As Emotion Reading activated, a mass of dark crimson suddenly bloomed across Xia Lun's vision. It hung over the survivors like a cloud of blood mist, the color of pain from their injuries.
Something stirred in Xia Lun's mind. He glanced toward Manhunter at the edge of the group.
Manhunter looked miserable. His face was drawn, and above his head, beyond the crimson of pain, a tangled mass of black kept twisting. One glance was enough for Xia Lun to feel the depths of his despair.
Before Xia Lun could consider why Manhunter felt so hopeless, Aislin, the little girl who had barely made her presence felt, spoke up timidly.
"Un... Uncle Xia Lun, where did Oceanographer go?" She pressed her lips together, tears welling in her eyes. "Did he die like Ailot?"
"..." Xia Lun did not answer. He lowered his gaze and continued watching the survivors from the corner of his eye.
At the news about "Code 18," Roman had first shown the Warm Yellow of delighted surprise. Pale Blue hesitation had soon replaced it. But after Aislin spoke, a thread of black fear appeared in her emotions, along with a gray grief, as though she had been reminded of what could happen to her.
Her dark eyes shifted, reflecting the dancing Black Flame, Attendant kneeling on the ground, and the two bodies before him covered in Mirage Crystal.
Roman closed her eyes and gave a barely perceptible sigh. Then she silently took out her camera and shot close-ups of the bodies and the burning Nuo Ring Hour...
Aislin's face was full of anguish, her emotions a bloodred fear and a Deep Blue worry. Attendant was likewise shrouded in black despair, his urge to destroy himself at its peak. Yet amid those shattered feelings, a faint Blazing White