Chapter 55: Give or Take
Silence settled over the Upper Ruins like a suffocating blanket.
Dust drifted lazily through the fractured air, illuminated by shafts of pale sunlight that slipped between the broken towers surrounding the battlefield. Chunks of shattered stone lay scattered across the cracked ground, and the only sounds that remained were the strained breaths of battered warriors struggling to stay conscious.
Daito Greyhell stood motionless.
His body ached from head to toe. Every muscle screamed in protest, and blood continued to drip steadily from the wounds covering his arms and face. Yet none of that occupied his thoughts.
His eyes never left the man standing several meters away.
Cassian.
Nothing about him made sense.
Every attack he had landed should have crippled him. Every strike had been clean, precise, and fatal. Yet Cassian remained standing without so much as a scratch.
Daito slowly narrowed his eyes.
"...That explains nothing."
Monday clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Tch... then ask him yourself."
Daito didn't even glance at him.
"...Do I look like your messenger boy?"
Before Monday could answer, a quiet laugh drifted across the battlefield.
"Heh..."
The sound was soft.
Almost amused.
Everyone instinctively turned.
Cassian stood with both hands buried inside his pockets, wearing the same relaxed smile he had carried since the battle began. There wasn't a single trace of tension on his face, as though the destruction around him belonged to someone else's fight.
Standing quietly beside him was Shinsei.
Her arms were folded across her chest, her posture elegant yet cautious. Unlike Cassian's carefree demeanor, her eyes studied everyone carefully, measuring every expression and every movement with quiet interest.
Cassian tilted his head slightly.
"He's not wrong."
Shinsei stepped forward before anyone else could speak.
"But he's also not right."
Her calm voice immediately silenced the battlefield.
Even those barely able to remain conscious forced themselves to lift their heads.
Wei-Wan slowly pushed himself upright. Wasabi adjusted her cracked glasses despite the blood running down her forehead. Zachia rested both hands on his sheathed blade, refusing to lose focus. Aerin remained beside Daito, watching Shinsei without blinking.
Everyone understood.
For the first time since the battle had begun...
Someone was finally going to explain the impossible.
Shinsei adjusted her stance before looking directly into Daito's eyes.
"You're trying to understand him like a system."
Her voice remained steady.
"Rules."
A brief pause.
"Categories."
Another.
"Logic."
She slowly shook her head.
"That's your mistake."
Daito said nothing, he simply listened.
Every instinct told him this mattered.
Shinsei continued.
"Cassian isn't complicated."
A faint smile appeared on her face.
"He's painfully simple."
She raised a single finger.
"His Savage Power..."
"...is called Give or Take."
Silence answered her.
"It allows him to take anything..."
"...and give anything."
She allowed those words to sink in before adding the final piece.
"From anything."
No one spoke.
Even the wind seemed to disappear.
Shinsei began walking slowly across the battlefield, speaking as though she were giving a lecture instead of revealing one of the world's most terrifying abilities.
"He can take force..."
"...and give force."
"He can take damage..."
"...and give damage."
"He can take momentum..."
"...and give momentum."
Every sentence felt heavier than the last.
"If he takes your movement..."
"...he can return it to you."
She paused.
"Multiplied."
Daito felt something click inside his mind.
"When you slashed his neck..."
Shinsei looked directly at him.
"He simply took the damage..."
"...and gave it away."
Daito's breathing stopped for a second.
"...To what?"
Cassian answered before Shinsei could.
"Does it matter?"
He shrugged casually.
"The ground."
"The air."
"Some random pebble."
His smile widened.
"Somewhere that isn't me."
A cold chill crawled down everyone's spine.
Shinsei nodded.
"When he pulled you toward him..."
"...he wasn't dragging your body."
"He took away your resistance..."
"...then returned acceleration."
"When he threw you..."
"...he took gravity itself..."
"...and gave you even more."
Her eyes never left Daito.
"And when your body crashed into the ground..."
"...he stole the impact."
She clenched her fist.
"Then gave it back."
A brief silence followed.
"Tenfold."
No one moved and no one even breathed properly.
Each impossible moment from the battle replayed inside Daito's mind. The neck slash, impossible pull, overwhelming force, even the explosions.
Every mystery...Every impossible phenomenon...Every unanswered question...
Suddenly made horrifying sense.
"There was never a trick," Shinsei said quietly.
"No illusion."
"No distortion of reality."
She stopped only a few steps away from Daito.
"There was only transfer."
A pause.
"Absolute transfer."
The words echoed through Daito's mind.
Transfer.
Not creation nor destruction.
Simply...moving something from one place...to another.
"...Then..."
His voice came out almost as a whisper.
"...How do we beat him?"
Cassian's smile grew wider.
Shinsei lowered her eyes for a brief moment before looking back up.
"You don't."
Those two words landed harder than any punch.
Cassian chuckled.
"Finally."
He slowly stepped forward, his boots scraping against the broken stone.
"Someone finally said it properly."
His gaze locked onto Daito.
"You don't beat me."
A pause stretched between them.
"You survive me."
The atmosphere immediately became heavier.
Hope itself seemed to weigh upon everyone's shoulders. No one argued because no one could. The evidence was standing right in front of them.
