Emil

The mob surged forth. Venomous screams cursed his presence. Hands reached out, daring to claw at his skin. The crowd was like a swarm, a raging torrent of malice threatening to devour him whole. And yet, it would be so easy to topple them. Just a wave of his hands. A flick of his wrist. All he needed was to will a single thought into reality and the mob of Ordinaries would be split apart by stone or bathed in flames.

But Emil didn't want that. He was here to save people; not slaughter them. Caught in the middle of shock and self-preservation, he stared dumbfoundedly at the mob who treated him like the enemy.

It was Delilah who yanked him away and into a path off to the side of the street. Quick thinking from the Belle associates blockaded the entrance as they tried to placate the angry mob. Soon enough, their anger receded. A distant detonation reminded everyone why they were here and then suddenly they all resumed evacuating to the Administrative District.

"I'm so sorry, Emil." Deliah lowered her head as she apologized profusely on behalf of the crowd's reaction, "You didn't deserve that. You saved them from a disaster, but they treated you like a villain. They—" She grimaced and clenched her teeth, barely holding back her own anger. She was trying to think of an excuse for the pathetic crowd. "They were scared. They were—"

"It's fine. I get it."

His words came out harsher than he intended. He grabbed his head and breathed as the onset of another throbbing headache rattled his mind. His body was still shaking with minor convulsions. Delilah watched him closely; her hands clasped in front of her chest, worried.

"Really, I do. You don't need to make excuses for them," he added, trying a gentler tone this time.

It's not as if I hadn't been Ordinary before.

It felt like a lifetime ago, but it had only been a few years since he acquired a Gift. While his recollections of those times were starting to blur, he still felt the wretched emotions that accompanied those memories with perfect clarity. As an Ordinary, he was powerless. He lacked agency. He didn't possess the means to control his own fate in this kingdom filled with people who can bent the laws of nature at will.

When viewed from the perspective of an Ordinary civilian, life in Ardair must have been terrifying. At any moment, a godlike individual can uproot their entire lives arbitrarily at a whim. And there was nothing that they could do after it, except beg and plead for mercy.

And so, he got it.

He understood the reason behind their vengeful eyes. The meaning behind their hostile gazes clouded with malice. It was not just fear, but also rebellion. It was a protest against their own helplessness. An insignificant way to seize back a small vestige of agency. If they couldn't do anything to change their fates, then at least they could do is bare their teeth and make their anger known.

Emil reached into a pouch hidden beneath his cloak. Inside were syringed filled with a cocktail of stimulants and painkillers to nullify fatigue and symptoms of Overclock. The monster in his head squealed with delight. He didn't fight it as he plunged the needle into his arms.

The effect was instant. Pain faded into a dull pulsations. The throbbing in his head vanished. His body felt absurdly light as if he was stepping on clouds. He felt good. Great even. In the midst of his high, the rational part of his mind screamed that this was atypical. It was reckless. He was veering on a dangerous edge—one that he had just barely managed to crawl himself out a few years prior.

He couldn't care less.

He can worry about addiction and relapse after this incident was over.

Delilah looked like she had a lot of questions to ask, but Emil seized the initiative first.

"What's the status of House Belle?" he asked with a cold gaze, "I don't want to make assumptions, but you and your people are the first Belle associates I've seen across the city so far."

She soured immediately with a despondent sigh. Her shoulders slumped and she averted her eyes in shame.

"…Honestly, I'm not sure. I know the main estate was bombed, but both the Lord Otto and Lady Liesel were unharmed. I haven't received any other news or orders aside from that."

Nothing she had said could be marked as a lie, but he suspected there were details she was deliberately leaving out. As an accomplished actress, there was always the chance that Delilah was putting on a well-crafted mask. Whatever the truth was, the fact remained that House Belle and the entirety of the Noble's Quarter had gone quiet. Aside from the Lionhearts, Graf had received no attempts of communication from any of the nobilities so far. Couriers had been sent to figure out what was going on, but nothing had come out of those efforts yet.

It's one thing if Otto was injured by the explosion, but if he was unharmed, then there's no excuses for going silent.

House Belle had an obligation to Isarelle as its governor and yet it seemed as though they were content to spectate on the sidelines while the city was mangled by an unprecedented disaster. Emil didn't know Otto for long, but his conversation with the man had profiled him as a schemer and an opportunist. At the same time, Otto clearly had immense love for his family—enough to forsaken a potential alliance with the royal family if it meant Liesel's happiness. Emil judged that it would not be out of character for him to abandon a city if his family was being threatened by Vigil.

