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TWENTY THREE

"We aren't talking about the mission right now, Conner." Felix interrupted, suddenly serious, "...How are you feeling?"

"Huh?" He asked, a little taken aback by the question, looking as Felix's hand gestured toward him in a kind, brotherly manner, "I'm - ...I'm fine." Conner stuttered, avoiding eye contact.

"Is this really the situation to be asking such silly questions?"

"Yes, actually," Felix nodded, his arms now folded over his chest, "in the field of battle we often forget to collect ourselves, take a minute to really decipher if we're truly okay or not, if we're handling everything the way we should be."

"How am I supposed to handle something like...Like this?" He asked, though not cruelly or impatiently.

"Conner, you're eighteen, and you've already been through more than most can comprehend," Felix started, and Conner could feel his muscles loosen as his face dropped in realization, the sides of his mouth twitched into a half hearted side smile. "Have you even taken the time to grieve over your mother's death?" He asked, and Conner swallowed.

"I can't, not yet. Not until this is over." He excused, and Felix shook his head, "you don't get it, Felix, I can't grieve. Not while everyone is counting on me to end this."

Felix sighed and nodded sadly, standing up off the ground, "I do get it, Conner. And trust me when I say this, I will ask you again," his hands fell to his sides, "and when I do, promise me you won't create a new excuse."

Conner bit his lip, feeling his eyelids grow heavy with exhaustion, "I promise." He gave in, and watched and Felix simply nodded and walked a few feet away to rest.

He sighed, leaning his head against the tree and started up into the cracks just below the pavement of Iqwrath, and he squinted as the pavement shook and remnants of the concrete landed on his face and in hair. His lips parted in confusion as to how the dimensions was still reacting with two kings already sealed, and he felt his exhaustion be exchanged for worry as he stood up, feeling the ground shake beneath his boots, and he looked back, seeing that his friends react to the same thing.

"How the hell..?" Gracyn's voice trailed off and he looked up, as did Conner, and he saw a large chunk of concrete loosened, and his entire body tensed.

He opened his mouth to warn him, but Bex beat him to it, "Gracyn!" She screamed as the concrete broke loose and fell just above him.

Conner gasped and felt hand grow cold as a deep purple ball of fog appeared around his hand and he incoherently pushed it towards Gracyn, and he was pushed forward, away from the danger.

The block of concrete fell and a cloud of dust formed around it, forcing Conner to cover his mouth and nose with his arm and cough, and he looked to see that Felix and Bex did the same thing, and before anything else, Conner ran to where he pushed Gracyn to.

"Gracyn!" He gasped and coughed from the smoke as he helped Grace sit up, coughing from the smoke, "Grace are you okay?"

"I'm okay, I'm alright." He said before coughing again, the smoke clearing from around them, "what the heck did you just do?"

"What do you mean?" Conner asked, helping Gracyn up as they stood, not having notice that that wasn't fire he shot out of his hands.

"That wasn't fire, Conner."

"It was demonic energy," Felix piped up, "Emile described it to me, it was his mother's element." He explained, and Conner looked down at his hand with interest.

"I suppose I just unlocked my second element." He realized, opening and closing his hand as purple smoke danced around before fading completely.

"Emile did say princes and princesses of Hell did possess multiple elements." Gracyn remembered, looking away from Conner and over to Bex and Felix, who both looked relieved to see him alive.