CHAPTER 85 — MISALIGNMENT
The figure stood where it had been, hand lowering as the core vanished into its skin. The red glow faded, leaving only a faint flicker in his irises.
Crimson Six's gaze sharpened. Her instincts aligned before her thoughts.
"...What in fcks name is going on here"
As the notion that the cores that she had spent centuries preparing.. just to have it taken by another seemed Impossible to her
But as if not caring for her thoughts or concerns,the figure moved again, this time
Slowly as its hand rose. Not with force, not with urgency, but with a deliberate weight that pressed against the air itself.
Dust froze mid-fall. Fractured machinery hummed unevenly as cracks spread along their surfaces. The ground trembled, then the walls followed, the entire chamber tightening around something it could not contain.
Crimson Six shifted into a defensive stance.
Her voice dropped, controlled, but edged with something deeper.
"Answer me!"
She yelled as the pressure climbed.
But just as it had reached it's peak, just as it seemed like the laboratory couldn't handle anymore pressure... vanished.
Silence collapsed back in.
The raised hand of the figure before her trembled.as it's fingers spasmed once, twice, then, slowly it's body dropped without resistance.
Crimson Six didn't move immediately. Her eyes tracked every detail, replaying the moment, searching for structure,yet finding none
Then she heard it,a breath. Shallow. Uneven.Human.
Her eyes narrowed as her hesitation ended.
She moved.
Her figure blurred forward, fist descending toward his spine with controlled force.
Just before impact, the body shifted.
Not fast. Not clean. Just enough.
Her strike shattered the ground where he had been, stone rupturing outward as dust surged.
Leylin rolled through the force, his shoulder slamming into fractured steel as momentum dragged him across the floor. He forced himself up, palms pressing into the ground as the surface cracked beneath them.
Not from strength,From imbalance.
Crimson Six paused for half a second, eyes narrowing.that wasn't control.
Leylin rose slowly. Unsteady.
The red in his eyes had dimmed.
"Where… am I…" The thought dragged through his mind as his gaze settled on her.
Memories surged in from his dead clone he had left on the battlefield as recognition flickered,but it was too late.
Crimson Six was already moving.
Her strike drove straight for his throat.
Aiming for the kill
But something strange happened at that moment,it was as if time slowed as leylin saw
Her clearly..her sprint,the frozen expression of determination in her eyes as he took everything in..then,reality resumed as his instincts shifted his weight, honing battlefield instincts to evade before the strike landed,but something strange happened again.. his body didn't follow his command
It held, remaining still as the figure of crimson six got closer in his vision.
But just at the last moment as her fist was about to collide with his frozen form.. it moved.
Twisting in an impossible way that defied how bodies should move as her fist passed through empty space.
Leylin's eyes sharpened.
Why… no,what was that?
He thought as he tried to step back.
The movement came out wrong. Shorter than intended,it was Tighter. Cleaner.
And definitely not what he chose as he realised in a fraction of a second that his new form was choosing something minimal,no perfect..but better.
Crimson Six didn't pause. Her next strike was already cutting through the space he should have occupied.
Leylin forced himself to react too soon.
As his shoulder shifted early...and this time, the body followed him.. success!
He thought as soon after the strike clipped him.
Impact twisted his frame, forcing him half a step off balance as the force drove through his side.
His breath broke.
What…?
His gaze tightened as he realised that the body wasn't following him.
It was doing something else.
Crimson Six pressed forward, her attacks sharpening. Not just to kill now, but to understand.
"What are you?"
Another strike came, low and curving inward.
Leylin froze.
Every instinct screamed at him to move.
He didn't.
The strike closed in,closer with each passing second as at the last second
the body moved.
A small shift. Precise.
The attack slid past him with nothing to catch.
Leylin's pupils constricted.
…It didn't move when I told it to.
Crimson Six saw it. Her eyes narrowed.
"Interesting, whatever you have done with my little experiment...it's really intriguing"
She said as she changed her approach immediately.
A feint, followed by a real strike, then another angle closing off his escape.
Layered pressure.
Leylin saw through it.his body didn't move.
Not yet.
"Move," he thought..nothing.
The real strike came.
Too close.
Too fast.
His body moved at the last possible moment.
He avoided the first hit.
The second landed.
Impact.
It drove into him clean, sending him skidding across the broken ground.
He caught himself barely, one hand pressing into the floor as he stayed low, breathing unevenly.
Wrong.
Everything felt wrong.
His instincts were there. Sharp. Clear.
So why…?
His hand tightened against the ground.
Why am I late?
Crimson Six approached slowly now, watching him with focused intensity.
"You're not fighting me," she said.
Leylin didn't respond.
Because she was right.
He wasn't fighting.
He was getting in the way.
He pushed himself up, slower this time, eyes locked inward.
The pattern was there.
He could see it.
He just couldn't… match it.
Crimson Six's stance shifted again, sharper now.
"You're hesitating," she said, voice calm, controlled, but laced with irritation. "Or something inside you is."
She moved.
Faster than before.
Her strike cut straight toward his centerline.
No tricks. Just speed.
Leylin saw it.
And this time..he didn't move.
The distance closed.
His body stayed still.
At the last instant, it shifted.
A slight turn. A minimal adjustment.
Her strike missed.
In the same motion, his arm rose.
Not by decision.
It met her attack and redirected it off-line.
Crimson Six's expression changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
"That's not yours," she said.
Leylin felt it.
Not the movement..the certainty behind it.
For a second, everything aligned.
No delay. No confusion.
Then it slipped,the next strike came.
Leylin moved first.
Too early.
Impact.
He was thrown back again, harder this time.
Crimson Six didn't stop.
Now she understood.
"You're slowing it down," she said, stepping forward. "Whatever that is inside you… you can't keep up with it."
Leylin rose again, slower, but his eyes had changed.
He wasn't watching her anymore.
He was watching himself.
Why does it wait…?
Why only then…?
His breathing steadied.
Crimson Six lunged again, faster, sharper, more aggressive now.
Leylin saw it.
And this time..he stopped trying to act.
Stopped trying to think.
Stopped trying to lead.
He let the movement come.
He let go.