Five figures picked their way through the jagged debris of the ruined city of Cerma, their heads swiveling as they surveyed the architectural corpse of a city. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and charred stone.
"What… happened here?" Hana muttered, her voice trembling.
Her pink hair and healer's robes seemed far too pure for the filth of this battlefield. Beside her, Riku shifted his shield, his dark purple hair shadowed as his blue eyes scanned the rubble for threats.
"Did the dragon already attack?" Riku's voice echoed off the hollowed-out shells of shops.
"More importantly," Souka whispered, her knuckles white as she clung to her mage staff, "can we even fight something like this?"
Between them walked Sayon, her cyan eyes reflecting the cold light of the dying sun as she held her bow with practiced tension.
Leading them was Kaito Yagami, his sandy blonde hair bright against the ash. He stepped over a fallen beam with a confident, rehearsed smirk.
"Don't worry. We received mid Relic Grade items from the kingdom," Kaito said, his hand resting on his sword. "It should be enough."
The group of five walked further into the city while looking at the horrors all around them.
Some people were buried to death by the falling buildings, their limbs twisted in unnatural angles beneath the stone. Some were burned to death, their features melted into the cobblestones. But strangely, some were dead with their parts gone—entire sections of their torsos or limbs missing as if they had been erased from existence. It was a surgical kind of slaughter, one that felt chillingly intentional, unlike the collateral damage of a dragon.
The more they walked forwards, the more bodies they saw. Hana covered her mouth with her hands in terror, her eyes welling with tears. Souka looked disgusted, her nose wrinkling at the metallic tang of blood and the stench of waste.
As they approached the center of the city, they began to see knights digging up the fallen walls, their faces haggard as they tried to help the ones that were still breathing.
Then, they saw it. A massive plain ground had been carved into the heart of the district, featuring a wide pit in the middle that looked like a crater from a fallen star. There, their eyes were first met with the unconscious dragon.
"Th-that's the dragon," Sayon looked at it, her eyes wide open and her breath hitching.
"Let's go guys. Something is wrong here." Kaito rushed forward, his hand snapping to his hilt as he unsheathed his sword.
As they closed in, they were finally able to see the two people resting near the massive beast.
A human? Kaito's eyes were first met with the beautiful woman with white hair.
She didn't look like she belonged to a battlefield; she looked like a doll of porcelain and silk, her presence almost ethereal amidst the grime. He couldn't see her face because she was looking down at something. So, he looked below her as well.
Another one? He and the others all saw the man in black. They couldn't see his face properly from afar with how he was in a sleeping position, his head resting comfortably in the woman's lap.
Kaito gave a silent hand signal to be ready, and the group closed in on them with the slow, rhythmic caution of hunters.
As they got closer—reaching a distance of just a few meters—their steps slowed down on their own.
The man held in the woman's lap was someone they knew. Someone they hadn't forgotten about in the four years since the kingdom had changed. Despite the different hairstyle, the more mature frame, and the high-quality clothes, they recognized the boy that had escaped the kingdom that day.
"…Noa?" Hana muttered from behind, her voice a fragile thread of disbelief.
Noa and Vionette were snapped back into reality from their own private world. Both twitched slightly and looked at the five people that had appeared in front of them.
Noa sat up slowly, rubbing the back of his neck as he blinked the lingering fatigue from his eyes.
Who the hell?
"Mmm?" He looked at the five of them one by one, his gaze traveling from Kaito's smirk to Hana's tears.
"Oh! It's you guys." He snapped his fingers as if finally remembering a trivial fact.
It took some time because they had grown over the years, their features hardening and their statures changing, but he finally identified them. Vionette tilted her head to the side, her eyes scanning Noa's face for his reaction.
"You know them?"
"Kinda."
"Friends?"
"…"
Noa's expression turned serious. His carefree, lazy eyes narrowed instantly at the question. He was reminded of the past memories he didn't like—the cold hallways of the palace, the whispers behind his back, and the day they all watched him be cast aside.
Vionette noticed the shift in his aura immediately, her own eyes sharpening.
