Chapter 111: Solaris
In another location, thousands of kiloters away from the battlefield where Malrik and Orvak had fought, Wuthenya could be seen dashing forward, her form crossing great distances in the blink of an eye as she exceeded Mach Seven through sheer physical speed.
The wind scread, nurous tis in fact, as she tore through the air like a silver cot. Her face was cold and unreadable. At this mont, she was overwheld with frustration.
She hadn’t been able to keep up with the battle between her brother and the Sinvaira. One mont, they had been in the forest. The next, the entire forest had been cleaved in half, and both combatants had vanished.
Now, she was heading toward the location where her brother had been fighting, though she didn’t know the precise place. Every Wargrave, however, was marked by a unique identifier, allowing them to track one another across vast distances, just like how Asher had been marked during the True Awakening.
Wuthenya’s thoughts swirled in a storm of uncertainty. Her mind was already preparing for the worst. Could her brother defeat such a being? She knew Malrik was imnsely powerful, far beyond most. But could a man who was barely thirty years old truly overco a monster that might have existed since ancient tis?
Her heartbeat quickened. Lunar energy pulsed from her body, and silver rays blood into existence, bending light and distorting the air. She no longer cared about conserving her energy. With a detonating boom that shattered the sound barrier, she shot forward in a streak of silver light.
She wanted to call their father, Azeron, for help, but she knew Malrik wouldn’t approve. But just as she prepared herself for the worst, a voice echoed in her ears, smooth and teasing.
"Hey sis, what’s got you so worked up? Your eyes could freeze the entire Empire."
A man with windswept blue hair and piercing blue eyes appeared beside her in a blur of golden-orange light, effortlessly matching her speed through pure physical force.
It was Malrik.
Hearing his voice, Wuthenya’s speed imdiately dropped. Her feet skidded to a thundering halt, causing a ripple of force to explode around her. Her lunar energy dissipated in an instant as her black eyes locked on her brother’s form.
She let out a long, relieved sigh.
He was standing there, without so much as a scratch on him. Not a speck of blood, not a tear in his garnts. He looked far too perfect for soone who had just fought an abomination.
"What happened? You and the Sinvaira just... vanished," Wuthenya asked, her voice still tinged with disbelief. "I’ve been running for ages to catch up."
Malrik simply shook his head and smiled. "You already know what happened, sis. Your brother saved the day, again."
"Did the Sinvaira run away?" she asked quickly, her voice hopeful but cautious.
"No prey has ever escaped my katana, sis. And you know this," Malrik replied calmly. Solaris, hanging securely at his waist, humd in agreent, as if to say, "And that’s a fact."
Wuthenya stood stunned.
Yes, she knew it was true. Everyone who had ever crossed blades with Malrik had ended up dead. There were no survivors. No stories. No begging. No escape. Nothing. But this situation was different. It felt different, more absurd.
She rembered her brief, humiliating encounter with Orvak. Their fight hadn’t even lasted five minutes. She had survived for only a few monts because Orvak had allowed her to fight, rely for his own amusent.
She had failed to entertain him, and so, without hesitation, he had decided to end her.
Her fists clenched at the mory. She had always taken pride in her strength, in her hard-earned abilities. Among her peers, few could compare. In fact, almost none could. But against Orvak, she had been utterly powerless.
Malrik, standing beside her, could sense her emotions. He could read her thoughts like an open book, written across her face. But he said nothing. No words of comfort, no encouragent.
And that was intentional.
With what she had just experienced, such crushing hopelessness, he knew she would stop wasting ti on that idiotic boyfriend of hers and instead devote more effort to her training.
Rembering Wuthenya’s boyfriend, Malrik nearly rolled his eyes. He still felt like breaking the guy’s legs. In Malrik’s mind, that fool was the reason Wuthenya hadn’t reached the Radiant Voidstar Life Rank by now.
But he would hold back, for now. Wuthenya would be upset if he did anything rash.
Wuthenya cleared her throat, brushing aside her thoughts. She had already concluded that the Sinvaira was dead. She didn’t need confirmation. Though it would have been useful to capture it for interrogation or research, the risk had been far too great.
"So... you were watching the entire ti, right?" Wuthenya asked, recalling Malrik’s words when he had saved her, about allowing her have her fun before he intervened.
Malrik simply nodded, beginning to walk with unhurried, confident steps. Wuthenya fell into stride beside him.
"How did you even get here?" she asked after a mont. "You appeared right beside
like you teleported."
She had always wondered about that ability. She knew her brother could sohow teleport, he’d demonstrated it more than once, but no matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t figure out how it worked.
She had even asked their father once, but Azeron had flat-out refused to tell her anything.
"I’ll tell you," Malrik said with a knowing smile, "when you reach my level."
"Tch. I knew you’d say that," Wuthenya muttered, clicking her tongue.
Malrik rely shrugged as they walked. But his gaze shifted briefly to Solaris, which hung obediently at his waist.
Unlike most Wargraves, whose soul-bound weapons typically awakened offensive, defensive, movent, or support type abilities, Solaris had awakened sothing very different.
Because of Malrik’s obsession with protecting his family since he was a child, Solaris had developed with that exact trait in mind.
Whenever any of Malrik’s loved ones, whether siblings, uncles, aunts, his parents, even loyal servants, were about to be placed in danger, Solaris would imdiately alert him. It didn’t matter where they were in the world.
However, the ability was precise. It only responded to events that carried fatal consequences or the potential for permanent harm. It even provided the location, timing, and limited information about the enemy or the orchestrator of the incident.
In simple terms, before Wuthenya had even left the Wargrave estate, Malrik had already known what would happen. He had been waiting for the right mont.
As for the teleportation Wuthenya had questioned, it wasn’t teleportation in the conventional sense. Solaris possessed a second unique ability: it allowed Malrik to instantly travel to the location of those he cared about.
After all, what’s the point of knowing his loved ones were in danger if he couldn’t get there in ti?
That was how he had appeared beside her earlier, even as she raced at top speed.
His overwhelming need to protect had manifested not only in his actions but in the soul of his weapon itself, granting it these two rare abilities.
And as long as Solaris remained at his side, Malrik would always be there for the ones he loved, before death could ever claim them.
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