Primordial Heir: Nine Stars-Chapter 315: Subject #009 Again

The sudden command came not as a summons, but as a vibration in the air. A soft, chiming tone only she could hear, resonating from the Ouroboros serpent-glyph tattooed behind her ear. Subject #009 opened her eyes. She was in her assigned chamber, a smooth, windowless cube of white alloy. The message was simple, projected directly into her mind.

Target: Nero Adams. Priority: Capture. Location: Outside mission zone. Previous team: Eliminated. Do not fail.

She absorbed the information without reaction. Failure of the previous team was irrelevant data. It only meant the people protecting the target were more capable than initial assessments suggested. Capture was preferable. A living specimen provided more data. But the order included the familiar clause: If capture proves impossible, terminate and retrieve the body.

She stood. She wore a simple, grey bodysuit, functional and unadorned. Her crimson hair was tied back. The golden, storm-lit eyes were calm. She had been given a new mission; the previous one had been postponed for an unknown reason. She would accomplish it. But first, she needed to be sharp. The baptism had granted her power, but power was a blunt instrument without fine control. The scientists monitored her magical output, not her practicality. She would test herself not on training golems, but on the most unpredictable variable of all: living beings.

She decided to take the portal. It led to a remote, unmonitored sector on the fringes of the Rainfelt Empire, coordinates the Organization used for field tests.

She stepped through into a cold, misty evening. She stood on a hill overlooking a small village nestled in a valley. Woodsmoke rose from chimneys. Lights glowed in windows. It was… ordinary. Fragile.

Subject #009 felt nothing for it. No malice, no pity. It was a resource. A training ground.

She began by testing her stealth. The wind obeyed her slightest whim. She asked it to silence her footsteps, to carry away any sound she made. She became a ghost, walking down the main dirt path as dusk settled. A man came out of a tavern, laughing. He passed within three feet of her and noticed nothing, only shivering slightly as the unnatural chill of her controlled breeze brushed his neck.

Good.

Next, precision. A lone farmer was closing up a chicken coop on the outskirts. Subject #009 extended a finger. She focused not on a massive gust, but on a single, needle-thin blade of compressed air. With a faint swish, it shot across the yard. A single chicken, separated from the rest, dropped silently, its head cleanly severed. The farmer turned, puzzled, seeing nothing but a fallen bird. He never saw the attack.

Acceptable. But too small.

She needed combat stress. Real, chaotic reaction.

She stopped hiding. She walked into the center of the village square. A few people were still about: a woman drawing water from a well, two old men playing chess under a lantern, children chasing a dog.

They saw her then. A stranger with strange, glowing eyes. They stared, uneasy.

Subject #009 spoke her first spell aloud, her voice flat and clear. "Gale Fist."

She didn't aim at a person. She aimed at the stone well. A fist of concussive wind, visible as a ripple in the air, slammed into it. The ancient stones exploded outward in a cloud of dust and rubble. The woman at the well was thrown back, screaming.

Chaos erupted. The chessboard flew into the air. The dog barked wildly. People shouted as they ran from doors and windows.

Now, she had their attention. Now, she had moving targets.

She didn't unleash a tornado. She practiced discrimination. As villagers ran in panic, she picked individuals. With a flick of her wrist, she cast "Wind Shear."

A horizontal plane of slicing air, waist-high, shot across the square. It passed through three running men. They fell, their legs cut out from under them, their cries joining the din.

A large man, maybe the village blacksmith, charged her with a wood axe, roaring in anger. She observed his approach. She waited until he was five feet away, axe raised. Then she raised her palm.

"Pressure Burst." A sphere of super-dense air formed instantly in front of her palm and then detonated. The concussive force hit the man square in the chest. It didn't cut him; it pulverized his ribcage and launched his body backward through the wall of a bakery.

She was learning. Different spells for different purposes. Cutting, blunting, crushing.

Some villagers tried to fight. They threw rocks, shot arrows from hunting bows. Subject #009 didn't dodge. She practiced defense. A simple, sustained "Zephyr Wall" swirled around her, deflecting projectiles harmlessly away. An arrow would veer off at the last second. A rock would spiral around her and land behind.

Then, she tested area control. People were fleeing in all directions. She needed to funnel them, to control the panic. She lifted both hands, drawing a wide circle in the air.

"Cycling Vortex."

A ring of rapid wind, thirty feet across, formed around the square's perimeter. It wasn't lethal, but it was a wall of howling, stinging air that pushed anyone trying to cross it back into the center. She had trapped them with her.

The horror on their faces was a new data point. Fear affected decision-making. It made them predictable.

For the next hour, the village became her laboratory. She practiced combining spells.

Using a "Gust Step" to propel herself onto a rooftop for a better vantage point. Snuffing out all the lanterns and torchlights with a widespread "Breathless Void" to plunge the scene into darkness, then using her wind to listen to the terrified whispers and whimpers to locate targets.

She ended the exercise not with a grand cataclysm, but with efficiency. When only a handful of cowering survivors remained, huddled in the shattered remains of the tavern, she stood before them. Their eyes were wide with a terror she did not comprehend.

"Sonic Lance," she whispered. A focused beam of sound, sharper than any blade, lanced from her lips. It pierced through the first person, then the second, then the third, in a straight, clean line. Instant, silent death.

Then, she was done. The wind around her settled. The only sounds were the moaning of the wounded and the crackle of a few unchecked fires.

She felt no satisfaction. No remorse. Her prana levels were stable. Her control had improved. Her understanding of how living targets reacted to various wind-based attacks was now experiential, not theoretical.

She turned and walked back up the hill, leaving the valley of screams behind. The portal still shimmered where she had left it. She stepped through, returning to the sterile white silence of her Ouroboros chamber. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

She sat on the floor, closed her eyes, and reviewed the data. The mission parameters were clear. Nero Adams would be in a team, with allies. He had defeated trained operatives sent to infiltrate the pocket world at the academy to wreak havoc. He would not be like the villagers. He would fight back with the power she had not yet seen.

But she was ready now. Her tools were sharp. Her will was absolute. The Storm Mage had been blooded, not for revenge or rage, but for pure, practical proficiency. She was now a perfect instrument, tuned and tested. She wasn't like the failed copy sent in Angel's city to fail miserably, she was one of the best. If she performs well, her rank might rise, and she would become an apostle.

All that remained was to find the target, capture him and the resources received would be used to train, further improving her strength.