The bell above the door of Seroin Indah Nursing Home chimed softly as Vat pushed it open. The aroma of warm potato soup and eucalyptus oil immediately filled his nose, a stark contrast to the scent of the night wind that had just churned his stomach.
"Ah, you're the new assistant sent by Professor Marayonka?"
A middle-aged woman in a nurse's uniform greeted him. Her tired eyes examined Vat's tactical robe, now stained with dirt and grass.
"Vat. Vat Diante," Vat replied shortly, trying to keep his voice dignified even though his knees were still trembling slightly.
"Good. Put that expensive robe of yours in a locker, Vat. Grandpa Gani in the corner is waiting for his dinner. He's a bit... difficult," the nurse said, handing him a tray containing a bowl of bland porridge and a glass of warm water.
Vat stared at the bowl of porridge as if it were a poisonous substance. He, a Diante, serving a complete stranger? However, the image of himself being hung upside down above a volcanic crater in Sector 3 made his feet move toward the table in the corner anyway.
There sat an old man with messy white hair and empty yet sharp eyes.
"Here's your dinner, Grandpa," Vat said, placing the tray down with a slightly harder thud than necessary. His ego was still rebelling.
Grandpa Gani glanced at the tray, then looked Vat up and down.
"Who are you? A new servant? Why is your face twisted up like that? Looks like your debts are piling up."
"I'm not a servant," Vat hissed through clenched teeth. "I'm a Stellar User."
"Oh, young people these days. The moment they can light a spark on their fingertips, they become arrogant," Grandpa Gani snorted, then deliberately nudged his bowl of porridge off the table.
Crash!
The hot porridge spilled across the marble floor and splashed onto the tip of Vat's expensive boots.
"Oops. My hands are shaky. Get me another one, Arrogant Servant," Grandpa Gani said with an innocent smile that was unbelievably irritating.
Vat's blood instantly rushed to his head. Blue sparks of electricity instinctively jumped from his temples, causing the fluorescent lights above them to flicker dangerously. His fist clenched, ready to smash the table.
'This old geezer is seriously asking for a beating!' he raged internally.
"Remember the volcanic crater, Vat," an imaginary whisper of Marayonka suddenly echoed in his ears.
Vat took a deep breath, suppressing the eruption of energy until his chest felt tight. His soul screamed in protest, but he forced himself to bend down and pick up a cleaning cloth nearby.
"I'll get you another one, Grandpa," Vat squeaked, his voice trembling with barely restrained fury. His ego had been wounded deeply, and his emotions were hanging by a thread.
Meanwhile, in the quiet university garden, the cold atmosphere surrounding Elara slowly melted under the presence of a flying child named Kiko.
"Here! A gift for our first meeting!"
Floating upside down in the air, Kiko held out a silver-wrapped candy right in front of Elara's nose.
Elara looked at the candy, then at Kiko's cheerful face.
"I don't like sweets."
"Huh? Really? It's spicy mint candy, you know. Just like your face!" Kiko chuckled before nimbly flipping upright and landing on top of Elara's head, dropping the candy directly into her lap. "Come on, eat it! Because after this, we're going to dance in the sky!"
Before Elara could protest or draw her sword, Kiko snapped his fingers.
Whoosh!
An invisible pressure suddenly wrapped around Elara's body. Weightless, she was lifted into the air and shot through the tree canopy toward the night sky of Seroin.
"Put me down," Elara said flatly, though her fingers instinctively tightened around the hilt of her sword as she watched the ground recede beneath her.
"Nope! Look at that! Seroin looks beautiful from up here, doesn't it?!" Kiko spun around Elara like a hyperactive hummingbird.
They drifted past the tops of buildings, cutting through thin, chilly clouds.
Elara fell silent.
The night wind played with her black hair, and for a moment, a strange sense of peace crept into her heart. But the tranquility did not last.
As they passed over the old industrial district on the outskirts of the city, Elara's sharp eyes caught unusual movement atop a warehouse of shipping containers. Seven dark figures moved in a formation far too organized for ordinary humans.
"Oho, look what we found down there!" Kiko stopped floating, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "Seven little moles stealing raw Stellar stones."
Elara narrowed her eyes.
"They aren't ordinary thieves. Their movements are coordinated."
"Exactly, Pretty Big Sister!" Kiko clapped happily. "Master Haoran said your swordsmanship is dull because you haven't faced any real challenges. So this is your first test from the adorable Kiko! Capture those seven thieves. Don't let a single one escape!"
Without waiting for Elara's approval, Kiko waved his hand. The air cushion supporting her gradually vanished, sending her plummeting vertically toward the warehouse roof below.
Elara did not panic. In the middle of her fall, she drew her slender sword from its sheath.
Shing!
Its blade reflected the moonlight, creating a cold silver flash. Elara landed smoothly on the metal roof without making the slightest sound.
The seven hooded thieves immediately turned around. Their formation instantly shifted from a line into a perfect circle that surrounded Elara.
