Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

43 Trust (Part 2)

Reo stared after her, surprised at her fortitude. "What are you going to do now?" he called after her. She heard his feet on grass as he jogged to her side.

"That bastard is still alive," she muttered through clenched teeth. "We need to reach him before they do."

He noted the temper in her tone, but said nothing.

Wobeck corpses littered the forest. Maeyune kicked aside one of the giant, dismembered bodies and procured the creature's plasma rifle. She snatched various other items to which she didn't give a second thought.

Reo followed her example with another body. "And what are you going to do when we reach him?" he asked, gathering a few other devices on the ground.

She unclipped her rifle's plasma pack and checked its contents. Satisfied with the amount left, she snapped it back into place with violent purpose and met Reo's eyes.

"I'm going to kill him."

Her words were firm. Gone was that shock from before. All she felt now was a vicious rage to hunt.

Yes, push away the pain, she told herself. Overcome it, like you have always done your entire life. You need to get this done.

Be strong.

You must live.

She met Reo's eyes and saw that he had been watching her the entire time. His eyes were black in the darkness, his face emanating concern.

That was when she finally realized it.

"I can't see your aura," she uttered, brow creasing. Her words were laced with worry. Indeed, she could no longer see that golden glow around the sun warrior.

He gave a near-imperceptible nod. "I can't see yours either."

That was why he had been staring at her so intently. If she had no powers, then she had no magical aura. And with no powers, she certainly couldn't see them on another.

She felt despair take a painful bite inside her chest, and she gritted her teeth and forced anger back.

Be strong.

Now that Yunra's companion no longer had powers, had Reo experienced a disconnect? Had he felt the moon's destruction like she had?

"Do you still have powers?" she asked.

Reo extended a hand forward, his palm turning up to her. Gold energy whisked between his fingers, momentarily flashing with green.

Her eyes fixated on the scene, and curiosity diminished her ire, if only for a bit. "What is that?"

"I think it might be some aftereffect from the machine," Reo answered, frowning. He turned his hand over, examining the emerald coils that appeared at random.

"The Overlord said that we were conduits," he noted. "I think he was using our bodies to conduct Vaius's life force into his ships. So, maybe when we turned Vaius's life force into energy, I think we absorbed some of it."

"Then why do I not have it?" Maeyune asked feebly.

He looked at her then, lips drawing tight as he contemplated. "I...I don't know."

She didn't know why she thought he would have the answer. He was as clueless as she was, as lost as she was.

That ship. That moon-destroyer, she thought wretchedly, for lack of a proper term. Where had it come from? Was it a part of the Overlord's fleet?

Shattered.

Maeyune stared at her hand, her fingers outspread like Reo's and wondering if, by some miracle, she would start seeing green.