章節 61: Hyperbola (Ⅲ)

"Sor..." I paused. Genuinely apologising, even if it was my fault, felt strange. It sounds pretentious to even think about and makes me think if I am any different than Michael. But at the same time, why should I apologise?

Right and wrong deeds do not exist. It's a matter of perspective.

Right?

Even so...I felt like...

"I am sorry." The apology came out as naturally as breathing from my lips. I had expected it to fall flat. Worsening...straining our uncustomary relationship. But it wasn't exactly like that. And the undertone to it surprised even me.

With her forehead touching my chest and the rest of her body powerlessly sagging backwards, she moved once, sniffling and then wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Before I knew it, she removed her head and then with as much force as she could, struck it back into my chest.

"Ouc..."

Well, that hurts.

I sometimes forget she's just a child.

"Like hell I'd accept your...cough, cough...apology..." She cried out but her voice creaked making the whole situation more sardonic than serious.

"Fair enough." I replied.

An expression of pure disbelief appeared on her face. "HAHHH!? What do you mean, fair enough???"

"I would've opened a dictionary, but I broke my pho..."

"That's not what I mean!"

Oh! She's talking about why I said that.

"Well, I am acknowledging the lack of acknowledgement of my apology." I tried to explain. "A mere sorry won't change the trauma you have experienced or the things you had to see."

She scowled. "I..." She paused. She tucked her hair behind both her ears since she had lost her hair pin and was now just loosely resting on her shoulders. And despite the mud stains and the aftereffects of continuous exposure to lack of sleep and close calls with death, she looked just as beautiful as ever. "I died, Arthur. So many times...It's not just about what I saw..." Her voice took a soft edge, as if she was reliving everything again and again in her mind.

"Well, you are still breathing."

"Seriously?"

"Uhhh..." I most likely should not have said that.

"Geez..." She wiped the dried trails of tears from her eyes and shook her head.

Before she could talk, I spoke again. Even though I didn't mean to. "It would be understandable if you want to quit...after all this. I have been treating you as an expendable commodity until now. So, it's natural."

Why would I say that? I couldn't tell myself. Her mind was blank and there was no thought swirling in it. In this vulnerable state I could somewhat peer into it and know what she was thinking.

But something stopped me. Was it my conscience?

Do I even have one?

Her brows arched upwards. "Quit..." she savoured the word, and then looked up at me with a frown, "...and then what? Who do I have left other than you, Arthur?"

Ah...yeah. Perhaps I forgot midway. Perhaps I got attached.

Wasn't it like this since the start? It's just how I had constructed our relationship to be. A transactional relationship.

Empathy had no place in it. It didn't deserve to be there.

"True." I replied. "Sorry for assuming."

She looked down, biting the inside of her cheek. Disregarding my own revulsion to any form of physical—skin to skin—touch, I placed my hand over her face. It was burning, a colour of red extending from one ear to another.

"If things don't go south everything is going to get sorted today. So, don't worry any further." It felt quite bitter to talk to her like this.

She looked at me with a confused look, staring intently for a good few minutes. As a strong gust of wind blew bent the trees in our direction, she blinked her eyes a few times before nodding. "Good to hear that."

"Yeah."

I replied and then turned away from her. It's for the best.

The shadow of thinly lined trees around us was suddenly absorbed into a peculiar shadow as I looked up. Through the canopy of skeletal branches, a bizarre shape loomed overhead—a shadow that defied the norm of the ones I had seen.

My mind dismissed it as a mere illusion, instinctively, but as I stared harder, I remembered the complexity of the inside of Technique Deployments.

My mind struggled to understand it, like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. The turning shadow wasn't flat. It felt alive... like me and Astrid. Just...colourless.

As I looked up once again, I spotted the Tesseract, visibly shaken and scarred. Cracks ran all along its edgeless body.

