Chapter 88: Veil’s Weakness
Lea stood on the palace rooftop, her mind racing. Ten fake humans and ten fragments of Sinclair's message. A Primordial God being revived.
She needed to find Sinclair. Now.
Her enhanced cognition calculated the possibilities. Sinclair could be anywhere in Renar, hidden behind Seventh Step Veil. Dawn's Fifth Step detection couldn't pierce it. Normal searching was useless.
But Lea had something else.
She closed her eyes and activated her emotion radar, pushing it far beyond normal limits. Her Fourth Step power spread outward like an invisible wave, reading the emotional signatures of everyone within range.
Hundreds of people. Thousands. Each one was a distinct color in her mind. Fear, joy, anger, contentment, worry, hope.
She pushed further. Her head began to ache.
More. I need more range.
The emotion radar expanded, covering entire districts. Her demigod power activated simultaneously, reading surface thoughts across impossible distances. Her enhanced cognition processed it all, filtering, searching, looking for one specific signature.
Lightless. Not black, but devoid of light. An absence where emotion should be.
Blood began trickling from her nose and eyes.
Lea ignored it. She pushed her power further, covering half the city.
The strain was immense; her Fourth Step abilities weren't meant to be used like this. But desperation drove her forward.
Where are you, Sinclair?! Where the fuck are you hiding!?!
Blood dripped from her eyes now, mixing with the tears forming from sheer strain. Her vision blurred, but she kept the radar active. Kept searching.
Then she prayed, something she hadn't done in months, not since her faith had become questionable at best.
"Lady Keter.", she whispered, her speech sound broken, "Sinclair is planning something. I need help. Dawn's help. Please."
She didn't know if the entity would even hear her. Didn't know if Lady Keter would care enough to respond.
But she had to try.
The emotional signatures continued flooding her consciousness. So many people. So many lives that would be in danger if Sinclair succeeded.
There.
At the edge of her expanded radar, in the industrial district, a void. Not emptiness, but an absence. Like a hole in reality where emotions should exist, but didn't.
Lea's eyes snapped open, blood still streaming down her face.
She'd found her.
An hour of maintaining maximum power. An hour of pushing her Fourth Step abilities to their absolute limit. Lea's head felt like it was splitting apart, but she kept the radar locked on that lightless void.
The factory was old, abandoned, and scheduled for demolition. A perfect hiding spot.
Lea shadow-stepped to a rooftop nearby, her vision swimming. She could barely stand, but she'd found Sinclair.
And then reality cracked beside her.
Lady Keter stepped through, followed immediately by Dawn, who looked frantic.
"Lea, your face—", Dawn started.
"I'm fine.", Lea lied, wiping blood from her eyes, "She's in there. Sinclair."
Lady Keter examined her with those unchanging azure eyes, "You pushed yourself quite far. Stupid, but impressive."
She conjured a chair from nothing and sat down, "I'll observe. This should be interesting."
"You're not helping?", Dawn demanded, but held back her complaints in front of a goddess.
"I helped by bringing you here immediately when Lea prayed. Consider that my contribution.", Lady Keter crossed her legs, "Now then, let's see what happens."
Dawn and Lea exchanged a look, then headed for the factory entrance.
Inside, the factory floor was vast and empty. Machinery had been stripped away years ago, leaving only support pillars and shadows.
And standing in the center, as if waiting for them, was Sinclair Apocrypha.
She looked exactly as Lea remembered from that terrible night, eyes wide open, showing the void inside them.
Then she spoke.
"Oh, wonderful~!", Sinclair's voice suddenly filled with theatrical enthusiasm, spreading her arms wide, "The heroes have arrived!! Right on cue as well!! I was beginning to think my breadcrumb trail was too subtle."
"Welcome, welcome to my humble stage! The Anti-hero and the Princess, here to stop the evil villain!!", she spun in a circle. "How delightfully predictable!"
Dawn manifested astral weapons immediately, "Sinclair Apocrypha, You're under arrest for terrorism, mass murder, and conspiracy to—"
"Oh, boring~!", Sinclair interrupted, waving her hand dismissively, "Do we have to do the whole speech? Can't we skip to the fun part?"
She snapped her fingers.
The factory floor erupted with movement. Hundreds of figures materialized, fake humans created by Veil, all converging on Dawn and Lea.
Lea's gun blazed, energy tearing through the constructs. They shattered like glass, but more kept appearing.
Dawn's astral weapons fired in perfect synchronization, creating a barrier of destruction around them. But for every fake human destroyed, three more appeared.
"They're endless!", Dawn shouted over the chaos.
Lea's enhanced cognition processed the situation rapidly. Then she remembered Veil's fundamental weakness.
"They're not real!", she shouted back, "As long as we recognize they're fake, they can't actually harm us! It's all lies!"
Dawn's eyes widened with understanding. She stopped firing, letting a fake human's blade pass through her completely. The construct shattered the moment Dawn stopped believing in its reality.
