Kael stepped forward but kept his hands visible. "The enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?" He tried to ease the tension in the room. "So what do you know about tonight? Did Elion mention anything to you as his bodyguard?"
"Nothing much." She said, shaking her head. "If he did say something important about today, he would've said it to the others since I left early." Kael's eyes narrowed, calculating. "Then can you take us to them?"
Sylira stiffened, but didn't argue this time. Her voice was rough but steady. "Fine. I'll lead you to them. If they hear it from me, they might believe you, even if it's coming from strangers. But you'll stay behind me until I decide it's time to speak."
She led them through the narrow back alleys of the city. The sun was sliding down the sky, turning the wooden rooftops red. She moved quickly, leading them with her head lowered toward the side district where they would be meeting up soon.
They were halfway across an elevated walkway when the wind changed. Something moved, a flicker in the shadows, and then the alley ahead filled with cloaked figures.
Stepping silently from behind barrels and broken walls were people cloaked in ash-grey and bone-white robes. One of them hissed a phrase in a tongue none of them could recognize. Pheo pulled back after seeing the symbol of The Dark Church stitched across their shoulders.
Adam drew his sword without hesitation. Kael cursed under his breath. "Cultists." Adam didn't wait, he stepped forward to block the front line, slashing the first robed figure that rushed him. The man dropped instantly, blood spraying across the bricks.
Sylira's fists came up, her invisible hands flickering back into being. She started toward the cultists, until a familiar, cold voice cut through the chaos.
"Sylira."
She froze. The cultists held back, almost fearfully, as a single figure stepped into view behind them. It was the assassin, his body already glowing with blue energy. His scarred skin was visible beneath his sleeves, the moonlight starting to coil around his hands as the sun began to set.
His eyes were fixed on her. Not on Adam, Pheo, Kael, or Thorne. Only her. "I gave you a simple command." Her mouth tightened, but her voice barely came out. "I'm doing this to stop Elion."
The assassin's expression didn't change. He held up a small object between two fingers, a torn strip of cloth stained with blood. "Your brother could've lived for longer, you know." He said disappointingly, "He still can."
Sylira's shoulders shook, the assassin smiling seeing her subconscious reaction. Pheo stepped forward, angry. "You son of a–" The assassin's gaze flicked towards him. The moonlight gathered around him sharpened like blades. "Be quiet."
His attention focused back on Sylira. "You have one chance to fix this. Kill them. Or walk away so I can. Either way, I get what I need." Her fists trembled, the invisible hands flaring with pressure.
Adam stared at the assassin silently, his sword still dripping blood. "Sylira... We can get him back. But if you let this happen, you're going to make things a whole lot harder." Pheo said softly.
Kael looked at Sylira's state, her eyes brimmed with something trapped and furious. "Looks like you're going to have to step in, Thorne." It took Kael only a moment to know what she would do.
When the cultists advanced again, Adam stepped forward with his blade raised. Thorne drew his pistol, already firing clean shots into the vital areas of the robed cultists.
But Sylira... didn't move. She stepped backward, away from the group. She was breathing heavily, her invisible hands hovering but withdrawn. Pheo noticed her, "Sylira! Don't–" But she shook her head once, defeated.
The cultists surged forward. Adam swung through one with a slice across the chest. Thorne provided ample support, landing shot after shot. Pheo ducked, using the edge of a book crate as cover, while Kael went for an opening and stabbed one cultist in the ribs repeatedly.
The assassin simply stood at the edge, watching calmly as it all unfolded. He was still waiting for the moon to rise, for his power to grow. Adam knocked two more cultists aside and finally turned toward him, sword dripping.
"Come here."
He tilted his head, amused. But he didn't attack Adam, instead, he looked past him, right at Sylira. "Enough hesitation." He extended his hand towards her, blue energy coalescing into a spear of light.
"Fight them, beside me." He ordered her. "You don't need a reminder on what will happen if you don't." Sylira's eyes widened, the invisible hands around her flared again. They were now trembling violently behind her shoulders, like caged fists begging to strike.
For a moment, the street was in utter chaos. Cultists were screaming, Adam could be seen cleaving down one after another, Kael was muttering curses under his breath as he dodged a blade and stabbed upwards.
Amidst it all, she spoke:
"I'm sorry."
She stepped forward towards Adam, fists raised, joining the assassin's side. Adam turned to face her head-on, sword at the ready. Something rippled across his skin. His arms began to shift, muscles tightening and flexing as if threaded with animal sinew.
His foot scraped the ground like a wildcat bracing to pounce. Each and every movement he did became sharper, faster, it was like a predator's body coiled into a human frame.
Thorne stayed close behind him, his hand gripping a pistol. His eyes flickered pale every once in a while, switching his viewpoint. Seeing through the eyes of everyone there, Adam's, Sylira's, and The Assassin's all at once.
Sylira launched an assault with both of her hands crashing down towards Adam like wrecking hammers. He somersaulted forward, the air above his back splitting open with force as the hands missed him by inches. He whipped around in the air and slashed, the blade invisible to her fists, but real enough for her body.
She barely managed to block with her forearm. Stumbling back, she used her invisible hands as a form of support, lifting her like shields. The assassin stepped in, sending a thin lance of moonlight slicing towards Thorne.
He leaned his body to the side, but his eyes were somewhere else, guiding him with an impossible angle. He fired at Sylira's invisible hand just as it swung towards Adam's side. The gunshot burst through the spectral limb like a flare, stunning it slightly.
