Godfire: The Split Soul-Chapter 171: Witnessing the Unseen

Rain drummed heavily on the shattered roofs, military vehicles, and the endless sea of corpses of winged creatures spreading across the ruined street of the Nurse’s Estate.

Merlin stood beside the broken gate, unmoving. His white hair lay flat against his forehead. Water streamed from the edge of his jaw and rolled down the collar of his black coat.

There, beneath the boiling darkness of the clouds, Kai hovered like a god no scripture had seen.

The purple glow waving around him spread through the rain in rings, while the silver sword in his hand glittered like a shard of a fallen star.

Around Merlin, soldiers stood frozen. Some had their rifles raised, others had theirs lowered.

Even the groans of the wounded and the cries of men calling for medics seemed to lose their urgency with every passing minute.

’Who are you?’ Merlin whispered in the silence of his own mind, while his heart beat in a strange unrest he had not felt in years.

Though Kai looked young, the pressure rolling off him wasn’t that of a child. And it wasn’t one any Hunter possessed either.

For Merlin had seen countless awakened fighters throughout his lifetime. Men who could punch through armored vehicles, women who could melt steel gates with their palms, and old monsters in human skin who had long stepped beyond what civilians called strength.

But this... was different.

Merlin’s eyes shifted from Kai’s glowing face to the silver necklace hanging at the boy’s chest, then to the sword, then back to the purple glow wrapping around him like a second skin.

"That pressure..." Merlin whispered in a voice that got swallowed by the rain.

"What did you say, sir?" Nally asked, halting to a stop beside Merlin. Her boots splashed in the puddle of black and red blood mixed on the ground.

Merlin took another step forward, not responding. He moved past the corpses of the winged creatures that had been severed so neatly that they looked as if the rain itself had cut through them.

Behind him, more soldiers slowed their steps the moment they saw the sky, the dead creatures, and the boy hanging there like a bird without wings.

A young soldier with a cut across his forehead shifted his gaze upward, his lips parting in an instant. "Is... is that—" he paused, blinking countless times.

Before he could finish his question, another soldier muttered, "It is him. The same boy from Team Alpha. The one who killed the Titanaboa."

A third soldier swallowed hard. "No human can kill a creature of such strength and have reserved strength like this afterward."

"Shut up!" Nally snapped, whipping her head toward them. "All of you, keep your mouths closed."

In an instant, the men stiffened. But in their minds, they kept questioning reality.

Merlin knew it was already too late for silence to appear naturally after witnessing this.

With a deep exhale, he understood that if a word of this reached the wrong ears, the black chambers under the High Council would act before he himself understood what stood before him.

And if Wang got even half of the story...

A faint laugh tore across Merlin’s face, his eyes narrowing. ’No,’ he thought, then fixed his gaze on Kai. ’That cannot happen under my watch.’

A strange heat ran through the rain.

At first, it felt harmless, vibrating in the boots of the soldiers. But after a minute, the broken windows and the hanging gate all began to hum faintly.

Nally lowered her gaze to the ground, then looked back up. "Sir..."

Glancing at Nally, Merlin slowly drew his right hand toward the sword resting at his waist.

Above them, the purple glow around Kai tightened. It was no longer spreading wildly, but began to gather closer to his body as if some unseen force was dragging it inward.

Merlin’s heart stopped when he saw the look in the boy’s eyes.

He watched the boy descend without breathing. Even the hair on his head and body remained still.

A metallic sound snapped through the night’s silence when Kai’s boots touched the roof of the first MRAP parked near the collapsed gate.

Clang.

Every soldier around the estate straightened, some out of caution, others out of fear. Instinctively, three of them raised their rifles, their fingers trembling on the trigger.

"LOWER THOSE WEAPONS!" Merlin’s voice lashed through the stilled air like a whip.

The soldiers obeyed in an instant, but their expressions and fear remained.

As the rain soaked Kai, black blood, dressing his hoodie, neck, and the left side of his face began to drip down.

Kai lowered his head, glanced at the necklace, then drifted his gaze over the corpses of the winged creatures, the ruined street, and finally the trembling faces of the soldiers.

