The jungle didn't breathe. It shuddered.
Every leaf, every branch, every stone seemed to recoil from the pressure mounting in the air. Aldren took another step forward, Phase Break flickering along his limbs in short, glitching bursts. His smirk had faded—this wasn't amusement anymore. It was anticipation like a predator closing in.
I stood at the base of the steps, fists trembling. Every breath Aldren took felt measured. Every step he made echoed in my skull. My teammates were barely holding on. Toho, collapsed to one knee, sweat slicking his brow, his eyes dim without Future Sight. Terra, bleeding and winded, blade shaking in her grasp. Lucian, burned and breathing hard, struggled to summon more fire.
And me… I had a couple of cards left.
Aldren raised his hand again, Phase Break stabilizing into a full-body shimmer. He muttered. "Let's see what makes you tick."
I exhaled. Slow. Deliberate. Then I opened my eyes and activated it.
One Above All
There was no light show. No thunder. No visual display. Just a sound, like something cracked. I looked at Aldren. That was all it took. My body knew. My Essence knew. It surged upward, not like a rising tide, but like a dam breaking.
Every stat: strength, speed, durability, perception, reaction, stamina jumped. Not to match Aldre but to exceed him.
Aldren's eyes widened in confusion. I was moving before I meant to. A blur of motion, the wind cracked behind me as I instantly closed the distance between us. I drove a punch. Aldren's Phase Break activated instinctively, trying to phase through me, but it's too late. My fist landed square in his gut, the shockwave snapping the nearest tree trunks clean in half. He flew backwards, crashing through the temple steps, body skipping like a stone across the dirt.
Lucian blinked. "What the—" Terra could only stare. Toho, still kneeling, coughed and then smiled.
Aldren groaned, pushing himself out of the crater. "What the hell was that?" He wiped blood from his lips, eyes narrowing. I didn't respond. My breath came heavy, not from exhaustion, but from pressure.
Zero's First Innate Technique: One Above All (OAA). Once activated, Zero's power jumped above whoever he was facing. However, the body takes a heavy toll for the technique. Another drawback: OAA cannot be deactivated unless the user finishes the person on whom they activated it. So, if you don't, it's your demise.
I shot forward again. His Phase Break triggered in time to avoid my direct strike, but I anticipated that. I twisted mid-air, brought my elbow down the moment he re-materialized, and slammed it into his shoulder. Something snapped. Aldren roared in pain, staggering back. He swung wildly, his hand flickering in and out of sync with the world, but I dodged it easily, landing three rapid punches to his chest and finishing with a spinning kick that hurled him into a tree.
But something was wrong. Underneath all the momentum, all the power, my bones were screaming. They shook violently. My body can't handle this for long. I gritted my teeth. OAA couldn't deactivate. Not until whoever I used it against was dead.
He rose again, blood dripping from his nose, teeth bared in a savage grin. "Wow… very interesting." He twisted his fingers in a strange symbol.
"Backup's on the way," he said.
A sharp ripple tore through the air behind him, and a second Mark stepped out of the distortion. This one was taller, leaner, dressed in deep red robes and carrying a pair of twin hooked blades. His eyes glowed with a dull green light.
Terra cursed under her breath. "Another one?!"
Lucian raised his hands, fire already gathering. "No time to breathe, huh?"
Aldren laughed hoarsely, clutching his broken shoulder. "Have fun, rookies."
He turned to run.
No.
I surged forward. If Aldren escaped, OAA would keep burning through me. I couldn't deactivate it voluntarily. And the longer it stayed active, the more my body would tear itself apart.
I grabbed Terra by the arm. "You and Lucian need to protect Toho. That new one's yours."
"What?! Zero, wait!"
I couldn't wait. I launched myself after Aldren, Essence exploding from my feet in a shockwave that rattled the entire jungle.
Lucian looked at me, stunned. "What the hell is he—"
The second Mark stepped forward, thrusting one of his blades toward Lucian. Lucian narrowly ducked, then rolled to the side just as the Mark pulled his blade back. Terra lifted her blade. Toho forced himself to stand.
I blitzed across the jungle in chase of Aldren. Killing is frowned upon in the sorcerer society; however, those who were the top sorcerers got away with it, most of the time. In this situation, there is no alternative. My technique will only deactivate once Aldren stops breathing. It's almost a curse, but it needs to be done.
I used Spatial Rift, materializing just ahead of Aldren, and it was too late for him to react. I landed a gut punch directly forward, pushing Aldren back and crashing into a tree that came down upon contact.
