Lapis floated in the air, his hands still casually tucked into his pockets. He looked at the towering, blue-flamed mass of Rax with an expression of pure, unadulterated boredom.
"Nowadays, these little high-rank monsters think they're some kind of big deal," Lapis muttered, his voice carrying over the roar of the burning tankers. "It's honestly very frustrating. I just wanted a nap."
Rax's jaw unhinged, more blue fire leaking from his purple bone-armor. "You speak big words for an insect. I will grind your 'divine' bones into the harbor floor!"
Rax coiled his massive body, prepared to launch a strike that would shatter the docks. But behind Lapis's goggles, the Honoured Eyes flared to life .
In Lapis's vision, reality split. He saw three translucent ghosts of Rax:
One ghost lunged left with a claw.
One ghost fired a concentrated beam of blue flame.
One ghost whipped its armored tail in a sweeping arc.
Lapis didn't even flinch. He drifted three inches to the right, precisely as Rax launched the second ghost's attack—a beam of blue fire that incinerated the air exactly where Lapis had been a millisecond ago.
Rax's eyes widened, his massive head swinging around in confusion. "Why... why does it feel like you already know where I'm going to attack?"
Lapis tilted his head, the magenta light of his eyes burning through his goggles. "Because I already know. Your future is already a memory to me."
"Lapis!" Techyon screamed from the wreckage of the warehouse, his white and blue aura sparking weakly. "Don't let your guard down! He killed Cinder! He's stronger than any A-Rank I've ever seen!"
Lapis didn't even turn his head. He just raised a single finger, a tiny spark of Magenta Matter igniting at the tip.
"No need to worry, Techyon," Lapis said, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper. "I am the strongest here. In this city... and in this world."
Rax hissed, his purple bone-armor glowing with an eerie, rhythmic light. He didn't just strike; he learned.
Faster than the eye could follow, Rax whipped his massive tail in a low sweep while simultaneously unleashing a roaring pillar of blue dragon breath. In Lapis's vision, the Honoured Eyes went haywire. Instead of three ghosts, the future fractured into six.
Six ghosts... attacking from every direction? Lapis's heart hammered against his ribs. This is bad. The spatial geometry is too crowded. I can't dodge all of them.
Lapis twisted mid-air, his Magenta Matter flaring to swallow the dragon breath, but the calculation cost him. The bone-armored tail slammed into his side with the force of a falling skyscraper.
"I finally caught you, insect!" Rax roared. He didn't give Lapis a chance to recover, unhinging his jaw to fire a point-blank blast of blue incineration.
Lapis closed his eyes, bracing for the impact. But the burn never came.
A white-blue flash tore through the smoke, a streak of blue static intercepting the light. Techyon grabbed Lapis mid-air, his Electric/Light speed pushing them both out of the death zone just as the blue fire melted the ground behind them.
They tumbled onto the cracked concrete of the docks. Lapis sat up, coughing, his goggles slightly cracked. He looked at Techyon in genuine confusion.
"Why did you save me?" Lapis asked, his voice unusually quiet. "I'm the Z-Rank. I'm the one who's supposed to handle this."
Techyon stood up, his golden aura sparking with a new, fierce intensity. "You called me 'bro,' didn't you? We're friends, Lapis. Why wouldn't I save you?"
Lapis froze. For a second, the burning harbor faded away.
He remembered the day he was born—the day the clan elders saw his eyes and knelt, not in love, but in fear and greed. To his parents, he was a Divine Weapon. To the Guilds, he was a Strategic Asset. No one had ever looked at him and seen a "friend."
Until now.
A genuine, rare smile broke across Lapis's face. He stood up, wiping a streak of blood from his lip. "Okay then. Let's beat this overgrown lizard together."
Techyon smirked, his daggers crackling with light. "Of course."