Chapter 54: That Was Too Damn Close

Ghostly particles danced as the blinding fury of the lightning faded from Leon’s retinas.

He stood there, gasping, reduced to the drumming roar of the rain and the smell of his own singed hair.

The black hoodie was gone, vaporized into a gritty, ashen paste that clung to his skin like filthy hide.

Steam rose from his shoulders where the rain hit superheated flesh.

“Fuck!” he cursed and spat onto the churning mud at his feet.

“That was too close – too damn close.” He scrubbed at his arms, the ash smearing into grey streaks.

The rain hammered down like a punishing torrent, turning the academy grounds into a shallow, rushing river.

The datapad in his hand flickered stubbornly to life – its screen having a spiderweb of cracks from the top-left corner.

It glowed in a sickly, green, and static-yellow through the fractures.

“Fuck this!” he frowned. “I nearly died, and you’re showing me I’ve failed to complete the task?!”

His eyes sharpened as he gazed at blooming, angry red and passive yellow markers on the cracked screen. Only a few stubborn blue dots remained.

The notification popped up like a cruel joke: Clean the entire Alchemania ground without stopping.

At 19:00, according to the cracked clock on the screen, Leon inhaled a breath that shuddered all the way to his core.

The cold air danced through his lungs with the scent of wet earth and an impending defeat.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, then stepped off the relative shelter of the overhang and back into the deluge.

The water was shockingly cold, causing his steps to slog. He sighed the moment he saw the blue building, which was fifty feet away from him.

As he drew nearer, the window panes slid open. Figures appeared in the rectangles of colorful light, leaning out, despite the nature of the weather.

He couldn’t hear their laughter, but he saw it in the movement of their mouths and the manner in which they pointed.

’Stupid tasks.’ The thought came in as he brushed his left palm across his wet hair plastered to his skull.

He reached the cream-colored dormitory with a sprint. He opened the heavy door serving as its entrance and shut it behind him, muting the storm to a dull roar.

[Failed. Failed. Failed.] A mechanical sound erupted from the datapad in his hand.

“Fuck.” He spun and slammed his fist into the nearest wall.

Shunk!

The impact echoed deep, like a hammer driving into soft stone. A crunching shockwave lanced up his arm, but it was secondary to the sight before him.

His fist was buried to the wrist in the solid concrete. Fine cracks, like a black spiderweb, radiated outward from the point of impact, crawling a good two feet in every direction.

Dust and tiny fragments pattered to the polished floor.

“Whoa!” He yanked his hand back and stumbled a step backward. His knuckles were scraped, bleeding slightly, but otherwise whole.

He stared at his hand, then at the crater in the wall. The concrete around the edges was pulverized.

“Did I do this?” he whispered, his voice echoing in the silent lobby. He reached out and traced his fingers along the edges of the cracks.

His eyes widened as he noticed the concrete was unnaturally smooth inside the fracture lines, almost as if compressed by an instantaneous force.

The faint click of a door opening made him jerk back. His heart hammered when he saw students emerging from all sides of the lobby.

His mouth opened and forgot how to close the moment he noticed one thing: They were interested in what he was standing in front of.

He didn’t wait. He turned and fled down the corridor toward the elevators, his wet boots squeaking on the tile.

Behind him, he heard the low murmurs of voices, questions piling upon each other.

“What happened?”

“…Who did that?”

“…Is that the reason the building shook violently?”

The elevator door was a dull silver mirror in front of him.

In it, he saw a wild-eyed stranger with singed hair and a boy marked with faintly glowing lines under his ash-dusted skin.

His reflection looked more dangerous than what he had experienced outside.

A low mechanical hum announced the car’s arrival. Stopping, the door slid open, revealing an empty, brightly lit cube.

He stepped in, pressed the button for the second floor, and slammed his head into his right palm, waiting.

As the car ascended, the images replayed in a frantic loop: the lightning, the impossible cleanliness, and the crater in the wall.

Each felt like a piece of a puzzle he was too close to see.

Ding.

The elevator stopped on the first floor. The silver door parted sideways.

Leon squeezed his eyes as he saw the first person standing on the other side, to be Vera. She stood wearing a sleek black training suit.

Beside her was Jade. His expression was one of detached boredom.

Flanking them were two others – a sharp-faced girl Leon didn’t know, and a broad-shouldered boy with close-cropped hair and eyes that had the color of a shallow sea.

Leon’s jaw tightened, promising to crunch his teeth as he remembered him to be the guy he saw silver light glow around his fingers in the field.

Their collective gaze hit Leon like a physical blow. Vera’s nose wrinkled as if smelling something foul when she entered. Jade’s eyes slid over Leon, dismissed him, and fixed on the elevator’s ceiling.

The girl smirked. The broad-shouldered boy’s face was like a mask of pure contempt.

They filled the small space with the scent of expensive soap and implicit threat. Leon stood at the front, facing the door, feeling their stares drill into his back.

Vera’s sweet and venomous voice slithered into the silence behind him. “Why the hell is he still here? Look at him!”

Leon kept his gaze fixed on his own reflection in the metal – the ash, the burns, the mess of his hair, and the broom he had made it leave at his left waist side.

He followed their reflections visible in the door.

To his right, Jade’s calm and measured tone cut through, “I need to talk to them. To have him removed. He’s… done enough.”

The broad-shouldered boy added, his voice a low, eager rumble.

“We can actually take him out ourselves. You can order me to do that right now… before the car stops.”

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