Deception

"Understood," Roger replied in a tone of resignation.

Even with the vehicle traveling at 80 kilometers per hour, Koji jumped directly onto the asphalt, which, luckily, wasn't hot due to the overcast weather in the city. He quickly stood up, looked at the Marruá, saw that Roger was fine, and asked,

"Spherea, do you feel it too? Can you tell me how close the creature is?"

"I would say very close, but there's something else... It might not be just one creature."

"What do you mean?" Koji asked instantly, worried and looking down excessively.

"You're going to love this," Spherea said, with his left arm resting on Koji's right shoulder and pointing towards Roger's vehicle.

Unexpectedly, a giant scorpion tail emerged from the ground to the surface, right behind Koji. The tremor was so great that it caused an unprecedented alteration in the city's geography; residential buildings shook so violently that they collapsed, and Koji was aggressively knocked down. The ground he stood on suffered a disproportionate elevation that threw him forward.

"Spherea, where's the other one?" Koji asked, calmly getting up with scratches on his elbows and small cuts on the rest of his body.

Spherea, with a cheerful yet restrained smile, approached Koji and said,

"We've been in this together for four years, and you still don't get it, Koji? Your pact with me has a limited command; the energy spheres will protect you whenever needed, but you can't control them. Your father made it clear 11 years ago, remember? But for all the love he had for his son, he was an idiot to perform a lousy ritual and trap you in a defective pact."

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't know?"

Due to the collapse of numerous buildings in the area, a massive amount of dust covered the area. Koji covered his nose and shielded his eyes with his forearm, looking with great difficulty in Roger's direction, only to see what he dreaded.

"No! No! No!"

Amidst a thick dust fog, Koji watched the appearance of the giant gargoyle described by Roger's friend. It attacked the vehicle and grabbed Roger with its mouth; with each bite, more blood spurted from the soldier, who suffered agonizingly.

"Aaaah! Aaaah!" His screams were drowned in blood, and even if anyone tried, who could help him?

The gargoyle, intelligently, hurled the Marruá towards Koji, but surprisingly, numerous dark energy spheres appeared around him. These spheres, belonging to Koji's technique, split the vehicle in half.

Despite his evident concern, Koji maintained a serene demeanor. But when he turned his gaze back to Roger, he saw the gargoyle sever the soldier's right arm.

"Go! Go! Go!" Koji repeatedly shouted to his spheres, gesturing where they should attack the gargoyle.

The shouts elicited a genuine laugh from Spherea.

"Hahahaha! I already told you. You don't command the spheres; you have no control over them, you can't use any abilities of your technique, nothing. The only thing you have is their protection; they will protect you, and that's it. Nothing more than that. You're just an ordinary human protected by spheres."

With a mixture of rage and frustration on his face, Koji said to Spherea,

"I trained, tried, nearly killed myself with effort, and always heard it was normal. You told me the delay was part of it, and one day, I would be able to use my technique. It was all a lie."

"This moment was going to come sooner or later, so I decided this was the right time," the shadow affirmed, standing in front of Koji and stroking his hair.

In this slow and personally painful way, Koji saw Roger being torn in half by the gargoyle and heard his final screams. Standing there, motionless and unresponsive, Koji felt like the most useless person in the world.

Behind him, two more scorpion tails appeared and attacked, but the spheres intercepted the attacks again, swiftly severing the tails with their energy. The ground beneath Koji began to crack as the scorpion was about to fully emerge to the surface.

Still hungry, the giant gargoyle flew rapidly towards Koji. He didn't move, remaining still as if wanting to be hit, while the spheres orbited around him like a shield.

The combat of attack against defense was awe-inspiring, even if it seemed like an impossible scenario to reverse. The spheres moved in a way that prevented any approach from the creatures. However, an unexpected attack slipped past the spheres and hit Koji. An "invisible" shot struck him in the neck, causing him to fall unconscious, drifting into memories of the past.

It was a rainy night. Sam, the man who found Koji on the same night of Norman's suicide, sat at the dining table in a spacious house with Koji himself. After finding him, Sam had become responsible for Koji's education, health, and safety—something not difficult for him due to his meticulous nature. Koji ate excessively; the table was lavishly set and presented beautifully.

However, Sam asked the boy about visiting his father's grave, calmly pouring a cup of mate tea into a cup of water.

"Are you going to the cemetery tomorrow? It'll be five years since your father died; it's a special date."

"No."

Koji seemed at ease regarding his father. His adolescence had arrived, and nothing from the past mattered at the moment, at least that's how Sam understood the situation.

"And the city? Do you like living here in Kayka? Do you think it's better than Dynami?"

"Whatever."

The dry tone in which Koji responded bothered Sam. Their relationship had been like this lately. With that, Sam pulled Koji's plate of food to attract his attention and asked, with a penetrating look and a serious face,

"What happened?"

Koji's eyes filled with rage, as something had indeed happened.

"How can you pretend everything is okay knowing you're going to leave me here? I know you're going to abandon me."

The anger consuming Koji made sense, but he really didn't know many things. Sam had been taking care of Koji for five years; he knew the time had come.