Gilded Ashes-Chapter 278: Red Signal

Raizen walked with Kenzo through the wet fog like his brain still didn’t accept what his eyes saw. The battle was over now, after the tamers took care of the remaining Nyxes. Now, the noise faded behind them, replaced by the steady slap of rain on leaves and the softer sounds of people breathing through exhaustion.

Somewhere deeper in the trees, a beast roared - loud, victorious, like it needed the world to know it won.

Kenzo carried the armored figure over his shoulder without slowing down. The helmet still hid everything, thankfully. The plates made the body look heavier than it was. If Raizen didn’t know, he would’ve assumed it was some elite Ukai warrior who got knocked out at the worst moment. He kept glancing at Enya, like she might suddenly wake up and laugh at all of them for worrying. But her armor stayed completely still. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"You threw your hammer like it weighed nothing." Raizen finally blurted, like he couldn’t hold it in anymore. "It flew like a missle! And you didn’t even - you didn’t even aim like you were trying."

Kenzo hummed, amused. "I did aim, what’re you talking about?"

"No, I mean -" Raizen tightened his grip on his blades so he didn’t start gesturing wildly. "The timing. The angle. You hit it in the head while it was firing. I could barely even see your hammer midair."

Kenzo glanced at him. His eyes looked bright even now, even with rain running off his hair. "You were busy getting thrown ten meters."

Raizen clenched his jaw. "I parried a projectile."

"And got launched anyway ten meters" Kenzo argued again.

Raizen opened his mouth, closed it, then kept going because his brain refused to calm down. "And the way you moved earlier - the way you got under Enya before she hit the ground. You blasted from above, caught her, and still had your hammer ready. How? How did you even get there that fast?"

Kenzo’s answer didn’t change. "Same thing. Physical reinforcement."

Raizen blinked. "That’s not an answer."

Kenzo smiled. "It is. You just don’t like it."

Rain kept falling, and Ukai’s massive structure loomed behind them like a living wall. They were far enough now that the battlefield became a dull glow in the mist - small flashes of leftover Eon, soft glimmers where Nyxes dissipated into gilded ash.

...And the remains of distorted plants, vines and whatever monstrosities Enya used.

Raizen tried to make his breathing steady. It didn’t work. "Okay," he said, forcing himself into something closer to logic. "Your ability - the nullifying... Thing. The way you compressed my Eon. You can absorb it and turn it into toughness, right?"

Kenzo shrugged like the answer didn’t matter much. "Yeah, something like that."

"Something like -" Raizen cut himself off and rubbed his forehead with the back of his wrist, smearing rain across his skin. "Fine. Fine. But even without that, your body... It’s not normal."

Kenzo’s smile twitched, as he was trying not to laugh out loud. "Who said any one of us is normal?"

"Nah-" Raizen insisted. "This is different. You fought like you didn’t have a limit. Like you could just... keep going until the Nyxes will give up first."

Kenzo didn’t answer right away. He kept walking, boots steady in mud, shoulders relaxed even with a body over them. Raizen followed, still talking because silence made his thoughts worse.

"And you didn’t use any flashy attack. No blasts. Just raw force. Just hits. And you were still faster than most people I’ve seen."

Kenzo exhaled through his nose. "Yes. Reinforcement."

Raizen stared at him. "That’s your motto, or what?"

Kenzo sighed dramatically. "It works, doesn’t it?"

They passed a cluster of Ukai warriors on the way back. Some leaned against roots, panting. Others sat with their beasts close, hands pressed into fur, feathers or scales, eyes shut as if they were sharing the same heartbeat.

A tamer’s beast had a long gash across its side, the blood dark against wet fur. The tamer’s own shirt clung to their chest like sweat soaked it from the inside. Their face tightened every time the beast breathed. Pain shared. Burden shared. And still, nobody screamed like they were losing.

A few warriors noticed Kenzo first and lifted their heads. Their eyes went to the armored figure on his shoulder, then to Kenzo’s hammer, then to Raizen and his blades.

One of them stepped forward slightly, cautious, respectful.

"Your ally... Is he alright?" the warrior asked pointing towards the armor, voice hoarse from shouting earlier.

Kenzo’s smile stayed on, casual as ever. "Yeahh, she’s just sleeping."

The warrior blinked like they didn’t know how to respond to that answer. Then they nodded, slowly. "We... Saw what he - she did."

Another warrior spoke from behind, sounding half stunned, half grateful. "We didn’t even know what to do at first. We thought she was some commander in disguise."

Kenzo chuckled. "Oh, she’s deffinetly... Something."

"Please" the first warrior said again, still respectful. "Tell her... Thank you."

Kenzo nodded once. "I will."

Raizen kept walking, forcing his eyes forward. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if Mina heard these people praising Enya like a myth. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if anyone put the pieces together.

They moved on. More warriors appeared as they got closer to Ukai again. Some nodded at Kenzo. Some nodded at Raizen. A few tried to speak, but their voices sounded broken from exertion. But nobody looked like they lost anyone.

That was the strangest part.

