seriously? First vampires, now... whatever this is." He gave Jade a look of pure, unamused exhaustion. "You know, most people collect coins or rare artifacts. You collect dangerously obsessed women who try to kill you as a flirting technique."
"I AM NOT COLLECTING THEM!"
The girl's smile somehow widened. "Aww, you're trying to protect me! How sweet!"
Jade looked back and forth between the deadpan Zero and the utterly delighted, bizarrely powerful girl. He ran a hand down his face, letting out a long, suffering sigh.
For the first time since arriving in the Tower, Jade had a truly, genuinely new thought:
I wish a Titan would attack right now. It would be less complicated.