Whispers of Worlds Beyond: A Series-Chapter 160: Orchestral Symphony [25]

The thud was deafening, echoing through the twisted trees like the strike of a war drum. Aiden and Emmeranne both turned sharply toward the sound, Emmeranne's sword drawn, instincts on high alert.

It wasn't Lopt.

The figure that emerged from the settling dust was taller and colder. His presence devoured the light around him. Black robes trailed across the forest floor like creeping vines, and his face, though familiar, had something monstrous lurking beneath the skin. The way he walked was silent, but the air seemed to scream around him.

His face was gaunt and pasty like he looks dead.

Aiden took a step back before he even knew he was moving.

No. It couldn't be.

It was.

"Karro," Aiden whispered.

The name slid off his tongue like venom. His stomach knotted, not with confusion, but memory. Unwanted memories of his duel in the forest against Ivara arised in his mind. How the dome was covered to obstruct other people from watching the inside, how Ivara and him fought against Karro and couldn't beat him.

"So you're Karro?" Emmeranne asked, keeping her blade up.

"He is," Aiden replied, eyes locked on the man approaching them. "He's the one during the duel in the forest."

"Oh, the one who said you're a Chase for the whole student body to hear. And the person who you keep on telling me I work for."

Aiden felt guilty.

Karro stopped just short of them. He didn't speak for a moment. Instead, he just looked at Aiden with an expression so deeply rooted in contempt, it made the boy's skin crawl.

"Well," Karro finally said, voice low and dry. "A Chase. Alone. Beaten. Crawling in the dirt like a dog. I couldn't have asked for a better scene. And to think you were like royalty on Earth. But here he is, the Chase heir, nothing but broken bones and an outcast in both worlds."

His tone was measured, yet every word felt like a knife being drawn. His black eyes flicked briefly to Emmeranne, then back to Aiden.

"You were supposed to be monsters," he said with a sneer. "Instead, I find a child pretending to be strong."

Aiden's fists balled at his sides, his breath picking up. His chest burned, not with fear this time, but fury.

"What more do you want?" he growled.

Karro tilted his head slightly. "Revenge."

There was a sharp inhale behind Aiden- Emmeranne stiffened.

"You already got in now, do you? Is the past few months of making me sleepless and targeting me and making me hallucinate stuff not enough for you?"

Karro stepped forward, and the shadows bent to make room for him.

"For her," he said, voice suddenly heavier. "My wife. Murdered by your bloodline. Slaughtered like the rest of us when your ancestors decided Magi were too powerful to be allowed to live. You... you deserved more than what I have given you the past few months."

Aiden flinched.

"I didn't-" he began.

"You didn't what?" Karro snapped, his voice cracking like lightning. "Didn't kill her? Didn't have the opportunity to fight back from your family? True, you didn't kill her, but you didn't stop it, either."

Aiden was trembling now.

"I didn't choose this family name!" he shouted. "I didn't choose this life! I don't even want it! I don't even have a say! How am I able to speak when I was never given a voice."

Karro's lip curled. "You are still a Chase. No matter how hard you try. You have contributed to my wife's death. Now it's your turn."

Emmeranne stepped between them slightly, her posture defensive. "You came here to kill him?"

Karro didn't answer directly. His eyes never left Aiden's.

"You don't deserve the mercy of ignorance. You will know why you're dying when the time comes. You will feel every inch of the hatred your ancestors sewed into the world. You will taste what they gave to me."

"And what?" Aiden said, voice cracking under the strain. "You'll just kill me and call it justice? You think that makes you any better?"

Karro's expression didn't change, but something inside him flickered like an old wound, bleeding again.

"I don't want to be better," he said. "I just want you dead and serve your head on a platter and ship it off to your precious family you left behind. Or are you sure they are even alive by then to receive it?"

The silence stretched after that.

Emmeranne stared at Karro, sword still raised, but even she could feel the difference in weight. He wasn't a rogue Magi or a student rival. He was partly Nosferatu, and being both gives them a big advantage compared to normal Magi and Nosferatu.

