Chapter 69: Unfinished Crossing
’This guy was just worrying about Black Errancy and stuff earlier, but now it’s clear that he’s toying with his enemy.’ Marek was grumbling about Rhovan’s pretentious ass.
The second blow from the Aries Astrant broke the barricade. Marek and the others were forced to back away as they shielded themselves behind a large van on the side.
Rhovan had not moved from the center of the road since the time he said he had not used even one percent of his power. Just as the impact of the Aries Astrant’s attack came, a golden ring formed around him as the debris from the destroyed barricade changed direction before reaching the surrounding civilians. The pieces formed a circle as they were nailed into the ground around his feet—creating a resounding pressure that spread outward.
"I’m Rhovan. What is your name?"
"I have no name."
"So much for being Aries," Rhovan said as he grinned.
Someone among the people hiding and watching the fight whispered Rhovan’s name. Then, more people repeated it.
Rhovan heard them. Of course he did.
’He is clearly enjoying the attention he is getting,’ Marek thought as he stared at the glowing Rhovan. ’But his powers... I speculated that he was powerful, but this much power was something else... It sure is impressive, so this is the might of a powerful Leo. It’s like magic.’
"He is enjoying this," Kellan said, having the same thought as Marek.
"That didn’t need to be said," Dario replied, still holding Rhovan’s coat. "But I agree, and this is actually the quiet version."
Kellan soon stood up. He had sensed something.
The Aries Astrant rushed forward. Kellan quickly intercepted him from the side, bringing both forearms up to receive the impact. Red light struck red light. Kellan remained standing for approximately one second before sliding across the pavement.
"Damn! How strong is this other Aries? Is this the strength you can get because of contamination? Why does he want to destroy everything around him?"
The Aries Astrant followed him. It terrified Kellan, but Rhovan suddenly appeared by his side in a burst of golden light. He had moved so fast that everyone thought he had teleported.
He raised his index finger as a small sphere of golden light formed at its tip. It was like he was pointing a gun as he said, "No need to drag this fight out any longer, so... I’ll end it with this."
Kellan’s eyes bulged as he glanced at Rhovan’s fingertip. "What kind of power is that?"
Rhovan just grinned upon hearing that. Before Kellan could ask another question, the sphere of golden light shot from his fingertip. It dug into the forehead of the Aries Astrant. Then, he opened his palm. Golden light formed over his palm. It stretched toward the stranger’s body as it slowly engulfed his entire body.
Rhovan slowly closed his palm as the engulfed body was gradually crushed under the golden light.
As soon as everything calmed down, Silas appeared beside the bent barricade and pulled the injured father away from the painted line the Aries Astrant kept forcing people across. Meanwhile, Nadia took the child with her. The boy screamed for her to put him down until she used his father’s voice to say, "It’s all right."
’These guys can properly control their powers now,’ Marek thought as he looked at Rhovan. ’Must be him.’
The father heard it and stared.
"Later," Nadia told him in her own voice. "Please be unsettled later."
Dario caught Kellan by the shirt and stopped him from reaching the broken desks. "So much for acting like a hero."
"Tch," Kellan grumbled.
Nobody approached the Aries Astrant immediately. The golden light surrounding what remained of his body gradually faded, but the damage Rhovan had done was already irreversible. Some of the civilians who had watched the fight remained hidden behind the vehicles, while the volunteers slowly returned to the people who were caught in the commotion.
Marek stared at the dead Astrant for a few seconds.
’So that’s it?’
Rhovan had spoken about Black Errancy as though even the strongest Astrants in the Prime Continuum had reasons to fear it, yet the person carrying it had been killed before Marek could even understand what made the contamination so dangerous.
Then, something beneath the corpse moved.
Marek’s attention immediately dropped toward the pavement.
The Aries Astrant had not moved because he obviously could not. However, the shadow beneath his body stretched away from him and slowly crossed the painted line he had repeatedly forced the civilians across earlier.
’What the hell?’
Marek remembered the strange movement he had seen before they reached the barricade. Rhovan had stopped beside him, yet his shadow had continued for another step before returning beneath his feet.
The same unnatural movement was happening again. Seven footsteps sounded somewhere along the road. Marek counted them without meaning to.
Then came another.
The eighth did not sound as though it had come from someone walking nearby. It came from beneath the dead Aries Astrant.
Rhovan’s expression lost the amusement it had carried throughout most of the fight. "Nobody go near the shadow."
Kellan had already taken half a step forward before stopping. For once, he did not argue.
The shadow reached the other side of the painted line before returning beneath the corpse. After several seconds, it repeated the exact movement.
Marek’s shoulder began to feel warm. ’The man is already dead. Why is this still happening?’
The answer became even stranger when the thin black line he had noticed along the Aries Astral Mark appeared again. It crawled across one edge of the Mark before disappearing, only to emerge in the same place a moment later.
Rhovan watched it closely. "This is the part I was warning you about."
Marek glanced at him. "You mean killing the person doesn’t necessarily get rid of it?"
"I killed the carrier. I never said I killed what was using him. This one has already attached itself to something beyond him."
That answer was enough to make Marek look toward the painted line again.
The Aries Astrant had spent the entire encounter trying to save people who were already safe. He carried the older woman across the line, returned for another person, attacked the father when he stood between him and the child, then continued counting as though every rescue merely proved that another one had to follow.
’Seven... then eight.’
Something about the pattern bothered Marek more now that the person carrying it was dead.
The rescue never seemed capable of ending.
His Astral Mark reacted more strongly.
One of his still-empty scales reacted on its own, growing warm beneath his clothes. Marek felt the familiar sensation he had experienced whenever something foreign came too close to the boundary of a Case. This time, however, there was no injured person asking to be treated and no obvious condition he could simply separate from a body.
The dead Aries Astrant was only part of it.