I wonder.
If I hadn't got lost that day, would I be dead? Would I be alive? Would I be with my family?
Would I have to go through this?
A thought for another day, I can see Alterio.
Stealing the bandit's armor seems to be working in our favour, considering I was supposed to be a criminal, there shouldn't be any doubts that a Royal knight and 2 ordinary knights are going to investigate Ray and Eva's house.
Ehh, maybe it would suspicious since it's almost night. If we hadn't caught hold of this merchant, we wouldn't have reached this far so quickly. The winds of fate are with us.
In Jian's mind
The girl who framed Ruven is supposedly from a respected.. maybe a feared family? She may be around in that town. It's night, so I won't worry about it, but the thing is I have zero idea what she looks like, and if Ruven sees her, I just pray that he has strong patience.
I don't know what's going on in Ruven's head, or what he feels about that girl, but since she's the one who framed him, It may be problem later on. If he loses control of his emotions and goes overdrive we'll risk blowing our covers...
Presently,
Our aim is to make sure Ray and Eva know everything, before Ruven starts his journey, training and to face a war that's not so far away. Reaching the Aerogon is our main objective as for now. It would've been so much easier if we could just go to Electrogon... Ahhh this is so much to think about.
Alterio is in sight, let's hope things go smoothly.
"I'm sorry knights, but this is as far as I can go, My schedule is packed for the next few days so I'll have to leave soon." The merchant said.
"It's fine, we thank you for dropping us this far, we'll walk from here." Said Ruven.
His tone sounded serious. If that helmet of his hadn't been there, I wouldn't be surprised if his expression would be like a killer, trying to get back at someone who got him caught.
We walked three kilometres to Alterio. Ruven seems to be ahead of us at all times, as if he is eager to do something. Me and Adonis looked at each other, and our thoughts were probably the same thing.
"Don't let Ruven enter overdrive."
As expected, some authories came to ask us question, thankfully my Royal Knight's Crest could get us through regardless of any problems.
We did see some pretty strange, yet royal looking people near this fancy looking mansion, which I'd assume are the family of that girl's
Their family name is Leroux? Odd.
I feel as if I've heard that name somewhere.
It took us around thirty-five to forty minutes to reach the nightingale residence.
We knocked on the door, Eva appeared from behind as if she was ready to fight.
"WOAH, CALM DOWN!"
"It's just me, Jian and some people you know of." I said.
She looked as if she'd cried for a long time... I feel bad for them both.
"Jian? Are you here to ask us about Ruven too? I'm telling you all! Ruven didn't come here! Even if he did, I believe with all my heart that he would never do such a thing! I've raised that boy, loved him like a mother and with the same belief, I'll fight for him, even if it's against you, Jian." She said, with tears in her eyes.
"Woah, chill Eva, is Ray here? I've got something to show you both, let's go inside first."
"He's here, he just came home. He's tired from running around and dealing with he school incident. Who are those two? What are they doing here?" She said.
"They are what I need to show you."
With a puzzled look on her face, she agreed.
She let us into the house and took us to Ruven's bedroom. It seemed secure enough.
She brought Ray into the room, the man looked as if he didn't sleep for a day or two.
"Ray, Eva, I'm sorry about what happened. The news probably reached you both, Ruven escaped. And what I'll show you will never leave this room, under any circumstance."
Ray's usual tired face got serious for once, and Eva paid attention to each and every tone changes and word choices of mine.
Grabbing, the plumes of their helmet, I took them off, revealing Ruven and Adonis' face.
"RUVEN?!" They both exclaimed.
"Guys, I'm here too haha." Adonis said.
"Yes sweetie, we'll talk about you later, we're just as glad to see you but we need Ruven to do some explaining." Eva said.
"Ruven, what happened in the school, how did you get out of prison, what's happening anymore." Ray said.
Ruven's perspective
I sat down on the bed, explaining.
"Some weird intruders had attacked high school and I managed to defend myself using my shock and electroreflex skill. After I took down one of them, I headed down and rushed to the other classes and took down the other intruders. The turning point came when I entered my class and the Aqueogon's Gabriel and his guard had slaughtered my classmates. There was a pool of blood everywhere and Ophelia was being strangled by him. I fought them all with all my might but in the end Ophelia framed me...."
