Spell 15 - Pattern

Ren opened his eyes. They were golden.

Behind him, a larger glyph rotated slowly in place until the shape stabilized following the movement of his hands. It then passed through his entire body like a wave of light, locking onto the energy claws that had been forming around his arms. As they did, they both sparked like lightning.

He then struck, channeling the Pact's force and driving one of the claws straight through the nearest Guardian's chest plate. The blow destabilized the entity, but despite the violent impact, it somehow managed to remain steady.

A set of different glyphs, violet in color, darker, appeared around it, and it seemed as though they were helping it adapt to the hit. They recalibrated it in a matter of seconds.

"Okay, they can adapt..." Ren said as if explaining it to himself, almost as if making sure he wasn't losing touch with reality.

His focus sharpened even more.

It didn't look like there was a clean way out of this. They outnumbered him, and now, with that regenerative ability reinforcing them, their chances had doubled. Eventually, they would corner him and bring him down.

But then, his eyes caught what they'd always been good at catching: patterns.

If there was one ability he had been good at since childhood, it was that of identifying patterns within objects, in his surroundings, and even in people. It was how he had always been able to make sense of things, how he analyzed every situation he found himself in.

He watched closely as the Guardians moved, letting his instincts take over as he tracked every slight change. The Pact was enhancing all of that for him. It was all happening quicker in real life, but for him, things slowed down, giving him space to see every detail that unfolded in his surroundings.

He noticed there was something carved into each of the Guardians' armors. They were some sort of metal spheres embedded within their abdomens, and they each had a distinct behavior during movement.

Suddenly, one of their blades grazed his side. It stung, but Ren didn't lose focus on it. It didn't matter. Instead, his eyes obsessively kept locked on those spheres.

There it was again: each time the Guardians attacked, the spheres glowed brighter and more powerful, as if channeling energy into their bodies and allowing them to execute those complex and precise movements. And when those movements were completed, the glow faded, as if waiting for another loop to start all over again.

Those spheres weren't just decoration. 

Maybe that was it.

He moved fast, avoiding another strike. He then slammed the energy claw from his left arm against one of the Guardians, right where its sphere was encapsulated.

The impact was quick and decisive. And for a few moments, everything stood still. It almost felt like nothing had even been happening at all.

But then, the glowing sphere cracked under the pressure, turning into a fine dust that scattered as soon as Ren removed his arm. The Guardian remained still, locked in place as if any connection between it and the world around it had been severed.

This was confirmation enough for Ren. He didn't hesitate anymore.

He dashed toward the next Guardian, using incredible agility and striking directly at the sphere held in its bowls. The result was the same. The sphere shattered, and the Guardian locked in place as if absorbed into the surrounding architecture.

The last one lunged in an attempt to break that pattern faster than the others, adapting, trying to outpace him, but Ren had already anticipated it. His hand struck the final sphere cleanly, driving Pact energy straight through it.

It was done.

Then, like a final confirmation, the eyes that had glowed within each of the Guardians' ungodly masks until no more than a few minutes ago all paled at once, fading out simultaneously, as if some hidden current had been interrupted from them in one single instant.

The chamber sank back into darkness as the orange lights from the walls faded away into nothingness as well.

Ren straightened slowly and then looked down at his hands. Glowing particles still drifted off his fingertips, reminding him that what had just happened had indeed happened.

Silence returned in the chamber.

Kagami jumped down from the upper shelves, landing without a sound among the wreckage. She waited for a few moments before saying anything, as if making sure Ren would actually hear her speak.

"Come," she said, already walking ahead. "We need to move away from here. This place isn't safe at night."

Ren had no room in his thoughts to argue. He was still breathing hard, still replaying every step, every movement, every feeling.

He barely remembered what he was doing before he came there anyway. The manuscripts, the tablets, the torn name carved alongside Kagami's felt distant now, blurred by the weight of what had just happened.

Silently, he followed Kagami through the rubble, still feeling like a stranger in his own body.

As they left the chamber and their figures slipped into the dark, something moved above, hidden deep within the shadows of the upper levels. A balcony sat there, slightly tilted to one side. It was tucked behind one of the great beams that supported the structure's skyline.

Once Ren and Kagami were gone, someone stepped down from there, slowly descending the worn steps toward the center of the hall. Toward the spot where the three Guardians now stood motionless.

One hand slowly traced the cracked hollow space where one of the Guardian's soul-spheres had once been. It was empty now and darkened, but the fingers took their time to map it all out nonetheless.

Then, a faint smile curved at the lips, barely noticeable but heavy with meaning.