Flicker, Veinborn, Horizon, Obsidian and Eternal. These are the ranks of conduits. Flickers are like newborns in conduit world, newlyfound powers and way to build the very foundation of preceeding path.
Veinborns are like teens, they learned to use their abilities to their advantage, fight among themselves, duels are pretty common in this phase.
Horizons are grown-ups in the world of conduits. Like middle-class people, a pretty average life as a conduit.
Obsidians are the elites, the world's top hundred-ranked conduits.
And then there are Eternals. The top ten. Walking catastrophes. If they want something, they get it. There's no power in the world that can stop them. An Eternal possesses enough power to wipe out a country from the face of the earth and wouldn't sweat after that.
And Ray was…
"This damn girl never picks up her phone. Shut down? Turned off? Really? It's getting late! Sun's already set! How is she? Where is she? Who is she with? Has she eaten anything? Is she Ok? No update? Am I, as her Nana, nothing to her now?" Meloni's aunt kept venting downstairs.
Even though Meloni's room was soundproof to a certain extent, her chittering was disturbing Ray, who was trying to heal his core. Sitting on Meloni's bed, clearly annoyed, he muttered,
"Chitter-Chatter-Chitter-Chatter- The damn hag never stops does she?"
Phew~
He looked at the canary bird, staring at him again with a disappointed look.
"What?" He spat out.
'This is annoying! She's not even picking up her phone, I can't meditate like this,' Ray thought.
"Fine~Fine~ I'll go look for her. My body's healed up anyway," Ray murmured and hopped towards the edge of the window. He pushed the glass doors open, and with a sigh, jumped.
----
The Dirge Twins. These hounds are one of a kind. Their combat abilities might just be at the level of begginer Horizon. But their advantage lies in their ability. Neural scrambler field.
[Boum]
A sonic blast like a bass drop, ruptured the whole field. The two agents protecting Meloni lost the sight of reality but that blast didn't affect Meloni, instead it instilled fear of powerlessness.
Noticing the two agents standing with blank eyes, Meloni knew she was going to die. But she couldn't just die without doing anything.
Trembling, she brought forth her hand, pointing at the hound who was crawling towards her, amused by the sight of its prey being powerless.
And then, she snapped.
[IIIII]
A high frequency sound, that cannot be heard by humans, but can be felt, a frequency strong enough to burst the eardrums without making an audible noise, erupted and push back the hounds.
Their bodies shivered, and they tried to understand what was happening. But the problem was, the damage sustained by hounds was also sustained by the agents of Ferrum.
But this pain brought them back to reality.
"Plee-a-es Don-t Ki-il Me-ee-e-I-I-I-I" The twins screeched at the same time. But this time, they perceived Meloni as a threat and stopped with their play.
"What the fuck just happened?" One of the agents spoke up and looked at the other hound on the right side.
"Why has the back-up not arr-"
Cutting off his words, there was another sonic boom.
[Boum]
This time, before Meloni could do something, both the hounds pierced their hands through the chest of the agents and squeezed out their hearts.
"No-Fu-" Meloni was on the verge of throwing up. Fear was burdening her chest, she couldn't sense anything. These people were the last hope she had. These hounds, she saw them move; they were fast. She couldn't outrun them.
"Not-like-this-" She muttered, stammering back on the foot path until her back hit the wall.
"I can't just die like this!" She whispered, her hands clasping together.
Trembling, her knees gave way to fear.
Both hounds crawled at her to the inch's breath. Looking at them closely, right inside the hollow of their eyes, all she felt was death.
They were hideous, and they had no scent. Their skins had several pores on it, each of them felt like they were moving.
"Plee-a-es Don-t Ki-il Me-ee-e-I-I-I-I" Both of them screeched on Meloni's face.
"I'm sorry Nana-"
"Aight! That's enough!" And just then, she heard a very familiar voice. Both hounds looked above at the wall, sitting on the edge was a little black falcon with its irises gleaming gold.
