A satisfying sound came when my steps pounded on the rocky pavement, newly worn clothes clung to me perfectly despite the roaring wind trying to dishevel it.
I was done for the day, reaching my house would be the objective normally when the job is done. But other plans festered inside.
'Aegis Reinhardt, despite past runs, information on this particular roadblock is cloudy.'
Nothing much was known about her, in fact, her true gender wasn't even known until now.
'In past runs, including the ones I had experienced. Aegis always referred to herself as Reinhardt Aegis, not the other way around.'
Who in their right mind would've guessed 'Reinhardt' to be the surname? No one.
The school gates, open and welcoming creaked back and forth, branches from a tall tree jutted from all sides, trying to claw at me. They seemed to elongate the more I walked.
I didn't pay any attention to its peculiarity, sometimes, not knowing is often not the best option.
Leaving the gates with no resistance hindering my movements, a large slope stretched below my feet for what seemed like eternity.
Unlike last time, I paid more attention to the peculiar change.
'Has my perception been altered?'
But, how is it that I'm able to spot the change?
'If my perception changed I wouldn't even have noticed it.'
It was too obvious of a change, unless...
'It's intentional?'
The first thing coming to mind was Aegis and her ability.
In my memories. Aegis, no matter the time was always a menace to handle, so who's to say she wouldn't be a menace now as well?
However, ultimately, that meant that Aegis undoubtedly knew about me using stealth to avoid her illusion and was now asking me to use the same trick again.
"...."
She was more of a monster than I thought. What kind of brat would be capable of even conceiving an idea like that?
'Otherworlders really are the top cream.'
Praising the otherworlder for their genius. I slowly let my gaze fall to the system window. It flashed brightly, like a good lightbulb that never burns out.
————————————
✦ Name: Eliot Permassian.
✦ Mana: 2957/5000. [ Unlocked! ]
✦ Skills: Stealth. [ Unlocked! ]
✦ Spirit Taming: [ Unavailable! ]
✦ Holy Blessing: Intimidation.
————————————
Ignoring the useless spirit taming, my attention drifts to the unlocked stats.
Mana was unlocked the instant stealth was acquired, thus unlocking a more wizard-like path for me, which lead to spirit taming being locked.
It wasn't that spirit taming was bad...But, it just wasn't worth doing.
The only thing going for it was damage output and support, not really all helpful if you have to give up mana and skills to use it.
Mana was just too versatile to give up for just a measly spiritual dragon after all.
Aside from fashion, spirit taming is pretty meh in everything it does.
Rolling my wrist a couple of times, a veil of moonlight falls over my body, a reinforced stealth illuminated what shouldn't be seen into my irises.
The surrounding shifted, in the air, the smell of blood wafted gently. Clinging to the breeze with a grip soft yet strong enough to be dragged through.
My eyes drift to the source of the stench, an alleyway stretching into the abyss, on the floor, pools of blood fresh and pure flowed to the roads.
A realization hits me like an epiphany.
'Could it be that Aegis is using her ability not to draw me in because she knows of what I could do, but because she wants others to avoid her?'
To put it simply, she wasn't some genius like Einstein but reincarnated, she was just a stubborn girl attempting to drive away civilians from an accident.
'That reminds me...Aegis was quite stubborn, be it the last run or the runs following behind that run.'
Mana dripped away from me as my thoughts kept converging around interesting facts.
My steps carried me before any judgement was made, dragging me to the alleyway where Aegis was likely in.
There wasn't much reason behind this action.
Some could say it was in nature for a human to save another from death, especially children.
Others might see it as an upright way to satiate their own feelings, to save someone and have them praise you for it.
Or the category I mostly saw myself in, saving people for no reason, to me, after experiencing many resets, saving a life about to be snuffed was like breathing air.
My set on goal back then which was to save the world twisted into something else, an addiction that never allowed me to turn my back on someone, an addictive feeling that could only be satiated through the act of seeing someone smile out of gratitude for their life that could drag on a few more days longer.
"...."
Realizing the hypocrisy and irony in my thoughts, I stop, eyes sharpening like knives as the soles of my boots pressed firmly onto the bloodied floor. Pushing me further into the stretching alley.
*
"Ha...Ha."
Hitched breaths coupled with an unbearable iron smell made staying conscious hard for Aegis. Strands of her long green hair clung to her bloodied temples as a burly, masked man kept moving forward. His large frame barely contained in the narrow alley.
