Chapter 85 - Us Against The World : Part 3

Axel took a deep breath as he crawled inside the ventilation. He carefully followed Adreanna's movement in front of him. The air was so tight inside, but they needed to kill the mayor.

She needed to kill the mayor. Axel was just tagging along.

Axel was using the same cloak as her. The difference was that Adreanna wore a porcelain mask, and Axel did not wear anything to cover his face. He didn't have his mask with him, and Adreanna only used her usual mask. Besides, there was no use for him to hide anymore. He just covered his red eye with his usual eyepatch.

He glanced through the slats below him as he passed it. He could see the people inside the room, chatting with each other. Some were buried in their own works like their lives were depended on it.

Axel silently hoped they wouldn't get caught in a crossfire.

He almost bumped into Adreanna's back when she suddenly stopped crawling. Axel stopped at the right moments as he waited for something to happen or some explanations from her.

"It seems like it's a dead end. We can't get through the fan." She uttered as Axel tried to see past her.

There was a fan at the end of the ventilation. They might have to go through the slats earlier and drop down to where everyone was to get into the mayor's room.

Then he suddenly remembered. When he inspected the room for a second earlier, he saw an electrical switch, and if he could turn it off, it might turn the fan off too.

"Adreanna, I see an electricity switch earlier, and I probably can turn it off for you silently." Axel offered while whispering, trying to keep it low.

"Okay." She agreed and tried to steal a glance at the boy behind her.

"Axel? Where are you?" Adreanna asked as she squinted her eyes at him.

Axel frowned in confusion as he stared right into her porcelain mask. "I'm still here."

"No, you're not."

"I am-" Axel looked at his body to see nothing. He blinked and still found nothing visible within his body parts. "Wait."

"Oh." A realization quickly hit him like a clap of thunder. "I disappear again."

His eyes widened as more realizations truck him. "That's not g-"

Axel fell and went through the vent in a mere second. He felt his breath hitched as he stood right in front of a lady who was staring right through him.

He would never know how gravity worked with his body. It was still a mystery on why the hell he could stand here and-

He wasn't standing.

He was floating. He god damn floating like a ghost.

There was something heavy on his back, like invisible wings. He felt them despite not being able to see them himself—no wonder why he felt heavy when he first turned into this state.

He awkwardly stared at the woman in front of him and moved away slowly. "Okay, I can turn it off, alright. No one can see me. No one can see me." He mumbled to himself as he walked over to the electrical switch.

Someone was walking over to him, causing the boy to panic. Axel tried to fly away, but it was too late when the man suddenly went past him.

There was no reason to panic, then.

Axel bit his lips when he arrived at the switch. He just realized he could not touch it in this state. Still, the young murderer tried anyway. He could not let Adreanna down.

"Come on, just switch off." He gritted his teeth as he went over the switch with his finger so many times.

Then, like a miracle, he managed to show his finger a little and switched the electricity off. The lights went off in the building, causing everyone to stop moving for a moment.

"Oh, the electricity went off. I'll get it on in a sec." A guy near Axel muttered and made his way over to the switch with a flash from his phone. Axel became wide-eyed at the gesture.

Nope. You shall not turn it on.

Axel desperately made both of his hands appear and threw all the nearby books down the nearest table, causing the person to jump at the sudden voice. The guy let out a girly scream and cleared his throat afterwards.

"Ghost hands!" He screamed in a girly voice again as he shined his light at Axel. It must be a terrifying sight to see two floating hands, huh.

Axel took this chance to flow over to the ventilation and checked if she had already passed the fan. He shoved his head inside and saw no sign of Adreanna around. When he was sure that she was gone, he went back to switch the light on again.

But when he did that, oddly enough, everyone's eyes were on him.

Oh, wait. He was standing again right now.

"You-" The guy opened his mouth and pointed at Axel. The rest of the people in the room started to call for help while backing away from him silently.

"Shit." He cursed and quickly stormed out of the room.

Adreanna usually killed without appearing, and her steps were so light that no one would notice. She was the quiet assassin. It was so rare for someone to catch her when she was working.

But because of Axel, she could not do it quietly. He really didn't mean to be her burden today. He just wanted to help.

Axel ran to the mayor's room and slammed the door open with a heaving chest. His hood fell from his head to the back as he did so. Adreanna instinctively aimed a gun at him and quickly lowered it down when she realized it was her brother.

A corpse was lying on the ground with a hole in his head. The mayor had died, it seemed.

Axel did not have the time to inspect the mayor any further and looked at her in a haze of panic. "Adreanna, I'm so sorry, they saw me and-"

The sound of sirens and helicopters surrounded the building now. There was an alarm blazing in the building, telling everyone to evacuate.

It was too late to run.

"Axel Vergessene, surrender now. You're under arrest." Someone spoke with a speaker outside, making the boy bite his lips nervously.

Then suddenly, the wall that was facing the outside of the building got thrown into pieces and exposed everything in the room. Red dots aimed at Adreanna at a quick speed, causing the woman to tilt her head at them.

Axel frowned. Everyone was focused on Adreanna instead of him. There were no single red dots on him, only aiming at his sister.

He looked down slowly to see that he had become invisible again. This was good for him, but at the same time, he could not help Adreanna by being like this.

It seemed like the police had brought more to capture him. There were three helicopters outside and countless cars below.

The assassin faced everything without showing a single sign of her being scared. She put both of her hands in the air while making a sign with her thumb to tell the boy to run while he could.

Why didn't she fight? She could've thrown them off easily, right? Why did she give up? Was this amount too much for her?

