DEATH AND HIM

Lynne felt his heart suddenly freeze. Although he immediately reacted to the slight Mana fluctuation, it felt cold. Too slow! Too slow! His thoughts spun as he felt space around him contour. Too slow! Dammit, too slow!! He screamed inside as he urged his Mana, and soon after his blood, both to boil.

Crimson red slipped thin from his nose, then corner of his mouth and then his eyes. His entire body turned scarlet red from heat, but he burned it all. Rather than distorted, the space appeared completely destroyed as he flushed himself forward through the tunnel. He was already bleeding profusely from nearly every pore, but he didn’t care.

As soon as he appeared in his father’s small cabin, he spotted a figure breaking through the doors. It was a thin man in his early thirties who had shocked expression upon seeing Lynne appear from within a spacial vortex. A youth bleeding like a dying animal, his eyes red with madness, anger and resentment, and it was all focused onto him. He wanted to turn around and run, but it was too late.

In one swift motion, Lynne summoned his scythe and swept, as if he was wielding a broom, directly toward the thin man. An arc of golden light fluttered celestial as it broke off from the scythe’s blade and it crushed directly into the thin man who had no time to set up his defenses. Just as golden light passed through him, he felt cold shimmer throughout. His body froze in place for a split second, and then it broke off into two halves, blood spraying out like a fountain.

Lynne crashed into the table beneath and rolled forward, blasting through the wooden wall and winding up outside the small house. Only then did Median come back to his senses; what just occurred occurred far too quickly for him to follow. All he could see was a man on his doorstep splitting in half, and Lynne crashing through a wall, landing outside.

Just as he got onto his feet, another person appeared next to him: Y’se. Her face grew ugly when she saw the two halves, but quickly appeared worried as she landed her eyes on Lynne. Wait? How did he get here before me? His attainment in Space must be really high, huh…

Just as quickly as he landed, Lynne sprinted onto his feet and ran toward the cabin. His usually white robe was completely red and drops of blood fell like rain from its sides. He appeared to have aged slightly and was barely hanging on.

“Dad, are you okay?!!” he screamed as he ran into the house. Just then, he saw Median looking at him with shocked and worried expression, and he relaxed. “Good… it’s… it’s good that you’re okay…” he then collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud, his body still bleeding.

“Eh?! Lynne!!” Median was jolted back to his senses and ran over, gently picking his body up. Still bleeding profusely, Lynne was twitching all throughout, his eyes rolled backwards. “Lynne?! Lynne!!”

“Calm down!” Y’se walked over and crouched next to the two; despite saying so, her expression betrayed her thoughts. So that’s how he was faster… “Grab my hand. We can’t stay here.” she said and Median quickly followed her lead.

A moment later, the two found themselves in a rather empty room with only a bed as a decoration. Median quickly walked over and laid Lynne down, slowly taking off his robes. The youth grunted in pain, but had no greater reaction than that.

“What’s wrong with him? Why is he bleeding so hard?!” Median asked in panicked voice. “I never saw him get hurt!”

“He hurt himself,” Y’se mumbled, seemingly deep in thought. “He forcibly burned his Mana and even his own blood to arrive faster. What an idiot…”

“Eh?! Then… then…”

“Ugh, step aside for a moment,” Y’se grunted and pushed Median aside as she bit her wrist, causing blood to spill out. She then pushed it onto Lynne’s lips and pressed hard, causing her already pale complexion to wither further. “Come on lil’ bro, take as much as you want!” she mumbled.

After about half a minute, Lynne’s body calmed down somewhat and Y’se fell backward, with Median barely catching her. Her cheeks flushed, she looked feverish, yet also still remained as white as snow. The wound on her wrist was already closing up, and she gently pushed Median away as she sat down, settling.

“Ugh, that little fuck took so much…” she grunted, holding onto her head. “It’s gonna take me decades to recover it all…”

“What happened? Is Lynne gonna be fine?” Median asked, still confused.

“Yeah, yeah, he will,” Y’se said. “The question is only how long will it take him to recover.”

“Wait, why are you so pale? What happened?” Median finally took a deeper look at her, causing his already panicked expression to worsen.

“I force-fed him my own Bloodline,” Y’se sighed, leaning onto the wall, her breathing still ragged. “That idiot burned too much. Honestly, you’ve fathered an amazing son, Median…”

“… that guy he killed, he was after me?” Median asked, glancing at Lynne.

“Probably,” Y’se said. “Don’t you dare go on saying that Lynne’s like that because of you. You’ll just nullify his own choice.”

“… will you be fine?”

“Yeah, eventually. Tsk, to think they’ve infiltrated so deeply.” Y’se clicked her tongue, her expression growing dim. “The news of his arrival has already probably been leaked. This is bad…”

“What’s going on?” Median asked. “Tell me honestly.”

“It’s fine,” Y’se shrugged her shoulders. “You don’t have to worry about it. That boy went out of his way to protect you, don’t go tangling yourself in the matters you can do nothing about.”

