"Rargh!"

"Hey, what's with that scream?" The old man dodged the attack all too easily, "You pretending to be a super hero or something?"

"Argh! Ngah! Wragh!"

"Ooh, nearly! But you need to be faster to get m-!"

"Stop moving." Lem Commanded to finally get a hit in, "Let me hit you. Don't fight back. Forget why you were here."

Completely discombobulating his opponent with his Command, Lem had effectively shown that he was the one man in this world who knew how to fully utilize his Iro Ability. As to be expected from someone who knew it from a very young age, the Iro Ability that he had been stuck with his entire life. Unlike Lune or Meil, who both had mutliple Iros throughout their lives and thus could disperse their uses for them across all their Beheld colors, Lem was restricted to but only Yellow.

"Wuh-!? What's going on-? Schnell, Shaid?" The old man looked lost before getting punched in the gut.

"Fall and croak where you stand." Lem raised his leg high into the sky, smacking the back of the old man's head with his heel.

A bandit born and raised by savages, reborn as a youthful genius had proven to the world where he truly stood amongst the masses. The apex of humanity, the leader of the tribe, Lem had it all—Fighting experience, street and book smarts, and a profound use of his Yellow Iro. This old man failed to be wary against someone he had assumed to be nothing but a lowly tyke, and that was exactly what was costing him in this fight. Lem had the upper hand from start to finish, or at least that's what should've happened...

"Haah, haah..." Lem panted as he spat on the old man's dead body, "Phew. Nel's never gonna believe me, but it'll definitely give me some brownie points, I think."

Looking around the room to make sure no other assailants were about to ambush them, he had picked up his backpack and began walking up the stairs. Nelly's room was far down the hallway, presumably assigned as such so that Meil could squeeze out the most time possible while someone like this old man was searching for her. Recalling the White haired man left Lem with a bitter aftertaste. After all, isn't he supposed to be the one protecting Nelly? If so, what's going on?

"Why in the world were you going for her, hm?" Lem peeked around the corner at the disheveled carcass one last time, only to notice a slight twitch from his little finger, "Crap!"

The old man was somehow alive, in spite of being Commanded to die after such a brutal flurry of attacks. Lem ran back to finish the job with all his might, but with the extra baggage from the backpack, he had been just a split second too late. As he primed his leg for another springy kick to the face, the old man had disappeared without a trace.

"Tch, damn!" Lem looked around, contemplating whether to toss his backpack away or not in such a dangerous situation, "Gonna hide away like a coward!? Or did you get the hint and run away like a girl!?"

"Heh, I ran away." The old man's voice mocked him, "Hey, that's a nifty skill you got there. I'm impressed by the youth, after all. You pack a strong punch for such a tiny body. Tell me, you a dwarf by any means?"

"I just haven't hit my growth spurt yet, jackass!"

"Whoa, it was just an honest question, no need to be so rude." The old man wheezed, still hidden from Lem's field of view, "In any case, your Eyes glew Yellow. I've seen this before, you tell someone what to do and they're forced to listen, right? Man, the things I'd do to all the girls of the world if I had that..."

"Thankfully, you don't have a Yellow Iro." Lem groaned, "Now come on out! Fight me like a man-!"

Not a second later, he saw a light. It was a brief, angelic and serene light, but Lem saw it nonetheless. Within that light stood Nelly, along with Cene, Lune, Lee, Kevin, and all his other close friends and family. Without a doubt, Lem thought, I died and got sent straight to Heaven. But then the light went out, and he was brought back to his senses. He was plastered on the wall next to the main entrance, his body in shambles and aching everywhere. This was definitely going to leave behind some complications later in life, but at least he's not dead.

"Whoa, you lived through that!?" The old man's bushy Eyebrows raised all the way up to his hairline, that is, if he had one, "Well, thank those heavy books you carried in that backpack of yours. They cushioned the shiet out of my blows."

"Hrngh...!" Lem held back tears as he tightly clenched his wounds, "Gggrrreaaaaaghhh!"

"Resorting to screaming again? Well, can't blame ya', this time it actually makes sense, cause you're in a whole deal of pain."

"Lee, get your ass over here!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Dad! Pop-pop, whatever the fuck you want me to call you! Wake the fuck up and help me!"

It was a shameless call for help from a son to his father. A young man his age was expected to solve all his issues by himself, without the aid of the adults around him. After all, a man needed to know how to deal with his own life before asking for a girl to share it with. Even still, he didn't care. If it meant surviving this ordeal, Lem would even throw away his pride just so he could see his reliable old man pop into the scene and kill this guy with ease somehow. Not even to survive it himself, Lem just wanted to make sure there was someone coming to save Nelly from him.