He let out an air of frustration.

It's pointless to keep guessing House Belle's intent. Delilah is not going to give me the full story. Nor do I think she even knows what's happening exactly.

Instead, what I can do is prepare a contingency plan.

"Delilah, can you deliver a personal message from me? It'll be addressed to Otto himself."

***

Shortly after Delilah left, a Courier appeared beside Emil. Judging by the timing of their arrival, they must have been waiting for Delilah to leave before making their presence known.

"I'm here to convey the status of the terrorist bombings."

Emil's warnings about Karni's Gift had worked. Steiger and Lionheart agents were able to disarm two of the bombs spread across the city to prevent their detonation. Their solution was alarmingly simple—kill the rats before they could transform. Like Emil had suspected, Karni used the rodents to deliver and detonate the explosive device. The trigger mechanism appeared to have been related to the rat's transformation.

The transformation itself probably isn't the trigger—that would be too specific. It's more likely that a byproduct of the transformation is being utilized to kickstart the detonation.

A burst of mana was consumed to create flesh and alter the morphology of the creature. The simplest possibility would be the heat and energy emitted during the transformation process. With this in mind, Emil quickly revised his hypothesis with additional considerations.

"Make sure they don't use too much mana when trying to kill the rats. Karni is likely using energy dissipated during the transformation to trigger the bomb. That means a powerful enough phenomenon could also activate the bomb unintentionally. If possible, I suggest they bind the rat with a Gift and then kill it with a regular weapon."

There were three bombs left to disarm. There were twenty minutes left before the end of the hour. The Courier noted his suggestions and delivered more orders from Graf. Given Emil's proximity, he was to move to the next reservoir spot at the southern end of the Arts District.

He was about to take off when the skies suddenly screeched with another broadcast.

"Well, well, well!" Melody's voice blared across Isarelle. The Lionhearts had driven her away from the broadcast tower, but it seemed she was still able to project her voice after stealing the artifact that powers the broadcasts.

"It appears someone in Isarelle is quite clever! They figured out the mechanisms behind the bombs and how they trigger. Kudos to you, my dearest. You know who you are!"

The playful tone in her voice made it abundantly clear—Melody knew that it was him. She was observing him from afar. But where? Just where in Isarelle could she hide that allowed her to watch freely?

"While I do commend your efforts, I pledged excitement and fun in exchange disrupting the Aurous Festival! I can't exactly renege my promise, can I? That would be extremely unprofessional," Melody said with the drawl of an actor, "And so, here's a slight change of plans to get your blood boiling! The next three bombs will detonate all at the same time! And they will blow in exactly one minute!"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Emil's heart dropped.

"Oh, but don't worry, I'm not so heartless as to leave you helpless. It wouldn't be fun if you had no chance of disarming them in time, would it? And so here's a hint! Erm, uh, ah! The locations are related to Isarelle! Good luck! You have—oh, forty seconds now! Better hurry!"

The buzz in the air ended. The broadcast was over. Emil seethed. He wanted to scream, but he forced his anger down his throat. There was no time. He replayed Melody's hint in his head.

Think! A part of him considered that Melody might have just made up something nonsensical to distract them, but he had no choice except to believe that there was a genuine answer beneath this ridiculously vague hint. From what little he knew of the girl, she prioritized excitement above all else. There was no excitement if she gave them an unsolvable puzzle.

It's related to Isarelle. There are three bombs left. When I think about Isarelle, the first thing that comes is the Arts District. The performances. The Commerce District. Three bombs? Three districts? No, that's too general.

What else?

The Canticle.

The canal.

His eyes widened.

Three bombs left. The canal. Then—

"They're aiming for the floodgates!" he yelled.

Without another word, the Courier vanished to deliver his words. Emil activated Mana Arts and made a mad dash towards the nearest the floodgate. Isarelle's canal had three floodgates to control the flow of water through the canal. The third floodgate, and closest one to his location, was near the mid-junction point of the city where the Arts, Commerce, Administrative Districts, and the Black Shoal intersected and where the canal branches off into smaller waterways.

It didn't take him long to arrive. The mid-junction point was crowded with civilians trying to enter the Administrative District. As he perched over the rooftop of a building, he spotted Anna and Kai amidst the crowd. Their red-hair and sun-baked skin made them impossible to miss.

