Chapter 626: Second Creation
Kael regained his balance without taking his eyes off the creature.
The block had stopped the strike, but the force had traveled through his forearm and reached his injured shoulder. The green band created by Sylphie tightened around his chest, preventing the channels from opening again. He felt pain, but nothing had torn.
Not yet.
The creature remained in the middle of the street, watching the position of his feet.
It was not simply waiting for the next attack.
It was learning.
Kael noticed when it corrected its own hips. The rear foot rotated several inches, the left shoulder relaxed, and the stance moved closer to the one he used before activating Celestial Step.
The first execution had been imperfect.
The second would already be better.
"Do not use the technique," Sylphie said.
"I know."
The creature smiled.
"You fear that I will learn."
Kael loosened his aching arm.
"You already began incorrectly."
"I reached you."
"That does not mean you arrived well."
The creature disappeared.
Kael did not activate mana.
He watched the beginning of the movement, identified the direction from the supporting foot, and rotated his body before the opponent reappeared. The fist passed over his shoulder. Kael caught the arm, used the creature’s own momentum, and threw it into the side of a house.
The wall collapsed.
The body passed through the wood and vanished among dust and stones.
Kael did not advance.
"Violet, remove every copy from the street. Cover their eyes and block their hearing."
The commander was already coordinating the agents.
"They are connected?"
"It is watching through them."
Violet looked toward the figures scattered across the harbor. All of them kept their faces turned toward Kael even while restrained.
"Separate them into groups of one," he continued. "None of them should be able to see another."
The agents obeyed. Containment hoods were placed over the heads of the incomplete bodies. Umbra divided the shadows across the ground, creating small isolated areas around each one.
The creature emerged from the rubble.
Its face had changed again.
The jaw was broader. The eyes remained white, but the skin around them now carried small golden lines. It looked at the bodies being covered, and part of its smile disappeared.
Kael confirmed the connection.
"You needed them."
"They are extensions."
"Eyes."
"Experiences."
"Now they are nothing."
The creature advanced without Celestial Step.
Its physical speed remained high. The body had been created with dense muscles, reinforced bones, and channels wide enough to withstand different kinds of mana. It was not merely a copy of Kael. Characteristics from other people had been mixed into it.
The first punch came straight.
Kael evaded and cut the arm with his sword.
The blade passed through the skin but stopped when it reached a hardened internal layer. The blood that appeared was dark, almost black, and the wound closed within seconds.
The creature answered with a low kick.
Kael drew his leg back and struck the opponent’s knee with the pommel. The joint dislocated. Before the body could fall, muscles and tendons moved beneath the skin and pushed the bone back into place.
"Vampiric regeneration," Kael observed.
The creature tilted its head.
"Among other things."
It opened its hand.
Ice formed around the fingers.
It was not Amelia’s ice. The structure was irregular, mixed with thin threads of electricity and a layer of dark energy. Different abilities had been placed inside the same body without any concern for compatibility.
The creature launched the mass of ice.
Kael cut through the center of the attack and moved away before the lightning trapped within it exploded. The discharge destroyed windows, tore sections from the roofs, and scattered frozen fragments across the street.
"It is testing combinations," Eleonor said.
Kael’s grandmother remained near the coast, one hand raised toward the fortress. Purple runes occupied the space around the walls, but the structure continued shifting between different distances. Every time Eleonor anchored it to one point, the Cradle tried to remove another part of the building from the world.
"How long can you hold it?" Kael asked.
"Less time if you keep talking to me."
"Then you are still comfortable."
Eleonor did not answer.
The creature took advantage of the distraction and used Celestial Step again.
This time, the stance was better.
The hips began moving at the correct moment. The shoulders followed the acceleration, and mana was distributed along the spine before reaching the legs. There was still waste, but the difference from the first attempt was substantial.
Kael raised his sword.
The creature did not appear in front of him.
It appeared behind Sylphie.
Kael had already expected it.
A green root emerged from the ground, wrapped around Sylphie’s waist, and pulled her aside before the fist struck her back. The blow passed through empty space.
Kael turned and slashed.
The sword struck the creature’s face, cutting through the cheek until it reached bone. The body retreated. Dark blood covered the street, but the wound immediately began closing.
The creature touched its own face.
"You knew."
"You look at the target too much before moving."
"You do too."
"Not when I want to deceive someone."
Kael pointed the sword toward it.
"The movement does not begin in the legs. It begins with the decision. You copied the body, but you still need to choose."
The creature became still.
Kael noticed it processing the information.
It was intelligent.
Perhaps too intelligent to be merely an empty body.
"What is your name?" he asked.
Its head tilted slowly.
"You."
"Wrong answer."
