Chapter 129: Caius Solmere (1)

Hiiro hit the ground hard enough to bounce. His body skidded across the fractured street, carving a dark trail through dust and powdered stone before finally slamming into the base of another collapsed wall.

"Hiiro!"

Misha barely heard herself. Something hot surged into her mouth. She turned her head and coughed, blood splattered across the pavement. It was too much, not the thin metallic taste from a bitten tongue or split lip. This came from somewhere deeper. Her chest clenched again, and another wet cough tore through her before she could stop it. Red dripped from her chin. Her knees nearly buckled.

"Shit..." She hooked two fingers beneath the edge of the mask and dragged it just high enough to spit another mouthful of blood onto the stones. The copper taste clung to her tongue.

For half a second, she considered ripping the damned thing off entirely. It was getting harder to breathe beneath it, harder to see, and harder to think. But the mask was the only thing keeping her class identification. Soul Inventory was not normal. Caleb bent something in the Tower’s System that probably should never have been bent. If her identity slipped now, and someone connected what they were seeing to her actual registration–

No. Later. She could panic about secrets if she survived long enough to still have any.

She wiped her mouth with the back of one hand before she lowered the mask again. Her vision pulsed at the edges.

Across the ruined avenue, Hiiro remained sprawled where he had landed. His black-scaled arms lay loose at his side. There was no movement.

Misha’s stomach twisted. "Hiiro!"

There was no stupid answer, no declaration that he was mostly fine while actively bleeding from somewhere important. That frightened her more than the blood filling her own mouth.

A shadow swallowed the street.

Misha looked up and for one horrible second, she forgot how to breathe. The thing they had been fighting no longer existed. Whatever stood before them now had finished becoming something else.

The Primarch had completed its evolution. Its old body had already been grotesque–too many limbs, mismatched heads, chains threaded through rotten flesh, the bronze gong embedded in its torse like some obscene heart.

This was worse, much worse. It had grown until its hunched shoulders nearly reached the surviving roofs on either side of the avenue. The flesh along its torso had split apart in long vertical seams, exposing layers of dark muscle beneath that moved independently of one another.

Three arms had become six. Not cleanly since new limbs had forced themselves through its ribs, tearing skin outward in ragged flaps that still twitched around the shoulders. Each arm differed from the next. One ended in a hand large enough to close around a human torso. Another dragged hooked fingers across the stone. Two more were wrapped in chains fused directly through the bone. The remaining pair carried no weapons. They didn’t need them.

The bronze gong in its chest had changed most of all. It was no longer merely embedded there. It had consumed the torso around it. Bronze spread across the Primarch’s chest in branching plates, fusing with ribs, sternum, collarbones. Crimson lines sprawled underneath the metal like veins beneath translucent skin.

The shattered center they had spent so long trying to break was gone. It was now whole and bigger than before. Its surface expanded and contracted with each impossible breath.

GONG.

The sound rolled through the street.

Caius staggered. He was the only one still standing between it and them, barely. His boots had carved twin trenches through the debris where the Primarch had been forcing him backward. Lightning crawled weakly over his staff-spear, sputtering more often than it sparked. His left sleeve had been torn away.

Blood ran freely down his arm, one knee trembled. Still, he kept the staff-spear raised.

The Primarch’s upper head tilted. It had gained another face during the evolution. Not another head but a face. It had grown along the side of the first skull, stretched sideways beneath translucent skin. Its mouth opened vertically. All three mouths smiled.

Misha felt something cold settle beneath her chest. This wasn’t merely stronger, it wasn’t the same fight with higher numbers. They had crossed some threshold they had never meant to reach. The thing standing in front of them belonged somewhere higher.

Perhaps that was what Primarch meant. Not a variation... a warning.

Caius thrust one hand forward. "Arc–!"

Lighting exploded from his palm, and the Primarch walked through it. The purple current crawled across the bronze armor covering its chest and disappeared into the cracks between the plates. It didn’t even flinch.

The corpse raised one hand.

Caius shifted his staff-spear horizontally to block the attack.

"CAIUS!!"

BOOM.

The street collapsed beneath him. He dropped to one knee, his arms shook violently. The Primarch pressed down and the stone fractured outward around him in widening rings.

Misha tried to move but her right leg folded. She caught herself on one hand and pain tore through her ribs hard enough to turn her vision white.

’No, no, no, not now!’ Panic spread through her chest.

"Tobias!"

「 Constellation Soul within the Cancer Chamber Requesting Authorization. 」

"Come!"

The System flickered then turned red.

「 〔WARNING〕

Soulbinder Condition: CRITICAL

Current physiological integrity is below the minimum threshold required for possession.

Forced authorization may result in severe bodily damage or death.

Cancer Chamber access temporarily restricted. 」

For a half second, her mind went completely blank.

Another window opened beneath it.

