Obsessed with a High-Ranking Esper (BL)-Chapter 156: Why are you hiding?

Alarna hadn’t slept. Not a blink. She lay in the dark, her breath shallow, her eyes fixed on the ceiling of the tent as she waited. The drug should have taken effect by now. Any moment, Jian Ci would begin to feel it—the shift, the pull, the unraveling of his restraint. And when he did, she would show up just in time to save him.

There was suddenly a rustle outside. The soft crunch of boots against branches. Her heart leapt. He was leaving.

She waited, counting the seconds in her head. One hundred. Two hundred. Then she rose, silent as a shadow, slipping out into the night.

What she didn’t see was Leane, half-shrouded in the folds of her own tent, eyes narrowed, watching Alarna’s silhouette vanish into the trees. Suspicion flared in her chest like a struck match.

Alarna moved swiftly, her steps practiced and noiseless. The moonlight filtered through the canopy, silvering the forest floor. Her pulse quickened when she spotted him ahead—Jian Ci, his tall frame cutting a dark line against the pale light, his gait unsteady, his shoulders tense. He was heading toward the cave.

Her breath caught. This was it. The moment she had waited for, plotted for. If he imprinted on her now, in this vulnerable state, they would be bound together. No other Guide could help him. He would be hers.

She licked her lips, anticipation curling in her belly like a serpent. The cave loomed ahead, its mouth a jagged wound in the hillside. A faint shimmer danced across the entrance—a protective shield, but one designed to repel beasts, not people. She stepped through it with ease, her heart pounding with excitement.

Inside, the air was thick with the scent of moss and something else—something metallic, sharp, and wrong. Then she saw him.

Jian Ci stood in the center of the cavern, his back to her, his head bowed. His hair hung in damp strands, clinging to his neck. Slowly, he turned. Violet eyes met hers.

But they were not the eyes she knew. Gone was the warmth, the mischief, the easy charm that had made him the darling of Virelia. In their place burned a cold, feral intensity. His pupils were dilated, his irises glowing faintly like twin amethysts lit from within. His face was expressionless, but the air around him pulsed with menace. Alarna froze.

Every instinct screamed at her to run. Her skin prickled, her breath caught in her throat. The cave seemed to shrink, the shadows pressing in, the walls whispering of danger. Her legs trembled, her stomach churned. But she had come too far.

The journey had been long, the plan meticulous. She would not falter now.

She stepped forward, summoning her aura. A soft golden light bloomed around her, warm and soothing, the signature of a Guide. She extended it toward him, willing it to calm, to coax, to bind him. Jian Ci didn’t flinch.

Instead, his aura surged forward like a tidal wave of darkness, crashing into hers with brutal force. It wasn’t a meeting, it was an invasion. His presence tore into her mind, clawing at her thoughts, unraveling her control. It was like being devoured from the inside out.

Alarna screamed, but no sound escaped her lips. Her veins felt as though they were filled with molten iron, her vision blurring as sweat poured down her face. She tried to push back, to reassert her will, but it was like trying to hold back a storm with bare hands.

Then, with a flick of his wrist, Jian Ci hurled her from the cave.

She flew through the air like a ragdoll, crashing into one tree, then another, then a third. The impact knocked the breath from her lungs, pain blooming across her ribs and spine. She lay crumpled on the forest floor, gasping, her limbs trembling. Terror gripped her.

Would he follow? Would he finish what he started? Would he destroy her mind, her core, her ability to Guide? She couldn’t wait to find out.

With a strangled cry, Alarna forced herself to her feet, every movement a lance of agony.

She turned and ran, leaping over roots and ducking under branches, the forest a blur around her. The night swallowed her whole, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t. Not if she wanted to survive.

The shield shimmered faintly at the cave’s mouth, a translucent veil of psychic containment humming with restrained violence. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Jian Ci stood just behind it, his breath fogging the air, his fists bloodied from the last attempt to break through. He hadn’t chased after her—not because he didn’t want to, but because the shield had flung him back like a ragdoll, the backlash searing through his nervous system and leaving him twitching on the stone floor. He had tried again and again. But the barrier held. Now, he waited.

Inside the cave, the air was thick with the scent of scorched stone and blood. The boulders bore the marks of his fury—cracks spiderwebbing across their surfaces, fragments scattered like bones. Jian Ci crouched in the dark, still as a predator, his mind a hollow echo chamber of instinct and pain. The storm had not passed. It had simply coiled inward, waiting for something to strike.

A few miles away, Yu Xi ran.

His lungs burned, his legs ached, but he didn’t stop. The warning alarm had torn him from sleep like a blade to the chest. Jian Wei had a failsafe in their communicators designed to bypass any interference. This was a way to monitor Jian Ci’s current state even when they werent connected to StarNet.

Yu Xi didn’t know what state Jian Ci was in. He only knew he had to get there before someone else did.

When he reached the perimeter of the shield, he paused, panting, sweat slicking his brow. He could feel the pressure radiating from within—like standing near a thunderhead moments before it split the sky.

He was grateful, in a grim, guilty way, that Jian Ci hadn’t been with his team when it happened. If he had, there would have been chaos and news would soon spread of Jian Ci’s condition.

Yu Xi stepped through the shield. It parted for him. The moment he crossed the threshold, the air changed. It was denser, heavier, charged with a violence that made his skin prickle. He held the injector tight in his palm.

"Ci," he called, voice steady despite the tremor in his chest. "Why are you hiding?" There was no response. Yu Xi stepped deeper into the cave, boots crunching over shattered stone.

The walls bore the story of Jian Ci’s collapse—gouges, blood smears, the aftermath of a mind turned weapon. He passed a boulder split clean down the middle, its edges still warm.

"If you don’t come out," Yu Xi said, "I will leave."

He waited. The silence stretched, thick and oppressive. Then, with a sigh, he turned as though to leave, but Jian Ci was right behind him. Inches from his face.

Yu Xi, "Fuck"