Trying his absolute hardest to keep his breathing steady, Harvey focused on making sure that the breaths he drew in and the breaths he let out were long and meaningful.

In the chaos that had been created by the Eiffel Tower collapsing, he had lost everybody else. Only the Gods knew where they all were.

It had been terrifying. All Harvey could remember was being tossed backwards by the force of the collapse and then having to fight for his life to not be killed by the storm of debris.

Albert was fine. He had to be. Harvey had spent the entire time repeating that sentence to himself. Out of everybody he knew, Albert was the strongest. There was no way he had let the debris get the better of him.

Harvey scanned the area for the seventh time. Still, he could see nobody.

He was trying desperately to ignore the fear that was slowly beginning to take over his body. He was alone. There was nobody to help him.

He was tired, slightly injured, and alone. If he were to get jumped by even one person, it would spell the end for him. He was helpless.

What if…? What if he really was alone? What if nobody else had survived the storm of debris?

How else could he be so close to where the squad had been and yet not see anyone? They all should’ve been ten metres away at most, barring Albert, Ali, and Isaac.

Harvey admired Isaac for his bravery now. He, ignoring the impending doom, had charged at Albert and Ali to try and get them to safety. He had done so without having a shadow of regard for his own life.

A noise that sounded a lot like somebody running towards him invaded Harvey’s ears. He was too exhausted to try and fight. All he could do was slowly turn on the spot and pray it was someone he knew.

‘Cecilia!’ he roared with delight as he saw who it was that was running towards him. ‘You okay?’

Her hair was matted with dirt and dust, and something that looked a lot like dried blood seemed to be stained on her left forearm, but, other than that, she seemed fine. She was still clutching her sickles, ready for anybody who challenged her.

‘More than that!’ she replied loudly as she reached him. ‘You?’

‘Fantastic now that I know someone else is alive,’ Harvey sighed, wanting to hug her. ‘You seen anybody else?’

‘I know that Ethan, Peter, and Asbel are alive,’ she said quickly. ‘But I’ve got no idea about anybody else.’

‘How do you know they’re alive, then?’

‘Ethan protected me from all the debris and just went off to help Peter and Asbel. They were fighting a surviving enemy squad. He could see you in the distance so he told me to come here.’

‘At least there’s five of us,’ Harvey murmured. ‘Less than half the damn group.’

Cecilia seemed to find a sudden interest in staring at the ground.

‘Albert’s alive, I know it,’ she murmured. ‘There’s no way he’s dead.’

‘I’ve been telling myself that since the dust cleared,’ Harvey mumbled in response. ‘I agree with you. If the five of us have survived, there’s no way in Tartarus that he’s dead.’

‘He was with Ali, too,’ Cecilia said, a glimmer of hope beginning to form in her voice. ‘So we can say that he’s alive, too. Albert would have protected him.’

‘He probably tried to protect Isaac, too, right? He was running over to them when the Tower collapsed.’

‘I hope so,’ she sighed. ‘I know it’s a lot to expect from him, but he can do it.’

‘That leaves Charlotte, Natasha, Stephen, and Jay,’ he concluded. 'Those are the four we should be most concerned about.'

‘Gods, I hope they’re okay,’ Cecilia breathed, sounding more worried than Harvey had ever heard her.

‘Stephen and Jay seemed to be pretty insistent on staying as a pair when the lightning struck,’ Harvey reasoned. ‘If they’re alive, they’re together. They should be fine.’

‘Don’t say ‘if they’re alive’, Harvey,’ Cecilia groaned. ‘We’ve gotta hold out hope.’

Harvey sighed. He really did want to believe that everybody was alive, but it wasn’t exactly a stretch to say that the collapse of the Eiffel Tower was a deadly event. It was a miracle he hadn’t been crushed.

‘You’re shaking,’ Cecilia said abruptly.

Harvey hadn’t even noticed. His sword was rattling in his hand.