"I see. You did your best to protect your friends, didn't you? Seeing them there must've been so hard on you. You're so brave my boy, you've grown up. Don't worry, we'll make sure you're safe and won't tell anyone about you. If you need us, we'll be right here." Eva said as she hugged me.
I felt so relaxed, I'm finally 'home'. I could cry a bit right now.
"About your classmate, most of them are alive, yet badly injured. They'll survive but psychologically they may never get back. Your friends, Chris and Tony was it? They're fine but they lost a limb or two. What a brutal murderer. I treated Ophelia, shouldn't have done that, but it's my duty which I can't escape." Ray said.
"Ruven, if you ever cross paths with Opehlia and that damned family ever again, make sure that they become a story for kids, or I will" Eva said in such a serious tone it actually scared me. Maybe it's a good thing she's my mom.
"Me and Adonis managed to bust him out of prison but we had the misfortune to fight Gabriel, in which we would have lost if we hadn't been saved by a... Mysterious person? I'd use that word. We came across a few bandits who had stolen from a merchant, they wore the armor which Adonis and Ruven are using right now."
"We asked the merchant to drop us till here, stealing the armor worked for us. We aim to go to the Aerogon, we need the Infernogon and Electrogon to know about them. It's not that we'd need their help, it's so that they may prepare for the next war." Jian said.
"War huh, we can never catch a break." Ray sighs, as he said.
The doorbell rang at this moment. Checking from the peephole we saw the Leroux family, but Ophelia wasn't there. They said that they saw a few knights go by and they wanted wanted to talk to them.
"Ruven, Adonis, you guys leave from the back, and Ruven, take these clothes with you, I've enchanted it so that you have more control on your Burst and Weaponry. Using the hat you can talk to your trusted ones using telepathy. Now go! Leave!" Eva said.
I put on the hat and the trench coat she gave me.
"I'll stay here and deal with this mess. Head south-east until you can find the sea. Once you do, wait there for me." Jian said.
"Mom, Dad, I'll get through this, I swear. I love you both!" I said as we left.
Me and Adonis left from the back window and started running so that we could get as far as we could.
By now we were well rested and I could use my powers at its fullest as of now.
"Hey Ruven, I feel as if something's gonna happen, you mind using electrofield?" Said Adonis
"Uhh, sure, I'll trust your instincts." I said.
We stopped in our tracks and I released a wave of my electricity and tried to see if anyone or anything were around us.
The enchants Eva put on my clothes are crazy, it's doing so well in amplifying my electrowaves
"100m, nothing
150m, nothing
250m, not- I sense something."
"What? What is it Ruven?" Adonis asked.
"Two people, currently heading our way... GABRIEL???"
"What?! We can't deal with gabriel! He's too strong for us!" He exclaimed.
"Our best option is to hide or to face him."
As I said that, a battle axe shot through by our faces.
I looked at Adonis, dead in the eye and said
"We just lost option number one."
"Yo, criminals. Ready to face divine punishment?"
I looked at Adonis and telepathically asked him, "does this guy think of himself as some kind of God?"
He looks at me and shrugs
"Atleast say something you peasants!" Gabriel shouted.
"Don't worry my love, they'll speak, now that I'm here."
There she is, the one who framed me.
Ophelia.
"You Aqueogons killed my parents just because one of them was a human, yet you yourself are in love with one? You're sick." Adonis said with anger in his eyes.
"Oh? What makes you think I care? In fact, if a weakling hybrid like you were my child, I'd wanna get killed to. We dont care about others, we live for ourselves and the ones who don't live for the Aqueogon royals will perish. You think we care about what humans did to us? We don't. After we take over this world, they're gonna die too. It's gonna be a fucking bloodbath!!" Gabriel shouts
"This guy really is sick in the head." I said
"Hey Ruven, once we're done killing you, your filthy nightingale family and your friends are getting squashed on too. You are the filthiest thing I've ever seen, not treating me like a queen? You'll pay." Ophelia said.
At this point I could already feel my body burning with rage.
"Hey Ruven. It's fine if we kill these bastards right? I mean it's not like they contribute anything to this world, they're a waste of oxygen, right? We can go overdrive, right?"
Adonis said, with his voice trembling and his eyes glowing purple.
