Chapter 51: Vengeance and Existence

Richard Astherson

All of us were traumatized when we saw the three people lying on the floor, bathing on their own blood. The petite dragonoid Kyrie appears to have been stabbed from the back with a long slim sword. I checked her pulse and concluded that she’s still alive. The only problems are those two.

Rudolf Azregon had his right part of his body amputated. I can’t see any remnants of his limbs, and the wound clearly says that it has been vaporized by some attack. We can’t stop the bleeding with such broad injury. On the other hand, Amphere suffered a vital damage to his chest. He was lucky enough to have the bullet five centimeter away from his heart, but unlucky to have the bullet on his major artery. That made a sea of blood on the surroundings.

When Airelina first saw her love lying on the ground, the atmosphere between her changed. Her crimson eyes were filled with distress and sadness, as if she had lost her whole world. It was good enough that their hearts are still beating, but the wounds are almost impossible to reverse.

Reina was the one who first approached Kyrie, and treated her wounds with a healing spell. Gaz searched for some clothing to cover Rudolf’s body to stop the bleeding, while Airelina morphed her hand into an electromagnet to draw the bullet from Amphere’s chest.

After a while, Amphere and Rudolf’s heart declined. Everyone was in the state of panic, especially Airelina. She started crying as she dipped her face to the wounded chest of her loved one. She shouted “Amphy, don’t die!” several times while her tears mix up with her knight’s blood.

I don’t know what to do, so I tried calling Estoff from the radio and explained him the situation. But as everybody knows, it has become much worse. Gilliard is dead. Without his trustworthy dragonoid, Estoff is as good as an ordinary knight.

Thankfully, Estoff knew the right radio channel to communicate with Twilight City’s medic team. He even gave me the coordinates in order for me to deploy a portal for fast response of the doctors. Once the nearby hospital accepted the call, I opened up a magical portal in order to have a fast response.

The medic team went through my portal and then took custody of the three injured people. Good thing is that the doctor has a defibrillator in him. Two sessions of one thousand joules was necessary for Rudolf to stay alive. Meanwhile, after three tries, Amphere was successfully revived.

The doctors and nurses had our friends in the stretcher and transported them to the ICU of the Twilight City Hospital via my portals. As much as we wanted to accompany our friends, we shouldn’t. We have to go and locate Yuri Dragunov first.

Airelina is a special case. She should’ve stayed by her Amphy’s side but she insisted to come with us. I asked why but she answered: “I don’t want to see Amphy in that state.”

There are three symptoms on Airelina’s sudden melancholy. One is that she will totally drop ‘totally’ on her speech pattern. Two is that she will be uninspired and supremely low on energy. She looks pale and her mind seems to be flying as we patrol the area for any signs of the duke.

The third symptom is much worse. Normally, Airelina is a bright intellectual idiot. But now, she’s just a pure fool who will be blabbing nonsense which can make the situation worst. She suddenly stirred up a fight with Reina, who is currently her worst enemy on this team.

“I’m sick and tired of this fake teamwork, Reina. If you wanted your revenge, come and get me. Only if you can keep your head.” Airelina, with her crazy looking eyes, provoked Reina.

This made the student council president’s blood boil to the highest temperature and draw her white short sword from the sheath. “Oh. I’ve been waiting for you to say that!”

Airelina responded by drawing a photon blade and making a centered kendo stance, pointing at Reina. “Let this battle decide if I still deserve Amphy’s love or not!”

Just because you’re stressed out doesn’t mean that you can start a fight and become suicidal, Airelina! Remember, Amphere is still alive and fighting for his life! That’s what I wanted to yell at her. But before I was able to open my mouth to speak, the two girls dashed forward and had their blades crossed! They have totally made up their mind and violate this temporary ceasefire I worked hard to gain.

No one is backing out. The two dashed backward with a distance of two meters, and then they started their changing blows! Hack, slash and thrust. This is a swordfight of girls who have gone nuts because of their emotional breakdown! No one is on edge. Both of them are skilled swordswoman!

“Commander Estoff is here.” Gaz reminded me.

Estoff went to my side and watched the two girls have a fair sword fight. He scratched his chin and then wondered what happened between those two. “I thought there’s not enough trouble here, but I was mistaken.”

“We’ll never catch Dragunov at this rate.” I sighed.

“Gaz, on me. We’ll find the duke. Richard, you go fix this trifling matter.” Estoff said. I was about to reply but then he and Gaz already got away from the scene.

I’ll let you know, when Amphere was not yet involved in Arcadia, I was Estoff’s personal lackey. Amphere became my substitute when I was presumed to be dead for three years. Now that Amphere is unable to resolve some useless matters, the baton is back to me. I really hate Estoff when it comes to this.

My girlfriend and my best friend are trying hard to kill each other. The clinks and clashes of steel made me lose my patience, which drove me to step forward and become a pacifist.

“STOP!!!”

The two girls halted attacking and turned to me. They didn’t lower their swords or their guard though. It’s as if they’re preparing for another attack once one got disrupted.

“Stop this, Airelina! Amphere never wanted you to be like this! Amphere defended you in court so that you will have the chance to live and repent your sins! Don’t you dare try to throw your life away just because you failed to be on his side when he was in danger! You’re a total idiot, totally!”

It may sound absurd, ridiculous and comical line but that did reach Airelina’s heart. Tears rushed down to her cheeks without knowing. She dropped her sword and reached her chest, muttering “Amphy..” Now it’s time to give Reina a sermon.

“You also, Reina! You and your vengeful ways don’t suit you at all! If your mother was still here, will she approve your vengeance!? Is killing Airelina really worth it? Will it solve your problems and fill the gap on your heart? Your mother won’t come back even if you had Airelina’s head! Moreover, Airelina was also a victim here! What happened to your style of thinking? Did your emotion take over your fair reasoning?”

Reina bowed her head. Becoming powerless, she dropped the sword and kneeled to the ground. Suddenly, rain started pouring from the dark skies. Reina’s empty face just stared at the clouds, while mumbling something…”My mother…forgive me…”

I let them think over for what they just did for a couple of seconds. We let our clothes get soaked to savor the moment of peaceful raindrops that has been synchronizing with our heartbeats.

I opened up my hands and tried to dramatically reach the skies.

I wanted to say those words to Reina when we were a child. Now that I have finally said it, I have attained nirvana.

Suddenly, the radio communicator vibrated. It was Estoff’s voice. It seems that the signal has been partially jammed.

“Richard, …-need you and …-one here! Immediately! The Black Phantom is Alder’s-.... Duke Dragunov and Kyle Leviticus are-…be careful!”

Then there was an endless ocean of static.