Peacefully kept, the forest that housed those on the run remained quiet. Nothing stirred around; even the wi no i in b the situation. The stillness ran through everything. However, eyes remained ever vigint. They watched everything from the shadows, made like windows to peer through.

  Chiharu didn’t bother with a normal patrol. She ko keep a real eye ohing and act the fastest, she o use her powers. It gave her time to tio test them and gain a better uanding of them.

  One eye gnced and shifted around at all of the panes quickly, still safe. She ged her gaze to her hand. ‘There’s still a lot I don’t know about this power. I thought I uood it, but it’s still growing and evolving.’ Her thoughts went back tht with Miltiades. Something happened outside of what she pnned, it saved her from the recklessness of Seiji’s tactibsp; However, it still troubled her that her powers weren’t in her trol. ‘If I ’t trol this power…I…’ She tried to remember the feeling.

  The needles roared down onto Chiharu uing. They tried to stop her and push her down, but she remained on course. Miltiades’ eyes focused on Chiharu trying to uand her ability. His eyes thinned out when he saw it. In front of Chiharu’s arms, a loose circle of endless bck hovered proteg her from all of the needles. When a needle hit the circle, it disappeared. The void swallowed everything leaving Chiharu safe.

  ‘It all happeoo fast. I didn’t even notice it the first time, my mind was elsewhere…’ Chiharu cursed her own ck of awareness. She only saw it briefly onbsp; The sed time the power activated. After the wave didn’t hit her, she knew something was wrong.

  She stretched out her hand pointed in no dire of importanbsp; All of her focus drew to the point in front of her hand. A low groan came from Chiharu from the exertion.

  Nothing happened.

  Sighing, Chiharu pulled back her hand to stare at it. She was missing something. ‘I remember seeing a strange distortion. It almost looked like a thick yer of cloudy water.’ Thoughts returo the moment, the short few seds.

  Ripples by the dozens appeared before her eyes. From the st time, she already uood what happened. Each ripple was a needle. She couldn’t see through the film only the effect objects had on it. It made her wonder what Miltiades saw from his side.

  She k was aension of the power she already had. Something randomly new was too unlikely. It was the only starting point she had. ‘sidering that my primary power seems to involve iion with this other dimensional space, I must have somehow opened a window myself. But I’ve never been able to do that. I tried it already…’ Wherained, she explored the different possibilities of it. However, she was never able to create a portal willfully.

  The windows into the forest reminded her of what she knew and how little she seemed to uand. ‘I’ve only been able to open portals in shadows and only ones rge enough for me to fit in. However…’ Her mind thought about her st two fights. She already analyzed them afterward in their marbsp; Something about them bothered her.

  Retreating a little, the ground rolled around her knog her on her babsp; She gred back at the man as he made no a to take her. He acted too casually for her, but iate, she had few options. Chiharu rolled over letting the ground guide her away from him. It dumped her out of his sight. ‘I need a pn… I ’t let it end like this, not failing…again…’

  Sighing softly, he ighe blood dripping. Bakkhos stepped forward, paving out the ground in search of Chiharu’s body. The st pce he found her came up empty. “Hmm…” he muttered with his eyes narrowing. He preferred not to doubt his eyes.

  She knew she escaped into the void in the moments she fell out of his sight. Yet, she also knew she shouldn’t have found a rge enough shadow. The tests she ran she uood the limitations of the power. ‘I oer shade enough for me to fit through. If I ’t fit, then I ’t use it. Though, I see through it. I ’t use my own shadow to ehe space, it has to be another’s shadow. And I ’t create a portal.’ She thought she uood, but her fights proved her wrong.

  The only answer she had to what happened was that she broke the sed rule. She couldn’t use her own shadow to ehe void. It was the only expnation. During the fight, her mind focused on surviving and fighting that anything that happened she accepted. Reviewing the fight, she uood better.

  ‘The only rule I haven’t broke is the shadow has to be rge enough. Will I break that oually as well?’

  Chapter 173 – Mounting Troubles

  Further attempts followed by Chiharu. Each effort produced the same results. She theorized if she could open a portal in the real world the same should be possible inside as well. Nothing worked. She sat down and sed her windows, maintaining her regur duty to stay on watbsp; An hour already disappeared from her wasted efforts. It bothered her knowing something was out of her trol.

  Chiharu’s mind ran through the details again. She repyed everything she tried through her mind. Her fights ran in review to try to uand every moment of what she did. Every thrown pund movement of her legs had to be analyzed. It o be figured out. She would keep watg until she found the answer. Chiharu khe answer y within, somewhere.

  ‘Weakling,’ echoed a voice from behind her.

  It interrupted her thoughts a a cold trickle down her spine. Her eyes slide around with a tilt of her head. Nothing. She k was nothing, but still felt pelled to chebsp; Yet the voice came out to her clearly. The souled deep i of her stomabsp; Everything inside grew aggravated.

  ‘Weakling!’

  “Shut up!” shouted Chiharu, already on her feet. She faced in the dire of the voice, even though it was still nothing.

  ‘You’re relying on her. Because you ’t find the answer yourself.’ The voice almost turned into a ugh as it mocked Chiharu further.

  Chiharu spun her head around as the voice was behind her again. “I’m not relying on anyone!”

  ‘It’s because you’re weak. A weakling that ’t do anything. You’re not strong enough to even stand on your own.’

  “I don’t need anyone! I’ll achieve my goals by my own hands!”

  ‘What hands? You have none of your own. You couldn’t eve him. You had to use someone else to win. You’re weak.’

  Shaking her head, Chiharu ran off into the bck void. The voice followed her, never getting any softer. It actually felt like it grew in volume. “You’re wrong! I just fought two fights in a row! I would have beaten him easily if I had my full strength.”