Crimson lightning flickered and crackled, sending arcs of red energy from the crevices in the right half and the other half had multiple protrusions—skeletal structure, with bone-like branches jutting out, white and eerie against the evenly bright sky.

I was about to turn around towards Astrid but at the same time the air was almost electrified by the sheer force of their conflict.

As I watched, a crack appeared in the tesseract, a jagged line that split it in two. The sound was sharp, like the snapping of a giant branch, and it echoed through the forest, making me coat my body in a thick sheen of Arcanum. Astrid did the same, but just to be safe, I manifested a small dome of electric and magnetic field around both of us.

The tesseract shattered, its pieces scattering like shards of glass in every direction.

From the epicentre of the explosion, two figures emerged.

My father, Aksel, had a small cut that extended from his left brow and stopped parallel to the base of his nose. Meanwhile Jayden was pretty much unharmed, but the few Wujins and other monsters all crumbled to dust as the tesseract shattered.

The two of them floated in the air for a brief second and then Jayden said something. Following that, the two of them landed on the ground while sending a huge wave of dust in every direction.

Even from here, I could tell that Jayden's Arcanum had dwindled to an extent that even Astrid held more Arcanum than him at this very specific moment.

"Stay here." I looked over my shoulder and readied myself to sprint in their direction.

However, she suddenly gripped my hand. "You haven't misunderstood anything I said...right?"

Her forehead was creased upwards, worry and many more emotions flashing like a face-paced slideshow in her pale blue eyes. They were mesmerising, but I was reminded of something. There were limits that shouldn't be crossed. A line, I reminded myself, to not cross. To never get ahead of myself.

Slowly slipping my wrist away from her grasp, I looked away at the buildup of the Arcanum in the form of a hurricane. "Don't worry... I haven't."

She didn't reply...or perhaps, even if she did, I didn't hear it. I was gone before she could blink or think over it.

My situation didn't bestow the luxury of pondering over such things. Not now. Not until I had achieved my ambition.

A grand ambition, in my eyes at the very least.

As I reached the area where the two had landed, my feet came to a screeching halt.

The two of them were standing face-to-face, their breathing heavy, their bodies marked with signs of the nigh cataclysmic clash which would've levelled the mountains here if they didn't fight in that enclosed place.

On the contrary, much to my own surprise, there was a strange calm between them. My father was holding back a delighted smile. Something Jayden, the supposed Lord of Demons, didn't have the decency of as he showcased his somewhat unscrupulous smirk on full display.

"I haven't had this much fun since my wife!" Jayden exclaimed.

Excuse me? What were these two doing inside? 😭

"I could say the same!" Aksel boomed with the same fervour.

Hmm. Well, who am I to judge? But doing something so indecent with your opponent mid fight. How wei--

"My wife almost killed me when we first sparred. After that no one except her was able to challenge me this much!"

"Hmph! I had a nigh similar experience!"

Uhhh...

Aksel looked in my direction.

"Oh, Arthur." He let out a laugh. "I think we can negotiate with this guy. What do you say?"

This man can't be serious. The urge to facepalm rose in me.

I was about to talk when suddenly Jayden interrupted me.

"I am ready to discuss on equal terms. After exchanging blows with your father, I think it was unwise of me to think otherwise."

It was suspicious. Really suspicious.

Once again, before I could talk, a mountain in the far distance rumbled. As we all turned our heads in its direction, I saw a white-haired boy, his body lodged like a starfish into the mountain's thick surface as a giant crater formed behind him.

His once blazing Arcanum signature suddenly fluctuated before fizzling out. Ed took a step forward and placed his hands over his shoulders. Like peeling a flattened, baked cookie from a baking parchment, Ed yanked his twitching body. The space around him cracked as Nightcrackle appeared in his hands.

Just as he was about to swing his sword at Michael's arm, he suddenly turned and caught the blade with his bare hand.

Ed's eyes widened as Michael smirked at him.

