The Anomaly's Path

"...Elder Marta."

The name hung in the frigid air like a death sentence, heavy and cold. The alley was silent now. The distant sounds of the fight inside the inn seemed to fade, swallowed by the weight of the moment. The rain lashed down, turning the alleyway into a blur of grey, but my eyes were locked onto her.

She didn’t move.

Her shoulders remained hunched, her hands hidden in the heavy folds of her cloak. For a long, agonizing minute, the only sound was the rhythmic drumming of water against the ground and the distant, muffled screams from the tavern.

"Leo..." Her voice was a mere rasp, stripped of the grandmotherly warmth I had known.

"Say something," I said. My voice was raw and broken. "Say something, damn you."

She said nothing.

I stepped closer. My boots scraped against the wet cobblestones. The sound was loud in the silence.

My jaw clenched so hard I felt the bone groan. My voice came out raw, a jagged thing that felt like it was tearing my throat. "Why?" My voice cracked. "Why did you do this? Why did you betray everyone?"

"..."

She didn’t answer.

"Answer me!"

"Why did you do it? Why did you betray everyone? The village... the children... the people who looked at you like a saint. Why...?"

She reached up with a hand that was pale and thin. The fingers trembled as they pulled back the hood. The grey veil followed. It fell away like dead skin, revealing the face beneath.

Elder Marta.

Her face was the same and different.

The same kind eyes that had watched over the orphanage. The same gentle smile that had welcomed me when I first washed up in the river. But there was something else now. There was no apology in those eyes.

There was only a cold, hollow vacuum.

Her skin was pale. Too pale. It had always been pale, but now it looked thin and fragile. Like paper that would tear if I touched it.

She looked older than before.

I stared at her. My jaw clenched.

"..."

"..."

Silence stretched between us again. It was a suffocating weight, more crushing than anything. We stood face to face, the boy who had died and come back, and the woman who sold everyone.

"Do you know what you have done?" I asked, my voice trembling with frustration. "Do you even know what you have taken from them? From me? From Roran? From Mia? From everyone? You sold your own people. Your own village. You let them be slaughtered. You let them die. Marta, do you even realize what they meant to you? What they meant to all of us?"

I took another step, my mana beginning to hum, a low, dangerous vibration in the air. "Everyone loved you. Roran trusted you with his life. Mia looked at you like a mother. And you just sold them. You let those monsters massacre your own people for what? For a promise? For gold?"

Marta remained silent. She just watched me, her expression unchanged.

"Say something!" I roared, the sound echoing off the brick walls. "Anything! Say something! Fuck!"

"Are you that ashamed?" My voice broke. "Are you that ashamed that I caught you? That I found out what you are?"

I felt a surge of desperate, childish hope clawing at my chest, and it made me hate myself. "Grab my collar, Marta! Slap me! Tell me I am a fool! Tell me it is all a misunderstanding, that I have gone mad from the trauma! Tell me the records, the things I found—the missing children, the graves that were never dug—tell me they are all lies! Knock some sense into me and tell me you are still the woman from the orphanage! Tell me you are the same kind woman I know and I am just misunderstanding everything."

My breathing was ragged, my lungs burning in the cold air. I wanted her to lie to me. I wanted her to give me a reason—any reason—to stop the black lightning that was beginning to arc across my skin.

"Tell me you did not do it," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Please..."

Silence again.

The rain intensified around us. Marta finally moved. She straightened her back, her fragile frame suddenly appearing taller, more predatory.

"We are not here for chatting, Leo," she said. Her voice was flat, devoid of any regret. "If you wanted to confirm your suspicions, you have done so. If you want the truth of my heart... you will have to kill me for it."

The last spark of hope died in that moment.

I looked down, the shadow of my fringe hiding my eyes. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the hilt of Tempest. The frustration did not vanish. It solidified. It turned into a cold, hard diamond of resolve.

"...Okay," I whispered, the word carrying the weight of a mountain. "Fine."

I looked back at her, and my eyes were cold. "I will make you answer, then."

I lunged.

I did not use a skill. I did not use a technique. I moved with raw, unbridled speed, the ground beneath my feet shattering as I closed the distance in a heartbeat. My blade swung in a horizontal arc, a silver line meant to end the conversation forever.

Clang!

The sound of metal on metal rang out, high and piercing. Marta had not moved her feet, but a wall of sickly, pale green mana had manifested in front of her, solid as iron. My sword hissed as it bit into the energy, black lightning clashing against the necrotic green light.

Behind the barrier, Marta’s eyes narrowed.

"You have grown strong," she hissed, her fingers curling like claws. "But you are still standing in my garden."

_

[Third Person POV]

While Leo and Marta were in the alley, the tavern was a symphony of violence.

Ren watched Leo disappear into the darkness of the back alley, his silhouette swallowed by the shadows and the drifting smoke from the burning inn. For a moment, he stood there, his sword raised, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps.

Then he turned back to face the demons.

