His arm bent worse than baby play dough.
In that instant, each of Erena's eyes focused on both of them. Andra's jet black eyes widened at that sinister realization, she frowned and with bloodshot eyes she tensed every muscle in her body and —full of sweat —clung to the window of opportunity that she herself had generated.
She held onto Garyon's forearm with her broken arm and Garyon couldn't help but open his eyes just as she did and curse the mad adolescent in front of him, as he witnessed firsthand the limits of her will.
The silhouette of Andra's Soul grew and manifested itself in such a way in Garyon's unique world in a fleeting, more, slow and clear way. Her spirit condensed into an amalgam of fury and self-denial that was embodied in additional arms of her gigantic soul.
"I can't handle that shit!" he was afraid of being unwilling to tolerate what was coming on top of him, he pulled with every muscle fiber of his arm to escape from there, however, Andra refused to undo her grip, giving her shoulder in return .
She was insane.
That must be a horrible pain, oh, he could tell that she was hanging by the tension and only remained by her skin and the insane force that she applied… was foaming from her mouth! Not even in his dreams was he going to be able to free himself from that grip, he internalized it when with the scant vision he looked at those fingers curled full of blood around his flesh, cutting off his circulation.
Garyon's disastrous mind regained a bit of reason for one reason only:
Cry.
"D-DIE ALREADY !!!" he sobbed the last command of his resonance like an infant, helpless before his impending doom.
Andra's right fist dug into Garyon's stomach, the other right into his rib, the other right into his cheek, the other left into his jaw, and the remaining left into his nose.
Half a dozen creaks filled the air to the point of attracting the attention of Airys and the others and those sounds did not stop there; oh no, of course not… they went on for an eternity.
"STOP!!!"
The hits sank his abdomen.
"ENOUGH!!!"
They smashed his face.
"JUST STOOOOP!!!"
A stream of blood spurted from Garyon's mouth.
———————————————————————————————————
Seng walked about five full minutes through the forest without being sure where they would be.
Maybe they were still on the run. Maybe they managed to lose it or something like that. The ideas in his head leaned to the positive side of the spectrum, otherwise he would hear them with his resonance.
He stopped to catch his breath with his forehead pressed against a log.
Not running into them —and more importantly —not listening to them, brought him hope. Echsos would still be alive, so he could go find him later, get the answer from him, and forget about Airys forever.
Yes…
Maybe it will take a couple of months… a year if they hide well, that will surely give the boy time so that he can learn to use his resonance and do him a favor.
"Hey Echsos, can you verify with your resonance that I am the chosen one?" He practiced his phrase with disdain, because he heard his cry and the Brat's squeal. "I'll enjoy killing you both after I know."
He straightened up and started running to the source of the groans.
———————————————————————————————————
Do you know the feeling of defeat? The unintentional thought "ah... I lost", Layd knows it firsthand. Since he was little, that idea of not having gained anything in life gnawed at his insides.
The day his father —his only relative —died. The hungry nights he spent in the capital of Astarh after betting his money on his fighting ability. The constant fear of one day, waking up surrounded by nothing to be proud of.
He opened his swollen eye as far as he could, took a deep breath, his ears were buzzing and the noise around him mixed with the pain in his body, like something that was part of him and that no matter how much he did not pay attention to it, it did not let itself be forgotten.
The sky was clear.
Hopefully, his father hadn't died that day... he would know what to say, what to do, he... he...
He squeezed the ground with his hand, scooping up the blood-soaked sand from him.
He closed his eyes. Of course he knew that feeling, because he has fought against it since his childhood.
"Come on Layd, remember..." He straightened his feet. "Strong is not who always wins, strong is who never gives up" repeated the words of his father as he began to reactivate his resonance.
———————————————————————————————————
It was time to use his last card, his ace of victory, to teleport to his dagger.
Since yesterday morning, he used his resonance non-stop, knowing that at any moment he would be blank if he continued like this, but there was no other way, even if it cost him a considerable amount of additional energy, it was time to do it.
