POV: Akir

Seeing how I was staying quiet, the boy, who seemed to be about 14 years old, continued speaking, "You really can't do anything right. It's time to bury you."

"You... wha—" I tried to say something.

"Shut up!" the boy yelled furiously, but then returned to normal the next second. "I don't get you guys. You always mess things up and rely on me for everything, but when things get ugly, you point your finger at me. I'm sick of it. "

I looked at the boy, unable to think of anything to say or do. It didn't feel like I could even do anything. It was like listening to the boy ramble about incomprehensible things consumed all my brain power.

"What are you doing?!" the boy yelled at me. "Let's start!"

I instinctually backed up as the boy approached me, but once I couldn't go backwards anymore because of the wall behind me, the boy stopped as well.

"Who are you?" I managed to utter.

"What? You know who I am. I'm the one that is going to get us out of this mess."

"What mess?"

"The one he got us into," the boy responded, pointing to my left.

I then turned my head to the left, and there I found a child about 10 years old with an innocent gaze and black hair that covered his forehead.

"What?" the boy said faintly. "I didn't... What are you talking about? It was you. You started all of this."

"No, I was forced to solve all the issues your incompetence put us in!" the older boy yelled as he started approaching the younger boy. "If it wasn't for you, none of us would have had to suffer!" he yelled and pushed the other boy after getting into arm's reach.

After getting pushed down, the boy didn't make any attempt to get up. He knew he'd get pushed down again if he gathered the courage to stand, so he didn't even try.

"I hate you," the younger boy whispered under his breath in a cowardly manner.

Unfortunately for him, the older boy heard it, and immediately mounted the boy in anger.

"You should be thanking me!" he yelled as he rained down punches on the young child that was covering up fearfully.

I watched the scene indifferently, knowing full well that this was just some sort of illusion that this ruin was trying to get me to react to.

Eventually, the smaller child's guard broke, and the punches started connecting clearly. The child was already bleeding from his nose, and the elbow strikes the older child was utilizing would surely open some cuts elsewhere on his face in due time.

I had had enough.

"Stop it!" I ordered as I rushed up to the children and separated the two.

The older child tried resisting, prompting me to push him to the other side of the room. I then sat the other boy against a wall as he started to weep while wiping his eyes with his hand, which was already bloody from him having wiped his nose with it.

Then I rubbed my forehead as I squeezed my eyes shut. I seriously needed some sleep.

I looked at the older boy, who had sat down with a pondering look on his face as he looked at the younger boy, and realized that I had done exactly what the ruin wanted.

With the taste of defeat in my mouth, I walked back to where I had been before interfering with the fight and lied down.

What a waste of energy that whole thing was.

Even though I felt like I would pass out any second, my body refused to let me sleep. This ruin was like a sick prank, resembling what babies do to their mothers.

Eventually, the older child got enough of the weeping noise made by the young boy and snapped. "Shut up!"

I didn't mind his yell, to be honest. I was tired of hearing it as well, but I had the feeling that yelling at the crybaby wasn't going to do anything. And just like I predicted, the weeping stopped for a moment after the yell but continued not long after.

"Argh," the older boy made such a sound and stood up.

I sat up and spoke monotonously as I glared at the teenage boy intimidatingly. He locked eyes with me and didn't budge. Nevertheless, he still abandoned the idea of beating the child up again. At least it seemed like that until he opened his mouth.

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"You really want to keep that brat alive just so that he can keep causing us trouble? What's your deal? Don't you ever want to escape this place?" the boy said with an annoyed glare.

"How can a child like you talk about death like that?" I asked in an indifferent but curious manner. "Besides, how would getting rid of him help us?"

"If it's not my life that's at play, then why shouldn't I talk about it like it has any value? And it surely wouldn't hinder us to get rid of him, so why keep him around?"

I looked at the younger boy briefly. He was still weeping and seemed to be unaware of our chat that concerned his life. Or maybe he just didn't care.

I then looked back at the teenager, who seemed to expect me to follow his will.

Unfortunately for him, I opened my mouth with the intention of bursting his bubble. "Go sit in that corner, kid. Think a bit about other people for once. You can't just go around beating up people and then trying to kill them because the noises they make are annoying."

The teen looked shocked for a bit and then firmed his gaze, so I decided to enforce my command a little. I walked over to the child, and before he could react, I took a hold of his throat. He tried freeing himself, but I nullified his efforts with just a little squeeze.

His expression grew into one of fear, and for just a second, he seemed like just a normal child. But then he gritted his teeth and dug his nails into my arm with a furious look in his eyes. I decided to let him go and threw him to the side. "Do as I said."

This time, the child obeyed. It seemed like, even with his rotten psyche, he was able to recognize when someone was more capable than him.

Considering the problem to have been resolved for good, I walked back where I had been before and lied down once again, and for quite some time there were no disturbances. All peaceful moments had to end eventually, however, and this moment was no different.

I rose up quickly, reacting to some noise made by the older child, and before I managed to reach the children, the teenage boy had snapped the neck of the fragile child with a quick and ruthless movement.

I stopped in my tracks as I saw the limp corpse of the child slump down on the ground and stared at it for a while. Then, I slowly turned my head to look at the teenage boy. He seemed nonchalant about the whole thing, like he was just a witness to a small accident.

"Well, that's done now," he said with a shrug.

I clenched my teeth and dashed forward, summoning my dagger in the process. I made it into striking distance almost immediately, after which I sliced my target's throat open.

He looked at me with surprised eyes for a few moments before collapsing. Had he thought that I wouldn't kill him for his deeds?

I looked at the corpse bleeding all over the dark floor of the room with eyes filled with disgust and shivered a little before canceling the summoning of my dagger and burying my face in my hands.

I stayed like that until I noticed something weird. There was no smell. The rusty smell a pool of blood usually gives off hadn't, for some reason, enveloped the room. I lowered my hands and opened my eyes curiously to discover that both dead bodies were gone.

"Huh?" I let out such a sound, unable to comprehend the situation.

"You're more ruthless than I gave you credit for," the familiar voice of the teenage boy came from behind me.

I turned quickly and found that the voice belonged to exactly the person I had thought it belonged to. However, I couldn't find the younger child anywhere.

"How are you alive?" I asked after switching my focus to what mattered most.

"You can't just kill me. I'm a part of you," the boy said with a laugh.

"Then what about the other kid?" I asked, even though I wasn't satisfied with the earlier answer.

"Oh, he's dead for good," the boy said, revealing a smile while keeping his eyes wide open in a crazed manner. "It's only me and you now."