Chapter 12: The Fragility Of Man

The camp had gone unnaturally quiet.

Smoke drifted lazily through the ruined streets.

Broken walls leaned against one another like exhausted giants.

Bodies lay scattered across the shattered concrete.

Some still.

Some not.

The few bandits who remained stood frozen.

None of them wanted to move.

None of them wanted to breathe too loudly.

Then one of them snapped.

“HEY!”

His voice cracked.

“Psycho bitch!”

Licht stopped walking.

Slowly…

He turned.

A bandit stood atop a collapsed section of concrete, both hands wrapped around something long and black.

Metal caught the afternoon light.

An Egyptian AK.

A relic from a world that barely existed anymore.

Rare.

Deadly.

The bandit’s hands trembled violently.

Whether from excitement or terror…

Even he didn’t know anymore.

“I’ll kill you!”

He squeezed the trigger.

BANG!

The rifle roared.

The first bullet tore through the air.

To everyone else…

It would have been invisible.

To Licht…

It crawled.

The spinning round carved a faint spiral through the dust.

He could see the disturbed air trailing behind it.

He tilted his head.

The bullet whispered past his cheek.

A strand of pearlescent hair drifted away.

The second round followed.

He raised two fingers.

Tap.

The bullet changed course as if swatted by an invisible hand.

It ricocheted into the broken wall behind him.

The third.

The fourth.

He lowered his body.

Both rounds screamed over his head, disappearing into the ruined skyline.

The bandit’s breathing became frantic.

“No…”

He held the trigger down.

The rifle spat fire.

Fifth.

Sixth.

Seventh.

Licht stepped forward.

His movements were effortless.

No wasted motion.

No panic.

Just precision.

His fingers closed around the sixth bullet.

The burning metal spun harmlessly between them.

The bandit’s eyes widened.

“…What?”

Licht flicked his wrist.

The captured bullet vanished.

A metallic crack echoed through the camp.

The returning round collided head-on with another bullet just as it entered the barrel.

For one impossible heartbeat…

Everything stopped.

Then…

BOOM!

The rifle exploded.

Steel burst apart.

Wood shattered into splinters.

Fragments ripped across the bandit’s face.

He screamed.

The weapon slipped from his ruined hands.

He staggered backward.

“L-Let me…”

A shadow appeared before him.

He hadn’t seen Licht move.

One hand rose.

Two fingers extended.

They slipped cleanly through his throat.

The scream died instantly.

His body slid slowly to the ground.

Silence returned.

No one moved.

No one dared.

The remaining bandits stared at the corpse.

Then at Licht.

One by one…

Weapons clattered against the floor.

A spear.

A knife.

A rusted machete.

Someone quietly fell to their knees.

Another closed his eyes.

None of them begged.

None of them screamed.

They simply waited.

Licht walked among them.

His footsteps echoed softly through the ruined building.

One heartbeat.

One strike.

One corpse.

Then another.

And another.

His hand pierced each heart with terrifying precision.

Quick.

Merciful.

Without hesitation.

Without hatred.

Without satisfaction.

Like extinguishing candles.

Then—

A shout.

One bandit lunged from behind.

A rusted knife flashed toward Licht’s back.

Licht didn’t turn.

His heel shot backward.

CRACK!

The man’s knee folded sideways.

The scream had barely begun before Licht’s elbow struck his forearm.

CRACK!

Bone burst beneath the impact.

The knife spun harmlessly away.

The bandit collapsed forward.

Licht finally looked at him.

One open palm struck the side of his neck.

The blow landed directly over the carotid sinus.

The man’s body seized.

His eyes rolled back.

Before he hit the ground…

Licht’s foot drove into his ribs.

BOOM!

The impact launched him across the room.

His body crashed through a weakened support wall.

For a single heartbeat…

Nothing happened.

Then…

A deep groan rolled through the building.

Stone shifted.

Cracks raced across the ceiling.

Dust poured down.

The ruined structure finally surrendered.

The ceiling collapsed.

