Chapter 126: Ch124. Gears of War
Miles stepped out of the battlefield chamber, his scythe still pulsing with residual energy, his breath slow but steady. The weight of what had just happened pressed against him, though he refused to let it show. His body ached, his mind buzzed, but above all else, there was a strange, unsettling clarity settling over him.
It was not just battle clarity – not the state of flow that would have a fighter in their peak condition during extreme situations.
It was as if, the more Miles looked at Luna Sea’s Master, the more he could perceive some kind of aura around the man.
It was faint at first, but then it became clearer and clearer. Golden, with slight hues of red and orange, swirling around him just like the sparks from which his items materialized themselves.
But before he could say or react to it in any manner, he heard Kurt’s surprised whistle.
Kurt, of course, was already waiting for him. Leaning lazily against the wall, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
Until he opened his mouth.
"Well, well. Look who’s still got all his limbs!" Kurt drawled, pushing off the wall with exaggerated nonchalance. "I was about to start taking bets on whether you’d walk out of that thing alive, or if the Master would just deliver me your head in a fancy little box."
"And what were the odds?" Miles exhaled sharply, equal parts amusement and exhaustion.
Kurt smirked. "Oh, I bet on you, obviously. Can’t have my only source of entertainment dying on me just yet. But let’s just say... Not everyone had my faith."
Miles rolled his eyes but did not argue. His thoughts were already elsewhere, turning over everything the Master had told him before the fight had ended. He glanced back into the chamber, now looking simply like a small, metallic orb that fluttered in the air, a few feet from the ground, near the Master’s throne, where the masked figure still stood, unchanged by their battle – aside from his torn and tattered coat – as if waiting.