"Now back off," Ray said and tapped the edge of the wall with his claw.
A surge of thick and dense power erupted in the whole path, the lamps on the road burst with a trail of smoke, and the houses nearby blacked out, the fumes and flames from the exploded sedan subsided and the hounds were thrown back with an invisible power that cracked the road in a wave.
Golden flames covered Ray's eyes as he hopped down and landed on Meloni's shoulders. His power was dense but controlled enough so that it doesn't damage the body of the agents.
"Ray?" Meloni murmured.
"Who else would have such a majestic form?" Ray said that but Meloni was in a really bad shape. Three people dead, two monsters in front of 'Meant to be normal girl' was a pretty terrific experience for her.
Meloni, on the other hand, couldn't stop her tears. She thought she had died, she had lost all hope.
"Eh, you got pretty tricky opponents as your first fight!" Ray said.
The hounds were regenerating the deep cuts in their skin. Dirge twins were intelligent, from mimmicking, to attacking strategically, or attacking opponents that are isolated. They are the kind of hounds that would assess their opponent's level before making a move, and that is why they loved to prey and toy with weaker prey.
"Dirge twins are tricky if you're at the same level as them…These ones in particular have a very peculiar ability…" Ray muttered, studying them.
"But seriously? You guys are making this ruckus without putting up a reality veil? What if someone saw you?" Ray added and tapped Meloni's shoulder with his claw. The space around the alley glitched.
"{Aria}"
The hounds looked around as enormous black falcon wings appeared out of nowhere, covering the surroundings.
A veil. A dimensional fold that high-ranking conduits can create. This isolates an area from the normal plane, allowing battles to occur without affecting or alerting the outside world.
And Ray's reality veil was one of the majestic veils. And it was the only veil capable of time compression. Because inside it, the time flowed slower than the outside world.
Seeing no way out, hounds understood that they couldn't avoid the fight.
"Oh?" Ray murmured looking at the hounds turning his way, they crawled slowly and then they split at an astounding speed on either side.
"See~ I told ya'. These guys are pretty clever~" Ray voiced out, but Meloni wasn't as calm as he was. These hounds were moving even faster than before.
[Boum] Again, that same attack of sonic boom, it was stronger than any of the attacks they used, it sent visible shockwaves, and just as both the hounds appeared near Ray from both sides.
[Tap] A tap on Meloni's shoulder again. The space around them glitched, and both the hounds froze at a breath's distance.
"But----That's all they have!" Ray raised one of his wings. And he flapped it down. The bodies of the hounds twisted and collapsed, like squeezing the water out of clothes. Their black blood splattered around in an arch, and their bodies dropped on the ground.
"Wha-" Meloni was at a loss for words. "Ju-just like that?"
"What do you expect me to do?" Ray asked. "Like, battle them with fists, take a punch, and throw a punch?"
"…" She didn't say anything.
The hounds that two veteran agents died to, the hounds that made her lose all hope, made her feel what death feels like, were just squeezed like wet clothes by Ray, all while sitting casually on her shoulders in his bird form?
"I told you right, I'm pretty strong…" Ray added, he was pretty proud of his strength.
"Thank you!" She whispered.
"Eh~ We even. You saved me once, I save you once, no need for thanks. But, I sensed some agents on the way here, time moves slower in my veil, so they should be arriving any moment." Ray said as he got a little closer to her ear.
"Just say that-" Ray paused and sniffed her hair. "Oh~God, you smell nice…"
"…"
"You were saying something-" Meloni said, this wasn't an ideal time and place for a compliment.
"Right, when they ask who killed them, just say you passed out, you don't remember anything," Ray continued.
"Alright!" Meloni nodded.
"But, I'm awake?" She voiced out. How could she say she passed out when she'll be awake when they arrive.
Ray hit the back of her head lightly, and Meloni lost consciousness.
"Now you're passed out."