The deeper the night, the darker the sins it conceals. Yet not all darkness signifies evil. Like two figures stepping from utter blackness, they walked bathed in crimson-tinged shadows. Their crisp footsteps echoed loudly down the empty street.
The tall, graceful leader kept clenching her right hand as if adjusting to something unfamiliar. With each motion, a flickering afterimage overlapped her empty palm—glimpses of dark silver armor, or perhaps chitinous plating, radiating icy menace. Most striking were her eyes: a chilling silver-blue.
Dazzling armor coiled up her arm like layered feathers, but trembled violently, collapsing before fully forming. She kept trying, like a child with a new toy. Lu Xiu was slowly uncovering the quirks of this power.
"Not bad," Mirror October murmured from behind, hands tucked in his trench coat pockets. His slender frame seemed ready to vanish into the dark. "Comparable to your old Hurricane Unicorn." Hurricane Unicorn—Lu Xiu’s former Superhero power granting terrifying aerial mobility.
As an S-Class hero, she’d shredded Dire Calamities countless times with sky-splitting speed. Monarch of the hurricane realm. A unicorn knight. That was Lu Xiu: one of the Central Bureau’s Ace Seven Riders.
After Mirror October shattered both her power and convictions, she’d accepted his Mirror Flower Node. Her abilities had transformed in ways even he hadn’t predicted.
"If Hurricane Unicorn was a ceremonious noblewoman," Lu Xiu thrust forward, "this new power is a berserker warlord on the battlefield!" A dark silver spear-sword—woven from layered feathers—ripped through the night air with a savage *whoosh*, tearing the atmosphere itself.
Absolute vacuum pressure. Supersonic wind blades sharper than any divine weapon.
"A wild beast unchained. Fitting metaphor." Mirror October felt the wind pressure brush his face. His crimson pupils narrowed with excitement. His first S-Class disciple was exceeding expectations. He already glimpsed the invincible Storm Dragoon within her.
"Chosen a new title yet?" Naming powers was sacred ritual among Superheroes. Mirror October’s "Mirror Flower, Watery Moon" hinted at truth and illusion. Hurricane Unicorn had followed the same logic.
Ironically, before becoming Saw, his own power had no personal name. The Central Bureau had posthumously titled it: Evangel Saint.
"Ghost Dragoon!" Lu Xiu declared, exhilarated. Having sworn the Knight’s Oath with Mirror October, she’d severed her past. This dark silver armor, swirling with shadowy gales—it suited the name. Thin plating materialized over her thighs. In an instant, she pivoted sharply—
A fist wrapped in black gale slammed toward Mirror October!
A Storm Hammer strike—equal to a D-Class hero’s full power—crashed into his seemingly unguarded form. Impact registered on her knuckles, yet Lu Xiu frowned. This was…
"Using me for target practice isn’t wise, Xiu’er." The blow hadn’t creased Mirror October’s coat, let alone harmed him. To him, it was less than a lover’s caress.
"Had I retaliated instinctively," his tone held no humor, "you’d be dead." His power would’ve erased her without hesitation.
"You wouldn’t." Lu Xiu brushed imaginary dust from his coat, certain. The Knight’s Oath. The Mirror Flower Node. The invisible threads between them. His mirror-clear heart never lied. *I believe you*—words costing lifetimes to earn. Only the deeply betrayed understood their weight.
"You’re nearly E-Class again. B-Class won’t take long." He caught her hand, his ascetic smile turning intimate. "Saw Sect has two branches: the combat-focused Burial Society, or the Central Bureau’s Shadow Society. Either suits you." An ex-S-Class’s foundation remained. With her new power mastered, strength would return swiftly.
"I want to stay with you. Nothing else."
"The Bureau thinks you’re dead. I won’t let you get hurt."
"Hmph. Can they stop us?" Lu Xiu yanked his coat, unconcerned he glimpsed her near-naked form beneath—a mere binding cloth offering little cover. That half-veiled allure stirred him.
His gaze lingered on her supple, pale body before his arm slid around her waist. "Stay with me then. As a butler candidate, I promise our performance will move them deeply."
"Mirror October—you’re a demon who drives women mad. And I adore that about you."
"Your affection honors me."
His voice, velvet-deep, made Lu Xiu tilt her head back as he pulled her closer. Silver-blue and crimson eyes locked, seeing only each other in their depths.
