Marc had reacted so quickly.
For the second time, Aeros no longer had a head. Marc hadn't even given his body the time to think — he had crossed the two meters that separated him from Aeros, who was still sitting on her bed, in less than a millisecond.
She hadn't even had time to move. Her gaze lost in the ground, then nothing. No blood splashed on the wall, but Marc's fist left an enormous and smoking impact on it.
His reaction time had been completely absurd, far higher than that of a machine. Marc hadn't even thought about what he was doing before striking, and suddenly, the entity of war was no more — for the second time.
The rest of her body simply fell back on the bed where she had been and did not move again.
Marc realized one second later what he had done. Aeros's lifeless body lying on the bed. His eyes, lost, shocked, and wide open, tried to reconnect when he realized he was stepping on something.
Without his expression changing, he saw Garid, who had a hole in his head and blood flowing all over the room, holding a gun in his hand.
Thus ended the great Emperor Garid. So easily…
Marc slowly raised his head again, and his gaze fell back on Aeros.
Had it become normal? Had he become used to death? Since when did he kill so easily? Was he still human?
He then slowly turned his head again, saw the books, took them, and walked toward the exit like a machine.
His eyes, wide open but empty of life, made him look like a corpse walking on its own. His brain was disconnected. He left that place, without understanding, without even realizing he had really been there.
Mission accomplished — Marc Zeymond had recovered the books.
But at what cost?
Then, suddenly, Marc started to laugh.
Yes — Marc Zeymond, after everything that had happened, laughed alone in the desert of Aricha.
Elie was waiting impatiently for Marc's return.
She was, however, more worried about him than anything else. And her fears were justified.
She had noticed that his mental state had clearly deteriorated since the beginning of the war. He didn't answer when she called him, his gaze lost and empty all day long, and at times he didn't even recognize her anymore.
If this kept going, she would have to be locked up to calm down, but he was still searching for the books and wouldn't stop until he had found them.
She could also understand why he had become like this lately. She had seen the images from the border and the carnage that had taken place there. In the eyes of the world he wanted to save, Marc was nothing more than a cold and violent beast slaughtering everything in his path. When in truth, his aura controlled him like a puppet, and the poor man had no control over it.
It was one of the strangest things about him. The autonomy of his aura was terrifying — so much so that it sometimes even frightened her. It seemed to be a second self, hungry for battle and raging like a wild animal.
Everyone who knew it feared it deeply and wanted to keep it contained inside him. But that couldn't last for long.
Elie didn't know this state very well; she had never witnessed it before. But now that she had seen it, she could say without hesitation — it was the most terrifying thing she had ever encountered.
It wasn't even surprising anymore that people called him Death. The Death of War. The aura he gave off in his black armor and white mask inspired terror even in those who couldn't see auras. In short, Marc looked like a dreadful avenging knight, brutally killing all his enemies.
And what had happened at the border only confirmed the horrific rumors about him.
"I hope he'll be alright."
Suddenly, her phone rang. She saw that it was the Emperor himself and picked up as quickly as she could.
"Yes."
"Brudmand, are you holding up where you are?"
The Emperor's voice was calm and rhythmic. He spoke in his usual tone — as if there were no war at all.
"Yes, Your Majesty. At least, I think so. The soldiers here remain calm, and Marc went to look for the books. For now, the situation is stable."
"I would have liked to congratulate you for that, but it seems there's a problem we hadn't detected."
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Elie sensed a faint trace of distress in the Emperor's voice.
"Stay calm, Brudmand. I'm not asking you to panic. But we've finished pushing back those trying to cross the border. Everything was fine until…"
"What's happening, Emperor Turcan?"
The Emperor of half the world paused tensely, then finally spoke again.
"Our soldiers are normally trained to have a mental resistance like no other. Nothing is supposed to make them break. However, this morning, one of them took his own life."
Elie's eyes widened in shock — and understandably so.
The Zvenne Empire had the upper hand in the war, and Arva and Garida didn't have much time left. The situation was in their favor — yet a soldier had still committed suicide.
