Castiel and Ethan slept terribly in their newly assigned room with bunk beds. Waking up at every little sound, they were undeniably anxious. Even if they had locked their rooms, it wasn't safe. Nowhere was safe.
They both woke up at the same time, looking out at the window to check the time but they only found themselves looking at a stone brick that covered the whole area above. Ethan let out a chuckle after realising how idiotic he was, he looked at the small clock at the cabinet.
"7 in the morning." Ethan whispered to Castiel who was half awake, rubbing his eyes.
Castiel looked down at the bed below him and saw Ethan stretching while keeping a close eye on the door. They both made eye contact and nodded at each other.
"Let's head down. Or shall we wait?" Ethan asked, sounding like he was rather unsure of decisions he should make. If he was too hasty, it'll lead to trouble with the devils. However, if he missed the opportunity to look around for a bit, it'll be a waste.
"I rather wait. They're scared of Damien, if we are accompanied by him, they'll keep their eyes off." Castiel said, looking serious.
Ethan silently agreed and continued laying down on the bed with his arms supporting his head. How was Zephyr doing? He wondered.
Soon enough, their opportunity to leave the room and enter the danger zone had came. However, it was not Damien who were calling for them and knocking on their doors.
A familiar agitated female voice yelled loudly on the other side of the door with all her might. It sounded like a angry mother waking up her children for breakfast. "Get up! I don't have time for this! There's food downstairs and you need to introduce yourself!"
"Alright, we got it!" Castiel replied, saying it a little louder than usual to make sure he was heard.
"I left clothes outside the door, take it and change! You better not take your time, I don't got all day." Tina said, combing her hair while buttoning her sleeves in a hurry.
Castiel and Ethan got into the new set of clothes that were exactly their size. White loose button up shirt and black shorts and shoes. Even if they hadn't showered in days, they looked presentable nonetheless. They both proceeded to make their way down the trippy wavy stairs to their ending point they left off yesterday.
The moment they step foot onto the main level, the room temperature seemed to drop. Chills ran through their whole body while they kept a straight face, looking around for Tina who was waving at them and yawning. No one sat around her except for Anesthesia.
When everybody noticed that the children were walking towards Tina they heaved a silent sigh of relief. She was weak and so was the healer. It's an easy target. Damien's gone and left. The shiny treasure stood, unprotected. It's a first come, first serve basis now.
Castiel instincts nagged at him, he stopped and held Ethan back. Pulling him closer naturally and putting his arm around him while still walking towards the two who sat at the counter, eating their breakfast peacefully.
"We have to run after this. Or now. I can feel my gut telling me to stay out of these people's sight." Castiel whispered, trying to look a bit braver than usual as he walked side by side Ethan confidently.
Ethan gulped and knew that Castiel was right. They had to run. "If we do, we end up as weak prey that they think they can easily catch and chew." He whispered, attempting to make sense of things while he came up with a plan to bolt and escape. There was no way he could go up against so many people, he was prideful but not ignorant to the point where he could see himself winning such a fight.
Warily, Castiel and Ethan took a seat on the wooden stools and looked at their paper plates with a small sandwich. The bread was hard and crusty with green mould growing on it, however, they were too hungry to care. It wasn't too much of a bother considering the amount of trouble they were in.
Tina looked at the children and leaned her face on her hands, thinking whether she should offer her assistance. Feeling rather nice today, she suggested to offer some advice. "Better run to the training forest a few buildings behind us. It's vast and plentiful, filled with trees and plants of all sorts you can hide yourself in. There's wild animals too. Better than dealing with those humans, right? Come back at night, Damien will be back by then to protect you."
"Why must I rely on that bastard." Ethan murmured, feeling frustrated he had to depend on someone who could turn their back on him at any time.
"Damien is a nice person." Tina paused and scratched her chin. "To a certain extent. And his past unexplained actions were all instructions from our liege. He can't refute. Nobody can." She said, claiming her leader innocence.
After their meal, Ethan and Castiel sneaked out from the room with the help of Tina and Anesthesia covering them. It was a given that many would notice them leaving, however the moment tbe two children left the building. They put one leg in front of the other and started running without looking back, they can't even spare a minute to walk. Who knows what would go wrong if they were caught?
True to Tina's words, there was a forest far behind the buildings. The trees were tall, almost reaching the ceiling. However, when Ethan took a closer look as he raised his head higher, all the trees seemed to be of the exact same height, the leaves didn't extend to a certain area or level. It was as if they were fake. He reached out and touched the trunk but his investigation was stopped by Castiel.
"I can hear people getting closer, we have to go deeper in." Castiel whispered, obviously anxious while he grabbed onto Ethan's arm.
Ethan sighed and git dragged by Castiel without any complaints while the gears in his brain started turning. Plans starting configuring in his head but none of them seemed possible with this much manpower.
"Fighting seems like a better option." Ethan blurted out while still being dragged around in various directions by Castiel.
"Are you okay?! We're obviously not going to fight! They have so many people while we're only a duo, it's impossible! And we don't know the reason why they're hunting us down either!" Castiel logically explained, he felt like he was going to lose his mind sooner or later. What even made Ethan think it'd be a good idea to go on the offense?
"You can create an illusion, any really. Maybe create one where their members get severely hurt, if we're lucky, we might hit a bullseye on one of their many weaknesses." Ethan suggested, trying to convince Castiel as he figured that running wouldn't do them any good. They'd run out of stamina and soon be cornered. A forest in the underground doesn't seemed like it'd stretch out forever.
