Across a sea of fire veiled in a mercury sheen, White Jack narrowed his hollow eyes, quietly watching the man in the suit.
Clock Maker wore his usual brown suit today. A monocle rested over his right eye, and a low bowler hat shadowed his forehead. In the gloom, his alluring eyes gleamed.
A moment later, a mercury-colored super-human species panel popped up above his head.
[Character Code: Clock Maker]
[Type: Esper]
[Danger Rating: S-Rank]
[Character Introduction:
He was once just an orphan, later adopted by a clock shop manager and taken on as an apprentice.
But for some inexplicable reason, every pocket watch the boy handled would break. His boss constantly berated and suppressed him, while the shop's other apprentice mocked him.
He simply wanted to know what grudge existed between him and the watch, only to find a mercury color washing over the entire world. The second hand stopped turning.
The boy lay stunned for a long time. From that day onward, as if he had discovered a whole new world, he devoted himself to the craft of watchmaking.
A month later, he left without saying goodbye, leaving behind a letter for the manager who had so often beaten and scolded him. Upon tearing open the envelope, the manager found a crude, handmade pocket watch inside.
Alongside it was a single line of earnestly written English: "In case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night."
The manager cursed aloud, wondering how such a wicked brat could exist in this world. If he ever caught the little demon, he was dead meat!
The very next second, the pocket watch in the envelope exploded. The clock shop closed down for good, and the manager was forced into early retirement.
That same night, the owner of the neighboring tailor shop discovered a brown suit missing from his inventory, along with a matching monocle.
Not long after, a man known as "Clock Maker" made his name known to the world—a violent thug governing time itself. From this was born his elegance, his loneliness, and an absolute, overriding desire for control.
"When a man controls time, he controls everything in the world," someone in history once said.]
[Weakness: 1. Clock Maker will never willingly allow anyone else to share that mercury-colored ocean with him. The moment his hypocritical hegemony vanishes, the order within his mind will collapse.]
'If you set aside the time-stop ability, this guy has to be the most fragile S-Rank in the world, right? His powers are just explosions, time stops, and hypnosis. Defensively, he's a glass cannon. If he just stood perfectly still, I feel like even I could find a way to kill him.'
White Jack stared at Clock Maker from a distance, mulling it over.
Of course, he doubted there were many S-Ranks out there who could actually defeat Clock Maker. Even Second Sister wouldn't stand a chance.
The overwhelming advantage of stopping time was simply undeniable. Clock Maker held the absolute initiative in any battle. Even if he couldn't break through the defenses of a mythic vessel like the Fire Giant Surtr, he could easily walk away unscathed.
"Why so quiet, Rain Crow?"
Clock Maker lifted Blue Pigeon by the neck and stared up at the phone broadcasting the live feed, his tone laced with a lazy disappointment.
"Are you familiar with this sensation? The feeling of being choked by the throat? I thought no one else in this world besides me could ever give you this feeling again."
He adjusted his monocle and continued.
"But now I'm utterly disappointed. To think you'd let yourself be played for a fool by such a pathetic little nobody, making a total spectacle of yourself... This isn't the you I knew. You've grown old. Look at your hunched back. Look at your pitiful gaze... Honestly, it makes me lose any desire to keep playing this game with you."
"Let's end it. Right here, today."
On the other side of the screen, Rain Crow said nothing. He simply stood in silence atop the ruins, his gaze burning like a torch from beneath his helmet.
A moment later, the pitch-black figure vanished from the top of the screen.
He was coming.
White Jack knew very well that Rain Crow had likely already reached St. Honghu Avenue.
"Heh..."
Clock Maker let out a low sneer.
He didn't even deign to acknowledge White Jack's presence in the factory. Keeping his grip on Blue Pigeon, he walked straight through the sea of fire and exited the decrepit building.
White Jack simply watched in silence as he left.
He had no intention of intervening. The most crucial character had yet to take the stage, and trying to take down Clock Maker alone would be far too difficult.
Once Clock Maker was gone, White Jack slipped on the Tracking Sunglasses he had been gripping in his palm. A line of text slowly popped up across the lenses.
[Notice: Tracking Sunglasses have locked onto the location of the S-Rank super-human species "Clock Maker". The target's coordinates will be continuously broadcast for the next two hours.
(Warning—This target is a world-class Esper criminal. Extermination difficulty is extremely high. Please proceed with caution, player!)]
Wearing his sunglasses and resting his weight on his Cane, White Jack shot a glance toward the purple fog in the distance before turning to leave the factory.
He needed to track Clock Maker down and assist Rain Crow.
That left only Shadow Girl and Ke Mingqing in the abandoned factory. The two former teammates were currently hiding inside the Mist of Loss, their figures entirely obscured.
Shadow Girl remained completely silent.