That couldn't be normal. There had to be something dark behind this suicide.
"Impossible."
The Emperor didn't wait for her reaction and continued.
"It seems something is pushing them to act — probably another one of those foolish beings. Be careful around you and stop anyone trying to end their life. I'm sorry to impose this on you, Brudmand, you who are not a soldier, but I'm counting on you."
Elie slowly looked around to see how the soldiers were doing. None seemed to be affected by the powers of the strange being, and none were behaving oddly.
The soldiers stood straight like posts near certain doors, ensuring the safety of important people. Others were taking a break, chatting and laughing over coffee or sweet drinks.
The atmosphere seemed calm on one side, though slightly tense because of the war. But since they already knew of the Empire's impending victory, the soldiers were a little more relaxed and relieved. Even if tension was still present, a thin layer of cheerfulness floated innocently in the air.
Elie felt relieved for a few seconds, but when she wanted to give orders to disperse the men, she noticed an open window in the corner of her eye. And strangely, for an unknown reason, that window made her extremely uneasy.
Without a word, she stood up and slowly approached it, taking small steps. Her heart began to beat faster in her chest, as if her body was expecting a dreadful tragedy.
And in a glacial silence, while all sound around her disappeared, the cold hands of curiosity wrapped around her neck — though they didn't even need to force.
Elie slowly leaned her head outside, a light breeze lifting her hair backward. Then, gently, she looked down — and her heart suddenly stopped beating.
A soldier lay on the ground, a few meters below. His head was dislocated, probably from the impact. His armor was still on him, while his body was twisted like a rag doll. It was a simple, ordinary suicide.
A suicide that made things all the more terrifying…
Elie didn't look for more than ten seconds — ten seconds that felt like an hour. She quickly turned away, her heart pounding violently once more.
It was the first time she had ever seen a dead body. A real one — the absence of life inside the machine that was supposed to contain it. It was death, true death — and in no way was it pleasant to look at.
The lifeless body of the soldier resurfaced in her mind, and she couldn't shake it off. Horror was surely the best word to describe the situation.
But now, she had to pull herself together and keep acting like a true professional.But was that even possible after such a spectacle?
She ordered a soldier to handle the situation discreetly, without letting anyone else know.
The man walked toward her with a pale face, having heard everything she said. Yet despite that, he remained composed in his duty and then moved toward the window.
But when he too approached the window — the unthinkable happened.
The soldier saw the body on the ground, and his gaze filled with sheer terror.
And as she watched him act, Elie felt that something was terribly wrong in his behavior.
His aura withered like a dying plant, all of a sudden…
Then, in a Herculean calm, he suddenly removed his armor and set his weapons down beside him. Everything was folded and neatly arranged into a tidy pile, in complete and unnerving silence.
Suddenly, the once cheerful atmosphere turned strange and distorted — like in a horror movie.As if everything became blurred and dark, and a veil had settled over the room, twisting the movements of space itself.Elie saw the world ripple gently before her eyes, and her senses no longer responded to her.
But the soldier kept moving with the same careful precision, and placed a hand on the edge of the window.
That alone was enough for Elie to understand — and she rushed toward the desperate man to stop him.
"Stop!"
The soldier didn't even look at her. The distance between them was too great, and she couldn't reach him in time.
He jumped through the window — right before the eyes of all his comrades, who had come out because of the noise.
Time seemed to slow for Elie, who was now only a meter away from the window as the soldier had already leapt.
She reached out her hand and hit the edge of the window, as if she could still do something — and once again, the impossible happened.
Still with her arm extended, she leaned her head outside to see where the soldier was — and against all odds, he was floating in midair, not understanding what was happening. His face seemed to have regained reason. The poor man panicked, realizing he was hanging in the air, attached to absolutely nothing.
Elie had never been able to make her power work on living beings. She was the first to be surprised.
Then she spoke to the soldier, trying to smile despite everything.
"Life's not that bad, you know?"
The soldier looked at her, bewildered — as if he didn't understand what she was saying.
And yet, something inside him had taken away his desire to end it all.