"You go for that bitch of a woman. Gabriel is mine to kill." He said.
Staring at Gabriel, he walked into the darkness of the forest, disappearing for a brief second.
"Your friend ran away, like the wimp he is, you're gonna run away too little crybaby? What are you gonna do? You can't even manifest a weapon. You got framed by a harmless little girl, you let your friends get kill-"
Gabriel's monologuing gets cut off, by Ophelia getting decapitated.
"Sorry Ruven, she was supposed to be yours to kill, but we'd stand a better chance with the both us against him. Hey, Ruven, let's go, try to keep up."
He gives me a shadow-blade, one he manifested, and rushes in to fight Gabriel.
Gabriel manifests his axe and exchanges strikes with Adonis.
I rush in with the weapon Adonis gave me and imbued it with electricity.
I used my shock ability and paralyzed him, giving Adonis a window to attack, I rush in from the back and grabbed his arm and locked it in place before I stabbed him right in his bicep.
Adonis helps me bring his arm to the ground,
I imbue my fist with electricity and strike rapidly with punches. I end it off by using my palms and sending a high voltage shock through his entire body.
"Is that it? You think that's gonna do anything against me? You're trash. This is why your parents died."
Adonis gets angrier and hits him in the place where I stabbed him, pulls out the blade and sticks it in his neck.
Wait. The places where I've stabbed him isn't bleeding, that's not-
I feel an otherworldly presence trying to bring itself into this world.
I grab Adonis and leapt back, Ophelia's headless body is missing. She emerges from Gabriel's back and puts her arm around his neck.
"I'm sorry, my love, because of me, you had to get hurt." She said as the rest of her head grows back, as this ugly abomination, a head I can't even describe.
Might have to censor her head.
"It's fine, you're here and that's all that matters." Gabriel says as he proceeded to kiss Ophelia.
"Dude, how can you even kiss that... Thing? Eugh... EWW... Dude I'm gonna vomit."
I was on the verge of tears, this is such a disgusting view.
I look at Adonis, he's vomitting.
"Shut up, you insolent creatures! You can't experience this because you don't know what true love is!" He says
"Yeah man, if that's what true love means then I don't want it. In fact, you can keep it all, you know what you can do too? Stop kissing, that's so disgusting."
Adonis wasn't having all that, he manifested a colossal sword, and attempted to slash their heads. A black amalgamation from Ophelia's head emerged and block his sword. It immediately corroded his sword, and then like a whip, it pushes Adonis back into a tree, and knocks him out.
"Great! Now that he's out of the way, I can deal with you." Gabriel said as he swung his axe at me.
I dodged it, and dashed towards him, activating my electroreflex and getting close to the stab wound, so that I can electrocute his insides and kill him effectively.
Thanks to the enchants Eva put on my clothes, I can actually stand up for myself.
His axe hit me and I got a bruise, but the coat absorbed most of the hit, thanks to my ER*
(Electroreflex)* I can dodge the rest of the hits.
For someone who uses a battle-axe, he's fast.
Throughout this fight, he's moving faster the more I hit him, at this rate it's gonna be a battle of endurance.
I can only dodge now, trying to get close up is too risky. Dangit, if I just had a weapon!
I'm hoping Adonis comes back to his senses.
Suddenly, I felt as if my power and my body were weakening, but I could fight. I noticed that Ophelia wasn't on Gabriel's, shoulder anymore.
I look around, and find out,
She was on mine, her roots swirled around my body and it sapping away the last of my power.
I saw Adonis rushing towards me, but he got caught by Gabriel.
I saw, as my eyes blacked out. Adonis getting strangled by Gabriel.
"See? No matter who you're with or what you do, what you wear, you're still a weakling." Gabriel said.
"What a loser, you're so bad at fighting, I almost fell asleep. After you both die, we'll slaughter your family, your friends and take over this world. Oh, and Ruven, this body is just temporary. Your mother is very pretty you know? Me and Gabriel will have so much fun with her, then I'll steal her body."
"Be glad Ruven, your mother lives through ME!!"
Hearing that, I was so full of rage, My anger needed a way to escape. But I didn't have any energy to use.
I fainted.
* Adonis perspective.
Huh, why's that grotesque creature on Ruven's shoulder? I need to save him!
Come on body! Move!
