Last Gun Alchemist

Veda observed Lyra, Freed, Felix, and Matthey in silence. His eyes moved from one to the other slowly, not rushed. Then he glanced behind him.

His group had created distance already. Good.

”Ahh...” he exhaled softly.

Lyra tilted her head, looking toward Veda’s retreating teammates. ”Those cowards really left you alone to fight for yourself,” she chuckled, gripping her scythe tighter. The curved blade glinted faintly under the dim maze light. ”I wonder what faces they’ll make if they see you actually dead.”

”I wonder too,” Veda replied calmly.

Freed and Lyra vanished at the same time.

They didn’t shout. They didn’t warn him.

Freed had one gun in his right hand and a slim, mid-sized sword in the other. Lyra’s scythe came from the side like a crescent moon cutting through darkness.

Both blades slashed down on where Veda stood.

But Veda was gone.

Their pupils shrank.

They both looked down at the same time... and felt a heavy impact slam into their stomachs.

Veda had appeared low, sweeping in between them.

The force of his dual kick sent both flying in opposite directions.

Freed rolled across the rough stone ground, coughing as his back scraped against the floor. He forced himself up quickly, clutching his abdomen.

”Tsk...” he spat saliva mixed with blood.

Lyra barely avoided being thrown completely away. She drove the end of her scythe into the ground and used it as an anchor. Even then, her arms trembled from the vibration.

”He concealed his presence mid-fight,” she smiled, licking her lips. Her arms still shook slightly. ”But that raw strength... this will be tough, Felix.”

”I know,” Felix replied, already preparing materials.

”You think you’re the only one prepared?” Veda cut in.

Two steel bars dropped in front of him with a metallic clang.

Lyra laughed loudly and flung out four steel bars and ten steel nuggets. They scattered across the ground.

”Let me in on the fun.”

All three clapped at the same time.

The air trembled.

Cognis surged outward like pressure waves. Their alchemy circles formed in mid-air, glowing white and spinning with dense patterns.

Then...

They slammed their hands onto the materials.

Lightning cracked.

Freed signaled to Matthey, who had remained behind Felix. Freed had already given his second Acu-Vector Mk.I. before engaging Veda earlier.

Felix’s alchemy completed first.

White lightning cracked across the ground as the materials reshaped. Steel elongated, mechanisms clicked into place, springs aligned, chamber sealed.

A Kalthoff Repeater formed in his grasp.

Thirty rounds.

Binder-ranked.

A musket-series weapon refined from Damguard’s Central Continent designs and absorbed into the Ashenlocke Gun series through research exchange, elegant but deadly. Complex internal feed system and fast discharge for a musket.

Felix gripped it with confidence.

Lyra’s alchemy erupted next.

Five Big-4barrel revolvers materialized mid-air, heavy chambers rotating as they settled. A pile of large bullets clattered onto the stone.

She moved fast.

Bullets swept into her space bag.

A leather gun strap formed from spare material and wrapped across her torso. She strapped two revolvers across her chest, one at her thigh, one in each hand.

Her grin widened.

Veda completed last.

Two normal revolvers.

With no dramatic design and no extra barrels, he didn’t hold them traditionally.

He spun them into his palms and gripped them sideways, like short batons.

The dust cleared.

Immediately...

Freed and Matthey opened fire.

Needles tore through the air in tight spread patterns, hissing like angry insects.

Veda stepped into motion.

Not fast, not rushed.

He weaved between the needle streams, shifting shoulders and hips by inches. The projectiles scraped fabric but missed skin.

Then...

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Four explosions echoed sharply.

Lyra had closed the distance without warning.

Four massive Big-4 rounds screamed toward Veda’s torso and head at near point-blank range.

Veda’s eyes snapped toward her position.

His wrists rotated.

The revolvers spun outward...He fired mid-spin.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The bullets collided mid-air, fragments scattering across stone.

Lyra didn’t hesitate.

She lunged and jabbed one Big-4 straight at his face like a blunt weapon...

Veda tilted his head.

The barrel brushed past his cheek.

In the same motion, Lyra holstered the revolver across her chest and drew her scythe with her free hand.

Metal flashed.

She swung.

A crescent arc aiming to split him in half.

Veda somersaulted backward cleanly...

But before his feet fully planted...Two more gunshots rang out.

Lyra fired while he was landing.

At the same time...

Felix, Freed, and Matthey unleashed a coordinated barrage.

Needles, Musket rounds and Standard bullets.

Every direction was sealed.

The ground sparked, Stone shattered and The air filled with screaming metal.

No escape route.

Calm, Veda removed his coat mid-motion.

Cognis surged into the fabric. The threads stiffened instantly, metallic density flooding through.

He spun fast.

The hardened coat flared out like a shield wall.

Bullets slammed into it violently.

Thuds, cracks and sparks.

Some slipped past, a few cutting shallow lines into his arms and shoulders.

Blood appeared, but his skin hardened under Cognis reinforcement not allowing any to cut deep.

