Chapter 41

(Adam POV)

It had been over a week and a half since the mining incident, and the townspeople were still up in arms about the situation, no matter how many times I had expressed my condolences. I really can't blame them, though, I thought to myself as I walked through the city center, looking for a place to get lunch.

Memories of the war from Ezra's and my younger days flooded my mind. I knew what it was like to lose people to a seemingly evil threat. They'll get over it in time, just like I did. But now, I couldn't spend time making sure every single person was okay—I had larger matters that truly needed my attention. If I could find this boy and hand him over to Lord Enzo, our town would be set up for generations to come. Our little town would become one of the greatest places to live on the continent, and I would be the one to lift it from its lowly standing.

"But where could this little boy be?" I thought to myself. He couldn't have gone far with all their belongings. And how did he know to leave the town in the first place? Did Ezra plan this before he came to me? Did he know I was hiding something this whole time? I pondered as I sipped the tea I had purchased. All of this just seems off.

After eating, I decided to backtrack a bit. One of the townspeople had seen them returning from the forest, and I recalled that they had recently trained out there, away from everyone, near the rift. With that in mind, I made the choice to pay the area a visit and see if I could find clues about his whereabouts.

The boy was used to being in the woods, having been on the run for the past couple of years. There was a good chance he had created some type of hideout—something his father had been great at during our days in the army. I do feel bad for the boy in that regard. Everything he's gone through isn't his fault, yet he has to endure it all. "Our futures are generally impacted by those who came before us," I muttered, recalling an old phrase my grandfather used to say when I was growing up here.

As I walked through the forest, I noticed how eerily quiet it was for a place that was usually brimming with astral behemoths. The flow of cosmic energy felt calm for the first time in decades. Our town never had a Starbound or a group strong enough to defeat the rift. Being in this area and not sensing any malicious intent was a shock to me. The only cosmic energy I could really feel was the energy coming from the rift itself.

"Did Ezra clear this out?" I wondered as I finally reached the nest of the Aurora Moths. "It had to be him. A kid who just became a Starbound not long ago couldn't have done this," I murmured, taking in the scene of slain behemoths. As I analyzed the site, I noticed something peculiar—there weren't any burn or scorch marks on the moths. That was strange because I knew how Ezra operated. He wouldn't waste time with low-stage astral behemoths; he would just scorch them and move on.

I also noticed brutal puncture wounds in all the moths, along with their severed wings scattered across the ground. It was eerily similar to how the Spear Beetles had looked after the attack that those two helped with. Did the boy do this? I asked myself as I approached what looked like the corpse of the queen.

Looking down at the massive creature, I saw the same type of damage, but the hole in its exoskeleton was enormous. I sensed no cosmic energy from the behemoth either. A chill ran down my spine as I acted on impulse and peered inside the exposed exoskeleton. I expected to see a celestial core, but it was nowhere to be found. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed splatters of red blood lining the battlefield.

Human blood. That was the answer to my questions.

The boy had caused this. Ezra was too strong to be wounded by starspawns, and he had no need for cosmic energy from low-level cores anyway. Ezra, what did you create? I thought grimly, inspecting the rest of the behemoths and realizing all their cores were missing as well. I knew the kid was potentially a prodigy—an heir to a great clan—but he still shouldn't have been able to wipe out this entire nest by himself. Let alone with just his bare hands and no sign of his fate constellation being used.

I finally understood why I had felt uneasy earlier. He's not normal, he's anomaly, a paradox. 

Growing up with his father, I thought I would be used to things like this. Even Ezra hadn't been capable of such feats this early on, based on what he had told me when we got put into the same group for the war games in school. Does the child have a different constellation from the rest of his family and clan? I muttered. I knew he wasn't a pure-blooded Solaris member—his mother was from some random clan that resided in another continent.

I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. The carnage I had witnessed told me one thing: I needed to be extremely careful when I found him—especially after his little outburst the other day and also because I haven't been in a true battle for years.

After mulling over my findings, I decided to call it a day and head back to town to make sure Karen wasn't being trampled by requests. As I made my way back, my phone started to buzz. Reaching for it, I glanced at the screen, and a grin spread across my face.

I answered the call. "Hello?"

"Adam, this is Kael. I'll be over that way in about two days, I'll be bringing another astral gate and finishing off the fugitive."