— With a loud bang, a splatter could be heard spilling across the ground.
Felix opened his mismatched eyes to see the silhouette standing right in front of him.
"I'm pretty sure… you're the one supposed to be protecting me… Felix…" Maria muttered softly. Her blood sliding across her smirk.
"M-Marie…" Felix cracked out a whimper as her blood dripped over his face.
As she fell beside him, his ears began to ring.
Harbinger walked towards the two of them and took the drive from Maria's back pocket, calmly placing it in his vest.
Marie?
Marie, come on… get up.
You're okay right? Stop kidding around… Come on…
You're a little too heavy, you know that?
Get up… come on, get up. Marie…
The brown-haired man looked at the two with a curious expression, "Felix? Felix Aster? So then… you must be the 'Black Cat of Ruin.'"
As he walked towards them, Felix started panting as his body began to boil from within, "I'll kill you!"
"Oh, please. You've been doing a terrible job at that." Harbinger scoffed.
Felix snapped the broken glass that was protruding from his arm, using it to cut off most of the wires that bound him to the floor. He sliced through his black sleeve, causing his arm to gash open.
With a vicious growl, his skin and flesh pulled apart just to strike Harbinger's face.
Harbinger's knees buckled. His face ached as a red stream started pouring out of his nose. But he looked back at the young agent and grinned, "Was that supposed to be a punch? Please."
He struck back, causing Felix to bounce off the ground.
"No hard feelings, but no loose ends. Please forgive me." Harbinger cocked his gun and slowly pointed at the groveling young man, who was facing down on the ground.
But as he was about to pull the trigger, Felix leapt forward and kicked his hand upward, causing him to fire toward the ceiling.
"What the hell?!" Taken by surprise, Harbinger clutched his throbbing arm and looked back at him.
Felix lowered to the floor and stood on all fours, a stance reminiscent of a wounded animal, with a limb rendered useless.
He shot the disheveled man a feral glare, like a predator focusing on its prey, taking one small step at a time.
"Is this why you're called the Black Cat?" Harbinger shouted, his voice cracking with rage.
The blue-eyed agent began bouncing around the room, jumping above one server to another. Left, right, left right, leaving cracks on the black glass, closing the space between them.
A vein popped in the older man's forehead as he grew increasingly irritated.
But when the blue-eyed agent finally lunged at him, Harbinger aimed exactly where he would be, expecting it, and immediately fired straight at his forehead. A blue flare burst from Felix's face, shooting his body towards one of the black pillars.
As he crashed, Harbinger lowered his gun and let out an exhausted exhale. He ran his fingers across his disheveled hair, trying to compose himself.
Blood poured from Felix's face as he let out a weak cough.
"Still alive? Time to put this kitty down for good." The brown-haired man pointed his gun one more time. As he pulled the trigger, however, there was nothing but a hollow click. He had run out of bullets.
Felix's eyes opened slowly, as if he had just woken up. Disoriented, his vision struggled to focus. A chunk of his cheek had been blown off, leaving a gaping bleeding hole across his face.
"Tsk…" Harbinger grabbed the blue-eyed agent by the throat and slammed him against the wall, "This is supposed to be the pinnacle of human strength? The next link in the evolutionary chain? Don't make me laugh!"
His grip tightened as he leaned in, "What makes enhanced humans so special? What makes you so special?!"
Struck with a barrage of spiteful questions, Felix looked at him, revealing the bullet that he caught in his bloodstained teeth and spat it at his face.
An enraged grin formed on the man's face as the shard of lead struck his cheek, staining it with blood and saliva.
Harbinger squeezed his neck tighter, asking, "Please, explain to me how a novice like you, the poster boy of Project ASTRAEA, reached rank thirteen?!" Frustration bleeding through his words.
With only one useful arm, the blue-eyed agent grappled against the hand choking him. His face swelled as he struggled.
My rank? What does that have to do with any of this?
Sweat dripped over his mismatched eyes, blurring his vision. He could barely make out Harbinger's expression. With barely any air getting into his lungs and brain, Felix's consciousness was quickly fading into black.
But before he could pass out, he faintly heard Harbinger's ridicule, "Who would have thought… that Nocturne's little brother… would turn out to be so pathetic?!"
As he uttered those words, small, ephemeral blue sparks erupted from the wound on Felix's other arm.
He's right, I've done nothing to earn my place… It's probably nothing more than the whims and expectations of the higher-ups.
But who cares?
I'm here anyway, so I'm going to honor something.
I will rise higher—
And you're in the way!
A sharp slash whipped against the wind, followed by a dull wet thud on the ground.
Felix's arm was raised towards the ceiling, set ablaze with a fiery blue haze pouring out from his wound.
Harbinger's eyes slowly descended to where the sound came from, where he saw something familiar wrapped in a sleeve, leaking with blood.
He shifted his gaze back forward, his face went pale.
"Huh?" Realizing his arm had been cleanly taken off, his voice cracked, and he clutched his dismember arm.
Freed from his grip, Felix took a deep gasp, finally able to breathe. Every raspy inhale filled his burning lungs. While he supported himself against the wall, his body became enveloped by thousands of flickering sparks.
Harbinger bit his lip, his expression contorted into rage. In a fit of blind anger, he struck with his remaining arm — but the black-haired agent caught his fist with ease.
Stood in front of him was the same agent, with the same raven-black hair, and the same blistering wound on his face. But now, he was bathed in a blue glow that outlined his body.
Azure sparks glistened around the child of stars, and wiry strings of electricity started to form from his wounds, weaving and sewing his cheek back together, reforming the missing parts of his face.
Harbinger tried to pull back his arm, but the blue-eyed agent wouldn't budge. His eyebrows furrowed with a mix of fright and fury.
With a loud, desperate cry, the older man swung his foot with a powerful kick and struck Felix dead in the face, loosening the grip around his arm, letting him back away.
As he slipped out, he watched the ephemeral particles spiral, forming waves of blue flames that danced into a spherical shape — it was as if a star formed around Felix's body.
Unable to make sense of what was going on, Harbinger's mouth trembled at the sight of the burning blue dome, "Wh-what?!"
But the dome was incomplete. Gaps ran through the crystalline structure. Sections in the flame thinned, and stretches of transparency in the blue haze fractures where Felix's gaze pierced through.
Harbinger's instincts screamed for him to run, but his body faltered, a few seconds too late to respond. He was only able to turn around and take half a step forward.
Then, the blue star burst —
~