Chapter 398: Klein Konstantine & Amaera Castillon

Seated behind her desk, Helia adjusted her glasses, lost in her thoughts.

"I would never have believed that this guy was actually Kaiser," she thought out loud.

She recalled the scene from earlier. While Klein was fighting against Julian in the heights of Tenebris, she had hidden herself in the appearance of an ordinary student passing by. From there, she had observed everything. And it was at that precise moment that she understood. Kaiser was not dead. He was simply calling himself Klein now.

"Olivia must absolutely not know the truth," she murmured to herself, her fingers clenched.

She knew that if Olivia learned that Klein was actually Kaiser, nothing could stop her from seeking him out. Helia stood up and walked toward the window.

It was for this reason that she would not hesitate to kill him. And this was the perfect moment.

According to the official schedule that Klein had planned, Director Amaera was accompanying Klein for reconnaissance at dawn, along with the other faction leaders, each heading in a different direction. As her physical condition was poor, she was exempted when alone. Helia knew that she would thus have several hours ahead of her, far from her gaze. She then took out a small communication mirror from her drawer and stroked its silver surface.

Helia fully intended to call this woman. After all, she needed her last ingredients to create....

***

Meanwhile...

< Elemental Magic : Eternal Frost Storm.>

She spread her arms, and the surrounding mana converged toward her in a frantic whirlwind. In an instant, a storm of snow and ice of unprecedented violence materialized, and she transformed the battlefield into a white hell. Shards of frost, as sharp as crystal razors, swirled at supersonic speeds, and they shredded everything in their path.

The harpies caught in the vortex did not even have time to flee. Their bodies were literally pulverized by the pressure and the extreme cold. Frozen feathers and pieces of crystallized flesh fell to the ground like a macabre rain. Amaera remained at the center of this chaos, her blue hair floating majestically, and her silver eyes shining with a cold glow of satisfaction at the massacre she was orchestrating.

Klein protected his own body with an Aura Coating so as not to be carried away by the vice-director’s residual cold, and he continued his methodical carnage.

He slipped between the snow gusts, and his black blade constantly found the way to the hearts of his enemies. With each harpy eliminated, he felt his Aura Farming stabilize, as he converted the fear of the remaining monsters into an almost unlimited Aura reserve.

In a few minutes, the plateau had become silent again. The hundred harpies were now nothing more than a memory scattered on the frosted rock. Amaera slowly descended toward the ground, and her feet touched the solid earth with the lightness of a snowflake.

Klein sheathed his katana, then he observed the remains of the carnage with absolute neutrality. He turned toward the vice-director, and he adjusted his coat collar.

"Looks like we’re done with the scouting for today," he noted with a touch of irony.

Amaera did not answer right away. She stared at Klein, and her eyes probed the depths of his soul again.

"Do not think that changing your identity will change anything, Konstantine," she finally said in an icy voice. "Your past is a shadow that will always end up catching up with you."

"You seem to know what you’re talking about, vice-director... Anyway. It’s not me who will contradict you, I’m well aware of it."

She turned around, then she began to walk. She left him alone in the middle of the frozen corpses on the Tenebris plateau. Klein watched her move away, and an indecipherable smile appeared on his lips.

...

As he was walking, the air suddenly became heavier. This heaviness did not come only from the stifling heat rising from the cracked ground, nor from the monsters lurking in the surrounding ruins.

It was saturated with a murderous intent directed at them. Klein Konstantine felt this pressure on his shoulders, and he saw Vice-Director Amaera Castillon turn her head slightly to the right. The ground began to shake under their feet. Cracks appeared in the dried earth, and clouds of dust rose two hundred meters ahead of them.

Massive silhouettes emerged from this ochre mist.

They measured more than four meters in height, and their grayish skin was covered with warts as hard as basalt. These were desert ogres, super-rare rank creatures.

Their bloodshot eyes blinked as they adjusted to the dim light of Tenebris, then they fixed on the two intruders. One of them struck the ground with its stone club, and the impact produced a dull sound that echoed across the plain.

Above, a shrill cry tore through the air. Klein looked up and spotted a cloud of black dots standing out against the gray sky. The harpies seemed to be returning by the dozens.

Klein turned toward Amaera Castillon, who was observing the scene without moving. Her azure robe floated slightly in the warm wind, and her long cyan-blue hair danced on her shoulders.

"Stay back if you don’t want to dirty your robe, vice-director," he called out.

His mocking smile was in place, but his gaze had changed. The Eye of Perception had activated, and his pupils had become of absolute analytical coldness. He could already see the trajectories of the ogres, the blind spots, the weaknesses in their natural armor.

Immediately, Klein disappeared. He did not run: he propelled himself. He used a Dash coupled with an Aura Repulsion under the sole of his boots, and the explosion of force propelled him like a cannonball toward the first ogre. The wind whistled in his ears during the fraction of a second that his flight lasted. The monster raised its stone club, but Klein was already in its blind spot, behind the creature’s left knee.

He drew the katana in a fluid movement, and he executed the first technique.

< First movement : Crescent Moon.>

A blade of white aura sprang from the tip of his katana. This blade was of a nanometric fineness, barely visible, but it cut through everything in its path. The blow was of surgical precision: it struck the ogre’s nape, exactly between the second and third vertebra. The creature’s head was cleanly severed, so fast that the body did not immediately realize what had just happened.

The ogre remained standing for half a second, its eyes blinked twice, then the head slid along the neck and fell to the ground with a dull thud. Black blood spurted from the severed artery, and it sprayed the arid earth forming a viscous fountain.

Without slowing down, Klein pivoted on his supporting foot. He felt the dust crunch under his sole, and he immediately followed up with the second movement.

< Second movement : Quarter Moon.>

Remnants of aura remained suspended in the air around him. They shone faintly, and they formed ghostly arcs one meter from his body. A second ogre, seeing its companion fall, charged while roaring. It raised both fists above its head to crush Klein. But Klein performed a complete rotation on himself, and his two blades followed the movement.

The luminous trails reacted to his gesture, and they extended outward like invisible blades. They cut the creature’s limbs at impossible angles. The ogre’s two arms fell to the ground at the same time, cleanly severed at the shoulders. Then its entrails poured out through a large horizontal gash, and they slid down its legs in a soft sound of torn meat. The ogre collapsed onto its knees, then it toppled forward.

Meanwhile, the harpies were swooping down from the sky. There were fifty of them, maybe more, and they formed a whirlwind of claws and dirty feathers. Their shrill cries multiplied when they saw Klein exposed on the ground.