"What if it backfires? And the most illusions I can create at a time is for 10 people! They obviously have much more.." Castiel sounded unconfident in himself, if he somehow failed in using his power, he was placing his friend in danger.
"Your power doesn't have a limit. Well, most S ranks don't. It's you who placed a limit on yourself or you're just incapable of producing that much power due to your lack of experience in using it." Ethan was harsh but he hadn't realised it. He only spoke what was in his mind, truthful and analytical.
Castiel fell silent upon his friend's words. He nervously gulped and scratched the back of his head. "Even if I try now, it won't work.." he said. "immediately. How about we go for the safer route?" He suggested, trying to change the topic of dealing with things head on.
"Then leave by yourself. I'm not backing out." Ethan declared with determination as he stood his ground and forced Castiel to let go of his arm.
"But-" Castiel started but was stopped by a short knife being thrown right at him, he slightly tilted his head out of harms way as fast as he could. He immediately turned around and saw a sharp blade sinking deep into the trunk of the tree. Small pieces of his silver grey hair could be seen at the sides of the blade. If he had react a millisecond slower, the blade wouldn't end up at where it was currently.
Ethan looked at the direction at where the blade was thrown, he saw multiple people already standing there, leaning on the trees with a smile of delight on their faces. They had already been spotted. Long enough for those people to get into their positions. He looked up and saw some positioned onto the branches of the trees, sitting happily while waving their legs in the air.
Feeling like he had lost, Ethan cursed and glanced at Castiel to see if he had snapped back to reality. "Listen to me, Castiel. If you aren't willing to depend on your power, you'll use your strength instead of even both. For your powers, target them at those who seemed to be of the most thre-" before he could finish his sentence, he felt a strong gush of wind coming towards them. He jumped back and stared at the damage in shock.
The wind sliced through the air while it obstructed everything in it's path, it hit the tree where the blade was located at and sliced the trunk of the tree in half effortlessly. The tree fell to the ground with a loud thud as tremors went through the floor.
Ethan felt completely bewildered by the strength of the power. If they were this strong already, it was obvious those people were only messing around with them as if they were mere game pieces to be played with and discarded after they were no longer entertaining.
Castiel felt his whole body went stiff but his instincts took over and he backed off. He stared at the tree and couldn't processed what was happening before his eyes. A thick piece of wood being sliced in half by what seems to be a strong gush of wind.
"Oh, they're fast all right." A voice stated.
"Let's have some fun before we kill them off." One suggested.
Ethan ran as fast as his legs could take him, he pulled back his hand and slammed it into the ground. A large explosion that was loud enough to make one go deaf. Smoke started emitting from the explosion while small fires starting spreading around. He took advantage of the element of surprise and attacked again, the bottom of his shoes starting to heat up as a strong wind formed beneath his shoes. He let out another explosion, this time it went beneath the ground while he targeted it at the cluster.
Castiel broke a large branch off a tree and dashed behind the trees, trying to avoid getting caught while loud cackling of explosions happened. He covered his ears and tried not to breathe in the large amount of smoke. He reached their back lines that he had spotted earlier and swung the branch, a person took notice of his presence and raised their sword. Now, it was a battle of strength. Whether it be their physical output or the durability of their weapons.
He heard the branch starting to break, he snatched it back and dodged downwards. He activated his ability and took a deep breath in. Everyone in the backline seemed to have stop moving while their entire eyes went completely black and they dropped their weapons, standing there like a statue. However, to his dismay, the person who he had targeted earlier started moving again.
The person glared right at Castiel, sending chills down his spine while pain erupted within his body due to the failure of someone being able to escape his illusions.
The person had black curly hair that matched with the dark blade that he wields. It was a short sword that looked rather unique while it matched its owner's nature. He grabbed it tightly and thrusted it with grace. He aimed for Castiel's arm but only managed to graze it.
Castiel blocked the attack with the help of the branch as he pushed the blade away towards the person. His hands started trembling as he applied more force in order to overwhelm his enemy, the person held his ground with the help of his technique that Castiel undoubtedly lacks in.
The black blade broke the branch and Castiel had no choice but to drop his only weapon and went in with his fist, he swung it and managed to land a punch which the enemy hadn't expected. The man had mistakenly assumed that he won just because he managed to eradicate the use of the younger's weapon.
The person backed off and crossed his blade in a defensive position over his face while the stinging pain on his face distracted him. He couldn't lie that it didn't hurt, it felt as if he was hit by a large heavy brick weighing tons of pounds.
When it looked like everything was in Castiel's favour, he heard a loud piercing scream. He looked at where his friend was supposedly supposed to be located at.
Ethan's face was filled with small shallow scratches. He was being pushed back while he attempted to create some distance but the pressure applied by the large amount of people after him was overpowering. His back hit the tree roughly, he felt like his spine would've snapped into two if he hadn't stopped the momentum with his hands.
Castiel wanted to run over to help but a dart was shot from the trees and he fell to the ground while a sharp pain infiltrated his whole body, he wanted to scream but he couldn't. It felt like his whole body had just stopped working and had given up on him, he felt his vision getting dimmer and dimmer while he saw his last moments flickering right before his eyes. Ethan was getting absolutely demolished by the person who had control over the wind.
Is this the end?