"Kael Scarlet."
"That one is mine."
"It will be enough."
Sylphie became serious.
"It wants to use you as its identity."
The creature looked toward her.
"A name requires continuity. Memories. Recognition. Relationships. He possesses all of them."
Kael understood why the copies had said they remembered him. The Cradle had gathered fragments from people who had seen Kael, heard his name, or knew stories about him. It was not trying to create a personality from nothing.
It was building a version of him from the way others perceived him.
"You do not have my memories," Kael said.
"I do not need all of them."
"You do not have my will."
"Will can be created."
"You do not have the people."
The creature looked toward Sylphie, Umbra, Eleonor, and Violet.
"They can learn."
Umbra let the shadow grow around her feet.
Kael raised one hand, stopping her from advancing.
"No."
"He spoke about us."
"I heard."
"Then I am going to hurt him."
"Later."
The creature used Celestial Step again.
Kael watched the movement.
The execution was almost correct.
Almost.
He began circulating mana through his body.
Sylphie grabbed his arm.
"You said you would not use it."
"Once."
"Your channels..."
"Once."
She did not like it, but released him.
Kael lowered his center of gravity.
The creature noticed and did the same.
Two similar stances.
Two currents of scarlet and golden mana crossing different bodies.
The opponent smiled.
Kael did not.
The creature disappeared first.
Kael waited a fraction of a second.
Then he used Celestial Step.
The two lines crossed the street.
The creature had chosen to appear in front of him, attempting to strike his chest at the instant of arrival. Kael could have done the same.
Instead, he interrupted the technique before completing the displacement.
His body advanced only half the distance.
The creature appeared at the point where he should have been.
Alone.
Its strike passed through the air.
Kael arrived afterward, using only physical speed across the final few meters. His sword struck the opponent’s back and opened a long cut between the shoulders.
The creature turned, surprised.
Kael struck its face with his elbow.
Then hit the knee.
The body lost its balance.
Kael grabbed the back of its neck and threw it against the ground.
The street cracked.
"You canceled it," the creature said.
Kael kept the sword near its neck.
"You copied the complete path."
He pressed the tip against the skin.
"I decide how far I go."
The creature released a wave of mana.
Fire, ice, electricity, and shadow exploded together. Kael was forced to retreat. Sylphie created a wall of roots in front of the agents, while Eleonor redirected part of the energy away from the houses occupied by the copies.
The body stood at the center of the explosion.
The golden lines beneath its skin were stronger, but several had begun to rupture. Small fissures crossed the muscles of its legs and shoulders.
Celestial Step demanded precision.
The creature possessed speed and channels capable of enduring mana, but every correction it learned was being applied to a body formed from incompatible parts. The more it tried to imitate Kael, the more the movement itself destroyed its internal structure.
Kael noticed.
"You were not made to surpass my technique."
The creature opened its arms.
"I already use it."
"You were made to survive long enough to copy it."
The smile vanished.
Kael pointed toward the fissures in its legs.
"The Cradle is still adjusting you."
The creature looked down at its own body.
For an instant, it showed doubt.
Kael advanced.
He did not use mana. He attacked with the sword, forcing the opponent to defend. A high cut. A lateral strike. A short change of direction.
Nothing extraordinary, but every movement forced the creature to react.
It began using Celestial Step across short distances.
One step to escape the first cut.
Another to reach Kael’s back.
A third to evade Umbra, who emerged from the shadow at the exact moment.
The fissures increased.
The creature’s left ankle collapsed.
It corrected the damage with regeneration.
Kael attacked again.
The creature disappeared and appeared atop a roof. Kael followed without using the technique, leaping up the partially destroyed wall and reaching the roof from the opposite side.
The opponent tried to move away with another Step.
Its right leg tore apart in the middle of the displacement.
The creature reappeared in the air without support. Kael caught its arm, rotated, and threw it back into the street.
The impact opened a shallow crater.
Kael landed beside it.
"You are forcing me to use it."
"Yes."
"To destroy the body."
"That too."
The creature tried to stand.
Kael placed one foot on its chest.
"But mainly to discover whether you are capable of choosing not to use it."
The white eyes moved.
"Why?"
"Because someone who only executes what was placed inside them has no will."
The creature grabbed Kael’s leg and tried to push him away. Even injured, it possessed enough strength to move his foot several inches.
"I chose you."
"No."
Kael pressed harder.
"They chose."
The creature stopped.
The fortress shifted violently behind them.
One tower disappeared. Then part of the wall. The Cradle was almost completely outside Orla.
Eleonor clenched her teeth.
"Kael!"
"How long?"
"One minute. Perhaps less."
The creature began laughing.
"The body is already complete."
Kael looked at it.
