Nil

I was not expecting to find the ingredients for black powder so cheaply. Seeing Lilas clearly think so deeply over something so innocuous was entertaining. I liked the market so far. It was kind of like a giant flea market. I wonder if there was something similar in Umbra. The idea was definitely worth copying. It seemed quite profitable. As we walked, I activated my . In an instant, I felt overwhelming dread. Luna!

“Where’s Luna?” I asked immediately. Not good. Not good.

“With Mistress at the bathhouse.” Lilas answered, looking a bit confused.

“Where is that?” I pressed. Chalas seemed to realize something was off.

“What’s wrong?” Chalas inquired, catching onto my concern.

“Luna is in danger. I need to get to Luna.” I replied, launching probes scanning for her. Where is she?

“There are no men allowed in that bathhouse.” Lilas informed me. Forling useless. I looked at Chalas.

“It’s in the north section of the city. Let’s go.” Chalas explained as he grabbed Lilas and I.

Chalas sprinted full speed through the town. I was originally worried about how long it would take to reach the bath house, but Chalas arrived in sixteen seconds flat. I needed to practice my ; I couldn’t move this fast. Now was not the time to admire that. I needed to find Luna. We rushed in, to many glares. They were not even cutting Chalas slack. It must be a pretty hard rule. I didn't care; I needed to see Luna.

“Where is my daughter and Luna? This is an emergency.” Chalas told the staff immediately.

A few moments later, the two were brought out. I immediately rushed to Luna’s side. My was still sending off alarm bells. What is setting it off? This sensation was usually tied to something disastrous. The feeling was only getting stronger too. What? Something was off. I was breathing rapidly, as my was near inducing a panic attack.

“Relax Nil. What’s wrong?” Luna asked, motioning for me to breathe.

“I don’t know.” I answered. I was getting some horrendous glares as I said that.

“Is it your eyes?” Luna checked. I immediately nodded yes.

“You three came here because of his eyes?” Ailla checked, sounding furious.

“Nil has an . How accurate is it?” Lilas asked quickly, realizing what was making me panic.

“It’s never wrong. Something is about to happen.” Luna replied as I tried scanning around.

Bad news: the answer made itself apparent. A powerful fluctuation of shook the entire city. What has that much ? Cold sweat went down my spine. It wanted to kill. The sheer desire it possessed radiated off it in waves. The doors burst off the hinges, revealing a man wearing an immaculate suit. Who is that? He looked human, but his was the most I had ever felt. His eyes were a bright silver. He wore thin spectacles, which shined against his deeply tan skin. The man had deep red hair, and a look of sheer contempt on his face. Without a word, he materialized trying to attack Luna. Chalas barely kicked him away. How do you move that fast? Who was this? Ailla and Chalas immediately tried attacking the man. He effortlessly wove between them, kicking Chalas across the room as he headbutted Ailla into the ground. Everyone in the room sprung into action, summoning various weapons to fight him. It made little difference, as with a flick of his wrist he sent them all flying with some .

In the blink of an eye, the man was upon Luna and me. I used to get us behind Chalas. The man materialized upon us, throwing Chalas out of his way as his other hand launched another attack. Something moved him out of the way as he barely deflected sideways. His attack missed Luna's head by less than an inch; I could feel the rush of wind next to us. Who is he? Why is he trying to kill us? I activated my . The elves recovered, rushing the mystery attacker. He easily pivoted around the attacks, making short work of each of them. He took out fifteen of them without breaking a sweat. It was likely twenty-five versus one, but it didn't seem to matter. Chalas and Ailla tried fighting him again as more elves rushed in.

“Can you all move out of my way? This doesn’t concern you.” The man snarled. What accent is that?

Several weapons were raised in response, much to his chagrin. His eyes never shifted off of Luna. What did we do? What did Luna do? The man resumed his assault, launching the various elves out of his way. Is he that strong, or are they that weak? The man was so fast I couldn’t even see his movement with my , just a spot he’d be. Unfortunately, my ability to perceive high speed movement affected my . I immediately made strings of on Luna and me. It was my fastest way of moving. It was something.

