章 15: Contract

After hearing an explosion, Arthur, who was still suspended in the same place with tears in his eyes, looked to the side and saw a purple mist turning into lightning and giant purple fireballs colliding with pillars of white flames, explosions sounding intermittently while Buildings and vehicles were ripped apart and flung great distances; people were already far from the scene at the time, but the repercussions still ended up claiming the lives of dozens of unlucky people who were caught by the debris flying at high speed or even by the simple illation of their attacks, which was enough to kill the weakest people in the vicinity. However, despite the fantastic fight taking place next to him, Arthur didn't care one bit about this scene worthy of being a premium scene in any movie of the time, his eyes staring at his mother were filled with tears; in Arthur's eyes a scene that could be described as beautiful and tragic at the same time was reflected, there were pillars of ice that were half melted everywhere causing a dazzling effect when the lights coming from the battle taking place not far away were reflected, the broken and melted pillars covered the entire road and extended to a car that was wrapped in ice off the road, next to the car covered in ice was a woman leaning on a pillar of ice full of cracks and with much of it melted, She stared at the car for a few moments before turning her gaze in the direction where the fight was taking place, looking at the intensity of the combat she shook her head with a self-mocking smile before forcing her wounded and exhausted body to walk to the car, even though the distance was only a few meters she had to struggle to take each of her steps, and each one brought a grimace to her beautiful face. When the woman was facing the car, she put her hand on the ice that covered the car and then exhaled, as a white mist came out of her mouth the ice in the car evaporated until there was nothing left, after removing the ice the woman fell to her knees on the ground, a heap of blood and saliva came out of her mouth and at that moment her legs began to freeze, panting she trying to force herself to hold back the tears and screams that were stuck in her throat at the moment, she watched the ice slowly expand under her body, the woman just let out a laugh as her eyes glistened from the accumulation of tears.

After allowing some of her tears to flow, she steadied her trembling hands on the door and guided her children, Arthur, and Sophie, out of the car. After wiping the tears from her eyes and calming herself, she placed her hand on Arthur's forehead to wake him up.

- Huh? Mom? - As soon as she woke him up, the boy instinctively tried to get up, but he felt a strong dizziness before his head throbbed, thanks to which he couldn't help but close his eyes in pain; Before Arthur could recover, he felt his arms being opened and something being placed on them. Startled, Arthur opened his eyes and saw his little sister in his arms, who strangely had a frozen belly and was a little chilled. He also saw his mother's hands supporting his hands. Arthur didn't understand what was happening and looked at his mother with an anxious expression and asked. - Mom, what's going on? Why is Sophie freezing? - Arthur asked this as he stared at Sophie with concern, he watched her for a few moments until he realized that apart from the fact that she was extremely cold at the moment there was nothing else that caught his attention apart from the half-red ice on her belly, he even managed to notice how she seemed to be sleeping calmly and calming down he turned his gaze to his mother, but before he saw his mother he heard a loud explosion which was followed by a strong gale that almost made him lose his balance, after a while the wind died down and Arthur who was hugging his sister tightly looked in the direction of the explosion; he was instantly paralyzed as his gaze followed the deafening sounds, in his vision he could see countless white snakes spitting flames and purple rays that formed images of random animals that passed through the flames expelled by the snakes and became entangled with them, as well as countless animals formed by energy he could also see white pillars colliding with pillars of mist and amethyst-colored rays that generated huge explosions. Arthur was trembling as he tightened his grip on your little sister, even though the little boy was a considerable distance away he still found it difficult to breathe because of the dry air and began to gasp; As he tried to catch his breath, another explosion occurred, but it was bigger than the previous ones and several pieces of debris and vehicles were thrown far away. Paralyzed with fear Arthur saw part of a burning car coming towards him with some more debris, he wanted to run, he knew he had to get out of that place, but unfortunately for him his trembling legs wouldn't follow his will and he was forced to stay in place and watch various pieces of debris engulfed in white flames approaching, then he curled up hugging his little sister tightly and closed his eyes.