Karro took another step forward.

Aiden instinctively stepped back.

But Karro didn't attack.

Instead, he gave a slow, cruel smile.

"Not yet," he said. "No… I want you to suffer first. I want you to know what it means to lose everything like I did."

Aiden stood there shaking, chest heaving, fury burning behind his eyes. He didn't even realize he was crying until the tears slipped down his cheeks. He wiped them away with the back of his hand in frustration, breathing hard through his nose.

"I don't understand," he muttered, to no one in particular. "Why do people keep using me? Lying to me? Hunting me for things I never did?"

Emmeranne lowered her sword but said nothing. There was nothing to say.

"I just wanted to be normal," Aiden whispered, his voice breaking. "I didn't want this life."

He sank to his knees, shoulders shaking.

Emmeranne knelt beside him but didn't reach out.

The silence after Karro's arrival clung to the forest like a suffocating fog. Aiden stayed on his knees, head down, fists clenched tightly on his thighs, his mind spiraling through everything. It was too much, and yet...

A sound cracked through the stillness.

Boots against stone.

A flutter of wind.

A laugh.

It was light, twisted, and mocking.

Then came the voice that made Aiden's entire body freeze.

"Wow," Lopt said, as if stepping out onto a stage, his arms spread wide. "That was… a little dramatic, don't you think?"

He emerged from the shadows, dusting off his sleeves like he hadn't just vanished after dropping a truth bomb and diving off a cliff like a lunatic.

Emmeranne's eyes immediately narrowed. Her stance shifted, defensive again.

Aiden slowly looked up.

And Karro, still half-shrouded in shadow on a nearby ledge, gave a slow, amused clap.

"Well done," Karro said smoothly, his voice echoing between the trees. "Exactly as planned."

Aiden's blood ran cold.

Emmeranne's grip tightened on her blade. "So this… this was your plan? Was it worth it? Selling out the academy? Selling out us? Seling out the very people who had thought of you two to do great things."

Lopt gave her a tilted glance, his expression unreadable.

But Karro chuckled. "He was a difficult one to bribe. Too attached to his little mischief-makers. I had to… remind him of his place."

A pause. A flicker of something darker in Karro's tone.

"So I killed Savion," he added.

The air shattered like glass.

Aiden stood abruptly, flames igniting across his fingertips.

Lopt didn't move. He didn't even flinch.

Instead, he gave a dry laugh, staring off at the trees before letting his gaze fall on Aiden.

"What even is betrayal?" he asked. "Did I feed Karro information? No. Did I open the gates? Still no. Did I stab the headmaster in his sleep?" He grinned, teeth sharp. "Definitely not."

He stepped closer, his boots silent despite the gravel. His eyes met Aiden's- strangely soft, despite everything.

"I told you to trust me, didn't I?" he said, almost sadly.

Aiden's fists blazed. "You lied. You used me. You threw me off a cliff!"

"I had to," Lopt replied quickly. "He wouldn't believe you were really in danger otherwise. And you, Emmeranne, you would have never come out of hiding unless something happened to him especially how you are doing it under tne orders of Headmaster Kairos.. I just…" he exhaled, shaking his head. "I needed to bring justice for Savion."

"By joining the man who killed him?" Aiden snapped.

"I never joined him!" Lopt shouted suddenly, and for the first time, his smile cracked. "You think I don't know who Karro is? You think I don't know what he's done?"

Karro was still watching silently, like a puppeteer admiring the mess he'd orchestrated.

"But I needed him to believe I was loyal," Lopt went on. "Long enough to get close. Long enough to make him think I belonged in his world."

"I told you to trust me," Lopt whispered. "And I'll say it again."

He opened his arms.

"Trust me."

But Aiden didn't move.

The fire on his hands pulsed like a second heartbeat.

Emmeranne didn't lower her weapon, and from behind them, Karro just laughed maniacally.

"I'll help you. I assure that."