Snap~
A crisp sound echoed. It was dull, so dull it felt as if the entire world were protesting to stop it.
Everything turned to stone, frozen and shimmering like crystal.
In a world where all things resisted the dispersion of space, frozen in a single moment, only the silver haired youth could move his eyes to witness the world shattered into ten thousand pieces.
Just as Quan was weighing his options, whether to flee or sit still and play dumb, the pinkish purple crystalline shards scattered between the torn fragments of reality suddenly fused together, branching out like tree limbs.
They intruded into the paintings of reality, slowly reaching for the woman holding her child.
Quan held his breath, trying to appear detached from this eerie space, but his trembling pupils betrayed him.
Each moment, each tick of the clock felt like tens of thousands of hours slowly turning into crystals, filling the voids between the glass shards of reality.
Suddenly, a figure appeared behind Quan, a hand resting on his shoulder. Quan did not know who it was, only hearing a whisper, soft yet piercingly high.
"If granted the power of life and death, would you slay the woman or not?"
Quan's mind raced. He wasn't sure what was happening, but a question?
Quan did not dare speak, let alone turn his head. Everything felt like a gamble, but what if he remained silent?
"Phew~, acting as if I am holding a knife to your throat.
I will not kill you, regardless of who you are. I only wish to ask: do you intend to slay or not?"
An individual of indeterminate gender wearing a black faceless mask and a black police uniform leaned over Quan's shoulder. They sat right beside him. Quan's face was rigid, his facial muscles contracting involuntarily.
Though he appeared unchanged on the surface, he was tensing every muscle and adjusting his jaw just to ensure not a single line of his expression shifted.
Yet, there are things no one can absolute control: blinking and sweat.
It would happen soon, so Quan had to shift his way of thinking.
Quan began to open his mouth slowly, shifting his eyes toward the stranger on his left.
"Well? To slay or to spare?" The stranger repeated the intent.
Quan blinked, thought for a few seconds, and spoke softly.
"If you permit it, it is not entirely impossible to slay."
"?"
The stranger seemed confused. Quan began to understand a little.
If he chose to slay or spare now, there were three outcomes for him:
He lives and receives a reward.
He dies, or lives and loses something.
He lives with no change at all.
And the girl would also have three outcomes:
Death.
Life with loss.
Life with gain.
Any choice leading to these would give him a 1/3 chance of death or disadvantage. Or perhaps a 1/9 probability of loss based on whether the girl was irrelevant to him or if the two events were dependent. The risk was too great.
Thus, the best way to gain time and information was to pull the opponent into a circle where his words did not represent a final result, but rather the act of choosing itself.
"If you wish it, I grant you permission to slay," the stranger replied, welcoming the dialogue.
"If the act of slaying is understood by my heart, then I must slay."
"To slay or not is up to you; you may slay as you please."
"To slay is not the same as to slay; therefore, I shall not slay."
"Does that mean to slay is simultaneously not to slay? To strike the flesh but not the soul?"
"If I so desire, I shall slay. If I do not desire, the thought of the blade shall not cross my mind."
"If you dare to think it, you have dared to slay. Slaying is within reach; one strike and it is done."
"To slay is to err; to slay instantly is to lose instantly."
"To slay without intent is to act without intellect, a crime without form."
"If permitted to slay without form or guilt... I should slay you."
"Slay—"
Without waiting for the sentence to finish, the faceless stranger was met with a lunging elbow. They luckily dodged the blow and tried to retreat, but Quan delivered a stomp to the top of their foot, forcing them to their knees. As they reached into a pocket for a tool, Quan seized their arm and collar.
A judo throw slammed the stranger hard onto the crystal shards. In that moment, the stranger tried to touch the ground to call the crystals for aid.
"?"
Quan had calculated two cases: wrong-wrong or right-wrong. That was the trigger for the magic. It relied on two things: a high-level magic like this required a binding contract, and a high-ranking mage capable of casting without bindings would not be in a small village like this. The tempting words were all triggers—that was his deduction. So, he would test one last thing.
"I will slay that woman by using your teeth as a press to crush her limbs and watch her bleed to death."
Immediately, the pinkish purple crystals that were about to lunge at Quan froze solid.
'It is true. What he says is the truth.'
Quan's heart pounded. He had just staked his life on an unfounded assumption, and it was working—or at least, he thought so.
But that no longer mattered, for he could hear footsteps.
Footsteps from afar, emerging from a small alleyway.
It forced both Quan and the figure before him into a heavy, silent breath.
"Let them go, Quan."
It was Ron. That short man had returned.