You peered through your binoculars in an attempt to understand the fight more, glad that things were going as per plan so far.
"An ability user from the mafia, huh?" Verlaine smiled like a beast. "But you're just one gifted with two blades. What can you possibly do against gravity?"
Verlaine got low to the ground, intending to jump towards Kouyou.
"Who said I was alone?"
Verlaine's body sank.
Verlaine looked down at his feet in surprise. The earth was winding like a snake, sinking his legs into the ground and then crawling up them.
Astonished, he erased his body's gravity and jumped. He landed sideways on a nearby tree trunk, but even the usually sturdy trunk began to liquify where his shoes touched. It hurried to swallow him.
"This is..."
Verlaine jumped forward, but the ground where he expected to land became sludge with a mind of its own, opening its mouth as it waited for him.
"Ha ha ha! Run, run young'un! Young folk like you are here for this old man's enjoyment! Time to die by decapitation!"
Emerging from the darkness of the trees was a large, stout man who resembled a giant tree. He wore a discolored military uniform that was torn in some places. He had a few bristly hairs that were like sewing needles, a judo belt around his waist, and tall, wooden sandals on his feet. He crossed both of his arms, thick as hundred year old trees, in front of his chest.
He was an elite in the Port Mafia, a soldier who survived the Great War—a man known throughout the organization as, Colonel.
He raised his arm much like an old tree, then suddenly clasped down his palm in front of his eyes. At the same time, the earth wriggled, the soil turned to liquid, the trees and even the flipped over train, all of it rushed towards Verlaine, who was in the air.
"The ability to control liquified materials...?!"
Verlaine kicked the first piece of liquified earth that reached him and retreated to the opposite side. However, past that was more liquified earth. He tried to change his direction, but both above and underneath him was liquified earth. If he used his gravity to blow away what he touched, even more of the liquified earth would come and completely surround him. There was no way for him to fight back.
On top of that, as if they were stitching up any gaps in their plan, there were mafioso snipers in all directions.
"Tch...!"
Verlaine used his gravity to make a small amount of dirt dense before kicking it and running away in midair. He did that to create distance. Material manipulation abilities like the Colonel's are, more often than not, unable to control things that were out of sight. So, he planned to hide in the depths of the forest and throw a giant, gravity filled stone to bring him down.
But then, something rather eccentric came into Verlaine's view.
It was a clock.
A clock was floating in midair.
It looked like a normal pocket watch. It had numbers on the dial, an hour and minute hand, a crown, and internal movements that peeked out of the edge of the clock's interface.
The strange thing was that it was about the size of a human torso and constantly turned around so the clock face stared at Verlaine.
He ripped off a button on his suit's sleeve and increased the gravity of it by several tens of kilograms before throwing it towards the clock.
That comet of a button was powerful enough to destroy a building, but it didn't touch the clock. It only smoothly passed through it, smashing the trees as it disappeared into the darkness.
"You can't break it." A melancholic voice came from the ground.
When Verlaine looked, he found a young man sitting on the ground unnoticed. He held his knees miserably with both of his arms and looked up at Verlaine.
"It's no use. That thing watches everyone, including the two of us. At some point, until the day we die, it'll find us and chase us down. It's time. The enemy of us all."
The minute and hour hands struck 12 at the same time with a clink.
Right after that, the clock that was suspended in midair moved towards Verlaine.
The clock, quite literally, was sucked into Verlaine's chest once it touched him.
Verlaine stiffened his body, wary of the clock that vanished. Nothing happened. Nothing as far as he could see—
The liquified earth wrapped itself around Verlaine's legs.
Immediately after, he was hit. A sniper rifle hit him in the head, causing him to make a half turn in the air. He landed on the ground, using his heel to scrape against the fallen leaves and stop.
The earth liquified. Verlaine jumped up and ran away before the earth could swallow him up. However, the tentacle-like liquified earth sped up as it followed him. Verlaine quickly scanned his surroundings.
"My sense of time... is slowing down?!"
"Everyone dies before me." The melancholic young man glared at Verlaine with, for whatever reason, bitter eyes. "My siblings, my parents, everyone. They'll all be killed by time. But I try to get away from it with this special power of mine."
An ability user who can manipulate time.
Not only was time manipulation a powerful ability, it went against common sense. Even around the globe there weren't many reports about it. At the top of the list for time manipulation ability users, those that went against the fundamental logic of this world, was H.G. Wells, a former gifted engineer. He vanished after making the gifted weapon Shell and became one of the worst known terrorists in the world.
