Chap 177: Freedom

Tee watched as Kie walked away. His footsteps echoed in the hollowness of her chest.

His mind, however, was not at ease. He remembered the elders’ warning—the correspondence from the Verge. That Tee, that girl he had just pushed away, would one day try to destroy the world. That he was to watch her. Guard her. Judge her. Why him? Why always him?

Tee stood frozen, the world narrowing to a single, suffocating thought. Was Kie angry about the fake list—or was it her, the truth she could never erase? A Xeno-victim.

Had every smile, every moment of patience, been an act? A performance meant only to shepherd her toward the Seal? Now that she had it, the realization struck like a blade. He wanted nothing more to do with her.

None of her teammates wanted to be around her. Why go back there? The whispers, the voices…It won’t end. 

Elsewhere, Sade cursed under his breath. He had failed. He couldn’t track the vessel anymore, its signature slipping away like mist. Frustration clawed at him, but there was nothing to do. He turned, disappearing into a crimson vortex, heading to check on Hana, to make sure she was still intact.

Legion’s mocking voice rang in the void. “Oh, going to stalk your other obsession now? The one from the Vergant world?”

Sade ignored him, his form vanishing into nothingness. 

Mad, Tee walked back the way she had come, each step certain and quick. Until she nearly stumbled straight into Aven.

He nodded once and moved past her, his stride measured, but a chill crept over him as he realized she had fallen into step behind him. Her presence lingered like a shadow he couldn’t shake.

“I’m coming with you, if you don’t mind,” Tee said, her voice even but carrying that undertone of defiance he remembered all too well.

His jaw tightened. “Please, do not follow. Go on your way.” His words were calm, clipped, the kind of command that usually ended a conversation.

But Tee ignored him. Oddly, she didn’t even flinch. Her boots tapped softly against the stone path, keeping pace with his. For a moment he wondered if he had misspoken, if he had chosen the wrong phrasing in her tongue. 

But no—that wasn’t about misunderstanding. He remembered the fragments he had gleaned from her Verge. She was stubborn to the bone, obstinate to the point of danger. No command would send her away.

Suppressing a sigh, Aven let it go and continued forward. She trailed him like a shadow until the path led them back into the heart of Primus Vergant village. The lanterns glowed low along the narrow streets, throwing faint light across old stone walls and glyph-marked gates.

Waiting near the central square stood a younger lad clad in a deep blue robe, the fabric stitched with curling runes of silver thread. His hair and eyes mirrored the same shade of blue, as if he had been carved from the sea itself.

The boy looked up as they approached and gasped. His voice caught. “Is it…?”

Aven silenced him with a sharp look, the kind that carried more weight than words. The boy stiffened, lips pressing shut, but his wide eyes never left the girl beside him.

Tee, unbothered, extended her hand casually, as if the exchange of introductions were the most natural thing in the world. “I’m guessing you already know who I am,” she said, her tone wry. “So who are you?”

The lad recovered quickly and bowed, the folds of his robe brushing the stone. “Salmon-Engel,” he said, voice respectful, “from Sauna-Sea Vergant village. But you modern-worlders may call me Engel.”

Her lips quirked slightly, though she gave no reply.

Aven cleared his throat, drawing Engel’s attention. He gestured toward the shimmering oval of light that had appeared nearby—a vortex swirling faintly with indigo mist.

Without hesitation Engel stepped through, his form dissolving into the glow. Aven followed next, his figure steady as the light consumed him.

And then Tee moved. Too quickly. She slipped into the vortex as if it were nothing more than a doorway, though the sudden thickening of the air caught her by surprise. The atmosphere clung to her like water, heavy and dense, pressing against her lungs as though warning her she did not belong.

Still, she pushed forward.

Tee watched them. 

Sanitary cleanup. 

The task was grueling but necessary. The two Vergants worked with chants and runes to reduce the dead Leak corpses into pure energy, dispersing their remnants back into the cycle. Because once dead, the bodies were pliable, easier to degrade into energy. Alive, however, it would be nearly impossible—dark mana, manifesting through living forms, resisted manipulation, fought back, corrupted. That was why Leaks had to be killed first, and swiftly.

