Part 8

"He just left, just like that, without so much a second thought," a voice broke out coming from Antonio.

"I think that I am beginning to understand what you are talking about, Ms. Matsumoto."

On the first floor of the hospital, Antonio was kneeling near Reiko.

He could hear Reiko breathing.

(It seems that with the barrier destroyed, everybody is slowly starting to come to. This is going to be a pain to explain.)

He began to stand up.

(Mr. Matsumoto.)

He walked to the window, gazing outside.

(When I had my eyes closed, I was able to see the energy within the barrier in its entirety. It was far greater than anything I was able to deal with, but in that short instance, just for a spilt second-.)

Antonio sighed.

(To say that the energy within the barrier was destroyed would be a misstatement. In that split second, you had managed to release your own energy, which not only managed to overpower the energy within the barrier, thus eradicating it completely, but was also so vast that I couldn’t fully perceive it.)

Antonio turned to the woman lying on the floor, picked her up, and began walking to a stretcher nearby.

(Be careful, Mr. Matsumoto; while your own abilities are remarkable, they may not be enough to overcome the person you’re about to encounter, but perhaps....)

_____________________________________________________________________

On the second floor of the hospital stood two individuals.

The sound of beeping from various machines and monitors filled the room.

(Who the hell is this guy?) Haruko thought as he stared at the imposing man.

With a heavy step from his shoe, he turns to face the teen.

There was a loud silence between the two.

"Blue eyes, black hair, medium build" A deep voice came from Nereus as he closely observed the teen standing down the hall from him. "I see. You are exactly what he described you to be."

The man shuffled about opening his cloak and placing his hand on his hip.

"So, you are the one who defeated Eduard."

Haruko looked on without saying anything.

Nereus observed the teen closely.

There was a loud silence between the two.

"Judging by your wounds, I also see that you ran into Elora; the fact that she is not here means that you managed to overcome and defeat her."

Once again, Haruko did not reply.

Nereus smirked.

"Without a doubt, I do believe that congratulations are in order; for you, defeating two of my most trusted followers is no small feat."

Blank.

This was different.

(…..What.)

"You’re going to... congratulate me for defeating your underlings."

Haruko grinned at that thought.

"I thought you would be a little more upset, angry even. Don’t tell me you're one of those leaders who doesn’t care about your followers."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Quite the opposite; I care about them deeply. It is because I do care that we have been surviving these last 5000 years.”

“Yeah, she said something like that along those lines. So, you guys really are immortal."

"No, we just live for a really long time."

Haruko frowned.

"That's pretty much the same thing."

"I guess one could come to that conclusion, but if you believe that is the sole reason we have survived this long, then you are sadly mistaken."

"What?" Haruko replied.

"Since we have been here, we have seen the beginning and end of several civilizations; entire races have become extinct. What kept us going was that everything we did was to put us in a position so that when the various failings of the world began to show themselves, we would be in a position to lead the new world."

"..To the new world, what like a doomsday cult? That plan only goes so far if I don’t stop you."

There was silence, followed by a short chuckle that came from Nereus.

"You stop me after all this time. I thought I was immune to a good laugh, but it's good to know I haven’t lost that."

Nereus looked at the teen with a serious look on his face.

"As I stated earlier, I would congratulate you for defeating Eduard and Elora, but another way you could look at it is that I will not end you for defeating both of them. I do not believe in revenge because it does not advance my goals. If you chose to challenge me, you will find very quickly that there is a huge disparity between their power and mine, one you will not, and despite your best efforts so far against those two, you will not be able to overcome."

Haruko clenched his fist.

"Do not be upset; you have done well given your position—far better than anyone would imagine, but your part in all this-"

Nereus sidestepped to the side, revealing a giant ball made of water.

"-is over."

Haruko's eyes widen when he sees what is inside the sphere.

The body of Aoi as she floated in the ball.

"AOI!" Haruko shouted out, but the girl did not respond.