"About time." A wave of dread filled the entire battlefield as an unbottled amount of Arcanum flooded out of Michael. Like an overflowing chasm. As he gripped his fingers around the sword tightly, visible cracks began to run all along it.

"Phase 1: Decons—-"

Before he could chant, Aksel flicked his finger and a bolt of lightning shot towards the two. Both Ed and Michael's senses flared outwards as they pushed each other, The bolt cleaved the space between them and a around 3 feet wide crevice formed in the ground.

Both of them looked in our direction. A mild look of panic appeared on Michael's face as he saw my father standing side-by-side with Jayden. Someone he was supposed to beat.

It was a justified reaction. Since The Seven Syndicates have always been at each other's throats. That is more-so the case for us—Whites and Olvasens. The history is filled with people in our families going against each other and causing cataclysms in different parts of the world.

Now that he was all alone, he was bound to feel some kind of panic or hopelessness. As a matter of fact I would be surprised if he didn't react in any way.

Jayden waved his hand and brought middle finger towards his lips which had a peculiar ring over it. "Do not engage in further combat, Ed Vorlith. That is an order."

The voice, unhurried and as dignified as ever, came immediately afterwards. "Yes, my lord."

My father, Aksel, pulled his arm as he spoke as well. "Come here as well, Michael. No need to fight anymore."

I could almost hear Michael swear.

"Understood, Mr. Olvasen." The subdued undertone of respect felt forced, but I couldn't blame him, at all. I would be the same.

I guess.

As Ed and Michael began to walk in our direction, keeping a safe distance from each other, my father turned towards me.

"That man seems strong. I can't see how you did not want to go against him." He paused, his olive eyes trailing against the wounds on my body. "It's not like you to go against mindless beasts and then straight up against someone who you have no chance against. What's up?"

It would seem like my father's brain is indeed capable of critical thinking. Or basic observation.

"I had my reasons." I replied. I could reveal my observation of Michael's Divine Covenant. This was crucial information as this would explain the approach taken by the Whites for generations. However…I had no real reason to do so.

My own family was just as much of my enemy as the Whites. I was not bound to do favours to the Olvasens.

I pointed my finger at Jayden. "Long story short, because he wanted to talk to me, I couldn't grasp on a chance to fight Ed."

"Oh. Alright, that makes sense."

As we were talking, Jayden suddenly clasped his hands together and turned towards me. "Putting that aside, let us depart immediately."

"Depart?" I raised a brow at Aksel, rather than Jayden.

"We are going to his domain." Aksel remarked as he looked up at the sky. "Until the Frontier completely opens. For negotiations."

It would be several days on Earth. With even Aksel gone, it is possible that others might either come here…which is less likely, or…they can attack our house in Bergen.

It didn't really irk me. If anything, I could be liberated from that woman. Yet, somehow…that house itself…

It feels like there is still a part of me. Buried deep underneath the layers of soil, sediments…underneath the hidden chambers. A part of what made me…me. A human.

The sound of Astrid catching up to us made me shake my head as I got rid of the rather philosophical thoughts.

"Ah, you." Aksel pointed at Astrid behind me. "Good job leaving the small gap open for me. I knew I could depend on you."

I turned around to face Astrid. "What small gap?"

"Uhh…I made sure that the rift I entered through would be closed once I go inside."

A realisation dawned on me. It was opening. Like a flower blooming from its epicentre, the dome of Frontier was about to break. The first place to get merged. It was about to…

"If you want to do negotiations, you better hurry up." I spoke up as even Michael and Ed caught up to us and stood a few metres away.

Pointing up at the sky, I spoke as everyone's eyes widened. "The Frontier is about to break. And since it follows Earthen time...we might only have a few hours. A day at maximum." I declared as Jayden frowned.

"Then let's make haste. We shall immediately leave for Lawold." He smiled brightly as he extended his arms to the side in a welcoming gesture. "The City of the Lost Moon."