Weight of Zero

Number One moved first without warning. As the Colossus marched toward Arvendel, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, his sword pointed toward Nino from across the clearing one moment and was already descending toward his neck the next. Nino raised his blade.

CLANG!

The collision sent a violent shock through the forest. Dust burst outward from their feet, branches shook overhead, and the children behind Nino instinctively covered their faces.

Nino had not moved an inch. One's blade trembled against his. Their eyes met. Then Nino pushed him away.

One slid backward across the dirt, his boots carving two long trails through the ground. A metallic rattle came from Nino's right: Seven.

The Shadow swung one arm, sending his chain tearing through the dust. A curved blade rested at its end, violet Pulse crawling across its edge as it spun toward Nino's ribs.

From the opposite side came something much heavier.

Six charged with both hands wrapped around the shaft of an enormous war hammer. His boots crushed the earth beneath each step. He twisted his shoulders and swung for Nino's head with enough force to shatter stone.

Two attacks came from opposite directions. Both at the same time.

Nino remained where he was. His sword moved once. The flat of his blade struck Seven's chained weapon first.

CLANG!

The curved blade changed direction. Nino continued the same motion, rotating his wrist as Six's hammer arrived.

BOOM!

Sword met hammer. For an instant, the difference in size between the weapons made the sight almost absurd.

Yet the hammer completely stopped. Six's eyes widened. Nino had parried both attacks without taking a single step.

The children stared from behind him. Number One's expression darkened. He had spent years watching that sword. Years watching kingdoms cheer for the man holding it. Years hearing the same title whispered everywhere they went: The Hero of Mezi; The strongest among the Four Nations.

His fingers tightened around the hilt.

"You really think you're that strong?"

Nino's gaze shifted toward him. One smiled.

"Then let's see you do it while protecting them."

Nino's expression changed.

"Attack."

Seven moved. Six followed. But this time, neither came for Nino. The chain screamed through the air toward the children. Nino disappeared.

CLANG!

Seven's blade stopped less than a foot from Cael's face, leaving the boy frozen in place with Nino standing between them. Six was already behind him, bringing the hammer down with crushing force, but Nino turned just in time to catch the strike against his sword and redirect it into the earth.

BOOM!

The ground exploded.

"Move!" Nino ordered.

The children ran. Something flashed between the trees — a small black blade, and it wasn't aimed at Nino. Lahna screamed, but before the weapon could reach her, Nino crossed the distance in an instant and knocked it from the air. Another came from the opposite direction, followed by three more.

Five stood atop a fallen tree several meters away.

A woman with short silver hair watched the battlefield with unsettling calm. Thin black blades rested in leather braces along both forearms and across her waist. Deep violet Pulse covered the weapon between her fingers.

She flicked her wrist, and the blade vanished from her fingers. Nino tilted his head as it sliced past his cheek, only to hear a sharp whistle behind him a heartbeat later. The blade had curved through the air and was now flying straight toward Rentarou. Nino spun and struck it away before it could reach him.

Four entered immediately afterward.

Tall and lean, with dark hair tied behind his head, he carried what initially appeared to be a spear. With a twist of his wrist, the shaft separated into several sections connected by thin strands of violet Pulse.

The weapon bent around Nino's guard. Straight toward Alicia. His eyes hardened. Nino stepped backward and caught the spearhead against his blade.

Four pulled, wrapping the segmented weapon around Nino's sword just as Seven attacked from the opposite side. His chain swept low toward Nino's legs, forcing him into the air, where Six's hammer was already waiting. Nino twisted midair, planted one foot against the head of the descending hammer, and used the force of the strike itself to launch backward.

Before he could even land, one of Five's violet blades cut through the air beneath him while another came from above. Nino turned his body sideways, slipping perfectly through the narrow gap between them before landing directly in front of the children.

"Stay behind me."

One laughed.

“That's all you're going to do? We're not even trying.” One's smile widened. “How long do you think you can keep this up?” He let the question hang for a moment. “Because we can do this all day.”

“...”

Another step from the Colossus shook the battlefield.

BOOM.

Everyone shifted with the earth. Everyone except Nino.

Seven attacked.
Parried.

Five released two blades.
Parried.

Four's spear came from behind.
Parried.

