Whispers of Worlds Beyond: A Series-Chapter 163: Orchestral Symphony [28]

The ground was scorched black. Trees had long stopped burning; their remains now cracked and bent like broken bones. Emmeranne darted forward, blinking through flashes of light, sword in hand, but her movements were slower, more labored. Her breath came in shallow, uneven bursts.

Aiden tried to back her up with a burst of flame, but the moment he lifted his arm, a sharp pain seized his ribs. He dropped to his knees, choking on the taste of iron in his throat.

"Damn it," he rasped, clutching his side. The fire on his fingertips fizzled out.

Karro stepped through the flames unfazed, the blood swirling around him like a crimson storm. His cloak billowed behind him as he turned toward Emmeranne, his eyes glowing an unnatural red.

"You've lasted longer than most," he said, almost conversationally.

A tendril of blood lashed toward Emmeranne, wrapping around her ankle. Before she could teleport, another coiled around her wrist, then her torso, binding her midair.

"Let go of her!" Aiden shouted, trying to stand, but his legs gave out again. He fell forward, hands digging into the scorched earth, teeth clenched from the pain. His ribs were cracked- possibly shattered- and every breath scraped his lungs raw.

Karro's hand extended upward, and Emmeranne rose helplessly, the blood threads lifting her off the ground like a puppet. Her sword slipped from her fingers and clattered onto the earth.

"I'll let you watch her die," Karro said, turning to Aiden with a calm cruelty. "Just like I watched my wife die because of your kind."

The threads constricted.

Emmeranne gasped, her feet kicking weakly. Her lips turned pale, her body twitching as her oxygen dwindled.

Aiden screamed, but no words came out- just a hoarse, guttural sound of frustration, pain, and helpless rage. He reached out, crawling, broken bones grinding against themselves. He wasn't fast enough. He wasn't strong enough.

He was going to lose her because of him.

Then, there came a sound.

A laugh.

A light, unhinged chuckle echoed from the treetops like a breeze cutting through ash.

"Now this is a show," came Lopt's unmistakable voice, playful and maddening.

Everyone froze.

Even Karro's threads wavered as the blood pulsing in the air paused. He turned, brow furrowed, as Lopt stepped into view from a branch above. His coat was in tatters, his face bruised, but he grinned like a man who'd just been dealt the winning card.

"Miss me?" Lopt twirled a wand (which is only just a branch he saw on the way) between his fingers and then dropped it as if it were a toy he'd already grown bored of. "I thought I'd let the drama play out, but this is getting a little too… final."

"Lopt," Aiden breathed, dazed.

Karro sneered. "Hello, traitor."

And then, behind Lopt, a stronger presence arrived.

Headmaster Kairos.

He stepped through a rift in the trees, dressed in formal robes, his eyes glowing with golden runes and his face covered by his ssignature owl mask. He walked with no urgency, but the ground around him shifted- recoiling as if the very earth acknowledged his presence.

Karro's expression darkened.

"Headmaster," he said coolly. "I was wondering when you'd arrive."

Kairos said nothing at first. His eyes swept across the battlefield, pausing on Emmeranne, still hanging in Karro's grip, then on Aiden, bleeding and struggling to rise.

Lopt broke the silence. "Looks like your party just got shut down."

Karro's jaw clenched, blood beginning to swirl around him again. "You'll pay for this."

"Probably," Lopt said, raising a finger. "But I don't have money."

The threads around Emmeranne snapped.

She dropped like a stone, but Aiden threw himself forward and caught her- or rather, broke her fall with his own body.

He winced as pain exploded in his ribs but didn't let go.

Karro's hands twitched, but Kairos stepped forward, and the golden runes circling his arms flared.

"Good evening, Karro."

Aiden, barely breathing, cradled Emmeranne beside him, both too wounded to speak. But in that quiet, one voice rose- not loud, not commanding, but measured, steady, and sorrowful.

"I never thought it would come to this… Karro."

Headmaster Kairos stood beneath the shattered boughs, light flickering gently along the hem of his robes. Though his body carried the weight of power, it was his gaze that stilled even Karro's fury- a kind of tired knowing, the eyes of a man who had seen too much and carried it still.

Karro remained motionless for a beat, his blood-slick fingers twitching, remnants of magic dancing at his knuckles. "Don't speak to me like you still know me."