The man was about to be upon us, so I moved us away as much as I could. He pursued us with little effort. I made a to try and make space. It was nothing as far as the man was concerned. I used to return to Ailla’s side. He easily followed the , descending upon us again. Ailla had recovered enough to counterattack the man. His growing irritation at the intervention of the elves was palpable as he was forced to launch several out of his way again. Why was he not attacking the elves? He clearly didn't mind hurting them, but was actively not trying to kill them.

“Forling bladeks! Out of my way!” the man roared, unleashing several blades.

He summoned several phantasmal weapons, launching them into the elves. He didn’t kill any of them despite clearly possessing the ability to. While nice, he still impaled them all into the ground. Was it really going to end like this? But the man was easily defeating the elves. Nothing was even remotely slowing him down. Being absolutely surrounded by hostile elves, and it made little difference. What can I do? As far as he was concerned, this was a target rich environment between him and his objective. I had maybe a second before he was upon us again. Unlike the , I couldn’t think of a way to defeat him. I couldn’t even think of a way to stall against him.

Was this really it? Was he really going to kill us? Kill Luna? Why? My brain was going blank. I had no idea what to do. He’s way too strong. The Matriarch burst in, seeing the man slugging Chalas several times to get him out of the way. Each hit was unleashing sickening crunches, with loud bangs from the force. She rushed the man, who immediately whipped around to back hand her away. It sounded like a thunderclap as the Matriarch regained her bearings.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She lasted longer than virtually every other elf at a grand total of six seconds. The man quickly dashed in, unleashing a rapid one two punch. The Matriarch retaliated by creating a cage of roots, trying to stop his movement. He instantly manifested more phantasmal weapons, slicing the roots as he kicked several knives in multiple directions. Most ricocheted towards the Matriarch, but I could see two were after Luna. I moved us away as the man rotated into drop kicking the Matriarch with a massive explosion. Several things cracked from his kick as the man spun towards us, manifesting more phantasmal weapons. How many could the man make?

Ailla recovered from his onslaught enough to get between us. It was all for nought as he attacked around her with his phantasmal weapons. I cast a barrier of which ate the first blade as I dove over Luna. Seering agony erupted from my shoulder. I tried moving us with to avoid his follow up, but he materialized on top of us. My ribs felt like they exploded as he launched me across the room. As my vision blurred, I tried using on Luna to move her out of the way in desperation. She barely moved as the man barely had to adjust to follow. LUNA! I needed to get where she was. Or her where I was. In a desperate move, I began slowing time. Thanks to my , I was able to slowly see his sword descend upon Luna as the world turned grayscale. Unlike usual, his speed was still terrifying. Please let me take her place! I tried using on each of us, trying to switch our locations. It luckily succeeded as I was now the recipient of his sword. At least Luna won't die because of me. The man noticed the swap, immediately tossing his sword at where I just was. The Matriarch kicked it away. Why was he so fixated on killing Luna?

He rushed in, shoulder slamming the Matriarch out of his path so he could attack Luna. No one was there to save her. I could barely move. No! NO! I had no tricks for this. I could just watch hopelessly in slow motion. I tried making time slower, buying myself any time to think. What can I do? Nothing. I had nothing. I couldn’t even think of a last-ditch attempt to stop him. All I could do was watch as his fist inched itself closer to Luna. I tried switching our locations again. Please work. I knew the with making time this slow would be brutal, but it was all I had. To my great despair, his eyes lit up in an instant as I felt my shatter. ! He didn’t even slow down. I could see the moments before his fist would connect.

I’m sorry Luna; I’m just not strong enough. Please. Don’t kill her. What did we do? Why are you doing this? I cried into the void.

Nothing in my power could stop his fist from inching closer. All I could see was his fist move right for Luna's head. In the final moment before his fist connected, there was a loud chime. What? In an instant, the man vanished. Luna burst to the side from the force of the motion left from his attack, slamming hard into the wall. The only sign he was here was the carnage in his wake. I tried scrambling over to Luna, but I was too injured for that. My ribs were weeping at me as my body refused to cooperate. Why didn’t he kill me? What was his fixation with Luna? What was that chime? The elves were slowly gathering themselves, checking the wounded. Luna rushed over to me. She’s not hurt. I felt a wave of relief seeing her safe as she began healing me. Unfortunately, the elves were glaring at us now that they were done tallying their wounded. We may have survived one problem and now have a different one. All eyes were on us. Lilas was also unhurt; the man only attacked what got between him and his objective. Not sure if that really helped us, as the elves looked furiously at us. I really hope they understand.

