OP Absorption
Chapter 75: Long Time No See

Chapter 75: Long Time No See

The city swallowed her whole.

Scarlet walked the crowded streets of Arclight, a ghost in plain sight. A subtle manipulation of her aura, a slight shift in posture, and she was just another face, lost in the flow. Humans were so easily deceived.

’This place hasn’t changed,’ she thought, her eyes scanning the familiar architecture – the mix of gleaming towers and crumbling districts. A chaotic, fragile energy pulsed beneath the surface noise. ’Still smells the same. Desperation and cheap fuel.’

Her primary objective was clear: find the boy. Fin Carver. Observe. Report. Eliminate if necessary, capture if possible. Varn’s orders were absolute.

But first...

She changed direction, weaving through alleys, her steps silent. The scent guided her – sugar, cream, a hint of vanilla. A memory stirred, something almost pleasant from a previous, less complicated visit.

She arrived at a small, unassuming shop tucked between a pawn broker and a noodle bar. "Mama Elara’s Pudding Emporium." The painted sign was faded, chipped. Perfect.

Inside, the air was warm, sweet. An elderly woman with kind eyes smiled from behind the counter. Scarlet felt a flicker of something alien – nostalgia?

"Just one," she murmured, pointing to a simple custard pudding in a small glass jar.

She paid, took the jar, and found a shadowed corner booth. She savored the first spoonful. Smooth. Rich. Perfectly sweet. A small, genuine smile touched her lips, a fleeting expression utterly at odds with the predator beneath.

’Still the best,’ she acknowledged internally. This simple pleasure, a relic from a time before unwavering service to Varn, felt strangely grounding.

Finishing the pudding, she let the momentary peace dissolve. Back to the hunt.

She spent hours traversing the city. Extending her senses, searching for that unique energy signature – the volatile mix of human mana, the strange silver core, and the overwhelming imprint of the absorbed Mana Cell.

Nothing.

It was like searching for a specific raindrop in a storm. His signature was either masked, altered, or simply not radiating strongly enough to pinpoint amidst the city’s background noise.

’Is he shielding himself? Or did that transformation change him more than I realized?’ Frustration began to prickle. Varn did not tolerate failure.

As dusk bled into night, she conceded defeat for the day. She located a decent, anonymous hotel – clean, solid walls, minimal questions asked.

The room was small but comfortable. A real bed with soft sheets. A window overlooking the streetlights. It had been... a long time since she’d experienced such mundane comfort.

She stripped slowly, letting the functional, dark travel clothes fall away. She stood for a moment, appreciating the simple privacy before heading into the small bathroom. She stood under the shower’s hot spray, letting the water sluice away the city’s grime, the tension of the fruitless hunt.

It felt ridiculously good. Almost decadent. A weakness, perhaps, but a necessary one to maintain focus.

Later, a towel wrapped loosely around her, she sat cross-legged on the center of the bed. Eyes closed. She focused inward, drawing on her own honed mana reserves, visualizing energy flowing, strengthening pathways, repairing the subtle weariness from the day’s constant sensory extension.

Years of focused training weren’t needed for her, but decades of brutal discipline under Varn had forged her into a sharp weapon. The air around her grew heavy, shadows seeming to deepen slightly in the corners of the room as her power circulated.

Until a subtle shift broke her concentration. A displacement of air near the window. A faint resonance against the glass, almost too slight to notice.

Her eyes snapped open. Instantly alert, every nerve ending singing with warning.

Standing silently on the narrow window ledge outside, silhouetted against the blurred city lights was Fin. He looked directly at her, his expression unreadable in the dim, reflected light filtering into the room.

Scarlet went utterly still, coiled like a viper, every predatory instinct screaming. He hadn’t opened the window. He hadn’t made a sound climbing the sheer wall. He was just... there. Balanced precariously, seemingly unaffected by the height.

"Hey there," his voice drifted through the closed window glass, quiet but carrying perfectly into the room. "So you are alive."

She didn’t hesitate. Terror warred with ingrained combat reflexes, and reflexes won. In the split second Fin finished speaking, she moved.

Not towards the door, not for a weapon she hadn’t retrieved. She launched herself directly at the window, her hand flashing forward, mana coalescing into a sharp, dark energy spike aimed straight at his head. Faster than any normal human could track, lethal intent driving the blow.

He watched the attack form, his expression unchanging.

He didn’t dodge.

He simply lifted his right hand, the one marked with the intricate green symbol, and swiped a single finger downwards through the air in front of him, parallel to the windowpane.

An invisible force, immense and absolute, slammed downwards inside the room.

It hit Scarlet mid-lunge. Her energy spike dissipated instantly, harmlessly. The force struck her like a physical blow from above, driving her straight down with bone-jarring impact.

CRASH!

She hit the carpeted floor hard, the breath driven from her lungs in a choked gasp. Pain flared through her shoulders and back. She lay sprawled, stunned, the attack completely negated, her body pinned for a moment by the residual pressure before it vanished.

The window slid open silently. He stepped through, his movements fluid, unhurried. The window slid shut behind him just as quietly.

He walked towards her, stopping a few feet away, looking down at her crumpled form. The faint scent of ozone lingered around him.

"Stupid," he stated, his voice the same quiet, flat tone. "Coming here. Hunting me." He shook his head slowly, a gesture less of disappointment and more of detached observation. "Did you really think that was a good idea?"

She pushed herself up onto her elbows, gritting her teeth against the pain radiating through her back. Fury burned through the shock and lingering fear. "How...?" she choked out, glaring up at him. "How did you find me?"

He ignored the question for a moment. He walked past her, glancing around the small, anonymous hotel room with mild disinterest. Then, with casual arrogance, he sat down on the edge of her bed, the mattress dipping slightly under his weight. He leaned back slightly on one hand, looking utterly at ease, utterly in control.

He finally met her furious gaze again.

"I never forget a mana signature," he said simply, his voice devoid of inflection. "Especially one that was stalking me." The corner of his mouth twitched, the barest hint of that cold smirk returning.

"I promised myself," he continued softly, the words hanging heavy in the sudden quiet between the drumming rain outside, "that I wouldn’t let whoever was tracking me go the next time we met. but to think it was you."

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