The sun was slipping away, staining the sky in fading gold as the forest turned cold and dark. Evren stood balanced on a tree branch, staring at the distant fire that wasn't spreading. It was controlled, contained, odd.
Below him, Atlas and Reed sat against the trunk, quietly eating their bars. Atlas occasionally poked at his stomach, prodding the bandaged wound he'd sealed shut with his own electricity.
After their fight with the Nexus second-year Ascendants, they'd run straight into a pack of hollowed. They had taken them down easily enough but Evren couldn't stop thinking about it.
Those hollowed… weren't normal.
They hadn't rushed them. They weren't even focused on them. It was as if they were searching, actively hunting for someone else.
Was it possible to condition monsters who were also former humans?
Evren's jaw tightened. This was only day one.
He exhaled, pushed off the branch, and dropped lightly to the ground. Both Atlas and Reed glanced his way.