He focused on his dagger, for an instant, the world disappeared for him —or he disappeared from the world —in a colorless flash. Of the thousands of positions he could imagine to appear near it, he decided to go for the safest one: Standing in front of it.
Natsume closed his arms unable to stop him. Echsos became aware of his presence when Maryon tore the dagger from him. Airys directed his fist as fast as she could when she saw him with her uncomfortable and painful sight.
Maryon with the agility of a ninja prepared to extinguish Echsos's life, that girl would never prevent it, it was the end of his mission.
"Eh?"
Something was wrong, everything was distant and blurred. Little by little Airys began to hug Echsos. Ah... sure, that was it, he did not have the opportunity to think about it completely, but the sensation of being in a dream about to wake up helped him understand with the residues of his consciousness.
He went blank.
And to think that he almost made it. At least, will he wake up? How will death feel? What will happen to the two of them once he's gone?
Every one of his questions went unanswered as Airys's white light-bathed fist connected with his nose. It was horrible, it felt like a bucket of cold water, and it gave him a tremendous headache.
Wait…
He felt?!
The white light mixed with him, penetrated deep into his soul and for some unknown reason, restored a portion of his soul energy.
He had never been so happy to have his nose broken!
He reaffirmed his grip on his dagger and overcoming the pain he did his duty and thrust the knife into Echsos's throat in front of the pathetic Brat.
———————————————————————————————————
Echsos's heartbreaking scream of agony drew the attention of those present.
Airys held him tight as he fell on her with tears in his eyes. Maryon didn't waste that rush of energy and teleported to his Boomerang falling through the trees.
"How is Andra doing?" Already in the air he grabbed his boomerang and looked for Andra with his eyes. It… was not easy to digest.
Garyon was standing with his face to the sky, breathing hard, covered in blood and marks of blows everywhere, the correct thing would be to assume that he had lost the confrontation, if not for the posture of the other person.
Andra was on her knees, unable to move, with spaghetti for an arm and purple chopsticks for fingers.
She had finally given in to Garyon's resonance.
Garyon lowered his head, vacant and with the face of a hitman nailed and pressed Andra's mouth with his hand with the force necessary to break any glass of glass.
Maryon couldn't bear to imagine what would happen to her, so he threw his boomerang at them and the dagger into the hole in the opposite direction.
"Please don't go blank again" prayed and prepared himself for the most precise teleportation of his life.
Garyon jabbed his thumb into Andra's left eye, who because of Garyon's resonance was unable to moan.
"Bitch..." he murmured.
Maryon's boomerang flew close to Andra's back and right there Maryon used his resonance to get to her.
As Maryon reached out from above, Garyon groaned and prepared to use his resonance to control that soul that suddenly entered his domain, however ...
One eye closed.
A copy of Maryon appeared out of nowhere, sideways instead of head.
Under normal circumstances, it would be easy for Garyon to stop both souls, even differentiate them, but the interference of Erena's resonance, his poor vision and the deteriorated state that haunted him did not allow him to give his best and Maryon touched Andra's shoulder and took her it along with him to the location of the dagger.
"FUCKING BITCH!" he hunched over with foam at the mouth. "DAMN YOU AND THAT FUCKING BOY!"
Airys begged for her help, covered in tears, trembling from the blood that permeated her hands, the blood of Echsos.
"What happened?! What happened?!" Natsume struggled to find them, hoping with fear that it was nott what had obviously happened, predisposed to cry, as if the news snatches her breath away.
Hojita, moved by her heart, reached down and took Natsume's hand. Without comment, ignoring the howls of the beast a few feet away, she guided Natsume to Echsos.
"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY ME! I'M GOING TO TORTURE YOU! NO! I'M GOING TO FORCE YOU TO KILL EACH OTHER!" Garyon stopped bawling when his eyesight normalized, thankful that he no longer had that nasty problem on top of him.
Natsume and Airys also regained their regular vision —the amber eyes disappeared without a trace —but they didn't celebrate. The wound was worse than Airys had imagined, it wasn't a cut, it was a deep hole. Natsume fell to her knees in front of them, paralyzed, disturbed. Airys received Natsume's look of pain, she didn't blame her, no… she demanded her comfort.
