Chapter 121: Who Are You?
The tension in the air was almost palpable, saturated with burning mana and icy determination. Isaac stared at Akane, his fists clenched around the hilt of his katana until his knuckles turned white, his heart hammering in his chest in a desperate rhythm. In front of him, the warrior stood upright, motionless like a marble statue, her eyes once sparkling with life now empty, absent, like two bottomless pits. Her movements, jerky and mechanical, betrayed the cruel grip of the slave collar encircling her neck like a metallic serpent. The blade in her hand glowed faintly, a silver reflection dancing on the cracked ground like a grim omen.
Naesha, a few meters away, moved with spectral grace, her steps making no sound on the cold stone, as if she were merely an ethereal manifestation of death. Her daggers, poised to strike like venomous fangs, caught the few rays of light that filtered into the oppressive hall. Isaac knew his time was running out. Every second that passed was another wave of suffering for Akane, another root Belgaroth planted deeper into her enslaved mind.
- "Isaac... we have to neutralize her," Naesha whispered, her piercing eyes analyzing Akane’s micro-movements with the precision of a predator. "She’s not herself anymore. She’s just a puppet of flesh and bone."
- "No... she’s not a puppet," Isaac replied in a low voice, vibrating with unyielding conviction, his eyes lighting up with an intense orange glow like a setting sun. "She’s there... trapped somewhere. We just have to break her chains."
Akane attacked in chilling silence. Her body cut through the air, swift as a silver serpent, her blade tracing a perfect arc that whistled with a deadly melody. Isaac parried with a fluid, almost instinctive motion, the metal resonating in a sharp crack that sent sparks dancing around them. She didn’t hesitate for a fraction of a second, pivoting with supernatural agility, chaining a horizontal slash with surgical precision that would have slit the throat of any less vigilant opponent. Isaac evaded, his movements calculated to the millimeter, his muscles strained to the breaking point under the effort.
- "You haven’t changed..." he murmured to himself, his eyes following her with a painful melancholy in every step, every strike, recognizing behind the empty mask the one he once knew.
Akane accelerated. Her saber cut through the air with disconcerting speed, her attacks flowing in an uninterrupted deadly symphony. Isaac deflected, parried, stepping back, but still refused to truly retaliate. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he exhaled a sigh weighted with infinite sadness.
- "Alright..." he finally said, as if accepting the inevitable.
He tightened his grip on the hilt of his katana, his fingers curling around the cold steel with newfound resolve. He closed his eyes for a brief moment an eternity compressed into a second and when he reopened them, his pupils glowed with incandescent orange, like molten lava. The air around him subtly vibrated, the atmosphere charged with a slight electricity that made the hairs on one’s skin stand up.