Silla and Grog stood in the center of the ruined common room, their cloaks torn away, their true forms revealed in the flickering light of the overturned lanterns. Behind them, six shadow figures emerged from the smoke, demonic humans with hollow eyes and twisted smiles, their bodies crackling with dark mana.

The knights formed a line beside Ren. Elena stood to his left, her eye patch pushed up, both her eyes blazing with cold fury. Dorian stood to his right, his fake limp forgotten, his sword held low and ready.

The other three knights spread out behind them, their weapons drawn, their faces hard.

"So," Silla hissed, her sharp teeth glinting in the dim light. Her fingers twitched at her sides, eager and restless. "How did the information leak? Who told you about the trade?"

Ren did not answer.

Grog cracked his neck, the sound loud in the silence. His massive hands curled into fists, and the muscles in his arms bulged. "Does it matter?" he rumbled. "We kill them. Then we find the rat."

Silla’s wild eyes scanned the room. Her nostrils flared. "I smell something familiar. Someone familiar." Her gaze lingered on the back door where Leo had disappeared. "That mana... I know it."

Silla smiled. It was not a nice smile. It was the smile of a predator who had just found something interesting.

Grog let out a guttural growl that shook the remaining glass on the tables.

"It does not matter," Grog said, cracking his neck with a sound like snapping wood. He looked at Ren and the others. "We have more important things to deal with. Like these Imperial dogs playing dress-up."

Grog moved first.

He simply took a step forward, and the ground beneath his feet cracked. The pressure in the room changed. The air grew heavy.

Ren felt it immediately. The weight of Grog’s presence pressed down on his shoulders like a physical force. This was not just a big man. This was an Expert Low demon. Ren was Expert Low too, but Grog’s body was built for destruction in a way that Ren’s was not.

I cannot match him in pure physical strength, Ren realized. I have to be faster.

Ren took a deep breath, his mana beginning to hum in his veins. He looked at Dorian and Elena. "Dorian, you handle Silla. Elena, with the help of the other knights, kill the minions and help Dorian."

"Understood," Elena said, her twin swords sliding out with a deadly hiss.

"Don’t take too long, Captain," Dorian added, his heavy claymore resting on his shoulder.

Grog let out a huff of derisive laughter. "A Captain? I have crushed the skulls of more than a few ’Captains’ in the border wars. You are all just meat for the Spire."

Without warning, Grog lunged again.

The floorboards shattered under his weight. He did not use a sword; he swung a fist that carried the force to crush things. Ren moved, his mana flaring to life, turning his blade into a streak of white light as he parried the blow.

Clang!

The shockwave sent a table flying into the wall.

Ren’s boots skidded back three feet, his arms vibrating from the raw physical power Grog possessed. Even with mana reinforcement, the physical superiority of a Demonic Human was terrifying.

"Fast," Grog mocked, already winding up for another strike. "But too light!"

Behind them, the tavern erupted into chaos. Elena was a blur of silver, her swords clashing against the minions. Dorian stood like a fortress in front of Silla.

Silla laughed as Dorian lunged at her, their blades meeting in a shower of sparks. "Fast little rabbit," Silla giggled, her voice high and manic. "But rabbits bleed."

He did not answer. He kept coming at her.

Ren ducked under a massive hook, the wind of the punch nearly taking his head off. He countered with a thrust toward Grog’s heart, but the big man simply swatted the blade aside with a forearm that felt like solid stone.

"Is that all?" Grog roared. He grabbed a heavy oak support pillar and ripped it from the ceiling with a single hand, swinging it like a club.

Ren parried, the force of the impact driving him to one knee. He gritted his teeth, his eyes darting toward the alleyway door. He could feel the temperature dropping, the air outside crackling with a darkness that made his skin crawl.

Wait for me, Leo, Ren thought, his mana surging for a second wind. I will end this soon. Do not let that person break you before I get there.

He looked up at Grog, a cold, focused light entering his eyes. "You talk too much for a corpse," Ren hissed.

He lunged back into the fray, his mana burning brighter, knowing that every second he spent here was a second Leo spent alone.

He knew this would not be easy. These monsters were demonic humans, their bodies refusing to break even as his sword drew blood. But he had to move.

He had to reach that alley.

_

[Leo’s POV]

I lunged.

Tempest cut through the rain, a silver arc aimed at her throat. I put everything into that swing—not my full mana, not my black lightning, just raw speed and the years of muscle memory I had carved into my body under Roran’s watch.

Clang!

My blade stopped an inch from her face.

Not because I pulled back. Because a wall of pale green mana had materialized between us, solid as iron, humming with a sickly energy that made my skin crawl. The impact sent a shockwave up my arm, and I stumbled back, my boots scraping against the wet cobblestones.

My eyes widened.

She had blocked it. Not dodged, not deflected. She had stopped a killing blow with a raw manifestation of her core. I had seen her as a frail grandmother for so long that the sight of her mana was like a physical blow to my chest.

Elite Mid.