Airys tried to formulate words with her mouth, making meaningless noises. Natsume endured the scene and canceled her resonance with her crying, suffocated in a pitiful cycle of poor breaths and moans.
"Yes... ha ha, I'll do that" Garyon smiled with a deformed face staring at nothing, satisfied with a fact that has not happened. "But," he turned his head to Layd and the girls. "I'm going to finish these matters first."
Hojita wiped away Airys's tears and, thanks to the reflection of her dilated pupils, she noticed that Garyon was approaching. Hojita pressed her forehead against Airys's and turned back ready to face Garyon.
"They killed the boy?!" He stopped with his eyes wide and frowned to the point that his eye trembled and the wounds on his face bled more.
Layd refused to look in their direction. It was too late to save his little brother ... but, he still had a job to do. He bit his tongue and overcame his mourning. Garyon received the stimulus from Layd's soul.
Ah ... how he hated that girl, because of her he wasn't in condition. He analyzed what the boy could do, relieved when he remembered that his best techniques required large and elaborate movements.
His heart stopped, the ground beneath his feet sank. Those movements… they were just to help him focus.
"Fuck you..." Layd held up his hand showing the middle finger.
A mere hole would not defeat him, well, one that would not lead him to where this do, the whole time they were fighting near a cliff and Garyon got closer than necessary to the edge.
However.
That monster drew strength from where he didn't have to jump using the larger pieces of rubble and sand.
"No… No!" The stubbornness was useless, how was he going to have time to perform another technique? "Why don't my opponents give up either?!"
Good thing he wasn't the only one who continued the fight.
Hojita gathered as much air as she could by zigzagging and swooping down on Garyon. It didn't take long for him to exert his pressure and get the fairy to leave this plane of existence, nevertheless, the wind persisted and pushed him to a fall of more than fifty meters.
———————————————————————————————————
The cold invaded his body.
He was tired. Sleepy.
It burned brightly, but it wasn't hot, it was an icy burn. He struggled to breathe in vain, what was reaching his lungs was a pittance.
He paled.
All he heard was Airys's muffled screams. That heat reached his chest.
He opened his eyes, the migraine he had was no more.
"You shake me too much... dummy..." he thought when he saw that light blue hair on top of him.
Airys asked Natsume for help.
"This... this... I..." he wandered in his mind. He walked and walked, looking for a reason, a piece that would organize the picture, that would explain what the hell was going on.
The world lost its brilliance when those brown hairs with green highlights settled in front of him.
He was now surrounded by his friends... yes, and his family.
His father had not disappeared that day when he went fishing, he was there preparing the fish that he liked so much!
Next to him were his mother and his little sister, neither had been captured by the bandits, they were running around with the boys from the orphanage, his little brothers.
Rin. Layd. Natsume. Ana. Erika. Maiko. Irwin. Even Juanes returned for that party.
A fight happened between Rin and Maiko as usual, but this time, he understood their hearts with his resonance, he knew what they knew and managed to befriend them.
Then he saw that pair of strangers who hate each other so much arrive.
Seng, the tutor who helped him so much, returned with covered ears from his latest work.
Airys, his training partner, ran into his arms exclaiming in happiness that she did not have to spend another day alone with Seng.
It was easy for Echsos to find out that they were bound to be together by the Legend of the Chosen One. And although deep down he was terrified of Seng's evil desires for Airys, he hoped he could help him in some way to make him regain his position as the Chosen One.
For the good of all three. For him to be with her.
It is a lame that his resonance did not serve for that, that that wonderful power with which he was born, with which he knew the thoughts of the people he loved, with which he destroyed misunderstandings, only served for that, to know what others know.
For the same reason... it was so painful.
Because thanks to that damned resonance, guilty of everything and responsible for nothing, there was no way to hide their sadness from him.
How to die with a smile knowing that the only thing you caused was pain and sadness?