  ‘Just excuses. You failed, again. Just like before. You’re always a failure. You ’t even proteen. You’re worthless.’

  “No! It’s not like that!” Chiharu tripped over her feet. She fell to the ground with her face pressed in against the bottom. Fshes of her past whipped through her mind’s eye, nearly blinding her. She tightened her fist struggling with the memories. “I…I don’t need…any of them…”

  ‘Try that with better vi and maybe even you will believe. Pathetibsp; Weakling. Worthless.’

  Chiharu pushed up against the surface, but only mao lift her upper body. She stared down at the endless bck void. Windows into the real world covered everything, even below her. It went on without her. “I already told you to shut up!” Her voice echoed around the space to ay reply. She forced herself back to her feet. “Keep up your meaningless words! I'll show you! Just like everyone else! I’m the right oo lead! No one else will die!” Chiharu’s faarrowed with her brow pulled down iermination. Resolve sharpehe ers of her face.

  She turned back to the pce she started. She drew up her power and focused on it. The answer could not hide from her.

  ‘This is no longer about capture. Kill everyone ected to Captain of the Guard Eudokia Ismene. No exceptions, Captain.’ The General’s words echoed in Simonides’ mind long after their meeting ended. It left him with a heavy weight. As Captain of the South Gate, his duties meant the capture and safe return of those actally passing through the barrier. Even in the most difficult of cases, they succeeded without res to taking a life. It wasn’t their assigned duty.

  A new order, a new duty, he didn’t know how he should take it. The military training taught to everyoried to make the soldiers uand that sometimes killing would happen. However, it was a rare occurrence left for extreme situations.

  Simonides wandered aimlessly in the camp with his mind occupied on the orders. So much of it ged everything and made him questiohing that he knew about the ones he hunted. ‘Captain of the Guard…it’s hard to imagine someone like her plotting against Atntis. I’ve never seen anyone more devoted to the King, in spite of everything he did. Nothing swayed her.’

  He thought back to the time when she was assigo him. She came under reendations from both the academy and the General. A young child already pressed with an unimaginable weight, yet he never saw it break her. He fourength surprising for someone her age. After she distinguished herself, no one doubted her position or appearanbsp; ‘Could it have been the King’s death? What would happen to someone so young aed to suddenly lose the ohing that meant more to them thahemselves? Was that enough to break her?’

  Everything came to an end. He faced such reality with his men. Death surrouhem all, watg and waiting. Simonides k was inescapable. ‘Execution orders…they’re all still just kids…but I have my orders…’ Through his mental turmoil, Simonides caught sight of Abeiron. It drew him away from his flis.

  Abeiron ordered a young officer off into the camp. He still worked to finish bringing the camp under order. The papers in his hand passed off to his assistant. “Take these to the quartermaster. The fighting ruined many of our supplies. Report back immediately after meeting with him. I o know how many to send out to resupply us.”

  “Yes, sir!” The officer disappeared behind one of the tents.

  Simonides approached Abeiron, now finished. “ander.”

  “Captain? How long have you been there?” Abeiron caught himself a little surprised with the proximity of his Captain. He beat himself up a little inside for not notig him.

  “We have new orders from the Capital.” A thin grim line drew across his lips. The words from the General echoed through his mind again. His entire meeting repyed to pack more weight on him.

  The ge in Simonides wasn’t lost on Abeiron. ‘What are these orders that it has the Captain so upset? It’s rare to see him like this.’ A bit of and fear settled into Abeiron. The more he allowed his mind time the worse things he produced. “What are the orders?”

  Simonides returo his time with the General on the orders. Something else other than just the execution orders weighed on him. If possible, it meant something even direr. Simonides felt everyone was on an untrolble spiral to destru. He hoped he could avert the worst possible oute.

  Demosthenes o firm Simonides’ suspis. A slightly pained expressiohrough the cracks in his face from the weight of the words he delivered. “It is the same for any traitor of Atntis. You’ve been grahe permission to execute her along with all of her sympathizers.”

  ‘Execution orders!? What’s happening in the Capital?’

  “This is no longer about capture. Kill everyone ected to Captain of the Guard Eudokia Ismene. No exceptions, Captain.” Demosthenes paused, measuring out his words as he watched Simonides' features ge. “I uand this is hard to hear, it surprises me as well. The cil hoped to resolve these matters in private and limit the dishonor, but things have ged.”

  “ged, sir?”

  “Yes, your st report about the intruders. The more it was reviewed the more certain the cil is that she is the leader behind it.”

  “But I haven’t seen her in their group, sir. I wouldn’t fet her face.”

  “Yes, but don’t fet that she is a very skilled MP user. She could easily disguise herself.”

  “Yes, sir.” Simohought about the implications of fighting Eudokia. He knew her strengths well enough. There were few in the military that wouldn’t reize or even fear her. She held a position closest to the King and young enough to earn it through hard work rather thaism. “I uand, sir, but capturing her—“

  “The cil already knows. They are in deliberations on mobilizing the Omega Division.”

  Simonides sank a little in his seat hearing the words. He couldn’t believe it. ‘Mobilizing the Omega Division…’ They were never mobilized until there was a rge-scale emergenbsp; Only individuals deployed, even for capturing criminal MPs. The mobilization of the division for a single person was unheard of in their history. ‘The st time they were mobilized…Atntis shook…’

  He knew he had to face the responsibility of the title he held. Doubt still filled his mind with the orders and their reasons. It didn’t make any seo him. “We’re mobilizing all forces to move out as soon as possible. Our orders are the capture of the traitor Eudokia Ismene, leader of this rebellion!”