Dust exploded outward.

”Keep your eyes on him...” Felix began...But suddenly the hardened coat shot through the smoke like a thrown shield.

Felix barely raised the Kalthoff in time.

Impact.

He was driven backward several steps, boots carving into stone.

Then...

A revolver spun out of the dust.

It smashed into Matthey’s forehead with bone-cracking force.

”Argh...!”

His head snapped back.

Before his body could collapse...Veda appeared above him.

A downward axe kick crashed into Matthey’s face.

Boom.

The stone floor cracked on impact.

Matthey dropped unconscious instantly.

Freed saw it unfold in less than three seconds.

Too fast.

He moved to fire...But Veda’s remaining revolver was already aimed at Felix.

”Sir Felix!” Freed pulled the trigger...

Click, Empty.

Veda fired.

The bullets left the chamber in controlled rhythm, to Felix...

Time slowed.

Each projectile seemed large enough to see the spin.

Then...

A scythe slammed into the ground in front of him.

Metal shrieked; Lyra had thrown it.

The bullets deflected off the blade.

”Tsk.” Veda’s gaze shifted to her.

A thin rope attached to the scythe pulled it back into her control, but she didn’t grab it. She kicked it forward instead, Cognis surged into her leg. The scythe tore through the air faster this time.

Veda bent at the waist; the blade shaved past his nose by a hair. At the same time...

He tossed two steel bars onto the ground.

Felix noticed instantly and Lyra reacted even faster.

She pulled one Big-4, four shots in a clean fluid sequence. The bullets covered his movement angles mid-throw.

”Ah...!”

Veda twisted mid-air as the steel bars fell.

The bullets grazed him.

Cloth tore, thin slices opened across his ribs and shoulder.

Blood ran, but his face didn’t shift.

Not panic, not pain, just calculation.

He clapped, Cognis surged and an Alchemy circle ignited beneath him mid-air.

He slammed his palm down. Steel reshaped.

A revolver formed in his hand before he even finished landing.

Felix rose, taking aim.

Freed charged simultaneously, sword in one hand and a newly formed revolver in the other.

Felix fired. The shot threaded past Freed’s shoulder perfectly, aimed for Veda’s eye.

Veda rotated his wrist and deflected it with the revolver body like a steel baton, sparks burst from the impact.

Freed and Lyra reached him together.

Sword slashed; Big-4 swung.

Veda crossed both revolvers outward.

Metal clashed against metal; the impact rang sharply.

Felix stepped forward deliberately, waiting for a gap.

He found one and shot.

The bullet slipped through a finger-width opening between Freed moving to Veda.

Veda saw it.

He shoved both attackers backward with brute force and tilted his neck left.

The bullet passed so close it parted strands of his hair.

Lyra used the recoil momentum to drag her scythe back into hand and rushed again, enhanced speed pushing her boots into cracks in the stone.

They clashed again.

Scythe arcs versus rotating revolvers.

She swung wide.

He blocked, stepped inside, and fired point-blank at her thigh.

She rotated her scythe shaft and deflected it. Metal rang again.

Freed paused.

The speed between the two...He couldn’t enter safely.

Lyra is keeping up... but she’s burning through her Cognis fast.

He wiped sweat from his brow.

Veda was bleeding from multiple shallow cuts.

Yet...

His breathing remained steady.

With that blood loss, how is he still moving like nothing happened...

Is he healing?

Freed frowned deeply.

Tsk. What should I do?

He glanced toward Felix.

Felix’s pupils narrowed. Cognis flowed into his eyes, sharpening his vision beyond normal limits. The world slowed—not physically, but mentally. He tracked everything.

Veda’s foot placements, Lyra’s breathing rhythm, the sparks each time metal collided, the thin lines of blood beginning to appear across Lyra’s arm and collarbone as Veda’s precise counter-hits started landing.

He fired again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Not blindly, calculated shots meant to disturb rhythm, to disrupt tempo.

”Die, Veda!!!” he roared, unloading rapidly.

But Veda did not collapse into chaos.

He adjusted.

He shifted weight between feet while blocking Lyra’s scythe, angled his shoulder to avoid her blade, then slightly dipped to let Felix’s bullet tear through air behind him.

Two battlefields at once.

One mind.

Freed stepped back.

He pulled out three steel bars and pressed his hands together, not clapping, not yet.

He concentrated.

Cognis gathered inward, condensing like steam in a sealed chamber.

An alchemy circle began forming slowly under his palms.

His breathing grew rough.

Felix’s musket finally clicked empty.

”Tsk.”

He discarded it with visible irritation, his eyes flicked toward Freed.

He smirked knowing what Freed was up too.

Good. Let’s end it.

Veda noticed the pause.

In that fraction of a second...He accelerated.

Cognis surged through his legs.

His movements blurred.

Lyra attempted another horizontal cut...Veda stepped inside her range.

Crack.

The revolver slammed into her ribcage.

Bone shifted.