What the hell are they doing here?!

The question barely passed his mind before the explosions went off.

The floodgate was two hundred meters from the mid-junction area. The massive wall of stone was blown apart by the deafening blast. Blue light flooded Emil's eyes while the ground trembled with violence. The crowd screamed. Panic spread ravenously. Some people were knocked to their feet by the shockwave. Others were pushed and trampled over as people tried to force their way through the traffic.

The worst of it was still coming. As the floodgates collapsed, the water it held back was suddenly unleashed. A huge torrent swelled. The calamitous volume of water raced towards the mid-junction area like the maws of a mythical beast.

Emil leaped off the rooftop and landed at the edge of the platform where the crowd was being directed into the Administrative District. Kai and Anna were just a few meters from him.

"Kai, control the flow of water! I'm going to create barricades!" he yelled out instructions. His Gharian friend snapped to face him. He looked scared, shocked, confused, and just overwhelmed by everything.

"E-Emil?! What are you—"

"Just do what he says, you idiot!" Anna smacked him on the back of his head. Sparks buzzed from her body as she stepped towards the mob, "I'll keep the crowd away from you two!"

Emil wasted no time as he materialized a series of stone levies from the bed of the canal. Kai finally snapped into action, parting the pool of water in front of them to let the levies rise faster. Simultaneously, Emil created troughs and ditches to yield more space for the oncoming water to flow.

"Get ready!" he yelled as the tidal wave came close, "Hold it for as long as you can!"

Kai extended both hands. Mana poured out of his body. He pushed his palms outwards as if he was pushing against the oncoming swell. For a moment, the tidal wave appeared to be frozen in place. Then its height rapidly grew as more volumes arrived.

"Haaa!" Kai screamed, trying to wring out as much power as he could muster. Emil used the few precious seconds that he was buying to build more stone levies. He prayed that the makeshift fortifications would hold.

"Emil! I—"

A dissonant screech echoed beside him. Kai had lost control. The tidal wave was no longer locked in place. The deluge was set loose. Emil clenched his teeth as he stared down the oncoming torrent. How many civilians would be swallowed up by the waters? He didn't dare consider the casualties. It doesn't matter! It didn't change what he had to do. Shutting off his noisy thoughts, he poured everything he had to create as many barricades as he could before the waves arrived.

Boom!

The wave crashed into the first set of levies with a rumbling bellow. The entire earth seemed to shake at the explosion of energy. The stone structure shuddered at the powerful clash. Emil grimaced. The heavy deluge rained down upon him, threatening to disrupt his concentration. Screams erupted behind him at the impending disaster. For a second, it appeared that his walls would hold.

Then the structures suddenly groaned.

Fractures spread across the surface like shattered glass. Portions of the levies turned brittle, and then splintered off into fragments. When some of the fragments finally broke off, the rest of the wall immediately collapsed. The first set of levies crumbled as the wave tore through.

"Torrent!"

Kai was back on his feet. Instead of trying to halt the oncoming waves directly, he redirected the water so that they would slam into the second levies with a more distributed force. That lessened the strain considerably, but it was still a stopgap measure. They were only buying time. As more water came in, the weight on Emil's makeshift fortifications would soon overpower anything that he could create with Bulwark. He just completed the third set of levies when fractures began to appear again.

What's the damage if we fail here?

He shot a quick glance back. Anna was still directing the crowd out of the path of the waves, but with everyone in a panic and densely packed together, it was difficult for them to move quickly. In a few seconds, the waves would breach his last set of levies and sweep up everyone in its path. Kai, Anna, and himself would probably survive given their Exalted constitutions, but most of the Ordinaries in the area would drown under the deluge. The thought of lifeless corpses floating in the ensuing aftermath was a haunting sight.

Doubt crept into his mind. Emil suddenly pictured all of the Ordinaries in the Arts District eyeing him with disdain. The indignation and grief in their gaze had affected him more than he realized. He was their savior and yet he was being accused as though he was the source of their misfortune. Suddenly, his resolve faltered. He was only delaying the inevitable. Maybe he will save a couple more people, but why? What was the point of this useless struggle?

I'm not doing this for gratitude!

His subconscious pushed back against this nihilistic futility. He was reminded of Anna's unreasonable sense of justice. He thought about Aoife's unconditional kindness before they knew who each other were. And he remembered his own bitterness at the world when he was nothing but a powerless child of the slums. What was the one thing he desperately wished for back then?