“Hah,” Median sighed pitifully, shaking his head. “I should have known I’d be a burden.”

“Didn’t he already say it’s fine if you are?”

“Yeah, I suppose he did. But if you’re asking me to be okay with this, then you don’t know me at all.”

“I’m not,” Y’se said. “I’m just asking you to deal with it silently. Crap,” Y’se suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood. “I-I need to rest…”

“L-lay down, carefully!” Median hurried over and helped her lie down. “Who should I call?”

“D-don’t worry, I already informed someone…” just as she said that, a space above them tore open and a young woman appeared. Without even paying them a glance, she immediately ran over to the bed and stood next to Lynne.

“W-what the fuck…” Thalia muttered, feeling her heart grow cold. Before her lay a youth she could barely recognize. His skin appeared withered and listless, eyes rolled back into his head, lips dry and shivering. If his chest wasn’t barely moving, she’d have thought he died. “… what happened?” she forced herself calm and asked.

“… Y’se told me he-he forcibly burned his Mana and blood…” Median replied, feeling guilt penetrate into his heart.

“Burned?” Thalia muttered, her body growing cold as she collapsed onto his knees. “Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit! Fuck! Even if he’s an idiot, he should at least know the backlash he’d suffer! Dammit! Wake up you weak fuck! Wake up! Please, wake up already… why is it like this again…” her voice grew weaker, turning into soft sobs by the end as she buried her head into the side of the bed.

“It’s, it’s my fault… if I--”

“It’s fine,” Thalia interrupted, getting up and walking over to Y’se, inspecting her condition. “I’ve already informed Parsia. I’ll open a tunnel toward him so ask for his help regarding her. She’s fallen unconscious, but she’ll probably wake up soon.”

“Y-yes…” Median didn’t even have courage to reply otherwise. Soon, the room grew silent, with only Thalia and Lynne remaining.

She walked back over to him slowly, her eyes slightly teary and red. She sat beside him, her fingers gently tracing his chest. He ended up in the state he did, she realized, yet again for someone else. Even if it was his father, Thalia felt dejected. She couldn’t get angry with either, yet anger she felt.

“Idiot,” she mumbled as she lowered her head. “Didn’t you promise me before? That you’ll be careful?” she sighed, shaking her head. “Ah, it wouldn’t be you if you didn’t do stupid shit all the time.”

“He’ll be fine,” a crimson-haired child suddenly appeared next to her, glancing at the lying youth. “He’ll just need some time to recover. Y’se reacted quickly enough.”

“What happened?” Thalia asked.

“Someone from outside the formation managed to infiltrate our ranks,” the child explained in a calm tone. “Y’se and him have been chasing them around all day long, and while interrogating one Lynne caught, he probably felt Mana fluctuations coming from his father’s house, which resulted in this.”

“… infiltrate? Why didn’t either one of them say anything?!” she cried out angrily.

“Because it wouldn’t have made any difference,” the child said. “Only the two of them are sensitive enough to Mana changes to even notice them.”

“But, we could have increased patrols! Made it more secure! Some--”

“You really are childish, aren’t you?” the child interrupted her coldly.

“Eh?!”

“If they did that, what do you think would happen with people? Dragged over here with a promise of new future,” the child explain. “And, as they were barely started, there was a new threat rising. I understand that you care for him,” he continued. “But you’ve become blinded. It’s no longer about him or you, or any other single person. He understands that, but you don’t. You keep claiming you understand him, yet… you don’t.”

“…”

“It’s fine to be selfish from time to time, but you have to understand something about him first. Look.” a string of memories suddenly flashed inside Thalia’s mind; Lynne was crouching next to an unknown woman, his expression as cold as ice, as she kept twitching on the floor. The longer she watched, the wearier her heart got. “Do you understand?” the childish voice interrupted her. “For something he believes in, he can become that. Now, imagine if you told him that everything he did was wrong. What would happen?”

“… I don’t know…”

“In your eyes, he may still be that playful, innocent kid who’s kind of cute,” the child continued. “But, in the eyes of everyone else here, he’s someone they look at to protect them. He promised them he’d shoulder winds and rains, and never let anything happen to them. To him, that promise matters. Whether it’s his father, or some ordinary Mortal, he wants to protect them all the same. To him, someone who was protected all his life, being the protector for the first time… I don’t need to tell you what it means.”

“I know that, but still…” Thalia mumbled.

“If you can’t face the possibility of his death,” the child said calmly as he slowly began to fade. “Then you can’t face him either. Lynne and death… they are now walking shoulder to shoulder. You should first figure out your own place in that picture, before deciding anything else.” the child disappeared, leaving Thalia alone in wretched silence. Her head remained hung, thoughts spinning faster than the world. Heh, are you seriously asking me to accept that his death may come at any moment? And support him in choices that will lead to that point? Ha ha ha…