Warning: depictions of violence and blood.
"… Addai…?" Mine stammered, supporting the heavy body of Addai's. Despite his knees failing his attempts to remain standing, Mine was as still as a log.
An eerie mist surrounded the now group of three. It was heavy and oppressive, making Mine's vision blur as well. Warm drops rolled down his cheeks while his friend was oddly silent. The Consort immediately stood up with a loud groan, taking whatever was stuck on his right leg before the ominous sword made a new victim.
The sword, pierced in Addai's back, was flung away by its own power, flying and floating in the air as if its owner controlled it from a distance. The boy's body weighed, and Mine almost lost his balance to hold Addai.
Mine knew he needed to run and drag Addai along. He couldn't think straight. His brain was a mess. But he needed to run away, seek help, and heal Addai's wound before it was too late.
When Mine attempted to drag Addai away, the sword vibrated and glowed, aiming in the teacher's direction once again. Mine saw the dangerous setting and tried to summon a shield, but the spell failed, and his body glitched. The sudden malfunction with the spell, added to Mine's Chronos' instability, was enough to make his knees falter, and both fall on the floor. The Consort paired the attack, sending the sword a few meters away. It fell on the floor uselessly until its owner took it from the floor and dusted the crimson liquid on its blade. With a forced grin, the sword's owner laughed darkly, and his carmine eyes stared at the group, but his sick gaze was directed to the boy who tried to drag a body with twice his own weight.
The Consort quickly shielded both boys and grabbed his spear. "Agarath…" he growled.
"I did my beauty a favor," Agarath darkly chuckled again, his sword being dragged against the concrete floor. "That mutt has been defective since his birth. Also… you're trapped here, all of you. Even if you crossed the door, you'd be stuck here anyway," he grinned a sick, twisted grin and raised a hand.
When Agarath snapped his fingers, the door that once led to the mansion closed and vanished as if it was never there. Dragged and heavy steps resounded near the group. The puppets from the woods stood around them, in the same setting as Mine saw at the mansion when Agarath and Addai clashed against each other. The puppets had a single function at that time: to be a fence and an efficient one because they'd grab the runaway fiercely as they did with Addai at the mansion.
They were, indeed, trapped.
The Consort twirled the spear and aimed at Agarath, who chuckled and glanced at Mine, whose eyes were miserable as he shook Addai. His attention shifted back to the Consort as the entity viciously thrust its spear at the demon.
The wound on Addai's back and chest was so horrible his shirt was barely white, now painted with crimson. Mine looked around, spotting the "puppets' fence," and dragged Addai closer, trying to warm his cooling body. He wasn't paying attention to the background sounds and setting anymore. Everything else but Addai was swallowed by a chilling horror growing inside him.
"Addai, talk to me, please," Mine pleaded, still hugging Addai.
Addai tried to hug Mine, but his arms were too weak. His skin was turning whiter and ashier, with blue spots on his lips and around his eyes. His resilience brought some colors to that ragged body of his.
Mine felt his chest ache and his throat lock at what Addai said and how uselessly he tried to hug him. He stroked Addai's hair and tried to cast a healing spell, which failed miserably. The more he tried, the more his body ached, but he needed to keep trying even if he failed.
"I'm… sorry…" Addai muttered, his eyelids getting heavier.
"Don't apologize!" Mine snapped, silencing his already silent friend. His throat couldn't hold back what his heart wanted to spill, so he started to uselessly cry as he eventually, and painfully, sobbed.
One, two, three more attempts, and none of them worked. Mine's heart ached. Addai was turning colder and heavier, losing control of his body bit by bit. Mine needed to do something. With a hand on the right side of his head, Mine gritted his teeth, and a diamond pattern formed on the back of his hand. He needed to wear the mask. If he used the Chronos mask, he could ask Chronos to heal Addai and take him to a safe place. He could die, but Addai couldn't. The other marks on his body glowed like usual, and he was ready to feel the mask's surface when… it didn't appear.
"W-what?!" Mine gasped, trying again to summon the mask.
No matter how much he tried to summon it, the mask didn't appear.
Addai was resting on Mine's lap as he desperately tried again and again, failing each and every time. The boy's heterochromatic eyes were ashier and ashier, but he was still looking at Mine with a gentle gaze. Mine desperately looked around, his eyes wide with fright and his hands cold and clammy. On his side, a sharp rock shard was close enough for him to reach for it. Maybe he could use desperate measures to summon Chronos, which meant being dead for a while.