”Argh...!” she coughed blood.

Before her body could fully recoil...He struck again.

A brutal upward blow to her face.

She raised both arms, reinforcing her skin with Cognis...But raw physical force crushed through.

The impact sent her airborne.

”That... fu*king... raw... power...” she gasped mid-spin. She hit the ground hard, stone cracked beneath her shoulder.

She didn’t rise again, breathing, but finished.

Freed collapsed forward as his alchemy completed.

In his final act before losing consciousness... He placed the Baske 1945 into Felix’s hands.

Third grade, heavy, dense and violent.

Felix stared at the weapon.

Then at Lyra, then at Veda.

”Tsk... you monster,” he spat blood.

Veda stood amid dust and scattered stone. Blood lined his torso in thin streaks.

His revolvers were dented, his breathing finally showed strain, but his eyes...

They burned steadier. Not blazing like a nova, but constant.

Felix felt it, that same sensation again.

Ever since they were children...

It had been Vera.

The Jewel of Ash, the dazzling nova. She absorbed light, praise, all the expectations and attention, but Veda?

Veda was supposed to be nothing. A dim glow swallowed beside brilliance, so why...

Felix gripped the Baske.

If I crush him now... then it proves it. It proves that I’m better than the dim light that dears rival the nova.

He surged forward, Cognis flooding into his legs.

He moved faster than Veda now.

Veda followed, but slightly slower.

Fatigue showing.

”Dieeee!!!” Felix raised the Baske and fired directly at Veda’s face.

Bang!

The sound tore through the maze.

Veda reacted instantly.

He discarded one damaged revolver and pulled a long sword from his space bag.

He slashed.

The blade met the incoming bullet and sword shattered.

Steel fragments exploded outward, but the strike altered the bullet’s trajectory just enough. The projectile tore past his ear instead of his skull, the shockwave burst his eardrums and blood streamed from both sides.

Yet he didn’t fall.

Felix prepared to fire again...But Veda’s remaining revolver barked once.

Bang.

The bullet pierced Felix’s dominant hand.

”Ahhh!!” The Baske fell from his hand.

Blood poured from his palm, he dropped to his knees, clutching it.

”F*ck... you still had a shot...”

”Only one,” Veda replied calmly. He walked forward.

Slowly, every step felt deliberate, each footfall echoing.

Felix stared up at him.

Why...

Why does it feel like I’m the one drowning? He was supposed to be the shadow, the cast-off twin.

The fucking dim light, but now...

Now it felt like standing before a black sun that refused to go out.

Not explosive like Vera, not dazzling, but steady and unyielding.

Felix’s breathing quickened.

”Wait... wait,” he stammered, dropping back onto the stone. ”Let’s talk.”

”Talk what out?” Veda drew another dagger. His voice remained flat.

”There’s nothing left to talk about.”

Felix swallowed hard.

”Don’t you want to know why I attacked you? I could’ve left. I could’ve secured my ranking. Don’t you want to know why?”

”Don’t care.”

The words hit harder than any blow.

Felix’s teeth ground together.

Damn it! Why does he always look at me like I’m already beneath him? Like I’m noise? Like I don’t matter? Damn it all!!!

”Let’s calm down now, Sir Veda.”

A deep voice interrupted.

Veda instantly shifted stance, dagger raised and revolver angled.

Gareth stood nearby.

Veda’s group knelt in front of him.

Page held two revolvers to two heads, another boy covered the third.

Veda’s jaw tightened.

”You bastard.”

”Chill, I don’t want to fight you,” Gareth said calmly. ”I just want to save my master and friends.”

Page looked around at the destruction with amusement. ”Wow... I missed all the fun. Lyra’s going to get mocked for months.”

”So?” Veda’s voice was cold.

”Exchange,” Gareth said. ”We release your group. You walk away and spare Felix.”

Silence stretched.

Behind Gareth, Felix felt humiliation burn hotter than pain.

Spared, negotiated for, reduced to a bargaining chip.

Sir Veda, please...” The three hostages trembled.

Veda inhaled once, then looked at Gareth.

Then at Felix, then at his people.

He sheathed the dagger.

”Okay.”

Felix’s fists clenched.

”The only reason,” Veda continued, pointing at Gareth, ”is because you made the request.”

Not because of Felix, not mercy, not fear.

Just... respect for another.

Gareth bowed slightly and signaled for weapons to lower.

Page hesitated. ”We should fight.” She puffed her cheeks in disappointment, but eventually stepped back.

Veda’s group ran to him.

”Sir Veda!” The girl held him carefully, noticing blood along his back.

”It’s okay,” he said.

He didn’t look at Felix again.

Not once, as he turned and walked away...

Felix remained kneeling.

Hand bleeding, Baske on the ground.

Watching the so-called shadow walk away without finishing him and in that moment...

Felix realized something that stung more than the wound.

A nova burns bright, but when it fades...It leaves darkness.

While a steady light, even dim... Endures, to never fade.

And that terrified him more than death.