"Not really… I tried to be but," he looked at the group, his voice turning cold and flat, "you rejected me, didn't you?"
The five were taken aback by the blunt declaration. They couldn't argue about it, nor could they find the words to reject it; it was a simple, undeniable truth.
The star had fallen because the heavens themselves had pushed it away.
Who is that woman? Kaito examined Vionette, his mind racing. How do they have high-class clothes even better than us, the kingdom's heroes?
The realization hurt his pride. He and his team were the celebrated champions, respected by the whole kingdom and equipped by the royal treasury. Yet here was a criminal, a fugitive who had escaped in rags, wearing garments that radiated a far more sophisticated craftsmanship.
That woman is so beautiful. Can we have her? Riku was looking at Vionette too, his blue eyes filled with a sudden, dark greed.
Both he and Kaito had fallen for her sheer physical perfection, unable to see the predator beneath the silk.
"W-we're sorry. Noa—" Hana muttered, her hands trembling.
"Forget about it." Noa scratched his hair with a dismissive groan. "You're already strangers to me, so do what you came here to do and go away."
"Hey!" Souka interrupted, her face flushing with anger. "You can't talk to her like that. She's a hero!" Her eyebrows furrowed and she gritted her teeth, her pride as a mage flaring up.
"Oh my~ you guys are such frogs in a well." From behind Noa, Vionette spoke, her left hand coming up to touch her smiling lips in a mocking gesture. "You think being called heroes in one kingdom means you're someone?"
"W-what?" Souka was left speechless, her mouth agape. "Who are you?"
She looks like a doll. Other than that, she doesn't even have a big aura. Why is she talking to us like that? While Souka's mind raced with indignation, a sharp shout cut through the air.
"Stop!"
It was Count Fain, running towards them with two of his knights trailing behind him. His face was pale, drenched in sweat and the soot of his ruined city.
I must stop further hostility as much as possible. Fain looked at Vionette and Noa with a desperate intensity. I don't know who they are or why they defeated the dragon. But I know one thing: those two are too dangerous, even for the heroes.
Knowing what would happen if they provoked a man who had just leveled a district and a woman who had made him feel utterly powerless, he stepped in to silence the so-called heroes.
"It's the Count," Sayon spoke for the group.
Fain skidded to a halt near the five of them, taking a long, ragged breath before trying to maintain his noble composure.
"It's an honor to meet the heroes again." He bowed slightly, though his hands were shaking.
Even for a Count, heroes were not people to be ordered around; in Cyradis, they often held the same authority as dukes.
"I'm glad you're here." Kaito pointed his sword toward Noa. "What are they doing here? Are they hired by you?"
Kaito assumed that the only reason Noa could have reached this place and survived was through the Count's intervention. He couldn't imagine Noa having the resources to use a teleportation circle.
"Uh…" Fain's voice trembled as he replied. "They were the ones that defeated the dragon, but I didn't hire them."
He simply told the truth, his eyes darting between Kaito and the man in black.
"They defeated the dragon?" Riku's voice raised in a scoffing laugh. "Then it must be some weak-ass dragon."
Riku and the others had been dispatched here specifically to slay the beast. They were the elite, trained by the kingdom's greatest warriors, empowered by their Systems, and armored in Relic Grade equipment. To think that two people—especially one as 'weak' as Noa had been—could defeat the target meant the dragon was a fraud.
Fain's eyes widened at Riku's arrogance, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"Hey jackass. I said get your work done and go away or," Noa's hand started to emit that sickly purple energy again, "do you want me to personally get you out?"
Fain froze. He knew what the heroes' objective was: to kill the dragon and claim the glory. But the lady beside Noa had already declared the beast her companion. Trying to prevent a slaughter, he opened his mouth once more.
"The dragon has already been defeated. So please, rest assured. Let's not fight among ourselves and part ways." He made a forced smile, sweat dripping from his chin.
"Defeated?" Souka raised an eyebrow. "It's not been killed yet though?"
She looked at the dragon again. There, she could still sense its Aura, pulsing faintly but surely.
"Heheh! So you were unable to kill it." Kaito raised his weapon, his confident smirk returning. "Let's go guys, to kill the dragon."