Merlin moved out of Lena’s Estate and joined Kai outside. "Yung Chin K."

Kai’s eyes shifted down onto the white-haired man.

"Do you know who I am?" Merlin asked, not breaking his stare away from the boy.

Kai looked at the man without blinking while the rain traced lines from his hair to his chin, then dropped onto the metal roof beneath his boots.

After a minute, Kai nodded. "Yes. You’re Merlin."

Merlin inhaled, brushing his palms over his face. "Good. Then you know I’m not your enemy."

"Come down," Merlin gestured downward, lowering his voice.

Kai’s fingers tightened slightly around the sword’s handle, then loosened.

From behind Merlin, Nally kept swallowing the saliva forming in her mouth as the boy began to move from the MRAP.

She tapped Merlin’s shoulder. "Sir, should we secure the area first? More of the creatures could still—"

"They won’t come here again," Merlin stated without turning his head.

Nally’s brows drew together. "Sir?"

"Not after what they just felt."

Merlin’s words spread through the soldiers like a plague.

Leaning by the ruined gate, a wounded soldier swallowed hard. "What does that mean, sir?"

Another followed, exiting from the gate. "Are we even safe around him?"

A third opened his mouth but swallowed his words when he saw the fire in Merlin’s eyes.

"Silence." Merlin’s voice rolled over them like a thunderstorm in the soldiers’ ears.

But Kai didn’t tremble hearing it.

When Kai’s boots hit the ground, splashing diluted blood around his ankles, five soldiers standing behind Nally stiffened. Their fingers inched toward the triggers despite the order they had already received.

"I said lower them."

The voice was so loud that Nally straightened herself, her eyes widening in fear.

After a while, when the pressure in the air calmed, Merlin and Kai went and sat in the MRAP.

Merlin studied Kai’s body; the chest, which had been wounded earlier, was now healed, no longer open.

’Is his body healing itself?’ The thought loomed in Merlin’s head as he continued glancing at the boy.

"Where did you get this from?" Merlin pointed at the necklace around the boy’s neck.

Kai’s lips moved, but no answer came.

Then, after a minute of silence, he finally spoke. "My home."

Confusion lanced across Merlin’s face, but he calmed himself. "Your home?"

Kai nodded.

"And the woman upstairs?"

Kai did not answer this time. He only lowered his gaze, then closed his eyes.

Merlin’s heart dulled.

He walked out of the MRAP, neared Nally, then placed a hand on her shoulder. "Secure the estate."

"Sir?"

"It’s an order. Remove the dead creatures and gather the bodies of our men and the civilians."

"Sir, what about the second floor of this very estate, the one with the inscription, Lena’s Estate?"

Merlin turned, looked at Kai, who still had his head lowered, then turned back to Nally.

"No one enters the second floor. Not without my permission."

"Yes, sir." Nally slammed her fist against her chest.

"One more thing." Merlin’s silver eyes hardened. "What you saw here, heard here, stays here."

The soldier with drying blood on his forehead frowned slightly. "Sir, with all due respect—the report will have to include—"

"That’s not your problem to think about. Do as I have stated."

Silence ran through the soldiers as they exchanged confused glances.

’But among all the places, no report had ever been handled by him. What makes this one different?’ thoughts screamed in the head of the soldier leaning by the collapsed gate.

Merlin moved closer to the soldiers, his boots grinding on the broken glass scattered on the ground.

"You will speak of the casualties, the winged creatures, and the recovery operation."

He paused, clenched his fist, then pointed a finger at each soldier.

"You should only speak of the dead. But none of you will mention what happened in the sky unless you want your tongues removed by the same system you claim to serve. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!"

The response of the soldiers cracked through the rain as their boots thudded in the puddled blood.

At the front of the mansion, Pablo lay there, his body split as if it were now a serving plate.

"He’s dead. Bag him," Nally covered her mouth, pointing at the corpse of the man, then moved with careful steps past him, as if stepping on the corpse would instill a curse on her soul.