I mustered up all my strength and moved.
I didn't have enough energy to move, but if I didn't save Ruven, this would've been for nothing.
Every movement hurt like hell, but I walked through it. I saw Gabriel rushing towards me, but I didn't have any energy left to dodge.
He and Ophelia started a dialogue, a really bad one. It wasn't meant towards me but miss Eva was like a mother to me. I felt really mad.
I saw that Ruven fainted.... This is the end for us both, it seems.
I gave up hope, the last thing in my head was gonna be Ophelia's and Gabriel's mind numbingly annoying laughs.
I heard the sound of thunderclap which was extremely close.
My ears went numb.
I fell on the ground, but my neck was still held by Gabriel's hand.
As the grip loosened and I regained consciousness.
In front of me was Ruven, with a sword in his hand.
I didn't sense anything unusual.
In fact, with the exception of his "ER", I couldn't sense anything at all!
He raised his hand with his sword in the air, and lightning striked him.
It didn't seem to affect him at all, but for Ophelia who was on his shoulder took a toll.
She immediately let go of him and and climbed back on to Gabriel's shoulder, healing his arm.
Ruven lowers his hand and heads towards me. His eyes, emotionless. It felt as if he was still unconscious and that his body is moving purely with instinct.
He bends down on one knee, looking down at me, he says
"Thank you, for trying to save me. Rest now, my friend. I'll deal with this."
He stood up, and walked towards Gabriel.
"What's this? A new technique? Doesn't matter. No matter how much techniques you learn, you're still weak, and that's never going to change."
Ruven didn't say a word. He just walked towards Gabriel.
He held his sword, and a loud sound of thunderclap crashed again.
In a flash of a second, Ruven was behind Gabriel.
Ophelia's head got severed and Gabriel's forearm was cut off.
The look of shock on Gabriel's face was worth seeing.
He was speechless.
Ruven turned around, appeared right in front of Gabriel, and sliced his tongue off, followed by multiple strikes aimed at the shoulders and a full power shock at Ophelia.
The sounds of thunderclap by each strike would be enough to tear apart one's eardrums.
Gabriel fought back, but was discombobulated by the strikes every single time. The sounds were too loud for me too. Thanks to my ability, I could block my ears.
Then, I saw Ophelia appear behind Ruven, and hold his hand back while Gabriel got ready to strike Ruven.
The strike was going to be weak, I could tell because I felt fear coming from Gabriel.
"In the face of death, move if you dare." Said a girl, with dark blue hair, witch hat and a pink coat. She looks like the girl who saved us when Gabriel attacked us the first time.
Gabriel froze on the spot.
The girl came towards me and said, "I can't heal you fully, there's not enough time to. I can heal you back a quarter of your capacity and make you forget your pain for hours. You'll need medical attention afterwards.
"Hey lady, please. Stop. You seem like you're on our side, I have a request of you, please help my friend."
"He'll lose control if he doesn't stop." I said
"He'll be fine. By the time he's done fighting Gabriel, he'll stop moving on his own. I was watching from nearby, and I can tell he's moving using pure instincts and rage."
"He seems... Interesting. I'll stay."
"My name's Dawn by the way. Dawn Okada."
She said.
"You'll need someone to heal you both anyways."
I thanked her, and looked at Ruven again.
He raised his sword again, this time with his other hand he grabbed Ophelia, and lightning striked him again. Ophelia perished.
Gabriel, seemed as if he was in the verge of tears. He grabbed sand and dust from the ground and thew it at Ruven, and tried to run away.
"Perilous paths!" Dawn said.
"Go, warrior. Kill him!"
A wall of solidified air stopped Gabriel from escaping.
Ruven stood there, holding his sword, he just looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel sat on the ground, crawling and crying for his life.
Ruven finally took a step.
With each step, the sound of thunder followed.
At the final step, the last thunderclap crashed, and it did so with the end of Gabriel.
His execution marked the declaration of the new war.
After his death, Ruven's sword didn't disappear, nor did he fall. He just stood silently again.
Because of Dawn's ability, I could stand up.
We both walked towards Ruven, hesitant that he may attack us.
As we reached in front of Ruven, we got a clear look at his face.
He fainted.
He fainted while standing up straight.
"What a monster." Dawn said.