"Don't move," she finally said. At the same time, she pressed the blade of her dagger a fraction closer to Ke Mingqing's neck.
"When did you betray us?" Ke Mingqing paused for a moment. "You don't look like you've been brainwashed. If you were, you would have already finished me off by now, but you look like you're struggling."
He paused. "So let me guess. Was it that Dream Monk? Did he use his ability to threaten you?"
Shadow Girl stiffened slightly, then gave a nod.
Dream Monk was one of the Clockwork Alliance members White Jack had spotted down in the sewers earlier. He was a young monk whose Esper ability allowed him to invade the dreams of others, using them to threaten his target's life.
"Figures it was him," Ke Mingqing muttered. "Like I said, if you were actually brainwashed, why would you be struggling so much? Your blade would have been much quicker."
He figured Dream Monk must have invaded Shadow Girl's dreams and found a way to threaten her life.
"Is he watching you right now?" Ke Mingqing asked.
"Yes," Shadow Girl said softly, lowering her gaze. "But he shouldn't be able to hear us."
"Are they nearby?"
"Yeah. He'll be here soon."
"How can I help you?"
"You can't. He can kill me with his ability at any given second..." Shadow Girl paused, dropping her head. "I'm sorry. I just don't want to die."
Ke Mingqing stayed quiet for a long while before letting out a sigh. "None of us wants to die, but aren't you just dragging me down with you? Do you really think they're going to let you go?"
"Top Hero is dead. The kid is dead. Commander Lin Yin is in trouble..."
Shadow Girl hesitated, then whispered, "I don't have many friends. I was really happy being with all of you. I don't want you to die... So just don't move, okay?"
Ke Mingqing watched her silently from the corner of his eye. After a long moment, he spoke in a slow, drawn-out tone:
"I get it, I get it. Can you not sound like you're about to burst into tears? It doesn't suit you at all. Where did that caring big sister go?"
Even as he spoke, he suddenly turned around.
"Don't move!" Shadow Girl snapped. Her eyes turned ice-cold as the edge of her dagger dragged across his neck, leaving a bright streak of blood.
Despite the burning sting flaring across his throat, Ke Mingqing kept his face perfectly calm.
He reached out and gently patted her hair. "See? Isn't everything fine?"
Shadow Girl froze.
Ke Mingqing lingered in silence for a moment. Looking down into her face, he said in an even, lukewarm voice: "Chocolate girl, just take me to see them. They'll probably want to capture me alive. After all, I'm the real Blue Pigeon. Clock Maker isn't going to just let me off without torturing me first."
Shadow Girl kept her head bowed, hesitating for a long, long time. She glanced up, quickly looked down again, and gave a gentle nod, pulling the dagger away from his throat.
"I'm... I'm sorry."
Her voice was faint and hoarse. She glanced at Ke Mingqing's neck, where blood was trickling down to stain his collarbone red.
"Doesn't matter."
Ke Mingqing brushed it off casually. He tore a strip of fabric from the corner of his windbreaker, wrapped it around his bleeding neck, and tied a knot.
By this point, the E-grade skill Mist of Loss had reached its maximum duration. As the purple fog dissipated, the two of them were once again revealed inside the abandoned factory.
The violent rain had shattered the windows, pouring in from outside and lashing against their silhouettes.
In that moment, out of the corner of his eye, Ke Mingqing caught sight of two figures stepping through the factory's back door.
The first was a girl with pink-and-blue hair wearing a jacket and jeans, her hair tied into twin pigtails atop her head.
The second was a boy clad in a cassock. His facial features were distinctly feminine, making him look almost androgynous, yet his head was completely shaved like a monk's.
[Code: Mini Girl (Esper) (Danger Rating: B Rank)]
[Code: Dream Monk (Esper) (Danger Rating: B+ Rank)]
The moment he saw Mini Girl, Ke Mingqing's expression drastically changed. He instantly felt a razor-sharp stream of air rocketing right toward his face.
At first, he thought it was just a blast of the storm, but he quickly realized something was shooting straight for his face! In that split second, a needle-thin speck suspended in the air abruptly magnified countless times, revealing its true form—a speeding bullet.
And it wasn't just one. An entire volley of bullets suddenly restored to their original size, hurtling straight at him.
'She used her power to shrink the bullets?' Ke Mingqing's pupils contracted.
With a reaction window of just half a second, there was no time to summon the paper puppet Nietzsche into his palm. Left with no choice, he instantly activated an item from his inventory: the Disposable Stage Hoist Rope.
[Disposable Stage Hoist Rope: (Upon activation, an invisible rope is instantly generated to yank your body upward).]
'It doesn't matter if I take a bullet or two...' Ke Mingqing thought to himself, intent on keeping his injuries to a minimum.
