Chapter 302: Richard (3)
Richard’s future sight was screaming.
Every path. Every angle. Every desperate variation.
They all ended the same way with him not making it out alive.
I need to make one.
He reached inside himself and gripped the shard.
Not to use it. To break it.
The Shard of Foresight cracked. Then shattered. Future sight didn’t fade—it exploded. Every possible future flooded his mind at once. Hundreds. Thousands. A cascade of images overlapping so fast they became a single blinding pulse.
His body accelerated past its limit.
"DAMN IT... AH!"
Muscles tore. The cheetah-form strained at the seams and the horn on his forehead split at the base.
At this point pain was irrelevant he had only one window and one sliver of a future where he didn’t win but he survived.
He took it.
Richard moved faster than he’d moved all fight. Not toward Jan. Not toward Louise. Toward the gap between them. Claws retracted. Body low. A blur that skimmed the scorched floor and shot past their guard.
DING!
"...?!"
Jan’s future sight caught it. His sword was already swinging.
Louise’s new senses caught it too and his polearm was already thrusting.
Too slow.
Richard slipped through. A hair past Jan’s blade. A breath past Louise’s flame.
His feet found open floor and his eyes found the corridor ahead.
I made it.
He burst through the doorway—
KEUKKK!
A hand caught him by the throat.
One hand. One arm. Completely coated in aura. The grip was absolute.
"Got him."
Anouz stepped into the light, holding Richard off the ground like a caught animal. His arm didn’t tremble. His expression was flat. Unimpressed.
"Took you long enough," Christian said from behind him.
Mana chains erupted from Christian’s palms with elemental fusion he weaved steel and earth into something that locked around Richard’s wrists, ankles, and throat. The chains didn’t just bind. They suppressed. Richard’s claws retracted against his will.
The last traces of his hybrid form flickered and died.
He was human again. Completely.
"No," Richard gasped. "No, I saw it—I saw myself escape—"
"Future sight doesn’t account for things you don’t know are there," Christian said.
"We were never in your data either."
Anouz tightened his grip slightly.
"We finally found the one who caused this mess. Months of chasing. Months of cleaning up your machines. And here you are."
Jan stepped through the doorway. His greatsword was still drawn.
Louise followed behind him just barely and Anouz looked at them, then at Richard.
"We’ll be taking him."
"He can’t be kept alive."
The words came from Jan. Quiet. Certain. Everyone turned.
Louise raised an eyebrow but Anouz’s expression didn’t change.
"What...?"
Christian tilted his head slightly.
Jan stepped closer. His eyes were on Richard—human now, helpless now, chains cutting into his wrists.
"He turned into one of them. A demonic human. He doesn’t get mercy."
It wasn’t anger in his voice. It wasn’t cruelty. It was principle. Jan was known for sparing enemies.
For offering second chances. But there was a line he had never crossed not in this life, not in the one before.
Demons. Demonic hybrids. The corrupted.
They didn’t get mercy.
Anouz met his gaze.
"I understand. But we need him alive."
"Why?"
"Because Rel said so."
The name landed.
Jan’s jaw tightened. His grip on the greatsword didn’t loosen, but he didn’t step forward either.
"This man is the face of everything that happened here," Anouz continued. "The machines. The abductions. The war. Someone needs to answer for it. Someone the people can see held accountable." He gestured at Richard’s limp form.
"He’s worth more alive than dead. And Rel was clear he’s needed to get out of this orb."
Jan said nothing.
Louise snorted.
"I don’t care about him." He let his polearm drop to his side. The Purest Flame guttered.
"I’m only here for Rel. The second I find that bastard, I’m caving his skull in."
"And yet you’re still standing here," Christian observed.
Louise glanced back toward the room. Toward Valencia. Still unconscious. Still breathing shallowly.
"She’s not up yet. So I’m not going anywhere."
He turned and walked back inside without another word.
Anouz watched him go. Then looked at Jan.
"And you?"
Jan’s eyes stayed on Richard. The chains. The suppressed form. The man who had turned himself into something demonic.
Everything in him said to finish it.
But Rel had said otherwise.
Rel. The smartest person he knew.
The one who had guided them through every region, every ambush, every impossible situation. If Rel said this man was needed, then there was a reason. There was always a reason.
Jan sheathed his greatsword.
"Keep him bound. If he moves—"
"He won’t," Christian said. The mana chains pulsed once. "He’s not going anywhere."
Jan turned his back on Richard and walked into the room.
***
[Central Fortress - Grand Chamber]
"Elemental Fusion: Restoration Field."
Christian knelt in the center of the fallen group. His hands spread wide.
A circle of pale light expanded beneath him and healing magic, wide-area, burning through his mana reserves in steady waves.
Warmth filled the room. Cuts closed. Bruises faded. Shallow wounds knitted together.
The field was broad, efficient, and entirely incapable of mending bone.
Bazz’s wrist was still broken.
Jae’s bow arm still hung limp where Richard had slashed it even though the tendons and muscle sealed, but the deeper damage lingered.
Lyra’s breathing steadied and Alice’s throat bruise faded.
The surface injuries healed but the structural ones remained.
Christian exhaled out of exhaustion and finally gave out after 20 minutes.
"That’s all I can do. Bones take time. Magic can’t speed everything."
Camila’s eyes opened.
She blinked once. Twice. Saw Christian kneeling among the wounded. Saw the bodies stirring around her.
"How long was I—"
"Doesn’t matter. Can you take over?"
She pushed herself up. Still weak. Still shaking. But her hands were already glowing.
"I’ve got them."
Her magic layered over Christian’s which was gentler and more precise.
With the remaining cuts sealed all the lingering bruises faded completely.
However they couldn’t fix Bazz’s wrist and they couldn’t restore the deep tissue damage in Jae’s arm.
But everyone was stable. Everyone was awake.
One by one, they sat up.
Alice touched her throat.
"What did we miss?"
"Everything," Jan said.
Bazz looked down at his wrist. It hung at an angle that wasn’t right. He tried to move his fingers and winced.
"Well," he said through gritted teeth, "that’s going to be a problem."
Valencia’s eyes opened.
She saw the ceiling. The sparking consoles. The scorch marks.
She felt the ache of Richard’s knee in her stomach, his elbow between her shoulders.
Then she saw Louise.
He was sitting against the wall near her with his Polearm across his knees and hands hovering over her torso.
He attempted to heal her with his weak glow of mana fumbling between his palms.
"You’re terrible at that," she said.
Louise didn’t look at her.
"I know."
"Why are you doing it?"
He didn’t answer. The mana healing sputtered. He kept trying anyway.
Valencia closed her eyes.
"Thanks."
Louise said nothing and just kept the glow going.