'How stupid.'
It was stupid for her to activate her ability the instant awakeners showed up. Her proficiency over her ability would obviously fall short very quickly the moment awakeners were the target of her illusion.
She wasn't strong enough, hypnotizing an awakener was too much of a tall order for her little old self.
'I get reincarnated, a new life overwriting my other, more ill fated life where my body only walked in a hospital, and now I get dragged by some traffickers wanting to extract my ability?'
She wanted to laugh, to let out a hearty chuckle full of amusement for her misfortune.
'Is Lady Luck hateful toward her own gender?'
Obviously there were flaws in that logic, but coping mechanisms existed for a reason and there were simply doing their job.
The lids over her eyes felt heavier with each bated breath, drawing her closer to the unconscious state that'd seal her fate.
Attention gradually shifted to her kidnappers.
Thieves Troupe, apparently that is their organization's name.
They were infamous, infamous enough to hit the public with a cyclone. Aegis had a hard time believing that those kinds of people would just be here.
Yet the appearance of this masked, burly man with a frame that suggested he had undergone intensive training proved that they truly were apart of the Thieves Troupe.
For reference, the only known member of the Troupe is this same skull masked man carrying her over his shoulder who the Awakeners Association dubbed him 'Skullface' which Aegis thought was pretty unoriginal on their part.
But, she couldn't help but feel more drawn into the masked woman leading Skullface.
They never spoke aside from when they first saw Aegis and her attempt to manipulate their perception.
The words that they said rung loudly in her ears, vivid and pulsing.
"How curious, who would've guessed it, something as rare as perception altering in section 15 of Baltan...Quite the rare product."
They had seen through the ruse and veil Aegis painstakingly put up with pure effort with just a mere glance. The woman under the mask seemed to chuckle with every inch her hand ate away, clawing their way to grip Aegis tightly in place.
Drip!
The scene shifted. On the ground, a bloodied Aegis lifelessly tilted her head to the gravity that pulled her relentlessly.
Her vision, impaired from the blood burning her eyes overlapped, the little resistance she put up was shattered in an instant. Skullface had struck her hard in the temple, sending her flying into the concrete wall.
A voice cut into her mind, digging itself deeper and deeper.
"Extraction with the individual should still be possible, let's take her, I've also found out that she's an orphan, the situation couldn't be any more perfect."
Aegis slowly gazed upwards, letting her brain focus on the woman with dark violet hair a while longer.
As her brain finally focused on the mask, the blank, white mask with stitched eyes seared in her mind.
The scene shifted, heavy steps squelched on the dirty water dripping in a steady steam from a broken pipe somewhere.
Soon, the steps stopped, as if something or someone warranted the reaction.
"Who are you?"
The violet-headed psycho said curtly. Aegis, her eyes still heavy forced them up, dragging them so she could see who blocked their road.
But no matter how much she tried to see the figure, she wasn't able to make out their features. Her vision was just too blurry to make anything out.
A silence wafted in the breeze, deafening and full of pressure. A certain narrowing alley seemed to narrow further as the silence kept beating loudly in their heads.
The violent psycho issued a command.
"Kill him."
Skullface nodded.
Like how a snake would snap away, Skullface faded, his body snapping forward with vicious, recoiling force.
In the next moment, where his bulky hand was, it expanded ridiculously as if it were balloon.
His body, arm and legs chained into a stance, a stance reminiscent of when someone held a hammer in their hands.
It snapped down in an instant, slashing the very air surrounding it, the weight of the hammer arm travelled from the figure to the ground, crushing him just as quickly as he appeared to be an obstacle.
Or at least, that was the pre-conceived notion held by the two Troupe members.
A cloud of thick dust kicked up, coating the surroundings in a fog, hiding the three inside the same fog.
Their presence....Was prominent, none died and none were even injured, yet despite that...
Swoosh!
Skullface, veins bulging on his shoulders and arms desperately clawed away at the smoke. Hitting nothing in the process.
The only thing achieved through this action was the clearing of the smoke.
Everything else...Went horribly wrong.
"Tch."
The psycho watching in the back clicked her tongue as ownership of Aegis passed down like a baton to the figure, fingers tapping on her left bicep.
5 meters away was Eliot, in his embrace was the otherworlder named beautifully as Aegis Reinhardt. The origin of the name, gone from history.