"There's an intruder," hissed the tallest among them.
Elara wasted no time. Lowering her body, she burst forward at incredible speed toward the nearest thief. Her sword slashed diagonally, aiming for the opponent's shoulder with deadly precision.
Yet before her blade could touch the thief's robe, the man did not dodge. He merely exhaled.
Boom!
Suddenly, the space before Elara became unnaturally dense and heavy, as though the surrounding air had instantly transformed into solid concrete. Her sword slowed dramatically, restrained by an invisible yet overwhelming pressure.
"Hup!"
From the side, a second thief leaped forward. He carried no weapon, but the moment he swung his arm, a visual distortion occurred. Elara felt her sense of balance flip upside down; up became down, left became right. Her spatial orientation was forcibly scrambled by the abstract attack.
Elara bit her lip, ignoring the sudden dizziness assaulting her mind. Relying purely on instinct, she jumped backward to create distance.
Before she could regain her footing, the third and fourth thieves closed in. One stomped his foot, and the shadow beneath Elara instantly rose, transforming into black tendrils that wrapped around her ankles and continuously drained her energy. At the same time, the fourth unleashed an invisible wave that did not harm the body but struck directly at her consciousness, forcing her to see illusions of hundreds of swords piercing toward her.
'Their teamwork is perfect,' Elara thought, her breathing beginning to quicken.
High above in the sky, Kiko sat cross-legged in midair while chewing candy, watching with a faint smile.
Elara attempted to channel Orienzu energy into her blade to cut the shadow tendrils binding her feet. However, the wave of illusions battering her mind shattered her concentration. Her vision blurred, forcing her to drop to one knee on the cold metal roof.
Clang!
Her slender sword slipped from her grasp, ringing softly against the steel rooftop. Her body went limp, completely paralyzed by the combination of abstract attacks that had drained her energy dry.
"Heh, turns out she's just a lost schoolgirl," said the fifth thief, the one controlling the shadow tendrils, as he stepped forward. He pulled back his hood, revealing a pockmarked face twisted into a disgusting lecherous grin. His eyes roamed over Elara's helpless form. "Pretty too. It'd be a waste to kill her right away. Boss, let me handle this girl first. Her body would fetch a high price on the black market."
The other six thieves merely stood in a circle, chuckling quietly without any intention of stopping him.
The pockmarked man crawled closer, extending his filthy hand toward Elara's face.
"Don't... touch..." Elara hissed, trying to move her fingers, but her body refused to obey.
Seeing the situation suddenly take a dark turn, the cheerfulness vanished from Kiko's face.
"Hey, Rats! Your filthy hands aren't allowed to touch Noxward property!"
Whoosh!
Kiko shot down from the sky like an arrow.
"Stop that brat!" shouted the tall man.
Within milliseconds, the six thieves leaped into the air simultaneously. The thief manipulating dense space instantly created an invisible wall in Kiko's path, followed by spatial distortions and a net of plasma threads from the others.
Kiko came to a halt in midair, completely surrounded.
Down below, the pockmarked man's hand had already reached Elara's shoulder, tearing part of her uniform collar. Elara closed her eyes and bit her lip until it bled.
"Ah, damn it. You people ruined my evening," Kiko muttered. The childish expression on his face was replaced by a chillingly deadly gaze.
He calmly reached into the pocket of his loose robe, pulled out his last spicy mint candy, and popped it into his mouth. The moment his taste buds registered the sweetness and burning spice, a dark purple energy erupted from his small body. His absolute gravity manipulation required a glucose trigger to unlock his brain's maximum processing capacity.
"The afternoon game is over," Kiko said flatly, sucking on the candy. "Now it's my turn to play."
The six thieves attacked simultaneously from every direction with their combined abstract abilities. Yet Kiko did not dodge in any conventional way. He merely snapped his fingers.
BOOM!
The gravity surrounding the six thieves suddenly reversed upward by 500%. Their bodies were launched skyward instantly, completely destroying their formation. Moving at a speed invisible to the naked eye, Kiko shot through the gaps in their chaotic attacks, appearing out of nowhere directly in front of the pockmarked man who had just been about to kiss Elara's neck.
"Sorry, Mister. You're out of the game," Kiko whispered menacingly.
Kiko swung his small leg, kicking the man's jaw upward. Then, with a simple wave of his hand, he inverted the local gravity beneath the thief's body into an extreme repulsive force.
BLAAARRR!
The pockmarked man's body shot horizontally like a guided missile, smashing into the concrete wall of a building across from the warehouse and reducing it to rubble. The man instantly lost consciousness, his body buried within the wreckage.
Kiko landed casually beside Elara, picked up her silver sword, and slid it back into its sheath. He looked at the still-weakened girl with a faint smile that had once again become playful.
"Stay here and watch carefully, Pretty Big Sister," Kiko said as he turned around to face the six thieves above who were beginning to fall back toward the earth in panic. "I'll show you how to truly cut through the wind."