‘Shit!’ he hissed under his breath. ‘I was supposed to be trying to stay calm…’

‘It’s fine if you’re not calm. Look.’

Cecilia held her right arm out towards Harvey. Looking at it, he noticed that it was shaking. And it was shaking pretty obviously at that.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘Gods, we’re not in the best shape, are we?’ Harvey joked. ‘We went from a peaceful school life to this. What a jump.’

‘I think I made the right decision,’ Cecilia replied snappily.

‘Of course you’d say that,’ Harvey retorted, grinning at her. ‘If you’d stayed at Apercaput you wouldn’t be with Albert.’

‘Shut up,’ she snapped, but her face was slightly pink.

‘What do we do?’ Harvey asked, changing the subject. ‘Should we go out and look for the others?’

‘That’s a good idea,’ Cecilia said at the exact same time as a male voice from behind the two of them.

‘Lead me straight to them all,’ the male voice continued as Cecilia and Harvey froze with fear.

Harvey had heard that voice in the past. He knew who it belonged to.

Slowly turning on the spot, Harvey tried his absolute hardest to mask his fear with anger.

‘Maltor,’ he snarled, trying not to let his voice wobble.

The cold blue eyes of the boy he had learned to hate over the last few months stared at him maliciously. His short blond hair didn’t even move in the faint breeze that wafted by the two of them. Identical black swords sat in his hands. He was ready for a fight.

This was the moment Harvey had been waiting for since January. He wanted his shot at Maltor.

‘Thank you for the introduction,’ Maltor said cockily. ‘But it is not you that drew my attention, Santrrer, so I would like it if you were to keep your mouth shut.’

Maltor’s eyes fell upon Cecilia. His sister.

Instinctively, Harvey raised his sword into a defensive position and put himself between Cecilia and her brother.

Maltor raised an eyebrow.

‘I just want to talk to my sister,’ he said calmly, but his eyes were flaring. ‘Step aside before I show you who exactly holds the power here.’

Cecilia placed her hand on Harvey’s left shoulder.

‘Give him a second,’ she whispered. ‘Then you can have him.’

‘Cecilia…’ Harvey growled, feeling his anger rise. ‘He killed Jeremy.’

‘I didn’t even lay a finger on him,’ Maltor continued, still doing a good job at making his voice sound calm. ‘In fact, I haven’t seen my brother in years.’

‘Good,’ Harvey spat, glowering at him. ‘From what I heard, he was mutilated beyond comprehension after your people got to him.’

‘Do you just believe anything that ‘cousin’ of yours says?’ Maltor sneered, finally breaking his calm façade. ‘Did you see the body? No. How can you be so sure Albert was telling the truth?’

‘You think he’d lie about seeing that shit?’ Harvey snarled. ‘Why would anyone-’

‘To taunt me,’ Maltor snapped simply. ‘Now, let me talk to my sister. Shut your mouth or your blood will stain the grounds of Paris.’

Harvey opened his mouth to argue back, but Cecilia stepped in front of him and shouted, ‘So speak to me. What do you want?’

Maltor smirked cockily at Harvey, which made his blood boil.

‘I want you to see my side of the story,’ Maltor said softly, staring at Cecilia. ‘You of all people need to understand me.’

It was a rather strange dynamic. Looking at the two of them, they looked nothing like siblings. But something about the way Maltor looked at and spoke to Cecilia made it clear that he was her brother.

‘What is there to understand?’ Cecilia asked bitterly, and Harvey saw her clench her sickles a little bit tighter.

‘I am doing this not out of greed, Cecilia,’ Maltor continued, still sounding rather soft. ‘I am doing it to save the world.’

Harvey scoffed. Maltor glared at him for a brief moment. Then he continued.

‘I had our brother killed, yes. I admit it. But he was a risk. He could’ve let loose information that nobody can know.’

Cecilia’s eyes widened. ‘Wait…You…Do you mean…No…’

‘I need you to join my side, Cecilia,’ Maltor said loudly. ‘I don’t want to have to do to you what I did to him.’