Walls folded inward.

Broken pillars shattered beneath their own weight.

The entire hideout came crashing down in a deafening roar, burying the last of the bandits beneath mountains of concrete and twisted steel.

Dust swallowed the street.

Silence followed.

A lone figure stepped out of the settling cloud.

One arm missing.

Pearlescent hair stained with dried black blood.

His visible eye burned beneath the tangled strands.

His voice rolled through the ruins.

“Isaac.”

A pause.

Then, louder.

“Show your face.”

The last echoes of the collapsing building faded.

Dust drifted lazily through the ruined camp.

Chunks of concrete rolled to a stop.

The screams had ended.

Only silence remained.

Licht stood alone in the center of it.

Fresh human blood ran down his body, mixing with the wine-colored blood that flowed through his own veins.

Beneath it all remained the dried black blood of the Nyxfel.

Three different colors.

Three different battles.

All clung to his pearlescent hair.

One eye shone faintly through the tangled strands.

The other…

Its negative hue stared into the ruins without a trace of humanity.

A voice broke the silence.

“…Who the hell…”

Isaac stepped from the doorway of a half-collapsed building.

His words stopped.

The smug grin he’d worn for years almost disappeared.

Almost.

He forced it back onto his face.

Pride wouldn’t let him show fear.

Not yet.

He looked around.

The bodies.

The blood.

The destruction.

Every one of his men…

Gone.

His eyes returned to Licht.

“…I don’t know who you are.”

His shoulders rose into a careless shrug.

A smile spread across his face as though the two of them had simply met over drinks.

“But you killed all my men.”

He chuckled.

“So…”

He spread his hands.

“…mind telling me why?”

No answer.

Isaac continued anyway.

“Maybe this is all just a misunderstanding.”

His smile widened.

“I’m a reasonable man.”

“I’ve got women.”

“Food.”

“Shelter.”

“More playthings than I know what to do with.”

His voice carried the tone of a merchant advertising livestock.

Not people.

Things.

“I think we could work something out.”

Licht didn’t answer.

He simply took one step.

To Isaac…

It looked like a single stride.

To everyone else…

He vanished.

The wind exploded.

Dust burst outward.

Before Isaac could blink—

Licht stood directly in front of him.

For the briefest instant…

His visible eye shifted.

Past Isaac.

Toward someone standing behind him.

Iris.

Their eyes met.

Only for a heartbeat.

Then…

Licht looked back at Isaac.

His fist moved.

No flourish.

No roar.

Just one straight punch.

BOOM.

Isaac never saw it.

The impact folded his body in half before his mind understood he’d been hit.

His feet left the ground.

The sound barrier cracked around him.

He became a blur.

One ruined wall exploded.

Then another.

Then another.

Concrete burst apart in great clouds of dust as his body tore through building after building.

The camp shook.

Loose rubble rained from above.

Silence returned.

Licht lowered his fist.

Then…

He walked.

One slow step.

Then another.

His boots crunched across broken stone.

He followed the path Isaac’s body had carved through the ruins.

Each collapsed wall became another doorway.

Each cloud of dust another curtain.

Until…

He reached the end.

Isaac lay half-buried beneath shattered concrete.

His body was twisted unnaturally.

His eyes stared blankly toward the sky.

He wasn’t moving.

Licht crouched beside him.

“…Get up.”

Nothing.

No twitch.

No breath.

No laughter.

No insults.

Only stillness.

“GET UP”

He’s yelling at a corpse.

A dead man doesn’t speak but knowing this doesn’t stop him.

He shakes him violently before finally calming down.

Licht watched him for several long seconds.

Then he spoke.

“how can a man so prideful…”

His voice remained cold.

“…die so easily.”

He stood.

Looking down at the corpse.

“your pride…”

A pause.

“…nothing more than an illusion.”

“ you hid behind.”

“ To mask your own fragility.”

The wind swept through the broken buildings.

Dust curled around their feet.

Then—

“Licht…”

TYSM FOR READING