Engel turned to Tee, “You shouldn’t be here.”

Aven’s voice was curt. “Leave.”

But Tee folded her arms and dropped onto a nearby stone. “I don’t take orders. Not from you.”

They glared, but she didn’t budge.

Tee told herself it wasn’t about defiance—it was about escape. 

She lied easily, her words smooth. “Primus HQ is boring. I’m tired of it.”

The truth burned beneath the lie. She just couldn’t face him again. Not her teammates. 

“Besides,” she added, voice light but edged with bravado, “if any more dark spirits appear, you may need me.”

It was a bluff, and she knew it.

Engel blinked at her, confusion flickering across his youthful features. “Dark spirits?” he echoed, uncertain.

Tee’s lips tightened. She didn’t hesitate, though—she launched into it, recounting her recent battle with the shades. Her voice sharpened as she spoke, energy rising as she described the clash, the way her Ether energy had flared, surging through her like a star coming down from the heavens. How she had pacified thousands of those creatures until nothing remained but drifting wisps of light.

Engel’s eyes widened with every word. He looked at her differently—not with suspicion, but with awe.

“Such Ether,” he said slowly, wonder in his tone, “might well change all. ’Twould hasten our labours tenfold.”

Tee understood what he meant and drew inward, engulfing herself in energy as she had before. That time, it came effortlessly, responding as if it had been waiting for her. Aven and Engel exchanged a brief glance, then made their decision—reaching out to siphon her power, letting it surge through them to fuel their chant.

The difference was immediate. The degradation of the Leak corpses quickened, the process smoothed, light burning away decay with unnatural ease.

When it ended, Engel was left staring at her in awe. “That was… wondrous. Tee, thou art remarkable. With such power, were thee ever trained in full earnest—thou couldst become one of the greatest elders to e’er walk this earth.”

Tee recoiled, disgust curdling in her stomach. “Elder? Me?”

But Aven’s expression darkened. His tone cut like a blade. “Never. Not while I breathe.”

He snapped into his native tongue when anger surged, Vergant syllables dripping venom. Tee blinked, startled. She didn’t understand his sudden hostility. “Excuse me?”

His gaze was steel as he turned away. 

Tee froze when his next words landed like stones. 

“Thy Verge… ’twas the worst mine eyes have ever beheld. I had not thought it possible for a Verge to fall to such a state—shattered, defiled.”

Her jaw dropped.

“I gleaned enough of thee whilst within thy Verge,” Aven went on. “Thou art a weaver of deceit—a serpent-tongued liar. So oft hast thou spoken falsehoods, thou canst no longer discern truth from illusion. Thy very sight is marred, Tee—broken beyond repair. That thou didst once believe thyself to be a Harbinger… how pitiable.”

He laughed, but there were tears in his eyes.

“Thou hast lived thy life steeped in falsehoods. Thou knowest not what is real, nor what is feigned. Thou clingest to reason, to happenstance, to any tale that spareth thee from shattering. Yet worse still—thou longest for intimacy from him whom thou hast called thine adversary. What speaketh that of thee? That thou knowest no bounds? That thy sense of good and ill is but a shadow’s trick, a hollow dream?”

Tee flinched as though struck.

“Thou art a jumbled mess,” he spake, his voice sharp as a blade. “Wretched art thou, and whilst thou breathest, I shall not suffer thee to disgrace our name. Thou art not meet to learn the arts of sorcery, neither art thou fit to walk in our path.”

Her voice broke. “I would never join the Harbingers!”

“And yet thou didst believe thyself to be one,” Aven returned, his voice cold as winter’s breath. “Thou canst not even behold the truth when it standeth plain before thee. A Vergant must needs command their Verge—their mind, their flesh, and their very soul.”

Tee staggered, breath uneven.

