Chapter 43 - The Piece Of Ashes : Part 1

A man once said, 'the most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire'.

But what if the mind could not move as the soul was on fire, and the world turned into ashes?

Well, not really the world, more like the Livedam city, but you know how extra Kiaran was.

No one really knew what the mercenary was thinking right now as he watched the mute murderer getting snatched away by his counterpart. Everyone around him was on the ground, passing out. Some were probably dead. He could not care less anyway.

The sun slowly hid away behind the clouds, not wanting to add more fire around the city.

Kiaran only froze. He stood in his place as his counterpart's power lingered within him, telling him to stay.

The teen's blue eyes watched the three demons disappear alongside Axel. His eyes sharpened as he calculated the surroundings and their disappearance.

His mouth moved every second, counting the time with his mind. The burning wind danced around the mercenary, letting his hair go along with it.

Kiaran's breath stayed steady as he kept counting. He looked over to Valerian, who stayed down on the ground, noticing how his chest heaved up and down as a reassurance that he was still alive.

He could hear many gunshots happening behind him. He believed it was from his own father who was fighting with the undead.

Then a wave of coldness spread through him from his toes to his head at a quick pace. His blue eyes widened a little as he took a big gasp. Kiaran stumbled forward, almost falling head first if he did not quickly flip to the air and landed on both of his feet.

He cracked his neck and straightened his back, testing if the power had already stopped thralling him.

"Three minutes. His power works for three minutes." The mercenary clicked his tongue, mumbling the time that he had counted as he froze earlier.

Kiaran quickly looked over to where Adreanna was. Both of his eyes twitched when he caught the sight of his sister bleeding on the ground as she desperately tried to break free from the porcelain feathers that held her down.

He slid on the ground, dodging the building ruins around him and ran to her. The mercenary crouched down in front of his sister and grimaced at the porcelain feathers all around her body.

"This is going to hurt, sis." He reminded before starting to pluck the feathers from her body, earning a grunt from her.

Cain, on the other hand, started to run out of bullets and explosives for using them on more than eighty enemies. One of the undead dashed right to him, and the hitman quickly shot his bullet, using the last shot on him.

Cain jumped back, creating a space between him and the leftover enemies. He fixed his mask and put a foot back to hold his weight.

The man took a knife from his suit and smiled from behind his mask at the undead. "Seems like you'll get the knife, people." His kind smile turned deadly as he rushed forward with a knife in front of his chest.

Cain jumped forward, spinning on the air as he kicked three heads at the same time. The three undead flew to his right and crashed onto the ground.

The hitman roughly landed on another undead and stepped on him, making sure the enemy stayed on the ground.

Another undead came from his left, and Cain quickly slashed his throat, sending some blood to splatter over his mask.

There was ten more undead around him that surrounded the man. Cain stood in the middle, tightening the grip on his knife as he readied himself. The wind yet again tried to dance around, making the atmosphere even tight.

"Fire in the hole!" Someone shouted a scream from one of the buildings that only got ruined halfway.

There stood a brunette with a bomb flying from his hand, looking at Cain with two wide grey eyes, trying to warn the hitman.

Cain noticed that the shout was meant for him and quickly pulled out a grappling hook from his suit. The undead started to run to him at the same time as he aimed at the building Zack was on.

Zack jumped back a little at the sudden hook that was attached to the edge of the building. The hitman jumped and let himself get pulled by the grappling hook.

Cain managed to pass the bomb that was ticking down in the air before he finally landed on the building as the explosion went off, wiping off the rest of the undead.

The brunette blinked his eyes while looking back and forth between the explosion and the hitman.

"Thank you, boy." Cain brushed off the ashes from his clothes as he expressed his gratitude to Zack.

The brunette laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, I didn't know that it would actually work, sir."

Cain just smiled at him even though he knew that Zack could not see his face. "Adreanna talked about you."

Zack looked startled for a moment and raised both of his eyebrows in a mix of shock and amusement. "Oh, you know Adreanna?" He exclaimed happily.

