The Glorious Evolution

Idriss tried to summon Fin’Sho to protect himself, but alas... a shimmering golden knee smashed into his stomach.

BOOOOM!

Blood burst from his mouth as his body folded around the impact, his eyes bulging out of their sockets.

His feet left the ground, and the forest spun around him... then, his back struck a tree hard enough to snap its trunk!

Thud! Thud! Thud...

Another shattered behind it, and then another as Idriss flew tens of meters through the forest, breaking through wood and branches before crashing into the ground.

He bounced once and rolled through the wreckage until his body finally stopped.

The newly summoned Fin’Sho landed several meters away, his shark-like eye staring at Idriss grimly... he could tell his partner was done for.

For a moment, Idriss couldn’t breathe.

His mouth opened, but only a flood of hot, steaming blood came out... when he tried to move his legs, a terrible pain spread through his stomach and left him choking.

’Move...’

His fingers scraped against the dirt... but that was all he managed.

Blood Fusion still coursed through him, but the body it reinforced no longer obeyed him.

He specialized in physical enhancement... he had spent years building muscles, bones, and organs capable of enduring the power boiling through his veins.

Yet one knee left him unable to stand.

One...

Through the broken trees, the Hound lowered his leg, golden light fading from his body.

Idriss would have recognized that glow anywhere.

Seraphis’s Pride...

The animal had used his best friend’s strength to cripple him.

”Pick him up,” the Hound ordered indifferently.

Fang’s approaching footsteps disturbed the loose soil.

”After making me chase him through half the damn forest...”

Fang looked as though he wanted to land a few more hits to appease himself.

”Alive,” Rain reminded him, in case he decided to be stupid.

Idriss heard that word clearly.

Alive.

Fang had kept aiming for his arms and legs, avoiding his vital parts despite the viciousness of his attacks... he had even kept breaking away whenever Idriss tried to establish the contact needed to draw him into his Dominion.

They wanted him crippled and helpless. The jammer blocked his dimensional escape, while the other two ensured he couldn’t break through their encirclement.

He didn’t know why he was targeted like this, but he knew that his family and peers would never leave him in their hands.

Whatever his captors demanded, they would try to pay it. Whatever danger awaited them, they would come... and those holding him would count on that.

Idriss wanted to live. For a moment, he almost let himself believe he could endure captivity and find another chance.

But he couldn’t stake their lives on it.

He would rather melt his own heart than become a burden they would sacrifice everything to bring home.

His bloodshot eyes shifted toward the sky.

Through the broken canopy, thick, gloomy clouds drifted across Cruor’s enormous crimson moon... Its light fell unevenly through the branches, staining the splintered trunks and torn earth a dull red.

A cool breeze stirred the leaves scattered beside his face.

As his gaze rested on the drifting clouds, Naima appeared among them... sitting across from him with work still open before her, pretending she wasn’t tired.

Their household, the children, the agency’s affairs and finances... he knew how much she managed, including problems she resolved before he even heard about them.

Yet, she never complained.

Whenever something became too much for him, she took on whatever she could.

How many times had he breathed easier because of her, then found her still working long after he finished?

And whenever he asked whether she was tired, she told him to worry about himself.

She was his wife, his partner in everything... the love of his life, and the woman he still wanted to grow old with.

Then his eldest son... so much like Idriss in his younger years, always eager to take on another mission or venture somewhere unfamiliar.

He wanted to understand the world for himself... how people lived, what they endured, and how much of what he knew remained true beyond his own home.

Idriss recognized that restless curiosity... He gave his son room to pursue it, and the boy had given him every reason to be proud.

Then Shia.

He remembered her returning from a mission with that damned popsicle in her mouth, already preparing to argue before he said anything.

”Your hair is getting long.”

”I know, Father.”

She heard criticism.

He never told her what happened before it... How he checked her steps, her breathing, whether she favored an injured arm.

How he waited for her to speak because hearing that irritated voice meant she still had enough strength to be annoyed with him.

Only then could he concern himself with her hair.

There were always people watching.

He couldn’t stop his enemies from knowing she was his daughter... but he refused to show them how easily a threat against her could undo him.

So he spoke firmly and saved his affection for moments without witnesses. After years of restraining himself, he struggled to express it even in private.

She mistook his worry for doubt, and he let her... arguing about discipline was easier than admitting how frightened he was.

Idriss had worn his own hair longer once when he was young.

Then, an enemy had caught a fistful of it and jerked his head back before he could break free.

The blade left a scar from his forehead to his left cheek.

It was the first time Idriss genuinely felt the taste of death, and since then... he learned his lesson and advised anyone he was to do the same.

Every time Shia’s hair grew past her neck, he remembered that grip... the pull at his scalp, the helpless instant before the blade reached his face.

Only now, he imagined it happening to her.

Sometimes, it followed him into his sleep. The same hand, the same blade... but when he saw the face beneath it, it was Shia’s.

He would wake reaching for her, his fingers closing around the bedsheets.

Then she would come home, brush the hair out of her eyes, and tell him to stop making such a fuss... to stop trying to control her life.

He made the whole family obey the rule, as he knew explaining how an enemy could grab her hair was easier than telling her how often he had watched it happen.

She might have grown older and stronger, but in his memories, her tiny hand still disappeared inside his.

His little princess.

A bitter smile touched his bloodied mouth.

He had cut his own hair into a buzz cut... yet a single knee had still left him crippled and gasping for breath.

He had given her brother room to find his own way... he wished he had done the same for her instead of allowing his worries and trauma to dictate her life.

He hoped she knew how much he loved her... even when he made it so difficult to feel.

-Live as you choose, Shia. I trust you and your friends to look after one another.-

He left this message as he listened to Fang’s footsteps draw closer.

Idriss had no more time.

He drew a painful breath and loosened his restraint on Blood Fusion, letting its heat build toward the point his heart could no longer endure.

But then... a sudden green light flashed across the clouds.

He stopped, and so did the Hound, Fang, and Rain, who lifted their heads.

At first, Idriss believed his failing body was affecting his sight... but the light kept growing brighter, spreading across the crimson sky until he could see an enormous black shape descending through the clouds.

His eyes widened as more of it emerged.

A gigantic black meteor, engulfed in raging green flames!

The clouds tore apart around its massive body, revealing a burning trail stretching far beyond the opening... before Idriss could take in its sheer size, another emerged beside it!

Then hundreds of smaller ones followed!!

Whoooosh!!

Their descent filled the forest with a deafening roar... green light swept across the broken trees as the gigantic inked masses plunged toward them.

Idriss recognized the ink.

He recognized those flames!

Then his misty, bloodshot eyes caught a tiny burning humanoid figure standing near the forward edge of the first meteor.

He leaned into the descent, green flames streaming behind his body as he rode the enormous mass straight toward him, the Hound, and the other two!

Idriss’s busted lips parted, his disbelieving eyes fixed on that small figure... and so did the other three.

’Levi...?!’