"Clever girl~!", Sinclair applauded from her position, still untouched, "But that doesn't solve your real problem, does it?"
Lea raised her gun and fired.
The energy blast hit Sinclair square in the head. Her body collapsed, and Lea felt a moment of savage satisfaction—
The corpse melted into black mud. That horrible, corruptive substance that had haunted Lea's nightmares.
And Sinclair stepped out from behind a pillar, perfectly fine, grinning.
"Did you really think it would be that easy?"
Lea fired again. Hit her in the chest this time.
Collapse. Mud. Sinclair appeared from a different corner.
"Try again~!"
Dawn joined in, astral cannons firing. Sinclair's body was torn apart.
Mud. Reappearance.
Again.
Again.
Again.
They "killed" Sinclair dozens of times. Each time, the corpse became mud. Each time, she reappeared elsewhere, completely unharmed.
The horror of it set in slowly. The realization that no matter how many times they struck her down, she would just... come back.
"Getting tired yet?", Sinclair asked cheerfully. Then, with theatrical flair, she grabbed her own head and twisted.
CRACK.
Her body collapsed. The mud spread. And Sinclair walked out from behind yet another pillar, head perfectly intact.
"See? I can even do it myself! It's quite liberating, really, like scratching an itch you can't reach. Knowing that nothing anyone does actually matters.", she laughed, echoing through the factory with genuine amusement.
"Did you think you could stop me? Did you think destroying some sigils would save your precious city?", she spun dramatically, "Oh, you silly, silly—"
A black and yellow lightning bolt streaked through the factory.
CRACK.
Jim's foot connected with Sinclair's face with enough force to send her tumbling across the floor.
She hit the ground hard, sliding several meters before stopping. For a moment, there was silence. Then Sinclair sat up, her jaw hanging at an unnatural angle. She reached up and snapped it back into place with a sickening crack.
"RUDE!!", she shouted, genuinely offended, "I was having my MOMENT!! My dramatic REVEAL! And you just—"
She gestured wildly at Jim, "You just KICKED me in the face!!"
Jim landed casually, brushing off his hands, "Yeah, well. You were taking too long."
"I—", Sinclair sputtered, her theatrical persona cracking with genuine annoyance, "Do you have ANY idea how long I spent PLANNING this confrontation? The STAGING? The PACING?"
She stood up, dusting herself off with exaggerated movements, "Fine. FINE. You want the information without the dramatic build-up? Here!"
Her voice dropped the playful tone for an annoyed but still irritating speech to the group, "The sigils were a distraction. The fake humans were a distraction. This entire confrontation is a distraction!!"
She smiled cruelly, "Because while you've been so busy playing detective, destroying my pretty little symbols, feeling so accomplished... I've been preparing something much more interesting at the eastern front~"
Lea's blood ran cold, "What—"
"Auger Maxwell.", her smile widens, "Your Companion. Ryteline's legendary war hero. Currently fighting where Ryteline's forces are already stretched thin."
She began pacing, gesturing dramatically despite her ruined moment, "I'm going to spam Tome of Light summonings there until either the entire Ryteline army dies from madness, or one of my many hired assassins manages to kill him in the chaos!!"
She spun to face them, "Your choice, really~!! Rush there now and maybe save him, or stay here and keep trying to kill me!!"
She laughed bitterly, "Either way, I win! And you—"
She pointed at Jim, "You ruined my ENTIRE theatrical reveal!"
"Sorry," Jim said, not sounding sorry at all. He really wants to punch her in the face right now, but he doubts he can catch her off guard the next time.
"Well then, toodaloo~ and fuck you all!!", Sinclair grabbed her own neck and twisted it again.
CRACK.
Her body fell, became mud. And when they looked around...
She was gone.
The factory was empty except for Dawn, Lea, Jim, Lady Keter still sitting in her chair, and the slowly dissipating corruptive mud.
Sinclair had left Renar entirely.
=0=0=
"Auger.", Lea breathed. She activated Shadow Sneak immediately, preparing to become shadow and race toward the front—
Jim's hand caught her shoulder.
"Easy there, Dantes. You're already bleeding from your eyes and look ready to collapse.", he grinned that confident Trailblazer smile, "Besides, I'm faster. WAY faster."
Before Lea could protest, Jim scooped her up with superhuman speed.
"Bathory, Lady Keter. Are you coming or staying?", he called back.
"I'll handle evacuation coordination from here!!", Dawn said immediately, already pulling out communication devices, "Go!!"
Lady Keter waved casually from her chair, "I'll observe from a distance. Do try not to die, or it would be disappointing."
Jim grinned, "No promises."
Then he ran.
The world blurred around them as Jim's Trailblazer abilities activated. He moved at speeds that broke the sound barrier, carrying Lea like she weighed nothing, racing across the countryside toward the eastern front.
Toward whatever chaos Sinclair had already unleashed.
Lea's vision was still blurred from strain, blood still drying on her face. But she clutched her gun and prepared herself.
Hold on, Auger... she thought desperately. We're coming.
Just hold on.