Yet Shinsei wasn't finished.
She glanced toward the exhausted group once more before speaking again.
"You still don't understand him."
Daito frowned.
"Then make it make sense."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Shinsei's lips.
"You're trying to solve him like he's some elaborate puzzle."
She turned slightly toward Cassian.
"But Cassian isn't a puzzle."
Her eyes sharpened.
"He's a principle."
"A perfected one."
Cassian scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"You're making me sound cooler than I actually am."
"They're going to get the wrong idea."
Shinsei ignored the interruption.
"He pushed himself beyond limits that most people can't even comprehend."
"Beyond Savages."
"Beyond martial artists."
"Beyond conventional logic."
She looked directly at Daito.
"And because of that..."
"...he seeks strength."
"Real strength."
Her voice softened.
"But no one..."
"...has ever satisfied him."
Monday folded his arms.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Cassian answered this time.
"It means..."
His eyes swept across every battered member of the Outsiders.
"...you're interesting."
A grin spread across his face.
"And because you're interesting..."
Shinsei finished his sentence.
"...we're explaining."
The battlefield fell silent once again.
Cassian slowly raised one finger.
"My power is simple."
"Give."
He lowered the finger.
"Take."
Then another smile appeared.
"Or..."
He slowly clenched his hand.
"...multiply."
Daito's eyes narrowed.
"...Multiply?"
Cassian nodded.
"Yeah."
"If I experience something once..."
"I can make it happen a thousand times."
A faint CRRRRK...
The stone beneath his feet fractured under invisible pressure.
"You thought I was pulling you with telekinesis?"
He laughed.
"Nah."
"I just pulled..."
"...one thousand times."
The air trembled.
"You only felt one pull."
His grin widened.
"But your body experienced a thousand."
Monday's expression immediately changed.
"So when you hit us..."
Cassian snapped his fingers.
"Exactly."
"One hit."
"...multiplied."
His voice became quieter.
"Again."
"...and again."
"...and again."
"...until your body couldn't even tell where one impact ended and the next began."
Silence swallowed the battlefield once more.
This explanation...answered everything too perfectly.
Monday exhaled sharply.
"That's completely insane."
Cassian shrugged.
"No."
He smiled.
"That's training."
Daito remained motionless.
His mind wasn't rejecting the explanation anymore. It was adapting and rebuilding.
Every observation...Every calculation...Every failed strategy...
Rearranged themselves inside his head like pieces finally falling into place.
Shinsei noticed before anyone else.
A faint smile crossed her face.
"You see it now."
Slowly...Painfully...Daito pushed himself upright.
His injuries protested immediately, his knees trembled and fresh blood ran down his fingers.
Yet he stood steady.
His breathing slowed and his eyes sharpened.
"...Yeah."
A faint smile appeared.
"I finally see it."
Monday looked at him suspiciously.
"You'd better not be about to say something incredibly stupid."
Daito didn't answer.
Instead, he calmly walked past everyone.
Past Monday.
Past Wei-Wan.
Past Zachia.
Until he stopped directly in front of Aerin.
She looked up at him, confusion spreading across her face.
"...Daito?"
He met her gaze without hesitation.
"Get ready."
A pause.
"For what?"
His answer came without the slightest trace of doubt.
"For the Seontaekdoen ja ritual."
Absolute silence.
Every person on the battlefield froze.
Even Cassian's carefree smile faltered for the briefest moment as curiosity flickered across his face.
Aerin's emerald eyes widened.
"...You're serious?"
Daito nodded once.
"I found it."
His voice remained calm.
"A way."
Monday's eyebrows shot upward.
"...There's no way."
Zachia's grip tightened around his sword.
"This better not be a bluff."
Wasabi swallowed nervously.
"That ritual... it's unstable."
Wei-Wan clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.
"If it fails—"
"It won't."
Daito cut him off immediately.
His voice wasn't loud but it didn't need to be.
The certainty behind those two words silenced everyone. Aerin stared into his eyes for several long seconds.
Searching, testing, and looking for even the smallest hint of hesitation.
She found none.
Slowly...she stood.
The uncertainty disappeared from her expression replaced by unwavering resolve.
"...Alright."
She stepped forward.
"Then don't die."
For the first time since the battle began...Daito smiled.
Not with arrogance or confidence.
With belief.
"Wasn't planning to."
Behind them...Cassian smiled as well a genuine smile.
One born from excitement rather than amusement.
"...Now this..."
He slowly cracked his neck.
KRRRK...
"...this is getting interesting."
Shinsei glanced sideways.
"Should we stop them?"
Cassian never looked away from Daito.
"No."
A slow grin spread across his face.
"Let's see it."
As Aerin walked toward the center of the ruined battlefield, the atmosphere shifted once again.
Not because of power or of fear.
But because something infinitely more dangerous had begun to spread among the broken warriors standing within the Iron Bastion.
Belief.
It was irrational, reckless, and it bordered on madness.
Yet despite everything they had witnessed...They chose to believe Daito Greyhell. And somewhere, deep within that growing storm of conviction...
He had already taken the first step toward becoming the answer Cassian had spent his entire life searching for.
to be Continued....