Chapter 265: The price of...

For a while, Blake saw nothing but white, everything had become strangely distant.

Then, suddenly, something warm struck the exposed side of his face.

He blinked, as the world returning in fragments.

Sylvan’s head was turned to one side. Blood covered his neck and spread across the concrete beneath him.

For several seconds, he couldn’t understand what he was seeing. His eyes moved over the scene without truly registering it, as though his mind were refusing to connect the image before him with the action he had just taken.

Then his gaze shifted to his own hand.

He slowly lowered it.

His fingers were trembling.

Blake looked down at Sylvan again, his chest heaving as he struggled to draw a proper breath.

He couldn’t remember the exact moment when everything had stopped feeling real. He could remember Sylvan’s voice, the threats, the unbearable pressure building inside him.

He could remember raising his hand.

After that, there was nothing.

His exposed cheek felt wet.

Blake lifted his free hand and pressed it against the side of his face, wiping away the blood. He dragged his palm across his cheek, covering the exposed half of his face as he tried to clean it. His movements were clumsy, as if he didn’t know how to do it.

He stopped with his hand pressed against his skin.

His breathing grew heavier.

’I killed him.’

A loud crash suddenly thundered across the port.

Blake’s head snapped up. Beyond the rows of containers, two figures were tearing through the battlefield.

One was Alexis, the other was...

Trail-X.

Blake’s eyes widened.

’What is he doing here?’

The question came so suddenly that he almost forgot where he was.

The person Alexis had been fighting throughout the operation was Asher, no, Trail-X.

Blake stared at the armored figure, trying to reconcile what he was seeing with what he knew.

’How is this possible? Why is Asher here? How did he even...’

Trail-X barely seemed to notice the blows landing against his armor. His movements were frantic, uneven. He lunged forward again, nearly throwing himself into Alexis’s next strike, then stumbled sideways and immediately attacked once more.

There was no rhythm to it anymore.

Blake watched, unable to move.

His hand remained pressed against his face, hiding the exposed portion of it beneath his palm.

And then, without quite understanding why, he began to cry.

The tears slipped down beneath his fingers, mixing with the blood still clinging to his skin.

He didn’t feel sympathy for Alfred. He didn’t feel anything for Sylvan beyond the awareness of what he had done.

Whatever emotions he might have been expected to experience for either man had been buried beneath the shock, the anger, and the hollow sensation spreading through his chest.

But Asher was different.

Blake’s throat tightened.

He knows his gentle nature, someone who had never seemed to understand just how cruel the world could be.

Someone who had been so sweet, so painfully ignorant of what others were capable of doing in this wretched world.

And now he was here, fighting like a man who had nothing left to lose.

He lowered his head slightly, tears slipping down his face.

He knew it was necessary to do this, in a way or another. He knew that, but...

The price Asher had to be was cruel beyond anything Blake wanted to contemplate.

Both of the men who had served as father figures to Asher had died on the same day.

Alfred, and now Sylvan.

Blake’s fingers pressed harder against his face.

He couldn’t let Asher see him.

Then Trail-X stopped.

For one brief moment, his entire body went rigid, his helmet turned toward the area where Blake was kneeling.

Toward the body on the ground.

Even at that distance, Blake could feel the moment Asher recognized what he was seeing.

His movements faltered.

Alexis seemed to notice the change, too, but before he could capitalize on it, Trail-X suddenly recoiled as though something inside him had snapped.

"U-UNCLE?"

The scream tore across the port.

It was raw, disbelieving.

Trail-X staggered forward, his helmet fixed on Sylvan’s motionless body.

"UNCLE!"

His voice cracked.

He took another step, then another, moving as though his own body could no longer keep up with the realization racing through him.

"No—NO!"

He dropped toward the ground, reaching out with both hands, but stopped just short of touching the body.

For an instant, he seemed unable to decide what to do.

Then his helmet turned, and he saw Blake.

Then the scream that followed was something else entirely.

"YOU!"