「 〔SOUL POSSESSION〕

Soulbinder Condition: CRITICAL

Daily Limit: 3

Possession Used: 1

Possession Remaining: 2

—

Chamber Status:

Taurus Chamber – Cooldown

Cancer Chamber – Temporarily Restricted

Leo Chamber – Locked

—

Available Possession count does not guarantee Chamber accessibility. 」

She gritted her teeth. She had two possessions left, two possessions she was apparently too broken to use.

Caius’ staff-spear groaned beneath the pressure.

Misha’s head snapped up and saw the Primarch leaning closer. One of its mouths opened and a wet clicking sound came from somewhere inside.

"Caleb!" She shouted.

There was no response.

The Primarch pushed harder and Caius dropped lower.

Her temper snapped. "CALEB YOU FUCKER! DO SOMETHING!!!"

Only the Primarch answered. One of its lower arms lifted, slowly, almost lazily. It didn’t need speed anymore since Caius couldn’t move. The first arm still pinned his weapon, the second descended toward him, fingers opened. Each one ended in a hooked black nail longer than his forearm.

Misha forced herself upright but her leg failed again. She hit the ground on one knee. She was too far, and too slow.

Caius looked up, his breathing had gone shallow and his grip tightened around the staff-spear... then loosened.

For the first time since Misha had met him, he looked his age. Not the cold prodigy, not the War Magus who always seemed to know exactly how much power to use. Just eighteen. Bleeding, exhausted, and about to die.

Seeing him close his eyes, Misha’s stomach dropped. "CAIUS!!!"

He heard her. But the voice seemed to come from very far away. Something else was louder. A heartbeat, not his, it was another body, another life. Blood filled his throat, hands that weren’t his pressed against cracked stone, a woman’s body collapsing beneath a sky that no longer existed, and his own consciousness fading inside it.

The Primarch’s hand descended.

Caius opened his eyes and amber burned through them. The purple lightning around him vanished for one heartbeat, then the air behind him split. Lines of black and gold appeared in the air, forming an enormous chamber around the battlefield. Circular markings spread beneath Caius’ knees.

At his back, two enormous scales materialized. One platform hung empty and the other carried a woman’s shadow. Her hair was longer, blood on her face, and a body held upright by sheer refusal to fall.

「 〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕

External Chamber Resonance Detected.

Constellation: LIBRA

Contract Record: INVALID

Attempting historical verification... 」

Misha’s breath stopped. "What..."

Caius lifted his head and saw the Primarch’s hand was inches from him.

The scales behind him tipped then stopped, perfectly level. A sound like glass breaking echoed through the street.

He whispered one word. "Equalize."

Lightning exploded, not his purple ones but amber-white. It tore outward from his body in a perfect ring.

The Primarch’s descending hand stopped.

For one impossible second, neither side moved. Then the monster’s arm snapped backward. It was not blasted away, not thrown. It was as though some unseen law had looked at the overwhelming force crushing Caius and simply decided–

No. Enough.

The pressure became equal. The Primarch staggered as Caius rose slowly. His staff-spear straightened in his hands and amber light crawled along the shaft.

Another System window flickered again.

「 〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕

Historical Contractor Record Confirmed.

Temporal Soul Data Found.

Linked Subject: Misha Apocalypse

Reference Timeline: TERMINATED

Reference Point: Pre-Death Peak State

—

A Special Condition has been met! 」

Misha’s blood went cold when she read the words.

"W-Wha..."

The System continued.

「 〔LIBRA AUTHORITY〕

«Dead Man’s Recall»

A deceased temporal record has been recognized through Libra Constellation Soul’s historical bond.

Current and former states may be temporarily weighed against one another. 」

The scales behind Caius moved. One side lowered and the shadow of the dead Misha became clearer. The other side–

Her body jerked and pain tore through every nerve at once. She gasped as amber light erupted beneath her skin.

「 〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕

Temporal Compatibility Confirmed.

Final Contract recognized across divergent temporal records.

Synchronizing...」

The world lurched beneath her feet, and her vision split.

For a single, disorienting second, two streets existed at once. The ruined avenue remained beneath her, but another version bled through it that was swallowed by fire. Flames climbed the buildings on either side.

Several meters above the burning street, a man hovered in the air. Misha tried to focus on him, but his face remained blurred. Then the vision snapped out of existence.

She sucked in a sharp breath.

「 〔DEATHBOUND EQUILIBRIUM〕

Current State: Critical

Reference State: Pre-Death Peak State

[Temporary State Equalization Authorized.]

—

Strength Adjusted

Agility Adjusted

Endurance Adjusted

Perception Adjusted

—

Vitality cannot be restored through temporal equalization.

—

Soulbinder Output Increased.

Contractor Authority: Historical Compatibility Applied.」

She dug fingers into the pavement as she felt something inside her shift.

Her muscles tightened, her breathing sharpened, and every sound became distinct. The Primarch’s six separate arms moving at different angles, Caius’ heartbeat, and Hiiro’s faint breathing beneath the rubble.

Misha looked down at her hand and saw it trembling. It was not from weakness but from the force she could barely contain. "What..."

"KRUUAAAAAGH!!!"