Chapter 9: Return

Once the pain had stopped, it felt like every inch of his body was invigorated. It was an odd sensation. Each and every cell in his body was vibrant and coursing with energy.

As he stood, the muscles in his body surged upwards and sent him jumping several meters in the air. This threw him off guard. When he had looked down, the buildings were well below his feet. “Huh-..what the hell?!” He found himself panicking, grabbing at the skies while falling down. His screams were drowned out only by the sound of the wind scurrying beneath him. Just as he held his breath, thinking he was gonna die, BOOM!

The impact occurred, and he collided with the earth, leaving behind a crater on the ground. His eyes darted around, and he realized that everyone was looking at him. The motion of the crowd had stopped to turn towards the loud noise. Meeting the gazes of so many, Ora frantically scurried off. “What…in the world was that?” He clutched onto his head.

“Perhaps I’m going insane…I don’t know..ugh..” he held onto his head and kept running. He needed to get out of here first and foremost. Go back to the eastern slums. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Before long, he found himself back at his familiar homes.

“OY! ORA!”

Who was that? The voice sounded familiar but he couldn’t put a finger on it. Ah…Alel.

Alel ran up to him, panting. “Hey..have you seen…have you seen Amai. They’re saying you and her left with 3 adventurers to look for Aries.”

She stroked her jet-black hair. “So since you’re back, they’re following closely by behind you, right?”

A pained expression took over Ora’s already fatigued face and he shook his head. “N-no….Amai, Lynx-“ The next words failed to come out of his mouth despite his lips speaking.

“Hey…a-are you okay?” She rested a hand on lynx shoulder. The warm sensation on Lynx shoulder was only turning hotter and hotter to the point that steam was starting to come from it. Alel, Lin, and Rel were the three oldest plague children.

They were also the only 3 to hold substantial relics. Subconsciously, Alel was activating her relic which caused her arms to turn into smoldering hot tongs. It takes a while to charge up prior to a fight, but after it does, she is capable of melting through metal with just her fists.

“Where is Amai, Lynx…Aries?”

Ora immediately jumped back from the surging hot pain that had now started to sear through his clothes “Ah! Shit. Stop, that hurts!”

Alel pulled her hands back, just now realizing it was starting to heat up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t notice.” Alel’s soothing voice was very contrasting to her emotion. Even at this moment, though she was a wreck and speculating the worst, her eyes and voice remained calm.

“They’re dead. All of them!”

“Amai! Lynx! Aries! All of them are dead!”

All activity stopped.

The plague children nearby had all heard this and people began crowding the two. Many in confusion, some in shock. Amongst the crowd near-by, Lin, and Rel also joined in.

“What do you mean they’re dead? How?!?” A voice from the crowd shouted

“HEY ORA THIS ISN’T A GAME”

“Stop playing around like that.”

“Leader-sama, I think you haven’t gotten enough sleep.”

“What the hell do you mean they’re DEAD?!”

Ora got to the ground and sat down, holding his head. “The 3 adventurers…t-they killed both Lynx and Amai.”

Alel picked him up by the collar and yet again, her sharp piercing yellow gaze glared back into his red eyes. “You fled?” she asked calmly. Though she might have appeared calm, the shirt she held onto was burning slowly.

Lin pulled up behind her. A smile had shown on his face and he grabbed Alel’s shoulder. “Calm yourself Alel, he had probably just witnessed both of their deaths.”

He squatted beside Ora. “How did they die?”

“The trio seemed to be after Lynx for some reason…when we went to search for Aries, she was already dead. Lynx ran into us in our search and they immediately went on the offensive. I was knocked out trying to protect Lynx.” He breathed heavily, trying to say the words as natural as possible without having to remember it all.

“When I came to, Amai was…sp..Amai was split in half. Lynx was dead just several meters away from her.”

There was a sudden fuss around the crowd. “Hey. Ora.”

He looked up, and Rel’s fist collided with his face, rocking his very vision and sending him tumbling to the very edge of the circle. Some of the people from his own unit rushed to aid him and help him upright.