‘Now that’s taking it too far!’ Harvey roared. ‘Cecilia wouldn’t-’

‘You of all people shouldn’t be involved in a conversation about family, Santrrer,’ Maltor snarled. ‘Keep your mouth shut.’

Harvey felt as though he’d been punched. He hadn’t expected even Maltor to go that low.

His mind felt blank. How was he even supposed to respond to that? What could he possibly say?

His sword began to rattle in his hand again. This ‘breathing steady’ thing was not working at all.

‘What makes you think I’d join you?’ Cecilia seethed, sounding furious. In all the years Harvey had known her, he had never heard her sound so angry.

‘You don’t have a choice, Cecilia,’ Maltor said simply. ‘Well, you do. Join me or die. Same as everybody else, but I may actually feel sorry to kill you.’

‘Don’t call me your ‘sister’,’ Cecilia spat. ‘We are not family, Maltor. You are the enemy.’

Maltor smiled, but it was painfully obvious that it was not a real smile.

‘Siblings do fall out, Cecilia, this is normal,’ he said tauntingly. ‘We can move past this.’

‘I wouldn’t call this ‘falling out’, either,’ Cecilia retorted, still sounding enraged. ‘This is a war, Maltor. And we so happen to be on opposing sides.’

‘It doesn’t have to be that way, Cecilia. Join me. I’ll show you exactly why I’m doing this. You’ll see. You’ll understand.’

‘In your fucking dreams,’ Cecilia spat. ‘I’m not joining you.’

A deafening silence crashed down on the group. Harvey’s anger had grown with each and every word that Maltor said. The second Cecilia gave him permission, he was going to rip Maltor apart and he would enjoy every single second.

‘Come on then, Maltor,’ Cecilia hissed. ‘Kill me. I’m ready. Come at me.’

A few more seconds of deafening silence.

Then it was broken. Maltor let out a soft chuckle. The noise made Harvey feel sick. What was he laughing at? What could possibly be so funny?

‘You want to fight me? Really?’ he roared, grinning hysterically. ‘Oh, please, sister, I would kill you with a single slash.’

‘That’s all it takes to kill anyone, you fucking idiot,’ Cecilia snarled. ‘Now, are you going to stick to your word or not? Come on, Maltor. Kill me.’

All Harvey was waiting for was a single signal. No. If Maltor went for Cecilia then Harvey would go for him. He wasn’t gonna let that monster lay a finger on her.

What would Albert do in his position?

That was a stupid question. Albert and Maltor would already be fighting if Albert were standing where Harvey was. Albert would be trying to kill Maltor. No questions asked.

This question reignited the worry in Harvey about everybody else. Where were they? He of course knew that Cecilia was alive, and she had confirmed that Ethan, Peter, and Asbel were still alive. But that still left seven other friends that were missing.

He hoped that whoever it was that had made the Eiffel Tower collapse was getting what they deserved. Maybe the other seven had found them. Or, at least, maybe one of the missing few was fighting them as Harvey and Cecilia were talking to Maltor.

Harvey began to shake with rage. He was mere metres away from the person on this earth he hated most and he was doing nothing. The monster he despised with every fibre of his being was right there. Harvey could make the distance in merely a few steps. He could kill him.

He was a descendant of Titan. He was as powerful as demigods got. His chance to end the damned war was right in front of his eyes, so close that he could almost touch it.

Anybody else would have already taken the chance. So why hadn’t he? If it were Ethan, Isaac, Albert, or even Jay or Asbel standing where he was, they would already be doing their best to kill Maltor. They wouldn’t have just been standing around doing absolutely nothing.

It was infuriating. What was keeping him so rooted to the spot?

A few steps. That was all it would take.

‘Don’t be stupid Cecilia,’ Maltor snapped angrily. ‘Just say you’ll-’

Without even making a single sound, Harvey leapt forward and swung his sword around towards the side of Maltor’s neck.