"Stop…" As if he read Mine's mind, Addai said in a low and strained voice.
"NO!" Mine argued, his hair turning red. "You were hit by a blade with MY essence, and Abannak's scale wasn't enough because you were perforated! I need to do it before it's too… late…"
"Mine," Addai called, gathering strength from God-knows-were. Mine's watery eyes slowly gazed at him. He bit his bottom lip as he sniffled, looking at Addai. "No more tears… it saddens my heart seeing you cry like that…" he reached a trembling hand to Mine's warm cheek. "I'm sorry… for making you cry…"
Mine's glowing patterns faded as well as the reddish strands in his hair. "Y-you… hic hic, don't hic leave me... hic hic you… hic promised me…" He sobbed, placing a hand on Addai's hand on his cheek, warming it.
Addai muttered something inaudible with a gentle and warm smile in his pained and lifeless face. Mine leaned closer for him to repeat it, but all Addai did was to touch on Mine’s wrist, where he always wore the rainbow bracelet. Addai tried to gather strength, but his body was way too tired, so he closed his eyes and his hand turned as limp as his body.
Mine's chin trembled, and his vision saw the hand that touched him with so much care falling. The person on his lap was no longer alive, and he knew that because his body was cold, and his pained breathing stopped. Mine tried calling for Addai's name while he patted his cheeks, but he couldn't get an answer from the dead. The pats turned desperate as his hand trembled, and his calling turned into screaming his friend's name.
Mine stopped for exactly five seconds, staring at the hollow shell on his lap. His eyes burned, and his chest built a huge air mass to claw its way out of his throat in a hollow scream.
He was powerless.
Mine grabbed Addai and hugged his shell as he screamed and howled, his hair glowing in golden among the darkness. He buried his face on Addai's shoulder like he always did, not noticing that the glowing patterns on his hand changed like the rest of his body.
The Consort glanced at the boys and frowned painfully at the sight and sounds, but Agarath demanded his full attention. The demon maniacally laughed, savoring the sweet and acidic screams coming from Mine… but one thing he wanted to savor was what was happening with Mine's odd glowing.
Agarath paired a heavy thrust of the Consort's spear, but it pierced his stomach anyway. Despite the wound and pain, Agarath was smiling excitedly at Mine. That excitement was none other than pure madness.
"Your Majesty… I bet you have other issues right now because…" Agarath chuckled, looking at the Consort. "My beauty is finally complete. Behold the rebirth of a rare diamond," he pointed at Mine.
The Consort felt his back burn in a specific way, and he jerked his head in Mine's direction. When he witnessed the scene, his pupils shrank. Mine was far from being human.
Mine's hair glowed golden like the patterns all over his body and eyes. His skin was no longer peach-colored, but lavender with pink details on the tips of his fingers and feet. On Mine's back, the silky cloak covered his shoulders and fell on Addai. The silky cloak then slowly moved like wings but looked far different from wings.
Somehow, Mine felt an odd tranquility. He knew how to save Addai.
"Mine!! Don't do it!" The Consort shouted, but Mine couldn't hear him. "Fight it!! Don't let Chronos take over you!!"
Mine glared at the Consort. Mana started to flow around him, visible and clear. The mana floating around him was heterogeneous in color and substance. Some resembled electric pulses while others looked like sometimes mist, sometimes water, all circling around the young professor. He shot two foreign words, and the Consort kneeled like Agarath, who was laughing excitedly at Mine.
The once reddish sky turned golden and orange, like the sunset. Mine held Addai with his slim arms that, weirdly enough, seemed way stronger than it looked. He shot three foreign words to the crumbled rocks on the floor, and they converged, turning into a bench.
Mine placed his fading friend on the bench, taking care to let his hands together and make his head comfortable with what was left of his torn clothing after the transformation. There was a faint glow in his head, where the Chronos' mask used to be placed, and he patted the spot. From there, he seemed to take an invisible object without much care.
Mine looked at the invisible object, which materialized into the usual Chronos mask but worn out. The cloak in his shoulders turned harder, and he chuckled, resounding Chronos' voice with that. As if he counted to ten, he slowly lifted the mask up high, like a prize... then threw it on the floor, shattering it!
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