The price of precision
Rin didn't wait for the team's consensus, let alone Aiden's command.
The instant he felt the oppressive weight of the Cult of Mephistopheles sigil—the symbol of death he knew all too well—he darted down the ruined street. His movements were not only fast but absolute, pushing his newly awakened Blade of the Rending Gale class to its limits. He moved as a silent, invisible force, his speed blurring the indigo streetlights.
"Split formation. Keep the healer protected!" Aiden's voice, sharp and commanding, echoed behind him, a redundant, irritating order.
Keep the healer protected. Keep everyone protected except the one you betrayed, I assume, Rin thought bitterly.
He rounded a demolished concrete corner, his senses screaming just a fraction of a second before he saw the ambush. Twenty figures, draped in tattered black robes and wielding crude, spiked maces, lunged from the shadows of an overturned bus. They were human, but their eyes glowed with the sickening yellow light of demonic possession—low-level disciples, desperate and expendable.
Rin drew his sword, and the air around the blade didn't just vibrate—it shredded.
"Rending Step," he whispered.
The Blade of the Rending Gale class skill activated. He didn't need to physically swing; the compressed, cyclonic wind that followed his movements was enough. He swept through the group like a tornado, leaving behind only the sound of robes ripping and the wet snap of bone. The cultists dissolved into ash, their possessed souls consumed by the pure, kinetic energy.
He was a whirlwind of beautiful, contained violence, fueled by years of suppressed pain. The power felt cleaner, more absolute than in his previous life. This time, he wouldn't allow himself to be slow.
As the ash settled, a new figure emerged from the rubble—a much larger man, his robes embroidered with thick, silver thread and the symbol of a hungry maw. This was a Moloch Priest, a field commander with enough demonic essence to withstand a casual strike. He carried no weapon, relying instead on the dark ritual energy pulsing in his hands.
"The Vanguard rushes headlong into the Abyss," the Priest sneered, his voice a gravelly whisper layered with a sinister echo. "You are the bait, Swordsman. The Sacrifice."
The Priest slammed both hands onto the cobblestones. In a flash of dark red light, the ground around Rin exploded with dozens of runes that hadn't been there a second before. They flared, instantly binding him in place with tendrils of molten obsidian.
Rin struggled, his raw strength immediately testing the magical chains. Too slow. I am still too slow. The elemental force of the Rending Gale could cut steel, but this was ritual magic, designed to bind souls.
He heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of Moloch-aligned Troll Hounds rushing in from the side streets, drawn by the activation of the ritual. The fight had escalated from a skirmish to a disaster in one second.
"Blade, break the binding at the center!" Aiden's voice cut through the air, amplified and cold, yet carrying an insistent, almost frantic tone.
Aiden and the rest of the Vanguard had just rounded the corner, witnessing Rin's sudden capture. While the other Hunters fumbled for their ranged attacks, Aiden didn't run toward the fight. He did the opposite. He stopped, planting his feet firmly in the ground, his eyes glowing faintly with a sapphire light.
This was Aiden's moment. His power. The Arbiter of Chronos.
He wasn't fighting the cultists; he was fighting time itself.
"Stasis Field: Minor Deceleration," Aiden muttered.
The massive Troll Hounds charging Rin suddenly appeared to enter a patch of thick, invisible syrup. Their movements didn't stop, but the momentum was cut in half, their snapping jaws moving in agonizing slow motion. The Priest, too, felt the effect, his triumphant snarl slowing into a distorted, drawn-out vowel.
Aiden focused his will—and his mana—entirely on Rin.
The molten obsidian binding Rin suddenly seemed to flicker, the ritual energy running backward for a microsecond, a temporal loop only Aiden could create. It wasn't enough to break the spell, but it was enough to exploit.
"Now!" Aiden yelled, straining against the time-magic cost.
Rin felt the spell hesitate. The pressure on his arms momentarily lessened. He didn't ask how, or why. He trusted the cold, perfect strategy of the man who had betrayed him. He slammed his foot down where the runes converged. A focused blast of Rending Gale energy struck the ritual's anchor point, hitting the spot the molten obsidian was about to be the strongest.
The chains shattered like glass, and Rin was free.
He lunged forward, exploiting the Hounds' deceleration, executing a rapid-fire sequence of attacks that bypassed their slowed armor. The Troll Hounds collapsed silently, their internal structure shredded by the invisible wind blades.
The Moloch Priest realized the true danger lay not in the swordsman's speed, but in the strategist's foresight. He turned his attention to Aiden, raising his hands to channel a dark lightning bolt.
But Aiden was already moving, his time-control skill—the very thing Rin despised—having bought the team enough space. Aiden didn't use a flashy attack; he used a simple, low-level Gravity Field to slam the Priest's torso into the nearest wall, crushing the man's concentration and his rib cage simultaneously.
[MOLOCH PRIEST DEFEATED. BOSS ENCOUNTER AVOIDED. VANGUARD TEAM EFFICIENCY: A+.]
Rin stood over the fallen Priest, his blade catching the indigo light. He felt the trembling exhaustion in Aiden's time-magic, the deep mana drain that Chronos skills always exacted. It was the same sacrifice he remembered from their former life—Aiden always pushed himself to the brink for tactical advantage.
Rin slowly sheathed his sword, turning to face Aiden, who was breathing heavily, his hands resting on his knees.
"The Arbiter is fast when he needs to be," Rin said, his voice flat, his warm mask completely gone.
Aiden straightened up, his eyes now back to their usual icy blue, betraying nothing. "Efficiency is paramount, Swordsman. If you move without predicting the enemy's ritual capacity, you are a liability."
"I was bound," Rin hissed, stepping closer. "You had to use it."
Aiden met his gaze, unflinching. He knew exactly what Rin meant by it. Not the ability to slow time, but the power that represented the cold, calculated choice Aiden had made when he orchestrated the betrayal.
"I will use every available tool to ensure mission success, Hunter Rin," Aiden replied, stressing the formal title. "You should be aware that the Cult of Mephistopheles is focused on human sacrifice. You are currently our biggest target."
He didn't deny using the hated power. He simply framed it as necessary.
Rin's fingers clenched. He wanted to scream, to lash out, to demand to know why Aiden had saved him when, in the past, he had let him—
No. Not now. Not here.
Rin forced the warmth back into his voice, making the change jarringly abrupt. He smiled, a dangerously bright, false expression.
"Very well, Arbiter. Since you're so good at predictions, why don't you lead us to the next Cult stronghold? I'll simply clear the path."
He turned and walked away, deeper into the dark urban maze. Aiden watched him go, his strategist's mind calculating the exact distance Rin needed to maintain before his protective spells would fail to reach him in time. It was a miserable, silent metric of their damaged love: How far can I let him go before he dies?
Aiden ran a hand across his forehead, feeling the slight sting of the severe mana loss. The Arbiter of Chronos always paid the price for saving others from fate. Especially the one he was forbidden to touch.
"Follow the Blade," Aiden instructed the rest of the Vanguard team, his voice iron. "But maintain a twenty-meter radius. He is our shield, and I am the wall behind it."
The wall had cracks only one man could see, and that man was currently walking in the opposite direction.
The conflict between their roles—the Shield and the Wall—is now solidified. We've established the Chronos power and the immediate threat of the Devil's Cult.
Would you like Chapter 4 to be a flashback detailing a moment from the betrayal in the previous timeline, or do you want to keep pushing forward with the Tower ascent (perhaps encountering a minor God's trial)?