Chapter 99 - Another World Burn : Part 4

Axel watched the vice president from afar. He stood on top of a building with a red hood that fell from the wind around him. The moonlight rained upon him, and the boy felt a weird kind of guilt watching the woman.

Maybe that was the reason why he waited for the woman to finish evacuating people. Unknowingly, the boy tried to protect the woman.

The wind moved in a weird way for a split second, making Axel side-eyed the shadow behind him.

Axel suddenly froze as he felt a dangerous presence breathing in his ears. His blue eye sharpened, getting ready to take down whoever was standing behind him right now.

He clenched his right fist and spun around, throwing his hand to the person behind him. The said person caught his hand with ease, causing Axel to widen his blue eye.

A familiar torn navy cloak and the obvious blindfold over the said person's eyes made all the hair in Axel's body stand. The person smiled at him, and somehow it felt a little familiar. It was as if he'd seen that smile somewhere.

The person put away Axel's hand to the side and tilted his head gently at the boy. "Hello there, Tithonus." He showed an unhinged grin when he watched Axel's shocked face.

"Don't be all guard up like that. I'm just here to chat." He chuckled and slowly walked beside Axel, staring at the people down below with disinterest.

"Is this the path you'll choose?" He asked, smiling at the stiffened boy. "Following your sister who's clearly hiding something big? Hm?"

Axel threw another punch, and the man easily dodged away, flapping his torn cloak as he flipped over the boy's head. The man landed behind the boy easily, as if his feet had no sound at all.

"Adreanna basically manipulated you, you know." He shrugged, still showing his creepy smile at the boy.

Axel gritted his teeth. "She didn't mean to. It wasn't her intention." The boy tried to kick the man, resulting in how easily the blindfolded person darted around him. "-and you are trying to manipulate me right now too."

"Ah, so you were aware." The blindfolded man grinned and landed on the edge of the building. "That's cute."

Axel turned down the corner of his mouth to the man. "What?"

"Your denial. It's cute." The man cooed, playing around the edge of the rooftop like a kid.

"The Vergessene family is bound to know by their bloody denial, you see." He paused, jumping from the edge to get close to the boy. "Because the-" The man pointed his blindfolded eye, stating about Axel's red eye.

"You know what I mean." He smirked when Axel tried so hard to shove down the terror in his face.

"But your denial is cute. You even defended your manipulator!" He happily exclaimed as he walked closer to Axel.

"I'm going to make a better play than your brother." He whispered, and Axel managed to notice the dark bow in his hand that slowly swallowed the man. "Just you wait."

"For the end of your sad story is near, Tithonus." He flashed a last smile before completely disappearing from Axel sight.

The Vergessene's breath shook while his blue eye glued on the place where the man had disappeared. He quietly stepped back. One step, two step, three step-

Then he ran, jumping from building to building as his body disappeared and reappeared a couple of times. He skidded down the next rooftop before jumping into an alleyway.

The boy ran like he was running out of time. When Adreanna's apartment building came in his sight, he quickly burst through the front door and used the stairs to come to his sister's room.

He slammed Adreanna's apartment door open. With a chest heaving up and down, he stared at his sister's emotionless eyes who were looking at him in silence.

"You're back." She flatly stated. Her eyes almost looked like she was worried, yet they still seemed as dull as ever.

Axel made his way to her and grabbed her hands. "You still keep your promise, right?"

"That you'll never give me away to Kiaran, that you'll always stay by my side, that you'll protect me?" He sputtered the words so fast, overwhelming anxiety ate him away, and the boy just wanted the truth.

Adreana stared at her little brother's blue eye with hidden emotions. She quickly hugged the boy tight, trying to calm him down.

"I believe you. I'll- I'll follow you." Axel croaked at her.

And so the boy denied once more.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

Then two days went like a heartbeat. Axel had worn a cloak that he borrowed from Adreanna. He did not even try to cover his face, only wearing an eyepatch to cover his red eye.

Adreanna did the same. She did not wear any mask as she led the way. Axel only followed her quietly from behind, fearing the world burn that was about to happen.

The city became like a ghost town, everyone had evacuated. Only the soldiers, police officers, and some of the governments stayed.

They would only kill the rest of the governments and finish quickly. Axel just had to bear with everything before finally leaving the city too with Adreanna.

She promised that they would only kill the governments, and that was it. He just tagged along to support her, and she'd kill them on her own.

"Adreanna, where are we going?" Axel watched the surroundings with worry as they slowly arrived in Livedam's central park.

"Why are we going to where Kiaran would do the world burn?" He tugged the edge of Adreanna's sleeve, demanding an answer from her.

"Are we-" Axel gulped when they finally stood in the central park. "-are we siding with Kiaran?"

"You're siding with me, not him." She reassured and grabbed Axel's hand.

Would she give him away to Kiaran? The debt that they were talking about- she surely did pay it somehow, right?

Was this a trap? She would not do it to him, right?

"But-"

"I still keep my promise. We're just going to kill the governments." Adreanna suddenly dragged the boy behind her, cutting Axel's word off.

Axel quizzically stared at her before peeking around her shoulder to see what was happening in front of them. His breath caught in his throat when his blue eye met with other familiar blue eyes.

"Hello, Axel. Miss me?" Kiaran gave him smiling eyes, and Axel believed that his brother was grinning behind his mask.

Adreanna quickly hid him away again, protectively shielding the boy. "He's with me."

"Of course!" Kiaran clasped both of his hands before sending a knowing gaze to Axel. "Of course."

"Thanks for joining me, fellow siblings." Said the mercenary as he crossed both of his hands on his chest, staring at the central park, waiting for the people to fight them.

Waiting for his next play.

"Now shall we begin the world burn?" Kiaran led the two and stood in front of them.

Axel clenched his fists while looking at his sister. "Adreanna, you promised-"

"Shut up, Axel. You're supposed to be mute if you want to fight here." Kiaran quickly chimed in, glaring at him for a moment before focusing on the empty park again.

Axel staggered back a little. "But I don't want to- I don't-"

Axel looked over to Adreanna's cold eyes and turned to Kiaran's unhinged eyes. He quickly snapped his mouth shut and stayed in his place.

Oh. He went back to his old self again.

His pathetic self.

He thought he had overcome everything by easily avoiding the demon version of his family's manipulations and turning the table around on them.

Now he realized he could easily overcome it because they were strangers.

But now that he had to face his real family again, he pathetically went back to zero.

Because he never passed the denial.

It did not take long for a swarm of police officers and soldiers to aim their guns at the three Vergessene siblings. Adreanna quickly stepped forward, protecting both Kiaran and Axel.

"You have a plan, right?" She muttered to Kiaran who was standing as if there were no guns pointing at him right now.

"Are you contemplating my decision? Just stayed silent and killed for me." He clicked his tongue as he watched the serious faces of the people in front of him.

"Axel, watched this." Kiaran nudged the boy when a certain person started to walk toward them.

There was a familiar red hair that slowly walked toward them with determination in her hazel eyes. The ponytail bounced a little while she made her way over to them. Adreanna had become defensive when the girl came closer.

Axel had become wide-eyed as he watched Rune pointing a gun at the mercenary without even giving him a single glance. Why did she- why was she in here?

She gritted her teeth at the mercenary and spat.. "Give me back my father, you monster."