Gilded Ashes-Chapter 263: Missing Piece

Raizen stayed frozen on the branch.

He stared through the wet glass and tried to make sense of what he saw. Elin walked into the Echelon hall like she was actually supposed to be there. Not as a member – she couldn’t be one - but the moment she arrived, everything shifted anyway.

Hikari stood close beside him. Close enough that Raizen felt the edge of her sleeve brush his arm when she leaned in. She didn’t speak. She didn’t move much either. Her focus stayed locked on the room below, sharp and cold in a way Raizen wasn’t used to from her.

The cloaked figure reached the center of the hall and paused.

Then she pulled her hood back. Dark red hair spilled out in a smooth wave - It was, indeed, Elin.

Raizen’s stomach tightened. He saw her last in Ukai with the sphere in her hand, promising to leave at once. He watched her take off on her dragon through thick fog, and now she stood under a glass dome, surrounded by the most imposing scientists in the world.

And she didn’t look casual anymore.

Her outfit changed. It looked more like a battle set, fitted and shiny. Thin silvery plates guarded her forearms, shaped like armor but light enough to move quickly. Raizen didn’t see her knives, but he knew where they were. Those plates hid them.

Elin stepped closer to the round table, lifted her chin, and spoke.

Her voice didn’t carry up to Raizen clearly, but he caught pieces. Some words cut through the distance and glass, sharp enough to land.

"The Anathema known as Ignorance is contained-"

"...Ice Sovereign..."

"...cannot completely bind..."

"... But can contain."

Raizen narrowed his eyes and watched her mouth. He couldn’t read every word, but he got enough to understand.

The Anathema - Ignorance – successfully made it to the Floating Islands. The Ice Sovereign couldn’t anchor it like the Ukai Ruler did. Not fully. Not with that same permanent grip. But she contained it.

Elin kept talking, calm and direct. No pride. No drama. Just a report.

Then her tone shifted slightly.

Raizen caught a phrase, broken by echo.

"...behavior... Is strange."

He leaned closer without meaning to.

Elin gestured once, as if drawing a line between two states. She spoke again, and Raizen caught more this time.

"...calm... under observation...more active... when ignored."

That made Raizen’s skin prickle. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Elin didn’t say it like a guess. She said it like a result she didn’t like. As if she ran the test more than once and kept getting the same answer.

She continued, and the way she moved told Raizen she wasn’t comfortable with what she learned. She didn’t fidget, but her hands stayed close to her body. Controlled. Uncomfortable.

Raizen pieced it together.

When the Anathema stayed watched, it stayed quiet. When people stopped paying attention, it stirred. It moved more.

It was as if constant attention kept it asleep.

And the moment it got ignored, it remembered it existed.

Hikari shifted beside Raizen. Not away. Closer. Her shoulder touched his now, barely, but it stayed there. Raizen felt it and didn’t move. He kept his eyes on Elin.

Elin finished that part and paused. The room stayed silent.

Then Elin spoke again, clearer. Slower.

Raizen caught the start.

"I suppose you all know..."

He watched her lips.

"...my abilities... altering life."

Raizen’s brows pulled together. He knew what she meant. He saw what she did in the forest. He saw her command beasts like they were extensions of her. He watched her reshape nature with nothing but intent.

Hikari, though, looked briefly uncertain. She flicked her eyes toward Raizen for half a second, like she wanted to confirm what Elin talked about.

Elin continued.

Raizen understood most of it. She made it simple on purpose.

"As much as I tried..."

"...you cannot alter a human life..."

The hall reacted instantly.

Even through glass and distance, Raizen saw it. Cloaks shifted. A chair scraped. A masked figure leaned forward. The floating crown tilted a fraction.

A collective shock moved through them like a ripple.

Raizen’s throat went dry. Elin didn’t flinch at the reaction. She kept going.

"It includes..."

"...prosthetics..."

"...extra limbs..."

"...improved organs..."

"...anything like that."

She shook her head once.

"...impossible."

A wave of quiet disbelief went around the table. Raizen saw hands lift, as if people wanted to argue. But Elin spoke over it, still controlled.

"...the Eon itself..."

"...refuses it."

That was the phrase that landed hardest.

Not "we can’t do it". Not "we haven’t figured it out."

Refuses.

As if Eon wasn’t just a tool. It had rules, not limits.

Elin didn’t stop there. She moved to healing, and Raizen caught most of it too.

"Healing works..."

"...But up to an extent."

Then she made a gesture with her hands - one palm flat, the other slicing across it - and Raizen understood before he even processed the words.

"...half-severed limb."

Elin explained it cleanly. If you still had the limb - if it was still there - Eon could reconnect it. It could attach it back. It could knit what was torn, seal what was open, restore what existed.

But it couldn’t regrow what was gone.

Not from nothing.

"...cannot regrow..."

"...impossible."

Raizen felt a cold pressure in his chest, but not fear exactly.

He thought of injuries he’d seen. Vanguards missing arms. Missing legs. The old ones who walked with stiff steps and empty sleeves. The scars in the Med Wing that never went away, no matter how much technology Neoshima had.

He thought of Eiden’s arm.

He thought of all the things Eiden hid.

And he thought of his own body - how often it broke, how often it got pushed past sane limits.

Elin’s mouth kept moving. She reached the end of her point. Her voice seemed quieter now, but Raizen caught the shape of the sentence anyway.

"Every attempt fails..."

"...not mechanically..."

"...conceptually."

The Echelon members didn’t just look shocked now. Some looked disturbed. Like this wasn’t just a limitation. Like it was a wall they didn’t know existed, and now they saw it up close.

Elin took a small breath. Raizen saw it in her shoulders. He saw that she didn’t enjoy saying this.

Then she said the last part.

"It’s as if the Eon itself..."

Raizen leaned forward for the missing piece.

...But the missing piece never came.