“The world already drove us into hiding,” he said bitterly. “Severin-Reighn destroyed us. And now you—you would shame us further? No. Never. While I draw breath.”

Her shoulders shook.

“Strengthen the Balance Seal,” Aven said at last. “Help your teammates fight the Harbingers. That is your only use right now. Stop trailing after us and return to Primus HQ. That’s where you belong.”

Her face crumpled. “Where I belong?” she whispered, broken. “You’ve seen my Verge. No one wants me there. They’re just acting. Pretending. I’m just a monster. I’m not even human to them. Why would I go back? Everyone hates me…” 

Her tears finally broke free, hot and relentless. She collapsed to her knees, the weight of everything crushing the breath from her chest. A raw, shattered cry tore from her throat—

“I am nothing. Nothing!”

Aven looked at her, his jaw tight. To him, her emotions, her fragility, were weakness. Signs of someone unfit. Someone broken beyond repair.

And Tee—trembling, broken, hollow—wondered if maybe he was right.

Pressing her face to the cold ground, tears streamed freely. She felt utterly lost, as if the world itself had rejected her. No one wanted her around. Definitely not Kie. That façade he had worn—it was probably his way of getting back at her. Whatever good he had once seen in her died the moment he learned what she truly was—a Xenoid.

But she was more than a Xenoid. She could admit that much—that she had lied, that she had manipulated others. Kie’s words came back to scorch her mind, calling her dead-hearted, worse than Karen, each accusation burning deeper than the last.

But when was the last time she had truly felt guilty for what she’d done? Something was changing in her—she could feel it. Was it Kie? Did she actually care about him? Had Aven been right all along—had she gotten too close to someone she had already cast as an enemy?

Guilt gnawed at her chest. Aven had been right—she was a horrible person. Every choice she’d made had led her there. And yet, one thing was certain. She was not returning to Primus HQ, not to the living complex she had called home. She needed an escape.

“Please, just let me stay with you guys for a while,” she said, her voice trembling but tinged with hope. “I know Vergants need Ether energy for practically everything. I can be a living source. Take as much as you want.”

Aven and Engel exchanged glances, their expressions steeped in pity. She was desperate.

“Fine,” Aven said finally, forming a teleportation vortex with a flick of his hand.

Engel shook his head, his tone reproachful. “This thou doest but for one cause—because she is of the modern world, is it not so?”

“Vex me no longer, child!” Aven snapped sharply.

“I am not a child,” Engel replied evenly. “And I remind thee—I too know how to speak modern.”

Tee had no idea what transpired between the two of them, but she followed without question. Moments later, they arrived at the teleportation station inside the Primus Vergant village and began walking through the village.

Dusk was settling over the village. Soft lights flickered to life, illuminating the homes built among towering trees or fashioned to resemble them. Unlike her old world, there were no curfews, no metal doors with rigid locks, no grilled windows to block the night. Just a freedom she had never known.

The Vergants themselves were adorned with tattoos of every kind—swirling patterns, geometric designs, even some near-white marks that shimmered faintly but did not glow. Her altered curse mark made her blend seamlessly into this strange new society.

Several Vergants nodded respectfully to Aven, some patting their chests in congratulations for his “rescue” of the doomed one. They even acknowledged Tee, their interest and curiosity apparent despite knowing who she was. Free delicacies were offered as tokens of approval, which she accepted gratefully.

The village’s tallest building was the library, standing proudly among blossoming courtyards and concrete archways. They passed Sentinels on patrol and bustling public spaces, until they reached a sleek elevator. The doors opened to a dim hallway lined with several doors.

“Go on,” Aven instructed. “Any available room will automatically open for you.”

The first door she approached slid open, revealing a room with a large circular window. Fresh air drifted in, carrying the scent of the trees outside. A simple bed and table were all that furnished the space, yet the walls themselves seemed almost alive. Curiously, she touched one section, and it shifted away like organic matter, revealing a closet, a shower, and a small adjoining room.

Tee collapsed onto the bed, still in her sermon dress. Dinner could wait—it was worth it.