“Who was that?” Lilas asked, inspecting Ailla’s wounds. This is on Luna; I can barely breathe at the moment.

“I don’t know.” Luna answered as she was making to align my shattered ribs. I had to grit my teeth as Luna wove my ribs back into place.

“Do not lie!” one of the elves snarled at us.

“I really don’t know!” Luna insisted. Then who was he?

The elves did not look pleased with that answer. This was not good. Even if I rapidly refilled my , I wasn’t healed enough to avoid them all. He kicked me once. How was I this injured? Luna was subtly healing me faster. My breathing was slowly stabilizing as the elves looked ready to attack. I’d need easily another eighty seconds to be able to try and outrun them. My brain was racing a mile a minute to try and think of an out.

“Do you have a guess who that man is?” The Matriarch inquired as she lifted Chalas. There were massive black bruises where he got hit.

“No, we’ve never seen him. Neither of us have been out of Speranza until the trap.” Luna explained. The elves only looked angrier at that answer. I realized the Matriarch’s eyes were glowing. She has an ; please be able to tell we’re not lying.

“She’s telling the truth. That was a brazen attack, we need to make sure there isn’t a follow up.” The Matriarch declared, mobilizing the elves.

A few moments later, numerous medics had finally arrived. They tended to the elves first, but thankfully Luna was able to at least get me breathing first. Why did their wounds almost look, burned? He wasn’t using but their injuries from his blades looked almost cauterized. After the elves were mostly treated a few medics finally came to check out my injuries. The elf helping me grimaced as he inspected my ribs. Luna’s hands were shaky. Crap. I grit my teeth as the ribs out of position were broken to be reset properly. Apparently several of my were damaged. How did he do that?

I replayed his attacks in my mind; I had never seen some of those. How did he make those weapons? They were different. I’d seen Nez make weapons out of and , but those were weaker. Who was he? His and were different. The medic fixed my the rest of the way. I could feel my flow properly. I activated my to make sure it was working fine.

No panic attacks at least. I tried replaying the man’s attacks again. I wish I could see it again. Replay it like a video. Make an image. Capture it. See what he did so I can figure out the difference. Try and figure out what the difference is. I then realized I had several weapons pointed at me as Luna jabbed my ribs. I nearly screamed from how much pain I was in. What? Why are they mad now?

“How are you doing this?” Lilas asked, motioning for the weapons to be put down.

“Doing what?” I inquired, looking around.

That’s when I noticed, there was a projection of the man as he summoned his weapons. Wait. What about that movement of his? I noticed I could see his . My can see his . I could use this. Study it. Replicate it. I moved him through the fight back and forth a bit. SINCE WHEN COULD I DO THIS?!

“This is new. I didn't know I could do this.” I informed them, admiring this. The elves just sighed, and began coordinating.

I replayed that moment over and over, looking at him form them. He formed them all in the same instant. Luna sighed and sat down next to me. We leaned on each other as the elves talked. Luna moved from next to me to into my lap, as I hugged her into me as I replayed it again. Come on. What was special about these? What were these made from? I doubt it’s that special; I’m confident it was how he made them. What? What was I missing? There was something I was missing. What’s that chattering noise? Stop trying to distract me. He made the weapons again. And again. And again. I studied each detail in slow motion. As I was studying one of the weapons, Ailla appeared in front of me. What?

“What? I’m studying.” I quipped, trying to look at the weapon some more.

“Nil, people were trying to talk to you.” Luna informed me as she leaned against me.

“For how long?” I checked, seeing countless elves glaring at me.

“Twenty minutes.” Luna answered with a sigh.

“I'm sorry.” I apologized as Luna stroked my hair.

“I know you fixate; especially on when you're upset.” Luna told me as she kept stroking my horns a bit.

“I'm sorry. I just. I. I don't know. I should comfort you. I'm sorry." I whimpered, leaning hard onto Luna.

"You are comforting Nil, in your own way." Luna assured me. Why was she so composed? It was her he was after.

“Come on, let’s go eat.” Ailla stated, escorting Luna and I out from the bathhouse.