In the next instant Arthur heard a loud bang, followed by a loud explosion that made him clench his eyelids tighter as if he was preparing for the pain that would follow, but the pain he was expecting didn't come, after several seconds with his eyes closed Arthur realized that something was wrong and this became clearer the moment he felt something fall on his face, it looked like someone had thrown some water on his face, which left him perplexed. After pondering for a few moments, Arthur decided to open his eyes and find out what was going on despite his fear. Opening his eyes, he first looked at his sister, he saw her wavy hair, which was now dirty with blood and then he saw the same blood on her shirt and realized that it extended to her face. Still looking down, Arthur saw a pool of blood under his mother's legs and tears began to fall from her eyes. Arthur didn't have the courage to raise his face and just asked in a trembling voice. – Mother? - Arthur waited for an answer for a long time. The once dazzling fight had begun to subside, but he still couldn't stop shaking. Now, he didn't have the courage to look at his mother and could only hold his sister while waiting for a response; His tears kept flowing down his face and some even landed on his little sister's face, whom he was holding protectively. Arthur was feeling completely desperate and unsure of what to do, but in the next moment, his despair was greatly relieved when he finally heard his mother's breathless voice. - Arthur... Take your sister to the first drone you find... - Beatriz did her best to make her voice sound normal now, but unfortunately that was impossible, not only did her voice sound weak and show how much pain she was in, but she also had to make a huge effort just to say those words. Upon hearing his mother's voice, Arthur noticed her labored and irregular breathing, and turned his gaze towards her. As he saw her, he found himself unable to hold back his tears, and uncontrollable sobs escaped from him. Beatriz had a part of a car door going through her stomach and almost splitting her in half, the cut was so deep that no doubt her spine had been damaged and possibly making her an invalid, not that it mattered at the moment, looking around her it was possible to see a small pool of blood that came out of the huge wound that caught Arthur's attention, after a few moments Arthur's attention went to his mother's now extremely pale face, the only color on her face apart from her still bright eyes was a small red line running from her lips, in addition there was also a huge wall of ice behind her which seemed to originate from her left hand which was inside the wall at the moment. Arthur stared in shock at his mother and couldn't utter a single word at the moment, he couldn't even think what he should do at the moment; silence lingered where only Arthur's sobs could be heard, and it took a few seconds for Beatrice to finally move, trying hard not to show any grimace to her little boy she struggled to move her right hand, her hand went behind him and putting some force against his back as she pulled him giving him a big hug with Sophie in the middle of the two, tears flowed from her eyes without stopping as she spoke in the most caring and gentle voice she could muster at the moment. - Arthur, you need to take your sister with you and look for a drone... ask him for help, Sophie has hurt herself a bit and needs a doctor. - She paused for a moment to take a breath, but thanks to her irregular breathing, she was unable to continue before Arthur began to speak amid crying. - Mo... Mom, I'm taking you too... I'll drag you along to the drone too! - Arthur said this as tears fell incessantly, and snot mixed with the small amount of blood dripping from his nose, making him look pitiful, as he cried, he noticed that the hug loosened, and soon afterwards he was gently pushed back; in the vision his mother's face then appeared, wearing a beautiful smile as she looked at the little boy with tenderness and love. In a voice filled with affection and kindness, she spoke. - Arthur, you told me you were all grown up, right? - She paused as she stared at her son, she then wiped the blood from her lips with the sleeve of her blouse and kissed Sophie's forehead and then Arthur's; Arthur was confused, but before he could understand anything he was pulled into a hug again, but this time the hug was stronger as if trying to imprint the feeling in his mind, soon he also felt his mother's tears falling on the back of his neck and heard his mother's crying voice. - I'm sorry Arthur, but you're going to have to be a little adult now, Sophie needs you... I'm sorry... I'm really sorry...

For a few moments, it was as if the explosions of the nearby fight didn't exist, and only the crying of the two could be heard; it took a little over a minute for Beatriz's hands to finally loosen, and after another kiss on his cheek she asked him to run to a drone and ask for help. Looking at his sister who had ice blocking the blood from a wound in her abdomen, he decided to run.

"This is already the second chapter where the last paragraph has disappeared when viewed on cell phones. To avoid this, I've decided to duplicate this message at the end of each chapter, hoping it will resolve the issue. If you're reading this, I apologize if it's intrusive, but it's a better solution than leaving the chapter incomplete."