Six charged through the dust.
Parried.

One appeared among them, his sword cutting straight toward Nino's chest.

CLANG!

Nino stopped him too. The battle became impossible to follow.

Steel flashed between clouds of dust. Chains wrapped around trees before tearing them apart. Violet blades curved through the air from impossible angles. Six's hammer shattered the earth every time it missed.

And at the center of it all stood Nino. He moved only when necessary. A step to shield Darien. A turn to intercept a blade aimed at Cael. A lowered shoulder to keep Alicia behind him. A strike to send Seven's chain away from Lahna.

Every movement served one purpose: to protect.

He never counterattacked. Not once. Far behind them, something shifted among the remains of a broken tree.

Three opened her eyes. Pain immediately spread across her back.

"Ugh..." She pushed a piece of shattered wood from her body and slowly sat up.

A tremendous impact shook the valley. Three looked toward the sound. Her expression changed. The Colossus was farther away. Much farther. And so were they.

The battle had moved toward it. Through the dust, she could barely distinguish the figures anymore. She saw flashes of violet Pulse, the arc of Seven's chains, explosions from Six's hammer and Five's blades crossing the battlefield like shooting stars. And between all of them...

Zero.

Three stared. Six Shadows surrounded him. Five attacking. One commanding them. Five children behind his back. Yet none of them could touch him.

She watched Nino intercept a blade without even looking toward it. His sword immediately continued downward to deflect Seven's chain before his shoulder struck Four's spear aside. A second later, he was somewhere else. Protecting another child.

Three exhaled.

"So that's why..."

She slowly stood. Another sharp pain shot through her spine. She grimaced and stretched backward until something cracked.

CRACK.

"That bastard..." She rolled one shoulder. "He owes me for that."

Three lowered herself toward the ground, the twin sai secured in crossed sheaths against her lower back shifting slightly beneath her cloak. One hand touched the earth as she planted her feet, and Pulse began gathering through her legs until cracks spread beneath her boots. Her eyes locked onto the distant battlefield.

Then she disappeared. The ground exploded where she had been standing, her cloak snapping behind her as the twin sai rattled against their sheaths. Back near the Colossus, Nino blocked another strike from One.

CLANG!

"How long are you going to keep running?!" One shouted.

Nino pushed him aside. A voice came from behind.

"Ei!"

He turned. Cael was pointing upward.

"We're too close!"

Nino looked. The Colossus's leg descended ahead of them. The sheer size of it swallowed the sky.

"RUN!"

The foot struck the ground, and for an instant, the world disappeared. Dust erupted hundreds of feet into the air as trees bent beneath the shock wave and rocks larger than houses rolled through the forest. Nino drove his sword into the ground and positioned himself in front of the children just as the blast reached them, tearing branches from the trees and sending his coat snapping violently behind him while the children screamed and clung to one another.

A second shock wave tore through the clearing, knocking Lahna off her feet and throwing her sideways into the path of a massive boulder tumbling through the dust. Nino saw her immediately, but at that same instant, Seven's chain came screaming toward Cael and Darien from the opposite direction.

There wasn't enough time for both.

Nino turned and knocked Seven's weapon away—

A violet streak tore across the battlefield.

The boulder shattered before it could reach Lahna, exploding into fragments as Three burst through the cloud of debris with the girl tucked beneath one arm. Her boots carved through the earth as she skidded to a stop beside Nino and gently set Lahna back on her feet.

For the first time since the battle began, surprise crossed Nino's face. Three caught his expression and raised an eyebrow.

“Don't look at me like that. I don't know why I'm doing it either.”

Before Nino could respond, violet Pulse surged through her legs and Three vanished once again, scattering the dust around them as she raced back toward the Shadows. Nino followed the fading violet streak for only a heartbeat before raising his eyes toward the Colossus.

"Everyone."

They looked at him.

"Hold on."

Cael's face changed.

"What are you—"

Nino grabbed them. Alicia against his back. Cael beneath one arm. Darien beneath the other. Lahna and Rentarou clung to him however they could.

One emerged from the dust.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

Nino bent his knees and launched himself upward with enough force to crack the earth beneath his feet. The forest vanished below as he carried the children high into the air, leaving One staring after them from the ground.