All I wanted was a pair of helping hands.

Someone who would look at him. Someone who would show him a tiny bit of humanity. Someone who would offer a little bit of what they could do without. It sounded like a simple ask, but the world had showed him time and time again that it was ugly and cruel. Still, he rejected the premise that things had to be this way. When he underwent a proper Awakening, he vowed that he would not turn a blind-eye to those who needed help.

Emil raised his hands, erecting the final wall as his third set of levies were tore apart by the raging waters. This was it. This flimsy, thin piece of stone was the last bastion he could offer before the waves completely broke through. He braced himself, ready to endure the brunt of the stormy waters. He only hoped that Anna had gotten most of the crowd out of the way.

"Hold the wall!"

A voice called out behind him. A pair of Lionhearts jumped over him and rushed to the base of his makeshift fortification. Azure light swallowed their bodies as they morphed into giants of folklore. Shapeshifters. With their goliath bodies, they pushed back against the trembling stone wall.

"Adhere!"

Another Lionheart intoned. Emil felt a foreign injection of mana brush against the surface of his stone wall. Fractures along the structures suddenly closed, seemingly strengthened by the touch of another Gift.

"The floodgates are being restored! There's more help coming! Just hang in there for a bit longer!"

***

The entire mid-junction area was flooded.

Emil fell to his knees. His lungs were on fire as he struggled for air. Bulwark's stone barricades stood before him, keeping the excess deluge at bay with the aid of the Lionhearts' Gifts.

"Are you okay?" Anna asked, rushing to his side. He offered her a few nods in between a hacking fit. His body was battered from excessive mana use, but the drugs he took earlier kept most of the symptoms manageable.

"I'm here too you know…"

Kai was sprawled on the ground beside him, looking ragged and pathetic, groaning with exhaustion. He suffered the worst of it given that he had the unreasonable role of delaying the entire flood with his Gift.

"You did amazing too, don't worry," Anna said. Emil thought he heard a genuine attempt to be nice, but her hurried tone made her sound dismissive. Regardless, Kai gave her a thumbs-up before dropping his arm back onto the floor.

"The Lionhearts confirmed that they were able to restore function to the floodgates. The bombs had blown them apart, but they were able to get engineers and Exalted to the area quickly. Things should be stabilized now."

"What about casualties?" Emil asked.

Anna had a harrowing look on her face. "A lot were injured. There were a couple of deaths and some still in critical condition. But—" She grabbed Emil and Kai's hands. "If you guys weren't there, things would have been much worse. You both did your best."

Her voice was shaky. She looked like she had more to say, but she pushed it down with a difficult smile. The edge of her lips twitched as she tried to hold onto her composure. Emil knew that she must have been frustrated with herself for not being able to do more. She was the hardest on herself when it came to helping others who were in need. But this time her Gift was terribly incompatible with the situation.

At least she's okay.

Emil let out a deep breath. Graf had informed him earlier than Aoife and Charlotte were spotted in the Black Shoal with Lionhearts. It was Anna and Kai who had been still unaccounted for. Seeing them alive removed a weight off his shoulders.

"I saw your parents in the Black Shoal, Anna," he said, remembering the fact, "They were providing emergency supplies to the people injured by the attacks."

Anna's eyes went wide. Emil thought he saw a flicker of relief across her face before she caught herself.

"I-Is that so?" she responded, feigning disinterest.

Emil couldn't help but smile. Even though they were on bad terms, Anna was still worried for them. "You should go see them." And in case her pride wouldn't let her act, he gave her another push for good measure. "The Black Shoal needs the most help right now. Aoife and Charlotte are there as well," Emil added, shooting a glance at Kai.

"Give me a second, Anna," Kai said, taking the hint as he pulled himself to his feet, "I'll come with you as soon as my head stops spinning."

After Kai recovered enough, the two of them left for the Black Shoal. Kai seemed to have more questions for Emil and what he was planning to do, but Anna promptly dragged him off before he had a chance to speak.

Once he was alone, Emil snuck off into a side passage. The Lionhearts who arrived earlier were occupied with providing first aid and escorting the remaining crowd into the Administrative District. After making sure that he was in the clear, he put on his mask again to go incognito.

The ten bombs that Kleine mentioned had detonated, but he doubted that Vigil was done with their plans. Melody and Karni were still on the loose, and Nagi hadn't shown himself yet.

Just what was awaiting them next?

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