“I don’t know why you thought it alright to leave on your own. But you were even too weak to defend any of your comrades.” Rel declared. He cracked his knuckles and began advancing towards Ora.

Out of the 3, Rel was the most violent. No one liked to fuck with him, so they all just stood and watched. He advanced towards Ora, and his leg retracted behind him. It flew forward to have struck him right in the stomach, sending him launched upwards. Rel wasted no movement, grabbing the man mid-air and punching him through the circle that had formed.

Ora made no effort to resist at this point. He had felt this was what he deserved. “Hey, Ora. Stand up.” He commanded.

Ora tried to stand, blood dripping violently from his nose. Once he was up on 2 feet, he was met yet again with another powerful punch to the face. Rel actually held a relic, but believe it or not, it was not a relic that increased his strength. In fact, it was more or less useful for infiltration. His strength was the factor of natural born gifts.

“Stand up.”

Ora slowly rose again only to be knocked around by Rel. Everyone was watching uneasily. Members of his own crew held in the worst of their emotions. They were just to sit there and watch their own team leader be pummeled? Ridiculous.

Yet again Ora stood up. This time he could barely see anything. Darkness encompassed most of his vision. He was being struck at from the shadows, unable to glimpse anything that was going on. He only knew he had to keep standing.

To him, his punishment wasn’t over yet.

He stood up yet again. This was probably his last time standing up. He felt the strength fade away from every iota of consciousness he had. His breath was incredibly unusual, his sight was gone, his left arm was fractured.

He waited for the final impact, but it didn’t come. Instead, he heard several voices from his own team. “Fuck off all of you! You’d stand up for this coward!?” Most of his team had come rushing for his aid. They couldn’t bear to watch such a sight anymore.

He could feel a very resonating warmth hugging him. The young girl’s voice was full of tears and refused to let go even though he was practically using her to hold himself up. “Please…Ora. Don’t stand up anymore. I don’t want you to die too..” It was Sela. “Please…I’ve already lost Anniki. Don’t die.”

Ora could only help but to laugh at the poor girl’s plight. Even now, she seemed so calm and unaware of her situations. “You all can take the punishment with him!” Several of his own team members were launched back. He could hear Rel advancing towards him. “Out of my way girl.”

Sela shook her head and clutched onto Ora tighter. Suddenly, he could feel Sela ripped away from him. At that point, the whole world froze. Sela, nor Rel made a noise.

“Rel, that’s enough,” Lin spoke approaching the 2 of them.

Rel, nor Sela made a motion. They could move their eyes and they’re lip. That was it. “W-what the-“

“Punishment… this is nothing.” Ora said. “Punishment…?” He cocked his fists back. With all the strength he could muster left in his body, the flying fist went forward. He could not see where Rel was, but all his strength collided against something hard. “This is nothing compared witnessing your comrades die!”

The entire crowd gasped as they saw Rel flying several feet through the air. Ora grabbed Sela and slumped to the ground, using her as support. “I’m sorry… I wasn’t strong enough.” Sela hugged his head. “But you aren’t either. I fought them…it only took 1 hit to land me unconscious.”

Whatever words he was saying, Rel couldn’t hear much of it. He got up and wiped his chin. His body was shaking. “Tch, strong punch there kid.” But he still couldn’t explain the strange sensation he had just felt. As if he was frozen in place.

“It ain’t like we weren’t prepared for that kind of outcome. For years we knew that Amai would one day leave us.” Rel said getting up. His glare at Ora was one of high suspicion. “You really know how to take a punch huh. I guess it wasn’t cowardice if you refused to run the whole time.” He stood up from the ground and began cracking his neck.

Lin helped the man up.

Alel went over to him once again. “Hey, Ora. You said Amai, Lynx and Aries perished in combat, aye?”

She bent over to level with him. Sela still rested in between the two. “So… where does Aren fit into all this?”

Ora’s eyes widened “Huh? Aren’s back in town?” A dumb question. If Alel was here, that would mean Aren was also back. She was the leader of the recon unit after all. “Earlier, when Lynx had departed to find Aries, Aren also left with him. He’s one of the 4 that has not returned.”

Ora shook his head. “I know nothing about that… he wasn’t there.”