There was no way he was going to burn his trump card, the Superman Philosophy, in a petty skirmish like this. If he did, how was White Jack supposed to help Rain Crow take down Clock Maker later?
However, right as the rope was about to hook onto him, a raging wave of shadows swept forward like a massive curtain. It knocked the iron hook aside and completely blocked his line of sight.
"Hey, hey, chocolate girl, did you really have to backstab me right at the critical moment?" Ke Mingqing cried out in shock, crashing hard against the floor.
A second later, as the curtain of shadows dispersed, he finally saw exactly what had happened.
A woman clad in a pitch-black bodysuit was standing right in front of him.
Shadow Girl had thrown her arms wide, like a butterfly spreading its wings against the wind. Nearly ten bullets had ripped straight through her chest, ribs, stomach, forearms, and thighs. In the very next instant, a series of bloody craters bloomed across her body.
In the absolute silence, blood spilled from the ragged exit wounds in her back, spattering red across Ke Mingqing's arms and cheeks. He just stared blankly at her back.
A split second later, the iron hook of the disposable hoist rope accidentally snagged onto Shadow Girl's body in a twist of fate.
The protective layer of shadows coating her skin faded away.
Yanked by the invisible rope, her cold body was instantly hoisted upward, left hanging motionless just beneath the ceiling.
Ke Mingqing stared at the blood staining his arms for a long, long time. Finally, he lifted his head, gazing blankly up at the corpse dangling from the ceiling.
"Like a moth darting into the flame."
Dream Monk raised his right hand in a gesture of prayer.
"Was that really necessary?"
Mini Girl put one hand on her hip and tilted her head back. She shaded her eyes with her free hand—mimicking the Monkey King's classic scouting pose—and stared curiously at Shadow Girl's corpse, muttering, "But what was that thing that suddenly popped out and hoisted her up? It was like magic! Did you see it just now?"
His pitch-black bangs completely shadowed his eyes. Ke Mingqing sat in silence for a long time. Then, very slowly, he tore his gaze away from the corpse above him, turning his head to stare at the two figures standing in the corner of the factory.
In the next instant, arcs of pitch-black electricity erupted to cloak his entire body, and his bones let out a series of violent, popping cracks.
.........
.......
Meanwhile, on St. Honghu Avenue.
Rain Crow relentlessly hunted Clock Maker's trail. He sprinted amidst a swirling flock of crows, plunging forward like a black tornado determined to swallow the entire world.
Finally, he skidded to a halt in front of a towering skyscraper in St. Honghu Plaza.
The very last time his crows had spotted Clock Maker, the man had been standing right here in front of this building. He had been looking up, silently gazing at the dreary gray sky through the curtain of rain.
Rain Crow lifted his head, suddenly struck by a horrifying sense of familiarity.
It dragged him back to a memory from several years ago. It had been another gloomy, rainy day just like this one. In front of another towering skyscraper just like this one, he had witnessed the most unforgettable scene of his entire life.
A violent surge of dread bubbled up from the bottom of his heart, making his chest tremble.
In the next instant, he violently threw his head back.
There, suspended in the torrential rain, he saw a horrific spread of mangled organs—intestines, a heart, kidneys, a stomach. The bloody mass of organs had been strung up beneath an aerial work platform with thick iron chains.
And strung right in the dead center of it all was a severed head. The head still wore a shattered, blue Bird Beak Helmet.
The organs were still fresh. With every sway in the stormy wind, fresh blood sprayed down from above. The pungent, sickening stench of blood permeated the rain, pouring straight into Rain Crow's nose and mouth.
He opened his mouth, and the blood-dyed streaks of rain lashed violently against his face.
Absolute silence.
A deathly silence blanketed the plaza in front of the skyscraper.
Rain Crow slowly sank to his knees. He desperately wanted to drop his head—to stop looking at the horrifying, macabre spectacle suspended above him.
But he couldn't. His bloodshot eyes remained fixed on that severed head, glued to the tightly shut eyes resting beneath that blue helmet.
"You're one step too late again..."
A moment later, Clock Maker's voice rang out. "Just like all those years ago... Blue Pigeon has once again become Grey Owl. You really can't protect anyone, can you?"
As he spoke, the man in the brown suit walked out from the building's entrance, his head slightly bowed.
He kept one hand tucked behind his back, slightly raising his other. In his blood-soaked glove, he grasped a cold surgical scalpel. After a moment, Clock Maker loosened his grip, letting the scalpel fall to the ground with a sharp clatter.
"Oh, it's been so long since I last did this. It's incredibly refreshing. I had honestly planned on retiring, but after thinking it over, I decided it'd be vastly more entertaining to just keep tormenting you like this until the very end of the world..."
"Wouldn't you agree?" Clock Maker asked, a wide smirk curling the corners of his mouth.