Time manipulation can fiddle with this world's basic rules and overwrite them at will. From a cosmic perspective, time and space are equal. The ability for time manipulation held as much of a threat to alter the world as Verlaine's gravity manipulation had.
The mafia's attacks rushed towards the slow and sluggish Verlaine.
Bullets, blades, and liquified earth.
He couldn't move to dodge it. Even if he tried, time was moving slowly around him as if he were underwater.
Verlaine's face stiffened.
Dazai lazily gazed down at the forest riddled with thunderous gunfire.
He looked down at the hellish battlefield with a carefree expression as he enjoyed the cool, night breeze.
"This is the logic of the world." Dazai said in a singsong voice. "The absolute truth, adapting over all things in nature across all periods of time—In this world, the group is stronger than the individual. An ability user is stronger than the group. And—"
Dazai smiled as the explosive blast reached his cheeks like it was a comfortable breeze.
"A group of ability users is stronger than a lone ability user," he hummed.
Verlaine maxed out the gravity on his side.
With a propulsive power that went beyond that of the time manipulation, Verlaine quickly distanced himself from the battlefield. Verlaine's bones creaked at the abrupt acceleration that went beyond his limitations.
Even with this crisis unfolding before his eyes, Verlaine didn't lose judgement. The situation wasn't desperate yet. He just had to retreat as much as possible, staying away from the enemy's waves of attacks. Then, once he got back on his feet, he would use his gravity to throw back the bullets and shoot down the ability users one by one. It'd be his win.
"You're up next, miss," you nodded, knowing the next series of attacks would be ready. With that, you snatched the sniper rifle from one of your subordinates, waiting for the next signal you would receive, ready to shoot him yourself.
Suddenly, his skin started to bleed.
Verlaine looked down at his cuffs. The skin stuck to the inside of his clothes peeled off, revealing the flesh underneath. But there was minimal bleeding and he hardly felt any pain.
He instinctively landed. The minute he touched the ground, the skin on his heel peeled off. He could tell because of the slimy feeling. But he still didn't feel any pain.
A new ability user was attacking. Though, he quickly saw their true form.
Verlaine's breath turned white and his skin froze over while white frost formed on his eyelashes.
"Let us embrace in our freezing love. Let us embrace while the frozen flowers break apart as they bloom."
A new ability user emerged with a singing voice much like a delicate scream. She had long, white hair, a white stole, frosty breath, and a crimson rose on her chest. Every time the woman took a breath, the surrounding trees froze, cracked, and split to pieces because of the freezing then swelling of the sap.
Verlaine understood instantly.
An atmosphere cooling ability user.
His skin peeled off earlier because it was exposed to low temperatures that stuck to his clothes and shoes, coming off once he moved. She could freeze his body in an instant. It wouldn't take long to completely freeze his flesh and bones.
Since her attacks froze things over, there was no physical contact and therefore, he couldn't defend himself with his gravity. Verlaine's natural enemy.
You pulled the trigger.
Verlaine groaned in pain as your bullet pierced his shoulder.
The bullet was cold. Lodged in his shoulder, it began to freeze into his skin with frost growing on it. The low temperature invaded his wound and ate into his flesh.
The enemy's gifted attacks were falling into place a little too smoothly. Time delay, then the freezing over, then the snipers. Their tactics were clearly designed to target his weak points and forbid his strong points.
That wasn't even the strangest part. Despite him falling back at a considerable speed, the snipers had yet to stop shooting. His escape route was being read too much. Normally, if he ran through the darkness of the trees at that fast of a speed, he'd be out of any telescopic sight and the sniper would lose sight of his target, making it impossible to shoot. So, why...?
"Tee-hee-hee! That's a sweet face you're makin', there! Hey, just between you and me, if you apologize with your tear stained face dribbling out some drool I'll let you go in secret, 'kay?"
The voice was close. Way too close.
Verlaine looked towards the voice, but no one was there.
An empty hole about the size of a coin was in a space devoid of anything. The space was black and hollow as if it had been scorched and beyond that was another space. Black eyes stared closely at him from inside of it.
"Yeah, it's me! I'm watching you. You don't have to worry about locking up in the bathroom from now on! Tee-hee-hee!"
The hole was small, so he couldn't see the person's whole figure. But those eyes so full of malice were enough.
Verlaine was constantly being observed, followed, and kept tabs on regarding his location.
Verlaine reflexively kicked at the hole.
"Woah!"
Right before Verlaine hit it, the hole closed and disappeared.