"She’s alive; I can’t risk anything happening to her before the final phase of my plan."

Nereus turned his back to the teen to look at the sleeping girl floating in the sphere of water.

"Beautiful is it not, the power of the GODS." Nereus said to himself as he glanced at the necklace attached to the girl.

Nereus placed his left palm on the sphere.

"Brash, impulsive, and tend to lose all reasoning when other people are threatened—that was another thing he said about you."

Nereus turned his head back to see the teen sprinting towards him.

"But such a thing leaves you open to attack."

Under the cover of his cloak, a white sword pierced through, aiming for the teen's head.

To the teen, it was as if everything was moving in slow motion.

He could see the sword pierce through the cloak and could feel it press again against his forehead.

It felt warm to the touch.

Haruko quickly sidestepped to dodge the white sword.

Without losing any momentum, Nereus then dragged the sword across his cloak, ripping it open. He then spun around in a clockwise motion, dragging the tip of the sword across the tiled floor.

As he was dragging the sword along, he raised the sword up into the air, creating a shockwave that split open the ground, destroying the tiles in front of him.

Haruko dodged both the sword strike and the shockwave that followed by pressing against the wall that was to the right of him.

Nereus raised his right leg to kick the teen away, but Haruko swatted his leg away.

Having blocked the kick, he darted past the man in a mad attempt towards the girl in the spear.

(If this sphere is made of water, then if I can somehow wake Aoi, she could break out.)

As Haruko was banging on the sphere to wake Aoi, Nereus grabbed his neck from behind.

Nereus yanked Haruko off his feet and lifted him into the air.

Haruko was grunting as he struggled to free himself.

As if it were nothing more than a piece of trash, he flung the teen down the hall, letting his body slide across the destroyed floor, only to come to a stop when his body hit the wall.

Nereus began walking towards the sphere with the white sword breaking apart in his hand.

"Get…away…from her."

Nereus turned his head to see Haruko picking himself up and resting against the wall.

He ignored the teen and began walking to the sphere.

Haruko ran towards the man with a loud yell.

"This is getting quite annoying," Nereus said as he kept walking. Without looking back, Nereus raised his hand to Haruko.

Haruko stopped, like he could not move.

"What the hell is this?" Haruko said as his body twitched to move forward.

"That should keep you at bay for a while," Nereus said as he placed his other hand on the sphere.

"At long last."

Nereus hand twitched, which caused him to look back at the teen behind him. His eyes widen when he sees the teen slowly walking towards him.

Step by step across the damaged floor.

Once again, the white and blue vein-like pattern kept disappearing and reappearing on his skin.

His eyes were glowing a dark white blue.

He attempted to close his fingers to make a fist and crush the teen, but could not. It was as if his hand was being kept open forcefully.

(How? He shouldn’t be able to move.)

The man put more pressure in his hand to restrain the teen, but his fingers were pushed back as the teen slowly approached.

Nereus frowned as he lowered his hand to his chest.

(No, I won’t fall here; I have come too far after everything I have done.)

With a quick movement, he appeared in front of the teen, crouched over.

(What the…..?) Haruko thought as he tried to back away from the man.

Nereus raised and thrust his right palm to hit Haruko's midsection, lifting him off his feet.

As soon as his hand hit his midsection, he felt like something twisted and exploded inside of him, causing him to vomit up blood. Haruko flew off the man's arm as he blew down the hall and out of the building, creating a hole in the wall.

The force pushed the teen across several buildings, rolling across various rooftops.

There was a loud boom as Haruko crashed into a billboard that was on top of a building. The force of impact knocked the billboard back, falling on the roof of another building nearby.

The teen laid there on top of the fallen billboard, staring into the starry night sky.

His eyelids felt heavy.

He could hear footsteps approaching nearby.

The blue and white vein-like pattern slowly faded out on his skin as the teen closed his eyes and everything went black.