The ground shook violently as a burst of dominant aura filled the air, making the four Gibbits floating above wince.
Kingston and Ahara held on to the suspended ice shard Dion and Song had spawned for them, whilst the other two floated beside them, glancing below. Like a purple carpet, the Jacaranda trees falling to the ground covered the park's grounds, stopping dust from ascending.
BOOM!
A clash of what sounded like spells on elements echoed into the skies. Ahara almost jumped from the ice edge she was holding on to, peeking. But she managed to restrain herself on time. Her thigh muscles were almost done healing. Diving into the trees with weak legs would only make her a burden for Damien.
'Just a little while longer,' she muttered in her head, glancing below anxiously.
Her brother was somewhere in those falling trees, fighting forty or so rogues alone, whilst they, the adults who were supposed to be protecting him, had just run away.
"Did you communicate with the damage-repair team?" Dion called out as another blast echoed in the now half-dead park.
"Yes, they'll be here soon," Kingston replied, a line of sweat rolling down his forehead at the sight he was witnessing. "Is it just me or do you guys also feel shitty for letting the kid fight whilst we hide up here like cowards?" He asked.
He couldn't spot Damien anywhere, and when he did manage to, the boy always vanished just as quickly. It was the kind of speed Kingston knew would make the boy famous in Gibbous quickly, but only if he managed to survive the fight, that is.
Dion hummed. "Part of being a hero is knowing when to let the powerful handle the job, Kingston, and right now, that boy is the most powerful among us. I don't know how he was able to tap into the gemstone's power, but fighting next to him with that kind of aura he's emitting will only lead to our demise."
A deadly silence fell in the sky as everyone took in what the wizard had said. Then Song Kim sighed.
"It's a pity he'll die soon, though. I heard the gem draws out the life of anyone who tries to use its power, even after it grants them aura. And he just had to use the Primal Ascension spell without any knowledge of how to control it."
Another moment of silence. The three Gibbits could only look below and try to keep up with Damien's movements in his final moment of glory.
But they couldn't.
He was too fast for their eyes. God speed lighting in motion.
Ahara shook her head at the nonchalant talk of her brother's death going on around her, standing as she peeked at the distance below, the desire to jump and save Damien overpowering her more than her fear. The boys were all too chill, as if this was another sacrifice for the greater good that had to happen, but to Ahara, it was a reminder of the potential loss she was soon to face.
Their sudden, depressing talk was her wake-up call to ignore all the pain in her body and try to save Damien. Backing away, she readied herself to dive, but Kingston noticed her suspicious movement and turned to face her before she charged.
"What are you doing?" He asked, making the other two turn their heads to face Ahara.
"Diving."
"You can't."
"Watch me then," Ahara hissed back, crouching.
With a practiced angle, she charged at the edge of the ice shard, but before she could jump, her swollen ankle gave way and she slipped. Luckily, the dragon grabbed hold of her before she fell down the ice, his face immediately turning red with rage.
"What the fuck are you doing you idiot!"
"I'm trying to save my brother!" Ahara yelled back. "You said it yourself, didn't you? That he'll die soon if he keeps using the gem's power."
Song stilled in his tracks, tightly pressing his lips together as he took her leg and started massaging it. Ahara winced but continued either way.
"Are you just going to sit here and watch a young boy kill himself trying to save grown ass men who by the way, two of them are part of Gibbous' eight X-ranked heroes?" She asked, squinting her eyes at them, disappointedly.
No reply came, and Ahara rolled her eyes, pulling her leg away from Song. With a strong resolve to defy the cowards, she stood and backed away from the edge a second time.
"Again?" Kingston moved to block her path. "You are barely able to walk, Ahara. Do you have a death wish?"
Ahara glared at him. "I'd rather die than sit up here like a coward whilst my brother kills himself with magic spells he's barely trained to control, thanks to the gem I brought home with you."
Kingston rubbed his nose bridge in frustration. "And what are you going to do once you land in that sickening aura? Freeze and watch him die closely?"
"I'm going to remove the gem from his neck," Ahara flipped her braids to the side.
"No, you're not! The gem is too powerful for you to handle, but not for him."
"Out of my way, Kingston!"
"No way am I going to let you dive to your death," the werewolf rooted himself in her way.
"And yet you think I'll sit still and watch my brother kill himself because of my mistake?"
"He'll at least die a dignified hero!"
"He's my only family damnit!" Ahara bared her fangs at him.
"I can give you a new family if you just give me the chance!" Kingston fumed. Then in a more restrained voice, he cooed, "Don't dive down there, Ahara…I don't want to lose you."
