SSS Rank: Spellcraft Sovereign-Chapter 64: Cleanup

Then a turn.

He spotted the coat.

Half-shadowed now, against the base of a hollowed-out newsstand. Varik stood near it, one hand resting on the handle of the longer sword strapped to his back, but not drawing it. His head tilted slightly as Lucen approached.

Lucen slowed.

Stopped three paces away.

Didn’t speak.

Didn’t posture.

Just... waited.

Varik turned slightly. Not enough to face him. Just enough to acknowledge.

Then said, "You came anyway."

Lucen shrugged one shoulder. "Could’ve kept walking."

"But you didn’t."

"No."

The wind picked up. Whispered through broken glass and swinging signs. Bits of ash floated in the air like snow that didn’t know how to melt.

Lucen looked at the older man.

"Why’d you look at me first?" he asked.

Varik was silent for a moment.

Then said, "Because I’ve seen a storm building before. I know what the sky looks like just before it breaks open."

Lucen raised an eyebrow. "So I’m a weather pattern now?"

Varik glanced sideways, lips twitching faintly. "Something like that."

Lucen didn’t smile back. Just asked, "You gonna report this?"

Varik looked forward again. "If I thought it would matter."

Lucen stayed quiet.

His system hummed low under his skin. Mana ticking. Steady. Recovering.

[19.6 / 112]

He exhaled.

"You didn’t just come to clean up," he said.

"No," Varik replied. "I came to see if the rumors were real."

Lucen cocked his head. "And?"

"You’re better than the rumors."

Lucen didn’t say anything.

Varik didn’t push.

Then after a second, he said, "I’ll leave you a name. Just one. Not a guild. Not even a mission."

Lucen narrowed his eyes. "A name?"

"Someone who can help you if you decide to stop pretending you’re a tracer."

Lucen laughed under his breath. "I like pretending."

"I can tell."

Varik pulled a slip of old laminate from his coat. Handed it over.

Lucen took it without looking down. The weight of the card felt... worn. A bit warm, like it’d been carried for too long and never used.

"Don’t use it yet," Varik said. "Not unless you’re ready to stop hiding."

Lucen looked at him. Really looked.

The pressure around Varik didn’t bleed. Didn’t leak. It just existed, contained and crushing.

’SS-rank. That’s what presence looks like when the system bends around someone instead of the other way around.’

Lucen nodded once.

Didn’t promise anything.

Didn’t thank him.

Just pocketed the card.

Varik gave a final glance toward the sky, then stepped off the curb and started walking away.

Lucen didn’t stop him.

Didn’t call out.

He stood there for a long second.

Then looked at the street behind him.

At the cracked concrete, the flickering fires, the bodies still leaking green and black.

And smiled faintly.

’Storm, huh?’

He turned back toward the crater.

Time to go.

—

Lucen walked.

Boots over glass. Coals under his heels.

He flipped the laminate once in his hand as he moved, simple card, no emblem. No glow. Just weight. Like it belonged to someone who didn’t need flash.

He didn’t look at the name again.

Didn’t have to.

’One name. No guild. No mission. But somehow it still sounds like a trap.’

He slid it into the inner pocket of his coat.

Secure. Quiet.

Out of sight.

His system ticked softly behind his ribs.

[Mana: 24.7 / 112]

A passing siren wailed two blocks north. Late responders. Probably scanning for survivors, not threats.

Lucen didn’t change pace.

The air still held drift static. That brittle edge, like touching a battery terminal with a wet thumb.

He passed the shattered intersection. A streetlight hung sideways, sparking rhythmically like it was trying to send Morse code to the dead.

Someone coughed.

He turned his head slightly.

A boy, maybe twelve sat on the step outside an auto-clinic. Blood on one sleeve. Dirt on his cheek. Holding a long iron nail like it meant something.

Lucen stopped.

The kid flinched.

Lucen said, "You alone?"

The boy nodded once. Eyes locked on his boots.

Lucen reached into his outer coat pocket. Pulled out a mana tag. Basic. Half-spent. Good for two days of auto-barrier if you stayed put.

He tossed it underhand.

The kid caught it like it might burn him.

Lucen said, "Don’t be stupid with it."

Then kept walking.

He didn’t look back.

Didn’t have to.

He rounded the last corner and saw the others.

Senna was standing on a curb, sword still sheathed but hand on the hilt. Mira knelt beside a wounded local, binding what looked like a bite mark with strips of cloth and a glowing spell wrap.

Callen stood watch, shield braced against the side of a cracked bus frame.

Lucen stepped over a broken tire and stopped in front of them.

Senna’s eyes narrowed. "What was that?"

"Walk," Lucen said. "A long one."

Callen raised an eyebrow. "And?"

Lucen shrugged. "I’m fine."

Mira stood slowly. Her hands were slick with blood, but her face didn’t show it.

"You saw that guy, didn’t you?" she said.

Lucen didn’t answer.

Didn’t lie either.

He just said, "Let’s finish clearing."

Callen scoffed. "You mean there’s still more?"

Lucen looked north. Toward where the street faded into that strange haze of mana dust and impact fog.

His fingers flexed once.

[31.0 / 112]

’Good enough to burn another hole in the sky if I have to.’

He stepped past them.

Didn’t run.

Just walked.

—

Lucen stopped at the edge of the wreckage.

A flipped sedan hissed from a half-melted battery core. Smoke curled up around the bumper like it was trying to remember how to be fire. One light pole had folded clean in half. Pavement bent like it’d been punched.

People were waiting behind it all.

Half a dozen civilians stood scattered across the next intersection. One older man leaned against a busted food cart, blood running down one ear. A woman with a dislocated shoulder clutched her child like a shield.

Another pair, maybe college students held up an injured kid between them. They weren’t panicking. Just... stalled. Like they wanted to move and couldn’t.

Lucen rolled his wrist once.

Mira stepped up next to him. "Are those—?"

"Yeah," Lucen said. "They’re stuck."

Callen turned, looked back toward the junction. "Drift rupture chewed through the sidewalk. There’s maybe one clean lane, but it’s blocked."

Senna said, "Monsters cleared. Should be fine to move through."

Lucen crouched beside a crumpled barrier. Metal bent like foam. He poked it once. It didn’t shift.

He stood again. "Not without help."

Callen stared at him. "You suggesting we do cleanup?"

Lucen didn’t blink. "No. I’m saying if we don’t move this junk, those people are going to stand there and pretend they’re fine until someone dies of blood loss or mana exhaustion."

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