"What the—"

Nino struck the Colossus's leg, his boots touching the stone for barely a fraction of a second before he launched himself upward again. He landed on another rocky protrusion and immediately pushed off, climbing higher with every leap.

The children screamed as the world fell farther beneath them. Trees shrank into tiny dots, the river narrowed into a silver thread, and the remains of Elora Falls disappeared beneath the enormous clouds of dust trailing behind the moving Colossus.

Nino kept climbing, bounding from the creature's leg to its waist and farther up its massive torso. With every step the Colossus took, its entire body shifted beneath him, forcing Nino to constantly adjust his trajectory as the landscape continued to shrink below.

Finally, Nino reached the Colossus's shoulder, where the wind howled with enough force to pull at their clothes and hair. Clouds drifted frighteningly close as the children stared at the distant world below in stunned silence, but Nino didn't slow down. He sprinted across the creature's moving shoulder toward its enormous head, adjusting his footing whenever another colossal step shifted the stone beneath him.

That's when he saw it: a deep cavity beneath a massive ridge of stone, exactly where one of the creature's eyes should have been. Whatever had once filled that hollow was long gone, leaving an opening large enough to shelter them. Nino changed direction and leaped inside.

He landed deep within the hollow and lowered the children among twisted roots and ancient branches that had grown through the stone over centuries. Thick vines stretched across the cavity and intertwined with the roots, forming a natural cage that shielded them from the violent winds outside.

Nino lowered them one by one.

"Stay here."

Darien looked around.

"Really?!"

"Hold on to the roots."

Cael grabbed one.

"But what about you?"

Nino turned toward the opening. Alicia caught his sleeve.

"Nino."

He stopped.

"Come back."

For a moment, he remained still. Then placed one hand over hers.

"I will." He stepped out.

The wind struck him the moment he stepped outside. Nino leaped from the hollow, his coat whipping violently behind him as he dropped toward the Colossus's shoulder. He landed with enough force to crack the stone beneath his boots, then slowly raised his head.

He wasn't alone.

Six figures stood across the enormous shoulder, their black cloaks twisting in the relentless wind. Thousands of feet below, the forest stretched toward the horizon, rivers reduced to thin silver lines between endless patches of green. Clouds drifted around the Colossus's head, sometimes passing between them, while every colossal step sent a tremor through the living battlefield beneath their feet.

Number One stood at the center of them, his hood lowered and blond hair swept by the wind. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a powerful build and a sharply defined jaw, but it was his cold stare that drew Nino's attention. He wasn't looking at the Colossus, the distant village, or the impossible height surrounding them. His eyes were fixed entirely on Nino.

Around him stood the remaining Shadows. Seven's bladed chains rattled against the stone. Six rested his enormous hammer across one shoulder. Four slowly reconnected the sections of his spear. Five held two black blades between her fingers. And beside them… Three.

Her hood was down as well. One noticed her among the others, and the smile immediately disappeared from his face. Three met his stare with a smile of her own.

“Surprised?”

One gave her no answer.

Nino stepped forward as the wind caught his hood and pulled it back, exposing his face. For the first time since the battle began, there were no children behind him, no frightened voices calling his name and no one left for him to shield from their attacks.

Only the Shadows. One slowly raised his sword, and the smile returned to his face.

“Finally. You got rid of those burdens.”

Nino tightened his grip around the hilt.

“Now we can have a fair fight.”

Before either of them moved, the Colossus took another enormous step.

BOOM.

The entire battlefield shifted beneath them. One spread his arms slightly, presenting the warriors surrounding him.

"Your Shadows against you." His sword slowly pointed toward Nino. "It's time to prove that you were never the leader we needed."

Nino looked at them. Six Shadows stood before him, thousands of feet above the ground, on the shoulder of a walking Colossus. Far ahead, Arvendel drew closer with every thunderous step the creature took.

He raised his sword. Deep violet Pulse spread across the blade, crawling through the black metal like living veins. Until now, every movement had been restrained by a single purpose: protecting the children.

Not anymore.

The violet light intensified. The stone beneath his feet began to crack.

For the first time since the battle began, the Shadows felt it.

The overwhelming Pulse that had once placed him above all of them. The power that had earned him the number Zero. Their leader.