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"Hey, can't have that." The old man speedwalked to the wall and grabbed his shirt, "You really should shut up. You're embarrassing yourself."

With a flick of the shoulder, the old man singlehandedly launched Lem off of one wall and into the opposing staircase, all the way across the room. Lem had failed to kill the Seventh World Wonder.

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***

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Just then, when he was about ready to close his Eyes and return to the Heavenly realm...

"Lem!" Nelly shouted from the top of the staircase.

"Ah, the hell are you doing here, idiot?" Lem thought, for his mouth could no longer produce sound, "You should've at least sneaked off somehow while I had him distracted."

"Where is he!?" Nelly shouted at the old man.

"So she's dumb AND blind." Lem chuckled to himself, "Ah, but I guess it makes sense she can't see me. As always, I'm right under her nose, yet I'm invisible..."

"Ne...lly..." Lem grit his teeth and spoke through the pain, "Run...!"

"Lem!" Nelly shouted, "No! I need to save you! I-I've got a gun right here, see!? I can shoot him and get you medical help-!"

"Dammit, she's not listening at all. What good would a gun do if this geezer-no, this thing survived getting its face smashed into the hard marble floor?" Lem's Eyes flickered Purple as he continued to overexert himself for her, "Not yet...n Not until she's... safe! Gotta tell her!"

"You'll... die..." Were the only words he could muster the strength to speak.

The sentence was vague and incomplete. It didn't give her any insight into what kind of threat they were dealing with, and for all she knew it could have just been Lem trying to belittle her. Even still, it was the truth, no matter how much he didn't want to believe it. Besides, Nelly is a clean girl, someone who in his Eyes at least had never sinned. There was no way she could ever bring herself to pull the trigger on the old man.

"Bang!" Said the gun, its muzzle flashing brightly as the bullet whizzed by and got a bullseye in the old man's noggin.

"W-What...?" Lem's mind couldn't comprehend this, "She... killed him? Is this for real? Did he seriously die from that when he survived my flurry? Am I just... weak, compared to a gun? No, the gun is just too overpowered."

Nelly, without any risk of sustaining damage herself, had easily dealt with the threat Lem had practically lost his life to. In the end, all he could do was chuckle as she threw the gun away and inspected his wounds. Chances are Lem was gonna die in the hospital a few days from now at best. The damage was too severe, but he at least wanted to say he died in the arms of his lover. A sudden confession from her would really lift his spirits, but he was probably asking for too much. Just then, out of the corner of his Eye, Lem had spotted the old man getting up again without a hitch and walking behind Nelly. Even with one foot firmly planted in the grave, he could not rest just yet.

"Grah!" Lem pushed her away from the old man, "You fucking bastard!!!"

The old man, cracking his neck with the bleeding bullet hole still in his forehead, had risen from the dead a second time. There was no saving them now. The best Nelly could do was run away, but the chances of her staying here to try and protect Lem were high too. He needs to say something to convince her to go, something that'll give her the hope he could not. And that's when it hit him, the sad reality that even he didn't want to admit.

"Go find Meil!" He bit his tongue, "He'll know what to d-!"

"Shut it!" The old man kicked him in the face.

And that was that. Lem could no longer participate in the conversation, even as a listener, much less the overall battle. From here on, he thought as his consciousness waded, it was all up to Nelly. He couldn't know what she did after that, what the old man did, since he was already knocked out cold. For any regular human, their life would have ended right then and there, but Lem wasn't ordinary. The apex of humanity, the leader of the tribe, had still held on for dear life, refusing the temptations of Heaven. Even if he woke up again, his bones were in shambles, and his mind wasn't there at all. He wouldn't have been able to do a thing for her, and yet, he couldn't bring himself to give up hope. Nelly was the one girl, the one person he could spend the rest of his life with smiling together. She was his everything, and in his Eyes, not even death would part them.

A few minutes later, the sharp pain of being lifted up had awoken him. His Eyes shot open to find a sleeping Nelly mere centimeters away from his face. At first, he assumed he had already died and went to Heaven, but he soon understood that the situation was much worse. Nelly wasn't sleeping peacefully, she was knocked unconscious. They weren't waking up in the same bed together, they were both being carried on the old man's shoulders to Gods know where. Lem wanted to wriggle free, to shout at the top of his lungs for help from someone who might have been passing by, but nothing worked. He saw what was going on, but he could do nothing to stop it from happening. So, he gave in. His body went limp, and with a delirious yet hopeless smile, he brought his forehead to Nelly's. The reason behind this action is unknown even to him, but he felt that was the best he could do to tell her in that moment "We'll get out of this somehow". For now, though, it was time for him to go back to sleep...