[A Few Minutes Earlier]
Adrian reappeared in a part of the Royal Capital he hadn’t visited yet, just after ditching the protagonists with a hero complex.
He had a priority greater than all the lives in Avera combined,
Renelle.
He continued teleporting further and avoiding unnecessary fights with the corrupted roaming around.
He even noticed Professor Leon getting people to safety whilst dealing with the corrupted humans, but he teleported away before the professor could notice him.
BOOM!
He reappeared atop a shattered rooftop, just in ti to avoid a corrupted human that lunged at where he had been a mont ago.
Adrian didn’t even spare it a glance. His grey eyes scanned the horizon, noticing smoke rose in several parts of the capital.
From what he knew, he should’ve been close to the royal palace by now, at least, close enough to spot it,
But there was nothing in the distance ahead.
«There,» Noctis appeared on his head and pointed in a certain direction.
Adrian followed its paw, but noticed there was nothing in that direction save for destroyed houses and smoke.
But when one looked in that direction, they’ll get a feeling that sothing was off....which it indeed was
Trusting his gut and cat, Adrian poured mana into his glasses and that’s when he spotted it.
Just ahead, there was a distortion, it was almost like a layer of reality had been poorly stitched over another.
A mirage.
"No," Adrian muttered as he looked at the distortion, "the space where the castle is there and the sa ti not."
This was made possible by the massive barrier that stretched across the area, suppressing mana signatures and even distorting perception itself.
To anyone without the ans to see through it, there was nothing there.
But the castle was still very much there, just hanging in a different layer of space, overlapping with reality yet completely separated from it.
He narrowed his eyes slightly before letting out a sigh, the presence of that barrier just confird that ’he’ was here.
But even with that, Adrian wasn’t too worried about his lady’s safety, for now. Although he couldn’t communicate with her, the bracelet served another function.
It allowed him to sense her and from what he sensed, she was very much alive....just,
Sad?
Extrely sad.
"Let’s go," he said as he teleported closer to the barrier.
He didn’t know why Renelle was suddenly sad, but he knew that he needed to be at her side right now.
He extended his hand towards the barrier only for it to get repelled backwards just before making contact.
"Tch."
Adrian lowered his hand slightly, his expression darkening.
It was actively rejecting anything from the outside.
«Of course it is,» Noctis muttered, its tail flicking, «you think whoever set this up would leave a door open?»
"Then how do I get in," He asked, looking at the mana flow on the barrier.
«Erasing it would be the fastest way,» it answered, «but you’re currently incapable of handling that.»
The cat went silent for a while, looking at the barrier before it spoke up again.
«But you can try fooling it into letting you enter,» it then suggested.
"Fooling it?" Adrian looked at the barrier before it suddenly clicked.
All mana flowed in certain patterns, and this barrier seed to be using said pattern to deny anyone who had a different pattern, access from the space beyond.
It was strange that soone like ’him’ would, put such a loophole in his barrier, but Adrian didn’t think too much of it right now.
Instead, he focused on the flow of mana on the barrier.
He then slowly closed his eyes and felt the movent of mana within him. He wasn’t sure if it would work since it was only a theory, but he had nothing else to try right now.
Slowly, his mana began taking a certain flow within his body, and the effect was imdiate.
It felt as if he was wasting more mana, and the radius of his [Shadow Sense] had grown much smaller.
Still, the mont he achieved the flow he wanted, he stepped closer to the barrier again, and unlike the first ti, he wasn’t rejected.
Instead, he felt as if he was passing through layers of bubbles until he reached the other end.
The mont he did, he noticed that he could feel his shadow, which he promptly reactivated, and without hesitation,
He swapped places with it.
***
Cold.
That was all Adrian felt the mont he reappeared where his shadow was.
All around him, ice shards were covering the walls, and on the floor around him lay multiple shattered corrupted humans.
Slowly falling towards the ground was snow, all of which was a sign of Renelle’s presence.
He looked ahead and imdiately spotted her, sitting on her knees with her head down.
Her arms were wrapped around sothing...or rather, soone, and her shoulders were trembling.
"My lady?" Adrian called out as he could very clearly feel her sadness now that they were in the sa space.
Her sadness crushed him, and he felt so useless right now.
Slowly, Renelle lifted her head and looked towards him, revealing a face that crushed Adrian even more.
Running down her face were, tears?
Her blue eyes looked completely hollow, but even then, she seed a bit surprised to see him.
"Adrian?" Her voice ca out weakly.
She didn’t seem like the Villainess Renelle right now, nor was she the obsessed or desperate Renelle.
Right now she just seed....broken?
There was silence between them for a while, her eyes begging him to do sothing but he was still a bit caught off guard by her current emotions.
No, more than being caught off guard, he was currently blaming himself for whatever put her in this state.
After all, if he had insisted on staying by her side even with her rejection, maybe he could’ve prevented the events that put her in that mood.
His eyes stayed on Renelle, but more importantly, on what she was holding.
A body.
Adrian tried moving closer but the next second, his steps froze.
His eyes looked up at Renelle, whose eyes were now wide in horror as she looked at him.
Slowly, Adrian looked down and noticed that a hand was cleanly passing through his back, and in the hand was his beating.
"This should deal with you and set everything back on track," a voice whispered from behind him, "anomaly."
That was the last thing he heard before the hand was withdrawn, causing him to fall forward.
A look of horror was the last thing he saw on Renelle’s face before his consciousness finally faded.
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