In Neoshima, a fight like that always left something behind. Blood. Scars. Ruined armor. A silence nobody wanted to fill. Maybe even something worse. And every time, they were looking at the situation like something could always be improved.

Here, exhaustion was everywhere, but triumph held it up.

Raizen breathed out slowly. "So... Nobody died."

Kenzo glanced at him. "Ukai’s stubborn as heck."

Raizen nodded. "They’re... Kind of effective."

Kenzo’s eyes softened just a little, like he agreed and didn’t want to admit it. Raizen looked back once. The flashes faded. Whatever was left out there was just rain and the smell of wet earth.

He swallowed and turned forward again.

"Hey, Kenzo" Raizen said, quieter now.

Kenzo hummed.

"What’s the limit?" he asked.

Kenzo’s smile stayed for a beat. Then it dimmed, like someone lowered a lamp. His eyes didn’t go dead. His face didn’t turn cold. But something behind his gaze shifted, like he stepped around a memory instead of through it.

He kept walking while he spoke.

"Well I tried testing it" Kenzo said.

Raizen’s stomach tightened. "How?"

Kenzo snorted softly, like he already regretted answering. "With someone who didn’t mind throwing impossible things at me."

"Someone... from the Phalanx?" Raizen asked.

Kenzo’s eyes dipped. Just a fraction. "Yeah."

Raizen waited. Rain filled the space between words.

Kenzo’s voice stayed light, but it didn’t fool Raizen. "He wanted to know if he could break me, heh."

Raizen’s jaw clenched. "Did he...?"

Kenzo smiled again - but it didn’t reach his eyes. "Mmm... Almost." Then he sighed, like he didn’t want pity and didn’t want questions, but he gave Raizen the truth anyway.

"He launched a rock at me" Kenzo said. "Big one."

Raizen frowned. "How big?"

Kenzo glanced sideways, measuring with his eyes. "Uh... Let me think... About the size of a small store."

Raizen stopped walking for half a second. "A meteor."

Kenzo laughed, quick. "Woah, woah. Not a meteor, don’t start with the drama."

Raizen’s voice jumped anyway. "You literally said you survived a meteor."

Kenzo shrugged. "Ehm... That’s what it felt like."

Raizen stared at him like he wanted to shake him. "Kenzo - that’s insane."

Kenzo’s grin flickered back into something real. "Yeah. It really was."

Raizen’s anger didn’t fade. "And you lived."

Kenzo threw him a really ironic look. "No, you’re talking to a ghost."

Raizen waited. He could feel there was a second part. Kenzo gave it to him without being asked. "I stayed in the med wing for a week."

Raizen swallowed. "A whole week. All that only for a week!?"

Kenzo’s voice stayed casual. "My prime. Man, I felt truly unbreakable!"

Raizen looked at him. "And now?"

Kenzo patted his own stomach with his hand, while his hammer floated next to it. "A bit rusty"

After a few minutes, he changed the subject the way Kenzo always did - by making it sound like he didn’t care.

"So" Kenzo said, tipping his head toward Enya. "What do you plan to do with her?"

Raizen’s eyes snapped to the armor. Enya stayed limp over Kenzo’s shoulder. No twitch. No jerk. No sudden prank. Nothing. Raizen hated that the silence scared him more than her violence.

"Well... We did check her, didn’t we?" Raizen said. His voice sounded steadier than he felt. "Pulse is there. Breathing is steady. It’s... weird."

Kenzo’s brow lifted. "Weird how?"

"It’s like she’s really sleeping, not fainting" Raizen said.

Kenzo hummed. "Some people crash like that."

Raizen frowned. "After being hit by a projectile that exploded?"

"She’s stubborn too, in her own way." Kenzo’s smile returned.

"You’re sure she’ll be fine?"

Kenzo didn’t hesitate. "Yeah."

That confidence didn’t feel blind. It felt experienced.

Raizen didn’t know if that comforted him or scared him. They walked in silence for a few moments. Ukai’s lower paths grew clearer as the roots thickened and the structures turned more familiar. The sound of the city began to return - distant voices, platforms moving, people calling each other, the noises after a fight that ended well.

Raizen looked down at his own hands. Dried mud and rain smeared across his knuckles. Gold residue clung faintly to his blades like a dying ember.

They passed another group of warriors. One of them held their arm like it was broken, but they smiled anyway. Another leaned on their beast’s back with a relaxed face, like they didn’t have a care in the world.

Raizen smiled. This kind of battlefield felt better than the one back in Neoshima.

And then he felt it.

A slight tremor against his sleeve.

So small at first that he thought it was rain hitting something in his pocket.

Then it happened again. A sharper vibration. Almost like a heartbeat that wasn’t his.

Raizen froze mid-step, and thankfully, Kenzo didn’t notice.

The silvery knife. The one Elin gave him.

It pulsed once, warm against his palm.

Raizen pulled it out just enough to see the edge.

Red lines crawled along the surface like thin threads of light, waking up from sleep. The glow wasn’t bright, but it was unmistakable.

A signal.