🕯️ ARC29: The Reason They Come Close

The night was no longer quiet.

It wasn't that there was sound.

The wind, the grass brushing together—everything was as usual.

And still, she could tell.

—It's increasing.

Not the number.

The "density" of presence was getting thicker.

Lumia stopped at the edge of the road.

She didn't raise her sword.

She didn't use light, either.

She just stood there.

At the edge of her vision, a shadow wavered.

One.

Then, a second—half a beat later.

None of them closed the distance.

None of them ran.

As if—

they were waiting.

"...So you really do come."

It wasn't meant for anyone.

The creatures moved the moment Lumia took one step forward.

Fast.

But not straight.

They surrounded.

They measured.

They pressed in while leaving her an escape route.

—She knew that movement.

She'd seen it over and over on the battlefield.

The way humans move when they face humans.

"...No way."

She swung.

One fell.

The next came immediately.

The distance was shallow.

A range where the blade could touch.

Behind the creature she should have cut down,

another shadow trembled—just barely.

Slow.

But precise.

She couldn't dodge.

—Or so she thought, for a moment.

Her body moved on its own.

She hadn't used light.

And yet her vision flashed "white"—only for an instant.

The next moment,

the creature had recoiled as if it had been struck away.

It wasn't down.

It hadn't vanished.

It was resetting the distance.

"...That wasn't light."

Cold spread at the back of her throat.

That wasn't magic.

But it wasn't an ordinary movement, either.

—It was drawing things in.

The creatures.

The fight.

This place itself.

The remaining creatures didn't move.

They didn't attack.

They didn't retreat.

They were only "watching" her.

As if confirming something.

As if waiting for an answer.

"...So there is a reason."

Lumia lowered her sword.

She hadn't won.

It wasn't over.

Just—

not now.

The creatures,

as if responding to some signal,

melted into the dark one by one.

What remained was

the road, gone silent,

and only her heartbeat.

Something deep in her chest ached faintly.

Not the erosion.

Not anger.

Something worse.

—She was being chosen.

Without knowing why,

she was being placed on some "standard."

Lumia let out a long breath.

"...West, huh."

The fortune-teller's words surfaced, late.

What was too close to see.

Was it

the creatures?

the light?

or—herself?

The answer was still far.

But one thing was certain.

This fight

wasn't meant to be won by defeating them.

It was starting to change into a fight meant to test her.

— Lumi🪄💕