Chapter 129: Multiple Death

The first Bloodkin appeared without warning.

A figure burst through the trees ahead of them, its body covered in dark crimson veins as blood gathered around its arm. It swung toward the group, and a dozen thin spears of blood shot through the air.

"Incoming!"

Mara’s warning came at the same moment Reinhard moved. Space distorted around his body as he prepared to tear through the attack, but Emily was already moving.

She stepped forward, raised her hand, and twisted her body just enough to let the first blood spear pass her shoulder. The second flew past her waist, and she caught the third with a blade of compressed space before immediately cutting through the Bloodkin that had launched it.

The creature’s head separated from its body. Before it could regenerate, Emily was already moving again.

Three more Bloodkin emerged from between the trees. One rushed directly toward her while the other two circled around her sides.

Emily didn’t wait for them to attack. She moved toward the first one. The Bloodkin raised its arm, blood forming into a jagged blade, but Emily stepped inside its range before the weapon could fully form. She struck its chest, twisted past its body, and used the momentum to drive herself toward the second.

The creature attempted to attack her from behind. Emily already knew it would. She ducked before the blood blade descended, allowing it to pass above her head, then turned and struck the Bloodkin through the throat.

At the same time, the third opened its mouth and released a concentrated stream of Blood Mana. Emily shifted sideways. The attack missed her by inches. She immediately used the opening to cross the distance and cut it down.

Three Bloodkin fell within seconds, and Emily hadn’t so much as broken stride.

Reinhard watched the entire sequence. She isn’t reacting to them. That was the first thing he noticed. Emily was moving before the attacks were fully committed. She wasn’t simply faster than the Bloodkin. She understood what they were about to do.

Another group emerged from the trees, more than a dozen this time, their Blood Mana spreading across the ground as crimson spikes erupted from beneath the soil.

"Spread out!" Yuna shouted.

Everyone moved. Reinhard shattered several blood spikes at once. Archon erased an entire cluster of Bloodkin with a single attack. Rhea, Lily, Maki, and the others joined the fight, cutting through the creatures as the battlefield erupted into chaos.

Yet Emily was moving differently. She wasn’t trying to overpower the Bloodkin.

She was reading them. One lunged toward her and she sidestepped. Another attacked from behind and she turned before it reached her.

A third tried to retreat after seeing its companions fall, and she followed it, struck the first, used its collapsing body as cover from a blood spear, then changed direction and caught two more in the same motion.

Her movements were efficient. No wasted motion. No hesitation. She seemed to know where they would move before they moved.

Reinhard destroyed another Bloodkin and glanced toward her again. That’s strange. He had fought Bloodkin before. So had Emily. Her knowledge could easily be explained by experience. But this wasn’t simply experience. She was anticipating their habits with a familiarity that felt almost instinctive.

A Bloodkin attempted to attack her from an angle she couldn’t see. She turned before it moved. The creature’s blood blade passed harmlessly beside her, and Emily’s attack followed immediately.

Another three charged her at once. Emily stepped backward, letting them bunch together before sweeping her weapon through the space between them. All three fell together.

Rhea stared. "Did you see that?"

"She just took out three of them," Lily said.

Maki pushed another Bloodkin away. "She’s predicting their movement."

"Not predicting," Seraphine said, watching closely. "She’s understanding their attack patterns."

Emily didn’t hear them. She was already moving toward another group, slipping around a blood shield instead of attacking it directly, cutting off a retreating Bloodkin before it reached the forest, shifting her weight to let a third attack pass before destroying it.

Within moments, the remaining Bloodkin were gone. The forest went quiet again, several bodies dissolving into pools of dark blood across the ground.

Rhea looked at Emily with open admiration. "All right, that was ridiculous."

Emily blinked. "What?"

"How are you doing that? You aren’t even giving them a chance."

"Can you teach me?" Lily asked, practically bouncing.

"Your movement is different from before," Maki added.

Emily glanced toward the remains of the Bloodkin. "I’ve just fought a lot of them."

"That’s not enough," Seraphine said. "We’ve fought Bloodkin too."

"She’s reading their movement," Rika said, arms crossed.

Emily smiled faintly. "Maybe."

Rhea looked toward Archon. "She’s better than you."

The surrounding group went quiet. Archon slowly turned her head.

Rhea immediately pointed toward Emily. "I’m just saying what everyone is thinking."

"Rhea," Mara sighed.

"What? Emily just cleared them faster than Archon."

Archon closed her eyes. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the corner of her lips twitched.

Reinhard noticed it immediately. She’s amused. He almost laughed.

Emily gave Rhea a small smile. "I don’t think I’m better than Archon."

"See? Humble too," Rhea grinned.