Killing Aldren would be the easy part; dealing with the side effects of my Innate Technique would be more worrisome. The repercussions would be harsh to deal with. If a Celestia Academy student were to murder Mark, it wouldn't look good. But it's either him or me.
I winced in pain and grabbed my hip—a trail of blood oozing from my mouth. Aldren coughed violently beneath the shattered tree, his cloak torn, ribs cracked, and pride in tatters.
"You… really think this ends with me?" he rasped, trying to stand.
I didn't answer. My knees buckled for half a second. My legs weren't just heavy, they felt foreign, like they no longer belonged to me. Too much power surging all at once. But I forced myself forward. The way OAA worked, hesitation was lethal. Every breath was fire, and every step was thunder in my bones. Aldren looked up, bloodied but not broken. He activated Phase Break again—trying to vanish into the trees, into shadows, anywhere. But I was already there, predicting the flicker, slamming a knee into his side mid-phase. A crunch followed. His breath hitched.
"You're done," I growled, voice hoarse.
He dropped back, one arm dangling lifelessly, and finally looked afraid for the first time. He hurled a dagger from his belt, imbued with Essence, but I didn't flinch. My hand snatched it mid-air and snapped it in two with my fingers.
"You're not walking away." Aldren's eyes darted to the side, toward a ravine not far away. He was thinking of escape. Still, "Don't," I warned. But he bolted anyway. I chased him. Even as blood spilled from my lips, even as my muscles tore microscopically with every step, I chased. I had to. Aldren leapt across the ravine, but I appeared mid-air, above him, thanks to another quick Spatial Rift burst.
"Too slow," I whispered.
Then I brought both fists down like hammers. Aldren crashed. The jungle floor ruptured beneath him. The impact cratered the surface, shattered nearby roots, and sent a ripple of silence across the birds and wildlife miles around. He lay there, barely breathing. Ribs crushed. A leg twisted the wrong way. He bled out like water foucet.
"Do it," he rasped. "You're going to, aren't you?"
I stood over him, trembling. Not in fear. Not in rage. In deterioration. My skin felt hot. My vision doubled. My heart thundered too fast. OAA wouldn't let go.
"Any last words?" I asked, my voice barely whispering now, more to buy myself another moment of strength than anything else.
Aldren spat blood at my feet. "You think you're better than us... because you play by their rules? You think you're some hero?"
"We are heroes. We're sorcerers. We protect." I wave my arm in a curved line, a blade forming. The hilt appears, clenched in my hand. The sword's blue hue glistens as the sun lights the blade. I turn the sword around in my hand, clenching the golden handle tightly and preparing to end this.
"That's a bunch of bullshit. You're just like us. You commit atrocities, destroy, and the best of you kill, but they get away with it. Your reasoning is always the same: protecting people," Aldren spouts.
My breathing becomes heavier, and I barely stay conscious. I need to finish this. It's been some time since I last trained with a sword, but I've neglected it and focused more on martial arts and Essence techniques. However, I still remember those years of training with a sword. I almost forgot I put my sword away in that spatial magic bag. I swiftly raise my sword high. Drawing Essence throughout my body and into the sword.
Aldren continued, "You call yourselves the hero sorcerers and branded us as Marks. In this world, there is no good or evil," he continued, raising his voice as a sense of desperation and anger spilled out. "Those at the top of the sorcerer world are just as bad as you think we are. Nothing will cha—"
I swung my sword down. The blade cleaved through his face mid-sentence with a sickening crackling sound. The sound of splitting bone, muscle, and thought in a single arc. The rupture popped my ears, my arms continuing to tighten under the pressure, shaking. A geyser of blood erupted upward, drenching my arms. My sword didn't stop at the skull. I buried into the earth behind him, carving through the remnants of his spine as if splitting raw meat. The impact triggered a larger shockwave, detonating outward and stripping bark from trees, as well as disintegrating the ground beneath us.
I stood over the ruin of what used to be his head, the fractured remains of his face reduced to pulp and shards, one eye still twitching. My eyes roamed around, eventually recognizing another torn-off limb a few feet away, buried in dirt and spatters of blood, worms already infesting around.
The blade in my grip trembled, its edge now mostly lost beneath a thick coating of clotted red and pink. Bits of brain and skull clung to the metal. The stench of burnt blood and ozone filled the air like a funeral pyre.
A sense of relief washed over my body, followed by a tightening pain. A feeling like my bones are getting crushed. I fall, my eyes becoming heavy. The pain feels nonexistent, but still there.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.