Was that the reason why she always did everything quietly? But she was stronger than him, was she not?

A rope of electricity was thrown at Adreanna and tied her hands to her body in a flash of light while electrocuting the assassin. A grunt was heard from Adreanna as her knees dropped onto the ground.

Axel tried to help to get the rope away from her, yet he could not do anything since his hands had disappeared. He tried to make it appear as he did earlier, but they still would not come visible.

"A warrant of killing on the spot has come out. Aim your bullet to her head." Someone yelled from the helicopter, causing the boy to snap his head at the man.

There was another helicopter coming, recording the situation as they talked about the assassin's death sentence to declare it to the world.

This was all because of him. He could not do anything. Kiaran was right. He was too naive.

"I learned from someone that to do something, you must have a reason." Her voice from earlier suddenly echoed in his mind while the boy had a breakdown.

"Whether it's killing or surviving, you must have a reason why you did it." The voice continued, haunting the boy's ears.

"Think of a reason why you want to control them."

Reason, huh.

Axel looked down at his sister as he floated above her. This might be the reason. He really really wanted to save her.

He wanted to control his power so he could save her. He wanted this power not to be a burden but a helpful thing for him. He wanted to help her.

The reason was that he wanted to help Adreanna. No, he needed to help Adreanna. It was always the reason since the beginning.

Axel gritted his teeth as he touched the rope. His hands were still going through it, but he would not give up. Tears started to well up down his eyelids as he desperately tried to free Adreanna.

Then, like a miracle, he touched the rope while his hands were still invisible and caused the rope to vanish into thin air. Axel stared at it in shock as his body slowly reappeared in front of her.

"You find your reason," Adreanna stated, snapping Axel out of his daze. He stared at her porcelain mask with too many thoughts jumbled inside his mind.

The boy's face slowly morphed into determination as he made himself disappear again. He flew over to helicopters outside in a flash of light, causing everyone's guns to vanish as if they were never there.

Everyone warily looked around in confusion when their weapons disappeared one by one. Axel touched every single thing that could harm Adreanna and made sure they vanished for good.

He quickly reappeared again beside Adreanna, who was already standing. "You could've killed them. Why didn't you?" Axel asked her, almost sounding angry.

She tilted her head at him and opened her hood, revealing her neatly braided black hair. "You don't want me to kill them, do you?"

"I'm just fulfilling your request, Axel. As long as you're with me, I'm not going to kill anyone aside from my mission." She continued, and Axel's face morphed into a guilty realization.

"If you request something from someone, you have to make sure the person is capable of following your request." She added, and Axel could hear the genuine words behind her toneless voice.

"That's why I know you would help me." She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. She almost sounded proud, and it made Axel feel warm.

"Oh." He awkwardly smiled at her. "I'll-"

"I'll help you for sure! Just count me in! You can order me with missions. I'll gladly do them!" Axel beamed with determination. A grin formed on his lips as he looked at Adreanna with fire in his blue eye.

She scoffed softly and patted his head. The oldest put the hood back to his head and brushed some specks of dust off it.

The two of them moved their heads at the camera that the reporter recorded live. Adreanna tucked her porcelain mask off and dropped it to the ground. She coldly stared at the camera as if challenging for the police officers to search for her and Axel.

Axel looked at her with surprise. He watched as her hair waved with the wind while her cold face gazed down at everyone. Her beauty silenced the crowd as no sounds were coming from them at all. They just stared at her.

But then, he remembered her words last night. She said she would accompany him in the cage he was in. That put a slight smile on his face.

His sister was so cool.

The assassin stepped on her porcelain mask and cracked it with her leg. On her way out, she grabbed Axel's hand and disappeared into the night with a rope gun in her other hand.

Kiaran, who was watching the news, grinned in pleasure. He chuckled at Adreanna's choice to reveal herself. Ah, Axel still had someone to run to, it seemed. He really did not like that his sister was getting in his way.

But then again, it was all according to his plan. His plan could go various ways. The choice and the fate of Axel was the one who determined it.

It didn't matter anyway if, in the end, everything was going just like he wanted.

The headlines were full of talking about the assassin and the mute murderer's identity. The information really made the government wary of the rest of the Vergessene family and sent a high-class warrant to arrest them.

The scientist watched the news with a pique of interest. It was really according to the mercenary's plan. The Vergessene family was all messed up people, anyway.

She needed to bring back her best friends while killing Alfred and Cain on the way. She would make sure that they died in her best friends' place. Both of those bastards should just die since the beginning.

Adreanna and Axel stormed through the night, jumping from building to building, unaware of the watching 'eyes' that were following them.

The guy in a torn navy cloak observed them from afar. He watched them despite the navy cloth that was covering his eyes. A sideways smile perked on his lips as he let the wind sway the edge of his messy cloak.

"Interesting." He hummed, staring at Axel and Adreanna with an ominous look behind his covered eyes. "You've managed to run away from Eos, Tithonus."

"It's going according to Kiaran's plan, it seems." He sighed and chuckled a little. "That guy is annoying."

"I need something to drop his ego down." He fiddled with his fingerless gloves and played with the edge of them. "It seems like the mute murderer's kidnapping was his plan too, despite how I'm helping the desperate demon family in a way."

He clicked his tongue and smirked. "Huh, as expected of the mercenary."

"I wonder, at the end of this play that you believe you lead, will you like the ending that I've rewritten for you, Kiaran?"

In a haze of the night, stood the unknown guy in a torn cloak with a mad grin, even crazier than Kiaran's.

"I can't wait to see your tears again, just like how I managed to make your counterpart cry."