He looked back at his team members, his eyes gleaming with the prospect of an easy kill.
Souka nodded in satisfaction, her staff glowing blue. Riku grinned, tightening his grip on his shield. Hana also nodded slowly, and Sayon remained silent, which was her usual sign of agreement.
They each took a step forward, their boots crunching on the ash as they intended to slay the dragon before them. Then—
"No, no, no."
The voice was a low, melodic warning. Everyone turned towards Noa. Fain gulped, his throat tight with dread.
"That dragon is with me."
Noa drew a line in the ash with his finger before leaning back comfortably against Vionette. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.
"Anyone who wants to die, go past that line."
He said it as if he were discussing the weather, a casual threat that hung heavy in the air.
"What?" Riku shouted at him, his pride as a hero wounded by the sheer gall of the statement. "You think you can handle us?"
He drew his sword and gripped his shield tightly before charging towards Noa, his heavy armor clanking with every stride.
Plsss
The sound was a soft, wet whisper. Before Riku could even get near the line Noa had drawn, his right hand detached from his body. It didn't fall; it was simply gone, completely erased from existence, leaving only a spray of blood behind.
"Huh?" Riku slowed down, looking at the stump where his arm used to be in dull, shocked confusion.
"Heheh~ you didn't even try to bully me back on Earth out of fear," Noa continued, his voice calm and steady.
Plsss
As Riku looked at his arm, the other one went off too. Now, the confusion crystallized into a terrifying conclusion: 'death.'
"—So, what made you think—"
Plsss
This time, it was his leg. Losing his balance instantly, Riku fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
"—You can defeat me?"
"Uhh!" Riku crawled on the ground, his remaining limbs flailing as he tried to understand the reality of his situation.
Without being able to fight back, without being able to activate his skills, without being able to do anything at all. Blood spilled from his mouth as he looked up at the man he had once mocked.
Noa pulled his index finger and middle finger back, using his thumb to hold them in a tense flicking position. There, the purple energy from [Echo Reclamation] gathered into a small, pulsing sphere.
This was a new application Noa had found for his skill. Though there weren't many living beings left in the ruins to provide fuel for a massive explosion, the lingering fear and the presence of the heroes was more than enough.
"Imaginary Technique: Hollow Purple," Noa muttered as he released his fingers.
The energy sphere shot forward like a silent bullet.
SWRRSHH!
Cell by cell, Riku's body ceased to exist. The others—Kaito, Hana, Souka, and Sayon—they just watched.
They watched in fear, finally understanding the sheer scale of the damage a single skill could do. They watched in confusion as reality itself seemed to be scrubbed clean. They watched in utter surprise as Noa killed Riku, his own classmate and a 'Hero,' as if he were nothing more than a bug to be crushed underfoot.
"…" Vionette looked at Noa with a blank, unreadable expression.
"What? That was a little similar, so I used that name."
Noa knew exactly what she was thinking, acknowledging the reference with a casual shrug.
They remained in their carefree attitude, even as the world around them felt like it was breaking. The remaining four heroes were frozen in the air, their minds unable to process the total erasure of their companion.
What… just happened? Kaito was doubting his own eyes, his heart hammering against his ribs. System, what was that?
He called out to his system, desperate for data.
[It appears to be a skill of the individual Noa Shinra.]
That's it? That's all you have to say? Kaito's pride was replaced by a cold, creeping dread.
"W-Why... why did you kill him?" Hana turned towards Noa, her hands clamped over her mouth as she began to sob.
"Yea!" Souka shouted at Noa, her face twisted in a mask of disgust. "Is it because he tried to banish you from the kingdom? If so, you could've just—"
"Ahhh," Noa interrupted her, his voice cutting through her words like a razor. "Don't misunderstand me. I have already forgotten about the things that happened four years ago."
"Then why did you—"
"As for why I killed him,"
Noa leaned back, a sinister, menacing grin stretching across his face. It was a grin that promised nothing but pain and suffering, the look of a man who had stared into the dark and found it pleasing.
"Why not?"