Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths-Chapter 36: Only One Way Out

For a moment, Aren considered running straight toward the safe zone. But the path was a highway that cut cleanly across District 7, a place with no hiding spots and full visibility.

He decided to use the longer, but safer path instead, cutting through an older quarter of the city.

The streets narrowed and the buildings leaned close enough to block out the dawning sky. Aren kept his pace despite the exhaustion in his body and the lingering ache from the curse.

"Are you okay?" he asked without looking back.

"I’m okay," Luna replied between breaths.

"How did they even find you?!" Aren asked immediately. "Did the talisman not work?"

Luna shook her head. "It’s not that."

"They were already in District 7," she continued. "Already holding out for us. I tried to hide but one of them found me first."

Aren’s jaw tightened slightly.

So it hadn’t been a coincidence. The Defiler who grabbed her hadn’t stumbled onto her trail. It was her who stumbled into his search zone.

It was lucky that Aren arrived when he did, or it would’ve been bad.

He replayed the timeline in his head while vaulting a low fence into a tighter residential lane. The fight hadn’t been long, but it was especially difficult.

His ether reserves were running low, and he was willing to bet Luna’s were too. If another Defiler appeared—

Aren wiped the thought away from his head. He’d just have to not let that happen.

Movement caught the corner of his eye. Aren immediately stopped and pulled Luna close before dipping into one of the nearby buildings.

They crouched underneath the kitchen sink, Aren just barely peeking up to get a better look through the broken window.

On the rooftop ahead stood another robed figure. His head was angled downward at the city, watching...waiting for them to show up.

Aren’s gaze flicked left and right in the same breath. Another silhouette shifted two buildings down. And another farther back, barely visible against the skyline.

Even if we left sooner, or finished the fight earlier.

It wouldn’t have mattered...they were already here.

"We’re too late," he muttered quietly.

Luna followed his line of sight, her expression tightening as she caught the shapes against the skyline.

"Then...what should we do?!"

Aren opened his mouth to reply, but closed it immediately before hearing footsteps above.

The wooden beams above them creaked, dust drifting down slowly as Aren covered both his and Luna’s mouths. He retracted all presence of his ether before signaling Luna to do the same.

A voice filtered down through the thin ceiling, lazy and unbothered.

"How come we’re chasing some high school girl?"

"Orders."

"Orders are boring," the first voice replied. "We could just tear this district apart and be done with it. Flush them out in minutes. Some of us have actual lives, you know."

"If we cause too much commotion," the second voice said evenly, "the surrounding cities will send reinforcements faster."

A brief silence.

Then—

"Can’t the High Lady just wipe them all out, reinforcements and all?" the first voice asked.

"You dare trouble the High Lady over something like this?" the second voice reprimanded coldly.

"...Right. Sorry."

"Besides," the second continued, "you never know how many hidden masters are lurking in the world. Some would gladly come out of seclusion to deal with us."

"Ahhh I see, which is precisely why we need this Core!"

The voices above shifted again, footsteps scraping across tile as someone moved away.

"Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the plaza?" the colder voice muttered. "Get back to your post."

"Ehh, it’s all just rats there anyway," the first scoffed. "They’re boxed in District 7. Relax!"

Aren waited until the footsteps receded fully before easing his hand away from Luna’s mouth.

Yet a single word replayed in his mind: the plaza.

He slipped his phone from his pocket, keeping the screen dim as he checked for a signal. Nothing, not even a weak one.

"Shit..." he muttered under his breath.

Luna leaned closer. "What?"

"No signal," he murmured.

"That’s impossible, wasn’t that how you found me?"

Aren nodded. "They probably realized that civilian communication was still working to an extent."

After a moment of silence, Aren spoke.

"I’ve got a plan...but you might not like it."

He lowered the phone slowly, gaze sharpening as pieces slid into place. "That conversation up there," he said quietly. "It might’ve been bait."

Luna frowned. "Bait?"

"They could’ve said it loud enough for anyone hiding below to hear. Make it sound like the plaza’s empty."

She went still.

"But," Aren continued, voice steady, "it’s also the boundary."

"The boundary?"

"District 7’s being suppressed," he said, keeping his tone low. "My signal’s dead here, and my ether gets dampened the moment it spreads."

"Kind of a miracle that we defeated that other Defiler honestly."

"So what you’re saying is—" Luna started.

"We get to the plaza," Aren finished her sentence.

"Didn’t you just say—?"

"I know what I said," he continued. "But haven’t you wondered why they haven’t taken over the safe haven yet?"

"Yeah...kind of," she tilted her head. "Why haven’t they?"

"The plaza. It sits too close to the safe zone’s barrier influence," Aren replied. "If they push suppression that far, they’ll be revealed."

Luna’s eyes widened a fraction. "You mean—"

"The old Barrier Master is stronger than whoever’s anchoring this jam," he finished calmly. "They won’t risk provoking that."

"So the plaza isn’t safe," she said slowly.

"No." His jaw tightened slightly. "It’s exposed."

"And the moment we step out there..."

"Our signal comes back." He slid the phone into his pocket. "And the military will come running."

She held his gaze for a beat longer. "How long would the military take?"

"Minutes," he answered. "If the ping spikes near the barrier, they’ll see it. They have to."

"And until then?"

Aren’s eyes shifted toward the direction of the plaza, where the sun had begun to climb above the horizon.

"We hold out until they come."