Trail-X’s voice distorted through his helmet, breaking apart beneath the force of his grief. He launched himself forward.

"YOU KILLED HIM!"

Blake barely had time to brace himself.

Trail-X crossed the distance with terrifying speed, abandoning all caution. His armored boots struck the ground hard enough to crack the concrete beneath them. He didn’t attempt to defend himself against Alexis, didn’t glance toward Zlatan, didn’t seem to care what happened to his own body.

There was only Blake.

Only the man he believed had taken everything from him.

"UNCLE! UNCLE!"

The words erupted between furious, broken screams.

Trail-X’s arms swung wildly as he charged, every movement driven by a grief so overwhelming that it had become indistinguishable from rage.

Blake’s eyes widened as he saw the armored fist rising toward him, saw the unmistakable intention behind the attack, and understood that there would be no talking him down in that moment.

"UNCLE!"

Trail-X was about to reach him when the air seemed to change. A strange pressure swept across the space between them.

Trail-X’s body jerked.

His forward momentum vanished.

For one brief instant, he remained suspended in the middle of his charge, his limbs rigid and his armor trembling.

Then his knees buckled.

He crashed onto the concrete.

"GHH—!"

His entire body convulsed.

It was Zlatan. He had stepped in before Trail-X could reach Blake, his ability taking hold of the distraught fighter and overwhelming his ability to act.

But it did nothing to quiet the grief.

Trail-X thrashed against the ground, his body shaking violently as the full weight of his emotions tore through him. He screamed again, the sound echoing between the containers, then slammed his fist against the concrete in a futile attempt to rise.

"UNCLE!"

The word came out broken.

He tried again.

"UNCLE! TEACHER!"

His voice cracked so badly that the last word barely sounded human.

He could not reach the body.

He could not reach Blake.

He could not do anything.

And that helplessness seemed to destroy whatever control he had left.

Trail-X collapsed forward, his helmet nearly touching the ground. His shoulders shook as he screamed, the sound rising and falling in ragged bursts that carried through the port.

Blake stood motionless.

His hand still covered his face.

His tears continued to fall.

He watched Asher struggle against Zlatan’s ability, watched him reach desperately toward a body he could no longer touch, and felt something inside his chest twist painfully.

He wanted to look away, but he couldn’t.

"RETREAT!"

Alexis’s voice cut through the chaos.

Zlatan released his hold just enough to move.

Trail-X remained on the ground, trembling and crying out, unable to do anything but watch them leave.

The two of them immediately flied up Blake’s eyes remained fixed on Asher.

He walked towards him one last time, grabbing his shoulder with one hand.

"Everything here, you will have to look at it."

Then, he turned away, activating his boot propulsors and lifted himself from the ground, forcing his gaze away from Trail-X.

Yet even as he followed Alexis and Zlatan into the air, he kept looking back.

The distance grew.

The containers passed beneath them, and the sounds of the battlefield gradually faded.

But Asher’s screams seemed to follow him long after he could no longer see him.

Blake lowered his head.

’If only you had seen it before, maybe you wouldn’t have suffered as much.’

They reached a different section of the port, away from the immediate fighting. Blake followed the other two down, his boots touching the ground a moment after theirs.

Tania was already there.

She stood calmly near the edge of the open area, apparently waiting for them. At the sound of their arrival, she lifted her head and looked up.

Then she rose into the air, approaching them with a measured movement.

"Your communication device broke."

Her gaze settled on Blake, but he didn’t respond.

Tania studied him for a moment, her expression difficult to read.

"I intended to change plans and for you to follow me here."

Blake remained silent.

He kept his hand close to the exposed side of his face, his damaged helmet doing little to conceal the state he was in. His breathing had steadied somewhat, but his eyes still burned, and the blood on his skin had begun to dry.

Tania eventually looked away from him.

Her attention shifted to Alexis and Zlatan.

She moved closer to the two of them and began speaking, her voice low enough that Blake couldn’t quite make out what she was saying.

He stayed where he was, listening to the indistinct murmur of their conversation.