Adam took the chance, his arm blurred like a cat's strike as it snatched Sylira by the wrist. He didn't cut her. Rather, he simply held her, "You are not my enemy."
Sylira wrenched free, then used the invisible fist to smash him in the chest, sending him flying back several meters. Her eyes were wild now, but there were tears there too.
Behind them, Kael grasped Pheo's shoulder. His voice was urgent, "We have to go. Now. There's nothing we can do here while they're fighting."
"But–"
"Adam can handle her. Thorne can buy us time. The casualties will only increase the longer we spend here doing nothing." Pheo swallowed hard, then nodded. They sprinted around the far end of the alley, darting through a side corridor and vanishing toward the western district.
The assassin smiled as he watched Kael and Pheo flee. "Let them run." He told the others, "The gears have already begun to turn." He said, seeing the moon rise from the horizon. He finally stood up, stepping in to face Adam directly with blue light pulsing across his body like a heartbeat.
His body was gleaming faintly under the glow of his energy. Before Sylira could react, his arm coiled around her neck, pulling her tight against his chest. His other hand flared with a blade of condensed light, hovering dangerously close to her heart.
"Enough playing," he growled, his scarred face twisting in contempt. "You're either mine to use, or you're a corpse beside your precious brother." Adam and Thorne froze, both of them instinctively shifting their stance.
She thrashed around, but the assassin used her invisible hands against her, his moonlight weaving around them like shackles, turning her own power into dead weight. Then, with a sudden burst of force, he lunged forward.
He was using Sylira's restrained body as cover. Thorne's eyes widened, his perception shifting frantically, but the assassin's movements were unpredictable, using multiple illusions of himself made of moonlight as cover.
In a blink, he pierced through Thorne's defense and sent him sprawling, blood splattering the stone. "Thorne!" Kael barked as he watched him fall down, but Pheo kept him on task. "Remember what you told me."
Now it was Adam left standing, the beastlike tension in his frame as his instincts sharpened. The battlefield had twisted against him, turning it into an unfair fight. He bared his teeth, crouching low ready to meet them as they both went for him.
Kael and Pheo broke from the chaos, the clash of powers echoing behind them as they sprinted through the narrow alleys. Their breaths were sharp, but their pace never faltered.
They emerged into a quiet courtyard, where two figures stood at the ready, Don and Wing. "Don!" Pheo called out, his voice cutting through the tense air. The old man's posture stiffened at first, hand hovering near the hilt of his blade until he saw where the voice came from.
"Pheo?" Don's voice carried a note of disbelief. "I thought you would be long gone from the Badlands by now." Pheo nodded, chest heaving. "I would if I knew where I was going in the first place."
"It seems like it would've been a touching reunion, really, but there's no time for that." Kael interjected, stepping forward. His voice was steady but carried urgency. "Elion's speech tonight, it's a setup. We have evidence that something's going to happen tonight involving The Dark Church."
Wing's head snapped toward him, eyes narrowing. "I've seen you before," His voice carried a low edge of recognition. "At the Ember Pact's meeting." His hand hovered near his weapon. "Why would you be here warning us about Elion if you're supposed to be with him?"
Kael's expression didn't falter, though the air thickened with suspicion. "I'm on neither side. I'm here as a detective, loyal to solving my case. And right now I'm offering a solution to my current and your future problems."
Don glanced between them, tension heavy in his jaw. Pheo stepped in quickly, "Listen, we've only been together for a short moment but you know that my word's worth at least something. And right now, I'm telling you that this decision decides what tomorrow will be like."
"Better decide fast, an assassin is already in play," Kael told them. "One of your people's already being held hostage by him, too." Both of the bodyguards stiffened hearing his words. "Who?" Don asked.
"Sylira, her brother's in the palm of his hands right now." Pheo told him. They both exchanged glances, "And the assassin? What's he like?" Wing asked for more answers. "His body's covered with scars and burns, looks like he came from the sun." Kael replied without hesitation.
"There was that blue light too, it looked like something he could mold physically." Pheo tried describing his gift. The mention of the blue light made both of their eyes widen. "I told you, he's still alive." Don told Wing.
"We aren't sure just yet," Wing tried to keep an open mind. "But we don't have time to waste either. Not if what you're saying is the truth." Don's tone hardened, "Where did you last see him?"
Kael exchanged a glance with Pheo, then pointed back toward the distinct they'd just fled from. "Near the old market stretch. He's keeping close to the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Adam's still holding him there, keeping him and Sylira in check."
Wing raised his eyebrow at the mention of his name, but nodded sharply. "We'll be taking it from here. If Adam's still standing, we'll back him up and flush the assassin out of the shadows." Don hesitated, turning back to Pheo.
"After all this is over, I want to see you again. Let's catch up on what you've accomplished while we weren't together." He smiled, "I'm sure you've already caused some trouble while I was away."
Pheo's chest tightened, but he nodded firmly. "I'll be looking for you. Count on it." The older man's lips twitched into the faintest smile before he masked it again with resolve. Don and Wing then turned toward the market's direction, disappearing into the night.
Kael touched Pheo's shoulder, urging him forward. "Come on. Elion's waiting, and if we don't move now, the city's going to be like a ghost town tomorrow." With that, the pair split. Don and Wing headed to the market, while Pheo and Kael pressed forward to Elion's speech.