The realization settled into my chest like a stone. She was two sub-ranks above me. Adept High versus Elite Mid. The gap was not insurmountable, but it was real. It was dangerous.

I do not know if I can beat her.

But I have to.

"You are surprised," Marta said. Her voice was flat. Not mocking. Just exhausted.

"I did not think you could fight," I replied, my voice raspy. I tightened my grip on Tempest, black sparks beginning to hiss along the blade. "I know your abilities were special, but I never knew it was also for offensive and defensive."

"There are many things you did not know about me, Leo. Most people only see the garden. They never look at the fertilizer."

"Why?" I asked, and this time I could not stop the crack in my voice. "Why did you betray everyone? Roran died thinking he was protecting you."

Marta did not flinch. She raised her hands, her fingers curling like claws. The green mana around her pulsed like a diseased heart.

"Do not you know why I betrayed you? If you found out I was the traitor, if you tracked me all the way to this town, then you must already know the answer."

"I wanted to hear you say it," I snarled, my frustration boiling over. "I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to find out that someone had framed you, that some demon had put your name in a record just to break me. I wanted it to be a lie."

"It is not a lie," she said, and her voice finally sharpened. "I did all of it."

"You are lying," I whispered. I did not want it to be true.

She did not say anything. She lunged at me and attacked.

A tendril of green mana lashed out like a whip. I dodged left, but another came from the right, seeking my throat. I brought Tempest up to block, but the moment the mana touched my blade, I felt a sickening tug.

It was not pulling my sword. It was pulling me. My energy, my very life force, felt like it was being siphoned through the steel.

Gardener’s Touch. Her ability? Or maybe that was a lie too?

"Get off me!" I roared.

Volt Step.

I vanished in a burst of black sparks and reappeared behind her. My control over the lightning had grown. It no longer felt like a wild beast I was riding, but an extension of my own intent. I swung a heavy vertical strike, the black lightning screaming in the rain.

She spun, her green barrier flaring, but the black lightning was more aggressive than standard mana. It ate into her shield, crackling and eroding the sickly green light. She hissed in pain as a stray bolt caught her shoulder, sending a puff of black smoke into the air.

"You have learned to bite," she muttered, clutching her arm.

"I learned from the best," I countered.

I did not give her space. Starlight Steps. My feet slid across the wet cobblestones. Tempest became a whirlwind. I used Spatial Slip, letting the tip of my blade vanish into a rift and reappear behind her knee.

She cried out as the blade bit deep, falling to one knee. But as I moved in for the finish, she slammed her palms onto the ground.

A wave of green energy exploded outward. It caught me mid-swing. I felt my strength drain instantly, my knees buckling as if the bones had turned to lead. My vision blurred, and I collapsed onto the cold stones, the rain stinging my eyes.

Marta stood over me, trembling but victorious. The green mana gathered in her palm, glowing with a final, lethal intensity.

"You were always my favorite, Leo," she whispered, her eyes filled with hollow regret. "I always compared you to Roran because he was just like you. Full of youth and passion. You are still so young. Still so human."

As she lowered her hand to drain the last of my life, the world went quiet. I did not think. I did not plan. The black flame within me—the power that had lived in the dark corners of my soul since Wayford—simply ignited.

It was not a choice. It was a roar of the abyss.

Black fire erupted from my skin, consuming the rain, the green mana, consuming the very air. Marta screamed as the flames licked at her barrier, shattering it like glass. The fire did not burn her clothes. It burned her mana.

It burned the borrowed time she had stored in her soul.

"No! Stop it!" she wailed, falling back as the black flames crawled up her arms.

I stood up slowly. The flames retreated, sinking back into my skin, leaving me feeling cold but steady. Marta was on the ground, coughing, her skin grey and shriveled. She looked like a husk of the woman she used to be.

I walked toward her, the tip of Tempest dripping with rainwater as I leveled it at her throat. My breathing was heavy, my chest aching from the drain, but the fight was over.

"Now," I said, my voice as cold as the storm. "Like I said. I will make you answer."

Marta looked up at me, her face a mask of broken pride and genuine terror. "Go ahead," she whispered, a tear tracing a path through the grime on her cheek. "Kill me. I have nothing left to give."

"Not yet," I said, pressing the blade until a thin bead of red appeared on her neck. "I still have some questions left."

_

Author’s Note — Ranking System

Hey everyone. I have seen some questions about the ranks in the story, so here is a quick breakdown.

Human Ranks:

There are ten main ranks in the world of Aetheris. Each rank has three sub-ranks: Low, Mid, and High. The only exceptions are the highest ranks, where sub-ranks stop mattering and power is measured by will and understanding.

Initiate — Low, Mid, High

Adept — Low, Mid, High

Elite — Low, Mid, High

Expert — Low, Mid, High

Master — Low, Mid, High

Grandmaster — Low, Mid, High

Transcendent — Low, Mid, High

Sovereign — No sub-ranks

Mythic — No sub-ranks

Unknown — No sub-ranks