Then the realization hit him.

"Oh right, Adreanna! Where's Adreanna?!" The brunette blurted, making both Cain and Zack snap their heads over to the assassin.

The mercenary was holding Adreanna in his hand as the girl bled out. Blood kept coming out of her body slowly but surely.

Cain did not even wait for a second when he suddenly jumped off from the building and landed on the ground, rolling.

Zack ran to the edge of the building, trying to follow the hitman. "Wait!"

Though the hacker stopped right where the man jumped off, looking down at how tall the building was.

"Yeah, nope. I'm not going to jump from here. I'll take the stairs please." He muttered to himself before running to the door behind him and walking down the stairs that was cut in a half.

"How the hell did he not break any bones from that jump." He mumbled as he tried to fasten his pace.

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"Give her to me," Cain demanded, holding out his hand for Kiaran to give Adreanna over to him.

"I'm fine, father." The assassin gritted, trying to stand up from Kiaran's hold.

"No, you're not. You literally look like shit right now." The mercenary commented while trying to hold down his sister. Adreanna only grunted as she was moved to Cain's hands.

"Axel, what about Axel?" In between her gritted teeth, she managed to ask about the youngest.

"Let's focus on your wound first, okay?" Cain dodged the question easily, clearly more worried about her rather than Axel.

Kiaran would be lying if he said he wasn't irritated at the favouritism for a second there. But he was used to it too, anyway.

"Axel is getting kidnapped by the other us, actually," Kiaran spoke up, earning a sigh from Cain at the sudden mention.

"What?" She croaked. Adreanna looked over weakly at Kiaran. One blue eye met with Kiaran's. The crack of her porcelain mask was bloody, mixing with her own blood.

"Are we talking about the mute murderer?" A sudden voice came between Cain and Kiaran. A bundle of brunettes appeared in the middle of them.

Kiaran frowned as he took a look at Zack's grey eyes. "Who the hell is this?"

Zack snapped his head over to the mercenary and smiled innocently. "Oh, uh, I'm- um, I think you could say I'm her date?"

"Zack?" Adreanna stared at him with a slight frown.

"Hi, Adreanna. It's me again." The hacker paused and raised a hand awkwardly at her. "You look.... bloody."

Zack wrinkled his nose and looked over to both hitman and mercenary. "Anyway, we need to treat Adreanna's wound. I can carry her while you two search for the mute murderer."

Cain held his daughter even closer to him. "No. I'm not leaving her." He stated harshly.

"Oh, okay then." Zack raised both of his hands and turned his head to Kiaran. "Uh, do you need my h-"

"No, I can save my brother myself just like I always did." Kiaran cut him off, speaking with a bit of venom in his voice as he turned his back on the three.

His black trench coat swirled a little as he walked away from them, completely ignoring the surrounding.

Zack blinked sheepishly at the criminal. "Brother? Am I missing something here?"

The one in question ignored the brunette completely. Instead, Kiaran stopped in his track as he glanced at his sister once more time.

"Take care, Adreanna."

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Kiaran emerged from the shadow and sighed. The dim laboratory was silent, only the sound of clanking tools was heard. He walked over to the scientist and leaned on the table beside her.

"The first plan had gone as I predicted." The mercenary spoke, eyes looking over to the black arrows for a second before diverting them to the shag hair lady.

"The assassin and the hitman won't search for your murderer?" The scientist asked without looking over to the criminal.

"The assassin is down at the moment," Kiaran answered slowly, playing with a tool that he found beside him. " And the hitman... won't care." He added as he began to fiddle with the device.

"Of course, he won't care." She agreed bitterly, eyes glued on the arrows in her hand.

Kiaran finally put down the tool and went over to take the black arrow with his gloved hand. "They knew Axel's alive anyway. They always believed I'd handle the situation. That I'd get him back."

He grazed over the arrow with two dangerous blue eyes. "It's time for the next plan." The mercenary continued, slamming down the arrow to the table.

"Let's collect the piece of ashes, old lady."