Atrocities of The Royal Order

0702 - 13

I don't know why but I suddenly got the urge to look out the window.

"Hey Yuuri, it looks fine outside but---" she wasn't there.

In fact, nobody was.

I shuffled through my things, guess it was dismissal but why didn't I notice everyone leaving, even Yuuri. Anyway, I packed up and left the room.

"Ken!" Hyuk was running towards me, constantly staring back, catching his breath. He was pale but wasted no second, "He's here! He's here!" urging me to follow him.

Without a word, I did trail behind him. I immediately knew that it was Shiny Man. I have a score to settle with that scumbag so yeah, there's no time to waste.

We ran out up to a tall tree by the curb and he stopped, looking puzzled, "He was here! I don't understand."

"Hyuk, are you sure?" I was itching for a fight already, and though my rib was still healing from the previous fight, I will not be sitting this one out.

"He was sitting there, and he looked at me, I swear, he even said something, but I got away. He was here!"

"OK, OK, got it." I looked around, it was really eerie that nobody was around. No students, no cars, no nothing. It was all barren, Yuuri was---, it hit me. "We're in the wrong place."

"No! No! I saw him!" he insisted.

"Let's wait it out."

"Wait it out? I'm scared Ken,.."

He didn't have to tell me that, I could clearly see from his shaky hands that he was terrified. I closed my eyes and listened keenly to my surroundings. It was unusually quiet, and by that, I immediately confirmed my suspicion.

"Hyuk, you know how many times Yuuri warned me against you."

"Yeah, but that's---" he paused, "What is it?" he panicked.

I took a step forward, locking my eyes onto his, "No? Right now, I'm kind of sure you are." I remember this one thing Yuuri told me.

"Ken, I swear! I'm not!" he was out of it. His eyes frantically looked for a way to escape. His knees were knocking against each other as he took a couple more steps back, I had him.

"Hyuk,.." I tried to grab his attention.

"Ken what's happening!?" he dropped on his butt and started to shake off the 'bits of himself' that were chipping away from his body.

Looking down, I knew I'd be in the same state. My hands seemed to dissolve into the wind, like my body was slowly turning into fine talc, swirling with the breeze.

"We're coming back." I reassured him, but he was no longer listening, he kept on kicking into the air and tried to catch his little pieces.

I never really thought about Yuuri's ability to cage us into this kind of superficial world, but it was terrifying, getting stuck here will be torture, your own personal hell. All these times we were training inside, it was a good thing she didn't leave me inside by myself; and though I've been in and out of it a lot of times, it was my first time experiencing it merge with the real world in such a slow pace. Yuuri always does it instantly, well not this time apparently, because it was supposed to be done in a snap. The colors danced around my eyes as everything tried to fall into focus. My head spun as hues of red, blue, and green fought for dominance in my vision, only turning everything I see, or thought I saw, into murky, distorted figures I can't make out.

After what seemed like a while, my eyes got fixed on Hyuk, still on the ground, running his hands through his body, maybe checking if he was still in one piece. He was a mage, alright. Only a mage and the gifted can enter an alternate world, as Yuuri said, but only the creator can will them to get out. And here we are, we were finally out of that reality which I had no idea we got in.

"You!" my senses spiked as I turned and recognized the man just in front of Yuuri. People, cars, buildings, trees, it all seemed normal now and Hyuk was right, he was here looking for trouble again. I stood up. "Take one step and I'll send your head rolling." I urged him to do so.

"Oh yeah? This was dragging too long anyway. Come at me!"

We both were still, waiting for the other to strike first.

I remember that ominous feeling I had a while ago, well that just intensified, like an annoying voice that kept replaying in my head. I looked up and thought, maybe that's how we got out.

The clouds were swirling menacingly in a very familiar pattern, it was a portal, I remember it well. People started looking up as well, some whispering, and some were wise enough to run for their lives. I didn't even mind giving away the opening for Shiny Man's attack, he was frozen in place as well, terrified, he knew exactly what this meant.

"Ken!" Hyuk called out but before a word departed from my lips, a sonic boom knocked me a few meters off my feet. Hyuk helplessly flailed his arms and rolled the rest of the way.

I felt my broken rib throb with pain, they're back, and we're screwed.

"Yuuri!" I called out to her. I'm not even surprised that she was on her feet, in battle position. I can imagine her swept off her feet but then do a twirl mid-air and majestically land like that, sword in hand.

"Ken, they're back!" she warned.

I got up on my feet and ran towards her. Protect her at all costs! I tried to control my panicked mind. I can't lose another person because of them.

"It's the witch!" I heard Hyuk shouting on top of his lungs.

I didn't quite understand it immediately, but I figured out that he may know something that I don't.

"I'll die fighting!" Shiny man took me by surprise. Now in full clad armor of rock, ground, or cement, I wasn't sure, he charged and drove his fist, in full force, to my face. Like why is this lunatic attacking me now?

I thought I'd black out from that, but I was just thrown off balance, I was on the ground, Yuuri was down as well and Hyuk was by our side. I was sure that it all happened in a blink of an eye but how did Shiny Man end up on the far side of the pavement?

I heard people scream, it must have been terrifying seeing a stone man's leg crumble off into a stump, and he couldn't even help himself up. Yuuri crawled up in front of me and pointed her sword towards a thick cloud of dust and debris, someone did attack us.

"Ken, he got sliced! Let's get out of here." Hyuk whispered. His hands were so cold that I almost threw him off, I was already in bad shape and I didn't need a numb shoulder.

"Show yourself! What do you want!?" Yuuri demanded.

Out there, as the dust settled, came a figure pulling something close behind. It was almost night and by the last bit of sunlight we had left, I saw her, Ichinose, dragged with a chain around her neck.

***