"You are the body."
"I am the first exit."
The answer changed everything.
Kael removed his foot and grabbed the creature by the throat.
"Explain."
"I was created to find a stable reference. To test the technique. To force you to react."
The fortress disappeared again.
When it returned, half the structure was transparent.
Kael understood the true objective.
The creature did not need to defeat him.
It needed to use the battle to complete the map of Celestial Step and send the final adjustments to the Cradle.
He looked at the immobilized body.
The lines beneath its skin were not merely glowing.
They were transmitting.
"Umbra, cut the shadow."
She acted immediately.
The creature’s shadow tried to flee toward the sea, forming a narrow thread across the ground. Umbra drove both hands into the darkness and pulled.
The connection broke.
The creature screamed.
The golden lines went dark.
Kael placed one hand against its chest and felt a second connection.
Not through the shadow.
Through the blood.
"Violet, complete containment. Do not kill it."
The commander approached with four agents. Chains were fastened around the body, wrapping the arms, legs, neck, and mana center. Different seals were placed over each detected ability.
The creature continued looking at Kael.
"It is too late."
The fortress began disappearing for the final time.
Eleonor tried to close her hands, but space passed through her runes. Yggdrasil sent roots beneath the harbor, anchoring the base of the walls. The plants entered the stone and were severed when the structure lost contact with the world.
Kael looked toward Sylphie.
"Can you feel the path?"
"For a short time."
"Mark it."
She closed her eyes and spread natural energy across the water. The fortress disappeared completely, but a green line remained over the sea, following the absence left by the mobile chamber.
"It is moving north," Sylphie said.
"Not only north," Eleonor replied. "It is passing through something."
Kael took the crystal.
"Amelia."
"I am listening."
"The body in Orla was a test unit. The real Cradle is moving."
"Were you able to stop it?"
"No."
There was silence from the other side.
Kael looked toward the green line.
"But we have a trail."
The restrained creature began laughing again.
Violet tightened one of the chains.
"What is so funny?"
It turned its white eyes toward Kael.
"You think you are following the Cradle."
Kael approached.
"Am I not?"
"The Cradle is following you."
The body closed its eyes.
A white mark appeared in the center of its chest.
Sylphie recognized it first.
"Kael, move away."
He stepped back.
The mark opened like an eye.
There was no pupil. Only a white surface showing a distant image.
A circular room.
A transparent tank.
Inside it, another figure was being formed.
This time, the face was already complete.
It was Kael’s face.
The copy’s eyes opened.
Scarlet.
The voice came through the mark on the prisoner’s chest.
"First movement recorded."
The tank began to drain.
"Second creation initiated."
The image disappeared.
The restrained creature lost consciousness.
Kael remained staring at the faded seal on its chest.
The Cradle had obtained more than the technique.
It possessed an image of the body, the mana, and the way others recognized Kael. The first copy had been created to fight, observe, and send corrections.
The second would be closer.
More stable.
And probably not the last.
Sylphie approached.
"You are thinking."
"Yes."
"About pursuing it."
"No."
She appeared surprised.
Kael looked toward Violet.
"Take that thing into containment. I want every part studied before the regeneration returns."
Then he looked toward Eleonor.
"We are not following the trail yet."
His grandmother narrowed her eyes.
"Why?"
"Because it told the truth."
Kael pointed toward the green line over the sea.
"If the Cradle is using my presence as a reference, pursuing it now only keeps the path open."
Sylphie understood.
"We need to make you disappear from the map."
"Exactly."
Umbra smiled.
"I can hide you."
"Not only from sight."
Kael touched his own chest.
"From mana, memory of place, and recognition."
Eleonor observed the direction left by the fortress.
"That will require severing every connection."
"For a short time."
"And when the Cradle loses the reference?"
Kael looked toward the empty sea.
"It will need to stop."
Amelia heard through the crystal.
"Then we set the trap where it stops."
Kael smiled.
"Now you understand."
He turned back toward Orla. The incomplete bodies had stopped moving the moment Umbra severed the transmission. The agents continued removing them from the streets, while Yggdrasil collected every residue left by the absence.
The organization had created something capable of copying Kael.
But to finish the work, it needed to keep finding him.
That dependence would be used against the Cradle.
Kael sheathed his sword.
"Let us return."
Sylphie raised an eyebrow.
"Without running?"
"Without running."
"Without using Celestial Step?"
"Without using it."
Umbra looked at him.
"You are frightening me."
Kael began walking up the street toward the portal.
"I need to rest before I disappear."
Behind him, the green line continued advancing across the sea.
After several seconds, it began to shrink.
The Cradle had realized the reference was growing weaker.
And for the first time since being activated, it reduced its speed.