Reinhard placed a hand against his chest. "This is becoming dangerous. My wife is getting praised too much."

Emily glanced at him. "You sound jealous."

"I’m not jealous."

"You are."

"I’m proud."

Rhea immediately laughed. "That’s worse."

"She’s my wife," Reinhard shrugged. "I’m allowed to be proud."

Emily’s smile lingered before she looked deeper into the Garden, her expression gradually turning serious. "Reinhard."

He turned toward her.

"Can you use the Mirror?"

His expression shifted. "The Mirror?"

She nodded. "Can you ask it what we’ll face here?"

The others went quiet. Reinhard looked at her for a moment before nodding. "Sure."

He pulled the Mirror of Possibilities from his storage space. The surface stayed dark for a moment before a faint silver light spread across the glass. Several of them gathered around.

"Let’s see what we’re dealing with."

The Mirror responded. The world around them disappeared.

Five possible futures appeared.

The first showed a battlefield covered in blood. Reinhard stood in the middle of it, Bloodkin surrounding him from every direction, hundreds of them. He fought. He killed dozens, then hundreds. But more kept appearing, and eventually they overwhelmed him. He fell beneath the swarm.

The second showed him alone beneath a dark sky, blood spears filling the air around him. He dodged the first wave, then the second, then the third. But there were too many. Countless spears pierced through his body, and he fell forward.

The third showed the Nephilim with him, standing beneath enormous pillars made from condensed Blood Mana, their bodies suspended in the air with blood ropes hung from their necks. Reinhard stood among them, already covered in wounds. One by one, the pillars tightened.

The fourth showed Reinhard in a ruined street, a figure covered entirely in blood standing behind him, its hand wrapped around his neck. He struggled. His feet left the ground. The figure lifted him effortlessly.

The fifth showed no battlefield at all. Reinhard lay on the ground, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, Emily kneeling beside him with her hands pressed against his chest, her face pale, her eyes wide. His body didn’t move.

The vision remained for several seconds, then disappeared. The Mirror returned to normal.

Silence filled the Garden.

Reinhard stared at the Mirror.

Five futures. Five deaths. Every single one ended with him dead.

He slowly raised an eyebrow, studying the five corpses of himself with the detached interest of a man reading a slightly insulting restaurant review. "Well."

Nobody answered. Rhea’s expression had lost all traces of humor. Maki stared at the Mirror as though trying to understand what she’d just seen. Seraphine stood completely still, while Yuna’s hands tightened around her weapon. Archon simply stared at Reinhard.

Emily hadn’t moved. Her hand was clenched tightly at her side, knuckles white.

Reinhard noticed, looked at her for a moment, then turned back toward the Mirror. "That seems a little excessive."

"Reinhard," Mara said finally.

He looked toward her.

"Those were five possible futures."

"I know."

"You died in every one."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Yes."

Rhea swallowed. "You’re not taking this seriously."

"Of course I am." He glanced at the Mirror again. "But seriously, how could I fall to a bunch of Bloodkin?"

Mara stared at him. Reinhard spread his hands. "Look at me." He smiled, slow and entirely too pleased with himself. "I’m very difficult to kill. Historically. Statistically. Spiritually."

"That’s not an argument," Maki sighed.

"It’s a good argument."

"Reinhard."

"What? You wanted me to panic? I don’t do that. It ruins the hair."

He laughed softly. "The Mirror must be malfunctioning."

Nobody seemed convinced.

He put the Mirror away. "There are supposed to be countless possible futures. We saw five bad ones. That doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed."

"That’s true," Seraphine said slowly.

"But we still need to prepare," Yuna added.

Reinhard gave her a thumbs-up. "Exactly."

The tension eased slightly, but it didn’t disappear.

Reinhard began walking again, already looking forward to proving the Mirror wrong out of pure spite. A moment later, Archon moved beside him. "I won’t let you die."

Reinhard blinked and turned toward her. She kept walking as though she’d said nothing unusual.

Then he laughed. "You’ll have to get in line. My cute wife already called first shield, and honestly, the line behind her is getting a little competitive."

Archon’s lips curved into a small smile. "Then I’ll be second."

Reinhard laughed again.

Behind them, Emily remained silent, her footsteps following several paces behind. He could hear them. For some reason, the sound felt different after what they’d just seen in the Mirror.

He glanced back. Emily was walking with the others, her expression calm. But her hand was still clenched.

He watched her a moment longer before facing forward again. He didn’t know why the Mirror had shown those futures. He didn’t know what waited for them deeper inside the Old Garden. And he still didn’t understand why Emily seemed to know the Bloodkin so well.

But he had a feeling the three mysteries were not unrelated.

For now, there was only one thing they could do.

Keep moving forward.