"But I do," Kairos said gently, stepping closer. "I know the boy who came to Soleil with a broken heart and dreams too large to contain. I know the man who taught music to children not because he had to, but because he believed in something more. I know the man who had sacrificed to work under the current king. know your grief, Karro. I saw it."

Karro's mouth twisted. "Then you should know why this must be done."

"No," Kairos said softly, sadly. "I know why you think it must be. But that does not make it right."

Karro's breath hitched, the fury behind his eyes faltering for a moment.

"I know the rage of losing someone you love. I know what it does to the mind," Kairos continued. "How it makes the world seem hollow, how it tricks you into thinking justice and vengeance are the same thing."

He paused, letting the silence sink in.

"But hurting a child to make sense of that loss?" His voice lowered, trembling with restrained emotion. "That's not vengeance. That's surrender."

Karro's expression hardened, but there was hesitation in his hands. "He carries their name. Their kind. Everything that ruined my life."

"And yet he is not them," Kairos said, stepping between Karro and the wounded pair. "You punish a boy who did not make the choices you rage against and killed an innocent bystander. You spill blood because you believe it will fill the hole in your heart. But you know, deep down, it won't."

The forest whispered. Even the wind seemed to pause.

Karro's mouth fell open, just slightly. His hands shook.

"You were one of us. And you still are. But you've walked a long way down the wrong road. Let me help you find the way back."

For a moment, it looked like Karro would drop his arms. The magic at his fingertips wavered like a flame in the wind.

But his eyes- those grief-worn eyes- flared with something darker.

"There is no way back," he said coldly. "Not for me. Not anymore."

Kairos sighed.

"You still believe that," Kairos murmured, his voice lined with sorrow. "Even now?"

Karro's eyes gleamed with a fractured sort of certainty.

"You speak to me of peace, of forgiveness, but you didn't lose what I lost. You didn't watch the world smile while everything you loved turned to ash. You still believe in second chances because you never needed a first."

The words hung in the air like smoke.

"I did lose someone," Kairos said softly. "Many someones. And I still do, every time I see a student break. Every time I walk these halls and remember who's missing. But I chose not to let that sorrow become my guide. You chose differently, Karro."

Karro's face twisted. "You think you're better than me?"

"No," the headmaster replied with quiet gravity. "I think I've simply waited longer to become worse."

A heavy silence followed. Aiden could hardly move, his arms weak around Emmeranne's shoulders as she stirred, blood at the corner of her mouth. They could only watch, powerless, as the weight between the two men thickened like fog.

Karro raised his hand again. Magic sparked, blood-red and angry, pulsing in unnatural rhythm.

"I will finish what I started. If I can't have justice, then let the world have reckoning."

Kairos inhaled slowly, deeply, his eyes finally narrowing with resolve. "Then I have no choice."

The time around him shifted.

It was not a roar, not a flash, but a silence so complete and sudden it felt as though the world had stopped breathing. Light curled inward, like threads being pulled from reality, and Kairos raised one hand as the lines of his spell began to carve themselves in golden light across the air.

Karro's arm jerked, only to freeze mid-air. His expression flickered into shock as the world around him slowed.

"No- what is this?" he hissed through clenched teeth, his body moving sluggishly, like he was wading through tar. "You can't-!"

Kairos's voice echoed, not from his mouth, but through time itself, resonant and steady:"Chrono Sanctum: Final Lock."

The golden threads spiraled faster, enclosing Karro in an orb of shimmering time. Within, everything began to fragment- his movements, his magic, even the light on his face slowed to the crawl of moments pulled apart one by one.

"I did not want this," Kairos said quietly, stepping forward. "But I will not let your pain become their grave."

Karro's lips moved in slow, soundless rage as the light locked him in place. A statue frozen in the weight of his own fury.

Aiden blinked, the pressure on his ribs dulling only slightly, his head pounding, but the tension in his chest loosening. Beside him, Emmeranne coughed but raised her head, her eyes narrowed in awe and disbelief.

The world resumed its breath.

Karro was still. Caught in the prison of time. Not dead, not gone- only paused.

Kairos turned back to them, the lines of magic still faintly glowing on his skin. His eyes were tired, ancient.

"I'm sorry," he said, kneeling beside them. "I tried to reach him. But sometimes… sometimes, even time must take something away before it can be given back."