A deadly silence fell in the starless sky. Song and Dion stood rooted on the shards' corners, not about to intervene in the lovers' quarrel.
Ahara lowered her head, her chest uncontrollably heaving up and down, her breath uneven. Kingston slowly strode to where she was, wrapping his hands around her, but she backed away before he could touch her.
"You can never replace blood bonds, Kingston, not even if I let you marry me," she raised her head to face him, her voice trembling, and Kingston immediately realized the weight his words carried.
With widened eyes, he tried to rectify his mistake. "N-no, I didn't mean it like that, Ahara."
But he was too late. Tears streamed out of the young woman's eyes like a flooding fountain, her rage evident in the way she was glaring at him.
"Damien and I share a relationship far stronger than bite marks and sex, Kingston. A relationship only orphans whose parents died when they were young can understand. But I guess the feeling is foreign to you since all your family is alive and well."
"Ahara..."
"Stay out of this, Dion!"
The wizard withdrew himself to the edge once again, sealing his lips shut.
Turning back to Kingston, Ahara pushed him out of the way, not bothering with trying to make a run for the dive anymore.
"This is exactly why I keep rejecting your advances. I can never choose you over Damien, ever. He's just that special to me."
Having said her last word, she dove into the purple trees below, leaving Kingston to clutch his chest and flop on the ice in frustration. Song gave him one pitiful side glance before immediately diving after Ahara.
As for Dion, he reached for the wolf, leaning just enough so they would be level.
SMACK!
He slapped Kingston right across the face to bring him to his senses.
"I know you didn't mean what you said, but that was very stupid of you. You're supposed to show her your protective side, not promise to give her a future whilst the one she cherishes is dying before her."
"I know, and I hate myself for it!" Kingston cried, pulling at his hair.
"This is not the time for self-reflection, Kingston! The woman you love is risking her life down there. How about manning up and diving after her to apologize by helping her save her brother? Sulking up here'll only make you more of an asshole."
Dion rose and extended his hand to Kingston, who paused for a moment before taking it and accepting his help up.
"And please make sure you think before speaking next time," the wizard warned him, and just like that, the two dove after the others, leaving the ice to fall like snow on the ground.
With a soft thud thanks to the trees, Kingston landed safely on the ground a few meters away from the now subsided battle. He immediately spotted Ahara kneeling on bare ground with her head hung low. Without warning, he charged in her direction.
"Wait for me," Dion called out, levitating above the trees, but the wolf was already gone.
"What happened?" He asked once he was within earshot, and Ahara turned to look at him, tears all over her face.
With a cracking heart, Kingston glanced at her lap, and his face immediately went pale. Resting on Ahara's legs was Damiens' lifeless body, blood all over it as the gem rested casually on his chest.
He didn't need another word from her before he shifted into a large black Alpha wolf and started barking commands.
"Put him on my back and open a portal to the hospital."
"We're taking him to Gibbous?" Came the dragon's breathless voice from above. It didn't take a genius to figure he had been lost.
"That's the best option considering how deep and strange his wounds are," Dion answered him, already assisting Ahara and the boy. "You sit on Kingston's back, too."
Ahara glared at the wizard but followed his instruction for Damien's sake. Without wasting any more time, Dion immediately opened a portal in front of the wolf, and he sprinted into it, leaving it to disappear almost immediately.
Once they were alone, Song immediately started patrolling the area for any surviving rogues that might cause problems later.
The ground was now but a desolate desert. Trees had fallen. The swings were nowhere to be seen, and neither were most of the rogues he was looking for. They had caused damage before, but Damien had destroyed the place like a killing machine. A one-man massacre of rogues.
'Just like his father,' the dragon shuddered.
He hadn't witnessed the boy fight, but from the looks of things, that fight had definitely been scary as hell.
Just then, a portal opened in mid-air, revealing the damage-repairing team in their numbers, whose eyes also widened at the damage below.
Song chuckled at the looks on their faces, flapping his majestic wings in their direction. However, as he was rising, he froze in his tracks.
He thought he sensed a whiff of the wizard rogue who had been leading the enemy a while ago, but it disappeared just as quickly.
'Probably the remnants of his dissected pieces,' he thought to himself, continuing with his journey towards the repair team.
Little did he notice that the rogue was indeed alive.
Barely.
But enough to escape from the massacre after Damien sent a wave of flying blood sickles at his team, butchered them in their entirety, and removed Kaos's right arm on a whim.
The rogue hadn't waited to see what would happen next as his instincts kept screaming in his head louder this time:
"Escape!"