Chapter 512: • Boom. He’s Back
The van’s interior buzzed with tension, the inmates still sneering and scoffing at Claus’s final, cryptic remark.
“You think you’re better than us? Just ’cause you talk fancy?”
“Man, I swear, soone needs to shut him up—”
Claus closed his eyes.
Then began counting aloud.
“Five…”
The inmates quieted, confused.
“…Four…”
The bald man narrowed his eyes. “What the hell are you doing?”
“…Three…”
“Is this so kinda ditation bullshit?”
“…Two…”
The air in the van shifted. Faint vibrations ran up through the tal floor.
“…One.”
And then—
BOOM.
A thunderous explosion rocked the entire convoy. The transport van bucked violently, tires screeching as the driver slamd the brakes. Alarms blared. Sirens scread outside as the other armored vehicles ground to a halt.
The driver, pale and sweating, grabbed the radio. “Unit 7 to command! What the hell was that?! What’s happening up there?!”
Static.
Then—
Screams.
“He’s back! HE’S BACK! It’s—oh god, it’s—”
KRAKOOOOOM!
The transmission was swallowed by a second explosion. The comms cut out with a high-pitched whine, leaving only the faint hiss of static.
The driver’s voice trembled. “Wh… what the hell is going on…?”
Then, through the thick smoke outside the windshield—
A figure erged.
Walking calmly through the fire and wreckage.
Hair drenched in glowing mana-sweat, skin laced with seething light, his silhouette radiating a monstrous pressure. Eyes glowing. Each step he took warped the air.
Aiku.
The driver gasped, frozen. “No, no, no, that’s not possible… he was—he was dead!”
In a blur, Aiku vanished from view.
CRASH!
A sudden burst of pressure tore through the side of the van. Aiku appeared in a blink—ripping an entire section of the vehicle free with one hand, flinging it into the air along with the row of screaming inmates who’d been shackled opposite Claus.
They disappeared into the smoky night sky, their screams fading into the roar of collapsing tal.
Dust swirled.
And then—Aiku’s burning gaze locked onto Claus.
A smirk ford on his lips.
“There you are, detective.”
He extended his hand.
“Co now. We still haven’t completed our agreent.”
Claus looked up slowly, the blue sigils on his suppression cuffs flickering erratically—disrupted by Aiku’s overwhelming mana presence.
The other inmates—what few remained conscious—stared in horror, pressed as far back into their seats as their shackles would allow.
The bald man, now trembling, whispered, “W-What is that thing…?”
Claus didn’t respond. He simply rose to his feet, the glow from Aiku’s body reflecting off his glasses. With a faint tallic hum, the mana suppression cuffs clicked open and dropped to the van floor, as if reality itself bent to Aiku’s will.
No one questioned it.
Claus stepped forward, brushing dust from his sleeves with indifference.
“I was wondering when you’d show up,” he said, eyes narrowing. “Though I must admit… your timing is impeccable.”
Aiku raised an eyebrow, his smirk twitching into sothing more incredulous.
“Really? That’s all I get?” he said, gesturing vaguely at himself. “I co back from the dead and you’re not even a little surprised? No gasp, no stunned silence? Co on, Claus—I basically resurrected.”
Claus didn’t slow his steps. He moved to the back of the ruined vehicle, brushing past scorched debris and twisted tal, until he reached a containnt case locked into a secured panel. His fingers danced across the control pad. A series of chirps and clicks later, the magnetic seals released with a hiss.
Inside rested a sheathed katana—its handle marked with fading sigils and etched runes, sealed and untouched since the day Claus had been arrested.
As he retrieved it, Claus finally spoke.
“You were locked in a maximum-security containnt vault,” he said, drawing the blade free with a clean, tallic whisper. “No food. No water. No oxygen. For over a century. And you still didn’t die.”
He stepped forward, eyes sharp behind his glasses.
“The fact that you were ever imprisoned to begin with, despite being that dangerous, told one thing—”
“—you couldn’t be killed. If cutting your head off was enough, soone would’ve done it a hundred years ago. But they didn’t.”
He adjusted his glasses with a faint tallic clink.
“So no, I wasn’t the least bit worried about your fate.”
Aiku blinked.
Then slowly, a grin stretched across his face.
“Such a cold bastard,” he muttered, chuckling under his breath. “You seem to have more faith in logic than in miracles.”
Claus sighed.
“You caused quite a ss, as usual.”
Aiku grinned, licking blood from his lip. “A ss? No, my dear Claus—this is art.”
Behind them, Union drones began to converge, their lights cutting through the smoke.
Claus barely glanced upward. “We have sixty seconds before a certain soone realizes you didn’t die.”
Aiku sighed, the sound sharp and tinged with mild annoyance. “Tch… We best be on our way then,” he muttered, casting a quick glance toward the approaching Union drones, their chanical whirring growing louder.
Claus silently adjusted his glasses, the reflection hiding a flicker of amusent behind the lenses. A montary smile played at the corner of his lips, quickly vanishing as he turned his head toward a circular sewer hatch nestled against a crumbling brick wall in the distance.
He gestured with a subtle nod. “Then I guess you know what we must do.”
Aiku followed his gaze.
His expression soured instantly. He gritted his teeth. “Oh, you can’t be serious.”
Claus didn’t answer—he just started walking.
Aiku groaned. “Out of all the exits in the city, you pick the one that slls like death and moldy regrets?”
Claus glanced over his shoulder. “Do feel free to stay behind if your nose is too delicate.”
“Do not tempt to rip out your tongue, detective. I’m not one to entertain slander.”
anwhile, in the far-off distance—beyond the smoke, fire, and screeching alarms—stood a lone figure atop an overpass.
A Dragon Knight.
Clad in sleek black armor, holding a massive greatspear shaped like a dragon’s fang, resting at their side. Their visor reflected the chaos below—the ruined convoy, the flaming wreckage, and the man who had returned from the dead.
They had witnessed everything.
Claus.
Aiku.
The knight tilted their head slightly, a faint crackle building around them. Blue mana pulsed at their feet.
And then—in the blink of an eye—they vanished.
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